Today society is moving at impressive speed. Technological changes happen so fast that the assimilation of the latest technology is not finished and another one is already appearing. Markets become very competitive and constant innovation is necessary to be inserted in them as the only survival strategy, both for the individual and for the Company. For this reason, this research aims to theoretically substantiate the need to study technological demands in the process of managing technological resources in the business environment and its link with supply from the university.
1. Management of technological innovation in the company
The availability of the most adequate and effective technology has been, since the industrial revolution, an important ingredient in the competitiveness and survival capacity of a company and, from that time, examples can be traced that show how technological development changed, for better or for wrong, the life of a company.
Therefore, the progress and development of a company depends directly on its ability to quickly adapt to changes in the environment, especially the technological environment, and even to cause changes that favor them.
All of this is achieved through Technological Innovation Management. This means that the organization must be able to efficiently design and use strategies based on knowledge of a set of management instruments for technological resources, own or acquired, that allow it to know as accurately as possible what the technological advances in its competitors to position themselves in the best possible way, by incorporating new technologies into their products and processes, in the battle of competitiveness.
Hence, Pavón and Hidalgo (1997) highlight the management of technological innovation as the process aimed at organizing and directing the available resources, both human and material and economic, with the aim of increasing the creation of new knowledge, generating ideas that allow obtaining new products, processes and services or improve existing ones and transfer those same ideas to the manufacturing and marketing phases.
In addition, it is important to limit what Garea, B. and Quevedo, V. (2009) expressed in the course Innovation for development1 that when it comes to managing technological innovation, it is considered, above all, that a creative process is managed where there is three main features that distinguish it:
In a company that has incorporated the management of technological innovation in its culture, its own activities are incorporated into its value chain and are carried out systematically through basic processes that develop functions of technological innovation management. Processes that integrate technological skills, management and resources available to the company in fulfilling its purposes, objectives, strategies and operations. Processes that also involve the use of data, information and knowledge, and the social interaction of people in the creation of knowledge and technoeconomic intelligence, the evaluation of technological alternatives, the negotiation of technology, the transfer of technology, assimilation and adaptation, improvement and research and development.
The Technological Strategy is the process of adoption and execution of decisions on the policies, strategies, plans and actions related to the creation, diffusion and use of technology.
However, the concept of technological strategy is broader than that of traditional research and development (R&D). It includes not only the research and development of new products and processes, but its action must extend to all the functions or subsystems of the company.
In the opinion of Hidalgo, A., León, G. and Pavón, J.2 (2002), the technological strategy must clearly state the following decisions:
- The degree of implicit risk, which varies from the application or improvement of existing technologies to the development of completely new ones. The degree of intensity of technological effort, which can vary from exploratory research to complex industrial application. Budget distribution destined to technology among the various technological options chosen. The choice of the competitive position for each technology (leader, follower, search for niche markets,…)
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3. The incorporation and transformation of the advances in science and technology in the solution of economic and social problems identified in a framework of sustainability.
Consequently, technological innovation cannot be left to spontaneous generation, but on the contrary, it must be planned, organized and controlled, therefore the basic functions of innovation management are considered below to ensure consistency and consistency. success of it.
Functions of Technological Innovation Management
Authors such as: Morin and Seurat (1991, 1998); Bulgerman, Maidique and Wheelwright (2001); Hidalgo (2001); They have conceptualized the functions to achieve efficient management of technological innovation, although there are small differences, the following areas of action can be distinguished:
1. Inventory: it consists of analyzing the company's technologies, both those that it uses because it has them, as well as those that it does not, but that it could take advantage of, either through its development or acquisition from other companies.
2. Monitoring: means being alert about the evolution of new technologies, systematizing the company's information sources, monitoring the technology of competitors, as well as identifying the possible impact of technological evolution on the company's activities.
3. Evaluate: Its objective is the study and analysis of the competitiveness that certain technologies provide, as well as the determination of their potential.
- Inventory, monitoring and evaluation are functions that help to identify those technologies that seem necessary. In other words, to identify their technological demands, understood as the definition of the technological requirements that are needed to face new development strategies. Once the company's technological needs are known, we will proceed to determine which ones will be solved through endogenous innovative capacity, which with exogenous R&D and which with technology transfer. For this, the following function is given.
