The heterogeneity of the machine tool industry in Brazil

Abstract

The current paper aimed to investigate the reasons for the technological and competitive heterogeneity in the machine tool industry in Brazil. By analyzing the trajectory of the sector, we can highlight three main reasons for such heterogeneity. First, due to the competitive framework that emerged from the Brazilian import substitution industrialization process (ISI), the companies that produce and used such technological artifact gave emphasis to the accumulation of productive capacity rather than to innovative capacity. Second, ISI institutional ‘dynamics’ configured the machine tool industry international specialization in products with lower technological content. Third, technological and competitive heterogeneity among manufacturers due not only to different innovative efforts among them, but also to the structure of the demand and the level of sophistication and technological efforts by users.