Práticas da gestão do conhecimento como contributo para a geração da inovação nas micro e pequenas empresas da região de Bauru/SP

Abstract

This study addresses the issue of knowledge management in micro and small enterprises (MSEs, English acronym for ME/EPP) in the technology and marketing sectors with focus on knowledge management practices. Information, as a fundamental input in the organizational context, gains importance as it is transformed into knowledge, enabling the emergence of innovations. In this sense, knowledge becomes a strategic resource, essential for decision-making and business sustainability. Knowledge Management and its practices thus present themselves as strategic tools to meet the growing demands for innovation and competitive-ness in the current market scenario. Accordingly, the theoretical foundation is based on dis-cussions around the following themes: organizational knowledge, knowledge management and its practices, organizational innovation, and micro and small enterprises (MSEs), with the aim of achieving the main goal of this research — identifying the contribution of knowledge management practices to innovation-related processes in MSEs in the Bauru/SP region. Through field research, three MSEs in the Bauru/SP region were interviewed. Using the Con-tent Analysis method, the study assessed the importance of knowledge management prac-tices in the organizational environment and their contribution to the generation and promotion of innovation. According to the research data, around 10 (ten) out of the 17 (seventeen) listed knowledge management practices are fully utilized by the MSEs, accounting for 58% of the total. Additionally, it was found that all the knowledge management practices contributed to some type of innovation within the surveyed companies. Therefore, the results indicate that the surveyed companies recognize the importance of knowledge management practices, even if some are not implemented due to a lack of awareness or other reasons. The findings also highlight the improvements being made to organizational environments to better leverage these benefits. Nevertheless, it is understood that by employing knowledge management practices — to varying degrees — companies are contributing to the generation and promo-tion of innovation within MSEs.