The innovation rate of the federal state-run companies reached 68.1% in 2008...

The innovation rate of the federal state-run companies reached 68.1% in 2008.

That is, among the 72 state-run companies, 49 implemented new or substantially improved products and/or processes between 2006 and 2008. The information is from the 2008 Survey of Innovation in Federal State-run Companies. This percentage of innovative companies is higher than the 38.6% observed for industrial companies and selected services in the scope of The Survey of Technological Innovation (2008 PINTEC), excluded the federal state-run companies.

The federal state-run companies spent R$ 5.6 billion on innovative activities in 2008, accounting for 1.7% of the revenue of R$ 330 billion.

The study reveals that the innovations promoted by the federal state-run companies were especially based on continuous Research and Development (R&D) activities.

According to the survey, more than half of the federal state-run companies encountered obstacles to innovation in 2008. The two main obstacles were the difficulty to meet standards, norms and regulations and the organizational rigidity. Each was cited by 64.3% of the federal state-run companies, a higher percentage compared with those concerning the difficulties mentioned by PINTEC companies in general (32.4% and 31.4%, respectively). For these companies the main obstacle was the high costs of innovation, mentioned by 73.1%.

That is the first survey of IBGE to investigate the federal state-run companies in isolation as well as sectors that had never been studied by the institute. The study encompasses the economic activities of electricity and gas; construction; trade; transportation, storage and mail; selected services, insurance and financial activities; real estate activities; technical, scientific and professional activities; administrative activities and complementary services; and other services activities.

Conducted with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) and of the Department of Coordination and Governance of the Federal State-run Companies of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Administration (DEST / MPOG), the 2008 Survey of Innovation in Federal State-run Companies investigated 72 companies out of the 118 companies monitored by DEST (http://www.planejamento.gov.br/secretarias/upload/Arquivos/dest/estatistica/110406_Est_atividade.pdf), including a multiterritorial company.

Federal state-run companies invest more on R&D activities than companies in general

Among the 49 innovative state-run companies, 37 had more than 500 employed persons. The innovation concerning only processes predominated in 33.3% of the innovative state-run companies, whereas 30.6% innovated in products and processes and 4.2%, only in products. That is different from the behavior observed for companies in general in the 2008 PINTEC. For those, innovations in products and processes predominated in 17.2% of the innovative companies.

Among the innovative federal state-run companies, 27.8% innovated in products for the national market and 29.2% implemented new processes turned to the internal market, percentages higher than those registered for companies in general (4.4% and 2.4%, respectively). That is due to the fact that a great part of the federal state-run companies are the only ones to produce a specific kind of goods and/or the only ones to offer a specific service.

Among the innovative activities, the highlight was R&D, which, internally developed, accounted for 42.9% in the state-run companies against 11.9% in the scope of the 2008 PINTEC. Conversely, the external acquisition was at 34.7% among the state-run companies compared with 4.2% for the companies of the 2008 PINTEC. In innovative state-run companies, approximately 10 thousand people were involved in that activity, 53% with a higher education degree, 27% with a post-graduation degree.

Out of the R$ 5.6 billion invested by the state-run companies in innovation, the expenditure with internal R&D was of R$ 3.5 billion. Among the 19 innovative companies that invested in internal R&D, 17 developed the activity continuously (89%), a higher percentage compared with PINTEC (72%).

More than half of the federal state-run companies encountered obstacles to innovation in 2008.

Between 2006 and 2008, 57.1% of the federal state-run companies surveyed encountered at least one obstacle of high or medium importance for innovation. The highlights were the difficulty to meet standards, norms and regulations and the organizational rigidity. Each was cited by 64.3% of the federal state-run companies with difficulties to innovate, a higher percentage compared with those concerning the difficulties mentioned by the companies in the 2008 PINTEC (32.4% and 31.4%, respectively). Difficulties with bureaucratic and legal setbacks were reported. Another obstacle was the lack of qualified personnel (57.1%), as previously observed in the companies of the 2008 PINTEC in general (58.8%).

Conversely, two relevant items in the scope of the 2008 PINTEC, the high costs of innovation (73.1%) and the excessive economic risks (65.6%), were not mentioned by great part of the federal state-run companies. The percentages were 35.7% and 17.9%, respectively.

Almost 92% of the innovative state-run companies implemented organizational changes

Among the non-technological innovations, 91.9% of the federal state-run companies, innovative in products and/or processes, also performed some organizational innovation and 38.8%, some marketing innovation. The main highlight was innovations in management techniques (85.7%), mainly if compared with the 2008 PINTEC, in which 48.1% of the companies implemented that change.

Work organization was mentioned by 71.4% of the innovative federal state-run companies. However, rates next to 50% were also observed in the other two items that characterize that type of innovation: environment management techniques (51.0%) and foreign affairs (49.0%), rates above those observed in the companies of the 2008 PINTEC in general (48.1%, 45.9%, 28%, 18.9%, respectively). As for marketing innovations, the movement was opposite, with higher indexes in the companies of the 2008 PINTEC in general (69%), since great part of the state-run companies are not turned to the market.

Trademark is the main protection method used in federal state-run companies

Among the federal state-run companies surveyed, 29.2% used some sort of protection to grant the ownership of innovation results.

Trademark was the most used method by federal state-run companies (26.5%), slightly higher than what was observed for companies in the scope of the 2008 PINTEC (25.0%). However, compared with the 2008 PINTEC, the highlights were patents, with 20.4% against 8.8%; copyright, with 14.3% against 2.8%; and industrial secrecy, with 12.2% against 8.5%.

Cooperation stands out as a source of innovation in federal state-run companies

Federal state-run companies promoted more cooperation relations than the companies in the scope of PINTEC.

Among the 49 innovative state-run companies, 71.4% promoted some sort of cooperation between 2006 and 2008, while in the companies of PINTEC the rate was of 10.4%. The main partners of the federal state-run companies were universities and research institutes, with 51.4% against the 31.2% of the 2008 PINTEC.

Among the state-run companies, the five main sources of information for innovation between 2006 and 2008 were internal areas of the company (71.4%), suppliers (59.2%), clients and consumers (59.2%), universities and other higher education centers (59.2%) and conferences, meetings and specialized publications (59.2%). The last two sources were not among the main five sources of information of the companies of the 2008 PINTEC.

Quality improvement exerted the main impact on the innovative federal state-run companies

All innovative state-run companies registered at least one relevant innovation impact. The highlights were the improvement of product quality (83.7%), the increase in production flexibility (83.7%) and the increase in productive capacity (75.5%), the last two directly related to productivity. Following that, the maintenance (69.4%) and the increase (61.2%) of the companies’ participation in the market, considered the least important (46.9%).

In the overall scope of PINTEC, the main impacts were relative to the position of the company in the market (they kept or increased participation – 76.4% and 68.5%, respectively), to the improvement in product quality (75.5%) and to improvements in processes (increase in the production flexibility and productive capacity, both with 68.0%).

Governmental funding is higher in innovative federal state-run companies

Among the state-run companies that innovated, 24.5% received some sort of government incentive to innovate, a slightly higher percentage when compared with the one observed in companies from the 2008 PINTEC in general (22.3%). For the latter, the highlight was funding for the purchase of machines and equipment (13.5%).

In the federal state-run companies, that percentage was of 2.0%, since innovation expenditure was mainly made on R&D. In addition, the government support tools used by most companies were: others (12.2%) – grants offered by the Foundations for Research Support (FAP’s), by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and by other government programs; funding to R&D in partnership with universities (10.2%); and fiscal incentive to R&D – "Law of Good" (6.1%).