Management systems as technology: Japanese, US and national firms in the Brazilian electronic sector

This paper recognizes that technological change is an endogenous factor in many dynamic Japanese firms and that the change is promoted by unique soft technologies of organizational design and management systems. Certain key soft technologies are identified and attempts to transfer them to the Brazilian electronics sector are analyzed. Although the attempts have been incomplete, it is noteworthy that US multinationals and Brazilian national firms appear to have been more successful than subsidiaries of Japanese firms. Factors impeding full assimilation are identified for each of the three groups studied. It is also argued that successful transfer of these soft technologies would increase Brazil's domestic technological capacity.