Research on open innovation (OI) has increased in recent years, showing its potential in various areas of knowledge. Its relation to small and medium-sized enterprises has attracted the attention of academics. This article aims to evaluate the intellectual structure of the scientific study of OI, and its close relationship with various scientific fields, through a bibliometric analysis of this academic field using the Scopus database and the application of the VOSviewer software. The methodology comprises a rigorous systematic and transparent process divided into four phases: (i) the establishment of search criteria for the research field, through a literature review for its selection; (ii) the selection of the database, the establishment of the search equation and extraction of information; (iii) the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria for the selected documents and an explanation of the usefulness of the software; and (iv) the analysis of the results through the approaches of scientific output performance and bibliometric mapping. The results show an increasing trend of IO publications in SMEs, consolidated in 396 articles with contributions from 65 countries and 947 authors. The intellectual structure shows seven themes related to firm performance, R&D networks, business management, business models, capabilities and knowledge transfer. This study contributes to the field by providing an overview of IO in SME contexts. It also provides insightful information to policymakers for developing policies for firm economic growth.

The aim of the study is to identify the factors that influence innovation activities associated with business management, known in the academic world as organizational innovation. Data was gathered by administering a survey on the managers or owners of hotels in the province of Santa Elena, Ecuador. Three components of organizational innovation were analyzed: methods of organizing job positions, work organization practices and management of external relations; all of which were tested with both internal variables (individual and structural characteristics) and variables external to the firms.

Improvement was developed in the production process in the Traditional Cakes area of the Dulcería-Café company (SMS) through the current evaluation of the productive processes, with the purpose of identifying the activities that did not contribute any value to it. It was applied the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) value stream modeling tool to make a comparison between the current processes and the changes necessary for the continuous improvement of the company.

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The professional success of graduates is closely linked to the value of university performance, perhaps much more so than other indicators. This study analyses the predictive and explanatory capacity of a model on the career success of university alumni in a developing country (Ecuador), which serves as empirical evidence on the subject; we examine the moderating effect of gender on the relationships between constructs in the model. We use a Hierarchical Component Model (HCM) of Partial Least Squares Structural Equations (PLS-SEM) and a permutation-based multigroup analysis for moderation. The used database comprises 444 records from a self-administered survey of graduates of the State Technical University of Quevedo (UTEQ)—Ecuador. On the findings, the model proposed has good explanatory and predictive power for career success. Objective success has a lower incidence of professional success (22% of the variance explained) than subjective success (78% of the variance explained). In none of the latent variable correlations in the model were gender differences between men and women found to be statistically significant. Finally, we also cover the study’s theoretical and practical implications.

Tourism is an increasingly important and dynamic sector for the Ecuadorian economy, this change has also been evident in the coastal province of Santa Elena. The search for continuous improvement in the service quality offered by restaurants has become an important factor to achieve customer loyalty. It is necessary to develop the service quality of the tourism sector to attract more visitors to the province. The objective of this study is to evaluate the service quality perceived by consumers in the third and fourth category restaurants located in Santa Elena, using the Dineserv scale, which was tested for its validity and reliability through the technique: factor analysis. As a result of the analysis carried out, it was found that the factors that prevail to achieve the satisfaction of third-category restaurants' customers are: comfort and reliability / speed, while the only component that influences the satisfaction of the clients of the fourth category restaurants is the speed / efficiency.

The objective of this study is to apply the linear programming method in the maximization of the profit of a footwear factory (SME), the company in which the study is made is GA which is dedicated to the manufacture of footwear mainly for men. In this case, the study focuses on four of its main products for men, these are: Trekking shoes, sports shoes, casual shoes and urban shoes. Once the analysis was done, it was possible to know in which types of footwear the company must make decisions so that the maximization of profits becomes possible.

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