The alignment of the concepts of cooperation in business associations that seek, through common goals and collective strategies, sustainable competitive advantages in the long term, based on the benefits and outcomes of the network, is the central theme of this research. To support the theoretical framework above, we sought to literature based on the following authors: Human and Provan (1997), Ebers and Jarillo (1998), Balestrin and Verschoore (2008), Powell (1998), Jarillo (1998), Castells (2012), Provan, Fish and Sydow (2007), among others. The object of study is the case of the cooperation network Redemac Building Materials. Was used for both, qualitative research techniques with in-depth interviews with three executives who participated or participate in the process of institutionalization of Redemac. The aim was to examine the formation, development, benefits and results of association of companies, which became a success in forming a cooperative network. Finally, we tried to add the vision of a shopkeeper who joined the network, observing the results from the purposes of cooperation. The results indicate that Redemac is an association of companies that achieved great success in the scenario gaucho following the collaborative paradigm in order to maximize benefits from information exchange, gains in scale, cost savings, sharing marketing, increasing the bargaining power with suppliers and thereby creating barriers to entry for new competitors, in order to make it more competitive to face the major players in the industry. Ratified, so the idea that the use of collective strategies in the sector can bring competitive advantages in the long term.
Networking; Cooperation; Redemac; Collective strategies; Competitive advantages
