Business innovation: Competitiveness factor and quality of life in popayán, colombia

Abstract

Under today’s competitive conditions, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Popayán (Colombia) must maintain their economic development in competitive markets. The objective is to determine the role of innovation in Popayán enterprises, as a competitiveness factor to achieve improvement of the quality of life in the region. The research is qualitative, exploratory and uses as an instrument the semistructure interview in thirty companies. The main results indicate that innovation is based on guidelines or technologies for continuous improvement in processes, products and services that are applied as a competitive advantage; framed in external factors to be aware of changes in the environment and take advantage of technological improvements, and internal factors in implementation of open, participatory management, decentralization in decision-making, motivation of staff and commitment to innovation. As important conclusions, it is obtained that, innovation is a competitive advantage that allows the differentiation, and adapt to changes of the environment. It can be seen that companies offer improved products and services, and to innovate, they do not invest large amounts of resources, however, they have managed to achieve innovation and, therefore, improvement in quality of life.