Impacto da abertura comercial sobre estratégias empresariais: o caso da Companhia Petroquímica do Nordeste - COPENE

Abstract

This dissertation describes the main managerial strategies of the largest petrochemical company in South America, the ˂˂ Companhia Petroquímica do Nordeste - COPENE , during the years 1989 to 1993 – COPENE is the raw materials and facilities central of the Complexo Petroquímico de Camaçari, located in the State of Bahia - Brazil. The work attributes the main changes that occurred in COPENE's strategies to the beginning of the process of redefining the role of the State in the Brazilian economy. This process was marked by the inauguration of the Collor de Mello government and the changes implemented by his team starting in March 1990. In addition to carrying out expansion works in its production capacity - the largest ever undertaken in the Brazilian petrochemical industry - COPENE was faced with a scenario marked by a strong internal recession and, in the same way, with the world's major industrialized economies slowing down their activities. In addition, the company was subject to increasing environmental pressures demanded by society in general and by the most organized labor movement in the state of Bahia. COPENE's strategies were chosen as the object of study not only due to the company's expansion capacity and technological dynamism, but also because this petrochemical company underwent a radical change in its administrative management during this period. Therefore, this work, when evaluating COPENE's organizational, business expansion, pricing, sales and technological strategies, finds that these constitute extremely aggressive responses to the current situation of the Brazilian petrochemical market - deeply impacted by the ongoing structural changes in the Brazilian economy.