The relationship between organizational characteristics and absorptive capacity in small companies from Pernambuco

The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between the Organizational Characteristics and the Absorptive Capacity of small and medium-sized companies participating in the ALI program (Agents Locals of Innovation) developed by SEBRAE. The Absorptive Capacity was measured by the variation of the GIS (Degree of Sectorial Innovation) before and after the implementation of the actions proposed by the Local Innovation Agents. The relationship between Organizational Characteristics and Absorptive Capacity was measured using the DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model. The results showed that "Process management" and "Management of the relationship with society" showed a negative correlation with the GIS variations of companies initially not very dedicated to innovation. Thus, such characteristics were the greatest limitations of the Absorptive Capacity of the analyzed companies. The results also indicated that the commerce companies had a greater Absorptive Capacity in relation to the industrial ones and that there is heterogeneity in the importance of the dimensions of innovation for each segment studied.