Maria Angela Campelo de Melo

Technology Foresight on Emerging Technologies: Implications for a National Innovation Initiative in Brazil

Prospective studies about emerging technologies and their implications for public policy formulation indicate critical choices ranging from global to national level, even to the individual firm or institution. Emerging technologies have been shaping the future of some industries and transforming many others. In many cases, these technologies will determine the restructuring of industries as never before. Specially designed for enabling better planning and future decisions, technology foresight (TF) methods are used to foresee diffusion of innovations, mapping out commercially viable roadmaps for technological development. This paper is concerned with a methodological instrument adopted in Brazil as support for building the Agenda for a National Innovation Initiative (NII), which was articulated by government, universities, R&D institutions, and private firms. It presents and discusses an integrated methodological approach for a TF study, specially designed for the purpose of this Brazilian innovation policy instrument, concerning three emerging technologies – nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information and communication technologies (ICT).

Services for People Innovation Park: Planning Methodologies

This article aims to identify appropriate methodologies for the planning of a Services for People Innovation Park-SPIP, designed according to the model proposed by the Ibero-American Network launched by La Salle University of Madrid. Projected to form a network, these parks were conceived to provoke social change in their region, improving quality of life and social welfare, through knowledge, technology and innovation transfer and creation of companies focused on developing product and services to reduce social inequalities. Building a conceptual framework for the identification of planning methodologies compatible with the SPIP problematique, this article analyses the theories of complex systems and adaptive planning, considering the particularities presented by Innovation Parks. The study deepens the understanding of the problems inherent in park planning, identifies the key issues to be considered during this process, and characterizes the SPIP as active adaptive complex system, suggesting methodologies more appropriate to its planning.

Sociotechnical regimes, technological innovation and corporate sustainability: from principles to action

ABSTRACT Increased environmental and social responsibility awareness, while producing unique opportunities for sustainability-oriented innovations, has generated important challenges for companies. The path to sustainability requires corporate strategies that guarantee profitability, managing simultaneously environmental and social responsibilities. An attempt is made to provide an understanding of sustainable development thinking in business, discussing how the combination of the transition management, adaptive planning and sociotechnical approaches can contribute towards an effective implementation of sustainability-oriented innovations in business context. The article proposes a conceptual model, which incorporates this contribution, developed through a four-year action-research project carried out within a large Brazilian energy company – Petrobras. The authors argue that the adoption of the proposed model by other large firms operating in different societal sectors might trigger organisational changes related to current corporate practices of technological innovation management.