Underpinning economic growth is the emergence of entrepreneurial ventures with the potential to grow that boost job creation and provide new sources of products for mature companies. The critical role associated with new firms, underscores the importance of understanding how entrepreneurship unfolds. Network-based research, while leading the way to rich empirical studies provides a limited understanding of how entrepreneurial networks are built and their impact on the emergence of a new venture. Employing a multiple case study design and a perspective based on organizational path building, three young technology ventures were investigated in terms of the formation of networks around five key entrepreneurial activities defined by entrepreneurs. Rich insight into new venture emergence is presented in terms of the reciprocal relationship between specific activities enacted by entrepreneurs and the networks that form to execute those activities revealing the path building mechanisms that evolve to drive network development. The findings of this research not only contribute to theories of new venture emergence, but also offer an interesting opportunity for future research into factors that may influence the outcome of entrepreneurial ventures and provide practical insight for organizations seeking to sustain or develop an entrepreneurial path.

Underpinning economic growth is the emergence of entrepreneurial ventures with the potential to grow that boost job creation and provide new sources of products for mature companies. The critical role associated with new firms, underscores the importance of understanding how entrepreneurship unfolds. Network-based research, while leading the way to rich empirical studies provides a limited understanding of how entrepreneurial networks are built and their impact on the emergence of a new venture. Employing a multiple case study design and a perspective based on organizational path building, three young technology ventures were investigated in terms of the formation of networks around five key entrepreneurial activities defined by entrepreneurs. Rich insight into new venture emergence is presented in terms of the reciprocal relationship between specific activities enacted by entrepreneurs and the networks that form to execute those activities revealing the path building mechanisms that evolve to drive network development. The findings of this research not only contribute to theories of new venture emergence, but also offer an interesting opportunity for future research into factors that may influence the outcome of entrepreneurial ventures and provide practical insight for organizations seeking to sustain or develop an entrepreneurial path.

Mitigating the projections of climate change will require large investments in renewableenergy sources. In Sweden, a major share of new renewable energy production will have tocome from wind power. However, in 2009 wind power provided less than 2 percent of thecountry’s energy consumption.The main purpose of this thesis is to further the understanding of issues that affect thedevelopment of wind power in Sweden.The study has been carried out by qualitative interviews with five of the country’s leadingwind power developers. Duncan’s concept of external environment has been applied to definethe study and develop the interview questions.The study has resulted in the findings of eight key issues that affect the development of windpower in Sweden as well as areas in need of improvements from an investor’s perspective.Overall the thesis finds that wind power developers are very happy with the efforts from theSwedish government and the present conditions will likely allow wind power to have agrowing place in the Swedish energy system, provided that the current positive conditions are maintained.

This study aims to look at the processes used when creating wellbeing economic projects to further understand what key themes there are. It applies Path-Dependency theory, consisting of Path-Dependence and Path-Creation to see if the chosen aspects are relevant to creating wellbeing projects and altering the path from the Anthropocene. Analysis is conducted on 45 implemented wellbeing economic projects from the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. After formulating questions based on this, interviews are carried out with ten experienced wellbeing leaders to gain a deeper understanding of what could be learned from their experiences of success and failure within wellbeing projects. The main findings of the study show that to effectively alter the path, power should be dispersed between as many people as possible, people are driven by a larger vision than specifics and it is essential for governments and the private sector to communicate with people to understand what they value in regards to wellbeing.

