出版社：Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração
摘要：This paper is a result of an analysis of the strategy designed to stimulate technological development in a telecommunications company during two phases of its competitive life – both before and after the privatization of the Brazilian Telecommunications Market in the 1990s. What happens in the wake of privatization when such technological development is no longer regulated by the state? To address this question, the paper focuses on an analysis of Embratel (former Telebras System Company) and their initiative in creating the Technological Reference Center [TRC]. To boost the company’s innovation and competitiveness, the TRC aims to promote increased interaction between equipment suppliers and clients, research centers and universities. Acquiring such technological competency presents a new set of challenges as the company aims to close the gap between themselves and other market leaders. Using interviews and direct observation, the study identified a distinct shift in focus: away from innovative research, common in the Telebras era (working on the frontiers of technology) and towards meeting customers’ immediate needs. In this way, innovative work that could result in radical improvements is curtailed by a lack of understanding of this technology on the part of clients.
