The flex-fuel technology building process in Brazil: an analysis from the perspective of business platform

Abstract

The conceptual perspective of "business platform" intent to demonstrate that in the current situation, industries can jointly establish innovations through formal exchanges of expertise between a "leader firm and its complementary." The research had qualitative and exploratory character, using grounded theory techniques and thematic content analysis of five in-depth interviews made to automakers and suppliers of flex-fuel technology. The flex-fuel technology as a "business platform", presented the following results: there were modifications in the architecture of the engine flex-fuel-related components; the technology emerged from a strong relationship of exchange of expertise among the "Modules "(the systemists and the automakers). The interviewees reported the existence of co-design in the development and application part of this technology. The power of the automakers in the "architecture" of the flex-fuel platform is also highlighted by the leadership in the chain of the automotive industry. Finally, it was elaborated a model of “flex-fuel business platform from the concepts drawn from the interviews. It was concluded that the flex-fuel platform is led by automakers that hold the core architecture of the engine. Innovations of high aggregated value, as the case of flex-fuel, require partnerships and standardization with "complementary" (large and small suppliers).