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International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration
Volume 3, Issue 6, September 2017, Pages 7-18

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The Entry Process of Higher Education Institutions in Brazil: The Case of Laureate International Universities

DOI:  10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.36.1001
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.36.1001

¹ Renato Márcio Bulgarão, ² George Bedinelli Rossi, ³ Rony Locher

¹ ² ³ ESPM, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Abstract: This research aims to investigate the entry process of higher education institutions in Brazil, in particular, the case of Laureate International Universities. To do so, Cultural, Administrative, Economic and Geographic distances – CAGE Framework – were used and which of these distances has more importance in this entry process. A single case study was carried on. Data were collected from interviews, newspapers, and documents. Content analysis was done by grouping convergent ideas on dendrograms (trees words) which were evaluated 17 key terms to elucidate this research. The survey showed that in the case of Laureate international universities the cultural, administrative, geographic and economic distances influenced the entry process partially. Regarding all distances, Cultural distance is the most important aspect of the language and religion which imposes very different norms and behavior for conducting business and personal relationship. A second distance that has an impact is Administrative, concerning with currency instability as inflation, and for Economic distance, infrastructure differences are the most important point.

Keywords: Higher education, CAGE Model, Internationalization, Laureate universities, Entry process

The Entry Process of Higher Education Institutions in Brazil: The Case of Laureate International Universities

1. Introduction

By the World Bank Group (2016), in the 1998-2014 period, as the economies of developed countries entered into the stage of maturity and showed lower negative growth rates, countries or emerging economies had a high potential for growth than economic development did. Wilson and Purushothaman (2003) estimate that by 2035, the gross national product of developing countries permanently will exceed all the developed and advanced countries.

Sheth (2011) stated that there are several factors which are responsible for the growth of emerging markets. First, economic reforms in Brazil, Russia, India, and China have unlocked their markets protected by ideology and socialism. Second, the developed countries are aging rapidly, which implies in stagnation of its markets or slow growth. Third, the global liberalization of trade and investment, bilateral trade agreements, economic and regional integration as ASEAN, Mercosur and the European Union have resulted in global competition and global unprecedented product and services offerings, especially in emerging markets. And finally, the birth of a new middle class, especially in large markets such as China, India, and Brazil for the first time, creates a large-scale market for various products and services.

Thus, while developed countries show low growth rates (Lamy, 2006), firms looking to expand are turning to the emerging markets in order to make profits (O’Reilly 1988; Peak 1992; Goetzmann and Jorion 1999). Prahalad and Hart (2002) argue that markets with the greatest potential stand on the billions of poor people who are entering the Market consumption for the first time, a view that goes together with Merrilees (2014) for whom 80 percent of the world population lives in what is called or emerging markets countries.

But markets with greater potential for big returns have high risks (Amin, Sanusi, Kusairi, and Abdallah, 2014), and emerging markets are no exception. The problems with these markets are important to be considered by companies in developed markets which intend to entering to the emerging ones. Some of these problems are communications infrastructure (Khanna and Palepu, 1997), financial markets relatively underdeveloped, economic volatility, difficulty in finding business partners (Hitt, Tina, Dancin, Levitas, Arreggle, and Borza, 2000) and corruption (Khanna, Palepu and Singh, 2005).

Johnson and Tellis (2008) argue that these problems create distances between emerging and developed markets, with which companies must adapt to themselves. Ghemawat (2001), Miller (1992), Luostarinen (1979) and Dow and Karunaratna (2006) emphasize that costs and risks related to the various distances of non-business between these markets need to be recognized. Ghemawat (2001) proposes to consider the distances (C) Cultural (A) Administrative (G) Geographicand (E), CAGE model for the analysis of the distances between markets that will be the theoretical basis for this research.

Thus, the research problem was: What factors influence the process of entering of a higher education institution in Brazil? The phenomenon under investigation is the process of internationalization, and the case is the Laureate (Schwandt, 1994/2006), and the overall objective is to verify the importance of the distances asCulture, Administration, Geographic and Economic – at the entrance of the Laureate International Network in Brazil.

