Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BITNET INNOSUP (BITNET INNOSUP)
Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2021-12-31
Expected impacts achieved are improved competitiveness of SMEs and/or their sustainability by:
· having their innovation/innovative technology/process in place or
· improving their innovation strategy or
· improvement of innovation (management) capacity.
In 2020 the force major unexpectedly occurred as World Health Organization declared pandemic in the world, which was followed with Decision to declare the state of disaster caused by the appearance of coronaviruses (COVID-19) in BiH from 19.03.2020. Since than a lot of crafts and SMEs were forbidden to work. Meetings were canceled and all activities were forwarded for 2021. As the COVID 19 pandemic marked the 2020, and severely disrupted investment plans for innovation projects of SMEs, all SMEs were forced to direct their resources on preserving daily operations, liquidity and jobs. Resolving funding issues for projects that were supposed to be funded through profit generated through core business activities was another important aspect of this situation, hence there was not great interest in innovation management services, but for access to finance and financial management – to maintain minimum possible pace of current innovation projects in SMEs and avoid stopping these operations completely.
At the end of the reporting period, consortium completed all assessments and reached thir targets. Enhancing Innovation Management Capacity for innovating SMEs were conducted in full capacity as planned in 2021, meaning the target was 100% achieved, or total of 10 companies were assessed. In 2020. consortium focused on access to finance and thus helped 17 innovative companies to maintain their activities and/or use the pandemics as leverage to introduce innovation.
Since the companies that were assessed come in a variety of industries and sizes, their innovations differ greatly. Overall, radical innovations are rare, while the companies relay on the incremental innovation strategies. The companies also polarize, from those who base their strategy on innovations and trying to innovate in every possible manner, up to those who understand the importance of the innovation, but they are extremely cautious about it. As the pandemics broaden the financial hardship, and labor market was already difficult in BiH, there are entrepreneurs more than ever, who are trying to innovate and thus remain self-employed as the final outcome and source of family income. This challenging situation can be a good incubator for the further innovations.
In our consortium, following is the number of supported SME clients:
- UNSA: 12 clients
- INTERA: 8 client
- BIT: 4 clients
Sectors covered through the assistance were: IT sector, different services (e.g. tourism, advertising). We identified that the most urgent need for these SMEs is an access to finance and financial support in the difficult COVID-19 pandemic times and their benefits in the advisory support were help in obtaining additional resources.
The activities in this project are focused on SMEs which have the potential to benefit most in terms of the impact of the intervention on the company’s future innovation goals and growth, as well as in relation to the economic
development goals of the FB&H (Bosnia and Herzegovina), which shows its high societal relevance and economic impact.