A intervenção do estado na economia: um estudo de caso do setor elétrico

Estuda-se a intervenção do Estado na economia através da regulação, tendo como objeto de análise o setor elétrico brasileiro. O presente estudo tem como objetivo verificar de que forma o Estado, desde a promulgação da Constituição de 1988, buscou cumprir os princípios estabelecidos na Ordem Econômica constitucional e exercer a sua função de ente regulador, fiscalizador, planejador e indutor do crescimento econômico, no setor elétrico. Analisa-se a reforma do Estado pensada pelo ex-Ministro Bresser Pereira e a inclusão de empresas do setor elétrico no Plano Nacional de Desestatização. Observa-se que o processo de privatização permanece inacabado nos segmentos da geração e da transmissão. Investiga-se a instituição do MAE e a criação do produtor independente de energia elétrica, no contexto de uma reforma que pretendia encaminhar o setor elétrico para o livre mercado. Estuda-se a crise de racionamento e a mudança de estratégia do Governo, cuja prioridade passou a ser um maior planejamento central que garantisse a segurança energética e a expansão da geração e transmissão. Analisa-se as diferenças entre o ACL e o ACR, bem como a formação do preço da energia elétrica em cada um e conclui-se, por meio da leitura de precedentes do CADE, que trata-se do mesmo mercado relevante na dimensão produto. Investiga-se as mudanças trazidas pela MP-579 e de que forma a intervenção do Estado no setor elétrico aumentou, e os impactos que isso trouxe. Conclui-se que, a partir da edição da MP-579, a intervenção do Estado no setor elétrico aumentou com o objetivo de controlar os preços e garantir a segurança energética, mas que as mudanças regulatórias não foram bem sucedidas em manter e a tarifa da energia paga pelo consumidor final em patamares baixos, tampouco em garantir a oferta de energia elétrica suficiente para cobrir a demanda das distribuidoras.

Winning in Brazil: how institutional voids affect the entry decision making process of foreign venture capital firms coming to Brazil

The master thesis for the achievement of the academic status master of science in international management (MPGI) will aim to solve the research question of how institutional voids affect the entry decision-making process of foreign venture capital firms coming to Brazil. This is a timely matter since in the past years there has been a sudden eruption of foreign VC involvement in Brazil. Based on the actionable framework by Khanna and Palpeu (2010) we conducted quantitative as well as qualitative research with two sets of interview partners in a two-phase analysis. We interviewed experts from VC firms, foreign VC firms based in Brazil and perspective VC firms that are looking to come to Brazil. We started with the former, derived lessons learned and analyzed how they affect the latter in reaching a decision. As we expected we found that depending on the industry that ventures are in, institutional voids can either pose an opportunity or a threat and hence attract or push away potential VC firms entering Brazil. Opportunities exist especially when exploiting institutional voids, for example through ventures in the marketplace efficiency. Threats are posed by investments in for instance hard infrastructure, where the economic, political and judicial systems as well as corruption and bureaucracy play demanding roles.

International civil society actors in Genetically Modificied Organisms as a field of struggle: a neo-gramscian study in Brazil and the United Kingdom