2. Literature Review

Harris and Wheeler (2005) define internationalization as a process in which the company sells its products or services outside their local Market or source, thus focusing their involvement so in external markets. According to Welch and Luostarinen (1988), internationalization is the process where the company increases involvement in the cross-border operations. It is a process through which the company operates outside its home Market, and thus the internationalization can be understood from different ways of acting abroad, ranging from indirect export, joint ventures, licensing and acquisitions up to foreign direct investment (Root, 1994).

According to Cavusgil (2010), companies seek internationalization for some reasons and often these reasons are not isolated, some of them are strategic in nature and other reactives. In the case of internationalization of higher education, we can mention some of them:
– Looking for growth opportunities through diversification due to a significant potential market outside of the country of origin;
– getting higher profit margins, whereas foreign markets may be underserved;
– Acquiring new ideas about services and forms of trading, giving the company’s exposure to new ideas about processes and methods in outdoors environments;
– Developing economies of scale in this case in marketing and R and D due to a reduction in unit costs resulting from added volumes;
– Facing international competition effectively or frustrate the growth of competition in the domestic market, improving the competitive position to face international competition;
– Investing in a potentially advantageous relationship with a foreign partner, this can lead to the development of new products and services (Moja, 2004).

The globalization poses challenges for regional and national systems of higher education in the world of internationalization (Moja, 2004) that must be solved through business strategies. Hayhoe (1989), believes that international cooperation agreements, academic mobility, international scholarships, technical and economic development, international curriculum studies, cultural, historical and political context are the most important reasons for the internationalization of higher education.

2.1 Cage Framework – Measuring Distance Between Countries

One way to assess the internationalization process is the CAGE model. Ghemawat (2001), developed the CAGE model, in order to take into account, the cultural, administrative, geographic and economic distances between focal nation and another or more. Often, the managers prioritize only cost aspects and risk when they decide to internationalize a particular country. In addition to these aspects, the sales potential should also be part of this analysis and the sum of these factors, come from four aspects of distance between the countries, called by Ghemawat (2008) cultural, administrative, geographic and economics.

2.1.1. Cultural Distance

Cultural distance has its roots in the work of Hofstede (1980) which analyzed IBM’s operations in 40 countries in the period 1967-1973 by identifying the dimensions ‘distance power’, ‘risk aversion’, ‘individualism’ and ‘masculinity’ (Drogendijk and Slangenm, 2006). Among many authors who criticized the results of Hofstede, there is Schwartz (1994) for those who have not examined the cultures of countries but IBM employees who do not necessarily represent countries. Also, there was a sample of countries covering the entire spectrum of national cultures; and the findings may be obsolete since culture is dynamic and may have changed from the time of the survey to the present day.

About the application of culture in international business there is the concept of the Cultural Distance considered complex, intangible, subtle and difficult to be respected and of have scales (Boyacigiller, Kleinberg, Philips, and Sackmann, 1996). Kogut and Singh (1988) created a simple and standardized measurement for cultural distance – a tangible and convenient tool to deal with the complexities of this construct. For Shenkar (2001) the Cultural constructor is illusory due to the conceptualizing problems and measure, ranging from hidden assumptions to questionable methodologies undermining, thus the validity challenging their theoretical and application role.

Shenkar (2001) asserts that although Cultural distance has the criticism above cited, its application in research of foreign investment over the past 50 years has been broad with strong emphasis on the work of Kogut and Singh (1988), Hofstede (1980), Drogendijk and Slangenm (2006), and Schwartz (1994).

