Determinant factors of innovation management in the manufacturing industry of Pichincha, Ecuador

Abstract

A permanent challenge for business organizations is to transform, adapt to the environment and innovate, so knowing the factors that influence the ability to innovate is relevant information. In this sense, the objective of this article is to determine and conceptualize the decisive factors that interact in a systemic way in the management of innovation in the manufacturing industry. The research has a qualitative approach, with a descriptive and transversal scope. In the first place, a review of the literature was carried out that allowed delimiting the management of innovation in the company in three main categories. Second, the categories were characterized, and subcategories and properties were identified, taking the manufacturing companies of Pichincha, Ecuador as the subject of study. This characterization was carried out through a qualitative study that takes the Grounded Theory as a reference, using research techniques: questionnaires, interviews, and documentary research. The results reveal that the relevant factors for the management of innovation in the company can be grouped into three main categories: knowledge management (KM), innovation capabilities (IC) and financial performance (FP). The subcategories that explain KM are policies and strategies, organizational structure, technology, people, incentive systems, organizational culture, and communication. The subcategories that explain IC are research and development capacity, management capacity, resource availability, human talent management, staff skills and technological capacity. The subcategories that explain the FP are sales and costs. This research contributes to the field of innovation management with new information and theory for action and emphasizes the systemic vision of innovation management and the key factors for the development of innovations in the Ecuadorian industrial sector, with the purpose of strengthening the theoretical and empirical advances of innovation management in the company.

Keywords

• knowledge management; innovation capabilities; financial performance; manufacturing industry