Editorial 37–4 2024: Summary of articles and future special issues about artificial intelligence and about PLS-SEM

Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración

ISSN: 1012-8255

Article publication date: 3 December 2024

Issue publication date: 3 December 2024

302

Citation

Alonso Dos Santos, M., Ogliastri, E. and Romaní, G. (2024), "Editorial 37–4 2024: Summary of articles and future special issues about artificial intelligence and about PLS-SEM", Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 509-512. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARLA-11-2024-371

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited


In this issue, we publish nine research articles from authors and universities in eleven countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela. A short description of each article will be presented, as well as an invitation for the coming special issues of the journal.

The article entitled “Effects of the Spectator’s Emotional Attachment to Sports Players on the Sponsoring Brand” examines how a spectator emotional connection with sports players impacts their behavior towards sponsoring brands. Navarro-Lucena et al. (2024), propose a theoretical model based on literature related to attachment, social influence and brand communities. Data were collected from 1,355 sports viewers through an online survey and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that emotional attachment significantly influences community engagement and the viewer’s intention to continue consuming. This, in turn, fosters positive behaviors toward the sponsoring brands, such as word-of-mouth recommendations (eWOM), purchase intentions and co-creation activities. The study shows that community engagement is a key factor driving these positive behaviors, while “stickiness” (i.e. time spent with the content) also plays a role in promoting purchase and the intention to recommend purchase. This research contributes to the understanding of how emotional bonds between sports players and their audiences can enhance brand outcomes, offering insights into marketing strategies that leverage these emotional connections in the rapidly growing sports sector.

Garay et al. (2024) analyzed the price determinants as well as the return and risk of 707 art works (paintings, drawings and sculptures) of Fernando Botero, sold at two of the largest auction houses (Sotheby’s and Christie’s). The purpose was to analyze the degree to which their risk and return attributes differ throughout a 20-year period. Botero’s paintings provided a return that was comparable to those of his sculptures (3.36% and 3.20%, respectively), they were two times as high as those of his drawings (1.68%). On the other hand, whereas paintings and drawings had similar annual standard deviations (26.00%, and 25.22%, respectively), sculptures had a much smaller standard deviation (16.96%). The whole accumulated annual return was similar to the return provided by 10-year US treasury bonds and below those of the S&P 500. The results of the most expensive living Latin American artist, were compared to those of another (deceased) artist, Carlos Cruz-Diez. The results are important for art collectors and investors, as well as for the whole art market ecosystem.

The article titled “Post-Conflict Marketing: The Role of Former Conflict Stakeholder on Post-Conflict Product/Service Valuation across Countries” by Rodriguez et al. (2024) explores the role of marketing in supporting businesses in conflict-affected regions, particularly in Colombia. The study aligns with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 16, which promotes peaceful societies. Through two experiments, the study assesses consumer perceptions of products created by various stakeholders involved in the conflict (e.g. ex-combatants, victims, civilians). Results show that products created by conflict victims were rated more highly, especially by foreign consumers, such as the Japanese. Local consumers, however, exhibited more varied preferences. The study also highlights the social and economic challenges faced by ex-combatants and how they are perceived less favorably than victims. The findings have practical implications for post-conflict regions, emphasizing the importance of consumer acceptance in supporting economic reintegration and reconciliation. Limitations include potential biases due to the experimental design and the focus on urban samples. This research serves as a foundation for future exploration in post-conflict marketing, with potential applications for business development and social rebuilding.

The study by Lopes et al. (2024) contributes to a better understanding of risk and financial decision-making by examining the interrelations between the value of money, risk perceptions and risk-taking behavior among university students from the Social Sciences Center at the Federal University of Maranhão, Brazil. A questionnaire was used for this purpose, which was distributed to students between March 2021 and January 2022, with 663 respondents. The data were analyzed using structural equations. The findings show a significant impact of both negative and positive money values on participants' financial decisions, deeply shaping perceptions, acceptance and responses to risk. This study highlights the crucial role of the perceived value of money in shaping financial behaviors and developing risk management strategies. Practical implications include the finding of positive relationships between the value of money and its negative impact on risk behavior and acceptance.

