Why is patent production so comparatively low at Petrobras?

As a latecomer firm, Petrobras’ innovation progress has previously been measured in terms of its productive capacity, capability accumulation, and more recently in terms of its strategic R&D and new product development. Patents are an acceptable proxy for innovation, especially for complex innovations such as biofuels and deepwater oil exploration & production, and this study evaluates Petrobras’ patent intensity relative to Shell and ExxonMobil for the years 2008–2012. The study found that while Petrobras may be a world-leader in deepwater E&P, its patent activities and portfolio are not competitive with its peers. This low patent intensity (and, by proxy, innovation) of Petrobras’ is explained by past and present institutional, cultural, and firm-specific factors.

Uncertainty aversion and the optmal choice of portfolio

In this paper we apply the theory of declsion making with expected utility and non-additive priors to the choice of optimal portfolio. This theory describes the behavior of a rational agent who i5 averse to pure 'uncertainty' (as well as, possibly, to 'risk'). We study the agent's optimal allocation of wealth between a safe and an uncertain asset. We show that there is a range of prices at which the agent neither buys not sells short the uncertain asset. In contrast the standard theory of expected utility predicts that there is exactly one such price. We also provide a definition of an increase in uncertainty aversion and show that it causes the range of prices to increase.

Do higher moments really matter in portfolio choice?

We present explicit formulas for evaluating the difference between Markowitz weights and those from optimal portfolios, with the same given return, considering either asymmetry or kurtosis. We prove that, whenever the higher moment constraint is not binding, the weights are never the same. If, due to special features of the first and second moments, the difference might be negligible, in quite many cases it will be very significant. An appealing illustration, when the designer wants to incorporate an asset with quite heavy tails, but wants to moderate this effect, further supports the argument.

Mercado brasileiro de medicamentos genéricos: análise do desemprenho de uma subsidiária de laboratório estrangeiro

The pharmaceutical industry is a segment that is dominated by transnational companies. This characteristic is visible in Brazil, where there are only three domestic laboratories in the top ten pharmaceutical companies list. From the 1970s onwards, the world pharmaceutical market went through deep changes caused mainly to the increase of regulatory control and patent expiration that led to the advent of generic medicaments. In 1999, it was published the law that allowed the introduction of generic medicaments in Brazil, creating a new market that is currently dominated by domestic laboratories. This dissertation proposes to identify the reasons for a subsidiary of foreign laboratory does not achieve the leadership of this market. The literature is based on international political economy and international business concepts that means, relations between subsidiary and head office, domestic and foreign companies and government. Four propositions are presented and tested through multiple sources of evidences. The empirical research was mainly grounded in interviews with key persons and participant observation that allowed access to information, which would be not available for scientific investigation. The results indicate that the relationships considered in this study affect the subsidiary performance in generic medicament market in regard to its ability to make decisions, price competitiveness and wide portfolio creation. The respondents considered those three aspects as success critical factors. The results can be used for future research, aiming to wide the focus of the study about domestic laboratory dominance in generic medicament markets. Another suggestion is to follow this market evolution regarding to the internationalization process of domestic laboratories.

Sale of credit portfolio and risk : the case of financial institutions in Brazil

Este estudo analisa se as vendas de carteiras de crédito são utilizadas por instituições financeiras para gestão de risco, de acordo com Stanton(1998) e Murray(2001) ou para captação recursos, como apontado em Cebenoyan e Strahan(2001) e Dionne e Harchaoui(2003). Duas hipóteses foram testadas quanto às vendas de carteira de crédito: 1) implicam em melhor rating na carteira remanescente; ou 2) promovem alavancagem financeira - com piora na carteira remanescente -, controlando para a existência de coobrigação e para quem esses ativos foram transferidos. A amostra inclui informações trimestrais de 145 instituições financeiras do primeiro trimestre de 2001 ao segundo trimestre de 2008. Os resultados oferecem evidências empíricas de que as instituições financeiras utilizam estas vendas para melhora do rating da carteira de crédito remanescente, ou seja, elas transferem, em sua maioria, ativos de baixa qualidade, garantindo bons ratings e melhorando a liquidez. Adicionalmente, seguindo a proposta Dionne e Harchaoui(2003) - que além de testar, evidenciam que exigências regulatórias promovem alavancagem em ativos de alto risco - foi observada a relação entre o Índice de Basiléia e rating da carteira de crédito. As conclusões foram semelhantes às encontradas por Dionne e Harchaoui(2003): quanto mais adequada – maior Índice de Basiléia - uma instituição financeira for, maiores as chances de ela possuir uma carteira de crédito com qualidade ruim.

