Characterization
of innovation competencies in the export performance of fruit exporting
companies in Ecuador
Walter Javier Caicedo Leones [*]
Martín Luis Castillo Veloz *
Mónica Annabelle Caicedo Leones *
Luis Roberto Asencio Cristóbal *
Abstract
Characterizing the innovation competencies in the performance of fruit
exporting companies in Ecuador is a relevant topic for the country's fruit
export sector. The main objective of this study is to identify and categorize
the most significant innovation competencies of Ecuadorian fruit exporting
companies and analyze how these competencies relate to each other and
contribute to the export performance of these companies. The methodology used
in this study is descriptive, based on primary sources and secondary data,
which will allow for a detailed understanding of the innovation competencies
present in Ecuadorian fruit exporting companies. This methodology is
appropriate due to the exploratory nature of the topic, as it seeks to
characterize a phenomenon that is under- studied in the specific context of the
Ecuadorian fruit industry. Through the collection and analysis of data from
secondary sources, such as books, academic articles, and sector reports, it
will be possible to describe and categorize the most relevant innovation
competencies, as well as examine their relationship with export performance.
The expected results of this research will identify and categorize the key
innovation competencies of Ecuadorian fruit exporting companies. These
competencies may include aspects such as Initiative, Teamwork, Networking,
Critical Thinking, and Creativity. Additionally, the interrelationship between
these innovation competencies and how they collectively drive the export
performance of Ecuadorian fruit companies will be examined. These competencies
are essential for these companies to remain competitive in an ever-evolving
global market. On one hand, they allow them to agilely adapt to changes in the
business environment, capture new opportunities, and meet the changing demands
of international customers. On the other hand, they enable them to continuously
improve their processes, services, and product quality, key aspects for export
success. Preliminary findings highlight personal and organizational innovation
as essential competencies for successful internationalization and sustained
growth in highly competitive foreign markets. Therefore, characterizing and
promoting these innovative capabilities is crucial for the development of
effective strategies that ensure the survival and prosperity of Ecuadorian
fruit exporters.
Keywords: Innovation competencies; Fruit exporters;
Export performance; Effective strategies.
Caracterización de las competencias de
innovación en el desempeño exportador de empresas frutículas
en ecuador
Resumen
La caracterización de las competencias de innovación
en el desempeño del exportador de empresas frutícolas en Ecuador es un tema
relevante para el sector exportador frutícola del país. El objetivo principal
de este estudio es identificar y categorizar las competencias de innovación más
significativas que poseen las empresas frutícolas exportadoras de Ecuador, y
analizar cómo estas competencias se relacionan entre sí y contribuyen al
desempeño exportador de dichas empresas. La metodología utilizada en este estudio
es de carácter descriptivo, basada en fuentes primarias y datos secundarios, lo
cual permitirá obtener una comprensión detallada de las competencias de
innovación presentes en las empresas frutícolas exportadoras ecuatorianas. Esta
metodología es adecuada debido a la naturaleza exploratoria del tema, ya que
busca caracterizar un fenómeno poco estudiado en el contexto específico de la
industria frutícola ecuatoriana. Mediante la recopilación y análisis de datos
de fuentes secundarias, como libros, artículos académicos y reportes del
sector, se podrá describir y categorizar las competencias de innovación más
relevantes, además de examinar su relación con el desempeño exportador. Los
resultados esperados de esta investigación permitirán identificar y categorizar
las competencias de innovación clave que poseen las empresas frutícolas
exportadoras de Ecuador. Estas competencias pueden incluir aspectos como:
Iniciativa, Trabajo en Equipo, Trabajo en Red, Pensamiento Crítico y
Creatividad. Además, se examinará la interrelación entre estas competencias de
innovación y cómo, en conjunto, impulsan el desempeño exportador de las
empresas frutícolas ecuatorianas. Estas competencias son fundamentales para que
dichas empresas se mantengan competitivas en un mercado global en constante
evolución. Por un lado, les permiten adaptarse ágilmente a los cambios del
entorno empresarial, captar nuevas oportunidades y satisfacer las demandas
cambiantes de los clientes internacionales. Por otro lado, las habilitan para
mejorar continuamente sus procesos, servicios y la calidad de sus productos,
aspectos clave para el éxito exportador. Los hallazgos preliminares resaltan la
innovación a nivel personal y organizacional como competencias esenciales para
la internacionalización exitosa y el crecimiento sostenido en mercados foráneos
altamente competitivos. Por lo tanto, caracterizar e impulsar estas capacidades
innovadoras es crucial para el desarrollo de estrategias efectivas que aseguren
la supervivencia y prosperidad de las exportadoras frutícolas ecuatorianas.
