This paper includes research experiences carried out from 1993 to 1997 within the projects: "Contribution of Science and Technology to Industrial Competitiveness" and "Marine Products Processing Technologies: Status and Prospects", acceptance is analyzed of change by the companies object of the research, information that is complemented with the areas where the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the Autonomous University of Yucatán was accepted as a participant.
I will begin by indicating that in this work a consideration similar to that mentioned by Cadena (1986) is used, where innovation and technological change are considered together when considering relative the concept of novelty that appears as conclusive in other definitions of technological innovation. Thus, innovation will be: "the process of combining technical opportunities with needs, integrating a technological package that aims to introduce or modify products or processes in the productive sector with their subsequent commercialization". In this way, a difference is not made between those who make a first use of a technical advance and those who imitate this process.
The foregoing seems more appropriate when considering the impact on a firm's competitiveness, since in a response or survival strategy, the fact of putting its products at the level of international companies that enter the same markets leads to the fulfillment of basic purposes of a company such as staying in time, and obtaining profits, among others.
Now I take some ideas from Kuri (1995) for the concept of innovation system and the elements that must appear to a significant degree for it to occur. Thus, creating an innovative environment requires education and job training, the existence of research and development centers and laboratories, entrepreneurs with an affinity for calculated risk, physical infrastructure, promotion policy that includes financial tools, and active links and dynamics between agents.
Once a conceptual framework has been generated, I proceed to describe the main characteristics of the region under study.
The Yucatan Peninsula focuses on agricultural activities and the primary sector, fishing, henequen, beekeeping, forestry and meat production, it also has a presence in tourism. It has few industries, more than 95% are micro and small companies, approximately half of the food processing area, although there are some very large companies that are dedicated to oil, cement and in the case of the State of Yucatan export maquiladoras mainly from the textile area.
To illustrate, I will use data from the State of Yucatán, which has the highest industrial concentration in the area, with the exception of the oil industry. The data presented are from 1995 except where otherwise mentioned.
Infrastructure
Yucatán has 1,384 km of trunk roads, 1,942 of food network, 3,488 of rural roads and 692 of improved gap totaling 7,507 km, which is the best road network in the peninsula. The main sections are Mérida-Puerto de Progreso, Mérida-Chichén Itzá (which continues towards Can-Cún), Mérida-Campeche and Mérida-Tizimín. The railway system is old and consists of 605 km of tracks that connect the main cities.
The Port of Progreso has two terminals, 25,000 m2 for cargo, a docking dock that allows 160 meters in length. Destinations are in Florida and Louisiana in the US, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba and Puerto Morelos and Veracruz in Mexico.
Mérida has an international airport with two runways and five streets, it allows commercial use and cargo.
There is communication through the National Telecommunications Network and the Satellites. Within the State, there is telephone communication at any point through rural telephone stations, microwaves, and urban telephone earth stations. They have four standard television channels and cable television systems.
It has a generation capacity of 878 Megawatts, before the year 2000 a new plant will be built that will provide another 160 MW.
The city of Mérida is an important healthcare center in southeastern Mexico. Care is provided in all medical areas and a significant number of clinics and hospital centers, provided by both the public and private sectors.
Primary activities
Agricultural production in 1995 was 373,259 tons with a value of 402'459,000 pesos obtained from a sown area of 279,927 hectares. The main products were corn, vegetables, henequen and citrus, which have become the main crop. Agriculture presents physical limitations that have prevented it from competing with large volumes of products. Currently, good results are obtained with greenhouse tomatoes obtained using Israeli technology.
Beef production ranked fourth in the livestock subsector by marketing 31,456 tons with a value of 456'112,000 pesos, milk production was 8.4 million liters. The production of pork meat amounted to 70,254 tons with a value of 639'653,000 pesos and in this area there is a pig megaproject and high technology. Poultry farming remained the most important activity, producing 69,729 tonnes of eggs and 83,311 tonnes of meat with a value of 637,329,000 pesos.
The honey produced in Yuatán has gained international recognition, the production was 8,400 tons that reported 57'456,000 pesos.
Fishing has remained around 40,000 tons per year since 1992, presents a technological lag and faces changes in market competitiveness (quality). The high value species are concentrated in the grouper, octopus, red snapper, lobster and shrimp. Currently, a project of 800 tons per year in medium intensity shrimp aquaculture is being started.
