Technological innovation in the production of sea salt in Brazil and changes her socio-territorial arising out: an analysis under the perspective of Schumpeter’s Entrepreneurship Theory

ABSTRACT

The salt work activity has been practiced extensively throughout the Brazilian coast from Para State to the Rio de Janeiro State, today the mechanized salt industry from the Northern Rio Grande do Norte’s coast produce about 94% of the Brazilian sea salt. The entrepreneurship action of the businessmen who invested in the Rio Grande do Norte’s salt works was primarily responsible for the creation of the current productive structure and internal trade of sea salt, in which the Rio Grande do Norte produces most of this important input to industry and agriculture of the country. The corporate entrepreneurship of the Rio Grande do Norte’s salt works was analyzed from the perspective of Schumpeter’s theory, since they could be identified the five key points of this theory in the development of the Rio Grande do Norte’s salt industry. Taking advantage of the best natural conditions for the installation activity, entrepreneurs have created an environment that can artificially boost, mechanically, the productivity of has industry. Changes in the production structure also caused changes in the spatial structure of areas dedicated to the production of sea salt.

Brazilian Semiarid Coast; Rio Grande do Norte Northern Coast; Salt Works; Entrepreneurship; Society-Nature Relationship