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The study aims to explore the sectoral contributions defined as agriculture, manufacturing and services value added, capital inflows defined as workers' remittances, foreign direct investment, official development assistance and domestic credit by banks as a proxy for financial deepening in Brazil-led, and Mexico-led clusters, and Latin America and the Caribbean region as a whole. The goal is to ascertain the polarization and uniformity effects of these parameters in shaping the growth and development in the midst of global financial crisis and economic challenges facing the region.

Using the classifications of Brazil-led cluster and Mexico-led cluster from Izquierdo and Talvi, the study is advanced using panel (pool) data estimation using the ARDL approach. The author used the augmented Solow framework to advance the study. He first established the desired cointegration vector for individual countries within the cluster, each cluster level and the region prior to pursuing the regression estimation. Both clusters were combined to represent the region. The author estimates the short-run (first-difference) and long-run effects of sectoral contributions and capital inflows in the region.

The region's capital productivity is driven by Brazil-led cluster. In phase 1 (sectoral shifts), polarization is noted in agriculture (dominated by Brazil-led cluster); and services (dominated by Mexico-led cluster). Uniformity exists in two clusters and the region with respect to manufacturing share where both clusters have almost equal (positive) dominance and hence exuding positive effects in the region. In phase 2, polarization is noted in remittances (dominated Brazil-led cluster), foreign direct investment (dominated by Mexico-led cluster) and financial development (dominated by Brazil-led cluster). Uniformity is noted in both clusters and the region from negative effects of official development assistance (ODA).

The study is fairly new and contemporary in its attempt to analyze the effects of sectoral shifts and capital inflows in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. Using the classification of Brazil-led cluster and Mexico-led cluster, it investigates the polarization and uniformity in the region with respect to these parameters. The study contributes to policy dialogue, and explores the emerging trends in key economic and structural factors of growth whilst highlighting some burgeoning issues shaping LAC's growth and development overall.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue which aims to provide a better understanding of the extent of regional polarization across different economic sectors and its impact on the business environment and strategies of firms in Latin America.

This paper introduces the topic of regional polarization, summarizes the findings from the articles in this special issue, and offers directions for future research.

The macro studies showed that polarization has impacted the agricultural and sector contributions to economic growth, FDI and remittance flows to the region, and created different competitive business environments in the Brazil and Mexico-led clusters. On the other hand, these studies show uniformity in the contribution of manufacturing to growth and superior women loan repayment performance across the region. The micro level studies showed convincingly that firms have to nurture different sets of competencies in the Mexican and Brazil-led clusters. These pioneer studies show the importance of the environmental context to firm's strategy.

The alignment between firm strategy and environment is a key factor of success. In a polarized Latin America, alignment with the changing global order is a necessary condition for success. Such an alignment requires a configuration of firm strategic resources to respond to the increasing opportunities.

The paper introduces the special issue which lays the foundation for further studies on how firms adapt to regional polarization.

The authors aim to examine how macro, meso and micro territorial boundaries influence the loan repayment performance of female clients of mega microfinance institutions (MFIs) operating in a polarized Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

The study uses panel data (random effect analysis) comprising seven years and 407 MFIs of LAC.

The repayment performance of MFIs' female clients in LAC is meso and micro territorially bounded. It is positively influenced by the urbanization and gender inequality levels of the LAC countries, and by the number of loans per MFI loan officer.

Data concerning the risk of the businesses women invested in, or data related to women's access to credit, were not included; high heterogeneity in large countries must be taken into account. The authors' findings expand the understanding of territorial boundary conditions concerning female clients' repayment performance and extend the prior literature on the subject.

The authors' findings suggest that the MFIs operating in LAC should increase their number of loan officers. The MFIs of the Mexico-led cluster may also seek a better balance between female and male clients, since hiring more loan officers may be impracticable for them.

The authors empirically challenge the widely accepted assumption that female clients are always the best choice for MFIs. They also unfold territorial boundaries conditioning these clients' performance.

The economic realignment in Latin America has created two clusters, one stagnant in the north and the other growth-bound in the south. This study aims to focus on Brazil, the key player in the growth-bound southern cluster, and address three fundamental questions: how Brazilian executives in four B2B sectors (telecommunications, business equipment, steel, and transportation) viewed the internal competitive developments, how they strategically responded to these developments, and what were the marketing and financial outcomes of these strategies.

Data were obtained by interviewing top decision makers such as president, chief executive officer, and director of the companies.

Findings show that the intensity of competitive pressures due to globalization varied by sector and so did strategic responses of firms. Marketing and financial performance outcomes also varied by sectors.

The study adds to the growing literature on competitive market developments, strategic responses and performance outcomes of firms in Brazil, an important emerging economy and the key player in the southern Latin America cluster.

This paper aims to classify tourist accommodation using data from Booking.com and TripAdvisor and analyse the extent to which the different segments identified differ in terms of being adults-only.

In total, 1,535 properties located in nine Spanish sun and beach destinations were examined using a latent class cluster analysis (LCCA). The bias-adjusted three-step approach was used to investigate the differences between belonging to adults-only accommodation or not among the identified clusters.