About the importance of Cultural distance, De Mooij (2004) asserts that the dimensions of culture exert greater influence in consumption patterns rather than the economic laws. Culture defined as values and meanings shared by members of a society affects both the consumption pattern and the implementation and execution of strategies (Kogut and Singh, 1988) implying its importance in entry strategies. This vision is shared by Håkanson and Ambos (2010), for whom the cultural distance between countries is defined as the distance between the source and the target market is determined by the perception of differences in religious beliefs, races, social norms, and languages. This research work tries to adopt these differences.

2.1.2. Administrative Distance

The administrative distance (A) involves aspects of being a member of the same union of countries, e.g., Commonwealth Countries, or part of a block of free trade as North AmericaFree Trade Area (NAFTA), European Union (EU) and MERCOSUR. It can be argued that this factor is a facilitator between the international list of countries, as this is an aspect of great impact in the process of the destination country (Andersson and Lundströn, 2007). This distance can be increased with trade barriers such as high import taxes, or rigid standards of quality and product safety. Countries with high levels of corruption and social conflicts suffer a negative impact on economic development (Ghemawat, 2008).

It is included in the results of Administrative Distance from Kostova and Roth (2008) and Xu and Shenkar (2002) for anyone considering the institutional distance between countries as an important factor. It is defined that Institutional distance as the difference in the aspects of regulation, cognition, and standards between the country and the destination of origin. Berry, Guillén, and Zhou (2010) complement this distance with bureaucracy, colonial ties, legal systems and political stability. And, Campbell, Eden, and Miller (2012) complement with formality, political systems (democracy vs. dictatorship) and the influence of the government in the business environment.

2.1.3. Geographical Distance

The geographic distance (G), would not be only measured by the distance in kilometers, but the extent and access to the country by water and land, as well as the infrastructure in transport and telecommunications. These aspects also influence the operating cost and the speed of transport products. Even communication infrastructure between multinational banks for example and telephone traffic can influence the distance factor between countries (Andersson and Lundströn, 2007). Geographical distance is confused with the Cultural (Shenkar, 2001) reduces entry barriers (Chao, and Kumar, 2010) due to the procedures of transport and information. The geographical distance reduces coordination costs and control as well as the intermediation costs. Facilitates personal contacts that are needed for transactions (Vachani, 1991).

Kuo and Fang (2009) assert that the level of information infrastructure, measured by the telephone traffic and the number of branches of multinational banks can influence the physical distance and the flows of either physical assets or the intangibles. Large differences in supply chains and distribution channels can mean significant barriers to business.

Larger geographical distances imply higher cost due to the extensive distribution system which includes the transport modes (aircraft, trucks, trains), storage of goods and retail; all these activities can result in high costs (Kuo and Fang, 2009).

2.1.4. Economic Distance

The Economic Distance factor (E), should also be analyzed. This aspect emphasizes that companies that rely on their economies of a scale model, standardization, and experience, have a greater tendency to move toward markets with similar characteristics (Ghemawat, 2008). When the cost and the quality of available resources and even the average income of consumers are far from those found in the home country, companies end up encountering the difficulty of success. On the other hand, there are companies that make the distance aspects in its own favor, establishing differentiated prices and practices for each market (Andersson and Lundströn, 2007).

Differences in economic conditions are important because many companies emphasize countries with economic similarities to do business because this implies little change in their strategies due to the similarities of market segments and product acceptance (Kuo and Fang, 2009). On the other hand, less developed countries companies have the preference to do business with developed countries by realizing greater profits opportunity (Kuo and Fang, 2009).

Jain (1989) asserts that economically similar countries reflect income as well as similar lifestyles. Thus, similar income influence strategies for the launches of products, pricing and communication strategies (Baalbaki and Malhotra, 1993).

3. Methodology

To investigate the process of internationalization of higher education, we used the method of a qualitative research type unique case study (Creswell, 2010; Cesar, 2005; Eisenhardt, 1989) as well as intensive, as proposed by Swanborn (2010) and Hodgetts and Stolte (2012). The corpus of this research is based on the guidelines of Bauer and Aarts (2002), namely, relevant topics considering the issue of research and data collection within a given time cycle.

