Las explicaciones de tipo “mano invisible” -“invisible hand explanations” (IHE)- tienen una vieja tradición en la economía, de Smith a nuestros días, pasando por Menger, Hayek y Thomas Schelling, entre tantos otros. Es un tema que ha sido analizado exhaustivamente por Emrah Aydinonat en su reciente libro The Invisible Hand in Economics: How Economists Explain Unintended Social Consequences. Este libro ha dado lugar a una interesante discusión en la disciplina, que aún continúa. Aunque Aydinonat no lo desarrolla explícitamente, sus clasificaciones, definiciones y caracterizaciones dan lugar a una noción bastante delimitada del individualismo metodológico, pudiendo así arrojar cierta luz sobre esta noción. En efecto, ésta es altamente ambigua y requiere una precisión. Las dos grandes posiciones extremas al respecto se encuentran al nivel de la ontología social implícita: mientras que algunos tienden a una posición individualista en la que sólo existen los individuos y la sociedad no tiene entidad alguna (el extremo sería Watkins), otros piensan más bien que la sociedad tiene una cierta existencia, aún dependiendo de la interacción de los individuos (Schumpeter). Los primeros tienden a concebir un individuo más aislado, en una visión más atomista de lo que llamamos sociedad. Los segundos autores conciben a un individuo más social, esencialmente interactivo. El común denominador de las diversas nociones es que sea por uno u otro motivo, tienden a pensar que la explicación de lo social (sea ésta la única, la mejor, a la que se reducen las otras, o una más, pero bien relevante) parte de los individuos (sea de sus acciones, y/o intenciones, y/o decisiones). Entonces, el núcleo del individualismo metodológico es que la explicación de los procesos sociales debe analizarse como el resultado de la interacción de decisiones individuales independientes que pueden, no obstante, tener como una fuente, dato o razón más, las acciones de los demás. La ambigüedad de la noción de “individualismo metodológico” lleva, por ejemplo, a Gregor Zwirn (2007) a proponer usar la denominación de “atomismo metodológico” para el que tiene una posición ontológica atomista implícita. Geoffrey Hodgson (2007, 223) es más tajante: directamente propone abandonar la expresión. Por otra parte, una consideración antropológica más profunda que sostiene el carácter esencialmente social del hombre conduciría a una consideración de sus acciones que excluyen un planteamiento totalmente individualista. Las acciones individuales tendrían de por si una “marca” social. La relación social sería constitutiva de la individualidad personal. Encontramos ciertas similitudes entre el resultado del concepto implícito de Aydinonat, el segundo grupo de “individualistas metodológicos” y el resultante de la concepción antropológica sucintamente descrita en el párrafo anterior. En el trabajo sistematizaremos los aportes de Aydinonat, los diversos “individualismos metodológicos” y los pondremos en relación con el resultante de esa posición antropológica. Referencias: Aydinonat, Emrah, 2008. The Invisible Hand in Economics: How Economists Explain Unintended Social Consequences, Routledge, Inem Advances in Economic Methodology, Londres. Hodgson, Geoffrey M., 2007. “Meanings of Methodological Individualism”, Journal of Economic Methodology 14/2, 211-226. Zwirn, Gregor, 2007. “Methodological Individualism or Methodological Atomism: The Case of Friedrich Hayek”, en History of Political conomy 39/1, 47-80.

This paper will argue that Economics needs to reinsert practical reason into its field. It will use the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Human Development Program to explore this necessity and how it is actually addressed. Firstly, it will show that the HDI has underlying technical and practical assumptions which are not always or sufficiently explained or argued. Then, it will show that some of these shortcomings have been overcome by the 2010 Human Development Report, published in last November. In the Introduction to the report, Amartya Sen maintains that, although being a “crude” index, the HDI did what it was expected to do: to go beyond commodities and income in the evaluation of development. He adds that “new tables continue to appear in the steady stream of Human Development Reports, and new indices have been devised to supplement the HDI and enrich our evaluation” (UNDP 2010: vi). The paper will present the innovations introduced by this last report relevant to its purposes. They are contained in two new indexes (and in a small modification of the HDI): (i). The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI). This new Index remedies the lack of consideration of inequalities of previous calculi. As the Report asserts, “the HDI can be viewed as an index of “potential” human development (or the maximum level of HDI) that could be achieved if there was no inequality) while the IHDI is the actual level of human development (accounting for inequality). The difference between the HDI and the IDHI measures the “loss” in potential human development due to inequality” (PNUD 2010: 87, see also 217). It is indeed interesting to analyze these losses and their differences among countries and dimensions. (ii). The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). This index takes into account multiple deprivations at the individual level in the same dimensions of the HDI: health, education and standard of living. The data for this index come from household surveys. The MPI establishes thresholds for the three dimensions, introducing new indicators. It combines the multidimensional headcount ratio (the proportion of the analyzed population that is under the threshold) and the intensity or breadth of poverty (the proportion of indicators in which the population is deprived). “The basic intuition is that the MPI represents the share of the population that is multidimensionaly poor, adjusted by the intensity of the deprivations suffered” (UNDP 2010: 222). This index uses Nutrition and child mortality as indicators of health, years of schooling and children enrolled as indicators of education and a series of access to services and assets (cocking fuel, toilet, water, electricity, floor, etc.) as criteria for determining the threshold of the standard of life. Although the Report does not expand on the reasons for choosing the new indicators and their weights, a linked Working Paper (n. 38) of the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) does. In effect, Alkire and Santos (2010) provide the corresponding arguments for the formulation of both the news Index and the changes of the HDI. The paper will unveil the practical character of these arguments. These are good news, but they are not enough. The Report recognizes it (UNDP 2010: 118): fully realizing the human development agenda requires going much further. Putting people at the centre of development is more than an intellectual exercise —it means making progress equitable and broad-based, enabling people to become active participants in change and ensuring that achievements are not attained at the expense of future generations. Meeting these challenges is not only possible but necessary —and more urgent than ever. The paper conclusion trusts in a promissory future about the acknowledgement of practical reason’s role because the relevant Institutions are conscious of the need of improving the indicators and they are working in this line. References: Alkire, Sabina, and Santos, María Emma, 2010. “Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries”, OPHI Working Paper Series, 38. United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 2010. The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development, New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

What did local store chains do to successfully approach emerging consumers? Do emerging store chains organize differently to cater to this new market more effectively? With these questions in mind we set to study how emerging retailers are solving their access to emerging consumers around at different emerging latitudes. This project was sponsored by The Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council, and field work was commissioned to the WPP Group –The Store, The Futures Company and MVI-Kantar Retailing. Following a pragmatic approach and using qualitative research methods, we gathered information about six local retailers from different countries and sectors. To identify common marketing practices among the retailers in Emerging Markets, the information was examined according to the 8-ways-to-win in retailing framework , which features eight fundamentally proven dimensions of the retail business. Despite the differences in market contexts and execution strategies, we found some common principles that will prove useful to companies willing to perform in emerging environments. Although our limited sample cannot yield definitive conclusions, it showed six pillars upon which local retailers rely on to serve Emerging Consumers successfully. While in order to identify “best practices” in emerging markets most of previous research focused on the experience of Multinational manufacturers and Small-Scale retailers, our research focused on studying six local store chains all aiming at the same segments of emerging consumers. Each of the studied retailers has proven to serve its consumers successfully. We believe that the value of this study resides not only on its focus on large local retailers, but also on the diversity of sectors (consumer electronics goods, department stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, hard-discounts, and franchise stores) and countries (Brazil, Peru, China, Poland, Turkey, and South Africa) covered.

In this paper I will show that Sen agrees with Aristotle 1) in his conception of the relation between Economics, Ethics and Politics; 2) in his conception about the role of wealth and possessions in a Good Life, 3) in his conception of eudaimonia and 4) about the need to examine the process of choosing the activities that constitute or contribute to eudaimonia. Sen also perceives a connection between his concept of “functionings” and the Aristotelian concept of ergon and between his concept of capabilities and the Aristotelian concept of dynamis. Finally, Sen agrees with Aristotle in the consideration of the non-commensurability or heterogeneity of goods. Concerning differences, Sen does not accept the supposedly Aristotelian conception of a unique objective list of functionings and capabilities supported by Nussbaum. In the paper I will argue that these Aristotelian influences on Sen’s ideas have helped him to define and refine his Capability Approach and the practical consequences of it.

This paper is a first attempt to synthesize two literatures within social sciences: institutional theory in the ambit of organization studies and the structure and agency debate in Sociology. In order to do so, it incorporates Archer’s description of the mediating process between structure and agency into institutional analysis, particularly describing how the three pillars of institutions –regulative, normative and cognitivecultural (Scott, 2008)- operate, analyzing the process with a morphogenetic approach (Archer, 1995).

This paper examines how and why a mediation process may transform an antagonistic labor-management relation, in two post-privatized telecommunications companies in an emerging economy, and make it evolve from severe confrontation to responsive collaboration. We deem that the analysis of such process allows gaining a better understanding of the positive impact that frank dialogue and trust may have on an organizational conflict, even when the prevalent social and political context, present in a good number of the Latin American countries, encourages labor-management altercations (Reade & Reade McKenna, 2009). After a decade of structural reforms that dismantled the state-owned economic apparatus, social turmoil, economic depression and extreme political weakness led, by the end of 2001, the Argentinean government to collapse. A new government, inaugurated in 2003, proclaimed the instatement of a new policy of wealth distribution guided by equity that eased the access to power within their organizations to the most combative union members and, consequently, made labor-management conflicts proliferate. After a tumultuous episode in 2004, both Telefónica de Argentina’s (TASA) and Telecom de Argentina’s (TECO) management and the Federación de Obreros y Empleados Telefónicos de la República Argentina – Sindicato Buenos Aires’ (FOETRA-BA) leadership agreed to carry out a mediation process seeking to transform their unproductive confrontation into fruitful collaboration without relinquishing their respective interests. The contribution of this exploratory case study is the exposure of the transformative capabilities of a mediation process on a previously strenuous labor-management relation.

This paper presents the results of a qualitative exploratory study which demonstrates that a buyer's personal motivation to build a relationship with a supplier is represented as a function of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Proposing value as an output based measure of supplier-buyer relationships we present a multi-echelon model which links relationship value and trust from the buyer’s perspective, and posits that these two constructs are impacted by a strong cognitive dimension, with buyer satisfaction as an affective dimension, with commitment and loyalty as functions of a behavioral dimension. Preliminary findings suggest that supply managers appear to be aware of the need to balance all key behavioral components efficiently, but there is little evidence to suggest that they have formal measurement systems to track them in order to evaluate relationship performance. It appears that when managers find that one particular relationship variable does not perform well, they can take steps to avoid unbalanced relationships by taking into account changes in other behavioral components through substitution. Implications for concept measurement are discussed, and possible paths for research are suggested in order to generalize the model.

Continuing with our research on how CEOs add value to their organizations and how they priorize their activities, from which we developed a practical framework presented in 2006/2008 at the SMS Conference, we deepen our research over 300 CEOs analyzing how differences among them may influence in the way they perform their job. Those differences condition what they understand about their job and which are their priorities. Understanding those differences allows us to have a better insight of the CEO’s job.

In this paper we analyze how economists extract meaningful information from observations. The idea is that data should guide in the construction of suitable models, which later may lead to the development of new theories. This kind of inference to the best available model is an instance of abduction and constitutes a central procedure in what N. Rescher called Peircean qualitative induction. In this paper we will present a formal representation of this kind of abduction, in order to show how it works and how important meta-theoretic criteria are for the final outcome of the process. En este trabajo analizamos como los economistas extraen información significativa a partir de observaciones. La idea es que los datos deben ser una guía en la construcción de modelos adecuados que puedan llevar al desarrollo de nuevas teorías. Este tipo de inferencia al mayor modelo disponible es una instancia de abducción y constituye un procedimiento central en lo que N. Rescher llama inducción cualitativa Peirceana. En este trabajo presentamos una representación formal de este tipo de abducción, para mostrar c´omo funciona y cuan importantes son los criterios meta-teóricos para el resultado final del proceso.J.E.L. codes: B41, C10, C60.

This study explores the permanent and transitory component of abnormal returns in a sample of firms competing in Latin America during the period 1990-2006. It uses a novel model that simultaneously estimates the permanent and transitory component for the firm-specific, industry and country effects. The main findings are that (1) the persistence of abnormal returns is around 51% of the yearly returns (autoregressive coefficient); (2) persistence is mainly driven by firm-specific effects, both at the permanent and transitory level; (3) industry is more important than country when considering the permanent component of abnormal returns; and (4) country is more important than industry when considering the transitory component of abnormal returns.

The purpose of this work is to study on compensation packages for top management teams. The analysis focuses on the annual pay plus change in equity portfolio value, how its level, pay-performance sensibility and structure vary across managerial categories, and the impact of these variations on corporate performance. Using a multilevel mixed-model approach on 589 companies from the S&P 1500 between 1998 and 2005, the evidence shows that CEO compensation packages are not isomorphic to those of non-CEO executives, while on average no significant differences are found between divisional and corporate executives. Despite this, the random effects show that differences between two categories vary across companies, with shareholder return been lower for companies where differences between corporate and divisional managers are greater.

This study derives strategic implications for firms competing in turbulent macroeconomic environments like that of emerging economies. It analyses the effect of sudden-stops and phoenix miracles on the evolution of the industry and, consequently, on the viable strategies when competing in such environment. For that, the study presents a model that illustrates the industry life cycle and explores the effects of environmental turbulence on the evolution of the industry. It shows that such environments increment the likelihood of survival for those firms that either follows a first-mover advantage strategy or a niche strategy while increase the probability of failure for firms that follow a middle size strategy.

Management style is a useful barometer of competitive behavior and, as such, offers an opportunity to measure and evaluate competition, confrontation, control and cooperation in business affairs. The purpose of this paper is to present the 2008 results that replicate an earlier (2007) examination of comparative management styles between U. S. and Argentine managers. Research results indicate that the tentative conclusions of the earlier study seem to be even more strongly supported. After a period of familiarization with newly adopted management systems, there appears to be a tendency for adaption of that system to the local cultural norms. In reviewing differences in the four measured attributes of managerial decision style, Argentine management style is significantly different in important ways from that of its U. S. counterpart. This is important due to the large and growing number of contacts between managers in an increasingly global environment.

There is little doubt that organizational identity – that which is central, distinctive, and enduring about an organization – mediates in adaptive processes. Exactly how this mediation takes place, and whether it is favorable or unfavorable to adaptation, must still be fully established. We add to the literature on identity and adaptation by exploring the relationship between these two constructs in family firms operating in an emerging economy. Based on measures of strength of identity, we examine how identity affects the adaptive processes of issue identification, strategic impulse definition, and implementation, where we look at pace of adjustment. We find that strong-identity organizations are able to foresee relevant changes in their industries, define adequate strategic responses, and implement them in an evolutionary (i.e., smooth) manner. Conversely, loose-identity organizations misread industry trends, incur in strategic paralysis, and must eventually enforce revolutionary (i.e., violent) changes in order to ensure survival.

