Internationalization strategies and mirroring structures in north-american advertising agencies: a multiple case study in Brazil / Estratégia de internacionalização e o espelhamentode estruturas em agências norte-americanas de propaganda: um estudo de casos no Brasil

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2005

RESUMO

Globalization is an extensively studied phenomenon, in its economic, social, and cultural dimensions. From the standpoint of Administration, it is configured as a strategical action of companies in search of better productive competitiveness and broader consumer markets. The advertising industry, caracterized as a corporate service backing up the value chain of final goods or services, may be seen either as cause as consequence of globalization: if, on one hand, it follows its clients to serve them beyond national frontiers, on the other it creates, with its geographically pulverized networks, the possibility of global campaign development, fostering the internationalization of other enterprises. However, the complexity of the operations envolved in globally integrated communication forces advertising agencies to rethink its organizational structures. Their activities, strongly information-dependent, do not fit well in centralized models (as they ignore local especificities), nor in decentralized ones (as they neutralize the integrating benefits of global networks). This essay describes how two US-based agencies with local representation in Brazil (through wholly-owned affiliates) adapt their organizational structures to serve globalized clients. Hence, the research method used was a multiple case study, analysing two agencies with strong relevance in the brazilian market: McCann-Erickson (running its local branch in Brazil since 1935) and J. Walter Thompson (sinca 1929). The main data sources were four personal interviews with key executives in the management of global accounts. The empirical investigation corroborated the hypothesis proposed by VARDAR and PALIWODA (1993), according to which advertising agencies mimic their clients global and regional coordenation structures. This mirroring effect facilitates the flow of information and decisions in and between organizations, by creating agency counterparts for every decision-making node observed in the advertisers structure. In order to achieve this, advertising networks use matricial structures which allow them to simultaneously mirror their multiple clients. The business policy revealed by the case studies indicates a market-driven strategy adopted by agencies, in search of long-term relationships with advertisers through sophisticated adaptive mecanisms.

ASSUNTO(S)

global strategy propaganda internacional estrutura organizacional globalização globalization international advertising estratégias de internacionalização organizational structure

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