Clóvis L. Machado-da-Silva

Competitividade Organizacional: uma Tentativa de Reconstruçăo Analítica

At the end of this century, the market globalization process and its effects over the economic political, social and organizational standards have been assuming an increasing importance, making up scenery where competition emerges like an imperative question. Due to this, discussions about the necessity of creating a more comprehensive and clearer concept of competition that surpasses the existing tendency in the microeconomic field of associating it only with performance indicators of technical efficiency have been intensified in the specialized literature. Therefore, less orthodox economists have suggested some link with factors like strategy and sectoral competition standards. Besides, organizational scholars have emphasized mechanism of choice and of competitive exclusion, assuming the importance of considering the influence of surrounding circumstances. Nevertheless, those considerations still concentrate on the evaluation of the effectiveness of organizational aspects. Its assumed that the problem is related to the fact that both border up their environment treatment to market limits or to an organizational population, underestimating the power of the surrounding pressure. This is the focus of analysis of the institutional theory. We also want to demonstrate their intersection potential and the consequent application on the more refined exam of the competitive phenomenon.

Organizational institutionalism in the academic field in Brazil: social dynamics and networks

This article is based on the assumption that the co nstruction of scientific knowledge is a social proc ess characterized by the recursive dynamic between the social and intellectual dimensions. In light of thi s statement, we investigated how the construction of the institu tional perspective is delineated in the context of organizational studies in Brazil from 1993 to 2007. The study is b ased on documentary research of articles published in scientific journals and at academic events. For thi s purpose, we analyzed social networks and used bib liometric indicators in order to map the cooperation relation ships between researchers and intellectual framewor k, based on the cited authors. The results show the influenc e of social relationships in the process of constru cting scientific knowledge. The findings reveal that the expansion of the field is based on the growing elab oration of a social organization with close links to the activit ies of continuant and transient researchers. These circumstances denote the stratification both of production and th e relationships between authors, since continuant a nd transient researchers are responsible for the intermediation of relations and the consolidation of production in the academic field that is being analyzed. The findings also reveal a secondary dynamic of the activities of researchers located on the margin of the network an d the presence of Brazilian researchers among the m ost cited authors, an indication of a legitimized local intel lectual base.

Rede de relações interorganizacionais no campo organizacional de Videira-SC

The objective of this article was to verify the interorganizational relationships between forty organizations in the district of Videira in Santa Catarina State from an organizational focus. These organizations interact in a system of agroindustrial production which involves a complex process of economic, political and social structuring in social time and space. The goal was to evaluate the influence of the focal organization, which a priori coordinates agroindustrial production efforts, on the regulative, normative and cognitive institutional structures, which meant analyzing the recurrence and simultaneousness of the isomorphic, coercive, normative and mimetic mechanisms in the organizational field under study. The relationships of cooperation, competition and conflict among the organizations that make up the network under study were evaluated based on the notion of organizational field as a field of power, cognitive structures and socio-cultural significance. The results show different levels and spheres of influence of the focal organization on institutional structures, with implications for the occurrence of isomorphisms in organizations, which highlights the importance of the use of a multiparadigmatic perspective for the understanding and the treatment of the concept of organizational field.

Institucionalismo organizacional e práticas de governança corporativa

In this essay, we outline an institutional approach concerning corporate governance, highlighting its dimensions, institutions, and institutionalization. Special attention is paid to the legitimizing quality of governance, since legitimacy is the central point in organizational institutionalism. The literature claims that the legitimacy of governance practices is based not only on rational-utilitarian questions but also on matters of social and symbolic order, e.g., the ideal of distributive justice, in which minority shareholders seek to justify greater control over controlling shareholders and managers guiding organizations on the morality of such requirements. We delineate some elements of the process of institutionalization of corporate governance practices around the world, noting that the emergence of the phenomenon and its spread is the result of several factors that end up pushing the product and capital markets to conform their practices to internationally prevailing standards. We conclude this theoretical essay by highlighting the implications for understanding the governance practices from the standpoint of organizational institutionalism, unfolding possibilities for future studies.

Persistência e mudança de temas na estruturação do campo científico da estratégia em organizações no Brasil

In this article we seek to verify how the level of structural cohesion of researchers in the field of strategy in Brazil conditions the construction of scientific knowledge in this social field. Through the analysis of clusters, taken to effect through the use of the network analysis technique, 2,332 articles were evaluated which were published in Brazilian periodicals and annals of scientific congress from 1997 to 2005. Based on the structurationist perspective of the institutional theory, we examined the role of relations between authors in the persistence and changes in themes over time. We found that the significant growth in the number of papers in the field of strategy was conditioned in terms of themes by the clusters that had been previously formed. We observed a high degree of homogeneity within the clusters even with the occurrence of heterogeneity of themes of research in the field as a whole. This indicates that embeddedness in social groups conditions what is legitimately accepted in the scientific field, implying that there are specific systems of meaning in each cluster, despite the occurrence of a certain level of communality among members of the field. This finding has obvious implications for conversation between different groups of authors.