Palabras clave: Competencias de innovación; Exportadoras frutícolas; Desempeño
exportador; estrategias efectivas.
Received : 11-1-2025
Approved: 15-1-2025
INTRODUCTION
According to the study conducted by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel and published in 1990 in the
Harvard Business Review entitled "The Core Competence of the
Corporation," develops the concept of core competencies within companies,
which are defined as the unique skills and technologies that an organization
masters and that enable it to offer particular benefits to customers. In the
first instance, it is established that, in order to be considered as such,
these competencies must be difficult to imitate by competitors and must provide
access to a wide variety of markets, influence customer satisfaction in a
significant way, be unique and difficult to replicate by competitors (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990).
Accordingly, companies should identify and focus on
their core competencies to differentiate themselves from the competition and
maintain a sustainable competitive advantage by focusing on strengthening and
developing them. Entities should avoid dispersing resources in non-core areas
and instead concentrate on areas where they possess or can develop core competencies,
for which strategic alliances can be a way to complement and reinforce core
competencies.
The way in which companies can develop these
competencies is to invest in training and the development of skills that
reinforce them. In addition, an organizational culture that appreciates and
develops these competencies must be fostered as a crucial factor in their
long-term sustainability. Core competencies are fundamental to the long-term
success of a corporation, and that strategic decisions must be aligned with the
development and exploitation of these competencies.
Prahalad
and Hamel closely linked core competencies to competitive advantage, stating
that, in the long run, competitiveness derives from the ability to build, at
lower cost and faster than competitors. In other words, corporations that focus
more on developing core competencies that could be applied broadly were more
successful than those that focused resources on developing very specific skills
and technologies. The first group was able to take those competencies and
innovate in new markets, while the second group was tied more exclusively to
the specific products they developed. A contemporary example of this is the
Apple company, which has developed a competency in user-centered design that
has enabled its expansion beyond the personal computing market into the mobile
computing and digital media markets (Dale & Kellam,
2013).
Throughout the exploration of core competencies,
there is a clear message that they are fundamental to innovation. These skills
constitute core competencies, which should coalesce around individuals whose
efforts are not so focused that they cannot recognize opportunities to combine
their functional expertise with that of others in new and interesting ways. In
this way, the distinction can be made between core competencies and core skills
needed to perform a particular task, but without their detailed analysis it can
be an obstacle for large corporations. An example of this is those corporations
that, despite dedicating resources to identify important technologies , by
decision of their top management, continued to act as if they were managing
independent business units, making it difficult to focus on core competencies
due to decentralization (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990).
Focusing the development of the research, focusing
on core competencies, according to the theory of Bueno and Morcillo,
it is considered that, in order to achieve them, three key elements must be
combined: technological, human and organizational competencies. However, it is
considered essential to emphasize the human factor, which deals with the skills
and resources incorporated in the competencies, i.e., in terms of human capital
they mean personal skills, with respect to technology, it refers to technological
resources, and concerning the organizational, it indicates what is related to
organizational learning; these skills ultimately represent what the company
does or knows how to do (Henao & Londoño, 2012).
The capacity for innovation is an increasingly
growing value for companies, which are joining a paradigm shift to better
respond to the needs that society demands. The professional world has turned
upside down and requires sustainable companies through innovation. To achieve
this, the company needs a quick response from its personnel, who will
contribute to this change with the right attitude. This new paradigm determines
that no innovation is possible if there is no real perception of innovation. It
is essential that there is adequate development of skills, of essential
competences for individual development and competitiveness, as indicated by the
European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (Aznar et al., 2015).
In order to determine the dimensions of innovation,
the FINCODA Project (Framework for Innovation Competencies Development and
Assessment) is taken into consideration, which stems from the INCODE project,
starting in January 2015 and lasted until December 2017. This project focuses
on two of the priorities of the strategic framework for European cooperation in
the field of education and training: strategic objective number 2 (improving
the quality and effectiveness of education and training) and strategic
objective number 4 (increasing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship,
at all levels of education and training). FINCODA's main objectives are: to
identify innovative behaviors, knowledge and skills in business and relate them
to those of our students, to observe innovative behaviors, knowledge and skills
in both university teaching and business through a common assessment tool, the
INCODE Barometer, at both national and international levels. It is vital that
university and business work in parallel to be able to measure the results that
are being pursued.
