Shedding light on technological development in Brazil

Abstract We try to shed some light on the question of why technology-intensive businesses often fail in less-developed countries and under what circumstances they are likely to be a success from the perspective of both domestic and export markets. The answers were drawn from a set of empirical evidences from Brazilian firms applying photonics technologies. Some of the issues faced by them are related to the question of state versus private initiative, entering traditional versus niche market, and technology transfer versus product development management. In overall, we concluded that weakness of the institutions and inadequacy of social and organizational demography play a key role in explaining to a large extent why countries differ in technological development and diffusion. In this context, we point out obstacles, which must be removed in order to make public policies and firm's achievements more efficient.