ESTRATÉGIAS COMPETITIVAS PARA A INTERNACIONALIZAÇÃO DE EMPRESAS. ESTUDO DE CASO: EMPRESA LÍDER EM PESQUISA, DESENVOLVIMENTO E INOVAÇÃO

In a global economy, where technology and human resources define the levels of economic development, knowledge has turned into the most important resource for competitiveness. Highly competitive environments demand more intelligent, integrated and flexible companies in order to face the continuous changes in the world. The reaction of Latin American firms to this challenge should be based on the design of internationalization strategies that emphasize an organizational structure built on knowledge and innovation. The main objective of this paper is to investigate how Odebrecht, a Latin-American company, leader in research, development, and innovation (R&D&I), implements a successful internationalization strategy based on knowledge management. This paper has been developed using the Case Study methodology (YIN, 2001). The analysis of the strategy has been conducted with the Delta Model (HAX & WILDE 2001). The results show that Odebrecht builds its strategy, termed system lock-in focusing on an organizational structure for innovation.