Latin America: Environmental and firm-level challenges

Multilatinas and the internationalization of Latin American firms

“…Like other parts of the emerging and developing world, Latin America benefitted from a period of relative political stability and economic growth between the 2000s and mid-2010s, reaping the benefits of the reforms implemented during the 1990s and also the rising prices in the commodities it exports (Brenes, Haar, & Requena, 2009;Ciravegna, Fitzgerald, & Kundu, 2014a). In a very short period of time, Latin America moved from being a region characterized by highly unstable, closed economies ruled by mostly non-democratic regimes, to being mostly stable, more open to investment and trade, and, last but not least, democratic (Santiso, 2007;.…”

Firm-level trust in emerging markets: the moderating effect on the institutional strength- corruption relationship in Mexico and Peru

“…Leaders of firms seem to understand that if they yield to corruption, they risk damaging their brand, alienating their customers, and losing support of the communities that support them (Schaefer & Schaefer, 2008). Firms prefer to operate by leveraging their competitive advantages that may include the valuable resource of a loyal, trusting, and trustworthy staff (Brenes et al, 2009;Haar & Price, 2008). High firmlevel trust among employees is one mechanism that encourages employees to engage with the firm that counters the external pressure placed on firms by weak public institutions and corruption.…”

“…Firms in emerging markets generally prefer to avoid engaging in corruption, knowing that if they act corruptly, they damage their brand, alienate customers, and lose the support of their local communities (Schaefer & Schaefer, 2008). Emerging market firms instead want to achieve competitive advantages by building resources and capabilities, such as competitive pricing, innovation, distribution expertise, and by creating loyal, trusting, and trustworthy staff (Brenes, Haar, & Requena, 2009;Haar & Price, 2008). We argue that this last resource, the level of trust in the firm held by its staff, is a valuable capability.…”

Exploring the relationship between KIBS co-location and the innovativeness of the manufacturing firms in Latin America

“…Despite the recent, rapid economic growth experienced by several Latin American countries during the commodity boom (Brenes, Haar & Requena, 2009), the fall in commodity export prices has underscored the many competitive challenges required for new growth sectors to emerge. Services have become the most important economic sector in the global economy, in developed as well as in most developing economies.…”