Foreign direct investment in an emerging country: a Brazilian case of a triple helix as practice

PurposeThe purpose of this purpose is to understand the territorial management process behind the implementation and anchoring of a foreign direct investment (FDI) project in an emerging country during its project life cycle. This research contributes to the “strategy as practice” and “triple helix” research fields.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use qualitative and single-case research with secondary public sources and confirmatory interviews. The case is related to the process of implementing and anchoring a joint venture in the semiconductor industry between a South Korean company and a Brazilian company. The relations between the university, the companies and the government are analyzed in terms of supporting territorial attractiveness.FindingsViewing the attraction of FDI in collaborative terms provides new empirical evidence and explanations of the phenomenon. From this single-case study, the authors can offer the following research propositions, which can be further developed and tested:P1– the use of a triple helix strategy is an attractive factor when applying an exogenous investment;P2: the entrepreneurial university is an attractive factor when applying an exogenous investment; andP3: contemporary public policies must be involved in complex networks with the community to achieve success when locating and anchoring an exogenous investment.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the main limitations is linked to the secondary data sources for the reconstruction of the case narrative. Secondary data sources omit important details when reporting events. The authors tried to overcome this limitation by using multiple sources and providing different types and breadth of details; for the triangulation stage, the authors held interviews to confirm the data collected in the newspapers and to look for details that could have passed unnoticed. Additionally, it should be noted that the confirmatory interviews were retrospective. An intensive interview promotes the clarification of each participant’s interpretation of his or her own experience and therefore represents a very useful method for interpretative research. However, the limitation is that between the experience and the date of the interviews, the interviewee undergoes many other experiences, learning and contexts that modify his or her point of view and way of interpreting what happened in the past. Finally, in this study, the authors have chosen a “Gioia method” template rather than an “Eisenhardt” template (Langley and Abdallah, 2011) and one impression may be the result of a limitation of this template, as pointed out by Langley and Abdallah (2011) “This template has limitations too. One potential limitation that seems, however, not to have hindered these researchers concerns the challenge of convincing readers about the transferability and relevance of the findings given the propensity to study single cases.” In an interpretive research, it is argued that it is the depth of contextual detail in a case study that provides the understanding necessary for a reader to judge whether the theoretical implication is pertinent.Practical implicationsThis paper presents a case of success in attracting FDI in emerging countries. The authors emphasize the mechanisms, agreements and difficulties experienced by the government and the local community involved in the management process for the implementation and anchoring of an FDI project. This study offers a valuable resource for FDI attraction for public sector managers and society members. The management of the implementation process of an FDI project life cycle leads to a “territorial triple helix” model that can be used by emerging countries to promote sustainable economic development in high-tech industries. By choosing the theoretical choice of narrative, the authors have a better understanding of the process for anchoring FDI because the authors can identify key events and present information on how territories develop their policies.Social implicationsThe example of the Brazilian experience in the management of the FDI anchor of the semiconductor industry implies a series of learning for the emerging economies, particularly in terms of the possibility to discover new features to increase the attractiveness of their FDIs. Usually when the authors think about or consult the literature on attracting and anchoring FDI projects, the authors find that countries are concerned about market size, trade openness or interest rate data. However, in the case of HT Micron, an unknown or untouched criterion can be added: the collaboration between the agents of society.Originality/valueThe present research challenges the linear views of project life and displays a successful project that follows a quite different path. This study is original because it provides public sector managers and society members with a valuable resource for FDI implementation and anchoring. Usually when the authors think about or consult the literature on attracting and anchoring FDI projects, the authors find that countries are concerned about market size, trade openness or interest rate data. However, in the HT Micron case, it is possible to add an unknown or untouched criterion: the collaboration between agents of society.