TITLE:
Foreign Trade & Infrastructure: The Brazilian Small Business Reality
AUTHORS:
Isabela Lana, Renata Borges, Isabella Reis
KEYWORDS:
Exportation, Small Business, Brazilian Infrastructure, Brazilian Transportation Cost
JOURNAL NAME:
iBusiness,
Vol.6 No.2,
May
16,
2014
ABSTRACT: Internationalization
is a process in which organizations increase their economic activities in international
markets. Specifically small business should aim internalization to become more
competitive since their competitors are not only local companies but also
multinational organizations. However, a medium or small size business from
Brazil faces considerable challenges to internationalize such as the lack of
Brazilian infrastructure. Therefore, given the importance of internationalization
to the Brazilian economy and the role of small business in the global market,
this study analyzes the struggles of a Brazilian small mining company through
the exportation process of its main product—a high quality silica. As result,
this study shows how significant can be national and international
transportation costs as well as the costs related to wharfage. In fact, surprisingly,
this study revealed that the costs related to national transportation are
greater than the international shipment. We conclude that the main obstacle to
enhance exportation in Brazil is in fact the transportation infrastructure,
representing the bottleneck of Brazilian infrastructure even for small business
focused on the national market.