Brazilian corporations, the state and transnational activity: introduction to the special issue (2014) (original) (raw)
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Brazilian Corporations, the State and Transnational Activity (special issue) 2014
2014
Purpose -The aim of the paper is to introduce a special issue which looks at the collaboration between the Brazilian state and Brazilian corporations with regard to the transnational activities of the latter. Design/methodology/approach -Departing from the state of the art of current studies of emerging market multinationals, the paper highlights the need for interdisciplinary work to understand the particular role of the state with regard to the outward expansion of these companies. The paper then highlights the different approaches the five papers of the special issue have taken to address this task. Findings -Although Brazil can be counted among the most liberal emerging markets, the special issue finds a very close cooperation between the Brazilian state and Brazilian multinationals. The former helps to finance overseas expansion of Brazilian multinationals, supports the solution of conflicts with the governments of neighboring countries and articulates the interests of Brazilian multinationals in global governance. The problems created by this close cooperation rather materialize with third parties, in particular with somewhat poorer countries in the Brazilian neighborhood, but also with smaller companies, consumers or radical social movements in Brazil. Originality/value -The paper shows the diversity of approaches that an interdisciplinary cooperation between Political Science, Political Economy, Development Studies and International Business can mobilize to make sense of very close state-business cooperation with regard to transnational activities of emerging markets multinationals.
2013
The first decade of the XXI century evidenced transformations in the international order's financial dimension due to the growth in the so-called emerging powers. An indicator of such phenomenon is the emergence of multinational corporations from the developing world -MNC Latecomers-, turning certain countries, as is the case of Brazil, into net issuers of Foreign Direct Investment flows. In this sense, this paper analyzes the impact that the emergence and consolidation of Brazilian multinational corporations has had since 2003 until now on the foreign policy and the international insertion of Brazil (and vice versa), taking into consideration Robert Gilpin's classical work, "U.S. power and multinational corporation: the political economy of foreign direct investment." Gilpin's framework shall be useful for empirical contrast of this study case.
THE ROLE OF HOME COUNTRY POLITICAL RESOURCES FOR BRAZILIAN MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES
2011
O empenho de governos na promoção dos fluxos de investimentos diretos estrangeiros não é um fenômeno novo. Em países desenvolvidos, um exemplo do engajamento voltado para a formação de multinacionais pelo Estado foi o programa MIT no Japão. Na terceira onda de internacionalização, os governos dos países emergentes têm papel fundamental de implementar estratégias para que determinadas companhias construam sua competitividade global. Porém, os efeitos destas intervenções têm sido diverso na comparação com as ondas anteriores de internacionalização. A proposta do artigo “The Role of Home Country Political Resources for Brazilian Multinational Companies”, de Rodrigo Bandeira-de-Mello é investigar como se dá a interação entre as multinacionais com sede em países emergentes e seus governos, a partir da experiência brasileira. O autor destaca quais são os mecanismos utilizados pelo governo para impulsionar o processo de internacionalização das empresas, assim como também elege as principais estratégias políticas das companhias multinacionais em relação ao ambiente político institucional do país. Após uma breve revisão da literatura sobre International Business a respeito do papel atribuído aos governos do país de origem, o autor descreve sua metodologia de pesquisa e seus principais achados, que sugerem uma associação entre o comportamento político das multinacionais e os benefícios concedidos pelos governos. Mesmo antes da expansão internacional das multinacionais brasileiras, o governo brasileiro se mostrou predisposto a incentivar a concentração em setores estratégicos. O objetivo era construir "campeões nacionais", em condições de competir no mercado global. O processo passou a influenciar a política externa do país. A questão da inserção internacional das multinacionais alcançou um consenso interno de tal modo que acabou estimulando as empresas multinacionais a se aproximarem de algumas entidades governamentais que, por sua vez, passaram a ter uma