4. Enrich: the assets of the company.
5. Assimilate: once the previous steps have been carried out, it is possible to assimilate and act on the exploitation of technological potential.
6. Protect: the technology of the company by establishing an intellectual property policy that includes: patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs and secrets.
To execute these functions, the company develops or implements tools that allow it to adapt systematically to the environment, and forces it to carry out the innovation processes much faster, continuous and efficient; to increase their productivity and shorten the life cycle of their products; to the increasing use of shared and external technological resources; to form virtual teams and alliances; to increase the speed in the technological changes that it conceives and thus gradually move closer to technological frontiers. All this as a need and response to the demands associated with globalization and the development of ICT.
Therefore, the managers of the company must be clear about the procedures and ways through which the technology can be renewed, since the most important decision with the management of the technological resource is linked to the transition from one technology to another, Knowing when it is more convenient to abandon a technology and start the process of adopting another one responds to a strategic vision of the organization as a whole, so some ideas on this aspect are expressed below.
Acquisition of technology in the company
The acquisition of technology by a company can be stimulated by the need to solve a technical problem of a process, to face a market opportunity that has been detected, to support a decision to grow the company or the production of a new product., to lower production costs, to reduce the environmental impacts of production, to reinforce developed technologies, to have the same technology that the competition has and, if possible, with a better-performing technology.
So the acquisition of technology is a process aimed at satisfying the technological needs of a company in two ways:
- Due to the need to create or improve the productivity and efficiency of the processes. To try to integrate or improve their production capacity, companies normally acquire equipment, capital goods, engineering and management services, or skills and know-how for plant operation and maintenance, due to the need to generate or strengthen The company's technological capacity to innovate and differentiate its products from its competitors. When it comes to generating or strengthening their technological capacity, companies buy or license the knowledge, expertise and experience to generate and manage technical change in the organization.
Medellín and Velásquez 2005 present a methodology for the technology acquisition process that consists of the following stages:
- Identification of technological needs of the company. Search for technology. Evaluation of technological alternatives. Negotiation for purchase, license or other acquisition modality. Technology adaptation. Technology assimilation.
On the other hand, organizations do not always have the technologies they require for the development of their projects and future activities and it is necessary to manage them by generating them within the organization, acquiring them in the technology market or incorporating them from another organization, using cooperation between companies. For which, a company has various methods of acquiring technology:
- Technology purchase Franchise Licensing of patents, trademarks or other intellectual property figures Technology transfer Subcontracting agreement to manufacture components or assembly components Internal development: research and development (R&D) carried out in the company Joint ventures (joint ventures) Technology research and development projects contracted by the company with research centers, universities, technology companies, consulting or engineering companies.
As evidenced by the technology that a company uses, it can be generated internally, through research activity or acquired abroad.
In any case, if the company wants to achieve and maintain a technological advantage that supports its competitiveness and its position of dominance in the market, it must favor its own research and development, since the acquisition of technology offered in the market is within the reach of any competing company and therefore does not usually provide the company with additional advantages.
Although, with the complexity and speed of technological changes, it becomes materially impossible for a company to generate all the technologies it needs on its own, and at the same time, it is extremely difficult to assimilate generic technologies without its own research and development capacity. Therefore both approaches are complementary.
Likewise, the acquisition of technology must convert the processes of purchasing technology into processes that allow true technology transfer; orienting management to acquire technological capabilities to properly use technology, adapt and improve it, rather than acquiring productive capacity.
Therefore, it is crucial for the success of technological innovations the link with other companies, with suppliers of inputs, materials and technology with clients and potential users of the result of the innovation, with universities and technological development centers, with engineering firms and consult; that they must be deliberately planned, organized and executed.
Of these multiple forms, it will be analyzed in response to the objective set for this particular chapter, regarding the university and its role as a provider of new or transferred technologies for the company, in an exchange process that when carried out in a coherent way causes synergies between both organizations, which has a positive impact on the transformation of the environment in which both coexist.
