MEASUREMENT OF THE DEGREE OF INNOVATION IN MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES: A STUDY IN TEXTILE BUSINESS CHAIN-MAKING IN SERGIPE

Abstract

Trying to mitigate the mortality rate of the Micro and Small companies and to raise the level of competitiveness of these enterprises, it is becomes necessary the adoption of strategies that stimulate the innovation in these companies. The objective of this work is to measure the innovation degree in MPE of the textile-manufacturing sector, that participate of the Project Agent Local of Innovation- ALI. The choice of this sector is justified because the State of Sergipe has tradition and vocation in the textile-manufacturing activities and therefore, in recent years, this segment presented an expansion in the number of enterprises that is superior to the Brazilian average. A survey was carried out, and a sample of 82 micro and small companies from the APLs of Tobias Barreto, Itabaianinha and Aracaju was selected. The tool used to measure the innovation degree was based on the instrument Radar of the Innovation, developed by Sawhney, Wolcott and Arroniz (2006) that uses dimensions for which a company can look ways to innovate. Value 5 is the maximum punctuation that each company can get in each the thirteen dimensions of the instrument. The average degree of innovation of the companies evaluated in the sample was of 2,1, indicating that the innovation still is incipient in this group of companies. The best results had been gotten in the dimensions platform and mark, while the dimensions processes, aggregation of value, chain of supply and organization had gotten the lowest punctuations.