«Organizational integration through the process of developing new products in microenterprises in the footwear and leather goods sector of Bogotá»

Ingrid J. Pabon-Rodriguez (Colombia) Table A – Persistences

There are micro-enterprises in the footwear and leather goods sector that manage to differentiate themselves through design and by involving knowledge that circulates outside their borders. The research seeks to observe the deployment of the integration capabilities of these companies during the pre-development, development and dissemination phases of new products, in order to describe the types and degrees of linkages they establish with other organizations throughout the development of new products (DNP).

Fifteen microenterprises that carried out NPD processes were selected, using design-based research to collect and analyze the information. Despite the fact that microenterprises in the sector are characterized by not being innovative, there are companies that are innovative in the strict sense of the word, taking new products to international markets, which coincide with those that reach the highest levels of integration.

2. In the companies studied, the impetus for innovation and for the deployment of integration capabilities comes from their brand concept; from the exploration of technical complexity and customer demands.

3. Innovative microenterprises succeed in bringing new products to market using project thinking, creativity and technical complexity in response to uncertainty, resource constraints and barriers to working together.

4. Understanding how integration and design capabilities are deployed can be translated into strategies for developing innovation capabilities.