2. Management of technological innovation at the university
Like all institutions, the University has changed its behavior patterns throughout history. In its beginning in Europe, in medieval times, its objective was the custody and transmission of knowledge. Then in the first half of the 19th century, the German university opened up to the production of new knowledge, incorporating research into the university industry. Like the teaching activity, the university research function undergoes changes during the 20th century: the greater requirements to generate socially useful results or the greater business financing of academic research make them more closely linked to the needs of their socioeconomic environment (INGENIO, 2002).
Thus, according to Gómez (2001), the concept of technological management for universities would be defined as:
The set of decisions in the University on the creation, acquisition, improvement, assimilation and commercialization of the technologies required by it and by the environment that surrounds it.
Therefore, the university through a scientific technological strategy that includes R&D processes, innovation and technology transfer for itself and society, is the call to seek coherence between its scientific possibilities and the productive needs of the territory where it is located..
Hence, the University is a potential source of technological enrichment for companies. Through the University-Business relationship, the University channels the problems present in the social context and conditions its fundamental processes to respond to these problems.
According to García and Pomares (2009) 5 in the article Social innovation and local development, they add that the university management of knowledge and innovation for development must respond to four groups of demands:
- Strategic results Applied results and technological development Innovation results Basic, applied and innovation results
In order to support the Generalization of Results that is nothing more than the process of assimilation and implementation by the Organisms of the Central State Administration, Territories, Companies and other State Entities, of those scientific and technical results already proven and useful, generated in the country or abroad, that contribute to maintaining or increasing efficiency, effectiveness, quality and competitiveness in the fulfillment of productions and services.
In other words, technological innovation moves from the idea to its materialization, in the form of satisfying a social, economic, or environmental need and / or demand of men, communities, and social, economic, and administrative institutions.
Collected by companies and organizations in the Generalization Plan, which is the ordered expression of a collective analysis of technical-economic feasibility on the need, viability and convenience of introducing a certain scientific-technical result, which is translated into tasks; It responds to the innovative strategies, technical demands, business plans, problem banks and prioritized activities of each level and is part of their respective Science and Technical Innovation Plans.
Therefore, the university must seek alliances with the company that allow the generalization of results or the closing of the cycle of technological innovation, that is, that the research carried out within the university, transits from the idea to its materialization, in the form of satisfying a need of society.
Reason why in the next section the University-Business link is addressed.
3. University-company link
The company that successfully goes out to compete in a world of globalized markets is just the tip of the iceberg of an extensive network anchored in the space of productivity and quality. In this type of competitive company, its products grab the attention in the market because they have a series of attributes, among which the price is only one of them and is often not the most crucial; reliability, quality, delivery time, etc., can be just as or more important.
To achieve these attributes, in addition to improving its technological base, investing in machinery and equipment, making changes in the organization of production and reconverting to those items in which they can really have an advantage; companies need the link or association with universities, which allows having a qualified and high-level human resource.
On the other hand, the accumulated, institutionalized and multidisciplinary knowledge that is required for the search for solutions to complex problems of production and the use of technologies is the fundamental heritage of the universities, therefore: “the interaction or link between the university and the company is of character not only desirable but inevitable ”, (Plosky, 1995).
Additionally, the need for the university to diversify its sources of financing is added, incorporating a new function since the mid-twentieth century: linking with the company through instruments such as the provision of services, consulting or advice, the hiring of R + D, among others.
This has led to the appearance in industrialized countries of the so-called "business university" or "entrepreneurial university", which have become economic and revitalizing engines of the closest social environment. In them, the applied research activities for development, the transfer of knowledge to the company, the promotion of companies through incubators and science and technology parks, continuous training to satisfy the needs of society, are important activities that are carried out systematically., with great dedication of human and material resources.
In such a context, the University-Business relationship should not be seen only as the occasional use of already accumulated university capacities. As expressed by UNCTAD, (1993) requires active strategies for the joint construction of competitive advantages, where the link is presented at different levels: i) the training of the staff that the company requires to grow and innovate, at the undergraduate, graduate level or specialization; ii) provision of knowledge through cooperation and transfer agreements, including research services; and iii) interaction between researchers and professionals from universities and companies, as a means of facilitating the circulation of information on technologies and their sources of collection.
Therefore, the link between university and business tends to develop in three areas: research and development, technology transfer, and human resource development.
At the same time, this University - Company relationship is beneficial for both the company and the University.