Abstract Tourism has developed into an important field of economy in the northern sparsely populated areas of Finland. State bodies of different spatial scales continuously put efforts to foster tourism growth and tourism is viewed as a prosperous economic path for the future. The prevailing tourism development is resort-oriented, which has transformed rural geographies in the North. Critical tourism geography research highlights that such market-driven tourism development has negative social and environmental consequences. Thus, tourism change needs to be examined from a broader perspective than economic benefits alone. It is required that tourism economy serves people and not vice versa. To increase sustainability in destination localities, collective economic agency in destinations is encouraged in tourism research and development. To date, tourism research has tended to draw on multiple, often contradicting, theoretical perspectives in an attempt to clarify how collective agency in tourism destinations should be best organized in order to foster social justice and ecological sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to understand how sustainability can be facilitated through local economic relations in resort-oriented destination development contexts. Sustainability discussions in tourism research are advanced by drawing on economic geography and its critical takes. The thesis consists of three studies that each examine sustainability in tourism destinations from a different viewpoint. The thesis first examines how (un)sustainability currently manifests in local economic relations and then discusses what changes are required to move towards more sustainable tourism futures. Ethnographically oriented case studies and a contemporary variant of the grounded theory method enables approaching tourism economies from the perspective of everyday tourism realities. The empirical part of the research is conducted in the Ruka and Ylläs destinations in the Finnish North. Insights were gathered by semi-structured in-depth interviews with local tourism actors in 2012 and 2015. The study introduces a poststructural political economy approach to sustainability transformations in tourism destinations. The less growth-focused economic thinking that exists in destinations is brought to light. Tourism actors’ motives and aims can differ drastically from the rationales of growth-focused tourism destination development that dominate in networked tourism governance. Many of the tourism actors desire conservation of natural and cultural environment in destinations. This creates conflict between the coexisting tourism paths. In the thesis, it is argued that economic difference in tourism should not be conceptualized merely as a source of diversification of tourism supply and thus as beneficial for destination growth; it should be recognized as political agency in tourism economy. Tourism networking is already now often value-driven, and this needs to be encouraged. That is, transformative agency for tourism change can be gained and new tourism paths created also through incremental changes ‘from below’, not only via policy actions. To contribute to the critical (economic) geography research on social and economic change, this thesis highlights that it is central to understand not only what new economic futures look like but also how to work towards them in everyday politics. Although the alternative and critical voices are valuable as they accurately state a socially just view of how things ought to be, these voices may not be the best way to bring about a change. This is because power hierarchies are not easily recognized in everyday tourism work. Each actor interprets the social from their subjective point of view. Even actors with the most power can have personal experiences of powerlessness. Thus, to foster change, it is necessary to facilitate the transformation of the existing conflictual inter-group relations. Dialogical everyday politics could work as a means to foster understanding of different groups’ tourism realities and their mutual influence. Conflict could be regarded not solely as an innate feature of capitalist economic relations but also as moments where mutual understanding can be facilitated. This is a way to establish local economic relations that enable community building. Destination sustainability touches not only firm-level practices but the mode of economic organization in tourism destinations. The thesis highlights that to advance social justice and environmental sustainability in destinations, destination development and planning should account for the possibility for a less growth-focused destination development path. As alternative tourism paths do not, as a rule, depend on new, large-scale tourism construction, they would likewise not foster growth in international tourist numbers and air travel. This unconventional view on economic path creation is to be encouraged as it is better in line with climate change mitigation needs and critical sustainability theorizing. / Original papers The original publications are not included in the electronic version of the dissertation. Kulusjärvi, O. (2016). Resort-oriented tourism development and local tourism networks – a case study from Northern Finland. Fennia 194: 1, 3–17. https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/41450 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2019103136035 Kulusjärvi, O. (2017). Sustainable Destination Development in Northern Peripheries: A Focus on Alternative Tourism Paths. Journal of Rural and Community Development 12:2/3, 41–58. https://journals.brandonu.ca/jrcd/article/view/1466 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2018051524148 Kulusjärvi, O. (accepted). Towards just production of tourism space via dialogical everyday politics in destination communities. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space.

