The challenge of building effective hybrid organizations in Brazil

Since 1996, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras, the biggest oil company in Latin America, has been supporting a programme for the design, customization, and implementation of tri-lateral collaborative arrangements called the Centres and Networks of Excellence (CNE) Programme, in areas which are critical to the company's competitiveness. This programme is aligned with the Open Innovation proposal, as it is designed to intensify the inflows and outflows of information and technology, from internal and external sources, in the RD&I activities of the participating organizations. This article presents qualitative research based on the case study of the Centre of Excellence (CE) in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), a hybrid organization which brings together oil companies, EPC companies, universities and technical schools, government entities, professional associations and industry bodies, in an effort to make the Brazilian EPC sector related to the oil and gas industry sustainable and competit...