Barriers to Innovation and Public Policy in Catalonia

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The present paper analyses the link between firms' decisions to innovate and the barriers that prevent them from being innovative. The aim is twofold. First, it analyses three groups of barriers to innovation: the cost of innovation projects, lack of knowledge and market conditions. Second, it presents the main steps taken by Catalan Government to promote the creation of new firms and to reduce barriers to innovation. The data set used is based on the 2004 official innovation survey of Catalonia which was taken from the Spanish CIS-4 sample. This sample includes individual information on 2,954 Catalan firms in manufacturing industries and knowledge-intensive services (KIS). The empirical analysis reveals pronounced differences regarding a firm's propensity to innovate and its perception of barriers. Moreover, the results show that cost and knowledge barriers seem to be the most important and that there are substantial sectoral differences in the way that firms react to barriers. The results of this paper have important implications for the design of future public policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation together.Keywords: Obstacles to innovation, industrial policy, innovation system. JEL Codes: O31, O38, D21. RESUMEN:En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre las decisiones de innovación de las empresas y las barreras que les impiden ser innovadoras. Los objetivos son dos. En primer lugar, se analizan tres grupos de barreras a la innovación: el coste de los proyectos de innovación, las carencias de conocimiento y las condiciones de mercado. En segundo lugar, se presentan las acciones principales del Gobierno catalán para promocionar la creación de nuevas empresas y reducir las barreras a la innovación. La base de datos utilizada es la explotación para Cataluña de la Encuesta de Innovación Tecnológica de 2004 de España que forma parte de la CIS-4. La base de datos incluye información individual de 2.594 empresas catalanas de la industria manufacturera y de los servicios intensivos en conocimiento. El análisis aplicado revela la existencia de diferencias significativas en la propensión a innovar de las empresas y su percepción de las barreras. Además, los resultados muestran que las barreras de coste y de conocimiento parecen ser las más importantes y que existen diferencias sectoriales sustanciales en el modo en que las empresas reaccionan a las barreras. Los resultados de este trabajo tienen implicaciones importantes para el diseño de las políticas públicas para la promoción conjunta de la iniciativa emprendedora y la innovación.

Exploring Firm-Level Innovation and Productivity in Developing Countries: The Perspective of Caribbean Small States

“…Therefore, providing evidence about which of these factors affects each of the different phases of firms' innovative processes has very relevant policy implications. There are very few empirical studies about barriers to innovation for each phase of the innovation cycle (Segarra-Blasco, Garcia-Quevedo, and Teruel-Carrizosa, 2008;Coad, Pellegrino, and Savona, 2013;Pellegrino and Savona, 2013). These studies used a modified version of the structural recursive model originally proposed by , or the CDM model, and later extended in the literature Crespi and Zuniga, 2012).…”

Les barrières à l’innovation organisationnelle : Le cas du Lean Management

“…Nous montrons que les barrières internes, telles que la résistance au changement, le manque de temps, le manque de qualifications, et le manque de support managérial sont celles qui sont le plus fréquem-ment perçues et qui ont le plus d'impact sur le processus d'IO. Elles devancent celles relatives aux coûts de l'innovation qui représentent le principal obstacle à l'IT (Baldwin &Lin, 2002, Corrocher &Fontana, 2008, Galia &Legros, 2004, Segarra-Blasco &Garcia-Quevedo, 2008, Tourigny &Le, 2004. Nous montrons également que les attributs de l'IO peuvent représenter des freins alors qu'ils ont rarement été étudiés en tant que tels.…”

Innovation experience of entrepreneurs of high tech SMEs in Turkey

“…When we test the null hypothesis, H3, for environmental barriers, we also confirm that "high cost of innovation" and "lack of appropriate source of finance" are two other statistically significant variables, which have a significant impact on the propensity of entrepreneur's innovation decision. Entrepreneurs who consider the innovation costs to be excessive have a smaller propensity for innovating in their decisions (Silva and Leitão, 2007;Tourigny and Le, 2004;Segarra-Blasco et al, 2008;Madrid-Guijarro et al, 2009). Finally, the results of the model show that "lack of qualified personnel" like Segarra-Blasco et al, 2008;Piatier, 1984;Ylinenpää, 1998;Silva et al;2007;Rush and Bessant, 1992;Hadjimanolis, 1999;andRammer et al (2005, 2006), have a significant effect in the propensity to innovate.…”

“…Entrepreneurs who consider the innovation costs to be excessive have a smaller propensity for innovating in their decisions (Silva and Leitão, 2007;Tourigny and Le, 2004;Segarra-Blasco et al, 2008;Madrid-Guijarro et al, 2009). Finally, the results of the model show that "lack of qualified personnel" like Segarra-Blasco et al, 2008;Piatier, 1984;Ylinenpää, 1998;Silva et al;2007;Rush and Bessant, 1992;Hadjimanolis, 1999;andRammer et al (2005, 2006), have a significant effect in the propensity to innovate. The rejection of the null hypothesis of nonexistent relation amongst variables, allows the confirmation of the H4 hypothesis.…”