Personal innovation competencies and Ecuadorian fruit export performance: A multi-criteria ANP method

The development of personal innovation competencies (PIC) in organizations is of utmost importance to improve the export performance (EP) of fruit companies, seeking to obtain greater competitiveness in international markets. For this reason, the objective of the work is to determine the relationship of the PIC in the EP and consequently in the business improvements of fruit exporting companies. A constructivist methodology was followed, with a non-experimental design, a mixed approach, a descriptive-relational scope and with the application of the multicriteria Analytic Network Process (ANP) method. Group interviews were conducted with representatives of six mango exporting companies in Guayas-Ecuador. Among the results, it is obtained that the competencies with the highest accumulated weighting are: collaboration with 30.37% and creativity with 43.78% considering the Pareto approach. Likewise, strong relationships are established (greater than 10%) between the innovative competencies of creativity, collaboration, and communication with export performance since they contribute to expanding to new markets. It is concluded that the PIC have significant relationships with the EP and therefore with business improvements, because the development of innovative capabilities and skills allows the fulfillment of strategic objectives and business sustainability.