Since the international financial and food crisis that started in 2008, strong emphasis has been made on the importance of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) (or “transgenics”) under the claim that they could contribute to increase food productivity at a global level, as the world population is predicted to reach 9.1 billion in the year 2050 and food demand is predicted to increase by as much as 50% by 2030. GMOs are now at the forefront of the debates and struggles of different actors. Within civil society actors, it is possible to observe multiple, and sometime, conflicting roles. The role of international social movements and international NGOs in the GMO field of struggle is increasingly relevant. However, while many of these international civil society actors oppose this type of technological developments (alleging, for instance, environmental, health and even social harms), others have been reportedly cooperating with multinational corporations, retailers, and the biotechnology industry to promote GMOs. In this thesis research, I focus on analysing the role of “international civil society” in the GMO field of struggle by asking: “what are the organizing strategies of international civil society actors, such as NGOs and social movements, in GMO governance as a field of struggle?” To do so, I adopt a neo-Gramscian discourse approach based on the studies of Laclau and Mouffe. This theoretical approach affirms that in a particular hegemonic regime there are contingent alliances and forces that overpass the spheres of the state and the economy, while civil society actors can be seen as a “glue” to the way hegemony functions. Civil society is then the site where hegemony is consented, reproduced, sustained, channelled, but also where counter-hegemonic and emancipatory forces can emerge. Considering the importance of civil society actors in the construction of hegemony, I also discuss some important theories around them. The research combines, on the one hand, 36 in-depth interviews with a range of key civil society actors and scientists representing the GMO field of struggle in Brazil (19) and the UK (17), and, on the other hand, direct observations of two events: Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, and the first March Against Monsanto in London in 2013. A brief overview of the GMO field of struggle, from its beginning and especially focusing in the 1990s when the process of hegemonic formation became clearer, serves as the basis to map who are the main actors in this field, how resource mobilization works, how political opportunities (“historical contingencies”) are discovered and exploited, which are the main discourses (“science” and “sustainability” - articulated by “biodiversity preservation”, “food security” and “ecological agriculture”) articulated among the actors to construct a collective identity in order to attract new potential allies around “GMOs” (“nodal point”), and which are the institutions and international regulations within these processes that enable hegemony to emerge in meaningful and durable hegemonic links. This mapping indicates that that the main strategies applied by the international civil society actors are influenced by two central historical contingencies in the GMO field of struggle: 1) First Multi-stakeholder Historical Contingency; and 2) “Supposed” Hegemony Stability. These two types of historical contingency in the GMO field of struggle encompass deeper hegemonic articulations and, because of that, they induce international civil society actors to rethink the way they articulate and position themselves within the field. Therefore, depending on one of those moments, they will apply one specific strategy of discourse articulation, such as: introducing a new discourse in hegemony articulation to capture the attention of the public and of institutions; endorsing new plural demands; increasing collective visibility; facilitating material articulations; sharing a common enemy identity; or spreading new ideological elements among the actors in the field of struggle.

Compliance com os requisitos de divulgação do IFRS - International Financial Reporting Standards e sua relação com o erro de previsão dos analistas de mercado

O objetivo deste estudo é fazer uma análise da relação entre o erro de previsão dos analistas de mercado quanto à rentabilidade das empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA S.A. (Bovespa) e os requerimentos de divulgação do International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Isto foi feito através da regressão do erro de previsão dos analistas, utilizando a metodologia de dados em painel no ano de implantação do IFRS no Brasil, 2010, e, complementarmente em 2012, para referenciamento desses dados. Partindo desse pressuposto, foi determinado o erro de previsão das empresas listadas na Bovespa através de dados de rentabilidade (índice de lucro por ação/earnings per share) previstos e realizados, disponíveis nas bases de dados I/B/E/S Earnings Consensus Information, providos pela plataforma Thomson ONE Investment Banking e Economática Pro®, respectivamente. Os resultados obtidos indicam uma relação negativa entre o erro de previsão e o cumprimento dos requisitos de divulgação do IFRS, ou seja, quanto maior a qualidade nas informações divulgadas, menor o erro de previsão dos analistas. Portanto, esses resultados sustentam a perspectiva de que o grau de cumprimento das normas contábeis é tão ou mais importante do que as próprias normas. Adicionalmente, foi verificado que quando a empresa listada na BM&FBOVESPA é vinculada a Agência Reguladora, seu erro de previsão não é alterado. Por fim, esses resultados sugerem que é importante que haja o aprimoramento dos mecanismos de auditoria das firmas quanto ao cumprimento dos requerimentos normativos de divulgação, tais como: penalidades pela não observância da norma (enforcement), estruturas de governança corporativa e auditorias interna e externa.

Cultural strategies: how do national cultures impact the operations strategy?

