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Small and medium-sized businesses are characterized by their vulnerability due to their limited resources. Their lack of financing and expertise pushes them to implement new solutions to survive in a turbulent environment, marked by the difficult economic conjuncture and relentless competition.  This article aims to explore how innovation takes place within SMEs, highlighting the peculiarities of this category of companies, in particular those that restrain their ambitions to venture into innovative projects. The present research is qualitative in nature, and the multiple case study approach was chosen for its exploratory appeal. We focused on two Moroccan SMEs for comparative data collection. The results show that SMEs are characterized by their fragility due to financial, technical and managerial factors, making them vulnerable to internal and external hazards. They recognize the importance of innovation for society, but face obstacles such as financial constraints, lack of skills and management shortcomings, which hold back the adoption of innovative practices.   Keywords: SME, vulnerability, innovation JEL Classification: O32 Paper type: Empirical research, Les petites et moyennes entreprises se caractérisent par leur vulnérabilité due à leurs ressources limitées. Leur manque de financement et de compétence les pousse à mettre en place de nouvelles solutions pour survivre dans un environnement turbulent, marqué par une conjoncture économique difficile et une concurrence acharnée.  Cet article cherche à comprendre comment l’innovation s’opère au sein des PME et vise à cerner les particularités de cette catégorie d’entreprises, notamment celles qui freinent leurs ambitions de s’aventurer dans des projets innovants. La présente recherche est d’ordre qualitatif, l’étude de cas multiples a été choisie pour sa valeur exploratoire. Nous nous sommes concentrées sur deux PME marocaines, pour une collecte comparative de données. Il en résulte que les PME se distinguent par leur fragilité due à des facteurs financiers, techniques et managériaux, les rendant vulnérables aux aléas internes et externes. Elles reconnaissent l'importance de l'innovation pour la société, mais font face à des obstacles tels que des contraintes financières, un manque de compétences et des lacunes en gestion, qui entravent la mise en œuvre de processus innovants.   Mots clés : PME, vulnérabilité, Innovation. Classification JEL: O32 Type de l’article : Recherche appliquée.

The aim of this work is to show that organizational change is a response to certain problems generated by a market specialization strategy. Our study is based on two cases of SMEs that first engaged in a business relationship with a single client for more than five years. This led to a high degree of skills specialization and a certain organizational rigidity which was subsequently detrimental to the continuity of the company's activity, particularly when the relationship with the only single client was unexpectedly concluded, for the client had become increasingly demanding in terms of cost and time. Analysis of the data shows that both SMEs have made a series of organizational changes (restructuring of the company, recruitment of new skills, training activities, use of partnerships with other organizations, etc.) to overcome this perilous situation. As a consequence, these companies were able to reorient their business policy in order to reduce their dependence and then ensure their business sustainability and growth. Keywords: Organizational change, dependency situation, customer-supplier relationship, strategic choices. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-27-04 Publication date:September 30th 2020