This paper examines the diplomatic and sociopolitical dynamics that limited the expected results of a Third Party Intervention (TPI) in the ongoing international dispute, involving two Latin American (LA) countries, Argentina and Uruguay, that the latter’s approval of two Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) pulp mill projects on the River Uruguay’s –their natural boundary– eastern coast unleashed. The purpose of this Conflict Management (CM) analysis is to expose how and why both national governments’ belated and improper handling of the dispute severely limited the scope and the capabilities of the agreed TPI. Argentinean societal opposition to each FDI was firstly based on grounds of environmental concerns and, when environmental assessments contradicted that claim, on the refusal to grant a Social License to Operate (SLO) to any of them. The overall effect of these restrictions made the TPI partially ineffective; thus, the unsolved dispute continues harming with further negative impacts the relations between two neighboring countries with a long history of harmonious relations.

In this extended abstract we intend to show that, in several of the Latin American (LA) countries, the outcomes that may derived from the interactions between Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and the ever widening variety of interest groups that are part of civil society are deeply influenced by the recipient country’s government political and economic attitudes regarding Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs). There are other effective ways to reduce the non commercial risks that FDIs, even when MNCs from environmentally ill reputed industries are involved, confront in the region: the Social License to Operate (SLO). Our research, in the form of a case study, analyzes the processes by which two different mining MNCs implemented their respective projects; the presence or absence of the SLO, as part of their corporate ethical behavior, led to polar outcomes: how and why that happened is the subject of our research.

This paper studies the use of supplier’s trade credit by firms in financial distress. Trade credit, an expensive source of financing, represents a large portion of the short-term financing of firms and plays an important role in the financial distress process. We find that firms in financial distress use a significantly larger amount of trade credit to substitute alternative sources of financing. Firms that are smaller, with less market power, and with more unique products tend to use more trade credit financing when in distress. We also find that firms that significantly increase its trade payables when in financial distress, experience an additional drop of at least 14% in sales and profitability growth over the previously documented 20% average drop for financially troubled firms.

Esta ponencia sintetiza un meta-estudio sobre la evidencia empírica y los argumentos teoricos relacionados con el impacto de los clusters en la creación de empresas y el desarrollo regional en Latino América. Los argumentos teóricos y evidencia a nivel mundial están resumidos en dos artículos sobre la relación de referencia (Rocha, 2004; Rocha and Sternberg, 2005), derivados de una tesis doctoral premiada por la Unión Europea, Comite de las Regiones. La evidencia empírica en Latin America fue obtenida de tanto de experiencias de organismos internacionales, como de practitioners y académicos que escribieron en diversos estudios. Usando 44 estudios seleccionados de un total de 124 estudios sobre clusters, esta ponencia concluye que los clusters contribuyen tanto a la creación de empresas como al desarrollo empresario, regional y nacional. Sin embargo, los clusters Latino Americanos son también una fuente potencial de mayores disparidades socio-económicas debido a su débil configuración inter-organizacional comparada con clusters de países más desarrollados. Un foco exclusivo en el crecimiento económico y en clusters basados en empresas multinacionales sin considerar los mecanismos de gobiernos, las especificidades de Latino América y la coordinación entre políticas locales y nacionales puede empeorar el desarrollo económico en el largo plazo y aumentar las actuales disparidades existentes en Latino América.

We structure the paper as follows. First, we define the key concepts of our model. Then, we briefly review the literature on clusters, entrepreneurship, upgrading and regional development in Latin America and Argentina. After this review, we illustrate our argument via two case studies in Argentina, a country better known for its volatility and lack of optimal social capital and institutions. Implicit in these studies is a revelation of the variety of clusters by industry and region. Our analysis of the autoparts sector in the Province of Buenos Aires shows how knowledge diffusion and learning appears largely due to certain types of customer-supplier relationships. Our analysis of the wine sector in the provinces of Mendoza and San Juan then reveals how different paths of upgrading appear rooted in distinct public policies. Both cases reflect Ghoshal’s optimism for practices and policies that can transform learning relationships between organizations. Acknowledging that we are only at the outset of developing more rigorous and relevant theories based on purposeful explanations, we conclude with challenges for future research on development and upgrading in firms operating in emerging regions and nations.

The focus of this paper is on the cooperation between Danish affiliates in Argentina and their local partners. In particular, this paper focuses on the linkages and the transfer of resources between these firms and the impact of their interaction on the local partners. The overall research questions guiding this paper are: (1) Why do Danish invest in Argentina?; (2) How do the affiliates cooperate with local firms?; and (3) What is the impact of the cooperation on the partner firms?

In their search for sources of global competitive advantage to succeed in the new economy, multinational companies have turned to Global Sourcing Strategies, balancing the opportunities coming from global, centralised purchases, and the need for local supply adjustment and exploitation. In this context, relationships with suppliers provide a significant opportunity for companies to develop a strategic source of efficiency and to enhance global competitive advantages, thus becoming a key decision variable in the definition of Global Sourcing Strategies. The literature shows that buyer-supplier relationships evolve from competitive to cooperative relationships, going through several stages or modes primarily to respond to key factors, such as purchasing product and market characteristics, and globalisation process evolution. This research work shows how Global Sourcing Strategy behaviour patterns related to supply source globalisation and purchasing centralisation constitute a key factor at play with Supplier Management Strategies. In this sense, our findings show that, although some contingent drivers — primarily related to supply product, market characteristics and globalisation stage — relevantly influence Supplier Management Strategies and Global Sourcing Strategies (GSS), there seems to be a strong interaction between both strategic dimensions, with GSS acting as a key factor in Supplier Management Strategy definition process, particularly as regards buyer-supplier relationship types, coordination mechanisms and supplier development practices.

After six years of negative net profitability, Officenet (ON), Argentina’s leading office supply vendor, started to show signs of positive results. However, its performance still lagged far behind STAPLES’ net profits. This U.S.-based global industry leader owned ON since the end of 2004. In mid 2005, Leo Piccioli took over as ON’s General Manager, knowing full well that his key challenge lay in driving ON to reach Staples’ profitability levels. He was also aware of the fact that one of the reasons for ON’s low profitability rested with the company’s sales force. Free to set prices for specific quotes, sales agents used to grant significant discounts (40 percent of the items in an order were priced below their regular prices) to their customers. Piccioli needed to revise the company’s pricing policy. Should ON change the pricing delegation practices that were so embedded in its organizational culture? Or could it raise its prices and maintain its current policies? How would its competitors react? The case describes this scenario, inviting class participants to delve into topics associated with pricing delegation and price policies.

In 2007, 3M Argentina’s management team was evaluating growth alternatives. Specific market development posed challenging questions for a company with a commercial scheme based on products. The team knew they should align the company’s organizational structure to the commercial strategy of choice, but how could they build an action plan that contemplated this alignment? Was it possible to grow through specific market development or should they consider other options? After analyzing each market’s core features and growth opportunities, and determining their complexities and how much knowledge the company actually had on each of them, two markets were selected: the wine business and the mining business. The former featured a local market with multiple actors engaged in complex relationships, while the latter exhibited a higher concentration at the international level. Each project displayed particular complexities at the domestic and international level. Therefore, they called for different management schemes. This case encourages class participants to discuss, in the first place, complexities arousing from the decision to implement specific market development and, second, to formulate an action plan for each market selected in order to achieve greater penetration and growth. This will require a deep analysis of each market’s structure, its specific customers and account management systems.

Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1295192

Nancy Cartwright combines elements from Aristotle, with others of Mill, and modern thinkers, as Elizabeth Anscombe and Ian Hacking, among others. This paper will address some tensions present in Cartwright’s thinking. It will propose that those problems might be overcome by a greater reliance on Aristotle and Anscombe’s thought. These tensions, the paper will argue, obey in part to her reliance on Mill. Cartwright understands scientific explanation in terms of stable causes, which she calls “capacities” or “natures”. Cartwright’s program aims at defining what capacities are (ontology), how they are known (epistemology), and how we use them. Cartwright opposes Hume’s reduction of causality to regularity of mere associations. Cartwright also opposes covering-law supporters because they do not consider causes; they merely include the so-“probed” singular case within a general covering law. Otherwise, Cartwright agrees with Mill’s proposal of “tendencies” which she identifies with her “capacities”. According to Cartwright, Mill’s tendencies are not tendencies of events but tendency factors or stable real causes. These tendencies or capacities may give rise to Cartwright’s so called “nomological machines”, stable configurations of components with determinate capacities properly shielded and repeatedly running. Cartwright’s proposal has been criticized in different ways. Margaret Morrison highlights first, a tension between the singular and universal aspects of capacities. Cartwright looks for a concept stronger and more general than Humean laws but she puts singular causes first. Second, Morrison also sees in Cartwright a conflict between her empiricism and capacities. For singular capacities to be stronger than Humean general laws supposes a metaphysical commitment that makes verification unnecessary. How could a person be empiricist and metaphysic at the same time? Finally, Morrison considers that Mill’s tendencies differ in important way from Cartwright’s capacities. Another point of criticism is her “local realism”, a disunified view of sciences. A final criticism is her skepticism about the possibility of explanation in social sciences. The paper will first analyze the Cartwright – Mill connection, then the Cartwright – Anscombe and finally the Cartwright – Aristotle connection. The tensions mentioned above will be solved by Cartwright’s arguments, based in Anscombe and Aristotle, and by complementary Aristotelian elements. The paper will also argue for the skepticism of Cartwright concerning a successful explanation in natural and (mostly) in social sciences. The problem of her interpretation of Mill will be tackled in the first section about the Cartwright – Mill connection. The problem of the tension singularism-universalism, will appear in the section about the Cartwright – Anscombe connection. The tension empiricism-metaphysics, and the problem of her disunified view of science, in the section about the Cartwright – Aristotle connection. This last section will also include an Aristotelian account and development of the statements of Cartwright concerning social sciences. Thus, the conclusion will be that there is still much we can learn from Aristotle with respect to economics and social theory.

Un problema ampliamente reconocido del enfoque capacidades de Sen es su carácter poco operativo. El rasgo heterogéneo e inconmensurable de las capacidades dificulta el establecimiento de criterios de selección de éstas. La resolución parece caber sólo en el caso concreto, mediante el ejercicio de la razón práctica. Sin embargo, esta respuesta no es suficiente para el economista que diseña una política económica. Se le deben facilitar indicaciones más precisas que le permitan proponer una política determinada. En este trabajo se presenta una caracterización de las capacidades previa a una mayor precisión de cuáles de ellas y a con qué fuerza se deben proveer o fomentar. La caracterización da lugar a una pirámide de Maslow invertida. Los criterios de caracterización implican esta forma. En efecto, las necesidades elevadas son las más refinadas, heterogéneas, intrínsecas (en oposición a instrumentales), libres y que, por tanto, implican mayor responsabilidad personal. Combinada esta caracterización con un análisis de las capacidades y necesidades basada fundamentalmente en las ideas de Aristóteles (de gran impacto en el enfoque capacidades tanto en Nussbaum como en Sen), puede dar lugar a una propuesta de capacidades que se deben eventualmente proveer y otras que se deben fomentar. De esta manera el enfoque puede hacerse más operativo. En todo momento en el trabajo, sin embargo, se tiene en cuenta el peligro de sobre-especificación que Sen trata de evitar.

Innovation- New Product Development (NPD) and the best practices (BP) (Kahn, 2006), are considered to be core sources of sustained competitive advantage and growth (Barney, 1991). Our research is an empirical cross-case study, which aims to study BP in firms operating in economies in Stage 2 and Transition from Stage 2 to Stage 3 of development (e.g. Hungry, Poland, Argentina) according to the WEF’s competitiveness classification (López-Claros, 2006). A frame work to array best NPD practices and effective implementation had been developed based on more than twenty-five Chilean and Argentinean companies. The objective is to clarify the contribution of best NPD practices to firms’ innovation performance (IP). The best NPD practices were selected after a careful study of literature (Dooley 2002; Cooper 2004) and have been distributed in three dimensions: internal networking, development of innovation strategy and external networking. Innovation performance has been measured in terms of a) frequency of firm’s new product launch; b) innovativeness of new products. Although BP have demonstrated to be associated with performance improvement through broad real-life implementation, no single practice can guarantee success. The effectiveness of BP strongly depends on implementation context and its strategic impact (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000). CEOs of the case-studies firms were asked to characterize the implementation (Szulanski, 1996) of the best NPD practices on the basis of 5-point Likert-scale. Some of the dimensions used are: a) perceived contribution of each practice to the IP; b) mechanisms used to incorporate each practice; c) degree of involvement of the organization, resources assigned and the hierarchy of the implementation leader. Our main theoretical and managerial contribution highlights that the impact of the best NPD practices on the IP depends on a balance between strategically selected practices and implementation pattern of the practices. To our knowledge, little research has been done on the contribution of best NPD practices to the firms’ IP in efficiency-driven economies. Thus, we expect this paper will encourage scholars and practitioners to further explore this field.

Upon becoming general manager of Artesanías de Colombia (AC), Paola Andrea Muñoz Jurado faced the challenge of redefining the company strategy. AC was a mixed ownership company aimed at fostering, promoting and marketing Colombian handicraft, thus creating attractive job and economic development opportunities for artisans, a low-income sector mostly of indigenous origin. Soon after assuming as general manager, Paola engaged herself in reviewing the company´s previous management in order to plan her next steps. In doing this, it was key to assess the true impact on society of the activities carried out during the previous 16 years under her predecessor, Cecilia Duque’s leadership. The present case allows students to work on a no-for-profit organization strategy, with a strong social orientation, and evaluate value creation within a complex network of relationships with a strong economic, social and cultural impact.

In June 2001, Empresa Editora El Comercio (EEEC) had launched a new popular newspaper, Trome, for low-income families. Although several studies had preceded this launch, sales in following months failed to reach expected levels and actually displayed a decreasing trend. Trome embodied the company’s effort to expand its news coverage to new population segments that were not served by its other newspaper, El Comercio –a traditional daily leading unaided recall and frequent readership rankings among high-income sectors. Six months after Trome’s launch and faced with dropping sales, company managers had met to discuss their options. This case describes management team members’ dilemmas at that meeting: “Should the new paper’s style and contents be changed? Should Trome focus more on sex and violence-related issues, as its competitors did? Would it be convenient to replace the silverware promotion chosen to support launching? Was the conflict with newspaper salesmen’s union adequately managed? Were intended readers’ needs truly and fully understood? Should the company re-launch Trome or would it be wiser to just give up on this project?

During the last few decades, the academic, policy-making and practitioner debates have increasingly recognized the key role of knowledge in organizational life. Such debates have naturally migrated into the public services arena, focusing on the contribution that effective management of knowledge can make to improve such services. Within this context, this research has focused upon evaluating the features that affect knowledge- sharing behaviours within managerial teams in the NHS. The findings highlight the evidential nature of sharing knowledge, the impact of knowledge barriers and context ambiguity, and the role of mundane issues as facilitators of knowledge sharing and as the encounter zone of these interstitial communities.

The paper discusses the problem of valuation in emerging markets. After briefly explaining difficulties faced by investors trying to apply standard valuation techniques in emerging economies, we propose a novel approach that allows for a deeper examination of the so called country risk. The suggested approach is based on the intuition that one can do better by including country risk in the expected cash flows rather than by embedding it into the discount rate. We propose to do so by using simulation models to estimate truly expected cash flows, which can then be discounted using the standard CAPM.

