Innovation in the portuguese footwear industry

Abstract

The Portuguese footwear industry had in the last five years a remarkable performance in several economic indicators (e.g. exportation values) and is a success case in the Portuguese industry. The economic results of the footwear companies studied by the authors shows differences between all of them and these differences are related with the innovation strategy adopted. The companies focused in product innovation, oriented to their target market, have higher ratios “turnover per worker” than the companies focused in process innovation. A systemic model of innovation is proposed for the innovation in the seven companies analysed. The research methodology was qualitative and the strategy for data collection was the case study.