Resumen
The increasing complexity of economic activities, the fast-paced, never-ending change in requirements and objectives, as well as the lack of stability in time of the processes determined by the globalization, have led to the necessity to set new ways of approaching the development of small and average-sized companies. Therefore the innovations, the knowledge, the information and other results of intellectual activity have become not just fundamental, but also dominant factors in the economic development of the modern society, as putting them to good use has become the main function of management.