* By Jamile Sabatini Marques, Director of Innovation at ABES
The impact of innovation in a country can be demonstrated in several ways, from its ability to move the economy through the generation of new jobs or even its ability to stimulate the market to create new businesses. But how can the financial support given to technology companies contribute to knowledge-based economic development?
It was with this doubt that, in 2015, I embarked on a flight to the other side of the world, more precisely, in Brisbane, Australia, to have the privilege of being guided by the academic Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar, author of the KBUD concept (Knowledge-Based Urban Development - Knowledge Based Urban Development), in my doctoral thesis at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), through a cooperation with the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
As you can see, the focus of the trip was on the specialist and not only on the country in which he is based. Being in another country allowed me to make comparisons with the two economies on the views of Brazilian and Australian technology companies in relation to fostering innovation.
But before I get to the results of the study, I want to go back to 2013, in my first year at the Innovation and Promotion directorate of the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES), when we formulated a survey to measure how much the technology companies knew about the resources for promotion aimed at innovation existing in the market. To the amazement of investors like government and banks, almost half, about 44% of the companies associated with the entity do not know enough about the sources for Innovation and Promotion available for the sector in the country.
In my research carried out in Australia, I started from the point that, within the framework of KBUD created by Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar, in the economic segment, he considered four important pillars: Knowledge, Creativity, Innovation and Competitiveness, but it did not include Foment / Incentive as a basis for knowledge-based economic development. To contextualize the importance of inserting the Fomento in this framework and proposing a model to promote technology-based companies as a strategy for promoting knowledge-based urban development, I submitted some Australian companies - associated with an entity that has a similar role to that of ABES in Brazil, the AIIA (Australian Information Industry Association ) - to the same questionnaire made in 2013 in Brazil.
In total, 75 Australian companies replied to the questionnaire. Among these, 36.5% stated that they were unaware of the resources for fostering innovation available on the market. The majority, 54.4%, said they had never benefited from this type of resource. Among the companies that tried to request the appeal, but were unable to do so, the majority among Australians and Brazilians point to the same reason: complex process / bureaucracy, 47.1% and 40.45%, respectively.
Preferably, companies in Brazil and Australia seek incentives for innovation to be applied in Research and Development 77% and 62.7%, respectively. Second, for use in the Marketing / Sales / Fairs force: 46.4 (BR) and 46.3% (AU).
Among the promotion lines that Australians would like to have more information and keep up to date are those aimed at Tax Incentives for Research and Development (56.5%); Programs for Entrepreneurs (54.8%) and Training Funds (25.8%). Among Brazilian technology companies, the greatest interest was in BNDES (72%); FINEP (66.8%) and Research Funds (44.9%).
Within this research, I also had the opportunity to interview representatives of the government and representative entities of the technology sector in both countries. In the case of Australia, the main issue is the need to promote a culture of encouraging innovation. The country returned to develop programs to foster innovation in 2009, after 15 years without a specific policy focused on the theme. Transparency was also a necessity presented, as the criteria for participating in certain programs are not clear.
Of the 400 best universities in the world, 20 are in Australia. The sharing of the university's physical spaces and laboratories with companies was identified as a relevant factor to encourage innovation in the country. They also cited the need to create more technology parks and incubators, pointing out this problem as the reason why the country has been losing entrepreneurs to other countries such as the USA, Canada and England.
In Brazil, little is measured about the impact of fostering innovation, but in previous surveys carried out with companies that received public resources to innovate, the government obtained the return of this incentive in the first year of the program. Companies grew and some began to export, created jobs and improved the benefits offered to their employees, resulting in knowledge-based economic development.
The companies' lack of knowledge about the available benefits clearly demonstrates the need for disclosure by financial resource managers to encourage and attract companies to adopt these support instruments that can help Brazil to become more competitive and dazzle new markets by through innovation and, consequently, generate economic development.
Answering the question above, there is a tendency for OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) member countries to foster innovation through tax incentives, which ends up being faster, less bureaucratic and more democratic. This would be a very good bet by the Brazilian government to increase results when it comes to supporting innovation, but Brazil still needs to improve in this regard, bringing a clearer and simpler legislation for companies to benefit from these instruments.
* PhD in Engineering and Knowledge Management UFSC - Sandwich Doctorate (QUT / Australia) and PhD in Knowledge Management from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Jamile Sabatini Marques holds a master's degree in Innovation Management from the École de Mines in St-Étienne, France, a specialist in business management. ABES 'Innovation Director has built his career working mainly in the areas of management, innovation, development, investment funds and institutional representation. Currently, he also serves as President of the Chamber of Technology and Innovation of FECOMÉRCIO - Federation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism of Santa Catarina, Member of the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development (IJKBD) Council.
