Fluxo de conhecimento na interação universidade-empresa : o desenvolvimento da soja no interior do Paraná

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the flow of knowledge that occurs between an ICT (Scientific and Technological Institute) and partner companies in the soybean development process, identifying how the knowledge content flow occurs, the transfer channels and the content of the knowledge transferred between the actors. Studies about the university and companies interaction are important to understand the technological advance and the innovation in a national context, boosting the technological transfer activities that happens between companies and the research institutions. The design of the study consists in one unique case, exploratory with qualitative approach, which data collection was made with the auxiliary of halfstructured interviews directed to managers/researchers of the Coodetec and associated companies, as well as documental analysis. The results points that the knowledge flow that happens between the Coodetec and the companies that are partners for new technology development, the soy culture is formalized mostly through contracts. And the channels used were identified as congress, internet, personals, consultancy companies, among others. The initiative the form the partnerships, motivated by the one who identifies an internal necessity or the one who wants to improve his portfolio, searching in the market that has elements, such as technology, that might help him to supply the identified necessity. Among the knowledge contents, the applied research was pointed as the one that brings a faster return, objective of the big corporations, and the current technology as the knowledge content, used in order to achieve the maximum market potency by the new technology, through other partner. Through the partnerships between research institutes and companies, the brazilian agribusiness gained competitive edge, naming specifically the State of Paraná and the Cascavel’s region, as big producers of the soy, main culture of the agribusiness of the country.