Intellectual capital as a key factor for innovation in SMEs

Abstract

Innovation activities in micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) begin to arouse interest as an important tool to set the business strategy. In combination with the knowledge economy and the incorporation of intangible assets emerge as a source of value to organizations through the management of intellectual capital as a form of creative management of the resources they possess and the elements involved in their maintenance and improvement. The main objective of this paper is to describe the capital system (human, instrumental, relational and technological) that make up the intellectual capital of companies and their relationship with innovation processes in which they are involved either voluntarily or voluntarily. The dimensions of innovation that receive most importance within local companies are product / service and marketing and sales. Within the dimensions of intellectual capital, the best evaluated was social capital and the worst one was technological capital. The results show an average correlation between innovation and intellectual capital. This has implications to encourage the generation of knowledge through the development of human, structural, technological and social capital in order to promote innovation and with it the demands of competitiveness and improvement that this globalized world requires.