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This work analyses how Brazilian health insurance operators and hospitals apply Managed Care (MC) and innovation-related criteria upon managing healthcare operations. Four health plan operators and two internationally accredited hospitals in Southern Brazil were analysed. Semi-structured interviews were performed with managers appointed by the selected organisations. A framework based on MC and innovation management criteria was used as a reference for data collection. The surveyed hospitals have shown to be more compliant with the MC criteria whereas the surveyed health plan operators are less compliant to these criteria. The highest compliance rate for both types of organisations was on the management of medical services criterion. No evidence was found about adoption of the selected concepts of innovation in healthcare management. MC and Innovation criteria may produce an integrated focus on the client (patient), considering a systemic view of the value chain and of innovation in healthcare management as ways of increasing the quality of services provided while reducing costs. Managers would have benefited from taking this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The business environment is surrounded by economic uncertainties, which shows the need to develop methodological practices that make it competitive, sustainable and innovative. The purpose of this paper is of analysing the relationships between the project management practices, the product and process innovation, and the sustainable competitive advantage in enterprises in Southern Brazil. This research has a quantitative and descriptive character, in which the data were collected through a survey in 226 enterprises in the Activity Sectors of Industrial Manufacturing, Commerce and Services. Data analysis done through the Structural Equation Modelling, we used the following techniques and methods: Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Hypotheses tests. The research showed that enterprises use project management practices and have product innovation and process innovation, which are essential for sustainable competitive advantage. However, the enterprises are moving towards proactive behaviours, since they present innovative actions for their market permanence and competitiveness, once the organisations face constant legal and political enforcement, due to the globalised market. The research shows evidence which may help the enterprises' managers and decision-makers to improve or influence their enterprises' competitive and sustainable performance. In this sense, the practical implications of the research are presented to add value to project managers and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation and risk are inseparable. In fact, literature on innovation management often recommends that innovation-oriented firms must actively monitor, evaluate, analyze and treat future events in order to mitigate risks whenever possible. This approach is particularly important in emergent economies characterized by unstructured national innovation systems and constant economic and market instability. However, there has been no systematic effort to identify and categorize risks that potentially impact businesses based on innovation. Thus, we propose an interpretative framework of risk events with potential financial impact in innovation-oriented firms constructed and tested by means of a mixed studies review. The risk events were identified through a comprehensive systematic search and review of the published literature on risk and innovation. From the 115 works that were analyzed, it was possible to identify nine categories of risk events frequently associated with innovation-oriented businesses that may generate financial impacts. The proposed interpretative framework was tested in an empirical study with 13 innovation-oriented firms located in six Brazilian technological parks. Results from the empirical study suggest that managers found the proposed interpretative framework complete and comprehensive. Moreover, the empirical study signaled which risk events are more relevant for the Brazilian context. The proposed framework is a first necessary step for future development of ERM models applicable in innovation-intensive contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open Innovation (OI) is a growing trend as a practice to improve the Product Development Process (PDP). It is changing the way companies create new products and technology. The automotive industry is not an exception to that trend. This industry began to implement this concept many years ago but not in a homogeneous way. Now, more than ever, innovation is playing a vital role in this industry due to the technological revolution it is facing, and new innovation tools are needed. This study aims to compare OI practices in the PDP of French companies at their headquarters and at their subsidiaries located in Brazil. It presents multiple case studies based on interviews with experienced professionals from four different companies. Public documents were also used in the analysis of the innovation process in these companies. A literature review of PDP and OI is presented to ground the questions that guided these interviews. This study reveals that, in addition to stronger technology development, headquarters in France have more structured OI practices than subsidiaries in Brazil. It was found that automakers in Brazil perform some OI practices while suppliers have few to no product development. Furthermore, in both countries and industries, outside-in OI practices are much more common than inside-out ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the changing strategies of developmental states using Brazil's oil-based industrial policy as a case study. We analyse the relationship between the state, Petrobras and industrial elites in the context of Brazil's renewed emphasis on sector-specific industrial development strategy. Taking stock and re-examining the developmental state model, we suggest that developmental states are inherently political, particularly their bureaucracy and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and that money politics is intricately woven into state-guided high growth regimes. Given the difficulty of privatisation as a solution to SOE (mis)governance, the challenge for Brazil is to mediate extreme political interventions that have eroded Petrobras' autonomy in the past and to sustain institutional capacity to direct rents towards investment and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that an industrial association can play the role of a catalyst for change where government intervention does not provide a sufficient response to market failure in the development of innovation activities, especially in less developed regions. This experimental study was conducted in the State of Ceara in Brazil by the UNIEMPRE program of the federation of industries (FIEC). The findings show the positive influence of the local association of industries as a catalyst for the innovation process, acting through five main channels: increasing the awareness of all actors, providing information and knowledge, assisting firms in developing their innovation capabilities, developing the milieu’s innovation capabilities, and establishing long-term sustainability of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]