This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the process of innovation induction by public clients and its dissemination in service activities by investigating ten cases of innovation in companies that provide software services to public clients in the Federal District of Brazil. This study adopted an integrative approach as a theoretical basis for the study of innovation in services. In addition, the theoretical premise of public procurement was investigated as a political tool to promote innovation - procurement for innovation - adopting the adaptation of the Chain-Linked Model developed in an earlier study. Using the model's perspective, the study developed a proposal for understanding the induction and possible spread of innovations in software services through the use of public procurement based on three steps. Thus, this study may be described as descriptive, qualitative and transversal. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with respondents from private companies that developed the most significant innovations for government clients. The ten selected innovations were then reported and analyzed using four criteria: description, timing, characteristics and earnings generated for the company. The analysis revealed that innovations have emerged in response to a requirement (or a set of requirements) established by a public customer and that they occurred in two phases: a pre-sale phase and a development phase. Innovations confirmed the premise of induction from two trajectories presented in the theoretical model: the central path of innovation, "c", and the connections and feedbacks, path "f". The study identified radical, incremental and ameliorative innovations. The gains made by companies with innovations confirm the condition, and the dynamics observed related to the induction of innovations in the selected cases seem to be compatible with this study's proposal.
Innovation; Innovation in services; Innovation induction; Procurement for innovation; Software services
