Antecedents of innovation in the Brazilian public sector: A study in a Nucleus of Technological Innovation

The aim of this article is to verify the antecedents to the adoption of innovation in the Nucleus of Technological Innovation (NITs). The motivation of this research was the lack of studies on the antecedents of innovation in the Brazilian public sector and, specially, in public innovation agents, such as NITs. The theoretical framework adopted was the literature on the antecedents of innovation in the public sector (drivers and barriers). The methodology is qualitative and data collection occurred by semi-structured interviews with seven workers of a NIT located in the Northeast region of Brazil. The analysis was conducted with Content Analysis and had the support of NVivo11 (R) software. The results reveal that "innovation characteristics" is the main antecedent-driver of innovation in NITs, while "organizational antecedents" is the main antecedent-barrier. The results of this research can be used to base other studies on innovation, to understand the particularities of innovation in the Brazilian public sector and to develop public policies to promote innovation.