Lobão and Almeida (2024) analyze the presence and nature of herding behavior in the major stock markets of Latin America – Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico – from January 2013 to December 2022. Using a dataset of daily stock returns, they employ the cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD) method to measure herding and explore the impact of factors such as market trends, volatility and macroeconomic variables, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show significant anti-herding behavior in Brazil and Mexico, while Chile and Colombia follow rational asset pricing models. The pandemic intensified anti-herding in most markets, especially in Chile and Colombia, with herding and anti-herding effects varying based on market trends and volatility levels. Extreme crude oil price movements were found to amplify anti-herding across all markets. The study also reveals that herding forces are synchronized across the region, limiting the benefits of international diversification and raising the risk of regional financial crises. These findings suggest that anti-herding behavior may distort market efficiency, and market regulators should consider policies to mitigate these risks.

Núñez-Sánchez et al. (2024) investigate the relationship between teleworkers' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee engagement (EE) in remote work. Data from 205 valid responses from teleworking employees in Spain were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesis. The study found that CSR’s social and environmental dimensions positively impact employee engagement among teleworkers. However, the economic dimension of CSR only partially influences EE in a telework setting. This approach can mitigate the reduced employee engagement associated with remote work, improving organizational performance, productivity, satisfaction and employee well-being. This study provides empirical evidence of the positive effects of specific CSR strategies, which can create competitive advantage by fostering a motivated and engaged remote workforce.

The paper titled “ESG Disclosure and Financial Performance in Debt Market: Evidence from the Oil and Gas Industry” explores the relationship between environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and corporate bond credit spreads in the oil and gas sector. Alvarez-Perez and Fuentes (2024) focus on how ESG initiatives impact the financial performance of companies, specifically regarding borrowing costs in the debt market. Using data from 2018 to 2022, the study finds that companies with higher ESG ratings experience lower credit spreads, suggesting that better ESG practices can lead to reduced borrowing costs. The study employs a two-stage least-squares regression to address potential endogeneity issues and reveals that non-state-owned companies benefit more from ESG disclosures than their state-owned counterparts. This differentiation highlights the varying financial impacts of ESG efforts based on ownership structure. The paper provides valuable insights into sustainable finance, emphasizing the importance of ESG in financial decision-making, particularly in industries with significant environmental impacts like oil and gas. It suggests that companies with stronger ESG commitments are perceived as less risky, thus benefiting from lower borrowing costs.

Rojas-Cabezas et al. (2024) study the influence of institutional context in the relationship between green management, perceived barriers to sustainability and innovation performance in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and how formal and informal institutional factors influence these relationships. The final sample in this study comprises 11,319 SME observations from 16 Latin American countries. The analysis involved exploratory factor analysis (EFA), cluster analysis and a structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that both formal institutions (such as government ministries or bureaus responsible for policy-making and regulatory agencies) and informal institutions (such as associations that promote social norms and cultural values) have a positive impact of green management practices and innovative performance in SMEs. The magnitude of this impact varies depending on the quality of the institutional context in each country. Additionally, the perceived barriers to sustainability do not play the same intermediary role in this relationship within both the formal and informal institutional contexts; the effect of perceived barriers to sustainability on SMEs' innovation performance is diminished in the informal institutional context. These conclusions provide valuable insights for policymakers seeking to promote sustainable development in Latin America, highlighting the importance of institutional support in fostering SMEs' adoption of ecological practices.

Finally, the study conducted by Llanos-Contreras et al. (2024) contributes to family business theory by addressing the challenges family-owned companies face in attracting talent. They carried out an experimental design using job advertisements from a LinkedIn recruitment campaign in Peru and Chile to determine how the way in which the identity of a family business is communicated in the recruitment of employees influences job applicants' responses, either directly or indirectly and whether this response varies based on the applicants' levels of proactivity and innovation. The experiment simulates a job offer for a professional role suitable for a business graduate. The sample consisted of a survey administered to 171 full-time university students in higher education programs. Their findings reveal a positive indirect influence of signaling family business identity on job seekers’ intention to apply, despite the direct negative impact of family ownership on applicants' willingness to engage with the recruitment process. The results also suggest that family business identity signaling is less effective among job seekers with higher levels of proactivity and innovation. This study holds significant practical implications for family businesses, allowing them to strategically adapt their hiring processes to enhance their appeal in the competitive job market.

