Barriers to development of the innovation potential in the small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

It is a common fact, that innovations are the necessary prerequisite of economic development. With regard to the gradual globalization of the world economy, it is obvious that the strategic objectives of every country are directed to own economic wealth which is lead especially by the small and mediumsized enterprises. Due to the fact that these business entities are creating the most of economic growth of every country, the necessity of research, support and development of their innovation potential is obvious. The last and also the least that one could starve for is the building up the barriers to innovativeness of domestic companies, and to decrease competitiveness of the country. In the paper, the authors are focused on the determination of barriers to innovation potential of small and medium-sized enterprises. For this reason, the secondary research of recent studies on innovation barriers has been elaborated. Subsequently, the primary research has been realized on the statistical sample of 173 SMEs. Based on the data analyses, the authors have proved four statistical interactions between innovation potential and factors which stand as barriers to innovation potential development. This paper is based on the confrontation of outcomes of primary research with the secondary research on world-wide perceived barriers to innovations. Data obtained from the primary research had mostly the qualitative and categorical character. Due to this fact, especially Chi-square Test, normalized Pearson coefficient of contingence and Chuprov's coefficient have been applied.