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All family businesses face an inescapable succession process. Succession means the process by which a family business is transferred from one generation to the next, involving most of the members of the family business, either directly or indirectly. There is an extensive literature that deals with the study of successions. In Latin America, work on family businesses stands out, although from business history the analysis of successions for this region is still scarce. This chapter aims to highlight the progress in this arena and help fill the gaps with a brief review of the main theories and debates about succession in family business. In addition to a summary of the main findings for the Latin American countries, we propose some elements for a theoretical and methodological debate in Latin America.

The chapter analyzed the conditions and challenges of entrepreneurship in Latin America. Looking at different stages of the Latin American context (ancient civilizations, postindependence/revolutions movements, neoliberalism), we argue that entrepreneurship in the region is under a fourth wave (the present globalization/geopolitical processes), flowing all across the region and manifests itself in different forms. Furthermore, it can be identified as a breaking point from the almost linear importation of Western positions, and proposing must be analyzed under a new perspective, where the future should be built around the different facets, positives and negatives, each of the waves had plunged into our societies. It is highlighted that new positions can be originated, and regional theories and methods can give a fresh, deep transformation and more precise understanding of Latin America in the present era, enriching the public policies in its diverse territories. The chapter invites to make a critical reflection to unleash entrepreneurship in the region, a millennial potential.

Taking as reference a sample of around a hundred biographical materials on entrepreneurs in Mexico and Colombia, the purpose of this chapter is dual. Both to show the relevance and varied modalities that the biographical approach has enjoyed in business history research since the 1990s, and to display the intrinsic potential this modality of scholarship entails for entrepreneurship endeavors. In particular, it discusses the prospects to incorporate this body of empirical works into the large Latin American audience attending undergraduate, graduate and executive education programs in business, economic history and related fields. The chapter is organized into three sections. The first two are devoted to illustrate relevant patterns in the entrepreneurial trajectory of individuals and entrepreneurial families studied in each of the two countries under consideration. The last section identifies some conceptual issues that may impact current debates on Latin American business development as exemplified in recent business and economic history journal venues and scholarly conferences.

This chapter is focused in a methodological frame to study the practices of entrepreneurial agents and the startups in nontechnological sectors in the middle-income countries. The startup of ideas involves three phases that comprise the first life cycle of a possible company considering too sociocultural aspects as external factors implied in the creation, prototype, and entry to markets. In Latin America, the type of risks experienced by companies in their early stages of life and incubation are not known in a timely manner. The lack of information on entrepreneurship and its agents in countries such as Mexico also inhibits visualization of heterogeneity of contexts to business development, and how some regions are more propensity to boost startups than others, in different sectorial and branches of knowledge. Mexico like rest countries in Latin America has a high percentage of SMEs focused in sectors that are innovative but not are participating in the last technological waves. For this reason, it is necessary to know how these agents prepare, manage, and apply entrepreneurship in accordance with institutional, technological, and sociocultural dispositions to structure their experiences and make more vigorous the territorial entrepreneurial. Small and medium businesses are building new paths taking advantage of territorial and cultural opportunities. Applying the framework proposed in the last part of this chapter is presented a case of study of an entrepreneur oriented to craft brewer production in Tijuana, Mexico.

The chapter analyzed the conditions and challenges of the innovation in Latin America, and the historical trend in its study in the framework of this handbook. The transformative and inclusive approach of the innovation was evidenced as the most significant ascendent trend in the region. Furthermore, this was identified as a breaking point of the linear individualism of the entrepreneurship and the innovation in Latin America due to this type of innovation that requires high levels of collaboration and strong institutional leaderships. It was highlighted that the major challenge of recovery in the region should be accompanied by a deep transformation in the quality of education because the systematic generation of innovation implies capabilities rather than wills. The chapter closes with a critical reflexion of the phenomenon, the new lines of research in the region, and its implications.

Through the metaphor of navigation, we offer the reader a journey that goes from the literature review about the main theories of creativity throughout the last century to the present, to later address it for Latin America, outlining some reflections on its current context, as well as what the future holds. The literature review shows that, unlike the Western Hemisphere, creativity as a line of research in our region has been somewhat neglected, without being given its rightful place, generally very little addressed. Therefore, it is proposed to get back on track, rescuing what has been done and through an exercise of reflection, proposing new lines of research linked to creativity itself, to innovation, and also toward entrepreneurship.

The internationalization process in recent decades has been discussed from different approaches. In this chapter, we study the evolution of selected Latin American and Spanish companies that have experienced a growing evolution from small or medium-sized enterprises to large corporations with participation in global markets and a strategic role played by the family organizations and small business groups. It is a study of multiple cases scope focused on two main lines of discussion. In one hand, the trajectories of internationalization and, and the other, the family firm organization and structure, correspondingly to sectorial aspects and the global situations that have encouraged the expansion of markets, the acquisitions of assets outside the countries of origin, and the outsourcing system. The group of companies selected to discuss the heterogeneity of the internationalization processes is based in case studies: Lojas Amerianas-Brazil, Crystal Lagoons-Chile, Despegar.com-Argentina, Sol-Meliá, Spain, Ferrovial, Spain, Talgo, Spain. Among the findings of this comparative study, the following stand out: (1) debates about the family business are alive, (2) multidimensional perspectives between countries are needed to understand not only internationalization but also the relevance of competitive learning, entrepreneurial vision evolution, and diversity of trajectories between sectors and companies, and finally (3) the importance of culture and immigration in business and family development from Small and Medium Enterprises (hereafter SME) to large businesses.