Innovación social

El enfoque de innovación social es relativamente reciente y ha cobrado particular relevancia como objeto de política pública y como marco de análisis para diseñar e implementar proyectos novedosos orientados a generar cambios sostenibles. Entender los fundamentos conceptuales del enfoque, sus manifestaciones prácticas, así como las metodologías y los instrumentos que lo soportan, constituye un aspecto fundamental para fomentar el desarrollo y uso de la ciencia y la tecnología desde una perspectiva socialmente responsable.CONACYT - Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y TecnologíaPROCIENCI

Lowering barriers to engage in innovation: evidence from the Spanish innovation survey

The literature on innovation studies has extensively examined the main drivers of innovation activity, while putting less attention on factors that are crucial in order to foster competition dynamics, as well as to attenuate systemic failures to innovation. This paper aims to filling this gap by distinguishing between firms facing deterring barriers to innovation (i.e. those barriers that deter firms from engaging in innovation activities) and firms confronting revealed barriers (i.e. those barriers that are experienced by firms alongside their engagement in innovative activities). Drawing upon the literature on innovation studies, we propose a set of hypotheses on which factors are likely to attenuate deterring and/or revealed barriers to innovation (e.g. firm size, firm age, human capital, etc.). We built a longitudinal dataset derived from four waves of the Spanish Innovation Survey (2004-2007) in order to examine the impact of the proposed factors on three types of obstacles to innovation: cost, knowledge and market barriers. Results reveal that: first, knowledge and market related obstacles play a much stronger role as deterring barriers than cost-related obstacles; second, firm size and human capital available at firms play a significant role in attenuating deterring barriers to innovation, though only the former has a significant impact on alleviating revealed barriers.

External knowledge sourcing and innovation performance: the role of managerial practices

Ingenio Working Paper SeriesIn this paper, we argue that the ability of a firm to transform external knowledge into commercial success goes beyond the firms’ technological capabilities. Thus, we underscore the role played by managerial practices (related with knowledge sharing, formalization and incentives) in the leveraging and utilization of external knowledge. We further consider that the effectiveness of external knowledge exploitation can be contingent on the types of external sources (scientific and industrial partners) and on the degree of novelty in innovations (imitative and new-to-the-market innovations). The research draws on survey data from the Spanish Ceramic Tile Industry and the main results suggest that firms adopting knowledge sharing mechanisms are more likely to attain better results in exploiting external scientific knowledge. On the contrary, formalization-based mechanisms tend to exert a detrimental effect on the exploitation of external scientific knowledge. Knowledge incentives are non significant in the case of scientific agents and negative for industrial agents.Peer reviewe

Las estrategias de innovación en la industria manufacturera española: sus determinantes y efectos sobre el desempeño innovador

Esta tesis tiene como objetivo principal analizar las estrategias de innovación empleadas por las empresas manufactureras españolas, identificando tanto los factores que influyen en la adopción de cada estrategia, como la efectividad de las mismas para promover el desarrollo de nuevos productos y/o procesos. Un elemento clave dentro del estudio lo constituye el análisis de las relaciones entre las diferentes estrategias, evaluando tanto su coexistencia dentro de la estrategia global de la organización, como sus efectos complementarios sobre el desempeño innovador de la empresa. Como estrategias de innovación se analizan el desarrollo interno de actividades de I+D (estrategia de hacer) y la adquisición de conocimiento externo, bien sea a través de transacciones de mercado (compra de I+D, compra de tecnología inmaterial, compra de maquinarias y equipos), o a través de la cooperación con agentes externos (industriales y científicos). Los análisis son realizados a nivel de empresa, utilizando para ello los microdatos derivados de la encuesta sobre innovación tecnológica del año 2004, llevada a cabo por el Instituto nacional de Estadística de España. En general, la tesis pone de manifiesto que, para las empresas manufactureras españolas, la adquisición externa de conocimiento no parece responder a consideraciones estratégicas, como podría ser la búsqueda de complementariedades tecnológicas, sino que por el contrario parece estar más asociada con consideraciones de carácter táctico, como la reducción de costes o el acceso a fuentes de financiación adicional. Ello hace que el efecto de dicha estrategia sobre el desempeño innovador de la empresa sea limitado y que, además, no presente efectos sinérgicos con la generación interna de conocimiento. De hecho, los resultados muestran algunos indicios de un efecto de sustitución entre el desarrollo de actividades internas de I+D y la cooperación con agentes científicos, tales como universidades u OPIs.Vega Jurado, JM. (2008). Las estrategias de innovación en la industria manufacturera española: sus determinantes y efectos sobre el desempeño innovador [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/7222Palanci