A fundamental research question in regional economic development, is why some regions are able to diversify into new products and industries, while others continue to face challenges in diversification? This doctorate research explores the different pathways to diversification. It follows the three-stage modular structure of DBA for Cranfield School of Management. This thesis consists of a systematic literature review, a single qualitative case study on UAE, and a research synthesis of published cases on Singapore, Norway and UAE. The linking document provides a summary of the three projects and consolidates findings and contributions into a path creation model that provides new understanding on the pathways to regional diversifications. This research integrates existing theoretical foundations of evolutionary economic geography, institutional economic geography, path dependence, industry relatedness, economic complexity, and path creation into a unified conceptual path creation model. It generates propositions, builds a framework and develops a matrix for path creation that integrate context, actors, factors, mechanisms and outcomes shaping regional diversification. It finds that in the context of path dependence and existing conditions of a region, economic actors undertake strategic measures to influence the institutional capabilities to accumulate knowledge and trigger indigenous creation, anchoring, branching, and clustering diversification mechanisms to create complex varieties of related and unrelated diversification outcomes. The institutional collaboration capabilities are found to be instrumental in accumulating knowledge and determining the relatedness and complexity of diversification outcomes. This research further provides a set of integrated platform strategies to guide policy-makers on setting up the pathways to regional diversification.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-04-06T13:55:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Talita Raquel de Oliveira.pdf: 620682 bytes, checksum: 0741bd806408a24616d66577c7e8a535 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-06T13:55:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Talita Raquel de Oliveira.pdf: 620682 bytes, checksum: 0741bd806408a24616d66577c7e8a535 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-01-31 / Nenhuma / Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo identificar e analisar, com base na Dependência de Trajetória e Criação de Trajetória, os eventos críticos ocorridos e as perspectivas futuras que influenciam nas escolhas estratégicas na organização não governamental Parceiros Voluntários. Como principais referências teóricas relativas à Dependência de Trajetória foram resgatados trabalhos de Barney (1991; 1995) e outros autores da VBR, como Teece; Pisano e Shuen (1997), Becker e Ruas (2005), Mahoney (2000) e Balestro et al. (2004), David (2000), Licha (2004), Pierson (2004), Sydow; Schreyogg e Koch (2009). E para a Criação de Trajetória os principais foram Arthur (1989) e Schienstock (2011), Garud e Karnoe (2001), Pham (2007), Henfridsson; Yoo e Svahn (2009) e Garud; Kumaraswamy e Karnoe (2010). A pesquisa ocorreu por meio de um estudo de caso, realizou entrevistas semiestruturadas com os principais atores da organização e utilizou a Análise de Conteúdo por meio do software Nvivo10. Observou-se que as escolhas estratégicas realmente são influenciadas pela trajetória da organização, porém há uma variação de intensidade em cada projeto e parceria analisada, pois não ficaram necessariamente restritas ao que já tinha sido realizado no passado. Neste contexto, as estratégias emergentes ilustram muito bem esta questão, pois a organização recebe muitas solicitações referentes à Responsabilidade Social e todas são avaliadas, de forma que a inovação não fica prejudicada. Observou-se que a organização cria suas próprias metodologias, projetos e parcerias e introduz novos elementos na estrutura existente, confirmando a existência da complementaridade entre os constructos de Dependência e Criação de Trajetória através de eventos críticos como o Projeto Tribos nas Trilhas da Cidadania, Projeto Transparência, a área de "Formação", o auxílio às OSCs na área de gestão e legislação. E entre suas perspectivas futuras estão a expansão de atuação para outros estados brasileiros e países, o atendimento a Micro e Pequenas Empresas e a abertura para estudantes pesquisarem a organização. / The purpose of this study was, based on Path Dependence and Path Creation, to identify and analyze the critical events that have occurred and future prospects that influence the strategic choices for the non-governmental organization, Parceiros Voluntários (Voluntary Partners). As main theoretical references regarding Path Dependence, works by Barney (1991; 1995) and other authors of the VBR, such as Teece; Pisano and Shuen (1997), Becker and Ruas (2005), Mahoney (2000) and Balestro et al. (2004), David (2000), Licha (2004), Pierson (2004), Sydow; Schreyogg and Koch (2009) were used. The main references for Path Creation were . Arthur (1989) e Schienstock (2011), Garud and Karnoe (2001), Pham (2007), Henfridsson; Yoo and Svahn (2009) and Garud; Kumaraswamy and Karnoe (2010). The work was done using a case study, semistructured interview with the principal actors of the organization, and Analysis of Content which was done using Nvivo10 software. It was noted that the strategic choices were really influenced by the trajectory of the organization, but there was a variation of intensity in each project and partnership analyzed, since they were not necessarily restricted to what had already been done in the past. In this context, the emerging strategies clearly illustrate this issue, since the organization receives many requests concerning Social Responsibility, and they are all assessed so that innovation is not hindered. It was observed that the organization creates its own methodologies, projects and partnerships, and introduces new elements into the existing structure, confirming that there is complementarity between the constructs of Dependence and Path Creation through critical events such as Project Tribes on the Trails of Citizenship, Project Transparency, the field of “Training”, the help to CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) in the field of management and legislation. And among its future perspectives are extending action to other Brazilian states and other countries, working with Micro and Small Businesses, and an opening for students to do research on the organization.

