Faced with market globalization, firms need to be able to adapt themselves rapidly to change, and to develop aggressive innovation policies. Innovation is a key factor in firms' competitiveness. However, research to date has focused mainly on larger companies and few studies have considered SMEs. The main purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a research project carried out to identify the main difficulties perceived by Portuguese SMEs in relation to innovation, and to ascertain the behavioural patterns that characterize their responses to these difficulties.
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