The extraction of non-metallic minerals is of importance in the region, as well as the obtaining of sea salt where the company has increased its production to about 500,000 tons per year.
Industrial activities.
Manufacturing generates around 63,000 jobs through four thousand establishments, of which 40% are food and beverages, 25% textiles and clothing. Almost 90% are companies with fewer than 10 workers, 8% (350) have between 11 and 100 workers, 40 have between 101 and 250 workers and only 18 companies have more than 250 workers.
The maquiladora industry is distributed in seven industrial parks and in 1997 there were 89 companies that generated more than 15,000 jobs. They are concentrated in the garment industry followed by jewelry.
More than six thousand people work in crafts, among the main branches are: pottery, basketry, henequen jars, jewelry, carved wood and regional clothing.
Services and Commerce
The banking system has a relevant presence and has a delegation from Banco de México, Nacional Financiera, BANCOMEXT, Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios, Banco del Ejército, Banco de Crédito Rural and Banco de Comercio Interior, in addition to several private banks including bank establishments. major banks nationwide.
Commerce occupies 46.5% of the economically active population, and it is a sector that grows at a rate slightly higher than the national average. There are 25,970 establishments, observing at the same time a trend towards modernization with the construction of new Squares and Shopping Centers.
Imports reached 334,843,000 dollars between chemical products, engines for boats, newborn chickens, machinery, electronic equipment, and grains among the main ones. Exports were for 238'312,000 dollars and among the main products were fish and seafood, honey, clothing, concentrated juice, henequen products, stone and quarry products, handicrafts, condiments, edible oil and other food products.
In tourism, there are 6,132 hotel rooms and 73% are concentrated in Mérida, hotels of various categories, world-renowned archaeological sites (Chichén Itzá, Uxmal), beaches and recently remodeled henquen estates. 1'173,728 visitors were received, 49% nationals who left 1,606'627,869 pesos in 1995.
For the Peninsula there are other technological and development agents such as:
• Institutions of higher and upper secondary education, consisting of four technological institutes, several industrial and agricultural baccalaureate centers, more than ten public and private universities.
• Various research centers related to the area of polymers, biotechnology, marine science and fisheries, physics, agriculture, zootechnics, agricultural administration, among other topics. In addition to these centers, universities and technology companies carry out research and some technical developments.
• Centers to promote business development and a business incubator.
The investigations
From previous studies it was known that the general level of development of these companies is low, driven by the family business scheme and by the years-long habit of competing basically for local markets, together with the high aversion to risk that most of the companies presented. managers. Likewise, the state of the technology used in production was basically backward.
The project: "Contribution of Science and Technology to Industrial Competitiveness" was developed with Northwestern University in the USA and under the auspices of USAID within the university linkage development program. Among its objectives were to carry out applied research in the field of technology selection and acquisition in southeastern Mexico, and to assist the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY) in transferring these experiences to improving the relationship with the industrial sector.
The research was carried out starting in 1992 with a sample of companies with demonstrated capacity or potential to influence the development of the region and technological modernization, in the following two years samples of around ten companies were selected and in 1995 companies were analyzed in incubation. From 1995 onwards, work was carried out on transferring the experiences obtained to the service and academic programs of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering at UADY.
Another research objective was to find out the causes of the apparent lack of interest in modernizing companies. To collect the necessary information, interviews were conducted with company managers and several visits to the facilities. The sample of firms included those that process food, producers of construction materials, contaminant measurement laboratories and some incubating companies.
The second project is called "Marine Products Processing Technologies in Yucatan: State and Prospects", where the acceptance of change by companies in the fishing sector is analyzed, together with their technological position and finally the diagnosis. This project began in 1991 and has had three stages, the most recent is due to conclude in mid-1998.
The main observations emanating from the projects and the conclusions relevant to this topic are presented below.
Most of the companies were dedicated to the regional market, the fishing companies, and one incubating company had export as the main market. Until 1996, the following results were found, among others (Molina, 1993 and García, 1996):
• They process raw materials from the region, in some cases the supply is insufficient and must be completed with imports, however, the companies did not show interest in non-traditional raw materials, • In the production old machinery or adapted from other processes were found, and some modern machinery and processes, in addition to the above, there was a weak impulse towards renewal, • the companies worked mainly with inspection and quality control and only some had a quality improvement system, • the most important managerial methods were directed to marketing and cost control and finances, a reactive attitude towards problems was observed along with minor or gradual innovation, • Other characteristics of management were confidentiality and insufficient professional training of middle managers, • There were no formal systems for locating, selecting and acquiring technology, • training was carried out on the fly and without well-defined programs.
