Resumo

Brazil is highlighted as the third biggest beer producer. Although there is a high concentration of its market share in huge breweries such as Ambev, Petrópolis and Heineken which, together, compute about 98% of the market, in 2019, Agriculture, Livestock and Supply Ministry (MAPA) calculated that there are more than one thousand registered microbreweries. This number is being increased by a craft beer movement in the country and it's transforming the beer market.

Analysing this transformation in the sector, we may notice that innovation presents itself in different ways when we compare larger breweries and microbreweries. In order to comprehend these movements in the Brazilian beer field, we choose institutional logic approach. This way, the present study aims to answer how the innovation is set in Brazil’s craft beer producers’ institutional logics. To do this, the goal is (i) identify the institutional logics present in the sector, (ii) compare their differences and (iii) understand how the innovation is presented in these logics.

The theoretical ground used in this article is compound by an explanation about the institutional logic approach, which is a stream of neo-institutionalism. The seminal texts are written by Friedland and Alford (1985, 1991). Also, we used innovation on a evolutionist perspective, where we described innovation as the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (goods or services), or process, or a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices, in the working place organisation or in external relationships (Oslo Manual, 2005).

The present study is designed under an exploratory and qualitative approach. Since the institutional logic has a set of cultural symbols and material practices socially built, where the actors produce and reproduce their lives, making meaning to their daily basis (Thornton et al., 2012), the qualitative study is more suitable in order to understand the institutional logic nuances. The adopted research procedure was the multiple case study, where we interviewed three microbreweries, the founder of a Brazilian forerunner microbrewery and two associations.

The analysis was developed from Bardin’s (2011) content analysis. Therefore, after the interviews were made, we presented data analysis starting by the context of beer market in Brasil and identified the different institutional logics. After that, we explained their differences and how innovation is configured on both logics.

Innovation seems to be a key element, but it has different formats when we analyse the beer field institutional logics. Two institutional logics were identified in the beer sector: microbreweries institutional logic, that manufacture craft beer and promote beer culture putting emphasis in product quality and domestic consumption; and the larger breweries logic, that have a national range due to distribution and are responsible for more than 90% of the market share.

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