Facilitators and Barriers to Innovation: A Case Study in a Company in the Sugar-Energy Sector
Innovation; Innovation Management; Sugar-energy Sector; Facilitators; Barriers.
The innovation is a systematic and multifaceted process, which involves several elements, internal and external to the organization. These elements are capable of promoting or prevent the development of innovations, considered as facilitators and barriers inherent to the process. Innovation management requires efficient management of the internal and external factors that affect the performance of the innovation process, in order to understand the structures and behaviors that best fit the business configuration. Due to the relevance of the above topic, the present study has the general objective to analyze the main facilitating factors and barriers to the innovation process, in a large organization in the sugar-energy sector, located in the state of São Paulo. The sugar-energy sector in Brazil comprises all agricultural and industrial activities related to the production of sugar, bioethanol and bioelectricity. In other words, the sector is characterized by its ability to produce clean energy on a large scale. The methodological course was structured for an applied research, with descriptive and explanatory objectives, with a qualitative approach and based on a bibliographic research, with a case study strategy. This study will be conducted through a semi-structured questionnaire, which includes the variables to be analyzed and aims to collect the information necessary to achieve all the objectives proposed by this research. With the accomplishment of this work, it is hoped to contribute to the studies in the areas of innovation and innovation management, as well as the sugar-energy sector, filling two gaps identified in the literature: (i) the in-depth understanding of the elements that significantly impact the development of innovations; and (ii) the identification of these elements in an organization in the sugar-energy sector, since no studies were found that explored this relationship, which is necessary to achieve the objective proposed in this study.