Paulo Antônio Zawislak

Towards the Innovation Function

This paper explores the main elements that influence innovation and the relationships among them. It is pointed out that innovation results from an entrepreneurial action inside an established institutional context, sustained by resources, abilities and competences and with the support of the necessary financial capital. Therefore, it is proposed that innovation is a function (just as the microeconomic production function) composed of entrepreneurship, institutions, capabilities and capital. Each one of these elements is explored individually, so that later the relationships among them can be analyzed. It is still suggested that the size of the firm is a moderator in the relationship between these elements and innovation. The study’s contribution it is the development of a conceptual model.

Innovation Capability: From Technology Development to Transaction Capability

The firm’s role, besides producing goods and services, is to promote technological change and innovation. While academic research on technological capabilities has led to a better understanding of the process of technical change itself, there is no consensus on the ultimate definition of innovation capability. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for innovation capability. This is formed by four key capabilities (technology development, operations, management and transaction) that enable firms to reach Schumpeterian profits. Given that the study is characterized as a theoretical paper, methodologically is supported on an extensive literature review. Our main findings can be summed up in three aspects: (1) every firm has all four capabilities; none of them are null; (2) to be innovative, at least one of the firm’s capabilities must be predominant; (3) any firm, when established, is primarily technological or transactional, in a second stage, operational or managerial.

Universities' Intellectual Property: Path for Innovation or Patent Competition?

Technological innovation is represented by the conversion of knowledge into new products and processes which, when commercialized, generate wealth. In relations with companies, universities’ role is to develop scientific knowledge, fostering industry’s R&D activities. This article proposes an analysis of the technology transfer process performed by public universities in Brazil. Results demonstrate that universities are facing difficulties in requesting and licensing patents based on scientific results, due to lack of commercial contact with companies and their limitations in adapting available technologies. The increase in scientific output is not being effectively transformed into new technologies for products and services, exposing the necessity for new policies to approach university-industry relations. For universities, this may mean rethinking the role of patents in the technology transfer process, such as increasing co-authorship with companies and have companies support technological research within the university, instead of investing in legal protection, distant from market needs.

The Silent Run: New Issues and Outcomes for University-Industry Relations in Brazil

In order to develop innovations, companies are establishing University-Industry (U-I) relations which are explained in theories like the Triple Helix. Maybe this traditional view it is not enough to describe what happens in Brazil. Followed by a growth of articles published internationally, companies in technologically stable industries seem to be incorporating high-tech outcomes from universities, boosting sectors that once were apparently inert. This research will propose a different approach on U-I relations, focusing on the Knowledge Flow. Results show that agriculture companies are increasing their relations as much as engineering companies. Such relations are mainly based on raw technologies or applied solutions. Start-up firms’ relations are mainly based on informal contacts and patents are not used to protect technolo gies. The Silent Run shows that companies which appear to be technologically stable are now upgrading trough U-I, and patents does not seem to be the first option when protecting new technologies.

Inovação em serviços no paradigma da economia do aprendizado: a pertinência de uma dimensão espacial na abordagem dos sistemas de inovação

The analysis of innovation in services is recent in literature once this kind of innovation has for long been considered as a byproduct from innovation in manufacturing. Three approaches deserve more attention under this perspective: the technicist, the service-based and the integrated. The latter attempts to establish a single theory of innovation for manufacturing and services, including the necessary conceptualizing to distinguish their specificity. In this sense, this paper aims at investigating theoretical foundations for the application of the innovation systems approach to services, including a spatial, local or regional dimension in future empirical studies. The paper argues for the relevance of this approach once the learning process, decisive for the innovation process in the realm of the new paradigm, is related to geographical, cultural and sectoral boundaries that provide a source for competitive advantage for the organizations.