It was with this doubt that, in 2015, I embarked on a flight to the other side of the world, more precisely, in Brisbane, Australia, to have the privilege of being guided by the academic Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar, author of the KBUD concept (Knowledge-Based Urban Development - Knowledge Based Urban Development), in my doctoral thesis at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), through a cooperation with the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
As you can see, the focus of the trip was on the specialist and not only on the country in which he is based. Being in another country allowed me to make comparisons with the two economies on the views of Brazilian and Australian technology companies in relation to fostering innovation.
But before I get to the results of the study, I want to go back to 2013, in my first year at the Innovation and Promotion directorate of the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES), when we formulated a survey to measure how much the technology companies knew about the resources for promotion aimed at innovation existing in the market. To the amazement of investors like government and banks, almost half, about 44% of the companies associated with the entity do not know enough about the sources for Innovation and Promotion available for the sector in the country.
In my research carried out in Australia, I started from the point that, within the framework of KBUD created by Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar, in the economic segment, he considered four important pillars: Knowledge, Creativity, Innovation and Competitiveness, but it did not include Foment / Incentive as a basis for knowledge-based economic development. To contextualize the importance of inserting the Fomento in this framework and proposing a model to promote technology-based companies as a strategy for promoting knowledge-based urban development, I submitted some Australian companies - associated with an entity that has a similar role to that of ABES in Brazil, the AIIA (Australian Information Industry Association ) - to the same questionnaire made in 2013 in Brazil.
In total, 75 Australian companies replied to the questionnaire. Among these, 36.5% stated that they were unaware of the resources for fostering innovation available on the market. The majority, 54.4%, said they had never benefited from this type of resource. Among the companies that tried to request the appeal, but were unable to do so, the majority among Australians and Brazilians point to the same reason: complex process / bureaucracy, 47.1% and 40.45%, respectively.
Preferably, companies in Brazil and Australia seek incentives for innovation to be applied in Research and Development 77% and 62.7%, respectively. Second, for use in the Marketing / Sales / Fairs force: 46.4 (BR) and 46.3% (AU).
Among the promotion lines that Australians would like to have more information and keep up to date are those aimed at Tax Incentives for Research and Development (56.5%); Programs for Entrepreneurs (54.8%) and Training Funds (25.8%). Among Brazilian technology companies, the greatest interest was in BNDES (72%); FINEP (66.8%) and Research Funds (44.9%).
Within this research, I also had the opportunity to interview representatives of the government and representative entities of the technology sector in both countries. In the case of Australia, the main issue is the need to promote a culture of encouraging innovation. The country returned to develop programs to foster innovation in 2009, after 15 years without a specific policy focused on the theme. Transparency was also a necessity presented, as the criteria for participating in certain programs are not clear.
Of the 400 best universities in the world, 20 are in Australia. The sharing of the university's physical spaces and laboratories with companies was identified as a relevant factor to encourage innovation in the country. They also cited the need to create more technology parks and incubators, pointing out this problem as the reason why the country has been losing entrepreneurs to other countries such as the USA, Canada and England.
In Brazil, little is measured about the impact of fostering innovation, but in previous surveys carried out with companies that received public resources to innovate, the government obtained the return of this incentive in the first year of the program. Companies grew and some began to export, created jobs and improved the benefits offered to their employees, resulting in knowledge-based economic development.
The companies' lack of knowledge about the available benefits clearly demonstrates the need for disclosure by financial resource managers to encourage and attract companies to adopt these support instruments that can help Brazil to become more competitive and dazzle new markets by through innovation and, consequently, generate economic development.
Answering the question above, there is a tendency for OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) member countries to foster innovation through tax incentives, which ends up being faster, less bureaucratic and more democratic. This would be a very good bet by the Brazilian government to increase results when it comes to supporting innovation, but Brazil still needs to improve in this regard, bringing a clearer and simpler legislation for companies to benefit from these instruments.
* PhD in Engineering and Knowledge Management UFSC - Sandwich Doctorate (QUT / Australia) and PhD in Knowledge Management from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Jamile Sabatini Marques holds a master's degree in Innovation Management from the École de Mines in St-Étienne, France, a specialist in business management. ABES 'Innovation Director has built his career working mainly in the areas of management, innovation, development, investment funds and institutional representation. Currently, he also serves as President of the Chamber of Technology and Innovation of FECOMÉRCIO - Federation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism of Santa Catarina, Member of the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development (IJKBD) Council.
EN 
PT 
