Lack of Qualified Human resources as Barrier to Innovation BARRIERS TO INNOVATION IN SMES: CAN THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF R&d MITIGATE THEIR EFFECTS?
SMES with a staff of 50 to 249 employees were found to be suffering more from this scarcity (60%)than did large firms (40%)(BITKOM, 2007b.
a) Financial constraints b) Finding qualified, suitable human resources c) Finding suitable cooperation partners with knowledge resources d)( International) Marketing of innovative products e
fast-growing markets such as China and India, may offer tremendous opportunities, e g. in the form of vast pools of qualified human resources in science and technology, cheaper labour costs and access to new, fast
but are restricted in innovative capacity due to their financial and human resources. Similarly, Rosenbusch et al (2011) have identified several factors that affect the relationship between innovation and SME performance.
or human resources to effectively use and manage IPR. Such entities would be able to better use their intellectual capital if:
Commission staff working document SEC (2009) 1197 16 See http://www. vinnova. se/Pagefiles/604825187/The%20ipf%20synthesis%20report. pdf HORIZON 2020
and potential partners (assistance to online collaboration for innovation) So far staff in innovation agencies has hardly skills to assist their clients to establish collaborations on web platforms
curriculum and training courses for staff currently providing brokerage services in established networks or SME agencies.
and training material are made available to SME innovation support agencies interested in enhancing the skills of their staff.
The eligible costs of the action are restricted to the staff costs of the qualified staff members.
and known typical daily rates of senior staff in the network projects in the country.
The eligible costs of the action are restricted to the staff costs of the qualified staff members and indirect costs at the standard rate for Coordination and Support Actions.
Transferring the IMP rove project into an independent legal entity shall increase flexibility to reply to needs from regions and Member States while at the same time operating the tools in stable environment with highly qualified staff.
First, by providing a capacity building environment for the innovation advisors (staff of Enterprise Europe Network) that work in regions with a weakly developed consulting base and no own assessment and consulting tools;
(i) training their staff working with SME;(ii) for the work with SME and (iii) during the design of new SME innovation support actions.
Still others relate to mobilising human resources in particular women, to realise their full economic potential. 1 A second major focus of the conference is the continuing process of international economic integration
They can only partly secure such access through markets for goods, services, intellectual property rights and human resources.
private households employing staff and religious organisations. Canada includes the industrial sector. Japan excludes agriculture, forestry, fisheries and mining.
and between firms and consumers. as are skilled human resources. Lack of information and communications technology skills and e-business skills are widespread impediments to effective use of e-business processes once adoption decisions are made.
Whereas large enterprises can afford specialised staff, SMES must often rely on the qualifications and training of their general workforce.
A Survey, The Journal of Human resources, Vol. 33 (1), pp. 127-169. Verspagen, B. 1995), R&d and Productivity:
Innovative technology can be pushed by technical staff or pulled by customers. In the former case
There is the risk that technical staff will push too far ahead of customers and lead to a product failure.
Thus, they can work collaboratively with the firm's technical staff to fix shortcomings of existing products
and utilize its human resources more effectively. It is now pertinent to list the different classes of services that can be added around a product sale.
Add product-centered services Consolidate services into a single unit Staff and train service sales force Develop incentives,
Management should provide excess human resources while service-centered learning is underway so that employees are free to engage in service exploration.
Third, it is easier to sustain a fever pitch of excitement in small organization, WK1 8 where the links between challenges, staff,
with and without R&d capacity) Technology Followers SIZE Often small companies (40%have staffs<10;
23%have staffs>250) SECTOR Predominantly from the following sectors: ICT services, high tech8, R&d services. 50%are technical service companies (ICT, R&d) Both from manufacturing and services,
almost 6 000 staff involved in regional policy to acquire new skills and capabilities, and it has led directly to the improvement of more than 400 policies.
