The aim of the diploma thesis is to analyze the current developments in the enterprise, consider the future business at a medium-size, to determine the potential market and propose the optimal marketing policy of the company. The main objective is to draft recommendations to expand business and increase the competitiveness of the transformed company. The work is to monitor the development of enterprise in terms of finance, purchasing, production, storage, distribution, human resource management and marketing. It is also analyzed the internal environment, which includes financial analysis and an analysis of resources and competencies. Analysis of the external environment involves an analysis of competition, analysis of the attractiveness and STEP analysis. SWOT analysis summarizes the enterprise internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external environmental factors (opportunities and threats) analysis of the two. The analysis and evaluation is used of the data from the years 2004 to 2008. The result of this dissertation is the finding that the company is able to transform the medium-sized enterprise within two years, which take 10 - 12 employees. However, it should be to reduce the indebtedness of the company and is currently disinvest. To increase the competitiveness and the increase in sales on the market introduces a new product and using the Czech Trade Agency reach new foreign markets.

Os administradores de pequenas e médias empresas (PME) buscam práticas de desenvolvimento de produtos e conhecimento que auxilie a permanência delas e o crescimento no mercado. Uma forma de incorporar práticas consagradas é através da sistematização do Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produto (PDP). A representação desse processo pode ser realizada por meio de modelos referenciais os quais incluem atividades, ferramentas, conceitos e melhores práticas. Apesar disso, no que se refere à estruturação do PDP, de um modo geral, as empresas não incorporaram facilmente essas práticas à sua realidade. Em decorrência desse fato, há a necessidade de um modelo de transição entre a prática atual e aquelas propostas pelos modelos de referência disponíveis na literatura. No caso das empresas do setor farmacêutico, essa realidade não é diferente. A maioria das empresas, principalmente pequenas e médias, não considera fácil a tarefa de entendimento e implantação de um modelo referencial para o PDP. Contribuindo com a resolução dessa problemática, esse trabalho objetiva a elaboração de uma proposta de intervenção em empresas farmacêuticas de pequeno e médio porte. Essa proposta apresenta etapas para guiar a implantação de um modelo referencial adaptado ao setor e à empresa. Para tal, a proposta desse trabalho incorporou as melhores práticas de intervenção encontradas na literatura, como aspectos concernentes à engenharia do método e ao PDP. Foram analisados o ambiente de aplicação dos mesmos, o contexto do setor farmacêutico brasileiro e a estrutura organizacional das empresas de pequeno e médio porte, através de revisão bibliográfica e estudos de caso. Um modelo preliminar de intervenção foi elaborado considerando esses aspectos e guiado pelas teorias de gestão da mudança e engenharia do método. O modelo foi aprimorado através da sua aplicação em uma empresa, através de pesquisa-ação. O modelo de intervenção resultante desse trabalho contempla as características de PME do setor para auxiliar como guia para a melhoria dos processos de desenvolvimento de produtos e apresenta os princípios norteadores do processo de intervenção contemplando ferramentas que podem ser utilizadas para a realização do mesmo, além dos passos e etapas a serem seguidas. / The small and medium enterprises (SME) managers search for best practices and knowledges that help growing on the competitive world. The product development process (PDP), systematization and organization importance are largely diffused. The reference models are the PDP representation and include activities, tools, concepts and best practices. Nevertheless, the corporations do not easily incorporate those practices on their routine to improve their PDP. Then, a transition model from the real practice to the proposed literature reference model is needed. The pharmaceutical companies’ reality is not different. The enterprise’s managers, especially small and medium ones, do not consider easy to understand and implement the reference models. This research considered the theory of Method Engineering dominium applied to the Organizational Engineering dominium to compose an Intervention Model for the Pharmaceutical SME’s PDP. The model incorporated the intervention’s best practices found in the literature. The method and PDP dominium was discussed. The review of Brazilian Small and Medium Pharmaceutical Industry and their enterprise’s organizational structure characterizes the environment of intervention. Case studies performed at a company with typical characteristics of the studied group complemented the information of literature review. Useful tools and practices for the Pharmaceutical PDP and Intervention were identified from literature. The consideration of Change Management and Method Engineering theory led to the elaboration of the Preliminary Intervention Model. This model was evaluated by its application in a medium-sized pharmaceutical organization by action-research. The researcher’s observation supported the model improvement. This improvement generated the Intervention Model. The Intervention Model considers the pharmaceutical small and medium enterprises characteristics and can guide to the Pharmaceutical PDP improvement. The Model presents the processes, practices, principles and tools for the intervention process.