agenda que agrega justamente os interesses das companhias. "Os governos tendem a visões de privilégios exclusivos sobre certas questões", declarou um executivo de multinacional brasileira durante entrevista aos pesquisadores. O estudo elege uma série mecanismos, formais e informais, adotados pelo governo brasileiro. O apoio financeiro é um destes instrumentos e tem um peso importante, dada a fragilidade do mercado de ações brasileiro e o pouco envolvimento dos bancos comerciais locais com empréstimos de longo prazo para as empresas. O Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) direciona seus recursos para empresas de grande porte, com estratégias voltadas para a internacionalização. O artigo cita o exemplo de uma empresa que obteve recursos do BNDES com taxas de juros impossíveis de obter no mercado. Há ainda a participação do governo como acionista. Embora uma série de privatizações e reformas liberais tenham sido implementadas nos anos 90, o Governo ainda mantém a participação como investidor em uma série de empresas privadas, além das estatais,. Há ainda empresas privatizadas, sob forte influência do governo. Neste caso, um exemplo é o da Embraer, na qual o poder público tem direitos por meio de golden shares. O governo mantém participações em grandes empresas através do BNDES ou de fundos de pensão estatais de pensão, o que tem fortalecido financeiramente algumas multinacionais brasileiras. Para as empresas, há grandes dificuldades relacionadas com a influência do governo sobre negócios no Brasil. No entanto, é preciso destacar um efeito a partir da experiência de aprendizagem no país de origem e as fases posteriores de internacionalização. Durante a década de 1980, a hiperinflação e turbulência política funcionaram como uma escola para as empresas nacionais, que desenvolveram competências para sobreviver em tempos instáveis. Atualmente, as multinacionais brasileiras são caracterizadas como organizações flexíveis, capazes de se adaptar rapidamente às mudanças externas, que podem ser úteis, mesmo operando em países desenvolvidos em crise financeira. Há uma percepção positiva em relação a entidades governamentais brasileiras que atuam na regulação sanitária. Há canais de diálogo, que tornam mais fácil o registro de produtos, a obtenção de licenças para fábricas etc. Este “diálogo aberto” é importante para as companhias multinacionais. "a fim de abastecer os mercados internacionais, as empresas têm de cumprir exigências sanitárias internacionais. Missões estrangeiras podem vir ao Brasil, ou eles podem delegar o processo de licenciamento ao governo brasileiro”, declarou um executivo. Enfim, o governo brasileiro tem a experiência necessária para lidar com tais exigências. Outra contribuição do poder público é a articulação com governos estrangeiros e organizações internacionais. A intervenção do país de origem junto a mercados que são alvo das multinacionais parece ser um instrumento facilitador para as estratégias das companhias. Já em relação ao comportamento político das empresas multinacionais brasileiras, há estratégias visando manter uma conexão com o governo. O objetivo é “controlar” mudanças que possam afetar seus negócios. Entre estas estratégias, estão as doações financeiras para campanhas de partidos políticos, e seus candidatos, que defendem os interesses do setor em que as companhias atuam. O artigo ainda destaca a importância das conexões pessoais no Brasil. Trata-se de um mecanismo poderoso para influenciar os tomadores de decisão do governo, permitindo que as empresas com maior poder de barganha junto ao governo se mantenham informadas sobre as políticas relacionadas a sua indústria. Outro instrumento relevante são as associações que reúnem as empresas.
State Support for Emerging Market Transnational Companies: The Brazilian and Chinese experiences
Most studies on the internationalization of firms from emerging markets emphasize their experiences, strategies and the main challenges faced in foreign markets. In this process, the instrumental role of governments is often neglected. Brazil and China are home of some of the largest and most competitive transnational companies from emerging markets with investments spreading steadily towards a growing number of countries and regions. Crucial to this phenomenon is the role of the Brazilian and Chinese governments, who are actively promoting this process through direct financial support for cross-national acquisitions, export and fiscal incentives, measures to strengthen these companies’ positions in their home markets, diplomatic and commercial missions abroad and often by joining these transnational enterprises as full partners. Seeking to advance understanding of how states have contributed to the internationalization of Brazilian and Chinese companies, this study analyzes the mai...