3.1 Sample and Data Collection

The sample was theoretical (Suri, 2011) comprising collecting data and information in three newspapers (03) (Folha de São Paulo, Valor Econômico, Industry Trade Journal); official documents as ACN (Agency Board News), SEMESP (Union of Entities Maintainers of Higher Education Institutions), CADE; business contracts filed at JUCESP from 2013 to 2015; and other such as INEP (2014), LaureateEducation (2015), KPMG (2004), Alwan (2014) and Zogby Analytcs (2014).

As for the selection of respondents for personal interviews, we opted for a purposeful and representative sample of the FMU and UAM totalizing seven (07) respondents which is for Tuli (2007), and Rabiee (2004) enough to the saturation. Three requirements in the selection of the respondents were: to know the higher education institution before and after the time of acquisition; be an official of the higher education institution at the time of acquisition; and have professional practice in teaching the segment for a period exceeding ten years and may be in the institutions addressed here or in other institutions. The names of the respondents were confidential as agreed in the interview consent. The following table presents the characteristics of respondents whose testimony formed the corpus of this research.

Table 1: Interviewed list

#	Denomination	Hierarchical Profile	IHE
1	E1	Member of Board of Directors	UAM
2	E2	Member of Board of Directors	UAM
3	E3	Member of Board of Directors	FMU
4	E4	Manager	FMU
5	E5	Manager	FMU
6	E6	Manager	UAM
7	E7	Member of Board of Directors	UAM

Source: The authors – IHE: the institution of higher education; UAM: Universidade Anhembi Morumbi; FMU: Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas.

For the interviews, an unstructured scrip was used in order to encourage the interviewees to speak spontaneously as proposed by Kvale (2008) which is presented below.

Table 2: Interview Script

Cultural Distance Question 1: There is evidence that the language differences between countries influence in some processes of international negotiations. How the language difference interfered in the internationalization process Laureate given the case of the acquisition of (FMU or UAM as the respondent)?

Cultural Distance Question 2: There is evidence that the difference in cultural values between countries influences in some processes of international negotiations. How the difference in cultural values between countries interfered in the internationalization process Laureate given the case of the acquisition of (FMU or UAM as the respondent)?

Administrative Question 3: There is evidence that the difference in cultural values within organizations influence in some processes of international negotiations. How the difference in cultural values within organizations interfered in the internationalization process Laureate in view of the case of the acquisition of (FMU or UAM as the respondent)?

Economic Distance Question 4: There is evidence that the lack of economic blocs between countries influences in some processes of international negotiations. How the lack of economic blocs between Brazil and the US interfered in the internationalization process Laureate given the case of the acquisition of (FMU or UAM as the respondent)?

Economic Distance Question 5: There is evidence that the currency difference (exchange, currency credibility) influence in some processes of international negotiations. How the difference between coins interfered in the internationalization process Laureate in view of the case of the acquisition of (FMU or UAM as the respondent)?

Economic Distance Question 6: There is evidence that the difference in human resources (people’s ability to ensure the viability of the company’s productive process) between countries influence in some processes of international negotiations. How the difference between the human resources interfered in the internationalization process Laureate in view of the case of the acquisition of (FMU or UAM as the respondent)?

Geographic Distance Question 7: How you see coming to Brazil and/or having communications with Brazil?

Source: The Authors

4. Result and Discussion

4.1 Result

After collecting data/information from newspaper reports, documents and interviews the semantic content analysis was used (Olabuenaga and Ispizua, 1989), in which the data were organized, synthesized and categorized to obtain relevant to the general objective of this research (Strijbos, Martens, Prins, and Jochems 2006). Then, we tested the consistency and category codes for 03 different researchers. For validation, we adopted the suggestions of Watt (2007), namely, internal validity and interpretation and integrity. To avoid misinterpretation in the convergence of evidence, we used the documents and letters, journalistic and advertising material and interviews as exposed by Creswell and Miller (2000), Golafshani (2003). The data were analyzed using the QSR NVIVO 10 ™ for Windows software.

