Trajectory of the Brazilian Semiconductor Industry and Supply Chain: Economic, Governmental, and Technological Perspectives

This paper explores the semiconductor industry and its supply chain characteristics in order to aid understanding of its overall trajectory. How can a country like Brazil produce such an insignificant amount of semiconductor components? What has led the country to this situation? The objectives of this paper are twofold: first, to describe the semiconductor supply chain in order to understand its majors elements; and second, to delineate the trajectory of this industry. More specifically, we draw on evolutionary theory to analyze three macro trajectories: economic, governmental and technological. We collected archival data about these macro drivers and conducted interviews with professors and professionals in the semiconductor field. The results show four major events in the trajectory of the Brazilian semiconductor industry: (i) investment in microelectronic laboratories; (ii) a policy of market protection; (iii) a policy of market openness to product imports: and (iv) public policies to help the development of semiconductor companies through incentives. DOI: 10.12660/joscmv6n2p20-39URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.12660/joscmv6n2p20-39