Barriers to innovation in Local Public Administration:

the NUTS III BSE case

Abstract

The aim of the study presented in this article is to identify the main barriers/obstacles to the development of innovation activities in the public sector, in particular in the Local Public Administration of NUTS III Beiras and Serra da Estrela (BSE), in order to understand which impediments subjects and what factors are hinder innovation. To achieve the defined objective, a survey was prepared, based on the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) and the European Public Sector Innovation Scoreboard 2013, addressed to the 15 Municipalities that are part of the NUTS III BSE. A descriptive analysis of the data was carried out, using correlation matrices, establishing some correlations between the variables with a view to a general characterization of the institutions surveyed and the study of barriers to innovation. The main conclusions of the study point out that the main barriers to the introduction of innovations in the BSE Municipalities are the political factors and the lack of incentives to innovate. The inadequate time allocated by the institution to innovate, and the contractual rules are pointed out above all as barriers to the introduction of product (services) innovations. Thus, it is important to define public policies and strategies by local authorities that fight these barriers and obstacles and promote innovation as a priority and cooperation as a fundamental element in the process.