This study analyzes current trends in information technology business practices and investments in Argentina. In order to provide a better perspective on these trends, Argentine data has been contrasted with U.S. and Spanish data. We have found a profound effect of IT on organizational practices and several competitive dimensions in Argentina. Many Argentine companies report that their IT investments drive significant improvements in key performance dimensions, such as productivity, internal and external communication efficiency, innovation, market share and profitability. On the other hand, information technologies are changing the way collaborative work is carried out in these companies, creating an internal capability gap that requires both management teams and lower organizational levels to develop new skills. These changes are shaping organizations’ architectures towards flatter structures that seem to contribute to more agile organizations. Argentine data comparison with U.S. and Spanish data reveals the challenges imposed by local conditions on CIOs and their organizations when it comes to sustaining significant IT investments while gauging financially risky bets. However, by comparing benefits in recent years from IT investments reported by Argentine companies with those reported by Spanish and U.S. firms, we conclude that Argentine companies may have large performance improvement gains as they continue to develop stronger IT capabilities. This study is based on data collected through the Business and Information Technologies (BIT) project -a collective international effort to assess IT business trends by analyzing data from a survey conducted in several countries.

There is little doubt that organizational identity – that which is central, distinctive, and enduring about an organization – mediates in adaptive processes. Exactly how this mediation takes place, and whether it is favorable or unfavorable to adaptation, must still be fully established. We add to the literature on identity and adaptation by exploring the relationship between these two constructs in family firms operating in an emerging economy. Based on measures of strength of identity, we examine how identity affects the adaptive processes of issue identification, strategic impulse definition, and implementation, where we look at pace of adjustment. We find that strong-identity organizations are able to foresee relevant changes in their industries, define adequate strategic responses, and implement them in an evolutionary (i.e., smooth) manner. Conversely, loose-identity organizations misread industry trends, incur in strategic paralysis, and must eventually enforce revolutionary (i.e., violent) changes in order to ensure survival.

This case study examines the ongoing international dispute involving two Latin American countries, Argentina and Uruguay, initiated by the latter’s approval of two Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) pulp mill projects on the River Uruguay’s –their natural boundary– eastern coast. On October 2003 the Uruguayan government approved the FDI venture proposed by the Spanish firm ENCE (Empresa Nacional de Celulosa de España S. A.); on February 2005 President Batlle’s administration –two weeks prior to President elected Tabaré Vázquez’s inauguration- announced the approval of Finnish Botnia’s (Oy Metsä-Botnia Ab) Orion pulp mill project in a location only a few miles away from ENCE’s site. The Argentinean government protested claiming that the permits granted, without due prior consultations, breached the provisions of the River Uruguay’s Treaty (1961) and Statute (1975), which both countries signed. Strong social opposition to the projects arose in Gualeguaychú, the closest Argentinean city on the western coast of the river, claiming that impending environmental and socioeconomic damages suffice to prevent the operation of pulp mills in the area.

This empirical single case study studies the role played by successive New Product Developments (NPDs), conducted within transnational Technological Alliances (TAs), on an Argentinean Small to Medium size Enterprise (SME) active in its home country agricultural seed breeding sector along the last twenty five years. This explanatory case exposes how the firm´s management faced the challenges posed by different NPDs based on transnational TAs. A within-case analysis of two collaborations, with polar outcomes, between the Argentinean SME and, in both instances, an American counterpart was conducted with the purpose of identifying the relevant factors which intervened in these particular inter organizational collaborations´ outcomes. This article is grounded on existing bodies of literature on NPDs and on TAs. Although this study focuses on only one Argentinean SME our approach can’t support decision makers in private and public organizations with a focus on biotechnological SMEs.

In this paper we introduce the sociological concept of mediation. We intend to answer the question of purpose: the undergoing reason why a person acts. That is, how people working in enterprises find a reason to act disruptively, giving up expected (and assumed) normal management parameters. The outline of this paper follows the concept of mediation. In Section I, we will analyze the Mediating Institutions (MI) approach first suggested as mediating structures by Ber-ger and Neuhaus, and developed by Madden and then by Fort. Why would a probably marginal theory be interesting? We think that it is suggestive in many ways. First of all, because it deals with a key concept for the social sciences as it is the concept of institu-tion. Following Malinowski, institutions are “definite groups of men united by a charter, following rules of conduct, operating together a shaped portion of the environment, and working for the satisfaction of definite needs." (1973: 291). Defined like this, institu-tions focus on the common action, thus, it gives us the opportunity to search for the meaning and purpose of the action. Secondly, we find this proposition free from the assumptions and limitations of the classical (and neoclassical) economic paradigm (Ferraro, Pfeffer and Sutton, 2005) We consider the MI approach as an opportunity to enhance the human action. In section II, we will discuss the mediation process as it is suggested by Margaret S. Archer introducing it to the peculiarities of the business life. We consider that the proc-ess of mediation is powerful to explain the way that managers go through day to day dilemmas in their work. We state that the search for personal purpose and meaning, in some way, is intimate and deeply related to the purpose of the firm, and to the purpose a person may give to his or her business. We will try to look for the relationships between the business end (expressed in its culture, incentives, processes, etc.), and the end a per-son can adopt in his action.

The present study tests the theoretical framework on how CEOs add value proposed by Carrera et al (2006). According to this model, CEOs must manage three main processes for accomplishing their mission of providing continuity to their organizations: Business, Management, and Institutional Configuration Processes. This study tests the model through a survey with 89 CEOs, from medium to large Argentine firms and multinational companies within Argentina. Research results backed up the theoretical framework. To a further extent the study evidences inconsistencies between CEOs perception of their main concerns and the actual allocation of time they do daily to their tasks. In addition, by sample segmentation (concerning age, experience, capital origin and type of organization analysed), some broad differences among CEOs arose.

This paper presents three proposals for aligning personal motives, firm’s goals and societal needs. A growing number of scholars are turning their attention to the impact of assumptions on management theory and practice. The search for sustainable ways for aligning economic and social goals at different levels of analysis has been and it continues to be a key task of scholars from different disciplines and, therefore, management studies. This paper aims at contributing to the effort of these scholars by revisiting the dominant assumption underlying the relationship between economic and social goals and proposing alternative models for a sustainable alignment between people, firms and society in management studies and practices. In order to achieve this aim, this paper first revisits the assumptions and impact on practice of the dominant paradigm explaining the relationship between firm performance and societal needs. This paradigm, coined “the great trade-off illusion” –that is, the belief that firms must sacrifice financial performance to meet societal obligations-, assumes a permanent trade-off between economic and social performance and, therefore, is unable to explain and prescribe sustainable ways for aligning personal motives, firm’s goals and societal needs. After making explicit the assumptions and impact of the trade-off illusion dichotomy, this paper analyzes and build an alternative paradigm called “instrumental-alignment”. As in the case of the trade-off dichotomy, the instrumental alignment proposal does not allow for a sustainable alignment given its restrictive assumptions. In particular, this latter proposal is based on the assumptions of enlightened self-interest, profit maximization, societal material well-being, and a conflict between individual and collective rationalities, which create inherent trade-offs that create unsustainable alignments. In order to overcome the limitations of the trade-off and instrumental-alignment models, this paper proposes a third model, named “intrinsic alignment”. This model is based on the assumptions of excellence and practical or part-whole rationality, in which both self-interest and others´ interests are taken into account as ends and therefore are not assumed to be object of trade-offs. Therefore, this model allows a sustainable alignment between personal motives, firm goals, and societal needs because that alignment has value in itself. This paper ends with implications for academics, managers, and policy makers at the level of assumptions, practices, and outcomes.

This paper examines a new inter-organizational form which is emerging from collaborative innovation processes within and across communities of firms operating in complementary markets. Idea sharing think tanks around high tech centers at leading universities and, more generally, around clusters, are well-documented phenomena. These inter-organizational processes and forms rest on collaborative capabilities. However, mainstream theories and even policies aimed at developing these capabilities are based on an incomplete set of assumptions about human nature, which constrain the very development of capabilities sought by them. The argument of this paper is that the sustainability of the processes and results of the emergent inter-organizational communities depends on a richer set of assumptions about human nature than that provided by mainstream management theories. The risks and demands involved in the design and operation of cross-organization collaborative communities require a challenging set of assumptions about human nature, which go far beyond the notion of enlightened self-interest embedded in neo-classical economics and even beyond the more complex models of human needs and motivation currently employed. Building on this argument and the evaluation of actual communities of firms, this paper contributes an inter-organizational network model based on the assumptions about human motives and choice offered by Aristotle. The conclusions of this paper are twofold. First, it argues that enlightened self-interest hinders rather than fosters the process of developing collaborative capabilities, given that this process will stop when difficulties affecting the pay-offs of the relationship arise in the short run. Second, it explains that a set of assumptions that takes both self-regarding and other’ regarding preferences as ends is required in order to develop and sustain collaborative capabilities in the analyzed inter-organizational communities. Members of such communities have to understand and share these assumptions on a continuing basis in order to sustain their collaborative efforts and outcomes.

Over the past few decades, strong competition and globalisation featured by world markets have led companies to pursue internationalisation strategies for their supply management in order to effectively support their globalisation process. Current literature shows how significant global sourcing and purchasing strategies are for global supply strategy (GSS) development –specifically when related to supply globalisation purchasing decision centralisation. Nevertheless, other dimensions are discussed as relevant for supporting GSS deployment, such as Buyer-Supplier Relationships and Headquarters – Subsidiaries Relationships. These are regarded by many authors as key issues to support global supply development and to guarantee adequate performance. This research, a sample of seven Italian MNCs operating in Latin America’s MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) region, aims to explore the process of GSS definition and development, by focusing on the key dimensions and by identifying the driver criteria used in each case, as well as their impact on decision-making processes.

This study explores the firm-specific, industry and country effects for firms competing in an emerging market context. For the whole sample, we find that the firm-specific effect is the most important and relatively the same in magnitude than that of developed countries. However, when analyzing the sub-sample of abnormal performers, we found that the firm-specific effect decreases and context-specific effects (i.e., industry and country effects) significantly increase. In addition, permanent effects are greater in high performers than in average performers. We understand these results as evidence of the importance of selecting the adequate strategic group in the industry and of establishing the correct fit between capabilities and positioning.

In August 2002, Aguas Danone de Argentina (ADA) faced an adverse scenario. Argentina was undergoing its worst economic crisis in history, and bottled water sales were dwindling (replaced by utility network running water). The company needed to boost its revenues through new, innovating, more value-added product development. Argentina displayed a significant interest in fitness. By means of several market research studies, ADA managed to identify a segment whose needs were unmet by existing products and brands. New product launches were planned to target that segment. This case describes the dilemmas faced by ADA and the decisions required to formulate and pursue a strategy for new product launching and brand expansion in adverse scenarios. More specifically, this case provides an opportunity to discuss how a new product category can be created to address market downturns.

As characterized by Fehr and Gachter (2000), “reciprocity means that in response to friendly actions, people are frequently much nicer and much more cooperative than predicted by the self interest model.” According to S. Zamagni, reciprocity entails deep relational aspects. A may reciprocate B in a way that is not comparable to economic exchange. A would keep certain equilibrium in reciprocating. However, reciprocity does not require this equilibrium to be necessarily exact; it is often overabundant. In addition, reciprocity may be fulfilled by returning something of a different kind that may be heterogeneous and incommensurable with the thing received. Sometimes it means that A gives to B with the expectation that B will give something to C, and that the chain will go on, and in some way finally return to A. This does not occur always or necessarily. The reason of this uneven response of reciprocity is that in these situations an exchange of means is not only in play, but also the ends of the persons are. Hence, the consideration of reciprocity in economics is in line with the considerations of ends in economics, recently rehabilitated by the capabilities approaches and the theories of happiness. This paper firstly endeavours to summarise a variety of arguments for a reconsideration of ends in economics. This line of enquiry hints at a considerable challenge to economic science. The logical structure of the rationality of ends (practical rationality) differs from the one of means (instrumental rationality). The paper intends secondly to explain the differences between both rationalities and some of the consequences of incorporating this new emphasis on ends. Practical rationality harmonizes the complex set of constitutive ends in order to achieve a plan. This plan, however, is not perfectly designed: people must deal with the future, the complexity and the singularity of situations. All these conditions turn plans incomplete, uncertain, and underspecified. Human time, rationality and freedom open the practical realm. Consequently, the relation among these elements (different levels of ends and means) is dynamic involving shifting elements. Notwithstanding, there is a general unspecified final end and a preliminary plan or draught of components of the yearned happy life: material conditions, family-life, friendship, social-life, professional development, culture, art, religion, political and economic freedom, among others. These ends are simultaneously sought in themselves and as means to reach a final end. The instrumental character of these ends and of means should not be confused. Ends are not interchangeable conditions but constitutive parts that are also valuable in themselves. A key resulting difference between both logics and rationalities – i.e. instrumental and practical rationalities – lies in the problem of incommensurability of ends which emerges in the second kind of rationality. This problem that will thirdly be tackled in the paper turns illegitimate the use of maximization in the realm of ends. I hence propose that there is a possible way to overcome this problem, different from the one that an economist might have instinctively adopted. In such cases, making a decision should depend on practical comparability, not on the commensuration of ends: the result is not exact but it is the only feasible and sensible one sometimes. In addition, this procedure is not irrational. The paper will finally sustain that practical comparability allows for incommensurable fair reciprocation.    

Innovation (Bates and Flynn, 1995) as well as the so-called best practices (Kahn et al., 2006; Marjorie et al. 2006; Davies and Kochhar, 2002), are considered to be sources of sustained competitive advantage (Barney, 1991; Peteraf, 1993). This empirical cross-case study (Yin, 1981; Eisenhardt, 1989) analyses the way an array of best New Product Development (NPD) practices is implemented in nine private manufacturing companies, in order to clarify the contribution of best NPD practices to the firms’ innovation performance in efficiency-driven economies (López-Claros et al., 2006).  

Interlocking directorates is a widely studied, applied measure of governance practice. Most of the research has been limited to data from developed countries and studies interlocking as an independent variable explaining other governance constructs. This work studies interlocking as a rational decision of the owner of a company, as a dependent variable of board's design, and apply the concepts in an emerging market business environment. We found significant associations between interlocking and firm characteristics such as ownership structure, industry and regulation. We finally draw some conclusions on the direct application of corporate governance theories in developing countries.

 Management style is a useful barometer of competitive behavior and, as such, offers an opportunity to measure and evaluate competition, confrontation, control and cooperation in business affairs. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an examination of comparative management styles between U. S. and Argentine managers. Research results indicate that, in reviewing differences in the four measured attributes of managerial decision style, Argentine management style is significantly different in important ways from that of its U. S. counterpart. This is important due to the large and growing number of contacts between managers in an increasingly global environment.

 The acceleration of change in economics, society, technology and politics has triggered environmental challenges affecting businesses worldwide. Hyper-competition has given rise to a new interest in the dynamics of adaptation and in firms’ adaptive capabilities as a means of responding to uncertain market conditions. This paper explores the relationship between organizational identity and adaptive capabilities under the environmental volatility that characterised Argentina in the 1990s. Using coding techniques of discourse analysis, we study the influence of loose versus strong organizational identities over the pace of adjustment and the eventual success of transformational journeys in four family-owned companies in the edible-oil and pharmaceutical industries.