Training workshops or coaching activities Incorporation of new staff Activities addressing creativity thinking and product conception The acquisition of specific technological competences The acquisition of specific skills by SMES
The hiring of qualified staff How to overcome weaknesses in networking and cooperation with external partners?
http://www. peria. eu/33 Staff recruitment Another approach is supporting SMES to recruit new staff,
Examples of GPS in staff recruitment: The Summer Design Office (Sweden) in the MINI-EUROPE project:
Two evident ways to achieve this are for SMES to hire technically qualified staff and to strengthen their own in-house research facilities.
thus demonstrating synergies between GPS from different regions. 40 Human resources solutions The other popular GPS concerned human resources
Similarly to Innovation assistant, it aims at promoting the employment of recently graduated staff in SMES with no or little experience with graduate employees.
The Creation of R&d departments GP from PERIA helps SMES to recruit new staff in R&d.
Technological Promoters for Innovation via an innovative financial instrument and support for new staff identification. 48 GPS described in the INNOMOT Good Practices Report:
These target groups suffer from a lack of highly qualified staff, caused due to the long distances from educational organisations,
Lectures were given by the expert staff of the Department of Wood and Furniture Design and Technology.
Innovation Management System and Technology Transfer Office(§3. 2. 4). Medium Incorporation of new staff PERIA ERIK-ACTION & INNOMOT Creation of R&d units
such as in Innovation Stockholm (INNOHUBS) and Tameside Business Family (MINI-EUROPE) or through the incorporation of new staff in SMES,
especially to include investments in innovation management (e g. tools, dedicated staff and training. Today, most national tax incentive schemes encourage strictly R&d investments
Staff) Helice Net (Network) TTANDALUSIA (Tech transfer) Campus Ind Res Projs (Tech transfer)( R&d) SIDEUM (Cluster creation) RDT Bretagne (network
) Innovation Cycle (workshops) FAME (public private loans) TIP Coaching R&d Funding (coaching) scheme (public grants) Trainee IN TIME (new staff) PRAI Vinci
involving both staff from the planning and management of funding programmes and operational staff linked with implementation processes.
This approach ensures that the GPS are relevant both in operational terms for the region
and cooperation with external parties Organisational Innovation (coaching) IVEX (internationalisation) Innocámaras (training) Management Voucher (coaching) Bioenergy for the region (New Staff/Phd students) INGENIUM
Programme (Clusters mgmt) Genomnanotech (Tech transfer) Summer Design Office (new staff) Financial Eng (Public-Private VC) FLIIN (Public-Private VC
and micro and small companies with a staff of fewer than 50, in developing their innovation Country Institution, Town 1 France CARINNA-Champagne-ardenne Research and Innovation Agency, Reims 2 France
Foreign Trade Fairs (Internationalisation) Creation of R&d Depts. New staff) Cluster Mgmt Services (Cluster mgmt) Innovation vouchers Young Innovative Enterprise contract (loans) New
products by design (new staff) Incubation (coaching) 82 good potential for transfer, due to their simplicity of implementation and universal applicability.
capital, human resources. Trade theory as elaborated by 19th century economist David Ricardo and expanded in the 20th century by Hekscher and Ohlin also tells us that countries tend to specialise in the production of goods where they have a comparative advantage.
For example, in Estonia, the rapid growth of RDI requires a higher number of skilled human resources than currently available.
have seen the benefits of increasing the absorptive capacity of their staff inside the regional governments for an efficient self-discovery process.
i) improve the absorptive capacity of the socioeconomic stakeholders (including public staff and SMES) and;
Additional governance challenges include increasing the absorptive capacity of key actors and staff inside the regional governments
i) stimulating the entrepreneurial spirit of its staff and students; ii) providing advice and services to SMES;
which considered local technological capabilities, human resources among other characteristics. The LED sector focused on domestic demand
Important Strategic developments regarding Human resources are the creation of the School of Aeronautic Engineers, school of Aircraft Maintenance Technicians and blue-collar yearly training programmes,
and human resources to reach national targets for the year 2023. Priority Setting Method for the Automotive Sector The automotive sector is one of eight sectors identified as priority areas in the recent STI Strategy document namely the National Science, Technology and Innovation
Furthermore, four inter-branch thematic networks in the fields of human resources, logistics, design and media and energy-efficiency are supported.
