Internacionalização de serviços em tecnologia B2B: estudo de caso sobre as barreiras culturais e operacionais para uma média empresa

Abstract

This study analyzes the internationalization process of Guiando, a B2B technology company, focusing on cultural and operational barriers during its expansion into Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. The objective was to investigate how these challenges impact the sales and implementation of a financial software named TWM (Total Web Manager). The methodology consisted of a qualitative and exploratory single case study, featuring semi-structured interviews with managers and employees from the commercial and client onboarding departments, as well as document analysis. The results show that psychic distance manifested mainly through language barriers and the contrast between the objectivity in international negotiations and the Brazilian way of doing business, requiring the hiring of a native analyst to mitigate risks during onboarding. Operationally, the main bottlenecks were tax complexity and double taxation, in addition to the lack of standardization in foreign telecom invoices, which led to the need for technical customizations and manual processes within the marketed software. It is concluded that the internationalization occurred by following an existing client, also confirming the gradual learning process predicted by the Uppsala Model and the importance of adapting products and processes to the particularities of each market.