The structure of these closing remarks is as follows. In the first part I present a selection of some of the propositions presented and discussed during the XIII Plenary Session. They can help the reader to perceive the speech universe of this very important session. In the second part I suggest that an integral development agenda is needed to give proper answers to the immense challenges posed by this new phase of globalization, plenty of hopes, but also plenty of threats.

 The subject of this XIII plenary session is the relations between different peoples and nations, the developed and the developing, the emerging and the poor, from the point of view of the virtues of charity and justice. We will ask ourselves whether these relations, in the light of the social Magisterium of the Church, can become more just, fairer, and more peaceful, and what the route should be to achieve such ends. In other words, is a partnership for charity and justice possible in the globalized world? In order to help us to fulfill these goals the purpose of this Introduction is twofold. The first part, that is backward looking, presents a very brief synthesis of the previous work of the Academy on globalization. The second part looks, instead, to the present and to the future, as it is focused on the identification of the new signs of the times that we should cautiously read in order to assess if they contribute or impede an improved effectiveness of charity and justice in the relations among peoples and nations at the beginning of this new millennium.

This article uses a unique research design to statistically analyze how a firm‟s “public-private” network can shape its upgrading capabilities. Such a network includes a firm‟s ties to other firms as well as to associations, cooperatives, schools, and publicly supported institutions that aim to help firms innovate. We develop our argument through an examination of the transformation of the Argentine wine industry in two provinces that uses data from a unique field survey we designed and implemented in 2004-05 to statistically analyze the relative impact of firm-level factors, inter-firm networks, and ties to non-firm organizations and institutions. While inter-firm networks are vital to upgrading, institutions bring value to firms in helping reconfigure socio-economic relationships. First, they can help firms improve process and product upgrading capabilities and “graduate” them to more sophisticated inter-firm networks. Second, linkages to institutions appear especially helpful to the extent they help the firm gain access to a variety of knowledge in different communities of producers. Governments can aid upgrading and competitiveness, especially in emerging markets, by building public-private institutions that not only offer supply-side resources to firms but also act as bridges across regions.  

This paper studies the trade receivables policy of distressed firms as the trade off between the firm’s willingness to gain sales and the firm’s need for cash. We find that firms increase trade receivables when they have profitability problems, but reduce trade receivables when they have cash flow problems in financial distress. We also find that a firm that significantly cuts its trade receivables when in financial distress will have an additional 7% drop in sales and stock returns over the previously documented 24% average drop for a firm in financial distress. Moreover, the performance decline of a firm in financial distress is significantly higher if the firm cuts trade receivables than if it does not.

This paper revisits the assumptions of the dominant theory of cooperation –i.e. game theory- in order to build an alternative paradigm of cooperation based on excellence. The relationship between self-interest and others’ interests is at the core of cooperation, broadly defined as working together for a common purpose. This relationship has been mainly approached from a conflicting perspective, which is now commonly known as social dilemma –i.e. a situation in which individual rationality, which is based on self-interest, leads to collective irrationality. This paper argues that assuming self-interest as the only motive for cooperation overlooks the human potential for fostering cooperation based on a more comprehensive view of human motives. Based on the assumption of self-interest, the mainstream approach to cooperation, game theory, has focused on different strategies and structures for fostering cooperation, without paying attention to the motivational side. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes the concept of self-love, or the inclination of human beings to strive for their own good and perfection, as an alternative lens to that of self-interest for uncovering the richness and potential of human motivation and its impact on cooperation. This paper shows that self-interest underlies only three out of eight possible generic motives for cooperation. The main thrust is that cooperation is rooted in human intentionality and conditioned, not determined, by organizational practices and contexts. The self-love view allows considering both excellence and duty as alternative bases for cooperation. These alternative motives consider both self-interest and others´ interests as ends simultaneously, which implies that they are not exchangeable commodities subject to end-means logic but qualitatively different goods subject to part-whole and practical rationality logic. This paper shows the potential richness of this approach comparing a self-interest view with an excellence view of cooperation based on cases from emerging and developed economies at both the intra-organisational and inter-organisational levels. Acknowledging that the way researchers see reality (assumptions) drives what they do (theories) and prescribe (implications for practice), this paper ends with theoretical and practical implications at the business and societal levels.

This paper revisits “the great trade-off illusion” –that is, the belief that firms must sacrifice financial performance to meet societal obligations- from the standpoint of its assumptions in order to build alternative paradigms for a sustainable alignment between personal interests, firm goals, and societal needs. The basic argument is that making explicit the assumptions on human nature, human relationships, firm goals and societal needs of the dominant paradigm is the starting point for building models and making prescriptions for a sustainable alignment. After making explicit the assumptions of the dominant trade-off illusion dichotomy and their impact on practices and outcomes, this paper analyzes an alternative paradigm called “instrumental-alignment”. This paper concludes that neither of these paradigms allows a sustainable alignment given their restrictive assumptions. In particular, the latter paradigm is based on the assumptions of enlightened self-interest, profit maximization, societal material well-being, and a conflict between individual and collective rationalities, which create inherent trade-off logic that, make alignments not sustainable: they are just instrumental to personal, firm, or societal ends. In order to overcome the limitations of the instrumental-alignment logic, this paper proposes an “intrinsic alignment” paradigm based on the assumptions of excellence and practical or part-whole rationality. In this paradigm, both self-interest and others´ interests are taken into account as ends and therefore are not assumed to be object of trade-offs. Therefore, this paradigm allows a sustainable alignment between personal interests, firm goals, and societal needs because the alignment of interests has value in itself. This paper ends with implications for academics, managers, and policy makers at the level of assumptions, practices, and outcomes.

In the past few decades, the strong competition and globalisation featured by world markets have led companies to pursue internationalisation strategies for their supply management in order to effectively support their globalisation process. Current literature shows how significant global sourcing and purchasing strategies are for global supply strategy (GSS) development –specifically as related to supply globalisation purchasing decision centralisation. All the same, other dimensions are discussed as relevant for supporting GSS deployment, such as Buyer-Supplier Relationships and Headquarters – Subsidiaries Relationships are regarded by many authors as key issues to support global supply development and to guarantee adequate performance. This research, based on the study of seven Italian Multinational Companies (MNC’s) that have expanded their operations to the MERCOSUR area, intends to explore the process of GSS definition and development, focusing on the key dimensions and identifying the driver criteria used in each of them, as well as their impact on decision-making processes.

As reported extensively in academic literature, companies have been forced by increasing global competition to devise and pursue international purchasing strategies that hinge on reducing prices and optimising quality, fulfilment, production cycle times, responsiveness and financial conditions. As a result, purchase management has turned to increased internationalisation to support companies’ globalisation processes. Specifically, research studies focusing on Multinational Companies’ (MNC) corporate purchasing strategy influence on affiliates’ global supply strategy (GSS) development reveal a strong link between two key dimensions: supply source –i.e., the level of supply globalisation as related to MNC’s worldwide operating needs- and purchase location –i.e., the level of centralisation in relevant purchasing decisions. In this research, a sample of seven Italian MNCs operating in Latin America’s MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) region have been studied in an attempt to analyse their purchasing strategy definition and development processes. The focus of this study has zeroed in on the interactions between both dimensions and the variables used for definitions in each of them, reviewing also their impact on companies’ decision-making processes.

According to the reviewed literature, in order to build effective and efficient Global Supply Strategies(GSS), multinational companies(MNCs) need to define and implement adequate headquarter’s control and follow-up systems. In turn, the type of control used by MNCs to oversee their subsidiaries is primarily dependent on factors associated with organizational culture, company internationalization level, environmental conditions and local economic stability. In this sense our findings show that, although cultural similarities strongly influence MNC’s global supply headquarters-subsidiary control systems, other factors, such as purchasing and globalization sourcing strategy centralization and globalization evolution, lead companies to implement complementary formal control systems that are consistent with the sharply personalized profile set by cultural proximity. This research, based on the study of a sample of seven Italian MNCs that have expanded their operations to Latin America’s MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) area, intends to analyze the impact of relevant influential factors on global supply headquarters-subsidiary control systems in cases of cultural similarities across organizations, as well as their complementary interactions.

As creating superior customer value is key to a company’s long-term success (Slater 1997, Woodruff 1997), the notion of value has been emphasized as a critical variable in marketing (Holbrook 1994). Yet, academic literature suggests that the study of customer value is in its infancy (Holbrook 1994, Day and Crask 2000, Flint, Woodruff, and Gardial 2002). Although some progress has been made in the understanding of how consumers perceive value, there is still remarkably little agreement on what constitutes ‘value’, ‘customer value’ and ‘organisational buyer value’ (Tzokas & Saren 1999). In addition, little is known about the dynamic nature of how customers perceive value from suppliers (Flint et al 2002), as most value assessment studies in business marketing typically focus on the value of the physical product, adopt a suppliers’ perspective and neglect the relational dimensions of customer-perceived value (Dwyer and Tanner 1999). This is contrary to the argument underlying the notion of “relationship” and supports the argument for a more complete understanding of the buyers’ perspective.

In 2003, after Carlos Etcheverry joined San Antonio (SA) as Latin American Region Vice President, the company implanted a KAM System. SA’s relationships with its two key clients, Vintage and Chevron, seemed to progress nicely until mid 2004, when Chevron’s newly hired Purchasing Manager decided to change the company’s commercial structure, rendering its purchasing process more bureaucratic and extremely competitive. Most purchasing area employees, all oil business veterans who had worked at the company for many years, were replaced by young professionals, predominantly with engineering or business degrees and more of a financial focus. One of the employees replaced was SA’s key contact at Chevron, with whom its Account Leader was renegotiating contract fees. Additionally, the oil company’s operations area was increasingly losing leverage in decision-making processes, moving towards an advisory-like role in supplier selection. In March 2005, Etcheverry was to meet Chevron´s Procurement Manager, since Chevron had decided to reassign a service contract through a new invitation to bid, leaving San Antonio out, despite the fact that the company had submitted the lowest quotation based on requested specifications. Chevron argued that there had been operating failures, including accidents, and other issues under review by both companies and that SA refuted accordingly. The case poses the questions plaguing Etcheverry at the time of the meeting: was it possible to anticipate this sort of problems? If so, what changes should be recommended? Could those changes enable SA to sustain the steady growth pace it had enjoyed over the past two years? These questions aim at inducing students to contemplate and analyze different decision options regarding a KAM System.

Previous research has often seen alliances as a mechanism used by disadvantaged firms to seek new capabilities during environmental discontinuities. But are alliances an effective dynamic capability? In this paper, we find that less competent firms can use alliances to access new technologies, and show that alliances do indeed reduce the technological gap among competitor firms in terms of searching or accessing new technology. However, advantaged and disadvantaged firms seem to use different search routines in this process, and former are superior in internalizing new capabilities from their alliances. Thus, alliances are only partly effective as a catching-up mechanism. We discuss implications of these results for the literatures on strategic alliances, technological competition and dynamic capabilities.

Previous research has often seen alliances as a mechanism used by disadvantaged firms to seek new capabilities during environmental discontinuities. But are alliances an effective dynamic capability? In this paper, we find that less competent firms can use alliances to access new technologies, and show that alliances do indeed reduce the technological gap among competitor firms in terms of searching or accessing new technology. However, advantaged and disadvantaged firms seem to use different search routines in this process, and former are superior in internalizing new capabilities from their alliances. Thus, alliances are only partly effective as a catching-up mechanism. We discuss implications of these results for the literatures on strategic alliances, technological competition and dynamic capabilities.

Scholars in entrepreneurship education is deviating from the long standing paradigm that entrepreneurs are born and not made. While the strongest debate has centered around what aspects of entrepreneurship can and should be taught, and how, we move away from the classroom and analyze the implications of renewing the mission of entrepreneurship centers within universities. Specifically, we propose that the roles of structural hole, intermediary in trust, and endorser should become central. Entrepreneurship centers that acknowledge these roles would be best positioned to help mitigate the liability of newness of nascent projects within the stringent dimensions of time imposed by the window of opportunity. We contend that entrepreneurship centers that offer such social support to nascent entrepreneurs can exercise remarkable impact, not only on the number of students who choose entrepreneurial careers, but also on the success rate of new ventures.

Scholars in entrepreneurship education are deviating from the long standing belief that entrepreneurs are born and not made. While the strongest debate has centered around what aspects of entrepreneurship can and should be taught in class, and how, we move away from the classroom and analyze the implications of renewing the mission of entrepreneurship centers within universities. Specifically, we propose that the roles of entrepreneurship centers as structural hole, intermediary in trust, and endorser vis-à-vis nascent entrepreneurs and related constituencies should be fostered. Entrepreneurship centers that acknowledge these roles would be best positioned to help mitigate the liability of newness of nascent projects so that entrepreneurs can seize their potential within the limits set by the window of opportunity. We contend that entrepreneurship centers that offer social support to nascent entrepreneurs can exercise remarkable impact, not only on the number of students who choose entrepreneurial careers, but also on the success rate of new ventures.

After making a choice people preferred positive features of the chosen options and negative features of the forgone ones, presumably to justify their choices. Follow-up results showed that, after choosing, consumers tended to attribute positive features to the chosen products and negative features to the not chosen ones. Based on these beliefs, people changed their attribute importance ratings such that positive features attributed to chosen products and negative features attributed to forgone products became more important. The latter only held when participants were highly confident about their attributions, suggesting a choice-defensive strategy to support their choices.

El presente trabajo analiza la evolución de los retornos a la educación superior en Argentina durante el período 1974–2002 y cómo se vieron afectados por el desempleo. Se encontró que dichos retornos son mayores si se los corrige teniendo en cuenta el nivel de desempleo para cada nivel de educación. En consecuencia, al evaluar la decisión de invertir en educación no se debería considerar como beneficio simplemente el diferencial de ingresos sino también la mayor probabilidad de tener un trabajo. Este análisis es particularmente relevante en Argentina, que pasó de tener tasas de desempleo cercanas a 5% durante la década del ochenta a tener tasas de dos dígitos a fines del siglo XX y comienzos del siglo XXI.

The research question we investigate in this paper is why firms invest in multiple real options on alternative technological assets if their value is sub-additive. In particular, we study under which conditions a firm tends to have more redundant technological investments. In this respect, we advance that the main reason to create sub-additive real options resides in the value of the option to switch among multiple technologies. A switch option is the opportunity to exchange a real asset (for example, the present value of the future cash flows from an existing technology) with a potentially more valuable one, for example, the present value of the future cash flows from a new technology (Oriani and Sobrero, 2002). When the uncertainty mainly concerns alternative technologies, an option to switch has a high value because it reduces the negative consequences of investing in the wrong technology (McGrath, 1997; Hatfield et al., 2001).

El trabajo conjunto de estos académicos permitió el desarrollo de un nuevo enfoque de la economía política, estrechamente vinculado con las otras ciencias sociales. De hecho se reintroduce la consideración de los fines en la economía. Aunque no se menciona la expresión "derecho natural", parecería que esos fines son postulados como tales principios. Esta ponencia pretende presentar el tema, mostrar las diferencias entre los planteos de Sen y Nussbaum y sugerir una hipótesis acerca del carácter y origen de las capacidades propuestas como fines de la economía por estos autores.