Transactional capability: innovation's missing link

The topic of innovation as a source of competitive advantage for firms is consolidated in the literature. An innovation-based advantage is generally achieved by following a structured process, in which technological capability plays a key role. However, a question remains in studies into innovation, which is concerned with the reasons why not all firms that develop a technological capability are innovative. Where is the missing link? Great efforts have been made in attempts to answer to this question. However, the study of this link as a source of advantage for firms deserves further attention. This article aims to present a framework with two essential dimensions: (1) the technological capability and (2) the transactional capability. Technological capability is the ability of firms to make effective use of technical knowledge in order to improve production processes and develop new products and services. Transactional capability is defined as a repertoire of abilities, processes, experiences, skills, knowledge and routines that the firm uses to minimize its transaction costs (ex-ante and ex-post). Given that the present study is a theoretical paper, methodologically it is based on a literature review. The main finding of this study is the identification of transactional capability as the missing link in innovation. Accordingly, to be innovative, in addition to having a technological capability, a firm needs to develop its transactional capability.

Technological Capability's Predictor Variables

The aim of this study was to identify the factors that influence in configuration of the technological capability of companies in sectors with medium-low technological intensity. To achieve the goal proposed in this article a survey was carried out. Based on the framework developed by Lall (1992) which classifies firms in basic, intermediate and advanced level of technological capability; it was found that the predominant technological capability is intermediate, with 83.7% of respondent companies (plastics companies in Brazil). It is believed that the main contribution of this study is the finding that the dependent variable named “Technological Capability” can be explained at a rate of 65% by six variables: development of new processes; selection of the best equipment supplier; sales of internally developed new technology to third parties; design and manufacture of equipment; study of the work methods and perform inventory control; and improvement of product quality.

Firm's Innovation Expectation, Potential and Actions: Impressions on the Japanese Videogame Console Market

Under the theoretical developments proposed by the Theory of the Firm, it is possible to understand the firm as the primary site for innovation. Innovation effort is justified by the need to generate solutions which should be validated in the market. This market validation process enables one to identify the life cycle of the solution, represented by the “S-curve”. Whether due to its sales volume, market share and even technological improvements, there is a sequence of events that are, invariably, repeated in all technologies: onset, growth, maturing and decay. This paper presents, based on a model for innovation expectation and potential, an analysis of the firms’ actions along different S-curves. To do this, sales volume historical data of videogame consoles in Japan were used. The most interesting finding is that the firms terminate the life cycle of each technology keeping, simultaneously, two or more different versions of the consoles.

Influências ambientais e inovação de produtos: estudo de casos em subsidiárias de multinacionais no Brasil

The objective of this study is to identify and understand the influences of the organizational environment on the process of product innovation as well as to propose a scheme to classify these different forms of influences. Product innovations are based on a firms technological capabilities which, in turn, result from organizational learning processes. Contrasting approaches which study internal learning processes, this article focuses on external stimuli for innovation from the subsidiarys organizational environment - namely, the task, institutional and corporate environment. Combining these three organizational environments results in a typology of eight different categories which we illustrate using case examples of subsidiaries located in Brazil. In addition, we explore the hypothesis that the mutual reinforcement of stimuli from several environment categories contribute to the sustainability of a subsidiarys innovative activities. Thus, observing changes in these three environments may help to explain why the subsidiarys innovative activities are reduced, eliminated or enhanced.

A produção enxuta como fator diferencial na capacidade de fornecimento de PMEs

The automotive industry, especially in the 90s, has been passed through a re-structure process of its productive base and supply relationship. Supporting such a process, there is a production philosophy coined lean production. This paper aims at pointing out some considerations about what could be done, regarding the production process, that may improve the supply capability of the autoparts firms in the RS state. Seven firms were analyzed and a lean production tool, the Value Stream Mapping, was applied. The results obtained were positive in all firms. The general stock reductions were of about 23%. Concerning value addition the reductions were of about 65%. Therefore, the potential gains from the implementation of the improvements suggested at Value Stream Map would make it possible not only to produce accordingly to the demand but also, to increase the supply capability of the firms.