and ii) a significant improvement in the quality of staff inside the Regional Authority and intermediaries such as JIC or RDA to manage
iii) human resources; and iv) internationalisation. Strategic goals and activities were proposed for each priority axis . In order to ensure proper implementation of the strategy,
Human resources: i) SOMOPRO is a program offering 3-year incoming grants for distinguished researchers and grants for re-integration of research expats;
Scarcity of skilled human resources is currently and likely to remain a bottleneck for sustaining the rapid growth of RDI in Estonia.
lack of economies of scale or critical mass in many areas of research and in particular, is evident in the availability of human resources, especially in knowledge intensive sectors.
What is the share of international staff in scientific/creative positions? How many co-operations with other international lead institutions does your region have?
new managerial and marketing approaches, renewing the informational system and human resources training1. Key words: innovation, Romanian SMES, performance, entrepreneurship I. RESEARCH ISSUES
%and human resources training (13.46%).%We also highlight the relative low percentage of companies where the absence of innovative approaches was noticed (21.18),
and marketing approaches new informational system human resources training Figure 1. Innovation activities within SMES Analyzing innovation activities in Romanian SMES by size classes (table 1),
new informational systems and human resources training increase together with the enterprises'size. 2009 International Association of Computer science and Information technology-Spring Conference 978-0-7695-3653-8
and marketing approaches 14.25%18.18%21.85%4 New informational systems 11.50%17.58%18.49%5 Human resources training 11.38%16.97%18.49%6 No innovation activities 27.13
and the human resources training are observed in a higher proportion in constructions (22.58%and 32.26), %the interest for new informational systems is more well-marked in services (17.29)
%New informational systems 12.89%12.90%14.38%2. 63%11.23%17.29%Human resources training 12.00%32.26%10.63%23.68%9. 89%16.12%No innovation activities
%new/improved informational systems (13.77%)and human resources training (13.46) %and in 21.18%of the companies innovative activities didn't exist.
having a staff component of more than five and less than 30, making a profit and expanding in terms of infrastructure and growth (Nieman et al,
He went on to say managers should take advantage of different methods for staff encouragement to innovate. 2. 7. 3 Size and Age of the Organisation Size
Organisational Factors Several studies have discussed the influences of a variety of organizational characteristic variables such as quality of human resources, top management s leadership skills, organizational support, organizational
In support, Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) postulated that qualified human resources were helpful to adopt innovations because of their competent learning and innovative capabilities.
They said the quality of human resources was an essential factor influencing technical innovation. Organizational ties helped SMES to establish their network.
Conversely, the staff with a lower level of education relies more on their own knowledge. In firms, innovative competencies do not depend exclusively on executive staff.
Technicians are also crucial actors of product/process innovations in SMES. They differently conceive the innovative activity
Research (WZB) Andy Smith, Earth Ethics Rainer Züst, ETH WBCSD staff Michael Rulon Ross Stevens (Project Director, seconded from Dupont) WBCSD resources
percentage of entrepreneurs and staff trained...23table 13: with whom do you discuss innovation?..29table 14:
which is assimilated subsequently by other staff through communication and training. Both are easier when the knowledge gap within the sector is small
and number of staff, using the definition of the Government of Indonesia), age and legal status,
but when needed meetings were conducted with more than 1 staff of the organization. Meetings lasted about two hours
2 staff of a financial institute and 2 university staff were interviewed. The information was counterchecked with information from active members of associations and interviews of 3 key researchers on innovation in small firms, clusters and handicrafts in Yogyakarta province.
staff numbers and total staff (in-house and subcontracted; see table 3). 82%all exporters are owned locally.