In this regard, Vessuri and Díaz (1985) argue the benefits that the university would obtain with the company or the productive sector.
- possibility of applying theoretical knowledge in a practical way; contact with local industries; updating of the knowledge it imparts; quick location of the professionals it produces; obtaining financial resources.
And on the other hand, the company would obtain from the link with the university:
- managerial advice, multidisciplinary assistance, flexible experience, updating of knowledge, training of its personnel, a way to recruit young talents, access to new technologies.
However, and despite this reality, there has not been a fluid and fruitful link between the company and the university (SELA, 1997).
In this regard, Marschoff (1992) adds that the most specific conflicts for bonding are:
- structural differences between the two sectors, both at the operational and cultural levels (differentiated perceptions of research versus joint projects); differences in the degree of commitment (the overvaluation that each one makes of their own contribution); difference in objectives (persecuted in both cases).
Despite the existing barriers, the university undoubtedly plays an important role in achieving the purpose in relation to activating, completing and perfecting the process of managing technological innovation in the company.
In establishing this collaboration, the need has arisen to create structures and liaison instruments that facilitate and contribute to the University-Business relationship achieving the success expected by both parties. Which is materialized through the interfaces.
For Fernández de Lucio (2000), the interface “is a unit established in an environment or in its area of influence that, in terms of technological innovation, stimulates the elements of said environment or others and fosters and catalyzes the relationships between them. "
Therefore, it is essential that cooperation networks be established to facilitate actions between companies, universities and interface entities, to face the challenges of this highly competitive and complex globalized world. To get a general idea of the particularities and differences of the University - Company relationship, some relevant characteristics will be described in the following section.
Experience in European countries and in the USA.
Some of the mechanisms of relationship University - Productive sector with the greatest international presence today are the following:
- Technology Parks Research Results Transfer Offices (OTRI) Spin-Off University-Business Foundations Innovation Liaison Centers (CEI)
Experiences in Latin American countries.
The countries of Latin America and, in fact, none of the developing nations, have managed to properly organize actions to facilitate the link between the university and the business sector.
The situation of dependency since colonial times caused the economy of these countries to move on the basis of activities: primary, agricultural, mining, livestock, with a very limited occupation market without introducing added value to these products because in essence only became large suppliers of raw material.
Hence, governments chose to finance infrastructure projects linked to making primary exploitation more efficient, the lack of competitiveness requirements determined that investment in research and development by companies was very low, and therefore the link with the University had much less intensity than that existing in industrialized countries.
In addition, multinational companies participate in the Latin American productive sector, which sometimes sought the restricted cooperation of universities to settle in the region, since most of the technologies were imported, concentrating on adapting resources and techniques to the conditions and markets of the region and to their own interests. On the other hand, Latin American universities face:
- Progressive distancing of the State from its responsibilities in the financing and regulation of Higher Education. Increasing privatization of higher education. Increase in funds for specific projects.
In recent years, the phenomenon of globalization, and the neoliberal policy assumed by most Latin American governments, has imposed on the company, for its survival, the challenge of international competitiveness that requires incorporating new technologies, both in terms of productive processes such as administrative management, strategic planning, organization, etc., and an imperative need for alliances with the productive sector.
Hence, the conditions, typical of development, arise in the case of Latin America, which managed to implement the need to take studies outside the university campus and it is experienced precisely, in countries such as Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile, given for the incipient Neoliberal Globalization and these countries being testing laboratories for their new model, which marks a scientific and technological development, but at the same time an abysmal difference between rich and poor countries, due to the form of domination disguised in economic freedoms.
However, cooperation between companies and universities in the Ibero-American region has been greatly stimulated by international cooperation through programs such as: Science and Technology for Development (CYTED), Organization of American States (OAS), Program for the development of the United Nations (UNDP), Interuniversity Development Center (CINDA) and others.
In general, the situation can be summarized in the following factors:
- Weak national investment in research and development. Little participation of the private sector in research for development activities. Weak critical mass of researchers and project managers. Slow growth and renewal of the scientific community. Absence of a national policy that establishes lines and priorities. Weak perception, both in the University and in the company, of the advantages of cooperation. Weak innovative culture in entrepreneurs.
