Superando a liability of outsidership na china: a experiência das empresas brasileiras no desenvolvimento do guanxi

Abstract

In light of the discussions about the internationalization of firms and the challenges inherent in this process, several theories emerged seeking to understand the critical factors for the success of organizations in the foreign market. A recent theoretical approach argues that the main barriers in the internationalization process are related to the burden of being out of international networking, ie, the y face the so - called liability o f outsidership . Considering the importance of China for the trade balance of Brazil, the presence of 44.4% of Brazilian multinationals in Asia, and the complexity of business relationships in China ( guanxi ), this study aims to investigate how Brazilian com panies operating in China develop guanxi as a way to overcome the liability of outsidership. For this, it was developed a descriptive research with qualitative nature, and performed a multiple case study in four Brazilian companies that operate in the serv ices sector, being two law firms and two trading companies, with a subsidiary in China. The observation units involved professionals who had more experience in driving the company's business in China. Th e information was collected through semi - structured interviews explored in depth. To analyze the data, it was opted to content analysis, with the help of the software NVivo 8.0. The results show: (1) the motivations of the firms for the internationalization in China; (2) the difficulties arising from the liability of outsidership; (3) the im portance and benefits of guanxi ; (4) the activities for the development of guanxi ; and (5) the exper ience of the companies developing guanxi according to the model of Chen & Chen (2004). It is hoped that this research will contribute to knowledge generation about the internationalization of Brazilian companies to China.