apresentação de pesquisa realizada com empresas do setor de plásticos no Grande ABC

1. Track: Microeconomic On Competitiveness in Latin
America.
Authors: Prof. Dr.Renato Ladeia e
Prof. Dr. William Sampaio Francini

2.  This work’s main objective is the analysis of an
intervention process coordinated by public and private
entities.
 The project studied: The Plastics Cluster in Grande ABC
Region in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
 Its main objective is the microeconomic revitalization
of that region, particularly for small and medium firms.

3.  the deterioration of areas or regions whose economic
activities proceed into a decline process.
 Some of the possible reasons:
 tax war, which can cause the company to physically
move into other regions,
 logistics matters and the ever growing chaotic car traffic,
 lack of physical storage room,
 obsolescent infrastructure and
 demographic growth.

4.  Several public and private organizations,
institutions and associations
 - whose public missions are to find
alternatives for social and economic
development –
 conduct joint-work with this aim in several
countries, including Brazil.

5.  Parties envolved:
 Grande ABC Area Development Agency.
 Local government - seven municipalities in the Grande ABC area
(metropolitan region around Sao Paulo city), namely Santo André, São
Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano, Diadema, Mauá, Ribeirão Pires and
Rio Grande da Serra.
 Brazilian “Sistema S” (or “S System”) – a group of eleven contributions
of interest of professional categories, whose revenues are directed to
several entities – as a way of financing activities aiming professional
improvement (education) and workers` social welfare (health and
leisure). Some of the participating entities of “Sistema S” were:
 SENAI – Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial (Brazilian Industrial
Training Service);
 SEBRAE – Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas
(Brazilian Small and Middle-sized Company Support Service).

6.  Parties envolved:
 FIESP – Federação das Indústrias de São Paulo (Sao Paulo State Industry
Federation).
 Universities, such as Centro Universitário FEI – Fundação Educacional Inaciana.
 The Federal Government – by means of its financing agencies, such as the
National Bank of Social and Economic Development (BNDES).
 International organizations, such as the World Bank – through IFC –
International Finance Corporation – its international branch to support
development projects.
 Other organizations similar to the LPAs, in foreign countries.
 Corporate associations linked to industry, trade and services.
 Large publicly-held companies or joint ventures interested in specific business
chains.
 A large privatly owned company, formerly Suzano Petroquímica, now part of
Petrobras.

7.  Counts on a pilot team initially composed of
50 companies.
 Is focused on the renewal of businesses in
the plastics industry, which involves
thousands of companies in the region.
 Aims the region’s social and economic
development in a sustainable fashion.

8.  Although the IO paradigm can explain, to some degree, the behavior
of oligopolistic firms – such as the deliberate creation of entry
barriers into a specific industry segment –
 its structure/conduct/performance concept does not answer
the several questions related to the individual results of
organizations, as remarked by Porter (1979, 1981),
 given the fact that organizations are obviously different from one
another, likewise their performances.

9.  Rumelt (1991) identified that most variance of results is
significantly due to rather (steady and long-term) differences
between business units than phenomena related to the industry in
which they are operating;
 That study points out that 46% of variance of performance is due
to factors related to the company individually,
 and that the weight of these factors is six times more
relevant than factors related to the market segment or industry in
which these companies are inserted.

10.  ”(…) in a work with plenty of historical insights and a few theoretical
innovations, the author tries to demonstrate how long-term growth, or the
historical change, of a society is determined by the formation and change of
its institutions. (...)
 By studying the evolution of production of ocean shipping on a specific
period, he finds that institutional change was more important than
technological change.
 Subsequently, he writes a series of essays trying to understand the role
played by institutions in society’s changes.

11.  Igliori (2001) says that, with the purpose of
“understanding what drives the economic
performance of companies, countries or
regions, within this context,
 there are studies of several researchers on
local productive systems or the so-called
economic activity clusters”.