980 Staff number 81 16 25 Number of workers at subcontractors 311 32 68 Staff in-house
annual turn over, staff number, staff of subcontractors. Table 4: innovation level (likert scale) by firm size 0 0. 5 1 1. 5 2 2. 5 3 3. 5 4 2
#6), asking your staff to cut 5 pages in one time instead of 1 (resp.##8), re-organising the management structure (resp.#
#9), improving human development management such as bonuses and staff appraisal (resp.##11) or more regular quality control of subcontractors (resp.#
annual turn over, staff number, staff at subcontractors. Table 8: perceived newness of products IHS Working Paper 27.2013.
The case of home accessories in Yogyakarta, Indonesia 17 Impact of innovation Innovation significantly results in an increased number of products and buyers, better quality of staff, cost reduction and increased quality of products,
3) Staff training. 4) Active involvement of staff in innovation processes. The impact of the indicators on innovation and their association is given in annex 3,
table 3 and 4. The indicators were computed into a new variable that measures assimilation capacity.
They build the capacity of their staff through training and bonuses. As resp.##14 notes:‘
the fundamental problem is that subcontractors have low staff capabilities. It explains why no firm has been able to manage very large or complex orders.
S=Staff Training dummy; D=number of departments dummy; DS=discuss with staff dummy; CD=capacity of designers dummy;
B=capability to balance innovation dummy. T he first stands for potential absorptive capacity and the second for realized absorptive capacity.
175 2 Staff number 0. 006 3 Secondary school completed dummy 0, 822 4 Other position 0, 972 Insignificant entrepreneur level variables:
ownership, age, combine material, staff of subcontractors, annual turn over. Willingness to take risks is not a significant indicator,
The impact of staff number is however marginal (ß=0. 006. The level of absorptive capacity differs significantly between exporters, high level subcontractors and low level subcontractors,
63%of all firms send their entrepreneur and/or staff to training, often provided by the government in association with university staff and associations.
In addition, many entrepreneurs train their own staff, as they are better aware of specific trends and technologies than training providers.
Training takes place on a wide range of topics, indicating that the sector moves forward in a balanced manner (see table 12).
46%of all firms report a large increase in quality of staff, 49%a moderate increase and 5%no increase.
percentage of entrepreneurs and staff trained Entrepreneur Staff Product design 35 26 Marketing 40 23 Management 25 22 Technologies 14 10 Other
Exporter Subcontractor Combination Total Staff 83,3%56,1%70,0%66,0%Buyers 76,7%69,6%80,0%72,9%Subcontractors 43,3%8, 8%30,0%21,6
as many staff graduated from one of the 70 universities. They are seen as too theoretical to directly benefit the sector,
4 Firm characteristics Staff number (mean) 13 39 91 Annual Turn over (US$, average last 5 years) $39, 535 $436, 886 $995,
travelling, a departmental structure, staff training, internal discussion and capacity of designers. Especially the ability to balance product, process
385/,003 Capacity of designer. 554/.024 Staff training. 497/.048 Capacity of staff. -306/.086 Capacity of management. 000/.999 Discuss innovation with staff (dummy.
035/.862 ANOVA test significance of. 000 IHS Working Paper 27.2013. Innovation in SMES. The case of home accessories in Yogyakarta, Indonesia 45 Table 4:
association of assimilation indicators (V-Cramer/significance) Train staff Having departments Discuss innovations with staff Constraint:
capacity staff Train staff X. 631/.000.335/.004.215/.035.044/.663.191/.059 Dep'ts 631/.000 X. 412/.002 Discuss. 335/.004.412
capacity staff Constraint: access to finance Invest X. 353/.000.408/.000.131/.426.120, /488.124/.466 Borrow. 5/.000 X. 629/.000.269/.028.140/.379.215/.101 Business plan. 577/.000.629/.000 x. 304/.026.220/.183.101/.795 Constraint:
The low number of new doctorate graduates and persons completed tertiary education in human resources; in funding:
while establishing coherence with their public services (e g. provision of services regarding human resources shall be uninterrupted). By 2020 the key participants of the national innovation system will be significantly reinforced through the active support of RDI policy
and human resources of basic research are available and the financing conditions are ensured. In addition to recognizing and encouraging scientific excellence,
The stable position in the international competition is guaranteed by the high quality of human resources. 2) This requires such a high-quality training
Primarily the opportunities lying in the more efficient utilization of the existing resources shall be used in the initial 37 The funding of targeted development of human resources (talent management,
it has a low degree of human resources. The connection between the two sectors is weak and incidental
Its main function is to support the development of human resources. The current rules are included in regulation (EC) No 1081/2006 effective since 1 january 2007.
