Technological innovation in Brazilian industry: An assessment based on theSao Paulo innovation survey

This article presents results of the technological innovation section of th e PAEP survey, which is a large sample survey of firms in the most industri alized Brazilian federate State. The first PAEP collected data in 1997, ref erring to 1996, in more than 10,000 industrial firms. Innovation questions followed the OECD guidelines. The article starts with a methodological summ ary. It shows that the rate of innovation output in Sao Paulo-that is the s hare of innovative firms-revealed a considerably extensive adoption of tech nologically new or improved products and/or processes in the period 1994/19 96. The innovative performance of Sao Paulo industrial firms is examined fo r distinct firm groups, taking into account firm size, the origin of capita l ownership (national vs, transnational firms) and industrial sector. The a rticle reveals that the distance between Sao Paulo industrial firms and the ir counterpart in industrialized countries is even more substantial in term s of R&D activities. The findings about the sources of information for inno vation and their motivation for innovation reinforce the features of the pa ttern of innovation presented in the article, that is, there has been quits substantial innovation but little knowledge in the innovation process of t he industry of Sao Paulo. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc.