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Despite the growing interest regarding the Brazilian rice industry, there is not much literature focusing on the role of the institutions in the process of technological capability accumulation and in the formation of the technological trajectories within this industry. This paper aims to discover the role of local institutions in the generation and dissemination of knowledge for creating the technological capability that can define different technological trajectories, using the Brazilian rice industry as an empirical field.

To achieve said objective, this paper uses secondary data (documental research) and a multiple case study design based on primary empirical evidence (content analysis and direct observation) about the Brazilian rice industry.

The paper’s main contribution is the empirical application of a framework that allows us to evaluate the institutions’ roles and activities and how these capabilities evolve as the firms’ technological levels progress and the technological trajectory is formed. Regarding aspects related to public policy, the authors found some implications that are mainly related to the need to consolidate this type of institution in developing countries with the goal of strengthening its technological capabilities, allowing these countries to operate on the technological boundary and to compete with developed countries.

There are few attempts to relate the technological capability, technological trajectories and institutions in the Brazilian rice industry. Therefore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the novelty of this study lies in the analysis of these theoretical approaches in this industrial sector, more specifically, in the Brazilian rice industry.

Different studies have been conducted on the relationship between technological capability and firm performance. These studies obtain different values for the relationship, known as heterogeneous results. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between technological capability and firm performance and its statistical between-study heterogeneity.

In order to analyze all the results from this relationship that were found in the literature, we adopted the literature review with a meta-analytic method. We consulted the Scopus and Web of Science databases, which returned, after the application of inclusion criteria, 23 primary studies with data from 5,882 manufacturing firms.

We observed that technological capability and performance are positively related; however, the results regarding this relationship are heterogeneous. We discovered four possible sources of statistical between-study heterogeneity: (i) the statistical between-study heterogeneity of the variables to measure technological capability and performance; (ii) orientation of the thematic approach – some illustrate the relationship between technological capability and performance using mathematical and theoretical models, while others examine the relationship between technological capability and performance and propose implications pertaining to that relationship; (iii) the source of data for primary studies and (iv) the context in which this relationship is observed.

It is necessary to standardize a set of variables through which technological capability and performance are evaluated so that results and implications can be usefully compared between countries and industrial sectors.

The contribution to knowledge is identifying the statistical between-study heterogeneity on the relationship between technological capabilities and firm performance, as well as its potential sources.

Currently, studies involving innovation capability and sustainability have been gaining prominence. This logic is also permeating the firms, which need to adapt their innovation capabilities to sustainability. Therefore, the objective of this article is to map the field of innovation capability and sustainability to observe how these two areas have evolved over time.

The bibliometric method was used to conduct this study from the Scopus database.

The authors verified in their research that the theme appears in the literature in the mid-2000s, however as of 2013 it has gained strength, opening discussions on different fronts. The results show that theoretical and empirical research does not dissociate the fundamental logic of the firm that is to produce and remain competitive from the new logics of generating innovation capability for sustainability, on the contrary, sustainability is an important component for its economic performance.

No other studies are found in the literature that search for the state of the art of the evolution of the innovation capability and sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main theoretical bases from the past and the present, as well as to determine the future perspectives for technological capability research.

To achieve this, the study used the bibliometric method, which is based on two research strategies, co-citation analysis and bibliographical coupling analysis with database Scopus and software VOS viewer.

The main result was the identification of the theoretical bases from the past: absorptive capacity, innovation and core competence; as well as the current bases: innovation capability, firm performance and knowledge transfer. The future perspectives of technological capability are guided by keyword coupling, generating three theoretical perspectives: business development, sustainability and future technologies.

There are no studies in the literature that analyze the theoretical bases of technological capability, identifying common aspects and different approaches. Thus, this study is of original nature and the research method, composed of bibliometric analyzes and the coupling of emerging keywords, which are a part of the future perspectives, which permitted the authors to achieve the proposed goal.