Una comparación del comportamiento innovador entre Cooperativas de Trabajo y Empresas Capitalistas en Uruguay

The aim of this paper is to compare the innovative behavior between Worker Managed Firms (WMF) and Capitalists Firms (CF) in Uruguay. Using cross-sectional data from the IECON-ANII-INACOOP (2011) survey this research analyzed, through descriptive and econometric methods, in which way the condition of WMF is associated with the probability of carrying out innovation activities. The results show that while there are no differences between WMF and CF in the realization of technological innovation activities (involving R&D), differences in favor of WMF appear in the practice of organizational innovation activities. The results are interpreted in the light of the self-managed-firm microeconomics and the evolutionary theory of the firm. WMF focus on the development of those innovative activities involving the use of the factor that they control -work- and that do not represent heavy investments in physical capital, establishing new and different routines inside work organization and making use of their members skills in a different way. This article represents a contribution to the scarce international literature on the subject and is the first of its kind for Uruguay.