Morte e vida varejista: um estudo no varejo de pneus na Bahia, entre os anos 2000 a 2014, à luz da ecologia populacional das organizações e da estratégia como prática.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the influence exerted by environmental and organizational factors on the mortality and life time of tire retail companies in Bahia from the period of 2000 to 2014. In order to make possible the theoretical discussion, two different views of Organizational theories: the view of natural selection that was based on the theory of population ecology of organizations and the vision of the strategic choice that had in the theoretical approach of strategy as practice the main orientation of studies. The environmental variables (Average of GDP, Evolution of the HDI, Car Fleet) and the organizational variables (Own Management, Family Business, Number of Employees, Specialist or Generalist, Manager Age, Experience in the Branch, Leadership, Relationship with Suppliers). In order to quantitatively measure the relationship between the variables of interest on life and death of the companies that make up the sample, two approaches were used: the first one is based on the modeling of the probability of being dead using the logistic model of regression analysis and the second was that the company was expected to be alive due to its survival time using the Cox model. According to JUCEB, between the years 2000 to 2014, 1,124 companies operated in Bahia. Of this total, 236 response forms were obtained in this survey, referring to 236 tire retailers located in 34 cities in all regions of the state of Bahia, 57 companies that ended their activities in the period and 179 that were active on December 31, 2014. In the results, twelve predictors were highlighted, eight with significance, but only four in both regression models, being two environmental and two organizational. These four variables thus became the main environmental and organizational factors affecting the death and life of tire retailers in Bahia. The socioeconomic environment was not a selector because the HDI was not significant and the higher the average GDP, the higher the mortality rate and the shorter the life time of the companies. In the municipalities with the largest average fleet, there was greater survival of the companies. Regarding the organizational factors, representing the practitioners of the strategy, the manager's schooling had a strong influence on the survival and, regarding the strategic practices, the multi-brand retail companies were more likely to survive than the mono-brands. In the description of the sample, competition with other populations of organizations was confirmed by commercializing tires in retail, such as supermarkets and virtual retail. Another highlight was the female minority among the 236 managers, but all companies managed by women are among the survivors. Therefore, it is expected that the results found in this work and the empiricism of the research will be of great importance for the organizational studies and, mainly, for the studies of the Strategy as Practice in Brazil, among which theoretical essays and bibliometric analyzes are still predominant. They are also expected to be useful to surviving companies in the industry as well as to guide decision-makers about future investments and new businesses.