From the analysis of the data, the following interesting conclusions regarding innovation are reached:
• Companies that had an impact on international markets or with competition from imported products, presented more evidence of innovations and a more open attitude towards changes, • The preferred innovation was gradual, without major training efforts or specialized labor needs, and focused on increases in capacity, • the lack of financial sources also made its contribution to restrict innovations, • Most of the companies interviewed did not have a clear awareness of their environment, including changes agreed to within the North American Free Trade Agreement, global trends towards quality assurance, regulations, use of new materials such as packaging, etc., on the contrary, they maintained competition schemes born of a struggle for the local or regional market, • The impact on the export market did not seem to be a decisive factor in the innovative capacity developed, it was observed more related to competition based on quality or new products, • One of the probable foundations of the previous point is the perception of greater business risk by remaining static in a market of the second type.
In the course of 1996 and 1997 there have been changes in the national and international environment that impact companies, such as the entry into force of standards such as quality assurance and labeling for food companies, and the increase in surveillance in the environmental area, for the entire industry.
As the second part of the analysis, the result of a business-type effort by UADY to accelerate the stages of engagement with the business sector is described below.
In the specific case of Yucatán, in the relationship of companies with the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the Autonomous University of Yucatán, there has been an increase in the interest of staff and business executives for several of the academic and extension programs, such as They are:
• the formulation of blueprints and work experience and entrepreneurial programs, which allow sowing the entrepreneurial seed in the students, • laboratory testing and verification services taking advantage of the superior equipment of the university's laboratories; in the areas of food and beverages, atmospheric emissions, waste discharge and environmental risk and impact assessment, • The continuing education area has seen an increase in demand, in particular for courses related to compliance with legal and commercial requirements.
Other topics are just beginning to be a reason for rapprochement, among them:
• work on specific projects that include design, although there is a low performance, around one project per year, and almost always with medium-sized or similar companies, • advice on specific issues, where some jobs are carried out per year, • and some research results on obtaining food products from non-conventional sources, but with the capacity to substitute grains and other imported raw materials.
To take advantage of networking opportunities, it is a requirement that universities have an entrepreneurial approach that allows them to respond at the speed of the business world. On the other hand, these activities should not undermine the performance of academia and research (Grigg, 1994). The premise of the entrepreneurial approach is covered by the Faculty, since a certain number of its professors dedicate part of their time to consulting or participate in activities of business chambers, or work directly in companies in the region.
A viable answer is the generation of university “spin-offs”, that is, companies with their own legal personality that act as administrators of the linking activities. This was one of the responses of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, when creating, in conjunction with a group of businessmen, a company in charge of marketing most of the services offered. The coverage of the services is carried out partially by teachers and students, for those highly routine tasks or where there are not adequate specialists, personnel are hired to attend to the needs and comply with what is offered.
In general, the link increases to the extent that the university offer responds to the short-term needs of companies. There seems to be a minimum size of the company to interact with the university, since the microenterprise remains almost on the sidelines.
The deeper connection remains a challenge that will be easier to overcome as companies enter markets with greater competition based on quality and technology.
Bibliographic references:
Cadena, Gustavo et al. Administration of Technological Innovation Projects. 1986. Gernika Editions. Mexico DF
García L., Alan. and de la Cruz D., José J… Analysis of the Team Research Problem in the
Process and Technological Innovation in the Companies of the State of Yucatán. 1996. IV National Meeting of Technological Management. Havana Cuba.
García M., Octavio. Panel Table: Economic Development of Yucatán: Perspectives and Realities. XXXV Anniversary of the Faculty of Accounting and Administration of the UADY. November 11, 1997.
Grigg, Trevor. Adopting an entrepreneurial approach in universities. 1994. Journal of Engineering Technology Management. Vol. 11, pp. 273-298. Editorial Elsevier.
Molina M, Ma. Rosa, García L, Alan. The role of Technology as an Element of Competitiveness in companies in the State of Yucatan. 1993. V Seminar on Technological Management. Colombia.
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