To analyze the data through content analysis was made using dendrograms that results from statistical analysis of the data by creating clusters and their ascending hierarchical ordering showing how clusters are formed: by bringing together two individual observations or pairing a single observation with a grouping existing. You can see at what level of similarity the clusters are formed, and the composition of the final partition groups (Guha, Rastogi, and Shim, 2001).

By analyzing the content of the various categories, through dendrograms, we investigated the connotations associated with each of them and the joints and discontinuities between the categories of information. Different correlations and associations were examined between categories, to detect the logic of emerging thread in the process. This content analysis technique did the term come naturally (emerging categories), the term that was not pointed in the column ambivalence or convergence, not emerged, so it was not relevant to the response of respondents since they did not mention the terms.

Emerging categories may have two components or values in opposite directions or not (ambivalence or confusion) with its simple pointing and counting (Bardin, 2011). Among the desirable characteristics of the rules to be followed in the grouping of elements that form the emerging categories of work on the data, listed by Bardin (2011) and guiding the fragmentation of texts (communication).

Next, we see the emerging categories checked in hierarchical dendrogram for each term analysis, involving the input process of higher education institutions to Brazil. At the group some of the aspects of “culture” according to the CAGE Framework Ghemawat (2001) and then apply the convergences (ambivalence) and differences (confusion) according to Bardin (2011,) that were found in dendrograms was possible to draw up the following table illustrating the emerging categories for the aspect “culture” in the process of internationalization of Laureate international network for Brazil.

Table 3: Emerging categories identified in the dendrogram for the cultural distance and its aspects

Analysed Term	Ambivalence or Convergence (emerging category)	Confusion (divergence of ideas)
Culture	Culture change	N/F
Trust	Trust and quality increase	N/F
Language	Easiness	No interference
Norms	N/E	N/F
Standards	Strategic implementation	N/F
Social	N/E	N/F

Source: The authors – N/F = Not found

By checking the above box, we see the emerging categories of some aspects of “culture”, it appears the content proposing the following ideas: Convergences: Culture change with the increase of gradual confidence to standards and estratégicas. Divergências deployments: There are indications that the language between countries is different, easy or the same, and there are findings in the content that indicate that the language does not interfere in our case.

Table 4: Emerging categories identified in dendrograms for administrative distance and its aspects

Analysed Term	Ambivalence or Convergence (emerging category)	Confusion (divergence of ideas)
Management	Improvement, improvement, skills	Increased costs, difficulties
Blocks	N/F	N/F
Bureaucracy	N/F	N/F
Currency	Instability, uncertainty	N/F
Politics	Implementation	N/F

Source: The authors – N/F = Not found

The terms “standards” and “social” did not emerge and therefore did not appear in a convergent manner sample. The terms “standards” and “social” were not relevant to the response of respondents viewed that they did not mention the terms.

By grouping some aspects of “administrative” according to the CAGE Framework from Ghemawat (2001) and then apply the convergences (ambivalence) and differences (confusion) according to Bardin (2011) that were found in dendrograms. It was possible to prepare the following table illustrating the emerging categories for the aspect “administrative” in the process of internationalization of international Laureate network for Brazil.

By checking the box above, we see the emerging categories of some aspects of the “administrative”, it appears the content proposing the following ideas: Convergences: a need for improvement in the management and skills. Divergence: nothing found. The terms “blocks” and “bureaucracy” did not emerge and therefore did not appear in a convergent manner sample. The terms “blocks” and “bureaucracy” were not relevant to the response of respondents viewed that they did not mention the terms.

By grouping some aspects of the “geographical” according to the CAGE Framework from Ghemawat (2001), then applying the convergences (ambivalence) and differences (confusion) according to Bardin (2011), it was found in their dendrograms that it was possible to prepare the following table illustrating the emerging categories for the aspect “geographical” in the process of internationalization of international Laureate network for Brazil.