Pharmaceutical patent bargains: the Brazilian experience

In the backdrop of the strict patent regime flatly adopted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for all countries, a few countries constantly challenge this system through aggressive patent bargains. Within the pharmaceutical sector, noticeably, some countries now threaten to issue or otherwise actually issue compulsory licenses that may sway large pharmaceutical companies into selling drugs with large discounts or into granting voluntary licenses domestically. That is conspicuously the negotiation strategy adopted by Brazil in its negotiations with big international pharmaceutical companies.This paper explains Brazil’s aggressive bargaining approach based on an analysis of two aspects of its political economy. The first has to do with the international context of patent bargaining in the post-WTO era. Accordingly, the existence of large and fast growing domestic markets position countries such as Brazil as strategic destinations for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and trade. Together with an absence of a propensity to innovate in pharmaceutical products, these conditions boost Brazil’s bargaining power for issuing compulsory licenses over pharmaceutical products. The second aspect is related to political economy dynamics inside Brazil. Accordingly, the political framework in Brazil undermines long-term policies and favors short-sighted ones also vis-a-vis R&D investments in the pharmaceutical industry. This remains true regardless of the strictness of the patent regime in place. The lesson of Brazil is relevant arguably for other more powerful developing countries which presently examine Brazil's approach while further challenging the WTO's strict patent policy for the future.

On certain geometric aspects of portfolio optimisation with higher moments

We discuss geometric properties related to the minimisation of a portfolio kurtosis given its first two odd moments, considering a risk-less asset and allowing for short sales. The findings are generalised for the minimisation of any given even portfolio moment with fixed excess return and skewness, and then for the case in which only excess return is constrained. An example with two risky assets provides a better insight on the problems related to the solutions. The importance of the geometric properties and their use in the higher moments portfolio choice context is highlighted.

Finding a maximum skewness portfolio - A general solution to three-moments portfolio choice

Considering the three first moments and allowing short sales, the efficient portfolios set for n risky assets and a riskless one is found, supposing that agents like odd moments and dislike even ones. Analytical formulas for the solution surface are obtained and important geometric properties provide insights on its shape in the three dimensional space defined by the moments. A special duality result is needed and proved. The methodology is general, comprising situations in which, for instance, the investor trades a negative skewness for a higher expected return. Computation of the optimum portfolio weights is feasible in most cases.

Business cycle and bank loan portfolio performance : empirical evidence from brazilian banks

Este trabalho estuda os efeitos do crescimento econômico e da taxas de juros sobre o desempenho de carteiras de empréstimo dos bancos comerciais brasileiros no período de 2000 a 2010. Os resultados empíricos mostram que o crescimento econômico é o principal "driver" para o desempenho da carteira de crédito. Não foram encontradas evidências estatísticas sginificativas de mudanças na taxa de juros sobre o desempenho das carteiras de empréstimos. Além disso, há evidências empíricas de que o impacto do crescimento econômico sobre o desempenho da carteria de crédito tem efeito defasado de 2 trimestres. Por fim, os resultados mostram que alterações de PIB impactam de forma mais significativa o desempenho da carteira de crédito dos bancos comerciais brasileiros maiores. Devido ao efeito multiplicador do mercado de crédito, quanto maior o banco, maior a expansão relativa de sua carteira de crédito e, conseqüentemente a taxa de inadimplência da carteira, que é agravada pela concentração do mercado de crédito no Brasil.

Pesquisa orientada a resultado : proposta de um método estruturado para disponibilizar uma nova tecnologia para o mercado : um caso aplicado ao projeto etanol de 2ª geração

Esta dissertação de mestrado teve como objetivo principal propor um método estruturado suportado for ferramentas gerenciais que permitisse orientar e sistematizar o desenvolvimento de um projeto de pesquisa na disponibilização de uma nova tecnologia para o mercado. O “Projeto Etanol de 2ª Geração”, etanol produzido a partir de biomassas lignocelulósicas, aqui selecionado para estudo de caso, foi extraído da carteira de projetos do Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC). O método estruturado sugerido é constituído, fundamentalmente, por oito requisitos arranjados de forma cronológica ao longo do desenvolvimento do projeto, que visam auxiliar na prospecção, entendimento, avaliação, valoração, priorização, planejamento e implantação de, por exemplo, uma tecnologia inovadora, otimizando tempo, capital e recursos humanos aplicados. Um dos principais pontos do método proposto refere-se à escolha adequada das ferramentas gerenciais a serem utilizadas em cada requisito (brainstorm, análise de patentes, painel de especialistas, análise SWOT, dentre outras). O êxito na aplicação do método requer o entendimento de todos os (potenciais) efeitos, inclusive os colaterais, no processo como um todo. Ou seja, uma vez que toda ferramenta gerencial apresenta pontos fortes e fracos, o importante é adaptá-las ao sistema de negócio e não vice-versa. A partir do gerenciamento do projeto por um gestor com domínio das ferramentas gerenciais, a escolha destas ocorre de forma dinâmica, onde a cada passo de avaliação novas ferramentas (simples e/ou complexas) podem ser incluídas ou excluídas da matriz do método. Neste trabalho ficou demonstrada a importância de se trabalhar com métodos estruturados e flexíveis, que permitem retroalimentação de informações geradas internamente durante o desenvolvimento da pesquisa ou advindas de fontes externas. O projeto Etanol de 2ª Geração do CTC vem aplicando o método proposto em seu desenvolvimento e obtendo grande êxito em seus resultados, uma vez que a equipe envolvida permanece focada no objetivo principal, obedecendo prazos e recursos inicialmente definidos, com constância do propósito do projeto, sem retrocesso ou recomeço.

