Patterns of Economic Interdependence in Latin America

This study investigates business cycle synchronization and transmission patterns among the major Latin American countries and their linkages with the United States and Europe. Correlations, principal components, trade patterns, vector autoregressions, and impulse responses are used to discern the business cycle transmission patterns.

There is moderate evidence of a unique Latin American business cycle and of business cycle transmission among the Latin American economies. Most transmission linkages come from outside Latin America. The European business cycle has a slightly stronger influence upon most Latin American economies than the influence of the US business cycle. Brazil is clearly the most influential Latin American economy in terms of business cycle transmission.     

Performance and Competitiveness of Latin American Cities: The Human Capital Case

Abstract

Besides the human capital, elements that make Latin American cities competitive include, for instance, their culture or financial maturity. However, the most important challenge for Latin American cities to succeed is how to manage all these variables. The purpose of this study is to identify the contribution of human capital and its relationships and impacts on the performance of Latin American cities. This quantitative, non-experimental, explanatory, correlational, and cross-sectional study observes factors that increase city competitiveness and develop their relationships. The study is based on the Economist Intelligence Unit database of 2012, in which 120 cities were evaluated, particularly contrasting Latin American cities with the top cities in the world and their characteristics. Urban competitiveness in Latin American cities can be predicted partially on the presence of Human Capital. In some instances, we found positive relationships between human capital and the characteristics considered in a city’s performance.     

Trading with Neighbors: Regional Stock Exchange Integration—The Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano

ABSTRACT

Who gains from the regional integration of stock exchanges? Exploring this question can identify motivators driving stock exchange integration between countries, and contribute to the wider debate whether such perceived gains are likely. This article examines the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA), currently comprised of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. The plan, process, and difficulties facing MILA are examined. We conclude that investors from the region appear poised to reap the greatest rewards in the long-term, while regional brokers and investors, especially those based in Peru, have benefited most from the operation of MILA since 2011.     

Board Gender Diversity: Challenges and Implications for Corporations in the East African Community

ABSTRACT

East African Community’s (EAC) corporations are required to follow a regional treaty of mainstreaming gender equality. This article discusses challenges encountered by corporate boards of the EAC’s corporations when adding women. Agency and resource dependence theories led the study, while a review of the literature was the methodology. We discuss the benefits of diverse boards and challenges faced when developing this diversity. We show how power distance, masculinity, and certainty avoidance prevent women from corporate boards. Furthermore, we discuss how social orientation and business environment impact women’s participation. The article discusses various strategies to be considered for increasing diversity.     

Location Advantages,Firm Advantages,and Export Success in the Latin American Automotive Parts Industry

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of location advantages and firm-level advantages on the propensity of Latin American firms to export. An empirical test based on Latin American firms in the automobile parts industry suggests that firms in more competitive Latin American country environments are more likely to export than those in less competitive country environments. Also, older and larger firms are more likely to export than are younger and smaller firms, and businesses that are subsidiary companies are more likely to export than are independent companies. Implications for managers and policy makers are presented.     

Traces of foreign retailers – local knowledge-spillovers and strategy adaption within retail internationalization

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s certain retail companies have evolved into some of the largest and most dispersed transnational corporations worldwide. However, within the ‘new era of retail distribution’ retailers are increasingly divesting from foreign markets. This study addresses these recent and under-explored dynamics by revealing the traces transnational retail corporations leave after divesting from a country. It explores the aspect of learning of host market retailers from entering transnational corporations (TNCs) and examines how foreign knowledge is adjusted in the business strategies of these local actors. It takes a fresh empirical slant using qualitative interviews with host market retail managers including former TNCs’ subsidiaries operating under domestic ownership. The emerging economy of Turkey serves as an empirical example. The paper finds that foreign retailers transfer firm-specific resources to the local retail through (1) demonstration and imitation, (2) vertical linkages with suppliers, (3) joint ventures and acquisitions, and (4) labor turnover of TNC trained staff. Certain successful local companies adjust the foreign knowledge based on their local knowledge and strengths, their high level of flexibility and deep territorial embeddedness, and create ‘hybrid’ business strategies. These findings suggest that dynamic capabilities are crucial to successful retailing in an international competitive environment. TNC managers should work with local staff in partnerships of equals and managers of locally operating companies should incorporate new knowledge by hiring TNC trained staff.     

Free trade in Latin America: A successful way out of crisis?

Since the beginning of the 1990s almost all Latin American countries have begun to change their strategies from protectionism to free trade. Historically, plans for regional economic integration have a long tradition on this continent, but attempts to bring them to fruition have failed time and time again. This report surveys past developments and attempts to show the prospects of success for the current free trade strategies in Latin America.     

