ABSTRACT
Innovation has been regarded as crucial for organizations competing in dynamic environments. There is a close relationship between organizational strategies and organizational innovation practice. Regarding the competitive strategy, it is known that this may either stimulate or inhibit the practice. The production strategy, in turn, must be aligned with the competitive strategy and have a defined content (formed by competitive priorities and decision areas) in order to support the organization’s competitive position. In this context, this paper aims to analyze how technological innovation (product and process) fits into the content of the production strategy of an aluminum company in Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil. This is a descriptive and exploratory research, with a qualitative nature, which uses the case study as a method. The company analyzed in this research operates in metal, cement, power, steel, pulp, agribusiness and finance industries, besides investing in early-stage companies having a high growth potential. The business unit selected for the case study restricts its production to aluminum items, operating in the industries of transport, packaging, electrical, construction, and consumer goods. Among the key findings, it follows that, in this case, there is a greater incidence of process innovation than product innovation. As competitive priorities, there was an emphasis on flexibility and cost priorities. Innovation is not seen by the company as a competitive priority, however it was noticed that it often occurs in order to provide a better development of the priorities flexibility and cost. While some features related to decision areas make the practice of innovation easier, such as vertical integration, others (mainly organizational) might be improved to provide innovation with a better support.
KEYWORDS
Competitive strategy; Production strategy; Competitive priorities; Decision areas; Innovation