Innovation in the context of emergency remote education, implemented by higher education institutions in Guarapuava - PR

Abstract

Innovation is one of the main phenomena in contemporary economies. It is highlighted as a competitive advantage factor and assists to the companies’ survival, featuring as one of the development and growth sources. Thus, the present study aims to analyze the perception of the Guarapuava HEIs students about the innovations implemented by them, to confront the conditions imposed by COVID-19. Therefore, the research methodology is classified as descriptive about the objective, performed with a survey. The data was collected through 257 questionnaires and statistically analyzed. The innovations were analyzed from the perspective of eight strategy elements of services that have been grouped on three factors, according to the Exploratory Factorial Analysis. In general, the elements services, people, distribution, processes, promotion, show a positive trend from the students’ perspective. Already referring to the price, productivity/quality and physical evidences, the averages points to the neutrality. The only question with high agreement concerns the fact that the HEI’s have widely attended the pandemic related demands. The average of the factors was separated by institution, this way, it has been identified that the University Centers stand out for better scores, and from the Analysis of Variance it was possible to observe that there are statistically significant differences between some HEIs.