| Abstract |
There is no doubt that innovation is the result of a complex process involving a number of actors and diverse knowledge, and also that affects all company activities. It is indisputable that the innovative behavior (the actions of the organization that implement new solutions at any organizational level in management), is key to achieve sustainable competitive advantages, as it allows companies to be flexible and to improve their ability to adapt to the market and show changes against the competition. Studies analyzing innovation in SMEs, highlight that innovation in these businesses is a process that is based primarily on the basis of their internal knowledge. Other studies indicate that SMEs, responsible for activating their innovation processes, are the customers themselves, due to new market needs or new technological developments, being R & D limited innovation processes in SMEs. Moreover, the importance that culture plays in the innovation is widely acknowledged. The relationship between the two variables is mostly theoretical. There are few empirical studies focused on the relationship between culture and innovation, and most of them focused on some characteristic or trait culture (autonomy, risk mentality, market orientation, and employee management) rather than on ideals or cultural philosophies, contrary to what we do in this paper. Furthermore, the effects of certain types of culture on innovation are analyzed by few studies, in spite of not focusing on business environments. It is indisputable that innovative behavior is key to sustainable competitive advantages, as it allows companies to be flexible and to improve the ability to adapt to market changes. Therefore, finding the cultural values that encourage innovative behavior is relevant to business development. Presently, it is considered that the type of culture fostered by the organization can stimulate innovation, since culture influences the behavior of employees. As predicted by the literature, quality control oriented organizations tend to innovate on the basis of improving the control parameters, and consequently an innovation and learning-oriented organization has greater opportunities to address more radical innovations involving new technologies or break in the ideas. The objective of our research is to study the impact of commitment to quality and the promotion of an entrepreneurial culture on innovative behavior in manufacturing SMEs from the point of view of participative management. This requires a structural model where the relationships between these variables is established and analyzed through the PLS (Partial Least Squares) technique. The results will show that either one or another position is affecting innovative behavior in a similar way. Moreover, our study was carried out under a perspective of autocratic direction (measuring the views of the manager versus normative aspects), showing that the management style is not a variable, because it does not influence any business philosophies or cultures addressed in this work. The first consequence thereof is that the management style is the first key factor of management, and that business management is responsible to change or promote certain cultural aspects in a productive organization. |