it determines the long-term needs for human resources thus providing guidelines on determining the direction of training
System-dynamical approach 28 ábra National level Human resources human and social capital Science system research capacity The development of the economy and the markets absorption capacity
human resources and other soft factors Conditions of the factor market II.:physical infrastructure and other hard factors 50 The shortcomings inherent in the SWOT analysis have been eliminated by expert consultations and analyses.
effect of reducing brain drain (effect of attracting human resources of high professional level; publications; national and international patents...
The related human resources form an integral part of RIS that enable the professional operation, use and services.
management and human resources situation ensures the operation in accordance with the above mentioned criteria. 89 annexes The number of active groups important from the Hungarian viewpoint
BERD by funding sources, 2007-2011 12 2. Human resources in Research & development 13 Figure 10: Total research personnel (headcount and FTES), 2003-2011 13 Figure 11:
Human resources in R&d (2011) There were over 19,000 research personnel in the business sector, a 21 per cent increase since 2009 and more than 14,000 full time equivalents (FTES.
13 2. Human resources in Research & development This section focuses on personnel in R&d in the business sector between 2003 and 2011.
R&d personnel includes researchers (Phd qualified and other) technicians and all other R&d support staff.
, 000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 All research and development staff FTES All research and development staff (headcount) 6, 013
The following staff increases were observed between 2003 and 2011: the number of Phd qualified researchers increased more than threefold from 467 to 1,
18,000 20,000 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 Phd qualified researchers Other researchers Technicians Support staff FORFÁS BERD 2011/2012 ANALYSIS
2007 2009 2011 Phd qualified researchers Other researchers Technicians Support staff 6, 305 6, 749 6, 022 6, 986 8
and staff ICT training. 97 (See Figure 12) Figure 12: Average of 4 indicators of ICT use (1-7, where is 7 highest use;
Human resources, Open, excellent and attractive research systems as well as Finance and support. Firm activities capture the innovation efforts at the level of the firm,
Sweden, Finland, Ireland and United kingdom score best in Human resources; Denmark, The netherlands, Sweden and United kingdom reach top positions in Open, excellent and effective research systems;
The differences in performance across all Member States are smallest in Human resources, where the best performing country (Sweden) is performing more than three times as well as the least performing country Malta.
While Human resources and openness of the European research system have seen the highest growth in innovation performance
followed by growth in Human resources. Looking at individual indicators, Community trademarks contributed most to the increase of the innovation performance,
‘Human resources'includes 3 indicators and measures the availability of a highskilled and educated workforce. The indicators capture New doctorate graduates, Population aged 30-34 with completed tertiary education
Denominator Years covered ENABLERS Human resources 1. 1. 1 New doctorate graduates (ISCED 6) per 1000 population aged 25-34 Eurostat Eurostat 2004
The 1st column in Table 2 also shows that the spread in performance across all Member States is smallest in Human resources (1. 82%)and Economic effects (2. 19%.
