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The student Maite Couto Ortega obtained an EXCELLENT

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• Thesis title: Adopción de tecnología en PYMEs industriales: una aproximación a los sectores estratégicos de Gipuzkoa

Court:

• Presidency: Fernando Diez Ruiz (Universidad de Deusto)
• Vocal: Jon Legarda Macón (Universidad de Deusto)
• Vocal: Jaione Ganzarain Epelde (Gobierno Vasco)
• Vocal: Jaione Ganzarain Epelde (Gobierno Vasco)
• Secretary: Noemi Zabaleta Etxebarria (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)

Abstract:

In a context where (i) companies that innovate and adapt to market changes ensure with greater guarantee, (ii) companies are part of a regional innovation system, and (iii) technological progress is key to economic growth and social development, this thesis aims to understand how technology adoption (TA) occurs in industrial small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in strategic sectors of Gipuzkoa. In this province, noted for its excellence in innovation, despite the high number of scientific-technological agents in the region, SMEs, the primary economic base, face significant challenges effectively collaborating with these agents and therefore innovating.

The TOE-I theoretical framework was used to guide the research, providing four reference dimensions in TA: technology, organization, environment, and individual. Three specific objectives (SOs) were defined. First (SO1), a literature review was conducted, focusing on identifying factors, with 200 factors identified and clustered into 66 based on similarities. Eleven of these were found to be relevant for TA. Next (SO2), the qualitative “top of mind” technique was combined to identify factors spontaneously with a quantitative analysis to validate the relevance and importance of the factors. This analysis led to the proposal of an expanded TOE-I-Tr framework, incorporating the “transferor” dimension and covering 38 relevant factors in TA for SMEs. The factors included in the framework are shown below, in italics those accepted on the basis of the literature, in bold those identified spontaneously and the rest those accepted by the quantitative analysis:

• Technology: seeking improvements, compatibility, relative advantage, perceived benefits, quality, environmental impact, impact on occupational health and safety, cost-benefit, compliance with regulations, internal need for it to be a supported bet,, reliability, use, rate and context of technology, and time-saving.
• Organization: management support, customer-related issues, resources, innovativeness, aligned with values, strategy, motivation to progress, growth perspectives, and infrastructure.
• Environment: uncertainty.
• Individual: innovativeness, technological knowledge, perceived technical competence of staff, attitude toward change, attitude toward TA, entrepreneurial motivation, experience, skills, perceived behavioral control, and management capabilities and status.
• Transferor: long-term relationships, geographical proximity, service offered, delivery or response time, and payment flexibility.

Finally (SO3), semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand TA contexts in SMEs, highlighting the following results: i) a low technological profile and higher technology incorporation in processes rather than products, ii) at the organizational level, the identification of the elements of the process and its particularities, talent being a crucial mechanism in TA, iii) in the environment, identifying entities influencing TA and their respective roles, with an uneven perception of coverage, iv) in terms of the individual, the CEO role emerged as key, with generational transition and talent attraction as challenges, and v) SMEs distinguish short- and long-term relationships with suppliers and knowledge generators (transferors).

In conclusion, this thesis proposes the expanded TOE-I-Tr framework, adding twelve previously unidentified factors. It also highlights how the five dimensions interact in a complex way and underscores the need for specific support policies to enhance SME collaboration with the regional innovation system to ensure effective and sustainable TA, aiming for greater territorial competitiveness.