Esta pesquisa buscou compreender, de forma sistêmica, como as Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PME´s) desenvolvem novos produtos e implementam as estratégias de comunicação, no que se refere aos alimentos lácteos funcionais. Complementarmente, foram analisadas as possíveis restrições e os estímulos gerados pela legislação, nas inovações dessas empresas. Focou-se em unidades da Região Sul do Brasil, devido à representatividade local da cadeia do leite, à recente inserção de grandes empresas e ao perfil diferenciado dos consumidores nessa região. O método de pesquisa foi o de estudos multicaso, triangulando informações obtidas dos colaboradores das organizações, de especialistas externos, de agentes de regulação e de um órgão de defesa do consumidor. Como principais resultados, observou-se que a concorrência – geralmente Empresas Multinacionais (EMN´s) – é a principal fonte para as inovações das PME´s estudadas. Essa é uma estratégia tradicionalmente menos sujeita a riscos e que requer menores investimentos em comunicação. Porém, devido às particularidades do mercado de alimentos funcionais e às limitações competitivas das empresas de menor porte, ofertar produtos com certo grau de diferenciação da concorrência pode ser fundamental para garantir sua sobrevivência nesse mercado. Esse comportamento prioritariamente seguidor, contudo, parece ser decorrente da não-utilização de ferramentas gerenciais eficientes, da ausência de parcerias com centros nacionais de pesquisa, do baixo conhecimento do mercado consumidor e do foco excessivo em controles e certificações de qualidade. Esse “círculo vicioso” também sofre influência da burocracia e dos custos para registrar produtos/ingredientes inovadores, embora seja reconhecida a necessidade de uma legislação específica, de modo a garantir a sustentabilidade desse mercado. / How the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME´s) develop new products and implement the communication strategies, in reference of functional dairy foods, was this research objective. Complimentarily, the possible restrictions and stimulations generated by the legislation, in those companies innovation, were analyzed. It focused in unities of the Brazilian southern region, that have a representative local milk chain, a recent insertion of great companies and differential costumers profiles. The research method was a multicase study, using information from the enterprises, external specialists, regulatory agents and a consumer defense institute. It was observed that the competition is the primary source for the studied SME´s innovations. Traditionally, this strategy is less expose to risks and it requires minors investments in communication. However, the current functional foods market has many specific characteristics and the small companies have competitive limitations. So, the companies who produce differentiated products will have more possibilities to survive in this market. The observed second-mover behavior could be consequence of: the efficient managerial tools non-utilization, the partnerships with national research centers absence, the consuming market low knowledge and the high focus in quality controls and certifications. This “vicious circle” also suffers influence of the bureaucracy and the innovators products/ingredients registering costs, even so its recognized a specific legislation need, in a way to guarantee this market sustainability.

Aim and method: This study aims to investigate the implementation of CSR activities to attain sustainability in SMEs by focusing on the pharmaceutical industry in Sweden.To achieve the aim of this study, qualitative method has been used to conduct multiple case study of 10 SMEs in the pharmaceutical industry in Sweden. Result and conclusion: This study has shown that the CSR activities in the studied pharmaceutical SMEs are at the primary stage as most of them currently go through research and development. There is no balance between three aspects of the CSR(social, environmental and economic), and CSR activities could not be fully implemented to maintain holistic sustainability. Ethics seems to have a high impact on CSR activities in the pharmaceutical sector, especially due to its involvement in the betterment of lives all over the world. Thus, in a way, this industry is ethically responsible for providing affordable treatments. Contribution: The present study contributes to the literature by investigating the CSR activities in the Swedish pharmaceutical SMEs and their ability to attain sustainability in terms of employment, society, revenues and supporting the economy. A new framework, which consists of three pillars namely ethical, environmental and social, could be used to assess the CSR activities in order to achieve sustainability in SMEs. In this framework, ethics would be a pillar of the CSR instead of the economic one.

