As estratégias de internacionalização das cooperativas agropecuárias de café da Região do Cerrado Mineiro

Abstract

The objective of this research was to identify and analyze what were the internationalization strategies adopted by the agricultural cooperatives of coffee in the Região do Cerrado Mineiro. The paradigm adopted for this research was functionalist, with a qualitative approach and, to access the data, was used case studies, consisting of five agricultural cooperatives that sell coffee, affiliated to the Federação dos Cafeicultores do Cerrado (Federation of the Cerrado Coffee Growers), which is the owner of the brand Região do Cerrado Mineiro, and also the data of the federation itself. Among the five first cases, two of them are cooperatives that became internationalized, one of them ended its activities during the research and, the other three, are not internationalized. Data collection was through semi-structured interviews with managers of internationalized cooperatives, non-internationalized ones and the Federation of the Cerrado Coffee Growers and with cooperative associates from the internationalized cooperatives, which resulted in 16 interviews, besides the documents. The content analysis technique served to the analysis of the collected data, which enabled the identification of five categories, consisting of push, delaying or limiting factors to internationalization, also, for hybrid factors, that influenced the internationalization strategies of agricultural cooperatives of coffee in the Região do Cerrado Mineiro, which are: 1) add value; 2) relationship with business partners and competitors; 3) structure of the cooperative; 4) being part of the Região do Cerrado Mineiro; 5) being located in the Cerrado Mineiro. While theoretical contribution, two were presented. The first is the joint use of internationalization theories, Theory of Dynamic Capabilities and studies on agricultural cooperatives in the internationalization process of agricultural coffee cooperatives. The second, was the standardization of the names used to refer to the types of coffee, they are: a) commodities or undifferentiated; b) differentiated, higher, certificates or second-line; c) special, fine, first-rate, very fine or extra-thin. As a result of these theoretical contributions, practical contributions were recognized. Firstly, it was drafted the steps adopted by the internationalized cooperatives in order to meet the international market expectations and, in sequence, was presented nineteen specific internationalization strategies. Finally, the originality of this research comes from the use of theories of internationalization and the Theory of Dynamic Capabilities to understand the movement of agricultural coffee cooperatives internationalization.