The drivers of technological innovation: keys of competitivity

Actually, technological innovation is propelled by the research, the interactions between different agents and the scientific and technological knowledge. It is a process oriented towards the resolution of problems that occurs primarily in the market, implies formal and informal relations between agents and the exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge. This paper analyses the drivers that characterize the technological innovation process. They can be classifies in internal and external. Internal drivers depend of the managers capacity to consolidate the quality and productivity dimensions (short-run), and the possibility to create technologies, competences and aptitudes that generate new products or services more quickly than the competitors (long-run). External drivers are associated to the activity sector of the firm, to its institutional context and to the economic policy that affects it.