Dissenting Views on the State, Multinationals, and Developing Countries
SAIS Review, 2001
In 1962, Alexander Gerschenkron published a landmark book disc ussing economic development in-backward‖ countries 2. He viewed-development‖ as an effort by-backward‖ countries to catch up with advanced nations by developing institutional maturity and acquiring technological control of innovative systems. He argued t hat governments played a crucial role in this process by encouraging large capital investments in order to form and consolidate heavy national industries. According to the author, the state should be the key element for inducing and controlling development, while large companies, because of their ability to dominate the latest generation technological systems, should be the main actors of industrialization. For many years, Gerschenkron's perspective on economic development has been a reference for scholars writing about Brazilian developmentone of the most robust in the world following the Second World War. Gerschenkron's influence was evident in Peter Evans' insights 3 on the-triple development alliance‖ (State, multinationals, and local business), as well as in Barbara Geddes' 4 analysis of the State's building capacity in Latin America. While Geschenkron's work has substantially influenced many who study Latin America, one of his fundamental theoretical pillars is now being challenged by Caren Addis in her book, Taking the Wheel, and, in a different way, by Kenneth Thomas in his latest release, Capital Beyond Borders. Historically, scholars of Gerschenkron's school of thought have looked at Brazilian development as a sequence of chapters directed by the state with the assistance
Multinational Corporations from Emerging Markets. State Capitalism 3.0 (2014)
2014
The rise of multinational corporations (MNCs) from emerging markets has been a major development during the last decade. An important feature of emerging market MNCs is their close relationship with home states. This book investigates this special kind of relationship and explores how it affects the cross-border activities of these corporations. In order to address this task, it opts for an integration of approaches traditionally kept apart because of the disciplinary separation between International Business and International Political Economy. Based on country case studies of the most important emerging markets, as well as of investigations into selected international institutions, it highlights the emergence of a third wave of state capitalism that is different from the previous two in the 19th and 20th centuries. State capitalism 3.0 is neither based on prohibitive tariffs, nor on one central command, but rather on a variety of formal and informal cooperative relationships between various public authorities and individual companies.
2011
This volume describes the performance of Multinationals Enterprises (MNEs), proposing an analytical model to be applied to MNEs from the BRIC countries, in particular to Brazilian Multinationals (BrMNEs). Basically, it demonstrates how BrMNEs learned processes and technologies from foreign companies established in Brazil, recreated their own identity and eventually adapted their management style in their subsidiaries located in other countries. The research describes the internationalization process of BrMNEs which will later be compared with the results of a survey. The findings suggest that BrMNEs position themselves in the global supply networks through their subsidiaries. This Brazilian pattern is compared, at first, with Latin American companies (Multilatinas) and then with the RICS' (Russia, India, China and South Africa) MNEs. Highlighting differences, the model is revisited using case studies. At the end, results are presented and key characteristics of BrMNEs and suggestions for future research are made. Probably the most distinctive feature of the emerging countries is that they are rapidly improving living standards with the expansion of the middle class due to their increasing economic aspirations. As a result, their importance to the international economy increases not only as attractive destinations for exports, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and supply sourcing (Cavusgil et al., 2010), but also as a resource for understanding the incipient internationalization phenomena, allowing an understanding of specific characteristics of companies from these markets in their early stage of internationalization and the development of research in the area. The study of BrMNEs operating in a global context reported in this book aims to understand: how the processes of internationalization of companies from emerging countries occur? Where do they go to? How do they move outwards? And what impact do they cause on the international production and trade? In order to work on these issues, the following important assumptions are stated: (1) the propensity to internationalize increases whenever there are changes in the paradigms that guide production organization at the global level, thereby creating 'windows of opportunity' and 'waves of internationalization', and (2) seizing those opportunities is connected with the organizational competencies and managerial styles developed by firms which compete in the global industries and interact with