Este trabajo se titula “Las racionalidades de la economía”, usando el número plural del sustantivo racionalidad, por dos motivos. El primero, porque se argumenta a favor de un doble tipo de racionalidad aplicable a la economía, la instrumental y la práctica. El segundo motivo es porque hoy día se postulan varias propuestas en torno a la racionalidad en economía, tales como las expressive rationality, situated rationality, ecological rationality, achievement rationality, background rationality, constitutive rationality, que procuran ir más allá de las diversas versiones de la racionalidad tradicionales: la elección racional, la racionalidad limitada y la teoría de juegos. En general estas nuevas propuestas tienden a buscar una ampliación del concepto de racionalidad. La aspiración de algunos de estos proyectos es encontrar un concepto que supere la forma de racionalidad denominada instrumental. No siempre lo logran. El trabajo consta de dos partes: en la primera se expone el marco de las racionalidades de la economía en el primer sentido: las racionalidades que rigen la realidad económica y la ciencia que las estudia. En la segunda se reseñan las nuevas posturas.

A considerable proportion of the authors engaged in the field of philosophy of economics and in economic theory have been explicitly or implicitly claiming for a reconsideration of ends within the subject-matter of economics. This line of inquiry suggests a considerable challenge to economic science. The logical structure of the rationality of ends differs from the one of means. This paper intends to explain the differences between both rationalities and some of the consequences of incorporating this new emphasis on ends. Is this reconsideration of ends legitimate? Is it positive? Is it necessary? Is it possible? Does it affect the use of maximization and optimization in economics? In this paper Sen’s ideas will be considered in this regard.

What are the conceptions of human beings implicit in the practice of economic policies? Do they have some impact on their results in contemporary societies? These are the central questions addressed in the second section of the paper. But in order to give more precise answers to them we thought it would be better to begin with some synthetic references to the conceptions of human beings implicit in the economic science per se that, very often, inspires economic policy making. Our analysis will be focused on the mainstream of (Western) economic science, i.e., the so called neoclassic-Keynesian synthesis. Only minor references to more “heterodox” economic policies will be included. At the end of the paper, a concluding section aims to link the two first parts. Its central question is if some agenda could be devised in order to avoid the negative consequences arising from what could be the main mistakes of the implicit conceptions of human beings dealt with in the paper.

This cross-case project studies innovation in Argentine SMEs through the interplay of strategy development, internal and external networking. We set out to develop a framework combining these dimensions to better understand the implications of this relationship. The constructed framework is intended to help in the mapping of a firm’s current position and to envisage future innovation plans. We also propose the Innovation Rate as a measure to evaluate firm-specific decisions over time. This article is grounded on existent literature on innovation strategy, networking and leadership. The approach can be of interest to worldwide decision-makers in private and public organizations.

This research studies which key drivers are relevant at determining consumer’s overall store price image (OSPI) of grocery stores and identifies its relative importance. Whereas previous research on this topic has investigated the influence of different variables independently, this study was set to build an overall answer for store’s price perception image. The study was conducted in five major cities: Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Santiago in Chile, and Sao Paulo. 3000 consumers were interviewed, and 3000 SKU’s covering 30 categories were monitored using AC Nielsen data over a 32 week period of time. The project was sponsored and funded by The Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council -Latin America, and the field work was commissioned to McKinsey and Co. Eleven elements widely considered to build price perception were classified in five main heterogeneous levers and tested. As a result, the study finds that only two out of the five levers are consistently and broadly relevant accounting for nearly 75% of the price perception. Several findings came out of this effort: As expected, consumers’ diversity was apparent. We identified five major segments with different price attitudes and reactions to promotions. These segments were present in all the five cities covered, but their proportion varied. Retailers’ pricing and promotion policies were analyzed intending to explain these differences from a supply-side perspective. Among the major marketing factors available to a retailer, price related issues are key to form price perception, and consumers consider a limited set of SKU’s to form this price perception. Promotions had a minor role in general, except for those segments more interested in them. Promotions do have a significant role, but in markets where more promotional activity was registered, price accuracy among consumers was lower than in less promotional -more price stable- markets. Naturally, more promotional markets had bigger segments of ‘bargain hunters’, but this didn’t necessarily mean better knowledge of real price level. Quite the contrary: the more promotional the market, the less accurate the price perception. Pricing strategies and promotional activity also had their impact on loyalty to the store. Price differentiation seems to feed store loyalty, while intense promotion tends to blur the perception, with a negative impact on store loyalty.

This study analyzes the effects of deregulation and governance changes on bank efficiency and productivity in Argentina over the post-deregulation period. The Argentine banking industry represents an interesting case study as banks underwent corporate changes of all types over this period including privatization, foreign acquisition of domestic banks, mergers and acquisitions among domestic institutions and closures. The evidence indicates that privatization and foreign acquisitions realized efficiency gains in the short term but that these beneficial effects were lost over time. In contrast, the long-term effect of mergers and acquisitions was to lower efficiency with no significant changes in the short-term. The findings further indicate that productivity growth declined over the post-deregulation period as a result of positive but declining technical progress and inefficiency changes.

The case describes the realignment of the industry players in the automotive industry in the “Mercosur” in general and in Argentina in particular during the nineties. As a consequence of the forces that are reshaping the industry, Autopartes Vittoria (AV) –a family-owned business- needs to find development alternatives that keep the company on track. One option appears to be a joint-venture with OW, a German company which needs to start a “Mercosur” operation. Some of the AV shareholders reject the relatively huge CAPEX required for this joint-venture, or any other investment oriented to enhance AV competitive strengths. Further, they propose to sell their stake. When offered to buy this minority stake, OW counter propose to buyout the company, but the controlling shareholders are not satisfied with the price. The case provides the base for discussing (1) the merits for OW of arranging a “joint venture” with AV instead of buying the company (2) the value of the company under different approaches, the value “as is”, the value merged with OW, and the value of a similar venture beginning from scratch.

This paper addresses empirically the duration of the period of current account surplus that follow a current account reversal. Analyzing quarterly data from 1980 it identifies fast current account reversals –defined as episodes of a reduction of more than one percentage point of GDP in the current account deficit in just one quarter– effected simultaneously with a period of high distress in the foreign exchange market. Using a Cox proportional hazards model in which the episodes are stratified by country it finds that GDP growth and the change in international reserves both have an effect on the hazard rate. The effect is also of non trivial magnitude: the hazard rate is reduced by 5% per each additional percentage point of GDP growth and by 9% per each additional percentage point in the reserves to GDP ratio. These surplus periods that follow crises episodes reflect the rebalancing of the external position of countries. The amount of the correction and the length of the period of surplus have not been addressed thoroughly in the literature. The results of this paper suggest that countries are more likely to end the surplus period when the growth falters and when the reserve accumulation weakens. This finding is in line with episodes of recovery with no outside credit -called by Calvo et al () Phoenix miracles- and presents the puzzle of why the regained access to external finance is not accompanied with stronger growth. Somewhat surprising is that it is not a surge in imports that drive the rebalancing to end.

This paper addresses empirically whether institutions and politics play a role in the genesis of current account reversals. It also identifies which political factors matter and the importance of their influence. In a binary outcome model, it finds that (1) institutional checks –when interacting with the ratio of the net international reserves to GDP-, (2) election frauds and intimidation to candidates, and (3) executive control over the legislature, increase the probability of experiencing a reversal. It also shows how including political economy variables in the model helps to identify the impact of the economic variables. Moreover, the quantitative relevance of the political factors is high. Their impact is of the same order of magnitude than the current account balance and the level of external debt. Also, a policy recommendation can be extracted: when facing unsustainability of the current account, careful consideration must be given to events that could deteriorate the political climate. Policy measures that may improve some economic variables, but could trigger political violence can be very risky.

Telefónica and Telecom (the two telephone companies operating in Argentina) and FOETRA (the workers’ telephone union from Buenos Aires) were involved in gruelling negotiation rounds at the end of 2004 which reached the public eye. On the 30th November 2004 and after losing their patience, FOETRA union representatives decided to take over and occupy two key National Transmission Centres of Telefónica and Telecom to voice their demands seeking a delayed wage increase. As a consequence of this extreme measure, the Argentinian media began to cover this union negotiation warning that national telecommunications were on the brink of collapse because the two telephone companies were no longer in control of their operations. After an 11-day building siege, approximately a 16% salary increase was granted to telephone workers under Collective Labour Agreement. Both parties in conflict acknowledged that most of these incidents were avoidable for FOETRA’s demands and the offers of the companies were not oceans apart before the beginning of the escalation of the 2004 conflict. This is an empirical study of a telecommunication union negotiation in Argentina which was analysed through a number of time-sensitive variables. Drawing on Barbara Adam’s timescapes an in-depth exploration of interweaved time-dimensions was performed in order to further contribute to the understanding of time in conflict management literature. The timescape perspective acknowledges both the dynamics and the interplay of complex – and often colliding – time-dimensions which seem to be neglected or, at least, underestimated in popular conflict management forums. Implications for managers and negotiators stem from the analysis of this case-study.

This empirical cross-case study studies innovation in eight Argentinian SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) through the interplay of three dimensions: a) the stage of development of the innovation strategy, b) internal networking and c) the firm’s external networking (i.e. scientific-technological public-private collaboration). We set out to develop a framework combining these three key dimensions to better understand the implications of this complex relationship. This article is grounded on an existing body of literature on innovation strategy, S&T cooperation, leadership and innovation culture. Although this study focuses on eight Argentinian SMEs, our innovation approach can be a matter of interest to worldwide decision-makers in private and public organizations with an SME focus.

Time sense-making develops following different trajectories and cycles (Adam, 1998, 2000; Weick, 1995). The last straw of the 2004 telecommunication conflict produced a state of affairs which did not allow the parties to resume the ‘same’ negotiation of the first stages. The entire network of actors became dysfunctional for all of them were losing something if the wage negotiation dragged on forever. After the escalation of the conflict the negotiation inter-organizational network incorporated new actors, invested interests and rationalities to the former ‘salary negotiation’. This translation and transformation (cf. Callon, 1986) of the conflict created the necessary conditions to reach the final accord. As noted above, time lies in the interplay of dimensions and its resulting meaning hinges on the assemblage of time sense-making trajectories and cycles. Therefore, interweaved time variables such as: - the attempt of the companies to continuously adjourn the final accord - the post late-2001 Argentine crisis context - the long-term cycle of annual union negotiations - the sudden and unexpected occupation of the company buildings - the Labour Ministry urging a final settlement - the interrupted sequence for the agreement of company budgets - a possible synchronisation of salary updates and national inflation redressed the cooperation / competition balance of this union conflict (cf. Lax and Sebenius, 1986: 29-45; Bazerman and Neale, 1992: 152-170). The timescape of the 2004 negotiation gathered these time-dimensions grouping actors together and impelling cooperation or competition in accordance to the dynamics of intertwined sequences, time-frames, tempos, temporalities, synchronicities, pauses, delays and cycles. The attempt to address the complexity of time in negotiations without deeply delving into many other connected areas can be regarded as a potential limitation of this analysis. Further academic work will be required to explore the connections linking negotiation timescapes and many other conflict management relevant issues, such as power, cultural styles, emotion and rationality and bargaining over positions and interests.

This paper studies the trade receivables policy of distressed firms as the trade off between the firm’s willingness to gain sales by financing their clients’ purchases and the firm’s need for cash. We find that firms increase trade receivables when they have profitability problems prior entering financial distress, but reduce trade receivables when they have cash flow problems in financial distress. We also find that cuts in trade receivables account for as much as 7% of the 30% average drop in sales and stock returns experienced by a firm in financial distress. Moreover, the performance decline of a firm in financial distress is significantly higher if the firm cuts trade receivables than if it does not.

El auge en las últimas décadas de los gobiernos corporativos (GC) ha incrementado la atención que se presta en el mundo de la empresa a la lucha por la integridad y la transparencia. Sin embargo, pernsamos que aún está pendiente la tarea de fundamentación. En este paper intentamos: (!) repasar los motivos del interés creciente en el GC; (2) analizar cuáles son las soluciones que parecen aportar los Códigos de Gobernabilidad; (3) presentar las limitaciones de las respuestas del GC; y (4) vincular la fundamentación de los GC al sentido de la empresa en la sociedad.

The purpose of this paper is to show an intellectual journey that has led us to think about two fundamental questions: what is the enterprise? ¿what is the purpose of the business in society? In our intellectual journey we can identify three levels of analysis: 1) the reactionary; 2) the personal and 3) the essential. In conclusion, the paper will try to explain this intellectual journey and the practical implications that this reflections involve for the society, for the enterprise and for its relationship.

This paper studies the trade receivables policy of distressed firms as the trade off between the firm’s willingness to gain sales by financing their clients’ purchases and the firm’s need for cash. We find that firms increase trade receivables when they have profitability problems prior entering financial distress, but reduce trade receivables when they have cash flow problems in financial distress. We also find that cuts in trade receivables account for as much as 7% of the 30% average drop in sales and stock returns experienced by a firm in financial distress. Moreover, the performance decline of a firm in financial distress is significantly higher if the firm cuts trade receivables than if it does not.

This paper studies the trade receivables policy of distressed firms as the trade off between the firm’s willingness to gain sales by financing their clients’ purchases and the firm’s need for cash. We find that firms increase trade receivables when they have profitability problems prior entering financial distress, but reduce trade receivables when they have cash flow problems in financial distress. We also find that cuts in trade receivables account for as much as 7% of the 30% average drop in sales and stock returns experienced by a firm in financial distress. Moreover, the performance decline of a firm in financial distress is significantly higher if the firm cuts trade receivables than if it does not.

This paper is about the assumptions and the managerial and societal implications of two alternative approaches to cooperation. The relationship between self-interest and others’ interests is at the core of cooperation, broadly defined as working together for a common purpose. This relationship has been mainly approached from a conflicting perspective, which is now commonly known as social dilemma –i.e. a situation in which individual rationality, which is based on self-interest, leads to collective irrationality. This paper argues that assuming self-interest as the only motive for cooperation overlooks the human potential for fostering cooperation based on a more comprehensive view of human motives. Based on the assumption of self-interest, the mainstream approach to cooperation, game theory, has focused on different strategies and structures for fostering cooperation, without paying attention to the motivational side. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes the concept of self-love, or the inclination of human beings to strive for their own good and perfection, as an alternative lens to that of self-interest for uncovering the richness and potential of human motivation and its impact on cooperation. This paper shows that self-interest underlies only three out of eight possible generic motives for cooperation. The main thrust is that cooperation is rooted in human intentionality and conditioned, not determined, by organizational practices and contexts. The self-love view allows considering both excellence and duty as alternative bases for cooperation. These alternative motives consider both self-interest and others´ interests as ends simultaneously, which implies that they are not exchangeable commodities subject to end-means logic but qualitatively different goods subject to part-whole and practical rationality logic. This paper shows the potential richness of this approach comparing a self-interest view with an excellence view of cooperation based on cases from emerging and developed economies at both the intra-organisational and inter-organizational levels. Acknowledging that the way researchers see reality (assumptions) drives what they do (theories) and prescribe (implications for practice), this paper ends with theoretical and practical implications at the business and societal levels.