Legitimidade, governança corporativa e desempenho: análise das empresas da BM&F Bovespa

The aim of this paper is to evaluate how legitimacy affects the market value of Brazilian stock market companies. Specifically, we analyze how the adherence to the “Novo Mercado” moderates the effect of legitimacy on the market value. From the organizational institutionalism framework, we evaluated by means of panel data, 348 organizations between 2002 and 2007, generating a total of 1357 observations. We found that adherence to the “Novo Mercado”, the prestige of board members and reputation significantly affects the market value. When sectioned organizations according to the level of governance, we see that the cultural-cognitive and normative legitimacy origins significantly affected the market value in groups with lower level of governance, while among the companies in the “Novo Mercado”, the influence was not significant. From these results, we conclude that legitimacy is an important factor explaining the performance variability of publicly traded companies in which the presence in governance premium listing conditioned the influence of other sources of legitimacy in market value.

Conversação entre abordagens da estratégia em organizações: escolha estratégica, cognição e instituição

This paper was written with the objective of checking on the treatment given to the concept of organizational strategy within each of the strategic choice, cognitive and institutional approaches. To carry out this objective, theoretical and methodological criteria were defined. The identification of these criteria was presented in a descriptive fashion, starting with the examination of the referential background for each approach. The descriptions of their respective indicators were grouped into content matrixes, and analyzed by the means of a comparative methodology. The indicators of the theoretical criteria were the representations of the individual, the organization and the environment. The indicator of the methodological criteria was the dimension of analysis. The results obtained reveal significant variations which configure specific arrangements of definition and treatment of the constitutive elements of conception of organizational strategy in each of the approaches under analysis.

ANÁLISE INSTITUCIONAL DA CONSTRUÇÃO DO CONHECIMENTO CIENTÍFICO EM MUNDOS PEQUENOS

O objetivo do presente artigo foi verificar como a estrutura de relacionamento no campo da pesquisa em organizacoes e estrategia no Brasil condiciona a construcao do conhecimento cientifico nesse campo social. Por meio da analise de redes e com o apoio da analise de conteudo, foram avaliados 2.332 artigos publicados entre os anos de 1997 e 2005. Com base na vertente estruturacionista da perspectiva institucional de analise examinamos a influencia das relacoes entre autores na persistencia e mudanca de tematicas no decorrer do tempo. Verificamos que o campo apresenta uma configuracao do tipo mundos pequenos (small worlds), o que lhe garante capacidade de persistencia institucional em momentos de grande crescimento. Apesar da rede nao ser completamente conectada, observamos alto grau de homogeneidade dentro dos agrupamentos mesmo em face da ocorrencia de heterogeneidade de temas de pesquisa no campo como um todo. Tal constatacao indica que a imersao em grupos sociais condiciona o que e legitimamente aceito no campo cientifico. A configuracao estrutural nos moldes de mundos pequenos possibilita que o campo mantenha significados compartilhados, garantindo durabilidade dinâmica as instituicoes.

Condicionantes estruturais dos relacionamentos intraorganizacionais: uma análise da influência sobre relações de comunicação e decisão

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analisar las relaciones intraorganizacionales de comunicacion y de toma de decisiones entre gerentes de una organizacion industrial, partiendo de aspectos conceptuales delineados en la teoria de las organizaciones y en teorias sobre redes sociales. Buscamos, en primero lugar, avaliar como la estructura formal condiciona las relaciones de comunicacion y de toma de decisiones. Despues, avaliamos como la estructura departamental define los modelos de homofilia y heterofilia. Por fin, avaliamos como los aspectos formales del cargo, las caracteristicas personales y la posicion em la red estan asociados com el prestigio de los gerentes. Em los resultados, destacamos, que, entre las relaciones formales aquella que presenta mayor condicionamiento sobre las relaciones naturales es la relacion hierarquica, siendo que la misma condiciona mucho mas las elecciones instrumentales (toma de decision) que las elecciones sociales. Observamos, tambien, que el departamento de produccion presenta la tendencia de segregacion o homofilia, em cuanto los demas departamentos presentan tendencia de diferenciacion ou heterofilia. Por ultimo, buscamos compreender los antecedentes del prestigio de los gerentes, identificamos que, entre las variables de red, aquellas que apuntan para la formacion del capital social por medio de lazos debiles se muestran mas fuertemente relacionadas com el prestigio de la toma de decision de aquellas que indican capital social por intermedio de lazos fuertes.

Environment, resources and interpretation: influences in the internationalization strategies of the food industry in Brazil

This article analyzes the internationalization strategies of companies in the food industry from Parana State, in Brazil. The logic of analysis sought to corroborate the idea that internationalization is a strategic phenomenon cognitively mediated in the light of environmental pressures and resources within the organization. Therefore, the role of the environment, resources and interpretive schemes are analyzed and used to explain three strategic internationalization patterns found in the food industry of Parana: domestic, reluctant and active international action. Based on those constructs, and from an institutional and cognitive perspective of analysis, the study contributes to the debate related to homogeneity, heterogeneity and organizational strategic action.