INNOVATION IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES IN THE STATE OF SANTA CATARINA
Innovation enables companies to increase revenues, create partnerships, acquire knowledge and add value to your product or brand. The benefits of creating or developing new products or services are not limited to companies spanning the country, increasing the supply of jobs and contributing forcefully to the economic and social development. This study sought to determine whether the Information Technology companies in the state of Santa Catarina are innovating in products and processes; if these companies cooperate with other organizations or universities to innovate; whether companies use government support for innovative activities, and identify the main factors influencing the decision to innovate. Since this is a descriptive quantitative research, data was collected through a questionnaire, adapted from Innovation Research (PINTEC, 2011) based on industrial research of technological innovation, which was sent over the Internet with the support of Google Docs® tool. From the descriptive analysis and cross data it was identified that most of the sample companies innovate in product and process simultaneously, and in both cases the innovation often is new to the company or new to the national market, having a frame modest innovations to the international market. Another important aspect observed in the research was that innovation takes place exclusively in the organization or in cooperation with other organizations. Few companies in the sample know and use the government support incentives or cooperate with universities as a tool for the development of innovations.