Innovation Management

How it happens in Small and Medium Enterprises? A cut for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract

International institutions that promote economic development have pointed out, in recent years, that the small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) development enables the economic growth of countries and regions, providing a greater economy dynamism and improving its indicators, such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). SMEs also show greater diversity in the labor market and thus are also responsible for many of the innovation generated by the countries. For these companies to grow, it is essential that they develop strategic management of their innovations, including all the risks, possibilities and all actors involved in the process. Pharmaceutical industry is part of a high risk sector, because it needs a high investment in research and development of specific diseases treatments without the guaranteed success and therefore, they need a management model that deals with all its specificity, thus this the hypothesis considered in this work. A theoretical grounding was made based on an exploratory and bibliographical research on scientific basis. In this way, it was possible to analyze how happens the innovation process in SMEs and in the pharmaceutical sector and to suggest future studies that will allow a better management of these companies.