Barriers for innovation detected in 400 colombian businesses, based on the innovation "U" coefficient methodology

The barriers for innovation have been studied for the past 40 years. However, in most of these studies, the subject has been examined in a qualitative way. Consequently, certain tools are required to measure the barriers of innovation inside the organizations. This time, the results of the barriers of an innovation tool is presented; this tool has been developed by researchers from Universidad Pontifi cia Bolivariana, which was applied to 400 businesses from different areas. The tool is composed by a total of 18 internal and external barriers, and allows the controllable barriers to be determined by identifying the sector and region. Furthermore, there is a coeffi cient that classifi es the businesses in ranges from high, medium and low in terms of innovation's facilities. The methodology for the calculation of the barriers for innovation in business can be the base to measure innovation obstacles in regions, clusters and sectors, because it provides an indicator of the most representative barriers in each of them. This can be useful to generate some strategies to close or eliminate those barriers through public policies and summons with specifi c projects.