Resource and Capability Constraints to Innovation in Small and Large Plants

Nola Hewitt-Dundas ()

Small Business Economics, 2006, vol. 26, issue 3, 257-277

Abstract: In an attempt to enhance firm’s competitiveness, policy initiatives have sought to encourage more firms to innovate, with a particular focus on small firms. The success of such initiatives, however, depends on a clear understanding of the factors that are constraining innovation activity, and whether these differ for firms of different sizes. This paper examines those resources and capabilities that firms identify as constraining their innovation activity, the difference in these for small and larger plants and the actual impact of these perceived constraints on the probability of innovating and the degree of innovation success. Drawing on longitudinal data the paper demonstrates that innovation is an evolutionary process with the constraints to innovation being different for small and larger plants. From a policy perspective, initiatives to overcome constraints to innovation in small plants should extend beyond those of finance to include greater networking opportunities, cost reduction programmes and marketing strategies to increase the profit margin on new products, human resource management practices on implementing change and easier access to information about new technologies. In contrast policies to promote innovation in larger plants should focus on minimising the risk of development and enhancing access to specialist expertise. Copyright Springer 2006

Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (109)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11187-005-2140-3 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:26:y:2006:i:3:p:257-277

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/11187/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11187-005-2140-3

Access Statistics for this article

Small Business Economics is currently edited by Zoltan J. Acs and David B. Audretsch

More articles in Small Business Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().