Innovation strategies in SME’s economic growth and job creation in economy

Abstract SMEs and entrepreneurship are key to ensuring economic growth, innovation, job creation, and social integration in the EU. The SME sector has a crucial role to play in creating new jobs, economic growth and innovation in socioeconomic development. The paper aims to address the critical role of small and medium-sized companies by investigating innovation management strategies in the SME sector. The goal of the present paper is to analyze the innovation strategies of SMEs and to provide an overview of the performance of Polish SMEs against those in the European Union. The main method in the study is desk research based on secondary statistic data. The method made it possible to prove that innovative strategy is a necessary condition to improve the competitiveness level in the SME sector. The main contribution of this research is to highlight the impact of innovation strategies on the competitive level of the researched entities for SMEs. The linear model developed for the “innovation expenditure” factor and forecast for 2-year period amply make it clear that SMEs continue to tread a positive growth trend.