Rede interorganizacional de apoio à inovação empresarial: uma análise do programa Tecnova Paraná

Abstract

In order to minimize the difficulties of innovation in small enterprises due to resource scarcity and lack of knowledge, governments implement programs to support innovation. In addition to supporting companies, these programs are intended to strengthen national and regional innovation systems, encouraging the formation of networks of cooperation capable of creating, developing, marketing and disseminating innovations. If strong relationships are to be formed within the networks, there must be harmony among the actors, taking into account structural, relational and cognitive aspects. This research has as its central theme the interorganizational networks formed through public subsidy programs to helping business innovation, and its objective is to analyze the interactions among the actors of the network of the business innovation promotion program Tecnova Paraná - a program made up of 69 formal players, of which nine are support institutions and 60 are companies. Regarding this objective, the research is predominantly descriptive. As for the bibliographic research, a bibliometric research was initially carried out, while the content analysis technique was used for the systematization and categorization of the theoretical reference. The primary data collection was done through an electronic questionnaire sent to companies which participate in the program. About the main results of this research, it was concluded that the coordination among the actors of the program was done primarily by formal modes of control. Even with the participation of several actors, companies had the perception that the program was centralized. The Araucária Foundation was the support institution that most interacted with the companies, being the central actor in the network, while Senai-PR presented the second highest percentage of strong connections with companies, having an influence on the sharing of practical and technological knowledge among companies. The sectors that most believed to have strong relations with the support institutions were those of biological sciences and biotechnology, as well as those of agrarian technology and agribusiness. The companies in these sectors were also the ones that most declared to have access to human resources with technical capacity and sectorial knowledge, and these were the sectors that most affirmed sharing technological knowledge in the program as well. Of the possible relations among the companies, in only 2.4% of the cases they materialized. Standing out in this group are the companies in the field of biological sciences and biotechnology, which were the ones that had the most relations among themselves, and the companies of the sector of the information technology, the latter being the ones which had the most relations with companies from other sectors. n the program, there was more participation of the support institutions in the production phase, when compared to the project and commercialization phase. All the companies of the program affirmed to have acquired new knowledge, having been shared more regulatory and managerial knowledge than market and technological one.