Innovación dentro de la estrategia organizacional: aplicación de los modelos IRT en la medición de los procesos de innovación y gestión tecnológica para mejorar la competitividad.

Abstract

The importance of innovation as a competitive advantage source for organizations and as a well-being booster for nations has raised up the need to quantify it as part of its managing process. In order to quantify innovation, several worldwide tools have been developed; however, the difference in the understanding of the innovation concept according to the context makes it difficult to use these tools, so it is necessary to develop new tools which take into account regional or national specificities. This study contributes to the creation of a measurement tool for the Ecuadorian context through the use of CRI (Capacities, Results and Impacts) questionnaire, as a data collection tool; and the Item Response Theory (IRT), as a processing method. Six IRT mathematical models were obtained, which were calibrated based on the data collected from a national multisectoral sample of 321 organizations. These models represent the measurement scales of the six CRI model factors that compose the innovation potential. Moreover, the scales were tested in a specific case: the organizations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector of Quito, where it was found that this sector has a greater innovation potential compared to other industries. Finally, a set of strategies was proposed in order to be followed for solving the weaknesses found in this sector.