SMEs are critical to economic growth and employment, especially to the countries where these subjects represent major challenges. Evaluating the Innovation Capabilities of this type of firms may reveal their opportunities for acquiring competitive advantages in a complex and dynamic business environment. In order to achieve this, a diagnostic tool was developed by considering the most important factors that resulted from an extensive comparison between SMEs' growth models literature and the Organizational Capabilities Model for Innovation developed by the ITESM-CEMEX Research Chair¿. As the result of the analysis, four factors turned out to be the most representative of SMEs' performance, which are: Top Management Leadership and Commitment, Operational Excellence Insight, Internal Innovation Processes and Culture, and Customer Value Insight. Furthermore, an innovation toolbox was designed for improving the performance of the firm in the aforementioned factors, which consists of simple and easy to use visual aids, as well as a guide to promoting innovation efforts and detecting signs of failure. The results from the implementation of these tools are to be collected from a website with a far-reaching scope and ought to be useful in the construction of a formalized insight in innovation management for SMEs' growth.
