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The paper addresses the question of human capital as constraint to innovation in post-transition economies. The analysis is performed both on the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. Macroeconomic level encompasses discussion of available human capital and clustering of post-transition economies accordingly. Microeconomic analysis based on the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey confirms that innovative firms are more likely to perceive inadequate education of the workforce as severe obstacle to their business activities. In all analyzed clusters, the more innovative employers feel compelled to train their employees, the more likely they are to be dissatisfied with the education of the workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to identify innovation barriers that limit innovation performance of small and medium enterprises (SME) in Croatia. Data are obtained using an online survey. The sample consists of 94 SMEs that have experience in innovation activities. The impact of constraints to innovation is measured on five-point scale. Employing the factor analysis, we reduced number of variables to four factors. Cluster analysis is used to group SMEs according to factors that constrain their innovation activities. SMEs are grouped into three clusters. Results reveal that firms are mostly constrained by external factors. In two out of three clusters, firms report high intensity of financial constraints to their innovation activity. The findings reveal that the least pronounced constraints to innovation in SMEs in Croatia are organisational constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Post-transition countries struggle in their attempt to catch-up the more advanced market economies with more or less success. Simultaneously, the business performance of the countries whose innovation indicators lag behind the desired levels seems relatively poor. Often emphasized problems in post-transition countries regard the relations of fi rms with government institutions. We analyze perceptions of innovative and non-innovative fi rms in dealing with government officials, aiming to explore if these two groups of fi rms share similar experiences with tax administration, business licensing and courts officials. The analysis is focused on 17 European post-transition countries that are either EU members or accession countries. The results reveal that corrected for selection mechanism, innovative fi rms do not perceive courts as an obstacle to their business activities more than non-innovative fi rms, although they seem to participate more in court-related procedures. Furthermore, innovative fi rms in these countries are more likely to perceive licensing and tax administration as obstacles to their business. Thus, specific policy measures aimed at creating positive business environment should be designed in order to enhance innovation activities and support long-term growth prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In order to develop an innovation, enterprises can collaborate either with academic institutions or other enterprises that would profit from its development. Collaboration is determined by various factors. The goal of this paper is to determine variables that are predictors of innovation collaboration in Croatian enterprises. The results of discriminant analysis suggest that the variables distinguishing between the group of companies that collaborate and those that do not collaborate are: lack of qualified personnel, number of radical innovation, investment in R&D, number of employees and market orientation. Variables used in the analysis that do not contribute to discrimination between the groups include the number of incremental innovations, too high costs related to innovation activities and a lack of appropriate financial resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]