How personal interests, firm goals, and societal needs can be aligned? This paper critically examines the underlying assumptions of the dominant “trade-off illusion” paradigm and proposes a new paradigm for the alignment between personal interests, firm goals, and societal needs. The first paradigm, which we call the “trade-off alignment” paradigm, assumes that the ultimate motivation of individuals is self-interest and their ultimate end is utility maximization. The interests of other people are considered as means for a personal end and, therefore, any supposed motive seeking the wellbeing of others can be reduced to self-interest, giving rise to what is called enlightened self-interest. As for the nature and goals of the firm, this paradigm assumes that firms are either a nexus of individual contracts or instruments for reducing opportunism, and their goal is profit maximisation. Finally, this paradigm assumes that the ultimate ends of societies are economic growth and material well being. Within this paradigm, the alignment between personal utility maximization and firm´s profit maximization is done using extrinsic incentives such as bonus, status or any kind of external reward. As for the alignment between the profit maximization goal of the firm and societal economic growth and well-being, that alignment is done by the market mechanism through the price system. The second paradigm, which we call “intrinsic-alignment”, assumes that the ultimate motivation of individuals is self-love or the inclination of human beings to strive for their own good and perfection. This paradigm creates the context for considering both self-interest and others´s interests as ends because it assumes that people have the potential for excellence-based behavior. Firms are viewed as cooperative systems for the creation and distribution of value and the ultimate ends of society are human and socio-economic development. Within this paradigm, the alignment between personal interests and firm´s goals is done by managers using extrinsic, intrinsic, and transitive incentives. As for the alignment between the goals of the firm and society, this is done through both the market mechanisms and managerial action based on the contribution of firms to society. In this paper, we argue that this latter paradigm is a better lens to understand the connection between personal interests, firm goals, and societal needs because it acknowledges both the instrumental and intrinsic dimensions of these phenomena. As from the development and comparison of both paradigms and based on a series of case studies, this paper concludes with a set of criteria for discriminating between firms more inclined towards a “trade-off alignment” paradigm and firms more oriented towards an intrinsic paradigm. These criteria contribute not only to managerial self-evaluation but also to future research on the implications of strategies based on two different set of assumptions about the nature and goals of the firm and society.

This paper reviews the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence in Latin America (LA) related to the impact of clusters on development and growth at the firm, regional, and national levels. Reviewing more than 60 empirical studies and a total of 146 clusters in LA, it concludes that clusters contribute to both development and growth at the firm and regional level, but they are a potential source of socio-economic divides. Exclusive focus on economic growth, potential high-tech clusters, and clusters of transnational corporations without consider governance mechanisms, LA specificities, and coordination between local and national policies will both hinder growth in the long run and increase existing disparities in LA countries.

This paper reviews the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence in Latin America (LA) related to the relationship between entrepreneurship –i.e. creation of new organisations-, clusters –i.e. geographically proximate group of firms and associated institutions in related industries, linked by economic and social interdependencies-, and development –i.e. expansion of socio-economic capabilities. The theoretical arguments support a positive bi-directional association between three pair-wise relationships: entrepreneurship and development, clusters and development, and clusters and entrepreneurship. However, associated empirical evidence shows that it is difficult to reach empirical generalisations on the second and third relationships due to conceptual and methodological constraints. Empirical evidence in LA is growing but still scarce to reach generalisations. However, several criteria related to purpose, content, and method are proposed to guide future research and policy making. Regarding purpose, it is proposed that future studies focus more on socio-economic capabilities (development) rather than on economic outputs (economic growth). Regarding content, it is necessary to consider LA specificities such as the emergent nature and particular configuration of LA clusters as well as the causes and consequences of the high level of entrepreneurship, differentiating between opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship. Finally, regarding method, the contribution of clusters to entrepreneurship and development should consider comparative research designs –i.e. firms within and not within clusters- controlling for the configuration and degree of development of clusters and industry type. It is speculated that entrepreneurship and clusters would contribute to development in LA countries if policy design targets development simultaneously with growth and considers the specificities of LA clusters and entrepreneurship. Exclusive focus on economic growth and potential high-tech clusters and clusters of transnational corporations without consider governance mechanisms and the nature of necessity based entrepreneurship will both hinder growth in the long run and increase existing disparities in LA countries.

The relationship between self-interest and others’ interests is at the core of cooperation, broadly defined as working together for a common purpose. This relationship has been mainly approached from a conflicting perspective, which is now commonly known as social dilemma –i.e. a situation in which individual rationality, which is based on self-interest, leads to collective irrationality. This paper argues that assuming self-interest as the only motive for cooperation overlooks the human potential for fostering cooperation based on a more comprehensive view of human motives. Based on the assumption of self-interest, the mainstream approach to cooperation, game theory, has focused on different strategies and structures for fostering cooperation, without paying attention to the motivational side. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes the concept of self-love, or the inclination of human beings to strive for their own good and perfection, as an alternative lens to that of self-interest for uncovering the richness and potential of human motivation and its impact on cooperation. The main thrust is that cooperation is rooted in human intentionality and conditioned, not determined, by organizational practices and contexts. The self-love view allows considering both self-interest and others´ interests as ends simultaneously, which implies that these motives are not exchangeable commodities subject to end-means logic but qualitatively different goods subject to part-whole or practical rationality logic. The paper shows that self-interest underlies only three out of eight possible generic motives for cooperation and exemplifies the potential richness of the approach comparing a self-interest view with an excellence view of cooperation at both the intra-organizational and inter-organizational levels. The paper ends with directions for future research.

I develop a theoretical model to investigate whether clusters moderate the relationship between entrepreneurship and regional development. Distinguishing between industrial agglomerations and clusters, I use a socio-economic approach to integrate disparate theories based on their underlying assumptions. Industrial agglomerations and clusters have both positive and negative moderating effects, but clusters create better conditions to face competitive shocks. Conceptual, theoretical, and practical implications for academics and policymakers are proposed.

A growing number of scholars are turning their attention to the role of assumptions underlying our theories. Assumptions, or the lenses through which we see the reality, drive our theories and organizational designs, which in turn drive the results we get at the personal, organizational, and societal levels. This professional development workshop (PDW) is intended for scholars interested in the linkages between assumptions, theories, managerial practices, and the public good to provide an interactive forum to address those linkages. In particular, leading scholars will discuss (1) the linkages between assumptions and theory building, (2) the linkages between assumptions and managerial practice, (3) the linkages between assumptions and the public good, and (4) the importance of making our assumptions as explicit as possible in order to subject them to public scrutiny and understand their impact on theory building, managerial practice and the public good.

How corporate social responsibility (CSR) and bottom of the pyramid (BOP) strategies could interact in a synergistic way? Based on two different sets of assumptions on the nature and goals of the firm, this paper develops two paradigms under which that synergy could be created. The first paradigm, which we call instrumental, assumes that the social responsibility of the firm is embedded in its goal of profit maximization. Given this goal and the fact that it is logically impossible to maximize in more than one dimension at the same time, BOP strategies are a means to achieve the profit maximization goal. Therefore, the synergistic connection between BOP and CSR is done using an instrumental or means-end logic: the social responsibility of the firm is the maximization of profits and BOP strategies are alternative means to achieve that goal. The second paradigm, which we call intrinsic, assumes that the social responsibility of the firm is intrinsically embedded in its goals of creating and distributing value. In this view, BOP strategies, when adopted by a particular firm, are necessary parts of the value creation and distribution system. Therefore, the synergistic connection between BOP and CSR is done using a practical or part-whole logic: BOP strategies have not only an instrumental but also an intrinsic dimension that makes those strategies as necessary parts of the value-creation and distribution goals of the firm. In this paper, we argue that this latter paradigm is a better lens to understand the connection between CSR and BOP strategies, because it acknowledges both the instrumental and intrinsic dimensions of these phenomena. However, it stresses that focusing only on the instrumental dimension of CSR and BOP strategies will damage the value creating and distribution goals of the firm in the long run. At the same time, we argue that the intrinsic paradigm provides the criteria for a genuine approach to CSR and BOP, because, going beyond the instrumentality of these phenomena, derives their meaning from a broader view of the nature of the firm and its role in society. As from the development and comparison of both paradigms and based on a series of case studies, this paper concludes with a set of criteria for discriminating between firms more inclined towards an instrumental paradigm and firms more oriented towards an intrinsic paradigm. These criteria contribute not only to managerial self-evaluation but also to future research on the implications of CSR and BOP strategies based on two different set of assumptions about the nature and goals of the firm.

In the past few decades, the strong competition and globalisation featured by world markets have led companies to pursue internationalization strategies for their supply management in order to effectively support their globalization process. Literature reveals a strong link between two key dimensions in global supply strategy (GSS) development: international sourcing – i.e., the level of supply globalization – and purchasing location – i.e., the level of centralization in relevant purchasing decisions. All the same, other variables are discussed as relevant for supporting GSS deployment. This research, based on the study of seven Italian MNCs that have expanded their operations to the MERCOSUR area, intends to explore the process of GSS definition and development, focusing on the key dimensions and identifying the driver criteria used in each of them, as well as their impact on decision-making processes.

In their search for sources of global competitive advantages to succeed in the new economy, multinational companies (MNCs) have turned to Global Supply Strategies (GSS), focusing on their relationships with suppliers. Relationships with suppliers provide a significant opportunity for companies to develop a strategic source of efficiency and to enhance global competitive advantages (Ford et al. 1988; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Zaheer et al., 1998, and Peck et al. 1999). The literature shows that buyer-supplier relationships emerge as a process, evolving through several stages or modes primarily to respond to key factors, such as purchasing product and market characteristics (in terms of economic supply relevance or customisation level), buyer firm size and exchange relationship duration (Bensaou’s, 1999; O'Toole and Donaldson, 2000; Moller et al, 2000; and Kashani K., 2004). This research, based on the study of a sample of seven Italian MNCs that have expanded their operations to the MERCOSUR (Latin America’s Southern Common Market) area, intends to explore buyer-supplier strategy development in GSS, trying to identify variables influencing such strategies and to analyze their impacts and interactions with relevant factors.

This paper introduces the literature review, research question and research overview for a program of research that has recently been initiated. Few empirical studies show the buyers’ perspective of the different marketing practices implemented by suppliers. The research aims to investigate the value perception accorded by organizational buyers to suppliers’ marketing practices. The research program will be based on a framework derived from work undertaken by Cannon and Perreault, (1999), complemented by a deeper analysis of organizational buyer behavior literature. According to organizational buyer behavior literature buyers differ in many ways, including what they perceive to be important, the decision processes they follow, and the purchases they make. Well-established organizational buyer behavior models highlight the importance of individual buyer (e.g., perceived risk), purchase (e.g., product attributes), environment (e.g., environmental uncertainty), organizational (e.g., size), decision process (e.g., B2C or B2B), and group (e.g., DMU) characteristics (Kauffman 1996). The first three characteristics are accounted for by the factors discussed earlier, while the following two have not been found to affect a company’s choice of any marketing practices (Coviello et al 2001 2002) or, therefore, relationship type. Instead, no research has yet explored whether the group factor affects CMP choices or not. Thus, the DMU complexity factor will be added as another situational determinant for buyer-seller relationships. Finally, since relationship forms reflect conscious choices or uncontrollable circumstances, buying-firm relationship evaluations may provide insights on structures preferred by buying organizations (Cannon et al 1999). The different dimensions of CMP buyer received value judgments may determine important outcomes in business exchanges. To sum up, the result of this research may allow for the evaluation of marketing practices that create value for specific buyer or market segments in different market and organizational situations.

In 2002, Petrobras joined the Argentine fuel retail (gas stations) market. The venture faced several challenges. On the one hand, Argentina was undergoing one of the most severe economic and social crises in history. On the other, the local fuel market was dominated by a few players with brands that held significant consumer mindshare over many years. Additionally, personnel morale at Eg3 –the company acquired by Petrobras to enter the local market- was besieged by uncertainty and disillusionment as a result of a string of mergers and acquisitions and underlying H.R. management remoteness. Finally, the company’s Brazilian origin could jeopardize its appeal for Argentine consumers, given the cultural –and sports-based (soccer)- rivalry between these neighboring countries. The case presents this scenario and calls for decisions associated with service brand definition and strategy formulation for this company across its national borders.

A comparative study of work-family conflict among managers is described, contrasting a cluster of five Anglo countries with three clusters of five countries each that are considered collectivist by nature, that is, Asia, East Europe and Latin America. Results showed that cluster (Anglo vs. each of the others) moderated the relation of working hours with time-based work interference with family (WIF), and the relation of workload with strain-based and time-based WIF. Cluster also moderated the relation of both forms of WIF with both job satisfaction and turnover intentions in all but one analysis. In all cases Anglos showed stronger relationships. In no case could these moderators be attributed to domestic help provided by extended family or neighbors, or by paid domestic help. Differences in mean WIF were quite small among clusters, accounting for less than one percent of variance.

This study analyses the value determinants of a portfolio of growth options and explores implications for strategic management. It focuses the analysis on four elements: the number of real options in the portfolio, constraints on the number of options that can be exercised, the volatility of underlying assets, and the correlation between underlying assets. These elements are articulated around a trade-off between growth options and switch options and are applied to different strategic situations of technological, market, and macroeconomic uncertainty.

This study explores a motivational justification to stakeholder theory. This methodological perspective is different and complementary of previous ones that impose normative considerations for stakeholder theory. Focusing on the entrepreneurial process, it analyzes the mechanisms that explain stakeholders’ actions and stakeholders’ alignment. The main argument is that stakeholders’ act motivated by both, the external output of their actions and the realization of the process. The process by itself, as a central motivation, provides individual and collective identity, what ultimately explains stakeholders’ alignment. This argumentation has managerial and normative implications.

Entrepreneurship continues to enjoy increasing demand and legitimacy around the world. The trend of providing entrepreneurship education across both undergraduate and graduate programs is likely to persist as entrepreneurship conversations steadily permeate public policy agenda worldwide. Unfortunately, the shortage of entrepreneurship faculty still represents a sizeable bottleneck in this process. As a result, there is a growing recognition among academic institutions of the need to train such faculty through PhD programs specialized in entrepreneurship. Such programs are indeed beginning to emerge, across both different schools and countries. By offering them, management schools have the opportunity to increase their intellectual outreach and global recognition. Despite the potential attractiveness of such programs, their launch and sustenance is not a trivial task. As the experience of many prestigious schools (e.g. London Business School, Instituto de Empresa, and Jönköping International Business School) shows, the issues of legitimacy and resource constraints are not spared. With this in mind, given that there are numerous schools worldwide that are on the verge or in the process of launching their own Entrepreneurship PhD program, it is vitally important to reflect upon and learn from the experience of the trailblazers. The purpose of this PDW is to provide a forum where such experience can be shared and discussed. The panel for this PDW will consist of people involved or experienced with developing, launching, and managing such programs. They will generously impart to the audience about their take out of the process, wise decisions as well as pitfalls. We hope to attract significant interest from faculty and administrators worldwide.