A fundamental research question in regional economic development, is why some regions are able to diversify into new products and industries, while others continue to face challenges in diversification? This doctorate research explores the different pathways to diversification. It follows the three-stage modular structure of DBA for Cranfield School of Management. This thesis consists of a systematic literature review, a single qualitative case study on UAE, and a research synthesis of published cases on Singapore, Norway and UAE. The linking document provides a summary of the three projects and consolidates findings and contributions into a path creation model that provides new understanding on the pathways to regional diversifications. This research integrates existing theoretical foundations of evolutionary economic geography, institutional economic geography, path dependence, industry relatedness, economic complexity, and path creation into a unified conceptual path creation model. It generates propositions, builds a framework and develops a matrix for path creation that integrate context, actors, factors, mechanisms and outcomes shaping regional diversification. It finds that in the context of path dependence and existing conditions of a region, economic actors undertake strategic measures to influence the institutional capabilities to accumulate knowledge and trigger indigenous creation, anchoring, branching, and clustering diversification mechanisms to create complex varieties of related and unrelated diversification outcomes. The institutional collaboration capabilities are found to be instrumental in accumulating knowledge and determining the relatedness and complexity of diversification outcomes. This research further provides a set of integrated platform strategies to guide policy-makers on setting up the pathways to regional diversification.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-04-26T15:00:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Guilherme Bacim_.pdf: 15496221 bytes, checksum: 753345aa27e543f77ece6c2dbf229575 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-26T15:00:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Guilherme Bacim_.pdf: 15496221 bytes, checksum: 753345aa27e543f77ece6c2dbf229575 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-27 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este estudo de caso trata da avaliação da utilização das melhores práticas da Engenharia de Produção na indústria naval, tendo como pano-de-fundo o Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS). Trata-se de um estudo de caso descritivo e explanatório. O trabalho descreve a trajetória evolutiva do sistema de produção do EAS, caracterizando-o em três fases distintas. Na Fase I, que se inicia em 2008 e se estende até julho 2014, identifica-se uma significativa influência dos fatores históricos da produção naval no Brasil que teve forte influência do paradigma Taylorista/Fordista, e pode ser sintetizado pelo fato de que a produção de navios era percebida enquanto uma ´obra´ com a gestão das diversas ´disciplinas´. A Fase II, que ocorreu entre julho de 2014 e janeiro de 2016, constituiu-se em uma etapa de transição que teve como elemento central o objetivo de modificar a cultura organizacional da empresa, o que foi efetivado através da adoção de conceitos tais como: 5S, mini fábricas e Kaizens com foco na melhoria dos fluxos produtivos e qualidade focada no processo. Já a Fase III, que inicia em janeiro de 2016, tem como evento crítico a criação de uma maquete em escala real do EAS que objetiva criar uma visão holística da empresa e do sistema de produção. A Fase III tem como embasamento teórico o Sistema Toyota de Produção e a Teoria das Restrições (TOC), tendo sido realizado uma importante modificação conceitual no que tange a percepção do ´objeto de trabalho´ ao longo de todo o sistema produtivo do EAS. As modificações que ocorreram, sob a égide e foco na Função Processo, foram centrais para a criação e melhoria dos fluxos produtivos em todo o sistema de produção. Visando a sustentação das mudanças ocorridas na Fase III, ocorreu uma ampla reformulação no modelo de gestão com a criação do conceito de Fábricas (Blocos, Pintura e Edificação) que passaram a ter gestores específicos responsáveis pelas melhorias incrementais e radicais dos fluxos produtivos. Além disso, foram realizadas ações no que tange à Função Operação: i) implantação do conceito de Gestão do Posto de Trabalho nas máquinas restritivas do corte; ii) gerar várias linhas de produção utilizando o conceito de box, com uma visão mais geral de fluxo oriundo da ótica do Tambor/Pulmão/Corda da TOC, com a utilização