Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster: local innovation systems. Glaudson Bastos. Logike Associados.

1. SérieEstudos eDocumentos Técnicos
Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster
 The city of Rio de Janeiro has the country’s second largest GDP of
about US$ 66 billion (2005, 5.5% of total and 3.3% of population),
less than half of that of São Paulo, the largest (12.3% of total and
6% of population), and 50% larger than the third place, Brasilia, the
country’s capital.
 Although Rio de Janeiro represents just 2.8 of the industrial GDP
versus almost 10% for São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo
together account for over 20% of the county’s services GDP.
 Although all major capitals have experienced a decline in their share
of the services GDP over the period 2002-2005, Rio de Janeiro’s
decline at almost 1% was the largest among them, reaching 6.5% of
this total in 2005 (7.3% in 2002). The Rio de Janeiro metropolitan
region (2007) has a population of 11 million and the state 15.4
million.

2. SérieEstudos eDocumentos Técnicos
Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster
 Birth of the first masters program in computer science as well as the
first academic undergraduate course.
 First data processing center was established at PUC-Rio.

3. SérieEstudos eDocumentos Técnicos
South Rio Pole
Cinema and Video
Production Pole
and the Globo
television network
Production Center
(Projac)
South Rio Pole
PUC-Rio and
Genesis Technological
Incubator
Downtown
Pole
ASSESPRO,
SEPRORJ
and Riosoft
Rio Technological Park
Coppe-UFRJ, National
Electric Energy
Research Center (Cepel)
and PETROBRAS
corporate research center
(Cenpes)
Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster: local innovation systems (LIS)

4. SérieEstudos eDocumentos Técnicos
Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster: economy structure
Statistical Category (CNAE) –
Integrated Activities
Employment
#
firms
Wages
(12/2001 -
R$)
Aver. Size
(employees)
Average
Wage
(R$)
72109 – IT systems consulting 3,539 330 7,456,952.15 10.72 2,107.08
72206 – Software development 3,103 222 6,471,454.19 13.98 2,085.55
72303 – Data processing 6,399 282 11,849,685.04 2.69 1,851.80
72508 – Maintenance and repair
of office and IT equipment
2,771 224 3,489,279.53 12.37 1,259.21
72907 – Other IT activities, not
previously specified
3,231 255 8,239,756.25 12.67 2,550.22
Total 19,043 1313 37,507,12.,16 14.50 1,969.60
Source: Logike adapted from Britto.
Notes:CNAE means Classificação Nacional de Atividades Econômicas – CNAE, its the name of the current national classification
(Brazilian Activity Classifications) in accordance with the International Standard Industrial Classification.
 Table 1: Profile of Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster

5. SérieEstudos eDocumentos Técnicos
INTERNAL
FOCUS
EXTERNAL
FOCUS
Strengths Weakness
Opportunities Threats
 New poles have emerged from middle
sized cities São Paulo (e.g. Sorocaba,
Hortolândia, etc.)
Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster: swot
 Labor costs
 Branding
 Ability to produce the right mix of local
collective goods
 Incubators Funds
 Labor pool (emerging from Coppe,
PUC, etc.)
 Governance
 Become a true innovative IT cluster in
order to compete on factors other than
labor costs
 International mobility instead of anchor
firms (Okada)
 Time zone fit

6. SérieEstudos eDocumentos Técnicos
Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster: swot
 Bangalore’s software cluster benefits from a high level of international
mobility, as highly-skilled IT professionals move between India and other
nations. This mobility arises from two sources: First, as is well-known,
Indian engineers who have studied and worked in foreign countries,
especially the U.S. return to India. Second, Indian professionals are
assigned to foreign client firms to carry out onsite work, on a short-term or
long-term basis, often as a part of their projects, as discussed in the next
subsection.
 Even at small Indian software development firms a considerable number of
employees have foreign experiences. For example, of the 70 employees at
a medium-sized firm established in 2003, 12 have overseas work
experience, and the owner noted that their experiences are valuable to the
firm.

7. SérieEstudos eDocumentos Técnicos
Rio de Janeiro IT Cluster: swot
 Also, many firms claim that demands from their customers, often in the US
market, are an important source of innovation. This means that not only
supply conditions but also demand factors are important in influencing
software firms’ innovation activities.
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