Abordagem de roadmapping na geração de diretrizes de inovação para conglomerados industriais

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the roadmapping approach process in generating innovation policies for industrial clusters. Roadmapping studies are mainly based on private companies experiences. In this research were executed two case studies about programs promoted by business support organizations, with support from the university and the state government, for the normative and collective industrial clusters strategic planning in the state of Minas Gerais - Brazil. To investigate these cases were used three methods for field research and data were processed and triangulated. In both cases were used participant observation and document analyzes, but there was a difference in the studies. In the first was achieved a structured interview to get the overall results. The roadmapping process proved viable, usable and useful. In the second a semi-structured interviews were conducted and was used the content analysis by evaluation analysis and the centering resonance analysis (CRA) a lesser known technique. The purpose was to investigate the impact of the roadmapping process in three specific aims: improved entrepreneur understanding about new markets; support in decision making on new investments; improving the relationship between firms. These treatments showed complementary results. The roadmapping processes studied contributed to the generating innovation policies in two dynamic and different contexts, creating a forward-looking and shared strategic direction that identifies the necessary steps for the transformation towards a future vision. The use of roadmapping approach induced the connection between different stakeholders, such as industry, business support organizations, government and university, which had divergent views and limited information, thus allowing the alignment of their actions toward common goals. Such processes involved different levels of people aggregation: network, firm and functional level. Generally, the network level is used in innovation policies studies. The roadmapping was mainly based on Resource-Based View, especially Dynamic Capabilities and knowledge-based strategic perspectives. It involves the technology and innovation management and the sharing of views of different persons for the strategic components foresight necessary for policies formulation. The use of roadmapping apparently influenced the innovation systems, even not established, in at least two levels: the firm and network organizations. The processes were different from those found in the literature. The first case had thirteen steps and the second fourteen. Both processes interspersed the initial planning, preparations, workshops and finalization stages. The cases, the second explicitly, showed that the roadmapping approach contributed to provide participants capabilities. At the end of the second case, there was the perception that there would be a better understanding of the new markets, better targeting decision-making of current and future investment and greater integration between firms. The CRA analysis reinforced the consistency of this conclusion. The roadmaps architectures common characteristics allowed building a generic architecture for the generating innovation policies for industrial clusters. Finally, it was suggested a comprehensive innovation accelerator model (IAM) in roadmapping approach for industrial clusters. It is suggested that it should be adapted so as to guide researchers to guide managers in generating innovation policies for industrial clusters.