intensiva do conceito de Operação-Padrão para o dimensionamento dos mesmos. Ainda, através de um relatório de uma consultoria coreana, foi possível entender um conjunto de gaps existentes entre o modelo de sistema de produção atualmente adotado na empresa em estudo e o benchmarking coreano. A partir desta perspectiva evolucionária histórica de desenvolvimento do sistema produtivo do EAS, o trabalho propõe a adoção de uma série de boas práticas no intuito de aprimorar os processos na empresa em estudo. Finalmente, a título de conclusão, a aplicabilidade dos conceitos de engenharia de produção na indústria naval, tem impacto direto em termos das melhorias econômico-financeiro da empresa. / This case study deals with the evaluation of the use of the best practices of Production Engineering in the naval industry, having as background the Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS). It is a descriptive and explanatory case study. The project describes the evolutionary trajectory of the EAS Production System, characterizing it in three distinct phases. In Phase I, which begins in 2008 and extends until July 2014, it is identified a significant influence of the historical factors of the naval production in Brazil that had strong influence of the Taylorist / Fordist paradigm, and can be synthesized by the fact that the production of ships was perceived as a ' construction ' with the management of the several ‘disciplines’. Phase II, which occurred between July 2014 and January 2016, constituted a transition phase that had as its central element the goal of modifying the organizational culture of the company, which was accomplished through the adoption of concepts such as: 5S, mini factories and Kaizens focused on improving production flows and process-focused quality. And in Phase III, which begins in January 2016, has as a critical event the creation of a full-scale EAS model that aims to create a holistic view of the company and the production system. Phase III has as its theoretical basis the Toyota Production System and the Theory of Constraints (TOC), and an important conceptual modification was made regarding the perception of the 'work object' throughout the EAS production system. The changes that occurred under the aegis and focus on the Process Function were central to the creation and improvement of production flows throughout the production system. In order to sustain the changes that occurred in Phase III, there was a broad reformulation in the management model with the creation of the concept of Factories (Blocks, Painting and Edification) that started to have specific managers responsible for the incremental and radical improvements of the productive flows. In addition, actions were taken with respect to the Operation Function: i) implementation of the concept of Workstation Management in the restrictive cutting machines; ii) generate several production lines using the box concept, with a more general view of flow from the TOC Drum / Buffer / Rope perspective, with the intensive use of the Standard Operation concept for their design. Also, through a report from a Korean consultancy, it was possible to understand a set of gaps between the production system model currently adopted in the company under study and the Korean benchmarking. From this evolutionary historical perspective of the development of the EAS production system, the paper proposes the adoption of a series of good practices in order to improve the processes in the company under study. Finally, as a conclusion, it seems possible to affirm the adherence and applicability of the concepts of production engineering in the naval industry, and its application has a direct impact in terms of the company's economic and financial improvements

Submitted by Rafael Kuramoto Gonzalez (rafael_k_gonzalez@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-03-23T14:48:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Final_Rafael_Kuramoto_Gonzalez.pdf: 7373873 bytes, checksum: 4e120ff57a6ae6198920ff7722bd7d8f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2016-03-23T18:45:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Final_Rafael_Kuramoto_Gonzalez.pdf: 7373873 bytes, checksum: 4e120ff57a6ae6198920ff7722bd7d8f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Almeida (maria.socorro@fgv.br) on 2016-03-30T14:42:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Final_Rafael_Kuramoto_Gonzalez.pdf: 7373873 bytes, checksum: 4e120ff57a6ae6198920ff7722bd7d8f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-30T14:42:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Final_Rafael_Kuramoto_Gonzalez.pdf: 7373873 bytes, checksum: 