Table 5: Emerging categories Identified in dendrograms to geographical distance and its aspects

Analysed Term	Ambivalence or Convergence (emerging category)	Confusion (divergence of ideas)
Geographical	commercial rivalry by region	N/F
Climate	N/F	N/F

Source: The authors – N/F = Not found

By checking the box above, we see the emerging categories of some aspects of the “geographical” content proposing the following ideas are there: Convergences: commercial rivalry by region. Divergence: Nothing found.

The term “climate” did not emerge and therefore did not appear in a convergent manner sample. The term “climate” was also not relevant to the response of respondents viewed that they did not mention the term.

Table 6: Emerging categories identified in dendrograms for economic distance and its aspects

Analysed Term	Ambivalence or Convergence (emerging category	Confusion (divergence of ideas)
Economy	Improves Growth performance	N/F
Financial	Quality of returns, Benefits	N/F
Infrastructure	Modern, differentiated improvements	N/F
Resources	N/F	N/F

Source: The authors – N/F = Not found

By checking the box above, we see the emerging categories of some aspects of the “economic”. It appears in the content proposing the following ideas: Convergences: Improving at economic performance in a different infrastructure. Divergence: Nothing found.

The term “resources” not emerged and so did not appear in a convergent manner sample. The term “resources” was also not relevant to the response of respondents viewed that they did not mention the term.

4.2 Discussion

This research dealt with the entry process of higher education institutions in Brazil, in particular, the case of Laureate International Universities. The research problem was: What factors influence the process of entering a higher education institution in Brazil? And the overall objective is to verify the importance of distances – Culture, Administration, Geographic and Economic – at the entrance of the international Laureate network in Brazil.

As to the research, problem is that, based on the findings of this study, all four distances CAGE influence the Laureate entry process in Brazil. Aspects such as cultural difference (C) were the focus of content analysis and evaluated religious beliefs, norms and standards of society, language and ethnic differences. Differences in language and communication, cause costs of information that may not be accurate in translation and result in miscommunication and misinterpretation of information. Countries that share the same language tend to have a turnover three times higher than in countries that do not speak the same language (Ghemawat, 2008).

The administrative distance (A), was also found in the content analysis. The administrative distance involves aspects such as currency and economic model, a member of the same union of countries, e.g., Commonwealth Countries, or part of a block of free trade as North America Free Trade Area (NAFTA), European Union (EU) and MERCOSUR. There is evidence that this factor was a facilitator of the international relations of the countries in the same way that this is an aspect of great impact on the destination country of choice decision process (Andersson and Lundströn, 2007). This distance can be increased with trade barriers such as high import taxes, or rigid standards of quality and product safety. Countries with high levels of corruption and social conflicts suffer a negative impact on economic development (Ghemawat, 2008).

The geographic distance (G) was also the focus of the content analysis. The geographical distance does not refer only to physical distance in kilometers, but the extent and access to the country by water and land, as well as the infrastructure in transport and telecommunications. These aspects also influence the operating cost and speed of transport products. Even communication infrastructure between multinational banks for example, and telephone traffic can influence the distance factor between countries (Andersson and Lundströn, 2007).

The factor Economic Distance (E), was also a focus of content analysis. This aspect emphasizes that companies that rely on their economies of a scale model, standardization, and experience, have a greater tendency to move toward markets with similar characteristics (Ghemawat, 2008). When the cost and quality of available resources and even the average income of consumers are far from those found in the home country, companies end up encountering the difficulty of success. On the other hand, there are companies that make the distances aspects in its favor, establishing differentiated prices and practices for each market (Andersson and Lundströn, 2007).