Ethical Differences Within Latin America

Abstract

As the volume of trade within Latin America increases an understanding of cultural differences between countries will become increasingly important. One key issue that has received little attention to date is the variation in ethical beliefs across Latin American borders. In this study the impact of cultural attributes on four key ethical dilemmas is examined. Vignettes are developed for ecological conservation, bribery, sex discrimination, and child labor dilemmas and are included in a survey which is administered to multinational managers from Ecuador and Chile. Results indicate that certain cultural traits are linked to responses to each of the ethical dilemmas.     

Nuevo Latino: Rebranding Latin American Cuisine

Nuevo Latino Cuisine invites diners to experience the vertigo of consuming a reinvented version of traditional Latin American food while enjoying a cosmopolitan atmosphere at sophisticated restaurants. Using “border thinking” and critical ethnography, this paper discusses how the restaurant industry in the US reproduces colonial desire by aestheticizing and commodifying traditional meals. This article assesses the rebranding of Latin American Cuisine as a fashionable consumer trend where identity, class, and cultural representations are resignified through consumption practices. The central issue guiding this research consists of identifying the rationales and strategies used by the restaurant industry when rebranding Latin American cuisine. Understanding Nuevo Latino at the intersection of hybrid cultural forms, cosmopolitanism, and the power structures of market forces in late capitalistic societies is fundamental to assessing the colonization of lifeworlds by the economic system, which imposes an alternative process of subjection and subjectivation through consumption.     

A Note on Building a Counterfactual for Mercosur

ABSTRACT

Heterogeneity among trade agreements across Latin American countries is important for comparing different experiences and for evaluating the success of existing trade agreements. This note evaluates the Mercosur agreement in a counterfactual framework. Member countries’ experiences are compared to the Mexican experience in several dimensions other than trade. In particular, the effect of trade agreements is evaluated in terms of its effect on the labor market (inequality and informality) and on other measures of integration. This new analysis puts Mercosur in a more positive balance with respect to the pure trade theory analysis.     

Issues of Competitiveness

Abstract

This article investigates the forces that constrain Taiwanese-based corporations from improving quality and introducing and marketing new products. A total of 182 executives from the service and manufacturing sectors participated in the study. The results indicate that Taiwanese-based firms are optimistic about their competitive market position and about their respective industries. Furthermore, executives of these firms prefer to compete in regional and global markets. Absence of pride in a job well done, ineffective performance evaluation systems, and excessive government regulations were found to be the most important factors that may prohibit improvement in product quality. The results also reveal that various factors may hinder the development and marketing of new products. They are inattentiveness to consumer needs, top management's lack of attention to world competition and global opportunities, deterioration of the competitive spirit among employees and managers, absence of a flexible manufacturing strategy, volatile business environment, and too much focus on immediate results.     

The Relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean

The EU is the second-largest trading partner (after the USA) of the Latin American and Caribbean countries (LAC). The European Commission is presently in the process of negotiating association agreements with three Latin American regional trading associations, a result of the fact that the EU has traditionally preferred multilateral treaties to bilateral ones as a means of its international trade policy. These negotiations have proved to be very complex and progress is difficult. Will the two-yearly meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the EU and the LAC in Peru in May 2008 take place under the sign of a return to a policy with more emphasis on bilateral agreements? The recent agreement with Brazil seems to point in this direction.     

Transforming brand management from a functional activity into a core process

The erosion in the authority of brands within consumer markets brings into question the orthodoxy of traditional marketing practices across all markets. By adopting an “if‐we‐were‐to‐start‐again” policy, such elementary questions are currently being addressed in a number of major corporations. Using this approach, the notion of redefining branding policy and practice emerges as a fundamental and, arguably, the dominant core process in business redesign. In this paper, the skills required to manage this new process are delineated as value chain activities. The Integrated Brand, as this core process has been termed here, requires a multifunctional management cohesion if the new doctrine of customer retention is to be realized. Whilst these retention strategies may vary in execution across the stakeholder groups, each serve to reduce replacement costs. By also managing system costs and building primary customer share for revenue, the Integrated Brand organization can emerge with a balanced financial performance and brand equity managed as an asset. Amongst successful re‐engineered organizations, price premiums would be an acknowledgment of a superior offer but not a necessity in sustaining this balanced financial performance.     

