Institutions and intellectual property: the case of software industry in Brazil

Abstract

This study contributes to the analysis of institutional change, considering the conditions in an organizational field and the position held by institutional entrepreneurs. We studied the case of the change in intellectual property rights in Brazil in the 80's and 90's decades of the last century. Data sources were interviews and document research that were analysed on their content. The examination of the process of institutional change on intellectual property of software revealed a complex interaction between two organizational fields, one local and another global. Initially protected from external threats by a market reserve policy, the local organizational field legitimated practices that have been condemned in the global organizational field. We concluded that multiple and contradictory institutions favoured the emergence of the institutional change as well as agency of powerful actors at the centre of the global organizational field.