Variações em trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas em nível intra-empresarial: uma análise empírica da VALE S.A.

Esta tese relaciona-se ao tema da acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas em nível de empresa, suas fontes (mecanismos de aprendizagem) e suas implicações para a performance competitiva empresarial, em indústrias relacionadas a recursos naturais no contexto de economias emergentes. Durante os últimos 40 anos muito se avançou no campo da pesquisa sobre acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas em nível de empresas em economias emergentes. Porém, ainda há importantes lacunas a serem exploradas particularmente em relação a natureza e dinâmica de trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas intra-empresariais, no contexto de indústrias relacionadas a recursos naturais, especialmente na mineração. O objetivo da pesquisa aqui reportada é contribuir para minimizar esta lacuna. Particularmente, esta tese explora variações intra-empresariais de trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas, suas fontes (mecanismos subjacentes de aprendizagem) e algumas implicações que são geradas para a performance competitiva da empresa, no âmbito da indústria de mineração no Brasil, especificamente na empresa mineradora Vale, no período entre 1942 e 2015. Para alcançar este objetivo, a pesquisa apoia-se na combinação das literaturas de acumulação de capacidade tecnológica, inovação, aprendizagem e desenvolvimento industrial para a construção da base conceitual. Em paralelo, a pesquisa vale-se de um desenho de pesquisa qualitativo e indutivo baseado em evidências primárias com base em extensivos trabalhos de campo. Esse desenho de pesquisa é operacionalizado a partir de um estudo de caso individual em profundidade na Vale, no âmbito de três grandes áreas tecnológicas: prospecção e pesquisa mineral, lavra, e processamento mineral. Por meio da implementação dessa estratégia, a pesquisa encontrou: (1) Trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas relativamente distintas entre as três áreas de análise. Especificamente: (i) na área de prospecção e pesquisa mineral observou-se uma trajetória de seguidora tecnológica que alcança posição de liderança mundial em inovação e produção; (ii) na área de lavra também evidenciou-se uma trajetória de seguidora tecnológica que alcança posição de liderança mundial em inovação e produção, porém, com acumulação tardia de capacidades tecnológicas; e (iii) na área de processamento mineral houve o alcance precoce de posição de liderança mundial em inovação e produção a partir da criação de uma trajetória distinta da já mapeada pelos líderes globais. As trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas convergem para uma situação similar a partir de 2011 quando as três áreas apresentaram posição de liderança mundial em inovação e ao mesmo tempo demonstraram indícios de entrada em um processo de estagnação, que restringe as oportunidades de entrada em novas trajetórias tecnológicas e de entrada em novos negócios. (2) As variações encontradas nas trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas são explicadas pela maneira pela qual diferentes mecanismos subjacentes de aprendizagem foram combinados e utilizados pela empresa. Foram encontradas quatro combinações de mecanismos de aprendizagem que contribuíram para explicar as diferentes direções das trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas. (3) As variações nas três trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas geraram implicações distintas para a performance competitiva, mais especificamente em termos de performance inovadora, operacional/ambiental e de novos negócios. Os resultados da pesquisa geram contribuições para o entendimento do relacionamento intra-empresarial entre acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas e os mecanismos de aprendizagem subjacentes. E contribuem para o entendimento da mineração como uma indústria que oferece oportunidades para inovações significativas que, inclusive podem implicar na diversificação do tecido industrial nacional. Portanto, tal indústria deve receber atenção especial por parte de decisores de políticas públicas e de ações empresariais para evitar que empresas com alto potencial inovativo desconstruam suas capacidades inovadoras e consequentemente limitem seus impactos para o desenvolvimento tecnológico e econômico no contexto de economias emergentes.

