Estratégia em negócios internacionais: evidência em uma trading company que atua entre economias emergentes

Abstract

This case study revisits the questions raised by Peng (2004; 2003) with respect to what drives firm strategy and the determinants of success or failure in international business. Specifically, the study investigates what drives the strategy of a trading company and determines its success in international business. The theoretical framework focuses on trading companies and the triangular relationships between these companies, their clients and their suppliers and on three approaches or bases of strategy in international business, those of industrial competitiveness, firm resources and capabilities, and institutional contexts and transitions. The study, descriptive and qualitative in nature, collected data by means of in-depth interviews, document analysis and non-participant observation during the period from July, 2010 to January, 2011. The firm selected for study is a trading company conducting a large percentage of its total transactions between emerging economies. Results demonstrate that there is no single driver of this trading company strategy. Rather, there was evidence of the use of a variety of strategies, driven at times by the demands of industrial competitiveness, at times by firm resources and capabilities, and at times by institutional conditions. Each driver corresponded to a specific moment in the trajectory of the trading company studied. In addition, there was no evidence neither of a linear chronological order for these drivers, nor of driver obsolescence. On the contrary, the evidence of the study suggests that drivers are cumulative and cyclical, requiring review and even re-thinking when organizational and environmental characteristics undergo change. The determinant of success for the trading company studied was identified as the firm capability to manage the interfaces among firm resources and capabilities, the demands of industrial competitiveness, and institutional conditions and transitions. It is the capability to manage these interfaces that has permitted the firm to overcome the adversities and exploit the business opportunities in emerging economies around the world.