Análise de redes no âmbito de programa de fomento à inovação no Ceará

Abstract

Innovation consists of a dynamic and complex process, involving, more and more, several actors in interaction, because it becomes more difficult for the isolated actor to gather the capacities required for innovation. Thus, it is part of the political innovation agenda, with the funding agencies having a relevant role, two mechanisms: the support of the constitution of networks and the economic subsidy of projects. That said, the research question is defined as: What are the characteristics of the network structure and positioning of institutional actors established in innovation projects, within the scope of Funcap's Inovafit Program? The general objective is to analyze the network structures and interactions of institutional actors at Inovafit between 2015 and 2018. The specific objectives are: i) to describe the configuration of institutional actors and the characteristics of the proposing companies and the innovation projects in the project networks submitted (RPSub) and selected (RPSel); ii) comparatively analyze the network structure metrics and network graphs in RPSub and RPSel; and, iii) understand the dynamics of the innovation network's evolution over the period considered. To achieve these objectives, we start from a quantitative positivist perspective, where secondary data from the relationships between partner actors in the projects are analyzed from the perspective of the network analysis concepts. For this, the Gephi software is used to measure metrics defined in the structural analysis and to draw the network graphs, from two interaction matrices that result in RPSub and RPSel. The results point to different levels of participation of categories of actors in both networks over the period, to the existence of more persistent and competitive areas and to a great difference between the proposing companies in terms of revenue, with a smaller difference as to the value of projects. As for the network metrics, there is an increase in density (0.027 to 0.112) and in the average grade (5.9 to 6.6) over the period and in RPSel when compared to RPSub, reduced shorter average distances (slightly higher two intermediaries) and a high coefficient of clustering (around 80%). The analysis of the graphs highlights the great centrality of the HEI, followed, especially, by research institutes. Finally, the evolution of RPSel, during the four years, suggests the constitution of a large community, with actors sharing more characteristics in common, with HEI positioning themselves as key actors, in addition to indicating a structure scale-free. The research findings point to a diversity of proposing companies, an increase in network connectivity over time and a movement towards the structure of scale-free networks.