The purpose of this study is to build a taxonomy of the Brazilian manufacturing industry based on the innovative efforts of the companies. This choice is due to two assumptions. First, competitiveness and financial-economic performance in a given industry is related to the innovative performance of its firms. Second, the innovative effort meets the requirements or technological regimes that are specific to each industry or sector. The use of cluster analyses as the only method of grouping and the emphasis on indicators of innovation inputs are peculiarities of this taxonomy. The results indicate that the Brazilian industry is dominated by four typical groups of sectors - with no deep, significant differences among them - and a predominance of industries with low technological intensity.
Industrial taxonomy; competitiveness; innovation
