Roadmapping strategic approach in generating innovation policies for firms of an industrial cluster

Abstract

The generation of innovation policies in order to transform industrial clusters to attend new customers with higher technological requirements is certainly challenging. This paper shows a study about a roadmapping strategic approach used to reach this goal. This work was developed in partnership between the industry, government and a university. The process consisted of five stages: the definition of cluster firms technology features, gathering the researchers’ skills in an engineering school, the roadmapping itself, promotion planning workshops, and promoting engagement sessions and monitoring results. In the workshops of integrated planning, which are the focus of the present paper, there were fifteen cluster firms participation with fifteen foreign public and private organizations. In the roadmapping process we used for data collection participant observation, document analysis, semi-structured interviews. For data processing, we used the content analysis by evaluation analysis and the centering resonance analysis (CRA), a lesser known technique. Associated with this, six collective workshops were held - three with cluster firms and external organizations together and three workshops in fifteen inter-functional firms. As a result, we developed a set of innovation policies for the cluster, and generated insights like a better understanding of the new clients, better targeting decision making of current and future investment, besides greater integration between firms.