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O declínio de uma empresa brasileira de grande porte: o caso Gradiente

2013; UNIVERSIDADE DO VALE DO RIO DOS SINOS; Volume: 10; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4013/base.2013.103.06

1984-8196

Alexandre Pavan Torres, Fernando Ribeiro Serra, Martinho Ribeiro Almeida, Manuel Portugal Ferreira,

Business Strategy and Innovation

This article describes the organizational decline of Gradiente. The case was studied over aperiod of thirty years, using secondary data retrieved and organized using Atlas.ti. 1472 documentswere examined. We used case study methodology to present a substantive theory of Gradiente. Results revealed five factors accountable for the decline: (1) inertia in a changing environment, (2) lack of organizational resources and the inability to absorb shocks, (3) errorsin decision making, (4) governmental protection mechanisms and the relation with the level of competition, and (5) resources held by the firm to face competition. The main limitation of this study is the method used, constrained to a single case study. Despite the importance of researching decline, the extant research has been scarce. This study contributes to a better understanding of the decline process during a long period of time. Even being a single case, it seems to represent the situation of several companies in Brazil during 1990’s.Keywords: organizational decline, Gradiente, strategy.