Search for evaluating the performance of Brazilian Service for Technical Information (SBRT) and the Integrated System for Technical Information from UNESP (SIRT/UNESP)

• Grant number: 14/00812-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2015
• End date: October 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Administration - Public Administration
• Principal Investigator: Sergio Azevedo Fonseca
• Grantee: Sergio Azevedo Fonseca
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The main objective of the research is to evaluate the performance of the Brazilian Service for Technical Information (SBRT), especially with regard to its contributions to the generation / difusion of innovations among its users. The SBRT is a Brazilian inter-institutional network, created in 2002 and consists of nine agents of technical responses, distributed among seven states and the Federal District. It also has as anchor institutions the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (Ibict / MCT) , the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Brazilian Support Service for Micro and Small Enterprises (SEBRAE). Conceptually, SBRT is a network of institutions focused on knowledge management activities with the strategic goal of developing technical notes (especially the so called Technical Answers), in response to spontaneous demands for information, of technical or technological nature, which subsidize its users to generate or implement low complexity innovations. Two of the nine institutions wich integrate SBRT`s network are in the State of São Paulo: USP, through the project Dial Technology - DT / USP bound to USP Innovation Agency; UNESP, through the project Integrated System of Technical Answers - SIRT / UNESP, linked to the Faculty of Science and Letters of Araraquara. As technical answers provider, SBRT developed its control and evaluation mechanisms mainly foccused in the preparation and dissemination of technical notes processes, ie, in knowledge management processes. Neglets, therefore, methods and instruments capable of assessing the effects and contributions of the technical notes, especially in terms of the resulting innovations. To fill this gap this research project was counceived. Deployed from the central objective emerge three other direct research objectives: a) to identify differences in profiles among the users of SBRT, especially between the users by spontaneous demands and the users by induced demands; b) to ascertain the perceptions of the users regarding the services provided by SBRT; c) to evaluate the innovations eventually generated, classifying them in accordance with the type contained in the literature of innovation management. In methodological terms, the search will be based on data contained in the Unesp`s databeses of its users and of the given technical notes. Data collection, both quantitative and qualitative, will be made directly with the application of structured questionnaires and semi-structured scripts for direct observation and interviews. Part of the data, those quantitative, will be analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques, the ANOVA test and possibly non-parametric tests. Qualitative data will be analyzed mainly by techniques of content analysis. Although essentially with exploratory purpose - whether because of a still incipient knowledge about the object of research, or because of the impossibility of extrapolating results - the survey will still have a descriptive component, particularly with regard to the profiles of users SBRT system. Beyond the scope of purely scientific research - to generate knowledge - it is expected that the results of the research should contribute to the improvement of the performance of the agents that comprise the technical answers SBRT network, to the network itself, and consequently to the users performance also. (AU)