The main objective of this study is to identify, in the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry, the impact of the companies strategies in their performances, during the period from1995 to 1998. Based on Porter´s (1980, 1985) framework of competitive strategy, the research presents the significant strategies for the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry, furthermore identifies the strategic groups formed by the components that make up this industrial segment. For the data analysis were used information about 50 laboratories. This data base contains information about the strategic behaviour of the companies divided in eleven strategic variables, as well as information of their performances in four performance variables. The data were statistically evaluated using the following procedures: Factor Analysis, cluster Analysis and Multivariate Analysis of Variance. The obtained results suggest that the differences between the average performance of the formed strategic groups can be explained by the strategic decisions of each firm considered in the sampling.
strategical planning; pharmaceutical industry; Porter; strategy; strategical marketing
