Revisão Sistemática da Literatura sobre barreiras à inovação em pequenas e médias empresas de 2012 a 2022

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present an overview of research on barriers to innovation in SMEs carried out between 2012 and 2022, as a way of filling theoretical and academic gaps and supporting the definition of actions to encourage innovation on a large scale. The method chosen was a Systematic Literature Review. We adopted the Prisma Protocol, defining and justifying inclusion and exclusion criteria for 472 articles retrieved from the Scopus database. Finally, 70 articles were selected for full reading and analysis. There was an increasing number of publications from 2019 to 2022 and a predominance of theoretical and empirical studies carried out in European countries. There was little variation in the thematic approaches underpinning research into barriers to innovation in recent decades. Eight types of barriers to innovation were identified, grouping them according to the authors and examples most emphasised in each type. In general, the barriers are related to costs, limitations of physical, technological, human and financial resources, lack of regulations and government support, access to information and knowledge management. It was found that financial, human resources, organisational, technical, marketing and commercialisation, environmental, political and legal, and market barriers have tenuous, diffuse and variable boundaries depending on the geographical context. The aspects that define these barriers often coincide or are interrelated. Suggestions for theoretical and practical research are presented as a way of guiding strategies and policies to boost innovation in SMEs.