Ciclo de vida organizacional e estrutura dos ativos intangíveis de empresas de base tecnológica incubadas cearenses

Abstract

Based on the awareness that life-cycle models reveal how resources may be more efficiently used in different phases of incubated companies of technological basis (EBTIs), which are known as knowledge-based companies, and that for each stage there might be a necessity to use different resources, this study is inserted in the EBTI research area. In this perspective, the present dissertation aims at investigating the relation between the stages of organizational life cycle at EBTIs and the intangible asset structure of these companies. In order to reach that objective, this descriptive-exploratory research, with a quantitative approach on data, puts together companies linked to business incubators of technological basis in Ceará, with a population of 64 companies and a sample of 41. Initially, the profile of sample EBTIs was defined. Then there was the identification of life cycle stages of the sample EBTIs, realized in a descriptive way, based on managers’ answers concerning the 11 aspects that make up the five constructs of Scott and Bruce (1987). It was possible to observe that two of the sample companies primarily fit into the initial stage, 19 companies into the survival stage, 14 companies into the growing stage, four companies into the expansion stage and, at last, two companies into the maturity stage. Later on, the intangible asset examination was realized, by means of Sveiby’s (1998) intangible asset monitor, which categorizes such assets by employees’ competence, inner structure, and outer structure, which are evaluated by growth/renewal indexes, efficiency indexes and stability indexes with a variation between 18 and 90 points. In general, the results of this exam indicated that the average score reached by the EBTIswas 55,7. 17,3 points correspond to employee competence, 18,7 to inner structure, and 19,7 to outer structure. In order to reach the most important goal of this dissertation, there was subsequent descritive analysis on the relationship of variables, which has revealed the fact that as organizations progress in their organizational life-cycle, their intangible assets increase. In order to descriptively verify the validity of such discovery, the MANOVA statistical test was applied, which confirmed the existence of a relation betweenEBTIs organizational life cycles and their intangible asset structure. After wards, for a more detailed analysis of data, univaried ANOVAs, which together allowed for the conclusion that intangible assets related to organizational inner structure, when individually assessed, do not produce significant differences between the EBTIs’ life-cycle stages. Thus the general objective of this dissertation is reached in view of the fact that it was possible to conclude that the intangible asset structure of EBTIs changes as organizations proceed in their organizational life-cycle stages.