Hardware and software developers rely on different tools for document management, product data management (PDM) and software configuration management (SCM). As more and more products include components of both types there is a growing demand for one collaborative system. This becomes even more critical in the medical sector, where a device is under regulatory demands for document management to even be allowed in to the market. Combined systems become more complex and are generally based on PDM-principles rather than SCM. Current development of SCM tends instead towards simpler systems focused on pure version control (VCS) that are easy to use and economically available to small- and medium sized enterprises (SME), which is not the case with generic PDM-systems or combined systems. This study explored the possibility to extend the usage of such a VCS and include hardware documentation as well as software. The aim was to further our understanding of the SME perspective on product documentation for the medical device field. The method was a case study, collaboration with a SME development company. The scope was to explore possible usage of a chosen VCS (GitLab) and to compare it with a generic PDM-system and with existing manual system. The results showed that for several of the hardware document types there are special made Git-solutions to find within the open source community. However, none of the ones tested in the study was deemed good enough with respect to functionality and reliability. Instead the case study used direct storage of the files in their binary format and focused on testing different VCS functions and on how to organize in order to best gain the advantages of using the system. The conclusions showed that hardware documents can be stored in the same iterative manner as software but with limited Git functionality. Compared with a PDM system GitLab can offer the same level of revision control and communication around the specifications but lacks classification of parts and detailed product structures. GitLab offers better iteration history than both a PDMsystem and the existing manual system does. But not being able to use full Git functionality the organization needs a collaboration strategy to handle the decentralized storage. If the collaboration strategy matches the organization development practices, GitLab is a useful alternative for medical device documentation.

L’objet de ce travail de recherche est à l’origine de vérifier l’idée largement répandue que peu de jeunes entreprises survivent après leur période de démarrage. Les ambitions de ce travail se concentreront ensuite à tenter de vérifier cette phrase sur la base de la récolte d’une base de données qui conduira cette recherche vers des questions plus sous-jacentes concernant l’explication des causes de la survie à trois ans des jeunes entreprises, dans différents secteurs d’activités. L’analyse de la littérature révèlera un riche corpus relatif au sujet de la survie et plus généralement du succès des jeunes entreprises. Ainsi que nous le montrerons au cours de la revue de littérature, un grand nombre de travaux ont été développés sur ces thématiques, et un grand nombre d’angles de vu seront exposés, sans toutefois atteindre un consensus aussi bien dans la recherche en entrepreneuriat que dans d’autres domaines de recherches tels que le management stratégique ou encore la théorie des organisations. Les développements montreront ainsi, la grande diversité des travaux qui ont été entrepris dans le monde et mettra en lumière le manque de travaux quantitatifs sur cette thématique, notamment en France. La visée de ce travail a ainsi évolué en vue de tenter d’obtenir une vision relativement claire de la notion de survie à trois ans dans le cadre de jeunes entreprises dans des secteurs différents, sur le territoire français. Notre tentative de clarifier les facteurs clés de survie reste mitigée du fait notamment de la très grande diversité des résultats obtenus pour chaque secteur. La dimension intersectorielle a ainsi permis selon nous de montrer, que malgré la grande hétérogénéité des résultats antérieurs relevés, voire les contradictions mises en lumières, il est envisageable que ces résultats soient singuliers aux secteurs et époques auxquels ils ont été mesurés. Il nous semble ainsi naturel de penser que les facteurs clés de survie des jeunes entreprises soient fluctuants selon les années, renforçant ainsi la complexité de l’analyse de cette thématique dans la recherche en entrepreneuriat. Il semble donc, que seuls des travaux entrepris à un niveau aussi bien global (comme le Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) ou plus précis avec des démarches plus qualitatives, soient tout à fait nécessaires pour comprendre de manière approfondie le phénomène de survie des jeunes entreprises. / The purpose of this research is to verify the origin of the general belief that few young businesses survive beyond their start-up period. We attempt to verify this idea on the basis of a database which had lead this research to more precise questions about the primary explanation of the three-year survival of young firms in different sectors. The analysis of the literature reveals a rich body on survival and more generally on successful young businesses. As we show in the literature review, many works have been developed on these themes, and a large number of points of view have been found andexposed, without reaching any agreement as well as in Entrepreneurship research as in other research areas such as strategic management or organizational theory. Developments and debates show the great diversity of work that was undertaken in the world on this theme and have highlighted the lack of quantitative work on this theme especially in France. The aim of this work has evolved in an attempt to obtain a relatively clear sight-seeing of the notion of survival for three years in different sectors, on the French territory. Our attempt to clarify the key factors for survival remains mixed mainly because of the great diversity of results obtained for each sector. The intersectoral focus shows that despite the heterogeneity of previous results, as highlighted contradictions, it seems believable that these results are exclusive to sectors and times at which they were measured. It also seems natural to think that the key factors for survival of newly founded firms are fluctuating throughout the years, and reinforcing the complexity of the analysis of this topic in entrepreneurship research.It appears that only works undertaken at a global level (Like the GEM) as well as more precise researches with qualitative approaches are quite necessary to understand thoroughly the phenomenon of survival of young firms. However, it seems in addition that this diversity could contribute to a more global explanation of these issues, given example the GEM in Europe, which appears necessary to get a more accurate and complete vision of survival of newly founded firms.

