Multinationals in the pandemic context: The case of Brazilian companies and China

• Autor(a) principal: Valério, Heloísa Manzi
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/27541
• topic: COVID-19; Brazil; China; Multinational firms; International business

The COVID-19 public health crisis and policy efforts to combat it have led to significant economic and commercial consequences (Evenett, 2020). Multinational enterprises had to strive to respond to the new reality (Van Assche & Lundan, 2020), particularly companies doing business with China (Chen et al., 2021). The role of China as a manufacturing hub and as Brazil´s main trading partner disrupted several companies in the Latin American country. The closing of borders and confinement measures made trade difficult and more expensive (Morgan et al., 2021); together with the economic slowdown, the international business in Brazil faced undeniable challenges. Thus, two research questions were raised to investigate the main challenges faced and the strategies used by Multinationals in Brazil to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. In this exploratory study, we used a literature review, questionnaires, and interviews directed at specific professionals in Brazil who deal with China. The key findings reflect the main challenges of Brazilian international companies in their business with China and the strategies they have implemented to overcome them. This study shows how companies in the same context could reanalyze their operational planning and avoid future disruptions.