12. 1. Local Productive
Arrangements
(LPA)
Refers to broad matters associated with the regional development and
planning, such as growth of employment rate and income, higher
education levels and technical training of the population, lower the
mortality rate of micro and small companies in the region and reduction
of social inequalities.
2. Organizational
Networks
They allow participating firms to acquire new skills or capacities, to gain
legitimacy, to improve economic performance and to manage their
dependency of financial, technological and human resources, among others.
In the markets, the standard strategy is guided by the laborious bargaining of
the potential immediate exchange; in the networks, the option usually
preferred is to create long-term commitment and trust .
3. Clusters Clusters are special in the LPAs not only because of the intensity of bonds
created between actors (interaction frequency and quality), but also
because of the role that State organizations play in the endogenous
development, that is, the economic development in clusters will occur
with more intensive participation of private companies, while in the LPAs,
the government intervention (at different levels) is ruled by active support and
productivity increment strategies, especially in the businesses of small and
medium-sized companies.
Table 1: The conceptual views on the geographical localization and concentration of companies.

13.  Suzigan’s survey model identifies the reasons for which the organization
participating in corporate conglomerates achieve competitive
differentiation when compared to those that do not take part in these
groups;
 According to his study, the understanding of
 the local external Marshallian economies effects, combined with
 the interactions deliberated between companies - cooperation and competition -,
 the story of the clusters under analysis,
 their morphology,
 the industrial organization,
 the institutional model, and
 social and cultural context,
 in addition to the existence of industrial and trade associations, and financial support
organizations,
 are essential to this understanding, and also to the definition of any other
public policy initiative.

14.  This author presents more emphatically the
“enabling” or “supporting” characteristics that regards
the collective efficiency approach,
 and the least “supporting” characteristics (market
shortfalls), related to the external technological
economies;
 and even more important, external economies are
circumstantial, while co-operation and public
support are deliberated.

15.  This research can be considered as a descriptive paper, from a
typological perspective.
 It has been designed based on fieldwork - for its premise was to find
the characteristics, indicators and problems of a group of
companies.
 It aims the determination of the relevant properties, characteristics
and profiles of individuals, groups, communities or any other
phenomenon that can be analyzed (Sampiere et al., 2006).

16.  We have selected a pilot group with 50 companies in the plastics industry.
 However, until the diagnostic stage of the research, we conducted 42 collections of
information on a regular basis, with the direct involvement of the businesspersons. The
other companies did not continue due to agenda conflicts or dropping the project.
 The participating companies sell a variety of products, including:
 domestic and industrial products,
 auto parts,
 civil construction.
 Regarding the raw materials used, they are also varied, including: polyethylene,
polypropylene, polyester, polycarbonate, etc.
 Manufacturing processes are also very diverse: most companies (60.0%) use simple
manufacturing techniques.
 All of these companies are held by shareholders residing in Brazil.

17.  small-sized or even micro-companies;
 57.14% of which achieved annual income figures below R$3 million
or approximately R$250 thousand per month.
 In that scenario, lack of cash flows is one of the main problems
to meet business demands and resources for investments in:
 innovation,
 expansion,
 or even the maintenance of businesses.

18.  In order to analyse the industry diagnosis, we have:
 selected information collected from surveys to provide a large
picture of the participating companies’ competitive standing,
 such as the adoption or not of management tools like Strategic
Planning and others.

19. Emphasis Occur.
(order 1)
Freq
(%)
Occur.
(order 2)
Freq
(%)
Occur.
(sum)
Freq
(%)
Non-respondent 1 2.38 1 2.38 2 2.38
On productive
processes
15 35.71 12 28.57 27 32.14
On management
processes
7 16.67 11 26.19 18 21.42
On products 6 14.29 10 23.81 16 19.04
On the market 13 30.95 7 16.67 20 23.81
TOTAL 42 - 42 - 84 -
This is an ordered multi-response question. The table presents frequencies to
each order and sum.

