Abstract
Innovations have recently become one of the indicators of the commercial success of the companies. This phenomenon is taking place due to a rapid development of new technologies and their effect on competition between the companies. The main purpose of the present paper is to investigate the current state of the innovation activity and innovation management of the small and medium enterprises of the Republic of Kazakhstan. To achieve the aim of the paper, qualitative analysis of interviewing 100 SMEs representatives have been conducted. The main findings indicate of the following commonalities. The level of revenue and the innovation activity were not directly connected for the respondent businesses. The representatives had limited understanding of the innovation types and areas of application. After the briefly educating the respondents, the authors have found significant changes in attitudes towards investing into innovations. The value of the present paper is connected with the practical significance of increasing the innovational activity of the SMEs of Kazakhstan. Moreover, the study can be replicated for other developing Central Asian countries to find out whether the phenomenon is connected with regional features. As for the practical implications, the paper can be used to develop governmental and private educational programs as a part of supporting the SME activity or a part of vocational training.