Syftet med de upphandlingsrättsliga regelverken anses i synnerhet kunna uppnås genom att bättre förutsättningar för SME-företag att delta i offentliga upphandlingar skapas. Bestämmelserna avseende ESPD-systemet, skyldigheten för upphandlande myndighet att motivera varför ett kontrakt inte ska delas upp, högsta tillåtna takbelopp för krav på leverantörs årsomsättning och dialog mellan upphandlande myndighet och leverantörer har omnämnts som sådana som särskilt kan bidra till att bättre förutsättningar för SME-företagen skapas. ESPD-systemet påstås kunna minska administrativa hinder för SME-företag. De hinder som oftast uppfattas av SME-företag består av att offentliga upphandlingar upplevs vara komplicerade och omfattande. ESPD-systemet förväntas bidra till förenkling för SME-företag och minska tröskeln för att delta i offentliga upphandlingar. Systemet är organiserat i två steg. Det första steget innebär att leverantören lämnar ett preliminärt intygande i ett ESPD-formulär om att denne uppfyller upphandlingens ställda krav och att någon uteslutningsgrund inte är aktuell. I det andra steget genomför den upphandlande myndigheten en kontroll av den lämnade egenförsäkran. Att dela upp ett kontrakt i mindre delar och att inte sätta allt för långtgående krav på leverantörens årsomsättning har ansetts innebära att de materiella hindren minskar för SME-företagen. Mindre kontrakt anses vara lättare att hantera för SME-företag och krav på årsomsättningen bör inte sättas för högt med tanke på att SME-företag generellt har en lägre omsättning gentemot ett stort företag. Bestämmelserna som möjliggör dialog mellan upphandlande myndighet och leverantörer har ansetts skapa en grund för ökad kunskap hos bägge parter vilket kan bidra till affärsmässiga hinder för SME-företag minskar, bestående bland annat av att komplexa upphandlingsdokument inte tas fram. ESPD-systemet har i dagsläget betydelsen att det skapar ett alternativ för hur leverantörer kan delta i offentliga upphandlingar. Det leder dock inte till ett ökat deltagande av SME-företag eftersom det, trots föresatserna, inte bidrar till minskad administrativ börda. Att dela upp ett kontrakt i mindre delar, sätta ett lägre omsättningskrav och föra dialog kan däremot skapa bättre förutsättningar för SME-företag i offentliga upphandlingar. Dessa bestämmelser tycks således bidra till ett ökat deltagande av SME-företag. Sammanfattningsvis kan sägas att de upphandlingsrättsliga regelverken ger goda förutsättningar för SME-företagen att delta i offentliga upphandlingar. Det är dock inte regelverket i sig som får betydelse eller bidrar till ett ökat deltagande av SME-företagen, utan tillämpningen av regelverket.

