Cassiane Chais

RESUMO: Com o mercado em transformação, as organizações necessitam buscar estratégias em nome da competitividade e, por conseguinte, de sua sobrevivência. A inovação pode ser aliada nesse processo, pois se trata de um método para empresas que buscam não só manter-se no mercado, mas expandir-se. Este artigo aborda a inovação como estratégia competitiva e procura compreender de que forma as organizações utilizam-se da inovação para tal. A metodologia utilizada foi do tipo estudo de caso, tendo sido estudados dois casos, exploratórios e qualitativos. Os objetos de estudo foram duas empresas inovadoras, do ramo têxtil, de médio porte, localizadas na região Norte do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, escolhidas aleatoriamente, entre as empresas participantes e enquadradas no módulo inovação, do projeto de extensão Produtiva e Inovação, da Universidade de Passo Fundo. A técnica de coleta dos dados foi a entrevista semiestruturada, e a técnica de análise dos dados foi a análise de conteúdo. O tipo de inovação estudado foi a inovação por processos e o conceito de inovação nas empresas. Os resultados apontam que as empresas utilizam-se da inovação como estratégia competitiva, pois investiram em novas tecnologias, que resultaram em aumento de produtividade, ampliando sua competitividade no mercado. ABSTRACT:With the changing market, organizations need to seek strategies in the name of competitiveness and, therefore, for their survival. Innovation can be an ally in this process, because it is a method for companies seeking not only to remain in the market but expand.

The flexible networks refer not only a formal, institutionalized, but mainly to the social relations that give them identity. The variety of approaches relevant to the study of flexible networks emphasizes its interdisciplinary character and complex. These attributes invite to a theoretical and pragmatic through complementary perspectives of newly introduced theories in organizational studies such as Complexity Theory. The networks represent an example of evolution and change in organizations. The objective of this study was to identify characteristics of a complex system present in flexible networks with the aim of understanding how a flexible network participates in another network. The object of study used is a network of networks of restaurants in Serra Gaucha and another network of supermarket chains in the state of Rio Grande do Sul To this end, the methodology adopted as an exploratory and descriptive, qualitative. The research strategy was the case study and as a technique for data collection was done using in-depth structured interviews. Thus verified the complexity involved in making these organizational systems and processes of interaction coopetition that make up these organizational arrangements.

Considering the socio-economic reality of Brazil and from the relevance of the issues related to entrepreneurship and organizational innovation in the country, the importance of sustainability for the organizations could become a solution for the integration of entrepreneurship with innovation. The objective of this research is to highlight the relevance of sustainability for organizations as a way to trigger the integration of entrepreneurship toward innovation in the Brazilian context. Various exploratory and descriptive researches on the dynamics of entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability in the main organizations of the Serra Gaúcha (RS), Brazil were carried out through the Multidisciplinary Research Group on Innovation and Competitiveness, in partnership with a research Nucleus on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability. The main results indicate that the key sectors of this Brazilian regional economy present less “innovation intensity,” which are mainly characterized by internal organizational activities of innovation, preventing them to become “regional systems of innovation,” and which presupposes the lack of sustainability. Those limitations can be characterized as “innovation ghettos.” In that logic, the researchers have also demonstrated the presence of “ghettos of sustainability, ghettos of innovation, and therefore, ghettos of sustainability and innovation” in the sectors of this Brazilian regional economy, but in differentiated and restricted perspectives.