Interações das instituições de ensino superior públicas com o setor de tecnologia da informação na Paraíba

Abstract

Universities has a relevant aggregating role to local competitiveness through the generation of intellectual capital, joint action with companies and research incentive policies. The objective of this article is to analyze how occur interactions between the Public Higher Education Institutions (IES) of the state of Paraíba and the Information Technology (IT) sector. It was defined as theoretical basis, studies about economic geographic clusters, local productive arrangements in the IT sector and institutions. In methodological terms, this research can be classified as a descriptive qualitative case study, through documentary analysis and semi-structured interview, whose unit of analysis was the university-company interactions, the research targets were active teachers and leaders in University- Companies relation that approach the information technology sector. The data processing followed the logic of content analysis. The results were presented in three blocks: Interaction, Contribution and Institutional. It was observed the support of the laws of incentive to private investment, high bilateral contribution through R&D, besides factors that hinder this relationship as the rigid institutional structure and regional culture elements. It was concluded that the engagement of local actors is extremely important for the increase of cooperation for solutions to problems faced by companies and society.