Uncovering Barriers to Complex Incremental Product Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Financial Services Firms*

Abstract

Developing new products is of the highest importance for the survival of firms. This not only refers to really new products, but firms also need to invest in modifying their existing products. Small and medium-sized companies are no exception to this rule. The present study focuses on the innovative activities of small and medium-sized financial service companies and aims to answer how small and medium-sized financial services firms organize their product innovation processes and what the main barriers during these innovative attempts are. Data from 30 financial small and medium-sized enterprises were collected to address these issues. The data showed that the firms in our study experience problems in terms of resources, project-based working, incentives, and information technology, despite the fact that the innovative efforts are aimed at modifying existing services. Although these issues may not be totally unexpected, the results from this study do point at some interesting distinctions with the previous literature. Furthermore, it is suggested that the impact of the barriers may be of lower importance than is often assumed in the innovation literature.

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