R&D COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES: A CASE STUDY IN THE BRAZILIAN SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY

ABSTRACT

Recent studies point to the need of opening the R&D model for greater interaction, complementarity and cooperation with external actors. Thus, the environment of the company becomes an ecosystem of organic relationships among the various sources of knowledge that interact dynamically building up applied knowledge in the R&D process. The question that arises for this research is: which are the collaborative R&D practices and how do they occur in an industry with high technological complexity? In order tomake the research clearer, we aimed to investigate collaborative R&D projects within the Brazilian semiconductor industry. This paper investigates the structure of collaborative R&D projects in the semiconductor industry in Brazil, as well as unveils the most common collaborative practices among actors. For the field study, 21 projects in R&D, developed by Brazilian Design Houses from 2008 to 2013, were investigated. The study is a contextual approach to Brazilian projects, identifying the main actors, their most significant contributions, and forms of collaboration with their partners. The results show a series of collaborative practices in R&D projects. In the growing industry of national semiconductor, there is a diversity of interactions among suppliers, customers, universities and funding agencies, including foreign competitors. According to the study results, it seems possible to emphasize that in the Brazilian industry there is a broad set of fluid ties that move and shape quickly. It is also noteworthy that the government plays an important role in influencing innovation, based on the principle of interdependence, given the creation of dynamic mechanisms and by fostering public policies and governmental actions; especially those actions to stimulate innovation and interaction among actors, training and capacity building, development of international trade, encouraging fundraising, tax reduction, etc. Among the main collaborative practices, we find collaboration in R&D and managerial aspects, upstream co-creation and downstream in the supply chain, R&D raising funds, and technology acquisition.

KEYWORDS
Collaborative practices; Collaborative projects; R&D; Collaboration; Semiconductors.