O tópico central que motiva o presente trabalho é o papel que o valor desempenha nas teorias de estratégia e que, apesar de ser considerado nas principais correntes de pensamento do campo, ainda apresenta indefinição. O objetivo é explorar as principais definições de valor e suas implicações para o desenvolvimento teórico no campo da Administração Estratégica, mais especificamente, para as investigações sobre vantagem competitiva sustentável. Ao trabalhar com conceitos de valor, como valor de uso, valor de troca, criação de valor, valor capturado, valor percebido e uso do valor, pode-se demonstrar que a formação e a sustentação de vantagem competitiva estão além do olhar predominantemente econômico. Elas necessitam ser complementadas por dimensões que atinjam o consumidor, alterando seu estado de espírito, seus desejos e suas emoções. A vantagem competitiva, nesse novo contexto, pode ser entendida como uma governança de um sistema de firmas que se alinham para a criação e a entrega de um valor de uso, e que se relaciona mutuamente para dividir o valor. Em um movimento recursivo, as informações e valores seguem a montante e a jusante da cadeia de firmas, formando um fenômeno complexo em que o processo de formação da estratégia é determinado por uma heurística própria de cada estrategista.

We assess conditions that explain plural forms of public and private action using a comparative study of 24 public initiatives in Brazil, India, and South Africa. Measuring performance as evidence of positive outcomes to their target populations, we compare cases of high and low performance. Our configurational approach examines combinations of conditions leading to positive outcomes: public operational capacity, diverse collaborations nurtured by public units (with for-profit firms, with nonprofit organizations, and with other units in the public bureaucracy), and stakeholder orientation (permeability to multiple sources of input to design and adjust the project). We apply fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to unveil configurations consistent with high performance. Our configurational analysis reveals two distinct paths to high performance. A path with higher private engagement involves concurrent collaborations with for-profit and nonprofit actors, whereas an alternative path with higher internal (public) engagement relies on collaborations within the public bureaucracy complemented by high permeability to inputs from multiple stakeholders. Our results also confirm that strong public capacity is necessary in all high-performance configurations. An important implication is that externalization and multiple forms of collaboration are not substitutes for weak governments. Furthermore, our configurational perspective contributes to the literature by operationalizing a multiple-actor, multiple-logic perspective describing alternative paths to high performance.

Facing the unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, public officials at the municipality-level have no clear benchmarks or tested policies. In this situation, decision-making becomes a controversial process. This article provides insights for public agents in the Brazilian municipalities to deal with the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed the actions taken by city halls of the 52 Brazilian municipalities at least thirty days since the first confirmed case of COVID-19. We used a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify the combinations of contextual factors and public actions that reduced COVID-19 transmission during the critical initial stage. The empirical results show three main paths to guide policy-making: (1) a plural collaboration path involving public and private sectors, operating in a fragile health system; (2) a public action path providing aid programs through intense collaboration inside public bureaucracy; and (3) a resource-based path relying on a well-structured health system.

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