Encouraging Innovativeness of Small and Medium Enterprises in Serbia to Support Competitiveness Improvement in the Post-Crisis Period

The global economic crisis has taken a number of consequences. In order to overcome them, many of various measures on macroeconomic and microeconomic level should be implemented in the post-crisis period. A large number of developed and developing countries as a key lever in the post-crisis period would recognize the SME sector, so that the greatest number of macroeconomic policies aims at fostering its competitiveness. Previously, a competitive advantage of SMEs was generally founded on focusing on specific markets, competing in fragmented industry or on cost leadership. Nowdays, the ability to innovate is the most important source of their competitiveness. However, since the capacities of SMEs to introduce technological innovations are generally limited, strong macroeconomic support for increasing innovativeness of SMEs is necessary. This paper will explain measures which may increase innovativeness of SMEs and the impact of SMEs innovations on their competitiveness and the competitiveness of the economy in which they operate. A special emphasis will be on the analysis of innovativeness of the SMEs in Serbia.