Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración

Capelleras, Joan-Lluís; Contin-Pilart, Ignacio; Garcés-Galdeano, Lucia; Larraza-Kintana, Martin

2020 Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración

doi: 10.1108/arla-03-2018-0081

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the family control of the company influence the performance of underachieving firms and how they contribute to economic recovery.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test the authors’ predictions on a unique and representative sample of 1,500 Spanish small firms in high and medium technology manufacturing and service industries. Given the nature of the dependent variable, the authors estimate a series of regression models to test the hypotheses. In addition, the authors consider two interaction terms where the underperforming firms’ variable is interacted with family firms and EO.FindingsThe results of analyses show that both EO and family ownership separately increase subsequent performance for underachieving firms.Originality/valueThe study contributes to expand the literature on underperforming firms analysing how strategic and structural factors affect the performance of firms that face an economic downturn. It also provides some guidance for practitioners on the decision and contexts that better serve the economic recovery of underperforming firms.

Barrera, Jose Ignacio; Torres, Juan Pablo; Valdés, Gonzalo

2020 Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración

doi: 10.1108/arla-07-2018-0155

The purpose of this paper is to explore the microfoundations of innovation-enabling dynamic capabilities in Latin American firms and, in particular, their processes to: sense and shape opportunities; seize opportunities; and maintain competitiveness through reconfiguring assets.Design/methodology/approachThe authors carried out a confirmatory factor analysis of survey data obtained from a sample of 721 firms located in Latin America, and employed a hierarchical analysis of linear regressions with robust standard errors to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe authors found that when firms manage their innovation processes based on sensing opportunities and reconfiguring their tangible and intangible assets, they are more likely to improve on four innovation-related outcomes: development of new products and services; profitability; market share; and diversification.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are limited to the specific context of Latin American countries. In particular, the authors took a random sample of firms from a business directory built by prestigious Latin American business schools, but that may not be representative. Therefore, the generalizability of the results is limited beyond the type of companies that are represented in that sampling frame.Originality/valueContributions are twofold. First, the authors test the applicability of an orchestration model of dynamic capabilities to the Latin American context. And, second, the authors relate specific microfoundations of dynamic capabilities to the ability of firms to innovate successfully.

Gaviria-Marin, Magaly; Cruz-Cázares, Claudio

2020 Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración

doi: 10.1108/arla-02-2019-0056

The purpose of this article is to analyze the influence of the diversity of information and the use of Web 2.0 applications on the web positioning of online business information providers.Design/methodology/approachA total of 203 online business information provider websites were selected using three search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing). This information was encoded to develop two logistic regression models.FindingsThe results suggest that the knowledge offered and the resources used to transfer this knowledge play important roles in the web positioning of online business information providers. This study found that entrepreneurs mainly seek technological knowledge, and to acquire it, they use various Web 2.0 applications that do not necessarily include social networks.Practical implicationsThis article presents a novel proposal to analyze how knowledge diversity and Web 2.0 applications influence the web rankings of websites that offer information and knowledge for established or new, small and medium enterprises.Originality/valueThis article is novel in that it links the theory of knowledge dissemination with the technologies of the Internet (websites, Web 2.0 applications) and provides evidence of diverse sources of online information that are potentially useful for the entrepreneur of the twentieth century.

Zhang, Huimin; Tian, Mu; Hung, Tsang Kai

2020 Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración

doi: 10.1108/arla-10-2018-0239

The objective of this study is to advance the understanding of the connection between cultural distance and the cross-border diffusion of innovations by conducting a systematic review and analysis of previous literature.Design/methodology/approachThis study involved a literature review. A total of 35 articles published in ABS journals were identified from key management, international business and marketing journals. The articles were analyzed by the methodologies and findings presented.FindingsThe literature review shows that the adoption and diffusion of innovation and new products are bound to be deeply influenced by cultural distance. Specifically, national cultures influence the willingness of consumers to buy new products at both the individual and organizational levels; organizational culture plays a key role in the process of launching new products and diffusing innovations to the market. However, existing studies and their findings are fragmented and inconsistent. Controversial views remain regarding the impact of national cultural dimensions on the diffusion of innovation at the individual and organizational levels.Originality/valueThis is the first systematic review of the literature specifically focusing on the impact of cultural distance on the cross-border diffusion of innovation. In identifying the research gaps and limitations of extant studies, the authors point to avenues for future research to develop a more integrated research agenda for marketing, management and international business research.

Martinez, Lisana B.; Scherger, Valeria; Guercio, M. Belén; Orazi, Sofía

2020 Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración

doi: 10.1108/arla-12-2018-0287

This paper analyses the evolution of the financial inclusion and its main determinants in seven Latin American countries.Design/methodology/approachThe database used is the Global Findex from the World Bank for the latest data released that includes the years 2011 and 2014. The variables used are formal financial accounts, formal savings and formal credit as proxies of financial inclusion for the years of study. Moreover, the use of debit and credit cards is considered. The methodologies applied are the mean difference tests, in order to contrast the hypotheses of the inclusion evolution and binary probit regressions models.FindingsThe results of the analysis show that there is a positive evolution in the use of financial instruments in the countries of the sample, especially in the use of formal accounts. On the other hand, considering the characteristics of the individuals, age, level of education and income positively affect their financial inclusion.Originality/valueThere are no similar works for the region of study that allow us to evaluate the evolution of financial inclusion considering the variables selected in the literature. It is possible to clearly fulfil the proposed objective, highlighting the importance of implementing financial inclusion policies in view of the low percentage of use of the instruments in the analyzed countries.

Trincado-Munoz, Francisco; Valenzuela-Fernández, Leslier; Hebles, Melany

2020 Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración

doi: 10.1108/arla-03-2019-0086

While companies have increasingly encouraged employees to adopt a customer orientation, less attention has been given to the impact that customer orientation has on employees' job outcomes and performance. Previous research has used job demands-resource theory (JD-R) and proposed several mechanisms through which customer orientation influences performance, yet the intervening variables in the process have shown inconsistent results. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contextual role of organizational justice on the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. In this way, offering more understanding of the contingent effects that intervene in the customer orientation–performance relationship.Design/methodology/approachUsing a structural equation model (SEM) in a sample of 249 marketing, sales and management managers in Chilean companies, this paper tested different hypotheses concerning the role of work engagement, organizational justice and customer orientation in relation to perceived performance.FindingsThis study informs that organizational justice (procedural and distributive justice) moderates the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. Precisely, the findings reveal that at lower values of organizational justice, changes in customer orientation negatively influence work engagement and in turn performance.Originality/valueThe results contribute to strengthening customer orientation theory by integrating a contextual variable often omitted: organizational justice. By exploring the moderation effect of organizational justice on customer orientation, this paper reveals contingent effects of employees' perceived fairness on the organization in the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. The findings encourage managers to look after employees' perceived organizational justice when they implement customer-oriented approaches, in particular, of those employees who work in the frontline sales and service positions.