Is Underutilization of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities a Major Barrier to Innovation?

750 employees from 40 small and middle-sized industrial enterprises participated in a study of the extent to which perceived utilization of knowledge, skills, and abilities among personnel is associated with innovative performance. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses, based on structured questionnaire survey and data from organizational and national registers, showed that perceived underutilization of knowledge, skills, and abilities was statistically significantly associated with low innovative performance across all innovation indicators and even after the effects of other major barriers to innovation and a large set of other potential confounding factors had been controlled for. These findings underline the importance of efficient identification, utilization, and allocation of expertise in innovative activities.