La Innovación Como Dinamizador Empresarial: Caso Hommie

In December 2018, Alonso Macías, Manager at Mayordomia, was looking for somewhere quiet to evaluate his company’s possibilities after foreseeing a projected closing with COP 14 billion less in sales than in 2016. He needed answers to all possible questions before attending a board meeting that was looking critical for him. He wondered if it was time to diversify his business, and if the conditions of the economy and his company’s power to respond, while occupying the largest share of the market at that time, would be negatively affected. The opportunity to diversify had always been there, but previous efforts had not gone well. Entering new markets with different proposals still generated certain suspicions for him that he didn’t express when telling his team that there could be no doubt about the need to exploit the company’s infrastructure in sectors adjacent to the business and institutional cleaning and maintenance service - sectors that had already been considered and included in the 2016-2019 strategic plan since 2013. “It looks like a risky option, but Adriana and her team seem to have a clearer idea of how to bring our know-how to all the different homes and cover the B2C segment,” pondered Alonso. Although he was willing to listen to the new proposals of the team led by his daughter, between positivism, uncertainty and resistance to change, he wondered if the conditions were favorable for these innovations, and if it would be possible to successfully achieve a victory early to break with the business schemes and systems that had been a part of Mayordomia for almost 30 years. Although the president of Mayordomia has been characterized as a tenacious and courageous person, this time, at 57 years of age, he sometimes feels that uncertainty overwhelms him.En diciembre de 2018 Alonso Macías, Gerente de Mayordomía, buscaba un espacio de quietud para evaluar las posibilidades de la compañía, después de ver un cierre proyectado con $14.000.000.000COP menos en ventas con respecto al 2016 y necesitaba responderse todas las dudas posibles antes de entrar a una junta directiva que pintaba crítica para él. Se preguntaba si era el momento de diversificar su negocio, y si las condiciones de la economía y la capacidad de respuesta de su empresa, que ocupaba la mayor porción del mercado en ese momento, no se vería afectada. La oportunidad de diversificarse siempre estuvo presente, pero los esfuerzos realizados con anterioridad no tuvieron buen puerto. Ingresar a nuevos mercados con propuestas diferentes le generaba todavía cierto recelo interno que no expresaba cuando decía ante el equipo que no había duda de la necesidad de empezar a explotar la infraestructura de Mayordomía, en sectores adyacentes al servicio de aseo y mantenimiento empresarial e institucional, que desde 2013 se venían considerando e incluyendo en el plan estratégico de 2016-2019. “Parece una opción arriesgada, pero Adriana y su equipo parecen tener una idea más clara de cómo llevar nuestro Know how a los hogares y abarcar el segmento B2C”, meditaba Alonso. Aunque estaba dispuesto a escuchar la nueva propuesta del equipo dirigido por su hija, entre el positivismo, la incertidumbre y la resistencia al cambio, se preguntaba si las condiciones propicias para estas innovaciones estaban dadas, y si iba a ser posible lograr con éxito una victoria temprana que rompiera los esquemas de negocio que se venían dando en Mayordomía por casi 30 años. A pesar de que el presidente de Mayordomía se caracterizaba por su tenacidad y valentía, esta vez, a sus 57 años de edad, sentía por momentos que la incertidumbre le sobreponía

University industry links and product innovation: cooperate or contract?