O crescimento de uma empresa pode ser apoiado com recursos de terceiros provenientes do mercado de crédito ou do mercado de capitais. Credores ou potenciais investidores disponibilizam recursos a partir de um processo de avaliação de indicadores de performance. Para as PMEs que consideram o crescimento, conhecer como os indicadores relevantes se comportam ao longo de um ciclo de crescimento é uma questão estratégica. Fatores como tamanho, lucratividade, oportunidades de crescimento, composição de ativos das empresas, risco inerente aos resultados, têm sido vinculados a determinantes de uma estrutura de capital. Assim sendo, este trabalho busca verificar quais indicadores podem nortear o desempenho empresarial de PMEs ao longo de um ciclo de crescimento. Como contribuição original, este trabalho apresenta um painel com indicadores em diferentes estágios de crescimento que resultam na geração de valor para os proprietários e potenciais investidores do mercado de capitais. A amostra inicial é composta por 1.610 empresas para o período de 2010 a 2014. Entretanto, considerando a disponibilidade de informações, a amostra final é composta por 28 empresas de porte médio/grande, 387 empresas grandes e 138 empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA, totalizando 553 empresas. A metodologia adotada envolve a classificação de porte de empresa do BNDES como critério para definir ciclo de crescimento, e testes de estatística descritiva, análise fatorial, análise de correlação, regressão múltipla linear e montagem de painel. Como resultado, verificou-se que as variáveis tamanho, composição de ativos e lucratividade são fatores que explicam o endividamento de curto prazo para o estágio médias/grandes empresas. Ainda, que esses fatores explicam o endividamento de longo prazo para os estágios grandes e empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA. Tais resultados estão de acordo com estudos prévios, mas as variáveis relacionadas a volatilidade e crescimento não foram significantes nos modelos para os estágios de empresas. O painel montado a partir das variáveis de composição de ativos e lucratividade indicou que endividamento de curto prazo, endividamento de longo prazo, receita líquida, retorno sobre o patrimônio líquido e lucros antes de juros, impostos, depreciação e amortização (EBITDA) sinalizam empresas, em cada estágio de ciclo de crescimento do estudo, que buscam o crescimento com rentabilidade acima da média e atendem a critérios valorizados pelo investidor do mercado de capitais. Estes indicadores podem sinalizar o desempenho empresarial de PMEs ao longo de um ciclo de crescimento / Financial resources coming from credit or capital market can support company growth. Creditors and potential investors make financial resources available through a scrutiny process that assesses performance indicators. For SMEs that want to grow, knowing how such indicators perform along the corporate life cycle is a strategic matter. Factors such as size, profitability, growth opportunities, asset composition and result volatility are viewed as capital structure determinants. Therefore, this work seeks to verify what indicators might work as performance beacons for SMEs interested in growing along the corporate life cycle. As an original contribution, this work offers an indicator panel based on value generation for business owners and capital market investors as well according to different growth stages. The initial data sample encompasses 1.610 companies for the 5-year period 2010-2014. However, due to information constraints, the final data sample comprises 28 medium-large companies, 387 large companies and 138 BM&FBOVESPA listed companies, totaling 553 companies. The methodology involves adopting BNDES size company criteria as corporate life cycle gauge, descriptive statistics, factorial analysis, correlation analysis, multiple linear regression and indicator panel construction. As a result, factors like size, asset composition and profitability appear to be short term debt determinants for medium-large growth stage companies. Such factors also seemed to be long term debt determinants for large and listed growth stage companies. These results are in accordance with previous papers, but neither volatility nor growth could explain growth stage debt. The panel constructed by considering asset composition and profitability as key denominators indicated short and long term debt, net revenue, return on equity, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization - EBITDA - as performance beacons for companies that seek growth and profitability above company average on each growth stage and therefore meet capital market investors criteria. Summing up, these indicators might work as performance guidelines for SMEs along the corporate life cycle

Os administradores de pequenas e médias empresas (PME) buscam práticas de desenvolvimento de produtos e conhecimento que auxilie a permanência delas e o crescimento no mercado. Uma forma de incorporar práticas consagradas é através da sistematização do Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produto (PDP). A representação desse processo pode ser realizada por meio de modelos referenciais os quais incluem atividades, ferramentas, conceitos e melhores práticas. Apesar disso, no que se refere à estruturação do PDP, de um modo geral, as empresas não incorporaram facilmente essas práticas à sua realidade. Em decorrência desse fato, há a necessidade de um modelo de transição entre a prática atual e aquelas propostas pelos modelos de referência disponíveis na literatura. No caso das empresas do setor farmacêutico, essa realidade não é diferente. A maioria das empresas, principalmente pequenas e médias, não considera fácil a tarefa de entendimento e implantação de um modelo referencial para o PDP. Contribuindo com a resolução dessa problemática, esse trabalho objetiva a elaboração de uma proposta de intervenção em empresas farmacêuticas de pequeno e médio porte. Essa proposta apresenta etapas para guiar a implantação de um modelo referencial adaptado ao setor e à empresa. Para tal, a proposta desse trabalho incorporou as melhores práticas de intervenção encontradas na literatura, como aspectos concernentes à engenharia do método e ao PDP. Foram analisados