Previous research has proposed mutual forbearance in multimarket interactions among firms. But the empirical analyses of this hypothesis have taken place in 'exploitation' rather than in 'exploration' type contexts and it is unclear if such arguments also apply to the latter. A key distinction between exploitation and exploration contexts is the higher level of uncertainty in the latter case since it deals with future markets rather than present revenue streams. We derive alternative hypotheses based on mutual forbearance and imitation perspectives,. We test these implications in the context of biotech investments made by pharmaceutical firms during 1989-99. Unlike many previous studies we analyze entry as well as exit patterns in such investments, and extend the arguments to the case of “partial” investments. We find support for imitation behavior, but not for mutual forbearance. Additionally, we find that when firms enter uncertain markets through partial investments, the effects of multimarket contact are mitigated. Our study has important implications for the limits of the mutual forbearance approach in exploration, as well as for the development of alternative hypotheses in multimarket contacts.

Management of service innovation could be considered one of the most challenging research objectives, relevant both for academics and practitioners. This article focuses on innovation in destination services (e.g thematic parks): a particular type of services that offer a broad variety of activities with high experience content, over an extended period of time, and provided for a wide variety of customer segments. We start from the empirical observation that some destination services often expand their business beyond the boundaries of the firm, i.e. adding restaurants, travel agencies, hotels etc. What are the reasons of these expansions, how do they impact on revenues and if there is a relationship between the firm lifecycle and the innovations that are introduced, are the main questions we tried to answer to. The article proposes a model that identifies four main operational variables that constitute the revenue of a destination: attracted visitors (N), repetition factor (d), Average Spent per time unit ($ / time) and Average stage (time). Moreover the article focuses on two different kinds of innovation called Temporal expansion (within the customer primary activity chain) and Spatial Expansion (out of the customer primary activity chain). Evidences from four in-depth cases in the Italian thematic park industry allowed us to draw hypotheses about when and why choosing a specific kind of innovation, showing also that more effective strategies could be characterized for alternating both of these types of expansions in the right time.

Our framework proposes that CEOs must manage three main processes for accomplishing their mission of providing continuity to their organizations: Business, Management, and Institutional Configuration Processes. In this explorative study we examine 90 CEOs, from medium to large argentine firms and multinational companies within the Argentine context -an important test for CEOs during the 1999-2004 economic recession-crisis-recovery and growth period-, for confirming how they add value to the companies they manage. Aiming to improve the understanding of the value added by a CEO to his company, we have analyzed CEOs in-depth interviews and presentations to the MBA students at IAE during these 6 years. Research results have backed up our theoretical framework; the research could be encouraged in other countries.

This paper examines the Buenos Aires water concession during the post-privatization period. Despite a noteworthy improvement over public management, the evidence indicates that privatization goals have not fully achieved because coverage remained well behind targets, tariffs increased notoriously and the firm made significant profits. The breakdown of changes in economic profits into productivity and price components indicates that the markedly increase of profits originated almost exclusively in tariff increases, as the contribution of total factor productivity improvements and of input prices have been negligible. Firm profitability was also enhanced by a highly leveraged capital structure. A good part of the concession’s failures seem to be due to the presence of a weak and inexperienced regulator. Several contract renegotiations turned an initial access problem into an affordability one. Moreover, subsidy estimates indicate that the social tariff program reached about one tenth of potential targeted beneficiaries only, an outcome that resulted from a combination of both little funding and an increasing poorer user base. This clearly goes against the declared privatization objective of achieving universal service by the end of the concession period.

Este trabajo combina fundamentos teóricos simples con evidencias recientes que permiten reflexionar sobre las causas que motivan la crisis en el sector del gas natural y sus consecuencias para el sector. El trabajo presenta un breve análisis de la evolución de la industria del gas natural en Argentina e introduce un simple marco conceptual para examinar las causas de la crisis originada desde principios de 2002. El trabajo luego realiza un análisis económico muy simple sobre los servicios firmes e interrumpibles y examina la evolución de la capacidad de transporte, los motivos de los incrementos de las demandas de gas natural e intenta explicar las causas por las que las empresas parecen no realizar nuevas inversiones. Finalmente, el estudio discute algunos escenarios posibles sobre la evolución de la industria en el corto plazo y la racionalidad de las medidas adoptadas para el sector.

Se presentan dos problemas epistemológicos. El primero es compartido con buena parte de las ciencias sociales: la exclusión de los fines de la consideración científica. El segundo es la subdeterminación de los datos, de las teorías y del lenguaje, que impiden arribar a conocimientos apodíticamente ciertos en las ciencias experimentales.

En otro trabajo he expuesto mi visión acerca de la naturaleza de lo económico (“La naturaleza de lo económico”, trabajo presentado en las XI Jornadas de Epistemología de las Ciencias Económicas, FCE-UBA, 6-X-05). En este trataré, una vez definida la anterior, de descubrir cuál es el orden o racionalidad de lo económico y, consiguientemente, el de su ciencia, la economía. Para ello, primero habrá que recapitular brevemente mi visión de esa realidad llamada “lo económico”; segundo, exponer cuáles son los órdenes o racionalidades reales; tercero, decir cuál es el orden propio de la realidad económica y cuál debería ser, en consecuencia, el orden de la ciencia que la estudia. Finalmente, en un apéndice, pasaré revista a varias propuestas sobre la racionalidad de la ciencia económica de modo de contrastarlas con mi visión y juzgar acerca de ellas desde este punto de vista.

Organized modern retail formats have based much of its successful expansion in its attraction to the mass consumer, replacing the traditional small formats. Yet in emerging markets, where most of the mass market is placed around or below the line of poverty, small retailers keep attracting customers in spite of the expansion of modern formats. Focusing our research in Latin America, with its typical emerging markets, our main question was why is it that traditional small formats endure in spite of the increasing modernization of retail that took place in the 1990’s?

Understanding consumer behavior seems necessary to help marketers effectively address the needs of the lower-income segments that represent a significant portion of emerging markets. However, the literature indicates that most studies of lower-income consumers have focused on the developed countries. Little attention has been paid to developing regions. Our research objective was to understand what is retail value for emerging consumers?

Serving the consumer products needs of Latin America’s sizeable lower income, or “emerging” consumer base may at first glance seem like a tempting opportunity – or perhaps even a necessity—for supermarket retailers in search of new customers. Yet smaller scale retailers already supply a significant portion of fast-moving consumer goods to these segments. Is this the natural order for supermarket retailing in Latin America? Is, as some would claim, the continued success of small-scale retail in Latin America attributable to market inefficiencies? Can large chain retailers create value for emerging consumers and win them as customers? New research across six Latin American countries examines the mindset of emerging consumers and lessons learned from the small-scale retail trade. Our research found that many elements of the conventional wisdom about lower income consumers are unfounded. In spite of being “poor,” emerging consumers have substantial purchasing power as a group—and they exercise their buying power in some quite surprising, yet rational ways. For one thing, it is not a given that these consumers are attracted to low prices or whatever is “low cost.” And they exhibit a very specific set of product, category, and store format needs that distinguish them as consumers from the middle and higher income segments that were typically the focus for many of the large supermarket retailers. These distinct needs imply that it is not “just a matter of money and time” for emerging consumers to change their purchasing patterns. Readers should be careful about falling into the “informality trap” and losing sight of these consumers’ needs, and how small retailers have effectively addressed them. In fact, the evidence shows that smaller scale retailers fit the needs of emerging consumers quite well. Furthermore, small retailers manage to offset scale disadvantages (in areas such as purchasing) and have a sustainable business model—even before the effects of any informality in taxes and labor contributions. Despite perceptions that the small retail sector draws its resilience from informality, we conclude that there is much more to small-scale retailers’ value proposition and business model—and that the sector can be surprisingly efficient.

This study examines the impact of multimarket contact on entry into new markets in the Argentine banking industry over the 1994-2000 period using survival analysis techniques. The results suggest that banks with large asset bases and greater experience are more likely to expand into new markets when the level of demographic variables such as population density, demand or market growth are favourable. The findings imply that multimarket contact reduces the likelihood of entry into new markets and that other factors such as market dominance and market concentration also have a negative impact on entry. Finally, the results reveal that strategic similarity among multimarket competitors amplifies the negative effect of multimarket contact on the hazard of entry.

This paper challenges the stereotypical perception of Latin America as a homogeneous region and explores the cultural distances among groups of multinational employees. After collecting surveys from 800 employees across 8 multinationals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, we establish that much like it happens in other lumped together regions of the globe such as “East Asia”, and “Africa”, Latin American countries present significant differences in the way firm employees respond to situations where cultural values are at stake. By researching these countries, we recorded significant variation in aspects such as the treatment and place of women in the workplace, attachment or detachment to origin and tradition in addition to varying levels of tolerance to invasion of privacy. Implications of the study include the need to develop methodologies which adequately capture cultural differences within large geographical blocks and business practices which prepare the expatriate, the international manager and the policy maker for the different realities they are bound to encounter in different countries.

This paper discusses the fallacies contained in the stereotypical perception of South America as a homogeneous region with similar responses to culturally sensitive situations at the firm level across different countries. After collecting surveys from 733 employees and gathering anecdotes from a subset of managers across 8 multinationals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, we posit that much like it happens in other lumped together regions of the globe such as “East Asia”, managers, expatriates and researchers can do better by fine-graining and recognizing differences within geographical regions so as to adequate their responses and business practices to the environment in question. By researching these countries, we discovered significant differences in aspects such as the treatment and place of women in the workplace, attachment or detachment to origin and tradition in addition to varying levels of tolerance to invasion of privacy. Results also suggest that it is often times the perceived similarities among these countries that can cause cultural clashes amongst South American sojourners themselves who might be less willing or capable of identifying disagreements as possibly culturally motivated when they have constantly been met with the old myth of the “South American Way”.

Este trabajo se propone mostrar la sistematización que la Constitución Gaudium et Spes hace del magisterio anterior al Concilio Vaticano II sobre el trabajo y el enriquecimiento que supone respecto de esa formulación, que sirvió de base y de prólogo para su continuación en la enseñanza de Juan Pablo II, cuyos principales aportes se propone señalar también. La teología, que había prestado mucha atención al tema del trabajo hacia mediados del siglo pasado, dejó de hacerlo hacia finales de la década del 60, precisamente poco después de tan relevante aporte, más atraída quizás por los candentes problemas políticos de aquellos años: la praxis y, concretamente, la praxis revolucionaria. Sin embargo, la clarividencia de Juan Pablo II rescató su importancia. Fue la publicación de la encíclica Laborem Exercens, en el año 1981, la que volvió a poner en primer plano la centralidad del tema y, ciertamente con una finalidad y en una perspectiva muy innovadora. En ella, el Pontífice, llega a considerar el trabajo como “la clave de toda la vida social, si se la considera desde el punto de vista del bien del hombre” Laborem exercens, n. 1. La Constitución Gaudium et spes ya había desarrollado profundamente las raíces antropológicas del principio de la dignidad de la persona y lo había incorporado al tratamiento que hace del trabajo cuando afirmaba que “el trabajo es de un valor superior a los demás elementos de la vida económica, que tienen sólo razón de medio” Gaudium et spes, n. 67. Desde este punto de partida Juan Pablo II afirma sin retaceos la capacidad transformadora del trabajo humano, e incluso hace del reconocimiento de la eficacia histórica del trabajo uno de los puntos de partida de sus reflexiones. Sin embargo, dando por descontada esta realidad, no pone el acento sobre este fruto del trabajo o su eficacia histórica, sino sobre la persona, sobre la persona sujeto del trabajo, para considerar hasta que punto el trabajo, tanto como actividad o como proceso histórico supone a la persona y debe tenerle como fin. Cuando se considera que el sujeto del trabajo es la persona, y que sobre esa base se han de considerar los demás elementos de la vida social, entonces es posible superar el nivel de los consejos moralizantes que muchas veces caracterizan la ética económica, incluso en los planteamientos de Business Ethics en los ambientes académicos de las Business Schools, en los que el respeto que se recomienda a la dignidad de la persona aún no deja de ser todavía mucho más que un medio para conseguir mejores resultados de mayor eficiencia puramente productiva.

This paper examines the processes of organisational adaptation and competitiveness of firms in an emerging economy. The study is set in the Argentinian context of the 1990s when a combination of economic and political change triggered a massive change in the competitive context of indigenous firms. Two highly flexible firms are studied from the pharmaceutical and edible oil industries and longitudinal data are supplied to explore the determinants of organisational flexibility in those organisations.

In spite of the critical importance of human capital to accelerate economic growth and to build more equitable societies not much attention has been paid to a question on whose answer crucially depend the probabilities of realizing the promises about the economic and social role of education. Are educational levels of developed and developing countries converging or diverging? To answer this question the first two sections of the paper compare what happened in the two more intense contemporary globalization waves, those of 1870-1930 and 1970-2003. While some educational convergence took place in the first period, the trends of the second one show some convergence in human capital stocks, but divergence regarding the educational flows. The third section of the paper is devoted to suggest some hypotheses to explain the remarkable contrasts between the two waves, as well as some educational policy implications for developing countries.

What are the conceptions of human beings implicit in the practice of economic policies? Do they have some impact on their results in contemporary societies? These are the central questions addressed in the second section of the paper. But in order to give more precise answers to them we thought it would be better to begin with some synthetic references to the conceptions of human beings implicit in the economic science per se that, most of the times, inspires economic policy making. Our analysis will be focused on the mainstream of (Occidental) economic science, i.e., the so called neoclassic-Keynesian synthesis. Only minor references to more “heterodox” economic policies will be included. At the end of the paper, a concluding section aims to link the two first parts. Its central question is if some agenda could be devised in order to avoid the negative consequences arising from could be the main mistakes of the implicit conceptions of human beings dealt with in the paper.

Se trata de una investigación en el grado de innovación y en el reflejo económico del mismo. Dicho estudio se lleva a cabo en empresas Argentinas de Capital puramente nacional de los siguientes rubros: Software, Electrodomésticos, Alimentos y Bebidas, Metalmecánica y Maquinaria en la Argentina.

There are three main streams of literature on the impact of firms’ innovativeness on business performance, one regarded to market orientation, other focused on innovation, and the last one related to National Innovation Systems. All of them agreed upon the importance of innovation to business performance and focus on how internal and external facilitating factors influence on it. Successful innovation largely depends on how the process of turning knowledge into commercial ends is well organized and implemented. An empirical study on innovation in Argentinean small and medium enterprises from the Software, Electronics, Home & Electrical Appliances, Iron & Steel, Machinery, Metal Mechanics and Food & Beverages sectors we have performed highlights what strategies companies are pursuing in terms of innovation processes at industry level, and their results. Findings reveals how firms organize and deal with innovation and R&D policies, best practices, cooperation with science and technology centers, market or technology orientation, and intellectual property rights and how that impacts on the firm’s innovativeness and sales growth.

Corporate Community Involvement (CCI), with a boarder sense than corporate philanthropy, includes situations in which the firm has a proactive role in promoting multi-stakeholder commitments which favor all participants’ interests. This is exactly what is suggested by a case study presented here of a water service company in Argentina operating in poor communities. The case corroborates several propositions of current theories; additionally it provides several insights which recommend further theoretical developments in both normative and instrumental perspectives. Among them, a reinforcement of CCI justification; the role of the firms in searching for convergence of interests and actively promoting partnership commitments with community groups, nongovernmental organizations and governmental agencies and the consequences of certain CCI, which can be multiple and complex.