Impact investing: portfolio company selection in Latin America

O documento analisa como investidores de impacto selecionar suas companhias de portfólio na América Latina e que critérios são avaliados no processo. Uma vez que praticamente ne-nhuma pesquisa sobre isso foi con conduzidos até à data, e desde que o modelo de processo de seleção aplicados em capital de risco não é dissemelhantes, foi adotado essa abordagem. Os resultados revelam que os investidores de impacto originar e avaliar negócios de uma for-ma semelhante a capitalistas de risco , mas que alguns critérios são ajustados e outros adicio-nados a fim de refletir o duplo objectivo de investimento de impacto. Os investidores de im-pacto podem originar ofertas passivamente, mas eles preferem procurar empreendimentos sociais de forma proativa: contatos pessoais, o acesso a redes e eventos do setor são cruciais neste contexto. Impacto Investidores considerando um investimento em pesquisa para a Amé-rica Latina inteira, empreendedores sociais honestos e confiáveis comprometidos com impacto social; empreendimentos sociais elegíveis devem ser rentáveis com potencial de escalabilidade; o produto deve ter um impacto social, ou seja, criar valor para o consumidor individual e para a comunidade em geral; tamanho do mercado e crescimento do mercado são fatores externos cruciais; e as características de negócio dependem de atitude de risco do investidor e as perspectivas de uma saída bem sucedida, tanto em termos financeiros e sociais. Os investi-dores de impacto também estão dispostos a dar apoio não financeiro antes de um investimen-to, se um empreendimento social, mostra alto potencial para atingir o seu objectivo dual.

Understanding e-government technology transfer: evidence from the transfer of a patent management system from EPO to INPI

Drawing upon Brazilian experience, this research explores some of the key issues to be addressed in using e-government technical cooperation designed to enhance service provision of Patent Offices in developing countries. While the development of software applications is often seen merely as a technical engineering exercise, localization and adaptation are context bounded matters that are characterized by many entanglements of human and non-humans. In this work, technical, legal and policy implications of technical cooperation are also discussed in a complex and dynamic implementation environment characterized by the influence of powerful hidden agendas associated with the arena of intellectual property (IP), which are shaped by recent technological, economic and social developments in our current knowledge-based economy. This research employs two different theoretical lenses to examine the same case, which consists of transfer of a Patent Management System (PMS) from the European Patent Office (EPO) to the Brazilian Patent Office that is locally named ‘Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial’ (INPI). Fundamentally, we have opted for a multi-paper thesis comprising an introduction, three scientific articles and a concluding chapter that discusses and compares the insights obtained from each article. The first article is dedicated to present an extensive literature review on e-government and technology transfer. This review allowed the proposition on an integrative meta-model of e-government technology transfer, which is named E-government Transfer Model (ETM). Subsequently, in the second article, we present Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a framework for understanding the processes of transferring e-government technologies from Patent Offices in developed countries to Patent Offices in developing countries. Overall, ANT is seen as having a potentially wide area of application and being a promising theoretical vehicle in IS research to carry out a social analysis of messy and heterogeneous processes that drive technical change. Drawing particularly on the works of Bruno Latour, Michel Callon and John Law, this work applies this theory to a longitudinal study of the management information systems supporting the Brazilian Patent Office restructuration plan that involved the implementation of a European Patent Management System in Brazil. Based upon the ANT elements, we follow the actors to identify and understand patterns of group formation associated with the technical cooperation between the Brazilian Patent Office (INPI) and the European Patent Office (EPO). Therefore, this research explores the intricate relationships and interactions between human and non-human actors in their attempts to construct various network alliances, thereby demonstrating that technologies embodies compromise. Finally, the third article applies ETM model as a heuristic frame to examine the same case previously studied from an ANT perspective. We have found evidence that ETM has strong heuristic qualities that can guide practitioners who are engaged in the transfer of e-government systems from developed to developing countries. The successful implementation of e-government projects in developing countries is important to stimulate economic growth and, as a result, we need to understand the processes through which such projects are being implemented and succeed. Here, we attempt to improve understanding on the development and stabilization of a complex social-technical system in the arena of intellectual property. Our preliminary findings suggest that e-government technology transfer is an inherently political process and that successful outcomes require continuous incremental actions and improvisations to address the ongoing issues as they emerge.

Portfolio choice with a correlated background risk : theory and evidence

We extend the static portfolio choice problem with a small background risk to the case of small partially correlated background risks. We show that respecting the theories under which risk substitution appears, except for the independence of background risk, it is perfectly rational for the individual to increase his optimal exposure to portfolio risk when risks are partially negatively correlated. Then, we test empirically the hypothesis of risk substitutability using INSEE data on French households. We find that households respond by increasing their stockholdings in response to the increase in future earnings uncertainty. This conclusion is in contradiction with results obtained in other countries. So, in light of these results, our model provides an explanation to account for the lack of empirical consensus on cross-country tests of risk substitution theory that encompasses and criticises all of them.