Abstract
Drawing on a single case study based on first-hand and long-term evidence gathered through extensive fieldwork, this article examines the process of technological capability accumulation and its implications for operational performance improvement in a chemical firm in Brazil (1980-2007). The evidence indicates that the efforts on technological capability accumulation, especially for innovative activities, permitted the case-study firm to improve its operational performance, notably in terms of technical and, to some extent, in terms of commercial indicators. This study contributes to advancing our understanding of relationship between the firm-level accumulation of technological capabilities and operational performance improvement. The study draws managers’ attention to the importance of managing and measuring a multiplicity of technological capabilities within firms and to the relevance of firm-level engineering-based innovative activities, normally neglected by policy makers.
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