The internationalization of WEG

Although there are a considerable number of research papers dedicated to understanding the WEG internationalization process, we believe that the existing case studies are still extremely restricted to the counterpoint of the institutional narrative and international theories of internationalization. Our perspective, on the other hand, points in the direction of assessing the company’s trajectory within the political economy of the sector. That is, it is not possible to analyze the process of transformation of a company over decades without understanding the institutional aspects of the whole sector and of the national policy that regulates and foments it, as well as the transformations in the international economy, in general. In this sense, this paper seeks not only to present WEG's trajectory based on the company’s internal strategies and innovations, but also to relate these characteristics to the Brazilian institutional environment, especially during the military government, which seems to have been decisive both for the rise of the group nationally and for its later entry into the international market