Innovation is considered to be a fundamental factor when it comes to company performance. However, empirical evidence does not consistently support this relationship at the company level. In this work, secondary data, which was taken from the IBGE's Pintec database and which follows the OECD's definition of innovation, was used. This measure considers a broad spectrum of aspects of the innovation process. A sample of companies operating in the Brazilian chemical sector was analyzed using the multiple linear regression technique. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between innovation indicators and profitability measures. On the other hand a positive and statistically significant relationship was found with growth in net revenues. The conclusion is that the innovation effort tends to affect growth more than it affects profitability. The discoveries both corroborate previous studies and contradict others.
Innovation; corporate performance; growth; profitability; Pintec