The role of universities in product innovation has received considerable attention over the past decade. However, little is known about how the type of formal university-firm interaction predicts innovative performance and the degree of novelty of new products. This research differentiates two forms of firm high-relational interaction with universities: R&D contracting and cooperation. We exploit the panel structure of a dataset of 5,858 Spanish manufacturing firms with fixed-effects models. The empirical analysis finds that, although both contracting and cooperation predict product innovative performance, the two activities differ in the degree of novelty of new product outcomes. The implications are that the codified nature and asymmetric scope of R&D contracting is more suitable for exploitative innovation, resulting in product innovation that is incremental in nature. On the other hand, the possibility to exchange and create tacit knowledge and the explorative nature of R&D cooperation provide firms with the opportunity to better access the broad knowledge base of universities, leading to product innovations with a higher degree of novelt

Orchestrating absorptive capacity: organizational catalysts of TMT’s influence

This study aims to tackle the influence of top management team (TMT), socialization capabilities and their interactions on absorptive capacity (ACAP). Specifically, this paper examines a TMT’s diversity and coordination as an “enabler” with the potential to trigger the processes involved in the generation of ACAP. The authors relied on a database comprising 96 manufacturing firms in a developing country. Due to the model suggested as well as the sample size, they opted for a PLS-SEM methodology. The empirical results show that TMT diversity is not significantly related to firm’s ACAP. Additionally, they provide evidence for a mediation of the relationship between a TMT coordination and ACAP through socialization capabilities. This paper presents a theoretical framework that underscores the influence of TMT on different dimensions of ACAP. Based on the upper echelon theory, the authors suggest that this is of utmost importance given that the extent to which knowledge is acquired, integrated and exploited within the firm can be contingent on the configuration and collaborative structure of the TMT. The results show that TMT coordination influences firm’s ACAP when it is complemented effectively by structural mechanisms for fostering greater communication, collaboration and cohesiveness between the members of an organization. To configure a TMT merely to have diversity or guarantee the coordination between the team members is not enough to foster firm’s ACAP. An alignment of a coordinated TMT with the possibility for employees to freely communicate across functional areas and hierarchical limits is a prerequisite for the acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation of external knowledge. The authors consider that this study raises areas for further consideration in efforts to understand how individual-based resources (e.g. TMT configuration) can be transformed into systemic knowledge-based capability (e.g. ACAP)

Do firms benefit from interactions with public research organisations beyond innovation? An analysis of small firms

In this paper we argue that there is an extensive number of studies examining how firms obtain new products from their interactions with scientific agents, but other type of benefits has been overlooked. Specifically, we add to previous literature by considering not only product innovation, but also exploratory (long-term) and exploitative (short-term) results. We administer a tailored survey to firms collaborating with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and data was completed with secondary sources. Results based on a sample of 756 firms suggest that firms consider all types of result as moderately important to them. Moreover, we observe that small firms report higher benefits in terms of product innovation and long-term results in contrast to large firms

La colaboración horizontal entre proveedores de servicios logísticos en el caribe colombiano: un enfoque cualitativo

Through a qualitative approach, this paper explore the potential collaborative relationships among logistics services providers in Colombia. The research was supported on several interviews achieved at Spain and Colombia to researchers and logistics managers.  Using a crossed analysis of the literature and the interviews’ data, several theoretical proposals were synthetized in order to explain the barriers to horizontal collaboration perceived by managers in the LSP context.  As a conclusion, the perception of the profit/risk ratio is the most used decision making mechanism by logistics managers to get into a collaborative alliance.Mediante una aproximación cualitativa, este documento explora las potenciales relaciones colaborativas entre proveedores de servicios logísticos, en el contexto del Caribe colombiano.  La investigación se apoyó en una serie de entrevistas realizadas en España y Colombia a académicos y gerentes de operadores logísticos.  A partir del análisis cruzado de la literatura y la información de las entrevistas, se sintetizan propuestas teóricas que explican las barreras a la colaboración horizontal percibidas por los gerentes en el contexto de operadores logísticos.  Como conclusión, la percepción de la razón beneficio/riesgo es el mecanismo de toma de decisión más utilizado por gerentes de logística ante la posibilidad de entrar en una alianza colaborativa