ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent growth of scientific and technological research to fight it presents challenges for researchers who need to monitor the knowledge produced on this theme. Among these support technologies are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications. This article presents a technology prospection to describe the technology landscape of AI applications in the fight against COVID-19. The study analyzed 350 patent families, which were organized into technology categories. The findings demonstrated a prevalence of patent filings from India, China, and the United States. Collaboration between countries and innovation organizations was not evident, unlike what was observed in academic collaborations in previous studies. There was a predominance of technologies in the areas of computing and medicine, that is, ICTs adapted for the treatment or processing of medical data with focus on identification, triage, diagnosis, and prediction of new outbreaks of the epidemic.

Resumo Diversas modalidades de relacionamentos foram adotadas nas reestruturações industriais como estratégia de sobrevivência e desenvolvimento das organizações. A bioindústria demanda parcerias dado o elevado investimento técnico-científico necessário, entretanto, dificuldades existem para concretizá-las no Brasil. Na Amazônia, onde a agregação de valor no uso dos recursos da sua biodiversidade tem elevada importância para o desenvolvimento sustentável regional, estudos apontam dificuldades de interação entre empresas da bioindústria, academia e governo. Compreender estas dificuldades motivou este estudo, que tem como objetivo analisar a percepção dos empresários acerca dos relacionamentos interorganizacionais na bioindústria amazonense. Realizou-se uma pesquisa qualitativa com treze empreendimentos cujos dados foram coletados utilizando network pictures, complementadas com entrevistas semiestruturadas. Ainda que relações de amizade, confiança, entre outros atributos, tenham sido identificados como os principais fatores relacionais e que a complementaridade de recursos seja o principal motivo das parcerias, os relacionamentos estão aquém do que se preconiza para afirmar a existência de uma rede de negócios. Estes resultados evidenciam também a necessidade proposições de ações estratégias para aproximação dos atores desta indústria.

Abstract The process of industrial restructuring has adopted different types of relationships in order to guarantee the organizations survival and development. Bioindustry requires high technical-scientific investments that are obtained through partnerships. These collaborative relationships, however, have been challenging in Brazil. In the Amazon context, where value adding in the use of biodiversity resources bears high importance for regional sustainable development, studies point to difficulties of interaction between bioindustry firms, university, and government. Against this backdrop, this research analyzes the perception of entrepreneurs operating in the Amazon bioindustry regarding the inter-organizational relationships. Qualitative research was carried out with thirteen firms, collecting data based on network pictures, complemented with semi-structured interviews. The study identified that attributes such as friendship and trust are primary factors in the relationships, and that the complementarity of resources is the main reason to establish partnerships. However, the findings suggest that inter and intra-sectorial relationships in this Amazon bioindustry are far behind what is recommended in literature to affirm the existence of a business network. Therefore, the study points out the need for strategic actions to approximate these actors in bioindustry.

Several studies about knowledge transfer in multinational corporations have found that the process is influenced by factors such as absorptive capacity, tacit knowledge and power relations, all of which impact knowledge sharing strategies between corporate headquarters and foreign subsidiaries. A multiple case study of Brazilian subsidiaries of three multinational corporations using in-depth interviews, based on a conceptual model consisting of four propositions, was conducted to identify factors linked to the knowledge transfer process and to assess their influence on that transfer. The first proposition tries to assess explicit knowledge, primarily through the use of IT tools; the second analyzes the role of the subsidiary within the corporate network and how it influences the degree of knowledge sharing. The third assesses the influence of subsidiary absorptive capacity and the fourth analyzes the impact of worker exchange programs on knowledge sharing between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries. Study results confirm the four propositions and enable the identification of relationships between factors, especially explicit knowledge and worker expatriation as complementary factors in knowledge transfer strategies.