Difusão da inovação: um estudo em startups brasileiras

Abstract

The increase in the appearing of startups increases the importance of their studies in economic and academic field worldwide. Still, the academic production that involves the diffusion of innovation and its relationship with startups is still unusual. This dissertation seeks to connect these companies with studies of diffusion of innovation as Moore e Benbasat (1991), Rogers (1995), Hall (2006) e Agarwal e Prasad (1997), aiming at improving the understanding of the subject in the specific niche startups and expand the understanding of the process of innovation beyond R&D. The study can be used to improve the targeting of government strategies, of programs of incentive for innovation and the actions that promote the appearing startups and their development. This work describes the user’s perceptions of the produces innovations by startup based in the studies aforementioned. Based in empirical evidences cropped with the use of semi-structured interviews, it was researched three startup founders and eleven users in total. The results was obtained by theme/category-based content analysis divided by company and in sequence, it was made a comparative analysis, and listing the divergences between startups. It was possible to identify that the studied companies take action to promote the diffusion of innovation, and that, in short, much of these actions were perceived by customers as the explicit cost, compatibility, relative advantage, ease of use, willingness to use and support tools to the implementation. Other variables, therefore, shows little influence in the diffusion of innovation, as public policies, that exist, however they was not used by the studied companies, therefore they did not influence their growth, and the variables of geographic diffusion, that did not show total influence in the studied companies. And the variables of the model of diffusion of innovation, as the observability, image and access to prior information. In the end, it was suggested variables that can possibly influence the outcome of diffusion of innovations from startups, as the business model, the different testing time, relative advantages in profits or efficiency, which could overcome other determinants. As for the contributions of this study, it can be considered a better understanding of diffusion of innovation in startups, and the limitations of the model in the subject of intensity of the variables and variables that negatively influence, which can indicate futures studies not just about the raising chances of success, but the raising chances of failure too.