An Analysis of the Management Capabilities of ICT Innovation for Sustained Competitiveness in SMEs

World enterprises are facing the challenge of continuous innovation to compete and sustain themselves in the market. Information and communicat ion technology (ICT) is one of the key sources of support for businesses’ development and implementation of innovation. Because of size constraints, many companies lack economies of scale when investing in resource management for the ICT. However, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are under more pressure in responding to competitive pressures for quick and effective flows of innovation. Therefore, the SMEs are very much interested in managing their ICT as well as resources to execute an innovation model and enable fluent communicat ion a nd learning among participants in developing the next cycle of innovations. Based on the literature business innovation and dynamic capabilities, this study provides a model addressing the links between leadership, with insights and foresights for technology exploration and explo itation, and organizational capabilities of resource integration, learning and transformation to accelerate innovation. A comparative analysis of the evolution of two PC manufacturers, ACER and MITAC revealed a cyclical process between the leadership decisions and dynamic capabilities of leveraging ICT for sustained competit iveness in these two SMEs in Taiwan. The study result suggests that t o build strong capabilit ies for continuous innovation into the dynamic business environment, firms need to have leadership with both the attitude and behavior of entrepreneurship, combin ing the foresight to capture opportunities with ICT and the insight to guide and manage internal resources to achieve ICT-enabled innovation.