THE FURNITURE SECTOR OF DUQUE DE CAXIAS AND ITS POTENTIAL TO SERVE AS A LOCAL PRODUCTIVE ARRANGEMENT

Abstract

According with SEBRAE (2013), there are 6.1 million micro and small enterprises in activity in Brazil. They represent 99% of Brazilian companies and gather 2.8 million of formal micro entrepreneurs, which generates 14.7 million formal jobs, contributing with 25% of the Brazilian GDP. After a theoretical review of Brazilian scientific work on local clusters organization, the advantages and challenges associated with this type of local arrangement were established. These data were then used to build questionnaires aiming to diagnose the potential that a set of micro, small and medium companies of a given productive sector, located in a limited geographic area has to constitute a Local Productive Arrangement - APL. These questionnaires were applied in a group of furniture companies in the City of Duque de Caxias, RJ. The analysis of the collected information allows characterizing the companies of the studied group in size, life time, type of contract being used, sectors that constitute them, developed training activities, qualification of human resources, production, cooperation, innovation capacities as well as their position in the market. With these data it is possible to conclude on the potentiality of the group or part of it to constitute an APL