Knowledge and Information and Communication Technologies: Its effect on the Innovation of the Mexican Small Medium Enterprises (Published)
The main purpose of the study is to analyze the relationship between knowledge and technological management and innovation practices in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The 412 companies that participate in the study are located in the Northwest region of Mexico and have 10 to 250 employees. The data collection was through a structured survey aimed at the managers of each SME. The field work was carried out during the months of May to November of the year 2017. For the analysis of the data and the verification of the hypotheses the Structural Equation Model (SEM) based on the variance was used through the Partial Least Square (PLS). The findings corroborate that the knowledge that exists within companies, is crucial to improve technology management and to increase innovation practices that are developed in the SME. In addition, we find that the Technological Management is contributing significantly in the consecution of greater practices of Innovation. Our study contributes to the development of the theory based on resources and capabilities (RBV).
Keywords: Innovation, Knowledge, Small and Medium-Enterprises (SMEs), external knowledge, internal knowledge, technological management