Through the assessment of the fourth round of the High Performance Manufacturing (HPM) project and the introduction of Hofstede’s Cultural Classification, the present work aims to deepen the comprehension of the impact of National Cultures on firms’ Operations Strategy. The ANOVA comparisons of four Operations Strategy elements in countries with different industrialization and development backgrounds (e.g. Germany, China, Brazil and South Korea) suggest that while Integrating Leadership and Implementation of Manufacturing Strategy are affected by the cultural levels of Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance, the other two elements of Operations Strategy, Functional Integration and Formal Manufacturing Strategy, show effects of the degree of Individualism vs. Collectivism and Long-Term Orientation. The results of the study are expected to offer new perspectives on the planning and implementation of strategic and operations management for both practitioners and academics. More specifically, the analysis of cross-cultural influence over operations strategy may contribute to a better understanding of how cooperative behavior may lead firms to generate higher rents through the strengths and weaknesses of their relations, particularly in terms of global supply chains.

International entry modes in Brazil and the CAGE distances effects

The international entry mode choices have a relevant importance for the impact they have on successful internationalization strategies. Many theories have been developed to describe which entry mode may be better than another according to the particular situation. The CAGE Distances Framework developed by Ghemawat to identify which dimensions companies should look when develop an internationalization strategy, may be useful to identify also how those dimensions impact on the international entry mode decision. The aim of this thesis is to study which kind of relationship exists between Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic Distances and international entry mode choice. It analyzes a sample of companies that have been entered in Brazil through a logistic regression. According to this analysis, a negative and significant relation between Cultural Distance and need of control exists, a positive one exists between Administrative and Geographic, while no significant relationship has been found with the Economic dimension. Those findings are conceivably explainable through the theories found by scholars, but a deeper analysis that may take into account the specificity of every country is highly recommended, like the one developed with Brazil in this thesis.

Customer intimacy strategy in B2B technology businesses in Colombia

The main objective of this Thesis is to analyze Customer Intimacy Strategy in B2B technology businesses in Colombia and the variables that have a direct relationship with it like perception, trust and networking. And how a Customer Intimacy Strategy can affect a company to achieve positive or negative results in an operation, in terms of business opportunities, relations and profitable and sustainable sales if properly managed or mismanaged. With a population of almost 50 million people, GDP average growth of 4.22%(considering 2013 up to 2017), a strategic geographic location in Latin America close to the middle of the region with direct access to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, on the verge to reach a peace agreement ending its long time social and security conflict with the local guerrillas, Colombia is a country with a stable economic present and promising future. But despite the appealing business landscape and opportunities both in number and size, it is a developing economy where firms who are willing to run a startup or who currently have B2B technology operations in this country will find out that uncertainty and mistrust are two of the most critical variables that need to be overcome in order to achieve success. Their relevance will vary from one region to another, but will still be considered of most importance throughout the country. This matter is highly important to B2B technology businesses in Colombia because few firms are aware of the importance of customer intimacy strategy, believing that it is just a matter of social relationships and not considering the diverse number of variables such us perception, trust and networking that compose it. Customer intimacy strategy at the end becomes the main and most relevant source of sales in a B2B technology environment in Colombia.

Brazilian competitiveness on international trade

In recent years, Brazil benefited from foreign trade expansion and its exports of goods grew by 16.5%. If this strong growth trend keeps up for the next years, today’s bottlenecks may have a negative impact on the competitiveness of the country’s products in the global market. This is especially critical for one of the main “green fuels” producers in a scenario where the demand for this energy source grows due to rising oil prices and environmental concerns. Based on a survey that collected data from 250 Brazilian exporters, this study focuses on the constraints that reduce the competitiveness of exports. This study differs from previous ones in that it considers the professionals directly involved with export activities and evaluates different aspects, including logistics, operations, taxes, legal, bureaucratic and informational ones. Results show that the most important constraints strongly affect costs and delivery reliability