4e120ff57a6ae6198920ff7722bd7d8f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / This thesis concerns about the technological development and innovation in natural resources’ intensive industries in the context of emerging economies. The thesis explores how the accumulation of technological capabilities and the learning mechanisms influenced the technological trajectory in the sugarcane bioethanol industry in Brazil, during the period from mid-1970 to 2014. Much progress has been made in understanding the technological catch-up process of firms and industries in emerging economies. However, these studies often explore the process of technological catch-up related to technological trajectories already mapped by world leaders in manufacturing and processing industries. Part of this studies ignore that the development of industrial activities could occur in natural resources’ intensive industries. In addition, between academic researchers and policy makers, natural resources’ intensive industries are encapsulated as commodities and low-tech, characterized by a limited opportunity for technological learning and accumulation of technological capabilities. However, the process of industrialization in natural resources’ intensive industries in regions such as Latin America is poorly understood and there are scarce research investigating the process of technological catch-up systematically in industrial level, with rare exceptions. Based on evidence from sugarcane bioethanol industry in Brazil, this research explores a process of technological catch-up that has received little attention in the literature. To examine this issue, this research adopts a qualitative design based on a case study strategy at industry level, with extensive fieldwork and collection of firsthand empirical evidence with long-term coverage on 20 organizations. This research found that: (1) The technological trajectory’s evolution of sugarcane bioethanol industry in Brazil was characterized by the opening of a different direction from that mapped by existing technology leaders. This qualitative shift process of the dominant technological trajectory started during the early stages of technology development. So, the industry went through a trajectory of early entry in path-creating; (2) The evolution of this technological trajectory did not happen in a homogeneous way. Were found three relatively distinct patterns of accumulation of technological capabilities for specific technological functions (or areas): feedstock, agricultural processes and industrial processes. In feedstock and industrial processes technological functions there an accumulation of technological capabilities of global leadership, while in the agricultural processes technological function the accumulation of technological capabilities has not evolved beyond the intermediate level; (3) These capabilities were accumulated in a disperse way among industry’s actors (producer firms, research institutes, universities, suppliers, biotechnology companies and etc.) and made possible the opening of exploration of new businesses, albeit modestly exploited; (4) The subtle heterogeneity found in the patterns of technological capabilities accumulation was influenced by a combination of technological learning processes used by the industry over time. Finally, the research also found that this technological trajectory contributed to generate significant implications and was also influenced by other factors. Nevertheless, these results deserve more systematic research effort. Therefore, this research concludes that relevant technological positions, especially for industries from emerging economies, can be achieved through technological trajectories that are not based necessarily on dominant technologies, already exploited by world leaders in advanced economies. Thus, alternative processes of catch-up may be highly relevant for obtaining industrial progress. Furthermore, the research concludes that natural resources’ intensive industries offer opportunities for significant innovations and can be protagonists in this alternative catch-up process, particularly in the context of countries with abundance of natural resources. Therefore, this research contributes to generate new evidence and explanations that help us expand the notion of alternatives to the industrial and economic development in the context of emerging economies. In the debate on industrial and economic development, alternative technological trajectories, as well as intensive industries in natural resources, should receive special attention by public policy makers and business actions. / Esta tese diz respeito ao desenvolvimento tecnológico e inovação em indústrias