Proposal for an innovation model for Brazilian small and medium technology-based enterprises

Abstract

Technological Innovation Processes are fundamental to give competitive strength to companies. The actions undertaken in this process can be motivated by intentions like to comply with new demands of the market, to add value to existing products and services and to generate new products or services. Those actions of innovation reflect organizational skills that renews the competitive vigor and contribute to the longevity of the companies. Innovation processes may change from company to company and can be influenced by, among other things, the industry sector or the size of the company. It is at this point that emerges the focus of interest of this research, which comes to the technological innovation process in Brazilian small and medium technology-based enterprises. Given the above, this paper aims to propose an innovation model for Brazilian small and medium technology-based enterprises. The theoretical framework used is composed by six our models of innovation: the technology push, the market pull, the coupling innovation process, the functional integration innovation process, the systems integration and networking innovation process and open innovation. The methodological approach used was the qualitative multiple case study. The data collection instrument used was the semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and analysis occurred for each case and then making a comparison between the cases in search of similarities and differences leading to the formation of valid results. Seven Brazilian companies located in Metropolitan Region of Paraíba Valley and North Coast - São Paulo State, Brazil, composed the sample. With the results, it can be said that Brazilian small and medium technology-based enterprises do not innovate alone, but in the context of networking system with university, research centers and several companies. Thereby, technological innovation is an ongoing collaborative process involving the activities of management, coordination, learning and negotiation, research about customer needs, skills acquisition and new product development management. Finally, it was possible to draw up an integrative innovation model that explain how occurs the process of innovation in the companies that composed the sample. The model consists of four main phases that are the generation and dissemination of ideas; the viability of the idea; development, prototyping, production scale and marketing; and learning.