Owner‐managers' perceptions of barriers to innovation: empirical evidence from Turkish SMEs

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the barriers to innovation, as perceived and experienced by owner‐managers of Turkish small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an empirical investigation of 224 SMEs operating in Turkey. Emergent results were analysed using a logit regression model to explore barriers to innovation as perceived and experienced by these owner‐managers.Findings – The results reveal that a lack of government research and development policy represents a formal barrier to SME innovation in Turkey. The existence of a sizeable and thriving underground economy in this country acts as an informal barrier that impacts negatively upon investment in, and increases the cost of innovation in SMEs. In addition, a lack of appropriate sources of finance and skill shortages emerged as significant variables to affect the innovation decisions of SME owner‐managers in Turkey.Research limitations/implications – The research sample of 224 businesses, chosen...

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