Brazilian Multinationals: Competencies for Internationalization

Since the 1950s, subsidiaries of the most prestigious foreign multinationals have played a key role in Brazilian economic development, thus creating a very competitive domestic market. On top of this, government interventions in the last few decades have been inconsistent and contradictory, resulting in a series of economic crises. Only the most resilient Brazilian firms have been able to survive and prosper in this challenging environment. This book, first published in 2011, analyzes a variety of leading Brazilian multinationals and examines their competencies and competitive strategies in a variety of different settings. It develops an innovative analytical framework based on international business, international operations management, and international human resources management. This framework is then applied not only to Brazilian multinationals, but also firms from Latin America, Russia, India and China. This provides novel insights into the rise of Brazilian multinationals and the increasingly important role played by emerging economy multinationals in the global economy.

Afonso Fleury is Professor of Technology, Work, and Organisation in the Production Engineering Department of the University of Sao Paulo. He has been a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (UK), the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et ChaussTs (France), and the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge. He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management and Vice-President (Americas) of the Production and Operations Management Society.
Maria Tereza Leme Fleury is the Dean of the School of Business Administration of Fundacao Getulio Vargas, in SR) Paulo, and former Dean of the School of Economics, Business Administration, and Accountancy of the University of Sao Paulo. Her publications cover areas such as strategy and competence management, human resources management, management of organizational culture, and labor relations. She was Visiting Professor at ESSEC (France) and at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, as well as a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (UK) and the Institute for Developing Economies (Tokyo). She is currently Director of ANPAD (Brazilian Academy of Management).