European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

IMPLEMENTATION OF A NEW SOCIO-ECONOMIC MODEL OF INNOVATION MANAGEMENT FOR ARTISANAL, MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM COMPANIES IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL FIELD IN COSTA RICA

German L Madrigal Redondo*, Rolando Vargas Zúñiga, Gustavo Carazo Berrocal, Nils Ramírez Arguedas

ABSTRACT

In 2014, the structure of a socioeconomic model of innovation strategies applied for artisanal, micro, small and medium companies (ARPYMMES in spanish), was published in the “V Congreso Universidad” developed in La Havana, Cuba. This model has been successfully applied in Costa Rica, consolidating economic nucleus in rural zones and areas with high poverty, and offering support to sensitive population groups; such as women head of household, persons with disabilities or low academic degree and regions with low formal jobs or industrialization. Since 2010, there has been an increase in the support requests which has, in turn, made the logistical aspects of the model become slower. This is the main reason to redesign the innovation model, looking for involve bigger ARPYMES groups and working in a network with different socioeconomic sectors. The current work is a descriptive observational study. The main objective is to describe the implementation of a new socioeconomic model to act on the ARPYMES innovation and articulation with social sectors interested in the pharmaceutical field, through a relationship between the University of Costa Rica, the Faculty of Pharmacy, and the Institute of Pharmaceutical Research (INIFAR). This work describes the model basic principles, the ARPYMMES characterization and classification, the ARPYMMES articulation, some real examples and the results obtained with the model implementation. The methodology was an observational analysis, based on the recollection, revision and prospective triangulation analysis of the decisions taken by some participants, such as economical activities, number of sales points, number of products per company, number of commercial, social and innovation relationships; and the interactions between economic nucleus. In this study, it was found that the application of the model increased the number of sales spots, the number of selling products, the number of socioeconomic interrelations and a number of economic resources for innovation and development. Also, new investigation projects were executed and the activities between students, investigators, and socioeconomic sectors also increased.

Keywords: Socioeconomic Development, Innovation, Pharmaceutical Industry, ARPYMMES, Relationship Between Enterprise – University – SOCIETY.