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Business and Politics in the Internationalization of Brazilian Firms

Foreign Policy
Interest Groups
International Relations
Political Economy
Business
Investment
Pietro Carlos de Souza Rodrigues
Kings College London

Abstract

The relationship between the state and the national private capital is one of the driving elements of the division of political roles between different actors and social sectors and is essential to the understanding of the competitiveness of Brazilian companies. While there is a longstanding attention to the domestic effects of this relationship, little is known about the manifestations of this relationship beyond the national borders. Considering the political dimension as a key element of the organization and action of Brazilian companies, this work contains a proposal for systematization and analysis of the relationship between foreign policy and internationalization of Brazilian firms. What is the role of foreign policy in the determination of Brazilian investments abroad? The paper will focus on delineating how and to what extent domestic political factors - such as government equity participation in private companies, the role of public development banks and internationalization policies - and international - as the Brazilian foreign policy strategies, international cooperation and bilateral relations, preferential agreements and investments - are intertwined with Brazilian investments. Then, we will seek to present the mechanisms and how each of the political elements are predictive or explanatory factors of the locational decisions and entrance modes of Brazilian foreign investments. This paper seeks to understand how the link between business and politics is stablished in its various expressions. For this reason, we will start the work: [1] placing the research in the context of international political economy studies, [2] we will provide a balance of the literature on the relationship between entrepreneurs and policy in Brazil, [3] will carry out an analysis of the way in which literature has responded to the call of unravel the role of business in Brazil's foreign policy and, finally, [4] assess how the mentioned political dimension can been addressed in the main interpretations about the determinants of internationalization of Brazilian firms.