The interdependency between business and society seems evident. Such relationship increases for two reasons: firstly, corporations and society need each other for their progress and subsistence; secondly, because corporations are key agents in society. As a matter of fact, nowadays corporation’s activities include issues that have a strong impact on society; such as human rights, family relationships, environmental problems, education (Riley and Feldman, 1994) and culture, among others. Large corporations with these agendas have a high influential power. In this sense, Calleja (1992) asserts theoretical and practical management advocates would have never imagined that their work would influence the world’s social unbalances, but it has and it will keep on doing so for the good of humanity (p. 55). One of the clear expressions of the corporation-society interdependency are CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) promoted practices and conceptions. CSR either stems to respond to the demands of society for corporations to solve problems caused by them (e.g. child labor), to avoid potential inconveniences (e.g. government regulations) or to collaborate in social problems (e.g. the development of the community). Even though CSR studies have a pretty long track -since 1950 approximately according to Carroll (1999)-, still CSR practices are not deeply rooted within the behavior of corporations. Some researchers consider that the development of different concepts connected to responsibility reveals a certain inclination towards considering only tangential aspects of it, thus ignoring the main issue of the matter: “the very difficulties inherent in asking managers to be responsible” (Windsor 2001: 250). Some indicators seem to reveal this problem: (1) The amount of related definitions and approaches; (2) the recurrent discussions around the difference and relationship between CSR and philanthropy; (3) the vision of CSR as an adornment to the “real role of corporations” (increasing stockholders’ benefits); (4) the confusion about CSR need either to avoid more complicated regulations or to proactively involve in social matters. There is still a lot to explore in CSR, especially in developing countries, where legislation is poor, institutions do not protect society members and corporations have an unregulated environment to operate in.

Basic infrastructure of public services in socially complex and devoid areas has become one of the majors problems for social inequality in South American Countries, the Argentine public services infrastructure suffers a collapse in this system in these areas. Facing a discouraging perspective, community involvement emerged as an innovative idea, a proposal that involves all the social actors in a process of social capital creation. Due the scarcity of theory on the subject, we present a study case applied in a Buenos Aires’ devoid area that allowed to establish a social management model that made public access to the service effective. This model allowed the realization of a process whereby 4.000 families were able to gain access to natural gas supply, solving an infrastructure problem that seemed to be structural and without any possible solution. Furthermore, an important consequence of this experience is that the provider, Gas Natural Ban Co. discovered that a new way for managing the project needed to be developed. This case corroborates some of the proposals that emerge from the theory and issues for further investigation.

This paper studies the trade receivables policy of distressed firms as the trade off between the firm’s willingness to gain sales by financing their clients’ purchases and the firm’s need for cash. We find that firms increase trade receivables when they have profitability problems prior entering financial distress, but reduce trade receivables when they have cash flow problems in financial distress. We also find that cuts in trade receivables account for as much as 7% of the 30% average drop in sales and stock returns experienced by a firm in financial distress. Moreover, the performance decline of a firm in financial distress is significantly higher if the firm cuts trade receivables than if it does not.

This presentation reviews the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence in Latin America (LA), Argentina, and Germany related to the impact of entrepreneurship and clusters on development and growth at the firm, regional, and national levels. LA countries face right now the alternative to adopt an entrepreneurial-cluster led strategy to foster development at the firm, regional and national levels. In effect, after the state-led import substitution strategy between 1950 and 1970 and the macro-economic liberalisation reforms and market-led strategies between 1980 and 2000, local development policies based on private-public partnership with emphasis on entrepreneurship as well as micro-economic rather than macro-economic reforms appear as the most appealing strategies. Using a sample of 21 empirical studies and a total of 146 clusters in LA, the total population of clusters in Argentina and the total population of clusters in Germany, this study concludes that entrepreneurship and clusters contribute to both development and growth, but they are a potential source of socio-economic divides, especially in Latin-American countries. Also, comparing LA with Germany, this study concludes that necessity entrepreneurship and emergent clusters are two features of LA countries that should not overlooked when proposing development policies based on the creation and agglomeration of firms in LA countries. Exclusive focus on economic growth and clusters of transnational corporations without consider governance mechanisms, LA specificities, and coordination between local and national policies will both hinder growth in the long run and increase existing disparities in LA countries.

The purpose of this presentation is to understand the role of assumptions in theory building and testing, with and specific application to regional studies and entrepreneurship. It is argued that different assumptions on entrepreneurship, regional agglomerations, and regional outcomes (SEE) lead to different measures and methods to study them (DO), and the combination of different assumptions, methods, and measures leads to different results on the relationship between entrepreneurship, regional agglomerations, and regional outcomes (GET). This presentation develops theoretical arguments and presents empirical evidence to support each part of the previous See – Do – Get argument.

In the past few decades, the strong competition and globalization featured by world markets have led companies to develop international purchasing strategies involving dramatic price reductions, quality and delivery enhancements, improved cycle times, increased responsiveness to customers and better financial conditions. As a result, companies have been forced to pursue internationalization strategies for their purchase management in order to effectively support their globalization process. The literature studies, focusing on Multinational Companies’ (MNC) corporate purchasing strategy influence on affiliates’ global supply strategy (GSS) development, reveal a strong link between two key dimensions: supply source – i.e., the level of supply globalization as related to MNC’s worldwide operating needs - and purchase location – i.e., the level of centralization in relevant purchasing decisions. This research, based on the study of a sample of seven Italian MNCs that have expanded their operations to the MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) area, intends to explore the process of purchasing strategy definition and development, focusing on the relationship between its two key dimensions and identifying the definition criteria used in each of them, as well as their impact on decision-making processes.

As a result of the enhanced competitiveness that characterizes the global market, multinational corporations have been forced to develop international purchasing strategies to purchase from foreign suppliers, that involve price reductions, increased access to technologies, better quality controls, and the introduction of competition at the domestic supply base. As a result, companies have been forced to pursue internationalisation strategies for their purchase management in order to effectively support their globalisation process through supplies. According to companies’ evolution in their globalization processes, literature studies reveal a strong link between the two key dimensions of international purchasing strategy: supply source –i.e., the level of supply globalisation as related to MNC’s worldwide operating needs- and purchase location – i.e., the level of centralisation in relevant purchasing decisions. Our research, based on the study of a sample of seven Italian MNCs that have expanded their operations to the MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) area, explores the process of purchasing strategy definition and development, focusing on the relationship between the two key dimensions and identifying key drivers, as well as their impact on decision-making processes.

El mundo empresario y la opinión pública internacional han sido últimamente conmocionados por la estrepitosa caída de empresas prestigiosas como Enron, World Com, Parmalat, Tyco, Arthur Andersen, Ahold. La sorpresa fue tanto mayor por cuanto las empresas que se derrumbaron gozaban de un respeto que iba más allá de toda duda en el ámbito específico de su actividad. Se podría incluso afirmar que ellas mismas representaban un modelo a seguir, un espejo en que reflejarse. Se espera que la empresa, a través de la actividad que le es propia, asuma un rol protagónico en la construcción de la sociedad. Esta tarea requiere que los directivos, ante las presiones económicas o de poder sean capaces de dar respuestas consistentes, para lo cual deben ser ellos mismos coherentes a nivel personal. Esto parece haber generado un creciente interés por el concepto integridad por parte tanto de los teóricos de la actividad empresaria así como de los protagonistas de la misma, entendemos que es necesario comprender qué se entiende por ‘persona íntegra’ o por ‘accionar íntegro de una empresa’. No se trata sólo de una búsqueda descriptiva de los distintos modos de comprender y definir el término, sino de un estudio acerca de las implicaciones que cada postura conlleva en la vida concreta de las personas, de las empresas, de las comunidades. La experiencia demuestra que no basta con proponerse a nivel directivo determinadas metas buenas, algunos valores-guía, ciertas prácticas favorables al ambiente y a la sociedad. Es necesario además que todas estas determinaciones surjan de una condición interior de las personas, -que por reflejo también se convierten en un atributo de la institución-, que permita darle a cada proyecto, a cada decisión, a cada acción, un sello distintivo. Se trata de que en el centro de las personas y de las empresas se encuentre la condición de la integridad. El objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar el concepto de integridad, como concepto superador al de valores y virtudes al que se hace referencia habitualmente. Superador en cuanto significa una actitud y una capacidad de los directivos de empresa necesarias para abordar cabalmente su tarea.

This paper investigates empirically whether clusters moderate the impact of entrepreneurship on development at the regional level. To this end, it distinguishes between clusters and industrial agglomerations and tests four hypotheses on their positive and negative expected moderating impact on the relationship between the creation of businesses and job growth. These hypotheses are tested using the 97 German Planning Regions as the units of analysis and OLS fixed-effects as the research method. The results show that clusters positively moderate the association between entrepreneurship and development at the regional level, but industrial agglomerations do not. Implications for academics and policy makers and suggestions for future research are given in the concluding section.

El crecimiento poblacional desordenado que se produce en los países en vías de desarrollo genera importantes problemas urbanísticos y de calidad de vida relacionados con el sistema de transporte, tanto para los usuarios del mismo como para los que no. Uno de esos importantes problemas suele transformarse en la congestión en el tránsito vehicular. Las experiencias en la gestión de calidad de servicio en los sistemas de transporte de las grandes y medianas ciudades distan enormemente de poder brindar un servicio de calidad en estos aspectos. Sin embargo, existen algunas experiencias en Sudamérica que se podrían denominar a priori exitosas en tanto que lograron ordenar la ciudad basándose en al sistema de transporte de pasajeros: estas son Curitiba y Bogotá. Estas dos ciudades se muestran hoy como ejemplos exitosos en lo que a sistema de transporte urbano de pasajeros se refiere. Asimismo, e independientemente de las experiencias de estas dos ciudades por separadas, resulta interesante poder captar y entender cuáles fueron los procesos estratégicos que siguieron dichas ciudades para poder alcanzar ser una buenas prácticas a nivel urbano, ya que uno de los aportes al que pretende arribar este paper es poder ilustrar cómo se llega a efectivizar un eficiente sistema de transporte urbano de pasajeros en Sudamérica.

Marketing scholars have addressed the influence of spatial correlation on consumers’ preferences and companies’ market shares, but no study has yet looked at the influence of spatial dependencies on consideration set membership. We investigate the explanatory power of spatial correlation (i.e., spatial proximity across buyers) for consideration probabilities. Our modeling approach builds upon the spatial probit model developed by Smith and LeSage (2004).We parsimoniously account for the impact of observable and unobservable heterogeneity as well as unobservable spatial dependencies on consideration set membership probabilities. We apply our model to stated consideration set data for new car buyers. We investigate the impact of the spatial interaction on the consideration probability for vehicle types (e.g., pickup trucks) and makes (e.g., Chevrolet). We find a significant spatial interaction in consideration set probabilities for type but not for makes. The magnitude of this correlation coefficient varies by the scale of geographical aggregation. Furthermore, we find that the impact of spatial correlation changes depending on the amount of heterogeneity explained by other model variables. Our findings allow managers to better understand multi-market competition and to customize the product and promotional offers based on geographical area.

Marketing scholars have addressed the influence of spatial correlation on consumers’ preferences and companies’ market shares, but no study has yet looked at the influence of spatial dependencies on consideration set membership. We investigate the explanatory power of spatial correlation (i.e., spatial proximity across buyers) for consideration probabilities. Our modeling approach builds upon the spatial probit model developed by Smith and LeSage (2004).We parsimoniously account for the impact of observable and unobservable heterogeneity as well as unobservable spatial dependencies on consideration set membership probabilities. We apply our model to stated consideration set data for new car buyers. We investigate the impact of the spatial interaction on the consideration probability for vehicle types (e.g., pickup trucks) and makes (e.g., Chevrolet). We find a significant spatial interaction in consideration set probabilities for type but not for makes. The magnitude of this correlation coefficient varies by the scale of geographical aggregation. Furthermore, we find that the impact of spatial correlation changes depending on the amount of heterogeneity explained by other model variables. Our findings allow managers to better understand multi-market competition and to customize the product and promotional offers based on geographical area. Marketing scholars have addressed the influence of spatial correlation on consumers’ preferences and companies’ market shares, but no study has yet looked at the influence of spatial dependencies on consideration set membership. We investigate the explanatory power of spatial correlation (i.e., spatial proximity across buyers) for consideration probabilities. Our modeling approach builds upon the spatial probit model developed by Smith and LeSage (2004).We parsimoniously account for the impact of observable and unobservable heterogeneity as well as unobservable spatial dependencies on consideration set membership probabilities. We apply our model to stated consideration set data for new car buyers. We investigate the impact of the spatial interaction on the consideration probability for vehicle types (e.g., pickup trucks) and makes (e.g., Chevrolet). We find a significant spatial interaction in consideration set probabilities for type but not for makes. The magnitude of this correlation coefficient varies by the scale of geographical aggregation. Furthermore, we find that the impact of spatial correlation changes depending on the amount of heterogeneity explained by other model variables. Our findings allow managers to better understand multi-market competition and to customize the product and promotional offers based on geographical area.

El mismo trata sobre el impacto de los métodos de financiamiento no bancarios en el crecimiento de las empresas. En él se estudia como estos métodos afectan la performance de las empresas en el contexto de la economía argentina y explora como estas prácticas se interrelacionan con las actividades de innovación.

Building upon previous models of entrepreneurial networks evolution, where it is assumed that entrepreneurs play a significant role in shaping their network development, this paper elaborates on how certain actors’ characteristics impact on the development of social capital at the very initial stage of venture formation. Specifically, it establishes propositions on how the level of human capital and reputation of the nascent entrepreneur as well as the level of commitment to the new project bear upon the purposive investment in social capital.

According to the slim body of literature that exists about innovation in family owned companies, there seems to be a quite stable support for the premise that family owned companies are a major source of innovation. Despite the progress that has been made, and the preliminary understanding attained about family owned companies and their relationship with the incubation and the financing of innovative business endeavours, in part as the recreation of their own businesses, still we count with very little research on this domain. Furthermore, no investigation has been conducted about this topic in emerging economies, where the particularities of the environment provides the family owned companies with certain opportunities while with additional uncertainties. Based on an in-depth case study of a high technology innovative family owned company in Argentina, is to identify the key antecedents that foster and enable family firms to successfully engage in innovation over generations. Additionally, by studying the case of high technology innovation in an emerging economy, we also have the objective of shedding some light in the understanding of the rationale behind path breaking innovations in emerging environments were in addition to the traditional technological, financial, and market uncertainties, companies face macro-economical and institutional uncertainties.

During the last few decades, the academic, policy-making and practitioner debates have increasingly recognized the key role of knowledge in organizational life. Such debates have naturally migrated into the public services arena, focusing on the contribution that effective management of knowledge can make to improve such services. Within this context, this research has focused upon evaluating the features that affect knowledge- sharing behaviours within managerial teams in the NHS. The findings highlight the evidential nature of sharing knowledge, the impact of knowledge barriers and context ambiguity, and the role of mundane issues as facilitators of knowledge sharing and as the encounter zone of these interstitial communities.