THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE BRAZILIAN HEAVY CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

The central issue of this paper is how and why the Brazilian contractors decided to internationalize since the 70s rather than invest and operate in Brazil, their home country in which there is a great need for infrastructure. In addition, we investigate some idiosyncrasies of the process of internationalization of contractors, like the role of political skills and government connections, the role of winners picking by the government through its government funding agency, country branding in a specific business-to-business segment, and a very peculiar agreement between Brazil and Iraq in which oil was exchanged for goods and services including heavy construction.This is an unique example of a four-decades old internationalization process of a Brazilian industry, under an import substitution process, while outward direct investment in other sectors is at maximum two decades old and seemingly resulted from liberalization post import substitution. Keywords: Internationalization, Foreign direct investment, Construction companies, Brazil.