intensivas em recursos naturais no contexto de economias emergentes. A tese explora como a acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas e os mecanismos de aprendizagem influenciaram a trajetória tecnológica na indústria de bioetanol de cana-de-açúcar no Brasil, durante o período de meados da década de 1970 a 2014. Muito se avançou na compreensão do processo de catch-up tecnológico de empresas e indústrias de economias emergentes. Contudo, essas pesquisas geralmente exploram o processo de catch-up tecnológico relacionado às trajetórias tecnológicas já mapeadas pelos líderes mundiais em indústrias de manufatura e transformação. Parte desses estudos ignora que o desenvolvimento de atividades industriais poderia ocorrer em indústrias intensivas em recursos naturais. Além disso, indústrias intensivas em recursos naturais são geralmente encapsuladas como commodities e low-tech, caracterizadas por uma limitada oportunidade de aprendizagem tecnológica e acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas. Entretanto, o processo de industrialização em indústrias intensivas em recursos naturais em regiões como a América Latina ainda é pouco compreendido e são escassas as pesquisas que investigam o processo de catch-up tecnológico em nível de indústria, com raras exceções. Baseando-se em evidências da indústria de bioetanol do Brasil, esta pesquisa explora um processo de catch-up tecnológico que tem recebido pouca atenção na literatura. Esta pesquisa adotou um desenho qualitativo com base em uma estratégia de estudo de caso em nível de indústria, com extensivo trabalho de campo e coleta de evidências empíricas de primeira mão com cobertura de longo prazo em 20 organizações. Esta pesquisa encontrou que: (1) a evolução da trajetória tecnológica da indústria de bioetanol no Brasil caracterizou-se pela abertura de uma direção distinta daquela mapeada por líderes tecnológicos existentes. Esse processo de desvio qualitativo da trajetória tecnológica dominante iniciou durante os primeiros estágios de desenvolvimento tecnológico. Assim, a indústria percorreu uma trajetória de entrada precoce em path-creating; (2) a evolução dessa trajetória tecnológica não se deu de maneira homogenia. Foram encontrados três padrões relativamente distintos de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas para funções (ou áreas) tecnológicas específicas: feedstock, processos agrícolas e processos industriais. Nas funções de feedstock e processos industriais, houve acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas de liderança mundial, enquanto na função processos agrícolas a acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas não evoluiu além do nível intermediário; (3) essas capacidades foram acumuladas de forma dispersa entre os atores da indústria (empresas produtoras, institutos de pesquisa, universidades, fornecedores, empresas de biotecnologia etc.) e possibilitaram a abertura de oportunidades de exploração de novos negócios, ainda que modestamente aproveitadas; e (4) a sutil heterogeneidade encontrada nos padrões de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas foi influenciada pela combinação de mecanismos de aprendizagem tecnológica utilizados pela indústria ao longo do tempo. Por fim, constatou-se também que essa trajetória tecnológica contribuiu para gerar implicações significativas e foi também influenciada por fatores outros. Não obstante, esses resultados merecem esforço de investigação mais sistemático, uma vez que foram examinados aqui de forma superficial. Concluiu-se, portanto, que posições tecnológicas relevantes, especialmente por indústrias de economias emergentes, podem ser alcançadas por meio de trajetórias tecnológicas que não se baseiam, necessariamente, em tecnologias dominantes, já exploradas por líderes mundiais, de economias avançadas. Assim, os processos alternativos de catch-up podem ser altamente relevantes para a obtenção de progresso industrial. Ademais, a pesquisa concluiu que as indústrias intensivas em recursos naturais oferecem oportunidades para inovações significativas, e podem ser protagonistas nesse processo de catch-up alternativo, particularmente no contexto de países abundantes em recursos naturais. Assim sendo, esta pesquisa contribui para gerar novas evidências e explicações que nos ajudem a ampliar a noção de alternativas para o desenvolvimento industrial e econômico no contexto de economias emergentes. No debate sobre desenvolvimento industrial e econômico, as trajetórias tecnológicas alternativas, bem como as indústrias intensivas em recursos naturais, deveriam receber uma atenção especial por parte de decisores de políticas públicas e de ações empresariais.