Tributos indiretos na cadeia produtiva do camarão

The state of Rio Grande do Norte counts with a relevant potential in the shrimp farming supply chain. In the larviculture step the state responds for more than half of the national production. In the farming step it is the second largest producer. In the industrial step, its industries have almost 40% of the shrimp processing capacity of the northeast of Brazil. However, this country has the highest tax rate comparing with the main shrimp producer countries. Considering the influence of taxes in the competition among companies, the main goal of this research is to analyze the impact of indirect taxes in the above steps of the supply chain. To achieve it, it will be used the data of the 2011 Census of the Shrimp Farming and it will be applied the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to identify the market form of those steps. In order to contribute with the characterization of the supply chain, CEO´s of farms and industries will be interviewed. The price-elasticity of the shrimp larvae, the in natura shrimp and the processed shrimp will be analyzed in order to verify the possibility that each one of those three steps has to pass-through the onus of the end of benefit over the ICMS. The data analysis shows that the larviculture step functions as a duopoly and, facing the end of that benefit, it will be able to pass-through most its onus to the farming step. On the other hand, this step functions similar to a perfect competing market, which diminishes its capacity to pass-through that onus to the processing step. This step operates as oligopoly with a lower concentration than the larviculture step but, due to the fact that it faces an oligopsony, it will end up assuming most of that onus, which will cause a decrease in the amount of processed shrimp. It is concluded that the end of that benefit would impact negatively, in this state, the supply chain at all, but mainly the farming and the industrial steps

O licenciamento ambiental como instrumento de um desenvolvimento verdadeiramente sustentável

Since the second half of the 20th century, mankind concerns about life quality and environment preservation began to grow. In Brazil, the edition of the Law nº 6.938/81, that instituted the National Policy of the Environment (Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente PNMA), contributing significantly to the singular treatment towards the environment by the Federal Constitution of 1988 (Constituição Federal de 1988), can be appointed as a landmark of this awareness. The Law nº 6.938/81, following the line observed on the legislation of some Brazilian States, predicted on its 9th article the instruments of PNMA, among which the environmental licensing can be highlighted. This instrument presents itself as indispensable to the construction, installation, extension and operation of enterprises and activities that utilize environmental resources, seen as effective and potentially polluter industries, or even to those that can cause environment degradation. On a parallel way and as a consequence of this awareness, the concept of development begins to acquire a new shape. The development of a country or a region begins to consider not only economical factors, but also environmental, political, cultural and social aspects. Ecodevelopment, or sustainable development, then, arises. In this way, through research on legislation and on theme related doctrine, this work has the intention of analyzing environmental licensing as a PNMA instrument responsible for uniting economical development and the right to an ecologically balanced environment, that is, by the consecution of a truly sustainable development

Potential and costs for the production of electrolytic hydrogen in alcohol and sugar cane plants in the central and south regions of Brazil

This project verified the potential for the production of hydrogen via water electrolysis by using the exceeding electrical energy resultant from alcohol and sugar plants that use sugar cane bagasse as fuel. The studies were carried out in cogeneration plants authorized by the Electrical Energy National Agency (ANEEL). The processing history of sugar cane considered was based on the 2006/2007 harvests. The total bagasse produced, electrical energy generated and exceeding electrical energy in a year were calculated. It was obtained an average energy consumption value of 5.2 kWh Nm(-3) and the hydrogen production costs regarding the amount of sugar cane processed that ranged from US$ 0.50 to US$ 0.75 Nm(-3). The results pointed that the costs for the production of hydrogen via the bagasse exceeding energy are close to the production costs that use other sources of energy. As the energy generated from the bagasse is a renewable one, this alternative for the production of hydrogen is economical and environmentally viable. (C) 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multinationals and Exports in a Large and Protected Developing Country

This paper examines an industry-level model developed to analyze the impact of affiliates of multinational firms (MNFs) on the host country's revealed comparative advantages (RCAs), which predicts that the referred impact is given by both technology service and industry orientation. Based on Brazilian manufacturing industries during the import-substitution industrialization, panel data estimates show that MNFs negatively affected RCA, which is explained by location advantages in industries presenting comparative disadvantages, as reinforced by a location model. Two other important results are: (i) import protection had a stronger anti-export effect on multinationals than on national firms; (ii) MNFs were concentrated in industries with lower world-export growth.

Trajetória do ifrn em inclusão escolar

Discussions over the topic of inclusion of handicapped people at school are considered recent, but they have become more and more frequent within the national and international scenario. Such discussion has also being inserted in the speeches and actions of the school institution and with the formation of educators. This investigation is made necessary as a way to collect elements to reconsider the actions for the inclusion of the special education need youth. In special the visually handicapped ones, at Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN). The creation of a support unit functions as main vehicle for the actions of the institution. It is intended to know what young people with limitations have to say regarding their experiences as a way to signal paths to be and not to be followed by the support unit. Therefore, the experience which these young boys and girls have is of crucial importance. In order to accomplish the task, it was decided to use methodological elements based upon elements supported by the life reports of two deficient students here called Borges and Stéfano. Their reports are from childhood to their arrival at IFRN. From their reports, categories appeared: childhood and the role of family; school life and, finally, related to the actions of the support unit of IFRN, being divided in inclusive actions and obstacles. The first one takes a second look at the actions of the family within the learning-teaching process of these students. The second category presents the moment in which students started to receive formal education per se. The last category constitutes the cornerstone of the investigation, for it analyses the process of inclusion in the institution, according to the perception of the students with visual limitations. The results signaled the need for shared intervention between students with Special Education Needs and school professionals in the elaboration of the Educational Planning, which guarantees the defense of the rights to an efficient teaching practice and effective in the process of inclusion of these students

Does ISO 14001 work in Brazil?

