Editorial

ID: 5691

Authors: Denise Del Prá Netto Machado, Leomar dos Santos.

Source: Revista de Negócios, v. 16, n. 2, p. 9-10, April-June, 2011. 2 page(s).

Document type: Editorial (Portuguese)

Agribusiness SA: capital funding for cooperative societies and traded companies

ID: 5696

Authors: Rafael Borges Morch, Patricia Ramos Cavalcanti, Esmael Almeida Machado, José Augusto Veiga da Costa Marques.

Source: Revista de Negócios, v. 16, n. 2, p. 11-30, April-June, 2011. 20 page(s).

Keyword: Agribusiness , Cooperatives , Debt , Profitability

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

Recent data published by Brazilian Central Bank has shown that at May, 2011 the official international reserves amounted $328.1, value able to repay its foreign debt. The agribusiness has contributed significantly for this position. As an example, in 2010 the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of this sector reached R$ 821 billion, an amount that represents 22% of all wealth generated by the country (CEPEA, 2011). However, with the increase of the country’s exports and considering the commodities prices’ variability since 2006, the sector has been reducing its participation in GDP  recently, vis-à-vis from level of 28.8% achieved in 2003. In this way, the credit’ institutional environment for agribusiness in Brazil, after a period of intense intervention, show a trend toward the decrease in the preferential rates loans. Thus, in the scenario which cooperative societies and public companies operates in the commodities market, among other items present in the segment agribusiness sector, we seek to verify the behavior of capital structure and profitability indicators of cooperatives and public companies that operates in the agribusiness sector. For this purpose, we’ve collected financial statements of public companies and credit unions with operations in agribusiness activities, which totals 203 reports analyzed. Leverage and profitability rates of the two groups (cooperatives and public companies) were compared using the Mann-Whitney test: the main hypothesis was that the average leverage in cooperative societies was higher to the observed among public companies. However, the results have indicated that there are no differences in the leverage composition between the groups.

Production and consumption sustainable: a Adao’s case

ID: 5692

Authors: Leonel Gois Lima Oliveira, Francisco José da Costa.

Source: Revista de Negócios, v. 16, n. 2, p. 31-46, April-June, 2011. 16 page(s).

Keyword: Alimentos Orgânicos , Consumo Sustentável , Produção Sustentável

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This paper has the objective of contributing to sustainable production and consumption analysis through a case study related to an association of consumers’ initiative. A literature review was developed, and a field study was done, with data collected with 11 respondents, by means of semi-structured interviews. The research was made in the city of Fortaleza, taking into account the aspects associated with the organization creation’s initiative, with production and with consumption of the organic food. The results showed the success of the initiative, despite some managerial problems experienced by the institution. It’s believed the study can contribute to stimulate the creation and the improvement of the initiatives of the same nature.

Credit risk forecast to define the profile of customers of a retail bank

ID: 5693

Authors: Marco Aurélio Marques Ferreira, Lívia Maria de Oliveira, Lucas Maia dos Santos, Luiz Antônio Abrantes.

Source: Revista de Negócios, v. 16, n. 2, p. 47-64, April-June, 2011. 18 page(s).

Keyword: Credit risk , Default , Logistic regression

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The default is the cost most borne by the banking spread. Thus, the credit risk embodied in the observed default is directly connected to the high cost of lending operations. Considering these points, the following question arises: could be possible to predict the credit risk to improve the relationship between creditors and debtors? Therefore, this work has as main objective, achieve the definition of the profile of defaulting customers or future risk of default on personal loan relationships in retail banking in Brazil, so that they more accurately decide on whether to grant the credit or not. It was performed a quantitative study using exploratory logistic analysis, with information about 158 clients from a bank located in the city of Viçosa, Minas Gerais. The collected variables were directly related to the 5 “Cs” of credit. The proposed model was able to predict 92.71% of customers without default and 74.19% of the defaulting clients, with a total prediction power of 85.44%. The estimated coefficients showed satisfactory fit to 1% probability. Thus, we could demonstrate the importance of credit analysis successful.

Competitiveness of Chevrolet dealers: a study employing the fields and weapons of the competition methodology

ID: 5695

Authors: Paula Meyer Soares Passanezi, José Celso Contador.

Source: Revista de Negócios, v. 16, n. 2, p. 65-85, April-June, 2011. 21 page(s).

Keyword: Automobile dealers , Automobile industry , Competitiveness , Fields and weapons of the competition , Strategies

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This article discusses the methodology and the results of field research carried out in the Spare Parts section of Chevrolet dealers. A new methodology that can be employed to analyze and explain the competitiveness of a group of companies, and can also increase the competitiveness of a company was adopted in the research. This methodology, based on the Fields and Weapons of the Competition model, analyzes the business competitive strategies and the operational strategies separately. The first set of strategies isrepresented by some of the 17 fields of competition, and the second, by the weapons of the competition. The methodology employs mathematical variables to explain business competitiveness. The analysis of the influence of the strategies is carried out statistically. Numerous conclusions were drawn, such as: 1) it is not the business strategy adopted that explains business competitiveness, but rather the operational strategies employed, and 2)to increase its competitiveness, the company must increase its focus on weapons that are relevant to the fields where it has decided to compete.

Complex organizations and reliability organizacional: reflections on the HRO – High Reliability Organizations

ID: 5694

Authors: Paulo Muro, Victor Meyer Junior.

Source: Revista de Negócios, v. 16, n. 2, p. 86-100, April-June, 2011. 15 page(s).

Keyword: Complex Systems and Organizational Reliability , Organizations

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The work of organizations has experienced a growing attention from organizational theorists due to the economic, social, technological, political or environment interests. As productive units they combine natural, material, human, and technological resources in order to offer goods and services to society. The nature of their products and services along with the complexity of the production process, classified as a sociotechnical system, have brought about failures and accidents in their activities with undesirable impact to organizations and their employees as well as to the environment and society. The purpose of this paper is to examine organizations as complex systems characterized by high risk operation with low or none identified accidents in their production units and known as high reliability organizations. This work can be characterized as an essay and it is based on the main theories on complex systems and organizational reliability like Normal Accidents Theory (NAT) (Charles Perrow) and High Reliability Theory (HRT) (Karl Weick). The paper approaches questions related to risks due to operational failures and errors that can cause accidents with dangerous effects that may threat human lives and the environment. The analysis of such complex systems and the characteristics of organizations that operate such complex and high risk system but display high level of reliability is developed. The  conclusions stress that to ascribe to a particular organization the status of “high reliability” requires a careful analysis because it implies a situational question in which aspect of behavior or technical nature have a stronger influence than other organizational dimensions.