Perceived Barriers to Innovation for Start-Up Businesses

Abstract

Innovation plays important role in Entrepreneurship by creating competitive advantage and leading to firms’ success in the competition. However, creating valuable innovation demands a lengthy process that has never been easy for SMEs. This paper aims to explore perceived barriers to innovation in startup businesses from the point of view of students studying Entrepreneurship at International Business Management (IBM) study program, Universitas Ciputra. Barriers to innovation are explained using qualitative descriptive approach, focusing on the internal and external barriers perceived by the students who were currently running start-up businesses as school projects. Purposive sampling was used to get clear and complete explanation of barriers to innovation, using criteria of students who are currently studying in IBM study program, have been developing innovation in their business project. Data collected from semi-structured interview then being analyzed in steps of coding, grouping, and interpreted to describe the focus of this study. The results of this study highlight perceived barrier to innovation of lacking knowledge and skills (internal), as well as unpredictable market response (external), had greatly affected the implementation of innovation in start-up businesses.