Abstract

CERVILLA DE OLIVIERI, María Antonia. Strategies for Business Development: “Associativeness” in the Venezuelan Plastics Sector. Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2007, vol.13, n.2, pp.230-248. ISSN 1315-9518.

Based on a cooperative initiative created by a group of plastic sector firms in Venezuela, this article aspires to illustrate the benefits these enterprises derived from their participation in a network and to identify the challenges for its consolidation, with the objective of proposing recommendations for designing strategies for enterprise development. The research was developed following a qualitative methodology, based on a case study approach. Conceptual frameworks relevant to the research were discussed in the article. The case of “Corporación de Plásticos Mirandinos” (CORPLAMI), a consortium of firms manufacturing flexible packs, is presented, describing its evolution and analyzing the barriers overcome when forming this association as well as threats to its sustainability. The case presented is based on the configuration of a horizontal network in which the firms cooperate in some activities but compete with each other in the same market, hoping to obtain individual benefits from the collective action. This experience shows that the road for developing an enterprise network goes through definition and the execution of a business strategy implemented through actions that pursue productivity and competitiveness improvement objectives.

Keywords : Enterprise networks; “associativeness”; productive articulation; enterprise strategies; plastic sector; small and medium enterprises (SMEs).