We are working on several special issues and invite your contributions. An upcoming special issue is about artificial intelligence (AI) https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/calls-for-papers/artificial-intelligence-new-era-business-challenges-and-threats-latin-america-and. This special issue, based on AI and the enterprise, can provide several significant contributions, such as giving us a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of research in the field of AI applied to the enterprise, identifying emerging trends, challenges and opportunities. In addition, it can present detailed case studies and practical examples of how companies are using AI in various sectors and functional areas, highlighting both successes and challenges encountered in implementation. It would be interesting to explore new and promising applications of AI in business, from process automation to personalization of products and services and improved strategic decision making. It would also be of critical importance to address the ethical, social and legal implications of the growing adoption of AI in business, including issues related to data privacy, algorithmic bias and the impact on employment and society at large.

We are also editing an issue about the best papers presented at the CLADEA 2024 conference.

We have a proposal for a special issue about articles using PLS-SEM (Advances in Management Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling). The interested authors may check the website of the journal (https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/arla) to upload their papers for the special issues as soon as they are available. Looking forward to your contributions, and wishing you have a stimulating reading of the articles of this issue.

References

Alvarez-Perez, H. and Fuentes, R. (2024), “ESG disclosure and financial performance in debt market: evidence from the oil and gas industry”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 634-653, doi: 10.1108/arla-07-2024-0135.

Garay, U., Ríos, M., Sorensen, A. and Ter Host, E. (2024), “Do the different expressions of an artist offer the same financial performance over time? The case of Fernando Botero”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 529-554, doi: 10.1108/ARLA-07-2023-0119.

Llanos-Contreras, O., Cuevas-Lizama, J., Sanhueza-Palma, G. and Alonso Dos Santos, M. (2024), “Effectiveness of signaling a firm family identity to job seekers: proactiveness and innovativeness profile of the applicant”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 680-701, doi: 10.1108/arla-02-2024-0036.

Lobão, J. and Almeida, B. (2024), “Exploring market-wide herding behavior in the major stock markets of Latin America”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 601-616, doi: 10.1108/arla-04-2024-0057.

Lopes, L.F.D., Santos, A.V., da Silva, D.J.C., Sonza, I.B., Knebel Baggio, D., de Moura, G.L., Silva, W.V.d. and da Veiga, C.P. (2024), “Money value, risk perception, and behavior: evidence from the Brazilian market”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 578-600, doi: 10.1108/arla-10-2023-0171.

Navarro-Lucena, F., Molinillo, S. and Anaya-Sanchez, R. (2024), “Effects of the spectator's emotional attachment to esports players on the sponsoring brand”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 513-528, doi: 10.1108/ARLA-05-2024-0094.

Núñez-Sánchez, J.M., Molina-Gómez, J., Mercadé-Melé, P. and Fernández-Miguélez, S. (2024), “Navigating remote work: the role of corporate social responsibility in boosting employee engagement”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 617-633, doi: 10.1108/ARLA-07-2024-0141.

Rodriguez, B., Reinoso-Carvalho, F., Motoki, K. and Velasco, C. (2024), “Post-conflict marketing: the role of former conflict stakeholder on post-conflict product/service valuation across countries”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 555-577, doi: 10.1108/arla-01-2024-0008.

Rojas-Cabezas, G., Mora-Esquivel, R., Márquez, N., Chacón-Espejo, S., Nocetti-Núñez, V. and Leiva, J. (2024), “The influence of institutional context in the relationship between green management, perceived barriers to sustainability and innovation performance in SMEs”, Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (ARLA), Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 654-679, doi: 10.1108/ARLA-07-2024-0158.

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