Management systems as technology and their relation with development : a comparison of Japanese, U.S. and national firms in Brazil

This dissertation is a contribution to the study of Brazilian technological capabilities. It departs from most current theories by introducing and utilizing a new definition of technology. The new definition results from expanding the concept of technology to include features of management practices, organizational design and strategy. These features are analyzed by developing a model of the "continuous improvement firm", which is inspired by and tries to emulate the key organizational characteristics of leading Japanese corporations. The model used in this dissertation explicitly consider two elements for continuous improvement: gradual, constant and incremental improvements emerge as a normal part of everyday activities; and improvement is defined in terms of continuously providing and increasing customer value. In most of the literature one or another element is taken implicitly. The research was conducted in firms of the Brazilian electric-electronic sector, including national firms and subsidiaries of Japanese, U.S. and European corporations. The research in each company was conducted by sending a questionnaire, by interviewing a top manager and by visiting its main manufacturing facility. The main conclusion is that Japanese firms in Brazil are the least likely to develop the continuous improvement capability, given their lack of organizational autonomy in relation to the home corporation and the practice of staffing the local subsidiary with Japanese managers. As an illustration, Japanese firms do not use the just-in-time technology, which is used in various firms of all other nationality groups. U.S. and European firms are in a better position given the practice of staffing the subsidiaries with Brazilian personnel. In the group of national firms, a clear distinction was made between family enterprises, which managerial practices are clearly incompatible with continuous improvement, and professionally managed companies, which managerial practices are congenial with continuous improvement, especially their organizational flexibility and the organizational design which facilitates cross-functional activities. The exception to this last statement is their authoritarian structure. The management of Brazilian professionally managed companies is an actual challenge to the conventional "Brazilian management", which is defined as the management of family enterprises.