Confirming the situation in which Latin America finds itself, in more recent publications, no substantial elements have been found that modify the situation. In this regard, ECLAC published an article in December 2008, called Venture Capital and innovation in Latin America, where Researcher Luis Felipe Jimenez indicates that: «The available statistics indicate that, compared to advanced economies and the newly industrialized Asian economies, the region shows a significant lag in R&D. In the region, Brazil exhibits the highest levels of investment in R&D, at a considerable distance from the countries that follow it: Chile, Argentina and Mexico.
Therefore, without research, countries cannot produce higher value-added goods, which can be exported to the rest of the world at higher prices. Unless Latin America enters the innovation race, most of its countries will be condemned to continue exporting raw materials.
In the midst of this discouraging picture, there is a challenge and an opportunity for the Latin American university to achieve authentic sustainable social development, enhancing the University-Business bond, through Research and Development, technology transfer and the development of human resources., transforming the University into a great R&D center for the context in which it moves.
Analysis of the situation of the university-productive sector link in Cuba.
Starting in 1959, a process of science development in Cuba began, generated by the economic, political, and social transformations driven by the triumph of the Cuban revolution. It is incorporated into what Cuban universities do since the beginning of the University Reform in 1962, and it has become one of the development strategies of the Ministry of Higher Education since its inception in 1976.
At this stage, political, material and human conditions were created trying to direct university research activity towards solving the basic problems for the development of the country, fostering a more or less distant link with producers, and very directly with the superstructure economic and scientific, which through these plans should ensure the introduction of the results obtained into social practice.
Contrary to expectations, there is an isolation between technical scientific activity on the one hand and the production of goods and services on the other.
In addition, the non-innovative spirit of the entrepreneurs must be added, due to the existing economic relations and the existence, moreover, of a secure and non-competitive market.
Subsequently, the stage is given in which scientific development is driven by science, in which any result obtained from R&D in a university area became an object of a process called “introduction” developed by the researcher. and its administrative leaders, whose goal was to make it a new product, work procedure or any other form that could have its practical application, this becomes a regularity for all Cuban universities.
However, the business system basically operated by the domestic market and operating with technology obtained under very advantageous conditions continued to rest entirely on technology transfer.
The decade of the nineties of the last century brought changes derived from the economic crisis suffered by the country. With the disappearance of the Socialist Field, the disintegration of the USSR and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CAME), Cuba has to face an economic emergency program that includes, among other measures, expanding the obtaining of financial and material resources by carrying out of scientific-technical services by the staff of the scientific community on the basis of economic contracting.
It is in these conditions that the productive scientific poles are created that are in charge of detecting and, following up on those needs that have the greatest influence on the economic development of the country, their character must be basically related to basic research, therefore there is a space for R&D in the productive sector, in which it is necessary to stimulate mechanisms that bring the university potential closer to the productive economic reality of the territory.
In addition, organizations specialized in strengthening the R&D link - a Cuban company and a foreign business sector existing in the country, such as the Knowledge and Technology Management Company (GECYT) of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, emerged in 1993 and the Center for the Study of Advanced Technologies (CETA), in 1994, by agreement of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the "José Antonio Echevarria" Higher Polytechnic Institute.
Subsequently, when the importance of interface structures in the technological innovation process was recognized, then the Technology Transfer or Technology Management Offices emerged in the universities and the Information and Technology Management Centers (CIGET) in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and similar structures in national research institutes.
The interface offices are in charge of making the efforts to sell the product. Reinforcing the sales philosophy of this stage.
With the desire to continue advancing to achieve authentic development, the universalization of higher education is proposed. Thus, the Cuban university begins a new stage characterized by a deployment process that includes not only traditional university facilities, but also the incorporation of new university headquarters and classrooms in all the municipalities of the country ¨ Municipal University Venues ¨ (SUM).
With the aim not only of pursuing careers, but also of having the potential capacity to produce, disseminate and apply knowledge to consequently contribute to local development.