Five European universities are participating in the
FINCODA project: TUAS (Turku University of Applied Sciences) from Finland; HAW
(Hamburg University of Applied Sciences) from Germany; HU (Utrecht University
of Applied Sciences) from the Netherlands; MMU (Manchester Metropolitan
University) from the United Kingdom and UPV (Universitat
Politécnica de València)
from Spain. All universities participating in the FINCODA project belong to the
CARPE (Consortium on Applied Research and Professional Education) network.
These universities provide expertise, among other areas, in international
project management on university education, behavioral assessment methodology
and psychometric analysis, among others. However, what makes the FINCODA
project particularly original is the participation, in addition to these
universities, of nine European companies that develop and implement innovation
and work with innovative personnel.
Each university leads a work package related to its
research profile; the management of the project is done from the university,
and the participating companies focus together with the research personnel of
the academic institutions on the content of the work packages. In this model,
the following dimensions of innovation are considered:
Figure 1. Innovation competencies of the FINCODA model
METHODOLOGY
Through the application of the methodology used in
this study, which is descriptive in nature, based on primary sources and
secondary data, it will be possible to obtain a detailed understanding of the
innovation competencies present in Ecuadorian exporting fruit companies. The
compilation and analysis of data from secondary sources, such as books,
academic articles and industry reports, will make it possible to describe and
categorize the most relevant innovation competencies, as well as to examine
their relationship with export performance, using the FINCODA innovation
competencies model as a parameter for validation.
RESULTS
According to a
report by ECLAC (2016) in its analysis on the Internationalization of SMEs:
innovation for exporting, it is mentioned that there is a close relationship
between internationalization and innovation, because
exporting companies require the development of distinctive characteristics that
allow them to enter new markets, as well as the improvement of their internal
processes, with the aim that the human resources they have are in line with the
needs of knowledge and experience to assume the
responsibilities of such changes.
Evaluating the
level of innovation, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO), part of the United Nations in its World Innovation Index for the period
2020-2021, Ecuador ranked 91st, improving its results
from 2020, in which it ranked 99th.
Figure 2. Ecuador's ranking in the
Global Innovation Index 2021
However,
focusing on human capital, Ecuador decreased its ranking to 97th place, which
differs by 6 places from the 2020 position, which was
91st place.
Figure 3. Ecuador's ranking in the
2021 Global Innovation Index according to human capital
Menéndez & Cobeña (2022) evaluating the
critical factors of quality management of Ecuadorian pitahaya for export,
presents as a result, on continuous improvement, new product development and
innovation, that the programs for the improvement process were rated as good;
while product development considering customer
expectations and the capacity to introduce innovations to the products, as well
as to the production processes, were rated as very good.
According to the
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, cocoa is the main fruit crop in the country, with an average area of 610
thousand hectares nationwide. It is followed in cultivated area by African
palm, banana and other relevant fruit products.
Figure 4. Classification of planted area by hectares. Year 2023
Figure 5. Classification of fruit
products by production and sales. Year 2023
Despite the high
level of production in the fruit sector, only 8% of total production is
destined for the international market, which is a fundamental indicator of the
level of internationalization of the sector and
establishes that there are shortcomings that prevent an increase in the
exportable level of such production.
Figure 6. Distribution of Ecuador's
fruit production by destination market. Year 2023
Considering a
public approach, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock established the
National Project for Participatory Technological Innovation and Agricultural
Productivity (PITPPA), which aims to promote the reactivation of agriculture
through the optimization of technical assistance and
extension processes, complemented with innovative technology, infrastructure
and state-of-the-art technological equipment in order to improve the
traditional productive capacities of small and medium-sized producers in the agricultural sector, so that the beneficiary
population can improve their quality of life, with a view to exporting. The
project is aimed at raising national productivity in bananas, rice, plantains,
potatoes, hard corn, wheat, barley, soybeans, soft
corn, corn, fruit trees, coffee, cocoa, vegetables, among others, on small and
medium-sized producers' farms, as well as recovering integrated systems or
internal linkages; that is, the relationship between agricultural and livestock
production in the management and recycling of waste (
Rosero, 2021).