Results show that adults-only accommodation tends to belong to the cluster with higher online ratings. In small Spanish islands, adults-only hotels account for a large share (more than 25%) of hotels.

It was not possible to analyse whether the higher rating was due to the accommodation being better or due to the tourists being more satisfied with their stay.

In urban destinations, the model is not widely used. However, in coastal destinations, it is becoming more than a novelty or a new trend.

In small Spanish islands, people traveling with children are becoming a minority. Families may feel discriminated against and express dissatisfaction with this situation in the future.

This study covers the gap in the academic literature on this growing hotel segment.

The purpose of this purpose is to understand the territorial management process behind the implementation and anchoring of a foreign direct investment (FDI) project in an emerging country during its project life cycle. This research contributes to the “strategy as practice” and “triple helix” research fields.

The authors use qualitative and single-case research with secondary public sources and confirmatory interviews. The case is related to the process of implementing and anchoring a joint venture in the semiconductor industry between a South Korean company and a Brazilian company. The relations between the university, the companies and the government are analyzed in terms of supporting territorial attractiveness.

Viewing the attraction of FDI in collaborative terms provides new empirical evidence and explanations of the phenomenon. From this single-case study, the authors can offer the following research propositions, which can be further developed and tested: P1 – the use of a triple helix strategy is an attractive factor when applying an exogenous investment; P2: the entrepreneurial university is an attractive factor when applying an exogenous investment; and P3: contemporary public policies must be involved in complex networks with the community to achieve success when locating and anchoring an exogenous investment.

One of the main limitations is linked to the secondary data sources for the reconstruction of the case narrative. Secondary data sources omit important details when reporting events. The authors tried to overcome this limitation by using multiple sources and providing different types and breadth of details; for the triangulation stage, the authors held interviews to confirm the data collected in the newspapers and to look for details that could have passed unnoticed. Additionally, it should be noted that the confirmatory interviews were retrospective. An intensive interview promotes the clarification of each participant’s interpretation of his or her own experience and therefore represents a very useful method for interpretative research. However, the limitation is that between the experience and the date of the interviews, the interviewee undergoes many other experiences, learning and contexts that modify his or her point of view and way of interpreting what happened in the past. Finally, in this study, the authors have chosen a “Gioia method” template rather than an “Eisenhardt” template (Langley and Abdallah, 2011) and one impression may be the result of a limitation of this template, as pointed out by Langley and Abdallah (2011) “This template has limitations too. One potential limitation that seems, however, not to have hindered these researchers concerns the challenge of convincing readers about the transferability and relevance of the findings given the propensity to study single cases.” In an interpretive research, it is argued that it is the depth of contextual detail in a case study that provides the understanding necessary for a reader to judge whether the theoretical implication is pertinent.

This paper presents a case of success in attracting FDI in emerging countries. The authors emphasize the mechanisms, agreements and difficulties experienced by the government and the local community involved in the management process for the implementation and anchoring of an FDI project. This study offers a valuable resource for FDI attraction for public sector managers and society members. The management of the implementation process of an FDI project life cycle leads to a “territorial triple helix” model that can be used by emerging countries to promote sustainable economic development in high-tech industries. By choosing the theoretical choice of narrative, the authors have a better understanding of the process for anchoring FDI because the authors can identify key events and present information on how territories develop their policies.

The example of the Brazilian experience in the management of the FDI anchor of the semiconductor industry implies a series of learning for the emerging economies, particularly in terms of the possibility to discover new features to increase the attractiveness of their FDIs. Usually when the authors think about or consult the literature on attracting and anchoring FDI projects, the authors find that countries are concerned about market size, trade openness or interest rate data. However, in the case of HT Micron, an unknown or untouched criterion can be added: the collaboration between the agents of society.

The present research challenges the linear views of project life and displays a successful project that follows a quite different path. This study is original because it provides public sector managers and society members with a valuable resource for FDI implementation and anchoring. Usually when the authors think about or consult the literature on attracting and anchoring FDI projects, the authors find that countries are concerned about market size, trade openness or interest rate data. However, in the HT Micron case, it is possible to add an unknown or untouched criterion: the collaboration between agents of society.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and analyze a model to obtain a total factor productivity of an industry through quantitative empirical analysis in order to determine the joint contribution of the production and technology function, and the change and technical progress. The case of the Peruvian large shipbuilding industry between the years 1969 and 1990 was considered for the analysis of the proposed model. The large shipbuilding in Peru finished in 1992 and has restarted in 2014. The importance of the study lies in the fact that the analysis is focused on an industry which is resurfacing, and in this regards, the study of the first production period will yield more and accurate information to make decisions regarding its future development.

One way of considering the several effects of technical progress, in line with Sato (1970) such as growth and bias, is to specify a production function maintaining the linear homogeneity property, such as: Y(t)=F [A(t)K(t), B(t)L(t)], where Y(t) is the aggregate product over a period of time (t); K(t) is the capital; L(t) is the labor; and A(t) and B(t) are the efficiencies or augmentations of K(t) and L(t), respectively. Based on the regression analysis data, the value of σ can be estimated to a residual growth rate (Kennedy and Thirlwall, 1972) that allows assessing the technical knowledge that is not attributable to the factors’ efficiency grains: TCTR = T ˙ / T − ( α ( A ˙ / A ) + β ( B ˙ / B ) ) . This last expression measures the residual technological growth rate (TCTR, by its Spanish acronym).

