Process innovation and competitive advantage: a systematic review

Abstract

The process innovation aims at improving the competitiveness and maintenance of organizations in the globalized market. The organizational field is vast, complex and dynamic, representing, therefore, for professionals and researchers a context of diversity, also, of problems. Among the many, some of theoretical background, others, practical, identifies itself to the specificities of the relationship between innovation and competitive advantage. In this context, this study aims to analyze process innovation and competitive advantage through a systematic search in the Scopus database. The methodology used was a qualitative and exploratory research. The results highlight that process innovation is directed, in particular, to productive processes and management processes, as well as the competitive advantage is the ability to use internal resources of the company, which can originate from the learning processes, knowledge, dynamic capabilities and human resources. These points may be represented, however, in different biases, for example, in the performance gain by the company, represented by the increase of the marketing, increase of the client portfolio, prospection of new relationships or adoption of original communication channels, among other intangible assets.