Este caso presenta la metodología del análisis que se desarrolló para conformar la estrategia de internacionalización en Tecnoquímicas, una de las más importantes empresas colombianas del sector farmacéutico, la cual se ha caracterizado, desde sus inicios en 1934, por su notable capacidad de innovación tanto en nuevos productos como en sus estrategias para atender el mercado. En este sentido, y dada la necesidad de ampliar el mercado internacionalmente, la empresa desarrolló una novedosa metodología de análisis de las variables internacionales que le permitiera avanzar en el proceso de selección de los mercados hacia los cuales dirigir sus acciones de penetración. La información empleada para documentar el caso fue suministrada directamente por la compa˜ nía. Con la revisión de este caso se pretende generar discusión en torno a variables y aspectos que consider al momento de diseñar una estrategia de internacionalización.

Cementos Argos has long been regarded as a giant in the Colombian cement manufacturing industry. Thanks to its large capacity to reach a solid position in the domestic market as well as to its unconventional internationalization strategies, it has earned a prominent place in Colombia and other Latin American countries and even in such strong markets as the United States. This research study is an effort to document the international experience of Argos from the perspective of the most widely accepted theories of internationalization available in specialized literature, using the methodological case-study approach. As a result, it was found that retention strategies and the organizational redesign generated by the leadership of corporative management, are vital tools to ensure growth of the company in local and external markets.

Bico Internacional is a Colombian company that has set new trends in the internalization of its operations. This article presents a case study con­cerning Bico’s experience in Colombia and abroad. It is complemented by the application of theoretical models such as the theories by Prahalad and Hamel, Uppsala, and Johanson and Vahlne, and the model proposed by Stephen H. Rhinesmith, in order to explain the company’s market expan­sion process. It is concluded that Bico is a company that has not only a wide capacity to respond to the challenges of the local and international envi­ronments, but also a great ability to innovate with its products, the design of its organizational structure, and its marketing strategies.

MotivationIn the analysis of the relationship between the labour market and crime, the variable that comes from the labour market is generally the unemployment rate. However, there are labour market characteristics that are more significant than unemployment, such as labour informality, in the context of violent crime in low‐income and middle‐income countries.PurposeThis article aims to estimate the spatial and economic relationship between homicides and labour informality by neighbourhood in Cali, the city with the highest homicide rate currently and historically in Colombia.Methods and approachUsing administrative data and a unique survey of formal and informal labour market conditions, we estimate a Spatial Durbin Model to capture the spatial endogeneity of the relationship between homicides and the labour market in the city's neighbourhoods.FindingsThe main results show evidence of the positive spatial and economic relationship between labour informality and homicides in the city's neighbourhoods. In addition, the bulk of this effect occurs in some hillside settlement neighbourhoods with characteristics associated with acute labour informality.Policy implicationsWe propose a social and economic development programme to improve the conditions of the informal labour market and therefore achieve a reduction in homicides in specific areas, such as city hot spots found in our spatial results.