BRAZILIAN MULTINATIONALS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: SOFTWARE PRODUCTION AND THE OFFSHORING OF SERVICES

Abstract

The paper analyzes the internationalization process of two Brazilian companies in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, both of which are software developers. The objective is to present how they used their technological capacity to seek new opportunities in the international market, which is at the same time dominated by global firms, but shows an increasing number of offshore outsourcings of IT services. Brazilian multinational companies in general operate in low or medium-low technological intensity industries (food, paper and pulp, textiles, leather and shoes, plastic products, refined oil products), and many have tasted international success. However, it is known that competitiveness is more and more dependent on high technology innovations. In this specific sector, software development is responsible for innovative performance, and about 15% of the revenue is invested in R&D activities. Methodological procedures involved a qualitative approach and a multiple case study, which combined interviews with documentary and bibliographic research, and the collected data were analyzed and interpreted through the content analysis technique. The results show successful trajectories for both firms, which occupy prominent positions in the international market, suggesting that other Brazilian companies have the potential to take this direction.