As for the main objective of this study has been the cultural distance that includes religious beliefs, norms and standards of society, language and ethnic differences is revealed as the most important. This can be seen in table 3 (cultural distance) compared with other distances (Tables 4, 5 and 6) because there are more convergent factors to the culture distance when compared to other distances. The cultural aspect of content analysis pointed cultural change with strategic deployments in the internationalization process; the language would not have hindered the process.

Other terms considered culture such as the terms “standards” and “social” did not emerge and therefore did not appear in a convergent manner sample. The terms “standards” and “social” were not relevant to the response of respondents viewed that they did not mention the terms. The contribution of this research to the internationalization of companies, and in this case, higher education, is that the cultural distance overrides in importance to other distances. And the cultural distance, the most relevant factor is cultural changes followed by norms and standards.

So that, for higher education companies trying to enter in Brazil, the main challenge is a cultural change, especially in this study, which investigated a US institution concerning entry in Brazil. As Brazil and USA have very different cultures, language is the main and most important cultural change. Another cultural factor is the religion that imposes norms and standards. It has been the predominant religion in the United States is Protestantism, while in Brazil is Catholicism. These aspects of Christianity have fundamental differences between them concerning differences being won by American companies when operating in Brazil. Among these religious differences that influence the standards and norms, one of the most important is how the acceptance of standards of conduct.

In Brazil, norms, standards and laws are more specific, but Brazilians are more tolerant to subject to the same, that is, the Brazilians do not follow the norms and standards set by society, their interpretation of what is right or wrong is very flexible. On the other hand, the culture of the United States does not impose so many rules and standards, but when created society tends to follow/accept more, that is, the concept of right and wrong is directly related to the current laws.

5. Validity and Reliability

5.1 Validity

This study was validated through triangulation method, which means to collect and analyze data about a particular search using multiple sources and methods, in order to add more quality the validity of the results obtained (Duarte, 2009; Ketokivi, and Choi, 2014; Gerring, 2010). Finally, the collected data were analyzed by CAGE structure proposed by Ghemawat (2008).

Validation of the sample was performed by using QSR NVivo 10 for Windows ™ software. One way to validate this research was the categorization of terms and the count (frequency) as they appear in the sample. For this, the terms of similarity with the main terms of the title of this research “Institutions of Entry Process of Higher Education for the Brazil: The Case of Laureate International Universities ” was chosen. The terms contained in the title of this research were found by QSR NVivo 10 software for Windows ™ over 57,000 times in at least 780 sources in the given sample to sample and analyze the study. This implies that the material that makes up the conveniently selected amostrafoi and it is appropriate to clarify the objectives of this research (Lakatos and Marconi, 2010).

Another form of validation of this research was the categorization of terms and the count (frequency) as they appear in the sample. For this, terms by similarity were chosen. However, this time using the terms, the general objective and the specific objective of this research: culture; standards; standards; language; confidence; administrative; geographical; economy; and resources were researched.

Another way that we will use for validation of this research is the word cloud. The word cloud organizes and groups the words graphically depending on their frequency. It has a simpler lexical analysis; however, it is quite graphically interesting as it allows the rapid identification of keywords in a corpus. These analyses can be performed from a group of texts concerning a particular subject (corpus) brought together in a single text file. But one must know that the word cloud is not enough to elucidate the problems of this research. However, it helps to organize the distribution of vocabulary easily understandable and visually clear.

The vast majority of the terms that the QSR NVivo 10 software for Windows ™ found in the sample and represented in the cloud above words are relevant to explain the input process of higher education institutions in Brazil. Some verified words are education; university; processes; management; education; students and others. And again, according to Lakatos and Marconi (2010), this leads us to the understanding that the material that makes up the sample was properly selected and it is appropriate to clarify the objectives of this research.

5.2 Reliability

For the reliability of this research, the interviews were transcribed and then sent to respondents. Some respondents requested minor adjustments or not in the transcripts made first through audio. After receiving the feedback and opinion on the agreement of the respondent, the transcripts became part of our sample (Ketokivi and Choi, 2014; Gerring, 2010).

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