their national, or local environments, respectively. The book is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the analysis of the internationalization process of Brazilian companies, seeking to elucidate an emerging model of international management. Firstly, in a very creative way, the authors seek inspiration in the work of the classic Portuguese writer called Camões (author of The Lusiads), using one of his poems to present the competitive capabilities of the Iberian countries in the XIV and XV centuries, introducing the basis on which the Brazilian culture has been built and, at the same time, constructing the metaphor of 'windows of opportunity' or 'waves of internationalization' caused by changes in technology, economic and social environments. In this context, a brief discussion of globalization is made as an introduction, preparing the scenario, without losing the theme itself inside the discussion. It is possible, at this stage, to notice that the authors relate different perspectives on the subject, avoiding a discourse toward neoliberal globalization as a means of promoting the interests of dominant countries in the international economy. Such discourse is based on the theory that all countries will converge to a neoliberal capitalism (Faria, 2011). Thus, instead of assuming that the dominant nations 'export knowledge' in an uncritically and asymmetric way to developing and emerging countries, it is understood, in the book, that globalization brings new environmental conditions for organizations and institutions in search of global knowledge and influence, whether they are of political, religious, cultural or economic nature. At this point, the first multinationals from the western world are introduced, beginning with the Dutch East India Company in 1602 as the number one, amongst other European companies that will eventually emerge in the following centuries. Here, the concept adopted in the book for MNEs is presented: 'a network of dispersed operations, a configuration of competencies and an international strategy involving Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)'. That is, to be considered a multinational, the company must be headquartered in different countries, develop specific skills and expertise (which are transferred from one country host to another) and have a production line at these locations. Therefore, this is the taxonomy used to classify MNEs covered in the book. It is from this notion that the discussion on emerging markets (and the importance of the BRIC countries, especially Brazil) appears and, then, an analytical model is proposed. This
The transformation of state-business relations in an emerging economy
Critical perspectives on international business, 2014
This paper examines the Brazilian case in an effort to shed light on how state-business relations have been transformed in the contemporary era of globalization. Brazil has long been considered the archetype of “dependent development”, having served as the inspiration for the classic theory of the relationship between states and capital in the semi-peripheral states of the developing world. Since the theory of dependent development was initially formulated in the 1970s, however, both the Brazilian political economy and the global context in which it is situated have changed dramatically. The paper shows how the emergence of a highly competitive export-oriented agribusiness sector in Brazil has prompted the expansion and internationalization of domestic capital, leading to the emergence of an independent, private sector lobby with considerable influence on the Brazilian state. Driven by the rise of Brazilian agribusiness, the state and capital have allied together to aggressively pursue the expansion of markets for Brazilian exports, specifically through dispute settlement and negotiations at the WTO. These findings challenge conventional understandings of state-business relations in emerging economies such as Brazil.
Business, Government and Foreign Policy: Brazilian Construction Firms Abroad
Brazilian Political Science Review
This article analyses the interaction between Brazilian companies and government in the context of foreign policy, observing the state's support for the internationalization of large Brazilian civil construction firms. The results show that over the years these companies had privileged access to the Federal Executive, including civil service agencies. One consequence of this system of channelling demands through the Executive was to demote the Legislative branch to a secondary role. This pattern of interaction changed following the restoration of Congress's decision-making capacity, prompting the sector to diversify its areas of influence, focusing in particular on the Congress. To expand internationally, construction firms interact with the government primarily through the Executive, specifically via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty), which provides technical and diplomatic support, and the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico, which supplies funding. The main argument of this article is that foreign policy should be examined through the relations between state and non-state actors in a multitude of decision-making arenas, taking into consideration both domestic and international factors.