MANAGEMENT OF EXTERNAL SOURCES OF TECHNOLOGICAL INFORMATION AND INNOVATION PERFORMANCE

The objective of the research presented in this paper is to study the relationship between practices for managing external sources of information and the innovative performance of the enterprise. The research can be characterized as mostly quantitative. The data had been collected from a sample of Brazilian enterprises recognized as being very commited with technological innovation activities. The findings of the study suggest many significant relationships between the innovation performance of the enterprise and kind of sources of technological information used as well as with the access modalities to this external sources. The results suggest, also, a trend towards an increasing of the use of external sources of technological information and the existence, regarding this matter, of a large space for improvements of the actual managerial practices adopted by the enterprises.