Abstract:
Companies are moving abroad to look for advantages in alternative sources of supply. Primarily associated with the lack of local suppliers or lower acquisition costs, these reactions have driven business to a more proactive perspective by the adoption of Strategic Global Sourcing (GS). GS is conceptualized as the company's strategic direction for the search and monitoring of global supply markets and their efficient management through the integration and coordination of activities related to the functional areas of business, as well as the units of local purchases of a set of related companies. Companies from emerging countries are developing their own GS, in the same manner as companies from developed countries. Most GS literature considers emerging companies the emerging companies to be the suppliers, not the buyers. These "late movers" have more strategic motivation, as well as goals, to internationalize their activities. In this study, we investigated emerging Brazilian companies in the electrical and electronic industries from the state of Rio Grande do Sul as buyers in the global market. The initial step was a literature review, followed by the development of a theoretical framework. The framework was applied to a case study. Six companies from the selected industry sector were investigated. Four were classified as adopting GS. The main motivations that led these companies to adopt GS were identified as faster access to new technologies, the establishment of presence in global markets and the motivation to become a global player. The cultural differences were identified as the main difficulty. A set of differences between these companies and the adoption of GS from traditional MNCs in terms of the structure and process were also identified with special consideration given to the use of IPOs in earlier stages of internationalization sourcing. It was possible to confirm that the adoption of GS is a competitive advantage for these companies.