Power of the past and SME competitiveness: A European study

Enterprise Cultural Heritage (ECH) is an innovative and complex concept combining the company’s own history and creations (technical contents, industrial design, organization, marketing, etc.) with the potential to transform information and materials into “extended products & services”. This paper drawing on the results of a review of the literature and a survey of 60 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) based in four European Union (EU) countries argues that effective ECH management can increase creativity in production and innovate knowledge management skills. The current study makes two distinct contributions: Firstly, it introduces the ECH concept and embeds it in a broad body of literature. Secondly, it provides evidence-based insights into the potential impact of using ECH in order to enhance competitiveness.