Abstract

MALAVER RODRIGUEZ, Florentino  and  VARGAS PEREZ, Marisela. Innovation process in Colombian industry: results from different case studies. Cuad. Adm. [online]. 2004, vol.17, n.28, pp.9-51. ISSN 0120-3592.

The paper deals with the traits that make up the technological profile and the innovation processes of different Colombian manufacturing firms. The main objective is to characterize such processes carried out by Colombian enterprises. To do so, the results of seventeen case studies realized by the Studies on Innovation Network, made up by ten universities and the Observatorio Colombiano de Ciencia y Tecnología (OCyT) (see the book titled “La innovación tecnológica en la industria colombiana”, Vargas, Malaver and Zerda (Eds.), 2003), are revised and the conclusions drawn indicate that Colombian firms’ innovation processes are informal, are not the result of planning or the strategic management of technology and innovation, and come out of the troubleshooting present in the adaptation of foreign technologies, the need to solve customers’ problems or to grab market opportunities. Innovation activities generate learning proceses that improve technological capabilities and attitudes regarding technology, and allow more complex innovation. Yet, such activities also restrain the development of formal, planned and systematic innovation processes (R+D-based activities), radical patentable innovation, and technological competencies necessary for the strategic management of technology.

Keywords : technological capabilities; competitiveness and innovation; innovation process; innovation case; innovation in Colombian industry.

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