In this regard, Gómez, González and Uset9 express «The appearance of the Municipal University Venues poses new opportunities and challenges to the management of knowledge, science, technology and innovation from the universities. The SUM constitute the institutional innovation that opens a new chapter in the real possibilities of having dynamic institutions of knowledge management at the territorial level. With SUM, a “local axis” unites human capacities to manage knowledge and innovation in the territories. SUM in their interrelationships with other local actors, with universities, scientific institutions and others, can actively participate in knowledge management that meets the needs of social development at the local level,through the promotion of training, research and innovation actions. They also have the possibility of linking regional, provincial and national agents through different alternatives to the locality, who can build networks that channel knowledge, technologies and meet the social needs of the territories. "
Therefore, the CUM, being located in the permanent local context, much closer to the business and local demands (whose priorities are basically linked to food production, housing, energy, water, and urban and rural territorial development and planning, local industries and services to the population), is therefore capable of privileging the transfer of technologies and knowledge, evaluating, adapting and using them efficiently in accordance with social development.
Likewise, the university headquarters, in addition to serving the CUMs, must actively participate in this set of transformations and contribute to local development through their connections with municipal centers.
It is necessary to clarify that, as of December 2008, SUM enters a process of improvement. Reason why, since July 14, 2009 they take the name of Municipal University Centers (CUM).
There are experiences from universities that contribute their knowledge in solving problems in the municipalities. For example, the following can be cited:
In the case of housing, the contribution of Civil Engineering and architecture careers at the José Antonio Echeverría Polytechnic Institute, Central University of Las Villas, University of Camagüey, University of Holguín and University of Oriente, to the development of a local construction materials industry, as well as urban development and architectural design and construction systems in cities and towns.
As can be seen in Cuba, innumerable efforts have been made to achieve a development of science and technology, and at the same time the interconnection of the university with the productive sector, however, there is still much to do, since it has not yet The expected results have been obtained that demonstrate a coherence between the scientific efforts of the universities and the demands of production.
The CUMs constitute a new actor, with a potential that can become decisive in achieving their sustainable local development based on knowledge and innovation. The research activity of the CUMs must have a high weight of technological innovation and technology transfer relevant to the demands of local development, complemented by the research and technological innovation activity of the university's headquarters.
However, the role played by the CUMs should not be overvalued and the other actors should be neglected, on the contrary, it should seek to establish a dynamic of cooperation between the company, the university, the CUM and other interface entities.
Conclusions
At first, the company is an actor that requires developing competencies in order to compete with improvements in the quality of products and / or services, improvements in productivity, and optimizing customer services and initiating long-term self-sustainable growth. For this, it requires appropriating knowledge about the various aspects of technological innovation management, which allow it to take advantage of opportunities through the development and implementation of projects that respond to the new problems and needs of the market.
And as a main vertex is the university, since it corresponds to design portfolios adjusted to the needs of the productive sector. Thus, the linkage mechanisms will be strengthened with innovative proposals for the productive sector and, consequently, the knowledge base and new sources of resources will be expanded.
Bibliographic references
1. Garea, B. and Quevedo, V. 2009. Innovation for Development Course. Innovation Management. Academic Editorial. P. 14.
2. Hidalgo, A., León, G. and Pavón, J. 2002, The management of innovation and technology in organizations. Pyramid editions. P. 112.
3. Medellín, E. and G. Velásquez. 2005. Manual for the Transfer and Acquisition of Sustainable Technologies. CEGESTI; San Jose Costa Rica. CEGESTI.
4. Institute of Knowledge and Innovation Management (INGENIO), 2002, "Analysis of Research and Development Activities and Cooperation between the Academic and Business Communities of the Valencian Community", Higher Council for Scientific Research, Polytechnic University of Valencia, June.
5. García and Pomares 2009. University for all. Innovation for development course Part 2. Social innovation and local development. Page 9.
6. UNCTAD, 1993, Workshop "University and Business in a New Competitive Scenario", University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires.
7. Fernández de Lucio y Col. University-business relations: between the transfer of results and regional learning. www.revistaespacios.com. Spaces Vol. 21 (2) 2000.
8. Eguez, P. 1995, Integration of the Production Sector with the University for the Scientific and Technological development of the country. Memories of the International Seminar "Research-State-Productive Sector". Edit. University. Central University of Ecuador. Quito. 1993. Taken from the CYTED Program. P. 23.
9. Gómez, G and González, M. 2007. Role of the university as an interface in the management of innovation and knowledge. Advances Magazine.