for Human resources between the Innovation leaders and followers and between the Moderate and Modest innovators, for Open, excellent and effective research systems and Linkages & entrepreneurship between the Innovation leaders and followers and for Intellectual assets between the Moderate
Innovation Union Scoreboard 2014 13 Human resources (Enablers) In the first dimension Human resources Finland and Sweden, two of the Innovation leaders, perform best,
1. 43%Variance across all Member States Human resources Low (1. 82%)-Research systems High (5. 88%)-Finance
Member States'performance in Human resources 14 Innovation Union Scoreboard 2014 Open, excellent and effective research systems (Enablers) In Open, excellent and effective research systems
Also in Human resources (2. 3%)and Intellectual assets (2. 1%)growth has been relatively strong. In Human resources performance has increased most for New doctorate graduates (2. 8)
%and Population aged 30-34 with completed tertiary education (3. 6%).Growth in Intellectual assets is driven mostly by a strong performance increase in Community trademarks (6. 9)
Denominator Most recent year Date not available for ENABLERS Human resources 1. 1. 1 New doctorate graduates (ISCED 6) per 1000 population aged 25-34 OECD, Eurostat OECD,
Current performance EU27 BE BG CZ DK DE EE IE EL ES FR HR IT CY LV LT LU HU ENABLERS Human resources 1
EU27 MT NL AT PL PT RO SI SK FI SE UK TR IS NO CH RS MK ENABLERS Human resources 1. 1. 1
Growth performance EU27 BE BG CZ DK DE EE IE EL ES FR HR IT CY LV LT LU HU ENABLERS Human resources 1
85 EU27 MT NL AT PL PT RO SI SK FI SE UK TR IS NO CH RS MK ENABLERS Human resources 1. 1
Performance scores per dimension HUMAN RESOURCES RESEARCH Systems FINANCE AND SUPPORT FIRM INVESTMENTS LINKAGES & ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTELLECTUAL ASSETS INNOVATORS ECONOMIC EFFECTS EU 0, 583 0, 539 0, 558 0, 417 0, 550
The Human resources dimension includes 3 indicators and measures the availability of a high-skilled and educated workforce.
) 2010 MAIN TYPE/Innovation dimension/indicator COMMENT Data source Reference year (s) latest year used for IUS 2010 ENABLERS ENABLERS Human resources Human resources
and high levels of autonomy among staff, and their unique requirements, mean they often remain unconvinced of the potential gains from ICT.
and staff put great effort into maintaining multiple systems. These factors all contribute to suboptimal outcomes.
staff frustration, and outcomes below expectation. The focus must shift from automation of clinical work to innovation;
an attitude survey of doctors, nurses and allied health staff in clinical directorates. J Health Serv Res Policy 2005;
and also overall numbers of staff may be small even after eight years of operation, Facebook has only 3, 200 staff yet 800 million users (Waters, 2012).
Third, as illustrated by these numbers, the rate of growth owing to network effects can be extremely high.
By starting in the USA, Amazon also benefitted from more relaxed privacy laws labour laws that allowed flexibility in employing staff according to the needs of the business
and fire staff as needed was a key factor in its early survival and perhaps restricted its start-up location to the USA.
producing a source of high quality staff from academic research. Looking more widely, KUKA illustrates how Europe has gained a critical mass of intensity in robotics research
This is shown in the use of university staff and even students to introduce robotics through business cases and technical integration services, at reduced costs to new users.
DG Enterprise and Industry (2009), Making Public Support for Innovation in the EU More Effective, PRO INNO Europe paper no. 13, European commission, Commission Staff Working Document
In the early days, interviews for new staff were protracted and could go on for many months. There was an acid test the airplane test that asked how would you feel
which provided a source of skilled staff for Skype. Luxembourg was an attractive location for the official headquarters,
With this approach, E Ink avoided the need for far larger capital injections, for production facilities and staff, of the order of billions of dollars.
This good fortune led to a company heavy with staff, needless jobs many layers of management and generous employee benefits.
MA in January 2011 the company employed 657 full-time staff, of whom 304 were in research and development, 156 in operations, 78 in sales and marketing and 119 in general and administration.
90%of its staff are engineers. It is noteworthy that in 2006 the company made an appearance on the BBC TV programme Dragon's Den a reality show with entrepreneurs pitching to real business angel investors.
Starting with minimal staff, Amatec now has over 50 employees, with a major focus being the combination of vision and force.
The company operates with a 101 small permanent core of only four staff but has currently 16 subcontractors and a rapidly mounting volume of project work.
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