Geography of innovation and building of startups: a study about the city of Presidente Prudente-SP

Abstract

The subject of innovation has been discussed by several authors, for exemple, Lencioni (2015), Gomes (2007 and 2019), Tunes (2015), among others. In past years, the transformations resulting from the globalization process, the productive restructuring and the advancement of new technologies has been intensified. Innovation gains dimension between the economic and social agents. There are different conceptions of innovation that are connected with economic activictes, such as: the process and/or product innovation, organizational innovation, institutional innovation, territorial innovation, financial innovation, social innovation., With that, new innovation environments, or innovation ecosystems, named hybrid innovation spaces by Gomes (2019), with the emergence of technological parks, technology-based incubators, in which many startups are installed. In Brazil, there are currently around 10 thousand Startups (ABStartups, 2019), concentrated mainly in the Southeast region, among these, 11 currently have reached the market value of 1 billion dollars, these are called unicorns. Such companies have been formed not only in large metropolises, but also outside the metropolitan space, such as medium-sized cities. The city of Presidente Prudente, in the West Paulista region, has been creating an innovative environment and startups, with the presence of universities and Inova Prudente being the main drivers for the development of new companies. This project aims to understand the innovative environment and the creation of Startups in the city of Presidente Prudente-SP.