As a result of increasing global awareness about the importance of the environment, depletion of natural resources and legal pressures for companies to manage their processes in a sustainable manner, ISO 14001 systems have been gaining increasingly more importance in the organizational scenario. These elements are even more critical in emerging nations due to less awareness and fewer demands by governments and the population in relation to environmental issues. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to verify the benefits and difficulties of Environmental Management Systems based on ISO 14001 at industries in the state of São Paulo - Brazil (an emerging country) by conducting a survey to subsidize the proposal for actions in the public, academic and private sectors to promote the use of this standard of reference and strengthen its results in Brazil. A questionnaire was sent to 194 companies from the National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality database. 69 answered, representing a return rate of 35.36%. The main benefits identified are related to the development of preventive environmental actions, reduction in the consumption of power, water, gas and fuel oil, and a positive influence on other internal management processes. The main difficulties are related to cost increases from ISO 14001 management systems and the constant changes in environmental legislation in Brazil. Some actions are proposed at the end of the analyses to intensify the use and improve the results of this standard, such as changes in government legislation and its collective development and implementation in industries. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sub-Optimal Orbital Maneuvers for Artificial Satellites

The determination of a specific orbit and the procedure to calculate orbital maneuvers of artificial satellites are problems of extreme importance in the study of orbital mechanics. Therefore, the transferring problem of a spaceship from one orbit to another, and the attention due to this subject has in increased during the last years. Many applications can be found in several space activities, for example, to put a satellite in a geostationary orbit, to change the position of a spaceship, to maintain a specific satellite's orbit, in the design of an interplanetary mission, and others. The Brazilian Satellite SCD-1 (Data Collecting Satellite) will be used as example in this paper. It is the first satellite developed entirely in Brazil, and it remains in operation to this date. SCD-1 was designed, developed, built, and tested by Brazilian scientists, engineers, and technicians working at INPE (National Institute for Space Research, and in Brazilian Industries. During the lifetime, it might be necessary do some complementary maneuvers, being this one either an orbital transferring, or just to make periodical corrections. The purpose of transferring problem is to change the position, velocity and the satellite's mass to a new pre determined state. This transfer can be totally linked (in the case of "Rendezvous") or partially free (free time, free final velocity, etc). In the global case, the direction, the orientation and the magnitude of the thrust to be applied must be chosen, respecting the equipment's limit. In order to make this transferring, either sub-optimal or optimal maneuvers may be used. In the present study, only the sub-optimal will be shown. Hence, this method will simplify the direction of thrust application, to allow a fast calculation that may be used in real time, with a very fast processing. The thrust application direction to be applied will be assumed small and constant, and the purpose of this paper is to find the time interval that the thrust is applied. This paper is basically divided into three parts: during the first one the sub-optimal maneuver is explained and detailed, the second presents the Satellite SCD-1, and finally the last part shows the results using the sub-optimal maneuver applied to the Brazilian Satellite.

Benefícios e dificuldades da gestão ambiental com base na ISO 14001 em empresas industriais de São Paulo

O principal objetivo deste trabalho é verificar, por meio de uma pesquisa tipo survey, os benefícios e as dificuldades da adoção de Sistemas de Gestão Ambiental ISO 14001 em empresas industriais do Estado de São Paulo. Para tal, um questionário foi enviado para 194 empresas constantes da base de dados do INMETRO (Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial) e respondido por 69 delas, representando uma taxa de retorno de 35,36%. Duas hipóteses foram estabelecidas para realização do estudo: uma enunciando os potenciais benefícios e outra as dificuldades da gestão ambiental com base na norma NBR ISO 14001. Estas hipóteses foram parcialmente comprovadas. O artigo está estruturado da seguinte forma: introdução, sistema de gestão ambiental, norma NBR ISO 14001, método de pesquisa, apresentação e análise dos resultados, conclusão e referências bibliográficas.

