In the fifties and the sixties, several American companies started an intensive business diversification process, mainly of the unrelated diversification, in order to face the new environment characterized by capital abundance and strengthen of antitrust regulation issues. This has generated the emerging of giant corporate conglomerates. In the seventies, after a lot of non-profitable diversifications and consequents divestitures episodes, Rumelt (1974) noticed that the companies which had adopted related diversification showed better profit results than those which had adopted the unrelated diversification, and these facts generated a new trend towards the specialization. However, there was a lack of a prescriptive model dealing with the unrelated diversification – very important many times for reaching the strategic and long term goals- the one that could describe the best conditions necessary to adopt and optimize the results of these kinds of growth strategies. It was contemplated in the Roberts and Berry (1985) model. These authors presented the characterization of the alternative growth strategies – including Internal Product Developments, Internal Market Developments, Acquisitions, Licensings, Internal Ventures, Joint Ventures, Venture Capital and Educational Acquisitions. – as well as the optimum situations for selecting each one, according to the relative degree of existing newness and familiarity with technologies and markets, and also depending on the critical selection factors, such as the level of available resources, the abilities and knowledge available in the technology and market dimensions, financial returns over invested capital and break-even time, involved risks, strategic fit, degree of diversification and corporate involvement of the parent company. Although this model has been recommended in the literature since then, its own authors had suggested that it was validated in different industrial contexts and by assessing a wider array of episodes – they studied 14 episodes in a diversified American company.
Thus, the main aim of the study is to analyze the validity of the Roberts and Berry model in a wider research extension, assessing the empirical data obtained through a case study of a big and diversified Brazilian company, Odebrecht Química, with 6 billion dollars annual income and leader in the brazilian petrochemical sector, which represents 8% of Brazilian industrial GDP. It analyzes in depth 30 growth and diversification episodes occured in the last 20 years, carrying out the episodes’ descriptions and characterizations, verifying the adequacy to the model, describing the critical factors for selecting the entry strategies and finally considering the influence of these factors in the performance levels reached. In-depth interviews and a semi-structured questionnaire were used for collecting primary data and document analysis was used for obtaining secondary data. The findings show that empirical data fitted very well to the familiarity matrix, reaching 87 % adherence to the model in the succesful episodes – located in regions recommended by the matrix, and 100 % adherence in the incompatible episodes - located in diverse regions recomended by the matrix. In order to validate the theoretical model, the constructs were accessed, as the determinant factors for selecting the strategy and the critical factors of performance. The results allow the conclusion by the validity of the model in the sector analyzed. Additionally, as possible refinements suggested for the model, the inclusion and positioning in the model of the merger strategies and acquisitions with up-stream vertical integration strategies are provided. Finally, a framework to technological partnership strategies is proposed, to be verified in subsequent researches. Additional researchs as multivariated quantitative survey, could adress new relations among the decision factors and distinguish diferent industries. This study aims to contribute on one hand, from the theoretical point of view, bringing new evidences in the theory of strategic management of technology, as well as from the practical point of view, through the evaluation of a tool for supporting better strategic decisions.