*Knowledge Generation to Foster Innovation in Mexico: How Human Capital Matters DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86216*

Meetings to solve problems and seek solutions or improvements on an ongoing activity or process, attendance at courses or seminars, and the development of appropriate literature to support the development and execution of priority tasks are activities that allow to the generation of knowledge inside firms. This is possible when organizations believe in learning processes and invest in them.

Regarding public policy implications, the results point out the shortcomings of the educational system will take many years. The average Mexican formal education has only 9 years and few opportunities to get on-the-job training in globally competitive businesses. However, in the short term, Mexico can focus on developing professional skills by upgrading their vocational education, aligning the curricula with employer needs, developing more employer-sponsored training programs, creating rapid training courses, and improving the labor-market matching mechanisms.

Organizations have to include both knowledge generation processes, internal creation and external acquisition, in their strategic planning initiatives. It is new knowledge combined with existent knowledge that will make it possible for organizations to survive in dynamic and uncertain environments.

The main limitations of the study are that only Mexican firms have been analyzed and it is not possible to generalize the results to other contexts. Additionally, we have not identified whether organizations participating in the study are Mexican-born or global enterprises operating in Mexico. It could be significant to analyze whether multinationals from other countries operating in Mexico are more committed to learning to innovate than Mexican-born firms and how different their knowledge generation activities are.

Future research efforts should also address the way in which generation of knowledge in organizations operating in dynamic environments provides a competitive advantage. We believe that the analysis of our model in other settings may raise the identification of other determinants that facilitate the generation of knowledge and contribute to the achievement of a competitive advantage under the study environment itself.