Greenhouse gas balance due to the conversion of sugarcane areas from burned to green harvest in Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Paracoccidioidomycosis in the region of Botucatu (state of São Paulo, Brazil). Evaluation of serum thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) levels and of the response to thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH)

T4, T3 and TSH serum levels were measured in 25 patients with paracoccidioidomycosis. Thyroid T3 reserves were measured on the basis of the increase in T3 (ΔT3) 2 h after intravenous injection of 200 μg TRH, and pituitary TSH reserves were measured on the basis of TSH increase (ΔTSH) 20 min after the same injection. Twenty healthy volunteers with no history of thyroid disease were used as controls. When the two groups were compared, the following results were obtained: (a) there was no significant difference in mean T4, T3, ΔTSH between groups; (b) reduced T3 levels were detected more frequently in patients with paracoccidioidomycosis, especially among those with the acute form of the disease or with the severely disseminated chronic form. The results suggest the occurrence of a reduction in peripheral conversion of T4 to T3, but do not indicate the occurrence of hypothyroidism in any of its forms (thyroid, pituitary or hypothalamic). © 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Effects of nitrate concentration on larval development of the giant river prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

The effect of nitrate concentration on giant river prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, larvae was investigated. Survival rate, weight gain, and larval development were evaluated for different concentrations of nitrate in three experiments. The experiments were divided i n to two phases. In the first phase, larvae from stages I through VIII were analysed, while in the second phase larvae from stage VIII through post-larvae metamorphosis were analysed. Oxygen consumption was also determined for zoea I, II, and VIII exposed to 0, 700, and 1,000 mg/L of nitrate-N. No effect was observed for concentrations up to 180 mg/L NO3-N (experiments I and II), and nitrate levels as 1,000 mg/L NO3-N did not affect survival in the first phase of the third experiment. On the other hand, larval stage index (LSI) and weight gain decreased as nitrate-N concentration increased from 0 to 1,000 mg/L. In the second phase, survival and metamorphosis rate decreased as nitrate concentration increased, according to a linear model. The effect of nitrate levels on weight gain followed a curvilinear pattern. Larval respiration decreased in the water where nitrate was added, but only during stage II. The results demonstrated that nitrate presents extremely low toxicity for giant river prawn larvae, and data were related to the levels of nitrate that usually occur in larviculture systems also discussed. Therefore, nitrate is not a limiting factor for giant river prawn larviculture. © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Pollution by hexachlorobenzene and pentachlorophenol in the coastal plain of São Paulo state, Brazil

Organochlorine compounds were dumped by chemical industries during the 1970s in many areas of the coastal plain of São Paulo state in Brazil. These dumps, located on hillsides and in valleys, in both rural and urban environments, are responsible for soil and water pollution. The objective of this work was to determine how the pollutants have spread in an area occupied by a spodosol-type soil mantle. The study combines soil morphological observations with soil and water analysis of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and pentachlorophenol (PCP) in soil toposequences. The results indicate that the highest pollutant concentrations are observed near the dump site and that the compounds contamination is increasing. A map integrating topography and chemical concentrations was created to visualize the spatial distribution of HCB levels in the landscape. Physical and chemical analyses were performed to measure HCB and PCP levels in the soil. Soil water appears to act as a vector of HCB, probably through complexation with and dispersal of dissolved organic matter. The persistence of HCB at the studied site is most likely due to the low pH values in combination with a high content of organic matter. HCB was consistently found in higher concentrations than PCP. It is plausible that the cause of this difference is that PCP is degraded more easily under sunlight than HCB and that degradation of PCP under acid conditions leads to the formation of HCB. © 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Shelf-life of tail meat of the giant river prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, stored on ice

The objective of this study was to evaluate the shelf-life of peeled giant river prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii stored directly in contact with ice (DCI), and without direct contact with ice (WCI). The prawns from DCI treatment showed an intense leaching of non-protein nitrogen (NPN) and total volatile bases nitrogen (TVB-N), thus suggesting that NPN or TVB-N should not be used as freshness indicators of peeled tails stored directly in contact with ice. Loss of flavor and a quick texture tactile decrease with time occurred in both treatments. The shelf-life of peeled tails prepared from M. rosenbergii was 7 days for DCI and 10 days WCI. © 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Anuario Estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe 1997 = Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 1997

Incluye Bibliografía