Barriers to Innovation among Micro and Small Enterprises: Evidence from Italian Agricultural Machinery Industry

Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the principal actors of the innovation process in the national business system of countries. Despite this, these enterprises face many economic, organizational and market barriers which may hinder the implementation of innovations. This issue is particularly relevant in Italy, where MSMEs represent the 99% of the enterprises. The present study aimed to investigate the willingness to invest in innovations and related perceived barriers in a group of micro and small enterprises operating in the agricultural machinery industry in northern Italy. Forty-two enterprises answered a questionnaire investigating: i) firm's characteristics, ii) interest in introducing innovation and willingness to invest in it, iii) perceived barriers and iv) respondent's socio-demographic information. Overall, economic issues, the lack of qualified personnel and difficulty in finding, cooperation partners were cited as the foremost barriers. In detail, the firms with a higher level of management organization and more willing to invest in innovations were also those perceiving the higher barriers. Our results showed that enterprises are actually trying to innovate but targeted measures and interventions should be adopted to support the firms in the innovation process. Implications and future research developments to promote innovation in micro and small enterprises are discussed.