Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This article discusses some of the implications of the market-oriented reforms and the rapid pace of globalisation of the world economy in the 1990s for industrial technological capability building in Latin America. On the one hand, such changes have permitted much better macroeconomic management, allowing governments to curb inflation, and to deal with recurrent fiscal and balance of payments imbalances. These reforms and the process of globalization have also induced the inception of a modern sector of production which has managed to incorporate many new computer-based production organisation technologies and to attain rapid progress in the use of ICTs. New sectors of economic activity have emerged in the economy, many of which now lead in terms of international competitiveness.

In this paper we examine the process of technological capability building in the Brazilian industry. The paper is based on the IBGE PINTEC report published in 2002. A discussion is made about the nature and the intensity of the firm’s innovative activities, the novelty of the implemented changes, the sources of information, and the interrelations with suppliers and customers. We investigate the cooperation relations between firms and research institutions, looking for the existence of a national system of innovation. We investigate the impact of this relationship on the innovative performance of the firms in the context of the knowledge-based economy. Finally, we argue that the innovations introduced by the Brazilian industrial firms are closer to a casual process of equipment modernization rather than to the development of new products or processes based on R&D investments.

This article tries to describe and analyze the role of state-owned enterprises in the implementation of the public policy of science and technology. It shows their contribution for the accomplishment of those purposes and how they conciliated them with their corporate interests in order to solve efficiently the production problems they had. In a timid way during the 50s and clearly in the 60s, several state-owned enterprises developed an institutional and organic process of technology creation and development. The text analyzes the cases of the technology reaserch centers of Petrobrás (CENPES), Eletrobrás (CETEL), Telebrás group (CPqD) and the specific example of EMBRAPA, enterprise whose main objective is the research in the field of agriculture.

Government has a fundamental role in the development of an efficient national innovation system, strong enough to allow the development of R&D and innovation in firms. Thus companies constantly expect several programs and policies from Government in order to support their technological innovation. This is a fundamental condition if Brazil wants to reach a higher level of development. However, not only the Government, but also the companies need to develop some actions for a better innovative result, i.e., companies need to do their "homework". The objective of this paper is to discuss and analyze some of these actions to support the innovation in companies.

This presents an overview of the theoretical perspectives on industrial development and technological development. It goes further to present the main components of an alternative approach, called political economy approach.

From the mid-1960s, 'maquila' plants were established in the Mexican Northern border. The Mexican model was based on foreign firms establishing their own assembly plants. Even though this model was less successful than that of East and South East Asian in terms of several techno-economic indicators, it has largely contributed to employment generation. However, as a result of internal learning process and changes in the global firms strategies, several 'maquilas' operating in Mexico have undergone important qualitative changes. During the 1990s there was a change in the nature of their productive and technological activities towards more complex products and more innovative technological activities. In contrast, other dimensions have evolved slowly, such as the engagement of Mexican suppliers in global supply chains. The aim of this paper is to discuss an analytical framework to help study the technological capability accumulation in the ‘maquila’ industry in Mexico. Based on that the paper seeks to examine levels of technological capability accumulation of three maquilas, and to bring to light some stylized facts of the accumulation process in this industry. The analytical framework proposed draws on the taxonomy of technological capabilities proposed by Bell & Pavitt (1995) for the manufacturing industry in developing countries and its further adaptations and applications carried in Figueiredo (2001) and Ariffin & Figueiredo (2003, 2004). This paper adapts it to the particularities of the ‘maquila’ industry in Mexico. The new taxonomy includes technical functions that are relevant to this industry and redefines activities that correspond to various levels of accumulation. This paper is based on a case study methodology. The cases are the business lines of three maquilas in Ciudad Juarez: Thomson Multimedia, Philips Corp. and Delphi Corp.

This article examines the implications of technological capability accumulation for technical performance improvement in two mobile phone companies in Brazil. The article adopts a comprehensive perspective on technological capability that goes beyond conventional elements – such as techno-physical systems and human capital – to capture the organizational dimension of technological capability. This article examines the technological activity – i.e. what the firm can do technologically on its onw – as an expression of technological capability. In order to operationalize such approach, this article makes use of a systematic, comprehensive and tailored framework for measuring technological capability accumulation in the mobile phone industry. The framework identifies types and levels of capabilities for three technological functions: (i) project management; (ii) services; and (iii) equipment. This article makes use of various technical performance indicators at the level of the case-study-companies (1993-2000). The article draws on first-hand empirical evidence collected through different data-gathering techniques during extensive fieldwork. The manner and speed of technological capability accumulation have played an important role in improving the technical performance of the case-study companies. The study suggests that an environment marked by competitive pressures and users´´´´´´´´ high-quality requirements stimulates firms to speed up their technological capability-accumulation process in order to improve their technical performance.

This paper examines the implications of technological capability accumulation for inter-firm differences in terms of techno-economic performance improvement. Such issues are examined on the basis of a comparative case study of two firms of the furniture industry in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Southern Brazil): D’Itália Moveis Industriais Ltda (1990-2000) e Pozza SA Industrial Moveleira (1963-2000). The framework to examine technological capability identifies types and levels of capability for three functions: (i) process and production organization; (ii) products; (iii) equipment related activities. Techno-economic performance is examined here on the basis of 16 different indicators. This article draws on first-hand empirical framework collected through multiple data-gathering techniques during an extensive fieldwork. Although the two case-study firms have been born and grown under the same industrial sector and, during a great part of their existence they operated under identical sectoral and macro-economic conditions, the study found significant differences between these two firms in terms of the manner and speed of technological capability accumulation. The evidence suggests that a large part of such differences were reflected in the differences between the two firms in terms of techno-economic performance.

The objective of this case study is to demonstrate that incremental improvements in product development processes can be understood as an outcome of strong competitive pressures originated both in subsidiary’s external environment and in the internal organization of the multinational corporations (MNC’s) R&D activities. From a theoretical viewpoint, the article reveals an internal R&D organization rarely found in practice which combines three elements known forms studies of organizational governance: hierarchy, market and cooperation. In this respect, the company is different from the “classical” organization which is exclusively based on hierarchical control. In line with our main objective, we will show that this combination seems to be one of the main factors that foster learning and the improvement to the product development process. The latter point as well as the comprehensive perspective of a MNC’s R&D organization might also convey some useful insights from a practical point of view.