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America in the 1990s

Summary

FDI in Latin America has witnessed a resurgence in the 1990s after the debt crisis and capital drought of the 1980s. This inflow results both from more market-friendly policies in the recipient countries and lower returns and growth in developed nations. The latter factor has also attracted many short-term, portfolio instruments to the continent which can be highly damaging to local economies when not properly regulated. Privatization has been among the more important country-specific variables attracting direct investors to the region. Despite the positive effects of FDI, Latin American countries are still beset with problems such as unequal distribution of income and poverty that direct investment is unlikely to ameliorate.     

On the Marketing of Nations

Abstract

Deciding on how and where to begin a new regional expansion is a highly important and complex task for multinational companies. The importance and complexity stems from the fact that these decisions involve relatively high uncertainty (i.e., risk) and, at the same time, require an intensive multidimensional evaluation process. Many countries, however, particularly in emerging markets, work to encourage multinational companies to establish a base of operations there or to enlarge existing regional headquarters. Consequently, multinationals and countries have a common interest in identifying key elements in this multidimensional decision process and estimating the likelihood that a particular country will be more suitable to fill this task than others. In order to gain a deeper understanding as to the attractiveness of a host country for establishing a base of operation (BOO) of multinational corporations, we explore the perceptions of corporate managers of different Mediterranean countries. Our analysis highlights the different country characteristics that contribute to the difference in perceptions. In addition, we find specific attributes that contribute the most to these differences. We conclude with a discussion of actions that can be taken by a specific country to close, or expand, some perception gaps.     

Identifying the factors that influence eWOM in SNSs: the case of Chile

ABSTRACT

The factors that influence electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites (SNSs) in Latin American countries still need to be understood. This paper looks at factors included by prior research, as well as two new factors that have the power to influence eWOM in SNSs in the region. The study is conducted in Chile, a country which already has high Internet and SNSs penetration rates and Hofstede's scores close to the average for Latin America. The results show that tie strength, normative influence, informational influence, self-presentation, and voluntary self-disclosure are all positively directly associated with eWOM in SNSs. The results also show that homophily exerts a positive indirect influence on eWOM through the mediators of tie strength, normative influence, informational influence, and self-presentation. Additionally, the results show that trust exerts a positive indirect influence on eWOM through the mediators of tie strength, normative influence, and voluntary self-disclosure.     

International marketing strategies in industrial clusters: Insights from the Southern Hemisphere

This paper examines co-operative marketing strategies among clustered-based firms in the most important wine producing and exporting countries in the ‘new world’. The research examines the development of active inter-firm marketing co-operation undertaken by firms to achieve competitive positioning in international markets. The results of a survey of managers located in Argentina, Australia, Chile and New Zealand are presented. The empirical contribution comes from the unique comparative data from regional clusters in four countries which are seen internationally as innovative producers and marketers, all strongly export-oriented, but at different stages of economic development and positioning in the global marketplace. In addition, this study makes a significant contribution to agglomeration theory by confirming the importance of sharing marketing knowledge to build sustainable competitive advantage in international markets. The theoretical contribution builds understanding of international marketing strategies within the Southern Hemisphere group of emerging countries and offers new insights on international marketing practices for emerging firms from both the developed economies in the Pacific Ocean region and Latin American emerging economies.     

Female leadership and bank performance in Latin America

This paper examines the relationship between gender diversity in corporate boards and executive positions and bank risk and performance in Latin America. Our sample covers 91 individual banks during 2000–2017. Our results suggest that banks with a higher proportion of female executives tend to have lower Z-scores than male-led banks. However, female-led banks are more profitable. Our results provide new information related to the debate on the relationship between gender-based behavioural differences and financial decisions by showing that Latin American banks with a higher proportion of female executives are riskier and more profitable than male-led banks. Given the impact of bank performance on the international economy, the global interconnection of financial institutions, and the lack of legal protection in this region, it is of interest for regulators and policy makers to analyse possible sources of better performance and governance in Latin American banks.     

Unilever's Latin American Strategy in Yellow Fats,Ice Cream and Teas

Abstract

The article investigates the interplay between the changes in the large corporate strategy of a multinational and changes in the business environment in Latin America. In its international expansion, Unilever has traditionally used a decentralized national responsive strategy where local subsidiaries develop their markets with a great degree of autonomy. In response to globalization, Unilever moved towards greater business coordination and a more focused approach in the nineties. The article examines the impact of this reorganization on the firm's regional strategy in Latin America. We examine the firm's strategy in three food categories: fat oils, ice cream and tea-based products. We conclude that Unilever continues to use a strategy of national responsiveness with no attempt to coordinate its experiences across the region.