On the other
hand, the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries
encourages the participation of the fruit sector to promote its exports, with
the participation of 50 Ecuadorian companies in the
14th edition of Fruit Attraction 2022 in Spain, a world fair to promote
products of the fruit and vegetable sector, which brought together about 90,000
customers and buyers from around the world. The event, which takes place from
October 4 to 6, 2022, has the largest presence of the
Ecuadorian fruit sector, with more than 50 participating companies, becoming
the largest stand in the enclosure. Ecuador's presence at the fair is part of
the joint work between the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries (MPCEIP); the Association of
Banana Exporters of Ecuador (AEBE); the Association of Marketing and Export of
Bananas (ACORBANEC); the Export and Investment Promotion Corporation (CORPEI)
and the Prefecture of Guayas. The event allows to
explore the multiple possibilities of exotic fruits of our country, such as
pitahaya, uvilla, passion fruit,
sweet cucumber, hass avocado,
passion fruit, tree tomato, among others. In this edition, Ecuadorian bananas
and plantains are the star products of the
exhibition, as there is an opportunity to open new markets and recover sales
that have decreased as a result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine
(Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries, 2022).
In addition to
this, the National Institute of Agricultural Research
(2023) established its Fruit Growing Program, which was divided into two major
stages, under different conditions and approaches, the first during the period
1982 - 1998 in which there was significant economic
and technical support from the Swiss Government and research on deciduous fruit
trees, technology transfer and gender approach was privileged; The second stage
began in 2000-present, when economic resources were obtained through the
presentation of projects to national and
international competitive funds, with emphasis on research on native and export
fruit trees in the Ecuadorian Sierra, Coast and Amazon.
In the first
stage, research was conducted on deciduous species and varieties such as
apples, peaches, plums and grapes to improve the
profitability of producers in traditional areas (central-southern part of the
country) and incorporate new areas such as the inter-Andean valleys and certain
coastal areas. To this end, management technologies were developed and/or improved and high-yielding materials, fruit
quality and different harvesting seasons were selected to increase supply and
maintain stable prices. During this period, nine apple, five peach, three plum
and four grapevine varieties were promoted.
The technology
generated was disseminated through the Technology Transfer Network, which was
made up of groups that covered producers in the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura,
Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Chimborazo, Azuay, Manabí and Guayas. Based on
an initial diagnosis, the Technology Transfer Groups
(GTT) determined that in 1993, 20% of the producers were applying the new
techniques; 1996 evaluations determined that around 60% were using the new
techniques. The technological improvement of the orchards had an important influence on the increase in orchard production, for
example, in Anna apple, in the subtropical valleys of Pichincha, from 14 t/ha
in 1993 to 21.5 t/ha in 1996. Avocado yields increased from 9 t/ha to 11.5 t/ha
in 1996.
During the
second stage, the following fruit trees were prioritized: avocado, blackberry,
custard apple, tree tomato, naranjilla, uvilla, vasconcellas (highlands and
transition zones); guava, soursop, pineapple, mango, passion fruit (coast); borojó, copuazú, arazá (Amazon).
Currently, work is also being done on guava, grape, peach, claudia and other
deciduous (highlands and transition zones), citrus (coast) and naranjilla, pitajaya, papaya,
passion fruit and citrus (Amazon). At this stage, emphasis is being given to research on genetic improvement of native species
as an important alternative for integrated pest management and the generation
of innovative technologies for export fruit trees and others of interest, and
the chain approach has also been incorporated
(National Agricultural Research Institute, 2023).
CONCLUSIONS
From the documentary review,
it can be concluded that the development of innovation competencies in the
fruit exporting sector has not been performed correctly, especially if
approached from the human competence, because the
projects focused on their development are based on the improvement of processes
or production in general and not focused on the preparation of the personnel
involved in the sector, considering the dimensions of initiative, teamwork, networking, critical thinking and
creativity.
This means that export
development is not carried out correctly, which means that only 8% of total
production is positioned outside the national context. This delays the
internationalization processes of fruit production
companies and, therefore, reduces the number of exporting companies.
Therefore, it is
considered necessary to promote projects aimed at improving the ability of
fruit companies to adapt quickly to changes in the business environment, so that they can capture new opportunities and
meet the changing demands of international customers. New projects should focus
on fostering business networking and creativity as relevant to innovation
competencies.
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