Management of company-university cooperation: a Brazilian Multinational case

This paper aims to examine how a Brazilian multinational manages cooperation with external sources of technology, such as universities and research institutes. To achieve this, qualitative research of a descriptive nature was performed and the case study method was used. Empresa Brasileira de Compressores [Embraco] was studied in depth. The survey results showed that Embraco manages cooperation with external sources of technology following a formal pattern of management, integrated by eleven administrative practices that are linearly processed. These management practices are basically carried out sequentially in three stages: the pre-development of cooperation stage, which is the project definition, the partner selection and the activity planning; the cooperation development stage, in which contracts are signed, the infrastructure is organized and activities are implemented and monitored; and the cooperation post-development stage in which the activities are evaluated, knowledge is transferred and intellectual property is guaranteed. Only monitoring and evaluation practices tend to occur more dynamically through the cooperation process.