20.  Results show that the emphasis with productive processes is the
highest vis-à-vis market, management or product-related concerns.
 Regarding the first emphasis: productive processes comes first and
shows a frequency of 35.71% of the anwers (dropping to 28.57% when it is
the second most important emphasis).
 Market emphasis comes in the second place, with 30.95% of the answers
(dropping to 16.67% for the second most important emphasis)
 Management processes emphasis comes in third place, with 16.67% of
the anwers (but show increase in the second option, to 26.19%).
 Product emphasis comes in fourth place, with 14.29% of answers
(showing an increase to 23.81% for the second most important emphasis).

21. Strategic objectives # Occur.
(order 1)
Freq
(%)
# Occur.
(order 2)
Freq
(%)
# Occur.
(sum)
Freq (%)
Non-respondent 1 2.38 1 2.38 2 2.38
Increase company’s
domestic market share
16 38.10 6 14.28 22 26.19
Increase company’s
international market
share through exports
0 0.00% 4 9.52 4 4,76
Increase profitability 11 26.19 10 23.81 21 25.00
Increase productivity 7 16.67 11 26.19 18 21.43
Cost reduction 7 16.67 9 21.43 16 19.04
TOTAL 42 - 42 - 84 -
This is an ordered multi-response question. The table presents frequencies to each order and sum.

22.  Results show that the emphasis increase company’s domestic market
share is the highest (38.1%, dropping to 14.28% when it is the second most
important emphasis), vis-à-vis:
 Increase company’s international market share through exports
is the lowest emphasis (0,0%, increasing to 9.52%, when the second most
important emphasis).
 Increase profitability comes as the second most important objective
(26.19%, and remains in that place, when the second most important
emphasis, despite a relatively small drop, to 23.81%).
 Increase productivity is the third most significant objective (16.67%, and
goes up to first place, to 26.19%, when the second most important
emphasis).
 Cost reduction is third as well (16.67%) and remains in that position.

23. Strategic Planning # occur Freq.
(%)
Non -respondents 1 2.38
Does not have Strategic Plan 15 35.71
Company’s mgnt has few strategic ideas, although
informal and unstructured
17 40.48
Company’s mgnt has an idea of Strategic Plan, but
lacks information and knowledge
6 14.29
Company has structured and formal Strategic Plan
implemented
3 7.14
TOTAL 42 100

24.  Whether the company makes use of Strategic Planning to prepare
for the future, considering environmental changes and medium to
long-term goals, responses show that:
 35.71% of them do not have a Strategic Planning process;
 most companies only have a few strategic ideas, although informal
and unstructured (40.48%);
 14.29% of the firms have an idea of what Strategic Planning is;
 Only 7.14% of the respondents claim to have a structured and
formal Strategic Planning implemented.

25. Strategic Planning # occur Freq.
(%)
Non -respondents 2 3.70
Did not face difficulties 6 11.11
Lack of training 12 22.22
Not familiar with improvement tools 11 20.37
Lack of financial resources 5 9.26
Lack of financing lines 3 5.55
Lack of specialized services 15 27.77
TOTAL 54 100
As this question may have multiple answers, it added up more than 42, for a firm may
have more than one difficulty in implementing/using a Strategic Planning process.

26.  This table shows the difficulties facing companies to
implement Strategic Planning tools, and points out
that, in addition to the lack of financial resources,
they also:
 lack training,
 are not familiar with specialized services and tools.

27.  The plastics industry faces difficulties in implementing a consistent and
sustainable strategic plan, despite the reasonable level of managerial
information to which entrepreneurs have access.
 Additionally, these companies have, with a few exceptions, high
indebtedness levels with the private financing agencies.
 The lack of cash flow and difficulties to pay debt leave little room for
them to invest in innovation or expand their productive capacities.
 Ultimately, only after the completion of the second phase (2009 -2010)
of the project, which involves specialized services to fix major
management deficits in this industry, will it be possible to evaluate
competitiveness changes, in terms of industry intervention.

28.  The considered alternative, in view of the limited
resources, especially to medium-sized and micro-
companies, would be resort to institutions such as
universities and Sistema S to help them develop new
products and processes with subsidized costs.
 Take part of the LPA project, and learn the advantages
that this process might bring.
 This way, the industry might become more competitive
and face external competition.