Breaking the Wall of Engineering and Culture: Applied Qualitative Research in Software Companies of LATAM Industrial Sector

Abstract

This report condenses the learning of more than three years of ethnographies carried out in the Latin American industrial sector. We will rely mainly on the case of a Peruvian reseller company and local representative of a global 3D engineering software solution. The complete process of research proposal, demonstration of its advantages, resistances, methodology, findings, and application toward business strategies was executed between 2017 and 2020.

For this research, a method called Techno-Ethnographic Consulting was planned, which combines in-depth interviews with business deliverables for informants, specifically designed to obtain qualitative data in B2B industrial companies of technological products and services when the researcher is also a technical expert.

The researcher was a mechanical engineer with background in business anthropology and worked within the company as a member of the organization. The reseller business style is B2B, and its clients are industrial companies with design and manufacturing areas.