o ambiente de aplicação dos mesmos, o contexto do setor farmacêutico brasileiro e a estrutura organizacional das empresas de pequeno e médio porte, através de revisão bibliográfica e estudos de caso. Um modelo preliminar de intervenção foi elaborado considerando esses aspectos e guiado pelas teorias de gestão da mudança e engenharia do método. O modelo foi aprimorado através da sua aplicação em uma empresa, através de pesquisa-ação. O modelo de intervenção resultante desse trabalho contempla as características de PME do setor para auxiliar como guia para a melhoria dos processos de desenvolvimento de produtos e apresenta os princípios norteadores do processo de intervenção contemplando ferramentas que podem ser utilizadas para a realização do mesmo, além dos passos e etapas a serem seguidas. / The small and medium enterprises (SME) managers search for best practices and knowledges that help growing on the competitive world. The product development process (PDP), systematization and organization importance are largely diffused. The reference models are the PDP representation and include activities, tools, concepts and best practices. Nevertheless, the corporations do not easily incorporate those practices on their routine to improve their PDP. Then, a transition model from the real practice to the proposed literature reference model is needed. The pharmaceutical companies’ reality is not different. The enterprise’s managers, especially small and medium ones, do not consider easy to understand and implement the reference models. This research considered the theory of Method Engineering dominium applied to the Organizational Engineering dominium to compose an Intervention Model for the Pharmaceutical SME’s PDP. The model incorporated the intervention’s best practices found in the literature. The method and PDP dominium was discussed. The review of Brazilian Small and Medium Pharmaceutical Industry and their enterprise’s organizational structure characterizes the environment of intervention. Case studies performed at a company with typical characteristics of the studied group complemented the information of literature review. Useful tools and practices for the Pharmaceutical PDP and Intervention were identified from literature. The consideration of Change Management and Method Engineering theory led to the elaboration of the Preliminary Intervention Model. This model was evaluated by its application in a medium-sized pharmaceutical organization by action-research. The researcher’s observation supported the model improvement. This improvement generated the Intervention Model. The Intervention Model considers the pharmaceutical small and medium enterprises characteristics and can guide to the Pharmaceutical PDP improvement. The Model presents the processes, practices, principles and tools for the intervention process.

Esta pesquisa buscou compreender, de forma sistêmica, como as Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PME´s) desenvolvem novos produtos e implementam as estratégias de comunicação, no que se refere aos alimentos lácteos funcionais. Complementarmente, foram analisadas as possíveis restrições e os estímulos gerados pela legislação, nas inovações dessas empresas. Focou-se em unidades da Região Sul do Brasil, devido à representatividade local da cadeia do leite, à recente inserção de grandes empresas e ao perfil diferenciado dos consumidores nessa região. O método de pesquisa foi o de estudos multicaso, triangulando informações obtidas dos colaboradores das organizações, de especialistas externos, de agentes de regulação e de um órgão de defesa do consumidor. Como principais resultados, observou-se que a concorrência – geralmente Empresas Multinacionais (EMN´s) – é a principal fonte para as inovações das PME´s estudadas. Essa é uma estratégia tradicionalmente menos sujeita a riscos e que requer menores investimentos em comunicação. Porém, devido às particularidades do mercado de alimentos funcionais e às limitações competitivas das empresas de menor porte, ofertar produtos com certo grau de diferenciação da concorrência pode ser fundamental para garantir sua sobrevivência nesse mercado. Esse comportamento prioritariamente seguidor, contudo, parece ser decorrente da não-utilização de ferramentas gerenciais eficientes, da ausência de parcerias com centros nacionais de pesquisa, do baixo conhecimento do mercado consumidor e do foco excessivo em controles e certificações de qualidade. Esse “círculo vicioso” também sofre influência da burocracia e dos custos para registrar produtos/ingredientes inovadores, embora seja reconhecida a necessidade de uma legislação específica, de modo a garantir a sustentabilidade desse mercado. / How the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME´s) develop new products and implement the communication strategies, in reference of functional dairy foods, was this research objective. Complimentarily, the possible restrictions and stimulations generated by the legislation, in those companies innovation, were analyzed. It focused in unities of the Brazilian southern region, that have a representative local milk chain, a recent insertion of great companies and differential costumers profiles. The research method was a multicase study, using information from the enterprises, external specialists, regulatory agents and a consumer defense institute. It was observed that the competition is the primary source for the studied SME´s innovations. Traditionally, this strategy is less expose to risks and it requires minors investments in communication. However, the current functional foods market has many specific characteristics and the small companies have competitive limitations. So, the companies who produce differentiated products will have more possibilities to survive in this market. The observed second-mover behavior could be consequence of: the efficient managerial tools non-utilization, the partnerships with national research centers absence, the consuming market low knowledge and the high focus in quality controls and certifications. This “vicious circle” also suffers influence of the bureaucracy and the innovators products/ingredients registering costs, even so its recognized a specific legislation need, in a way to guarantee this market sustainability.