Innovation key component for increasing competitive advantage

Abstract

This paper examines the importance of innovation as a key component for increasing competitive advantage and 
as a determinant factor for success and growth of the businesses.  It discusses the need and importance of 
knowledge, intellectual capital and innovations in nowadays. It will then be followed by a short theoretical 
overview of the background. 
It 
shows how the innovation is often considered to be a vital source of strategic change, a sustainable 
competitive advantage, by which a business generates positive outcomes.  Innovation is a broad concept and it's 
a key source of competitive advantage for businesses especially now that globalizations presents challenges for 
countries, businesses and individuals. We will see that innovation leads towards the best performance, but of 
course this needs time, this is not the automatic process, the innovation does not happen naturally by itself. 
We will go through and see what is the relationship between: creativity, research and innovation. In the end we 
will see that having a very good innovation management system is very important for the businesses  and it is 
very important for the future.    
The purpose of this study is to see the impact of innovation   in businesses performance in the Albanian 
economy. We  will show here how the innovation leads towards the best performance. This article will contribute 
to better understand  the organizational resources that impact the innovation process. 
We will use primary and secondary method.  Interview is the main tool used, face-to-face interviews are essential 
for this survey. This paper is followed by e summary of the results of survey and the last part draws out the main 
conclusions as well as recommendations .   But of course we will see that this needs time, this is not the 
automatic process, the innovation does not happen by itself.