AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF PROCESS INNOVATION IN AN R&D LABORATORY OF AN OIL & GAS COMPANY

Abstract

The main goal of this paper was to study how process innovation development occurs in a successful oil and gas firm. We tried to reach this goal by means of a case-study analysis of a Brazilian multinational oil and gas company’s R&D laboratory that is recognized as successful in innovating. This study analyzed the innovation development by investigating the strategic choices to develop process innovation and the appropriability mechanisms that allow the firm to benefit from the innovations. Concluding, we proposed a framework connecting the strategic choices and the appropriability mechanisms of the focused firm, which may be appropriate for oil and gas firms with similar overall strategies.

Keywords

• process innovation
• appropriability
• oil and gas industry