Acting in a highly competitive scenario requires more dynamism from the organizations to fit and develop in the instability of the global market. When transferring these requirements to the business environment, it is noticed that small companies often lack the infrastructure and knowledge to survive in this context. Such difficulties make companies look for alternatives to become more competitive through connections with other organizations. This study aimed to verify if the performance in interorganizational networks is perceived as a driver of the innovation for the actors of the Clothing APL of the Agreste Pernambucano. The theoretical perspective includes studies about interorganizational networks and innovation. Regarding the methodology, the research used quantitative methods to do the characterization of the clothing industry companies through the application of a questionnaire to 51 companies. It was observed in this work that the analysis of innovation was believed as an essential factor for the development of interorganizational networks, being possible to conclude that the actors of the APL consider the interorganizational partnerships as drivers of innovation in the network. On the other hand, although the statistical tests reveal a strong relationship between the indicators of innovation and the partnership relationships in APL, the innovations implemented prioritize outcomes for some enterprises instead of social factors that are indispensable to the actors local development. It was also observed that there is no equity in the dissemination of the benefits in the network and that it ends up as being an excluded structure in the studied APL, as only a minority takes advantage of the generated benefits in the environment. Among the main contributions, and practical and social implications, from the analysis of the research data, it is suggested: encourage the analysis of Athe APL as socioproductives and innovatives systems, where the economy is not the only determining factor, and stress the need for organization of Regional Development Forums, with the participation of different actors of the APL to discuss actions for the network.
Innovation; Partnerships; Interorganizational networks; APL; Embeddedness
