Differences of innovative behavior among local and foreign companies in Brazil Diferen as de comportamento inovador entre empresas nacionais e estrangeiras no Brasil

This article aims to compare innovative behavior between multinational (EMN) and national(ENA) firms in Brazil by sector of industrial activity. The variables of comparison are thosetraditionally recommended by literature (intensity of technological change, sources and resultsof innovation, learning and technological trajectory) and which are in Pintec 2003 from IBGE.The comparison is performed through the calculation of similarity indexes and correlationcoefficients between the propensity to execute the different innovative activities between bothgroups (ENA and EMN) and by sectors, as well as indexes of technological autonomy anddependency. The main results show that: i) EMN have more propensity to be innovative,but not to be “highly innovative”; ii) for all variables examined and for most sectors, thedifferences in innovative behavior between the two groups are irrelevant in aggregate terms,which means that the innovative activity of the firm is more driven by sectorial technologicalimperatives; and iii) for most of the variables object of comparison, the sectors that have majordifferences in behavior are practically the same (manufacture of wearing apparel, metallurgy,other industrial products, refined petroleum products, motor vehicles, instruments and communicationsequipment), which suggest that the aspects related to structure and organizationof the firm may be more relevant than the sectorial technological imperatives. Resumo Este artigo tem como objetivo comparar o comportamento inovador de empresas multinacionais (EMN) e nacionais (ENA) no Brasil por setor de atividade industrial. As variáveis de compara o s o as que a literatura tradicionalmente recomenda (intensidade de mudan a tecnológica, insumos, produtos, aprendizado e trajetória tecnológica) e que se encontram na Pintec 2003 do IBGE. A compara o é realizada mediante o cálculo de índices de semelhan a e coeficientes de correla o entre as propens es a realizar as atividades definidas entre ambos os grupos de empresas e por setor, assim como por meio de indicadores de autonomia e dependência tecnológica. Os principais resultados mostram que: i) as EMN s o mais propensas a inovar, mas n o s o altamente inovadoras; ii) as diferen as de comportamento entre ambos os grupos estudados s o muito reduzidas em termos agregados, na maior parte dos setores e para todas as variáveis examinadas, o que significa que a atividade inovadora de cada empresa é fortemente determinada por imperativos tecnológicos setoriais; iii) os setores que apresentam maiores diferen as de comportamento s o praticamente