Estudio de los factores y los resultados de la innovación tecnológica de producto y de proceso de las empresas del grupo industrial de Mondragon Corporación Cooperativa

Abstract

The interest of this study comes from the special conditions for the promotion of innovation that are present in the Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (MCC). This corporation brings together a series of strategic, structural and operational conditions which seem to configure a climate especially favourable to technological innovation. In 2002, the MCC consisted of a financial division, a distribution division and an industrial group which was, in turn, divided into 7 divisions in different industrial sectors. The MCC's industrial group which is made up of 132 companies, most of them co-operatives, posted a turnover of ¿4,792 million euros in 2004 and had a workforce of 33,640 people. As we established in the introduction to this thesis, the special conditions of the MCC's industrial group which make it a favourable environment for innovation are as follows: - Innovation is one of its corporate values. - The corporation's organisational structure is based on sectorial groupings which have been entrusted with, amongst others, the function of exchanging technological information and of organising and managing research and development activities. - The MCC's co-operatives undertake to provide an Interco-operative Education and Promotion Fund, which is earmarked for Research and Development, aimed at raising the technological level of the co-operatives. - There is a business policy that includes the objectives of innovation, taking advantage of the impact of the University of Mondragón, developing new products and services and incorporating technology transformations. - Innovation has been established as one of its general policies. - A management model has been established that includes innovation as one of its main agents. - The existence of technology centres and company R&D units. - The existence of the Garaia Innovation Park. In this thesis, we have confirmed that the companies in the MCC's industrial