**3. Methodology**

**Figure 1** graphically describes the methodology used in the study to establish an innovation management system for SMEs in the dairy sector and its instrumentalization through a framework for the systemic management of innovation in this type of company.

Churchman's classic system concept [15] is used as a basis to define the innovation management system, and a subsystem diagram is used to explain the relationships between the elements of the system and its environment. The systemic innovation management framework is based on Ackoff's [16] description of the management system and is structured in a sequence of three phases that constitute an innovation strategy: analysis, decisions and actions. Finally, the case study is based on field research conducted on the premises of a dairy sector SME located in the Mexican southeast over several months between 2018 and 2019; the field research was conducted through interviews guided by semi-structured questionnaires on the company premises, an action research intervention to implement the framework with the operators of the addressed innovation project, and, finally, by remotely monitoring the effectiveness of the implemented framework and the achievement of the expected results.

**Figure 1.** *Methodology used in the study. Source: Own elaboration.*
