Los procesos de innovación en la industria colombiana: resultados de un estudio de casos

The paper deals with the traits that make upthe technological profile and the innovationprocesses of different Colombian manufac-turing firms. The main objective is tocharacterize such processes carried out byColombian enterprises. To do so, the resultsof seventeen case studies realized by theStudies on Innovation Network, made up byten universities and the ObservatorioColombiano de Ciencia y Tecnología (OCyT)(see the book titled “La innovación tecnológicaen la industria colombiana”, Vargas, Malaverand Zerda (Eds.), 2003), are revised and theconclusions drawn indicate that Colombianfirms’ innovation processes are informal, arenot the result of planning or the strategicmanagement of technology and innovation,and come out of the troubleshooting presentin the adaptation of foreign technologies, theneed to solve customers’ problems or to grabmarket opportunities. Innovation
activities generate learning proceses that improve tech-nological capabilities and attitudes regardingtechnology, and allow more complex inno-vation. Yet, such activities also restrain the development of formal, planned and system-atic innovation proceses (R+D-based activities), radical patentable innovation, and technological competencies necessary for the strategic management of technology.