Title O empreendedorismo português na cidade do Recife na primeira metade do século XX (Original)
        Portuguese entrepreneurship in the city of Recife in the first half of the 20th century (EN) 
Author  Luís Eduardo Carvalheira de Mendonça
Advisor  Joaquim da Costa Leite
Year  2010
Institution University of Aveiro  
Degree  PhD
Area  Industrial Manegement
Keywords  History of Brazil, Economic History, Economic Development, Portuguese Emigration: Brazil, Entrepreneurship
URI http://hdl.handle.net/10773/3807

Abstract

This thesis examines the entrepreneurship of the Portuguese immigrant in the city of Recife, state of Pernambuco, Northeast of Brazil, during the first half of the XXth century. The focus of the thesis may be formulated thus: did the Portuguese immigrant act as an entrepreneur in this scenario of economic and cultural change of the first fifty years of the twentieth century, both as an ethnic group and as an individual characterized by an entrepreneurial behaviour? The main theoretical corpus is thus derived from the field of entrepreneurship. It is an interdisciplinary research that seeks to be anchored in the areas of history, migration studies, economy and organizational studies. According to the literature consulted, this type of approach is not uncommon in the vast field of entrepreneurship (Fillion, 1999 and Martinelli, 2007). In light of this interdisciplinary vision, the research focuses on the period, recovers the trajectory of the Portuguese immigrant to Recife and discusses his integration into the economy and local society. It shows features of economic dynamism in that period and reconstructs the atmosphere of modernity that the city experienced through the same historical interregnum. For its development, the research content is based on studies of migration, historical and economic studies of the time when the city of Recife was crossing the so-called modern era in economic, cultural and behavioural aspects. With respect to migration issues, the relevance is obvious because the theme of the work is to target the Portuguese immigrant. Concerning the economic sphere and the historical context of modernity, their contents are worked as the stage or the theatre of operations in which the social actor, the Portuguese immigrant, is moving. The work adopts, therefore, the look of a goldsmith to seek and peek in the texts, books, speeches and interviews visited events or signals that lead to understanding and interpreting the behaviour of economic actors, the Portuguese immigrant in the history of the business history of the city, on the condition of entrepreneur. This is, so to speak, a search of almost archaeological attitude turned to look and uncover findings, material and immaterial that report and allow the discussion and analysis of the focus mentioned above. Unlike recent researches, exploring the performance of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the ethnic landscape of today, the study looks back through the rearview mirror for almost a century ago and tries to reconstruct and identify, in the history of the Portuguese immigrant, his impact as an entrepreneur. It is structured in 09 (nine) chapters. The first one shows the objectives pursued, the relevance of the study, the theoretical point of view and the difficulties that the search dealt with to reach its final term. It is also a detailed description of each chapter of the work. In the body of work, are also printed images that testify to the Portuguese presence in the city in the period studied. The results indicate consistent evidence for the nature of an ethnic Lusitanian entrepreneurship in the areas of the production chain of bakery, construction and supply in general. It also shows behaviour of the Portuguese immigrant entrepreneur in various fields, since exportation and importation up to the field of cafés, restaurant and snack bar and the entertainment industry in general. It is believed therefore that the results may add significant contributions in the fields above and outline new research topics that unfold suggestions made in the final considerations of the last chapter.