Research-development and innovation in smalland medium-sized enterprises in Romania

Within the withdraw of the welfare statefrom its classic functions of providing a decentquality of life forcitizens, the individual's role in supporting their living standard is increasing. Personal accountability in the current socio-economic context marked by labourforce mobility, economic competitiveness, international economic exchanges, demographic challenges, active aging, and the emergence of some new and atypical employment forms (part-timework, teleworking, self-employment, etc.) reconfigure the role that accessing and maintaining a job plays. The articleanalysesprivate small-and medium-sized Romanian enterprises' capacity to integrate research-development and innovation (RD&I) elements withintheir ordinary activity. The research hypothesis is that despite these actions taken by RomanianSMEs the innovation process as a whole is still not well represented within their currentactivities in the meaning of limited openness towardsthe innovation process. The research methodology is based on a secondary analysis of the data collected within the 2004-2018 White book of SMEs in Romania.15 yearly editions collected data were focused on SMEs' innovations and characteristics of SMEs digitalization process. In terms of findings, the openness of Romanian SMEs towards innovation can be characterizedby innovation activities and ways of achieving innovation. Investment in Romanian SMEs' innovation is rather the desired direction as it only occupied the top position in 2007. The main information sources for SMEs' innovative processes are “customers andconsumers, own organisation, and journals and specialized magazines". As a promising track is recorded in Romania in the last years towards integrating RD&I in ordinary SMEs' activities, medium, andlong term complementary national public policies should welcome and further push these sustainable development directions.