A influência das forças institucionais no processo inovativo em uma organização bancária

Abstract

The objective of this study consists in comprehending how the institutional pressures affects the innovative processes of a banking organization. The processes of organizational institutionalism have been adopted as the theoretical frame for this analysis, starting from the premise that social aspects such as collective rationality, political, functional and social pressures, regulatory changes and cultural factors influence in the organizational change and, consequently, in the innovative processes. In this sense, the research supports itself on Vermeulen and Raab (2007) studies which associate regulative, normative and culturalcognitive factors, based on the premises of the three pillars proposed by Scott (2008), as a source of institutional inter-organizational and intra-organizational pressures related to the innovative process. The research is justified theoretically due to the concentration of studies related to technological innovation in transformation industries, having few studies about innovations in services, specially under the scope of the institutional theory. Under the practical aspect, the research is justified once it reveals social aspects which inhibit or potentiate the innovative performance which can be currently neglected by the organizations managing these processes. To reach the proposed objective, a cross-sectional study with a longitudinal approximation of nine years (2007-2016) has been opted, where five processes of implementation – or attempts at implementation – of innovations in the studied organization were selected, the selection criteria being their impact for the organization and/or uniqueness for its banking sector. The research has been conducted by documented analysis and analysis of the content of semi-structured interviews, which were realized with employees from the organization’s strategic level, implemented with the help of Software Atlas.ti version 7.15.16. The data analysis reinforced the relation of the influences of institutional forces on innovative processes and evidenced eminently social aspects which permeate such processes, decidedly contributing to its unfolding and completion. Therefore, regulative forces, such as laws and rules, instructions and normative, formal authority and computerized systems; normative forces such as client expectations and mimetic isomorphism; and cultural-cognitive forces, such as distinct cultural identities, have come forth as relevant factors, with significant impact over innovative processes.