Portuguese investments in Brazil. The contribution of historical and cultural proximity

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Carla Guapo da
• Data de Publicação: 2002
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/24263
• topic: Foreign direct investment; Portuguese Firms; International Trade; Competitiveness; Portugal; Brasil

The main concern of this paper is to identify the contribution of cultural proximity as a major determinant in the investment decision of a well defined set of Portuguese firms in Brazil. The analysis is conducted in the context of the recent internationalization process of Portuguese economy. If we take a closer look at the evolution of Portuguese economy for the past five years, we won't be surprised to find out that the internationalisation of its best performing companies is one of the main features. Actually, despite the relative low levels of development, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has always been a part of the evolution of Portuguese economy, mainly as inward FDI. However, the structural changes the Portuguese economy has been undergoing for the last twenty years (corresponding to the adhesion to the European Economic Community, in 1986) have contributed to the important transformations concerning outward FDI.