INNOVATION IN TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT PROJECTS WITHIN LATIN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES WORKING IN SCHEMES OF TRIPLE HELIX

Currently, companies, universities and government have been focused on projects based on the triple helix model. In Mexico, this has been potentiated by the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) and its promotion of innovation by providing economic support to companies and universities engaged in this type of linkage. The Triple Helix Model is based on linkage of companies with universities, where the university provides human resources and necessary knowledge to develop projects, while the company provides the know-how, further the government provides financial support to help the successful completion of those projects.
It is important to consider to universities as a determinant factor for the promotion of knowledge and the development of technologic innovation, as well as remain in a constant state of R&D and generate high-impact projects, which are developed by a multidisciplinary team that benefit and contribute to economic and social development of their region, through innovations focused on knowledge, capable of generating jobs and socially acceptable and beneficial products. This feature adds to the two main activities of the university, teaching and research.
The Triple Helix Model helps to promote multidisciplinary work in the universities, allowing students from different disciplines to share knowledge previously acquired in class to enrich their knowledge base and develop human resources capable of facing reality when the opportunity to join the private sector is present. However, knowledge is not the only key to successful innovation.
Based on several projects developed in the Laboratory of Technology and Innovation Management at the Autonomous University of Queretaro, with multidisciplinary teams of students, we have analyzed the work and have found 4 key factors that allow us to identify the degree of innovation of a project.
Knowledge: It is the main factor that creates a new innovation, university students have basic knowledge in their discipline; however, their knowledge base is complemented with the knowledge of other members of the multidisciplinary team during the project.
Motivation: Motivation is achieved when students feel part of the team and they are participants in the construction of something, and not just in developing a part or component. The project leader should help to keep students motivated to achieve the proposed objectives.
Core Capability: Students need to work on their main areas of expertise, as in most organizations is common that people enter with a profile based, mainly, in studies obtained.
Ubiquity: From a point of view of being present everywhere, not physically, but generating the necessary experiences to meet virtually the overall functioning of the set of elements that make up the whole project, it can be said that students can feel part of the whole structure and not just an isolated element.
Technological innovation is important, for companies, to get competitive advantages that allow them to be competitive in an environment that, technologically, changes in a short time. The innovation should be fostered in students from the beginning of their careers.