Alianças estratégicas no varejo farmacêutico: vantagens e desvantagens na percepção do gestor Strategic alliances in pharmaceutical retail: advantages and disadvantages from the manager's perception

Alliances are used by companies to complement the existing resource base and thus enable their strategies. However, creating alliances involves benefits and risks, and it is also necessary to define the type of alliance to be established depending on the common interests and market trends. Therefore, this study aims to broaden the understanding of the pharmaceutical retail competitive environment. The sector has excellent performance and is expected to continue growing, but it is highly fragmented and therefore has undergone transformations towards consolidation. This research also aims to identify the types of strategic alliances formed by the pharmaceutical retail, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of this process. The qualitative research method was adopted, and the data was collected through interviews with ten pharmacy and drugstore managers. The results showed seven different types of alliances and their advantages and disadvantages. They also helped identify the changes that have occurred in the pharmaceutical trade as a result of its current competitive environment. Resumo: As aliancas sao utilizadas pelas empresas para complementar a base de recursos existentes e, assim, viabilizar as suas estrategias. No entanto, sobre esta acao pairam tanto beneficios quanto riscos. Tambem e necessario definir o tipo de alianca a ser estabelecida, dependendo da adaptacao aos interesses comuns e as tendencias de mercado. Este estudo tem como objetivo ampliar a compreensao do movimento competitivo que tem se desenvolvido no varejo farmaceutico. O setor apresenta excelente desempenho economico e perspectiva de continuar crescendo, mas e altamente pulverizado e, por isso, passa por transformacoes rumo a consolidacao. Tambem sao objetivos desta pesquisa identificar os tipos de aliancas estrategicas praticadas pelo varejo farmaceutico, bem como as principais vantagens e desvantagens decorrentes desse processo. Para tanto, utiliza-se o metodo qualitativo de pesquisa, com coleta de dados por meio de entrevistas com dez gestores de diferentes farmacias e drogarias. Os resultados permitiram identificar sete tipos de aliancas, as suas vantagens e desvantagens, bem como discutir as mudancas que tem ocorrido no comercio farmaceutico a luz do cenario competitivo atual. Palavras-chave: Alianca estrategica. Decisao estrategica. Varejo farmaceutico. Parcerias estrategicas.