Impacts of the participation of micro and small companies from the state of Rio Grande do Sul in SEBRAE ALI productivity program

Abstract

Sebrae proactively promotes innovation in small businesses, one of which is the Local Innovation Agents Program - ALI Program. The general objective of this research was to analyze the results related to the impacts of participation in the ALI Productivity Program on sixteen micro and small companies located in the metropolitan region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which were assisted from August to December 2022 by a local innovation agent. In terms of nature, this research is classified as applied, with a qualitative and quantitative approach. In terms of objectives, it was classified as exploratory and descriptive, and the methodological procedure used was field research. The results obtained from the research show that there was an overall positive variation in relation to the measurement of the ALI Radar, between the first collection of information (R0) and the final collection (Rf), representing an increase of 24.4%. When analyzing the productivity indicator proposed by the ALI Program for micro and small enterprises (MSEs), which is considered a relevant indicator of the program because it involves variables related to gross sales, costs, total variables and the number of employees in the company, there was an overall increase of 9.48% among the participants. In addition, the results of this study can contribute to future research on innovation in MSEs and the factors that influence the management of these organizations.

Key words: innovation; ALI Program; productivity; Sebrae; MSEs.