Multilatinas and the internationalization of Latin American firms

Aguilera, Ruth V.; Ciravegna, Luciano; Cuervo-Cazurra, Álvaro; González-Pérez, María Alejandra

doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2017.05.006

Cited by 140 publications

(146 citation statements)

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“…Another look at ownership indicates that in 40% of the BGs, their majority shareholder was foreign, which is in accordance with the national average of 36% for Colombian BGs [11]. Lastly, it can be highlighted that seven of the BGs (23.3%) were classified as multilatinas by the AmericaEconomia Journal [54], which provides a ranking of multilatinas that has been used in several studies [16,22,37]. This condition indicates that they are BGs with a greater international orientation and are thus exposed to a higher amount of stakeholders.…”

Section: Samplementioning

confidence: 61%

“…The case of Colombia is representative of emerging countries that have a great tradition of CSR practices [13]. In this sense, BGs in Colombia exert leadership, and their sustainability reports and actions are recognized, especially those groups with a greater international orientation and which meet the criterion for being multilatinas [15,16,37]. In sum, we could argue that Colombian BGs demonstrate a tradition of voluntary disclosure practices and specific sustainability actions.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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CSR Communication Strategies of Colombian Business Groups: An Analysis of Corporate Reports

2018

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The aim of this paper is to assess stakeholder orientation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication strategies in the business groups (BGs) of an emerging economy by means of content analysis. We worked with 30 non-financial BGs taken from the Colombian Stock Exchange. The study uses as its unit of analysis corporate reports that have been classified into four categories: annual reports (ARs), sustainability reports (SRs), combined reports (CRs), and integrated reports (IRs). The results show that IRs are the most similar reports, that Colombian BGs are mainly employee-oriented (ARs, SRs, CRs) and shareholder-oriented (IRs), and that response and involvement communication strategies are the most commonly used. Our research has theoretical and practical implications based on the assumption that the study of corporate reports has particular importance for those BGs with diversification strategies and international orientation, since it opens possibilities for future research. no evidence of which among the above-mentioned communication strategies BGs adopt, and which kind of stakeholder orientation they follow.This research is conducted in Colombia, which has an emerging economy where the study of contemporary BGs is fairly recent [10]. In Colombia, BGs are on the rise, and are important for the development of the economy [11]; they have reorganized their structures in recent years in order to be more strategic [12]. Colombia is a country with a tradition of CSR practices [13] and of voluntary disclosure reporting practices [14]. Additionally, Colombian BGs are following internationalization processes [15], leading them to become 'multilatinas'; that is to say, they are firms that are located and consolidated in a Latin American country, and seek expansion and positioning in new markets [16]. Furthermore, the context of developing countries has some cultural, social, political, and economic aspects that make them different [17], and therefore interesting to study.A recent study [18] shows that 68% of consulted investors recognize the importance of CSR reports for their investment decisions and consider the report to be the main tool for communicating CSR practices [19]. This paper aims at identifying corporate reporting practices in the BGs of an emerging economy and subsequently establishing their stakeholder orientation and prevailing CSR communication strategies. To achieve these three objectives, we applied a content analysis of 30 corporate reports from the year 2015 from BGs that are representative of the Colombian economy. Following Habek and Wolniak [20], Venturelli et al. [21], and Davila et al. [22], the BG reports under analysis were classified into four categories: annual reports (AR), sustainability reports (SR), combined reports (CR), and integrated reports (IR). We draw on the stakeholders theory [23] and previous studies [24][25][26][27][28] in order to define the stakeholder categories, allowing us to assess the type of orientation presented by the analyzed Colombian BGs.This study i...

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Section: Samplementioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

CSR Communication Strategies of Colombian Business Groups: An Analysis of Corporate Reports

2018

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“…Finally, by proposing a managerial analysis of export diversity in a developing economy-i.e., Costa Rica-this study contributes to increase the emerging body of research dealing with both the internationalization of Latin American firms (Aguilera et al, 2017;Vendrell-Herrero, 2017), and the determinants and effects of businesses' export diversity in developed and developing economies (e.g., Bastos et al, 2018;Brambilla et al, 2012).…”

Section: Theoretical Contributionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Internationalization of sales, more concretely exporting, has been invoked as a relevant strategic decision with important implications for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) (Aguilera et al, 2017;Autio et al, 2000;Manolova et al, 2010). The successful internationalization of SMEs and the potential benefits of this strategy-e.g., increased competitiveness, market competition, employment growth and technology implementation-have increasingly drawn attention among scholars and policy makers (e.g., Lafuente et al, 2015;Manolova et al, 2010;Vendrell-Herrero et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From a research perspective, existing evidence suggests that SMEs operating in emerging markets are increasingly active internationally (Lafuente et al, 2015;Miocevic and Crnjak-Karanovic, 2011;Vendrell-Herrero et al, 2017); however, most of the literature on Latin American markets focuses on the international behavior of large firms (e.g., Aulakh et al, 2000;Martincus and Carballo, 2008). International business scholars highlight the internationalization of small firms from emerging economies as a fruitful research avenue (Aguilera et al, 2017;Peiris et al, 2012;Vendrell-Herrero et al, 2017). In particular, our detailed data allows to identify the number of foreign markets targeted by the business, as well as the different types of human capital of the entrepreneur.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Export diversity and the relevance of different forms of market experience

Alvarado

Lafuente

Mora-Esquivel

2019

IJBE

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This study evaluates how different forms of human capital-i.e., formal management studies, labor market experience and experience in multinational businesses-explain the export diversity of SMEs, defined as the number of foreign market destinations where the business sells its goods or services. The proposed hypotheses are tested using negative binomial regression models on a unique sample of 117 Costa Rican SMEs for 2017. The findings reveal that labor experience in multinational firms-in particular, experience in managerial positions-is a relevant source of human capital that equip entrepreneurs with specific know-how that is conducive to export diversity, in terms of number of market destinations. Results also show that firm size, age and online sales (e-commerce) are positively correlated to export diversity. Beyond canonical export-related measures, this study offers insights on the importance of including the number of foreign markets (market destinations) in the evaluation of the export performance of SMEs.

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Can proactive environmental strategy improve Multilatinas' level of internationalization? The moderating role of board independence

et al. 2019

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This paper explores the relationships between proactive environmental strategy (PES) and internationalization in emerging markets multinationals from Latin America (Multilatinas). Drawing on the resource‐based view and institutional theory and using a sample of 86 listed firms during the period 2013–2017, we find that Multilatinas with higher tiers of PES are associated with higher degrees of geographic international diversification. Because adopting PES is directly conditioned by institutional pressures to comply with stakeholders' regulations and expectations, Multilatinas that implement advanced PES will be able to achieve a higher level of international presence in foreign markets. Our results also reveal that board independence positively moderates the relationship between PES and geographic international diversification. Specifically, board independence provides Multilatinas with the opportunity to integrate valuable knowledge and expertise and thus to take advantage of implementing advanced PES to achieve even greater levels of internationalization. This study expands understanding of how environmental strategies influence internationalization of firms in the Latin American business context.

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Multilatinas and the internationalization of Latin American firms

Cited by 140 publications

References 50 publications

CSR Communication Strategies of Colombian Business Groups: An Analysis of Corporate Reports

CSR Communication Strategies of Colombian Business Groups: An Analysis of Corporate Reports

Export diversity and the relevance of different forms of market experience

Can proactive environmental strategy improve Multilatinas' level of internationalization? The moderating role of board independence

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