The Technological Behaviour of State-Owned Enterprises in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil has made extensive use of state-owned enterprises during its rapid industrial development. According to one estimate the share of these enterprises in annual gross investment outside of agriculture has fluctuated between 25 and 30 per cent. This chapter discovers the determinants of technological behaviour in two state-owned enterprises that have made an especially significant contribution to industrial development in the post-war period, both of which currently number among the largest enterprises in their respective fields in the world. Thus, the corporation was oriented towards production, and the political power within Petrobras was in the hands of the production personnel. This configuration prevailed in the early 1970s, when the top management of the organisation consisted mainly of the people who had taken part in the 1950s in installing the first plants, which had been equipped with imported technology, and had been responsible for their operation.