The results of the analysis of the large shipbuilding at SIMA-Callao during the given period (22 years of operation, between 1969 and 1990) show that the necessary installed capacity and the technological knowledge was available in order to develop a complex industrial process in the South Pacific region, thus, contributing to the sector’s growth in the country. The evolution of the shipbuilding activities coincides with the GDP expansion and decline periods in Peru. According to the results, the total factor productivity increased during 1969-1976, 1979-1982, and 1986-1987 periods and it has been confirmed that the contribution of the efficiencies of the production factors were inversely related to the economies of scale and output growth.

The analysis is based on the activities carried out throughout 22 years of operations in SIMA-Callao shipyards (1969-1990). The data regarding the product, labor, imported materials costs, local material costs, direct expenses, wages, and man-day costs was obtained from several sources within the shipyard. Direct expenses correspond to classification, inspections, administrative expenses (dock, quality control, equipment rental, etc.), drawings, technical data, insurance, and materials freight. Additionally, the sources of information are project construction contracts, annual expenses reports, and man-day cost quarterly reports of the shipbuilding area. The man-day cost includes salary, social benefits, and the company’s functional cost.

There are different ways to obtain productivity index. In this case, the authors used the stated model. In addition, based on this experience, this can be applied to other industries.

To the best of our knowledge, no study has examined credit cycle synchronizations in the context of emerging economies. Studying the credit cycles synchronization across BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries is crucial given the magnitude of trade and financial integration among member counties. The enormity of the trade and financial linkages among BRICS countries and growth spillovers from emerging economies to advanced and low-income countries provide the rationale and motivation to study the synchronization of credit cycles across BRICS.

The study investigates the credit cycles coherence across BRICS economies from 1996Q2 to 2020Q4. The synchronization analysis is done using the noval wavelet approach. The analysis examines not only the coherence but also the extent of credit cycle synchronization that varies across frequencies and over time among different pairs of nations.

The authors find heterogeneity in the credit cycles' synchronization among the member nations. China and India are very much in sync with the other BRICS countries. China's high-frequency credit cycle mostly leads the other countries' credit cycles before the global financial crisis and shows a mix of lead/lag relationships post-financial crisis. Interestingly, most of the time, India's low-frequency credit cycles lead the member countries' credit cycles, and Brazil's low frequency credit cycle lag behind the other BRICS countries' credit cycles, except for Russia. The results are crucial from the macroprudential policymaker's perspective.

The empirical design is applicable to a similar set of countries and may not directly fit each emerging economy.

The findings will help understand the marked deepening of trade, technology, investment and financial interdependence across the world. BRICS acronym requires no introduction, but such analysis may help understand the interaction at the monetary policy level.

This is the first study that highlights the need to understand the credit variable interactions for BRICS nations.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the way different economic sectors in Brazil use knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and explore which features of KIBS use are associated with better innovation outcomes.

Clusters and regression analyses were used to analyze data from the national innovation survey (PINTEC) from 2014.

The results show that most of the 55 sectors of the Brazilian economy studied make little use of KIBS, but industries in which firms that interact with KIBS providers also have better innovation performance and offer more innovative offerings. The relationship with higher education institutions and research institutes proved particularly relevant, while the interaction with consultancy firms seems to be a strategy that leaves firms “stuck in the middle”.

The outcomes confirm the arguments of the literature that the use of KIBS has positive outcomes for customer firms. More importantly, however, the paper complements the existing literature by showing that the type of KIBS used in each country is relevant to understand firms’ innovation performance. The outcomes can guide firms and public policy initiatives oriented at the articulation of the national innovation system.

Social innovation is a recent theme, and the practices related to this area are characterized by punctual actions and projects restricted by time and space that make it difficult to develop strategies that can be sustained in this field. Therefore, one point that deserves to be highlighted in studies on social innovation is a matter of scalability. This paper aims to deal with a bibliometry whose objective was to map the existing studies about scalability of social innovation carried out in the Capes and EBSCOHost portals.

This paper deals with a bibliometry. The topic researched in this bibliometry is scalability of social innovation. The databases chosen for this research were Portal Periódico Capes and EBSCOHost because they are the leading providers of search databases.

A total of 42 papers were considered, distributed between 2002 and 2017. The analysis criteria for the study were origin (composed by year, author, country of origin, periodical and impact factor), focus of the investigations, justification, method and main techniques of research, contributions and theoretical advances and challenges and paths.

Among the main results found, one of them is that scalability is a topic that began to be researched recently, so that the USA and Brazil lead the research. Most of the studies focused on the scalability process and justified the importance of studies on the subject as a way to explore the potential of expanding the social impacts of a social innovation. Several studies have emphasized the role of networks as being quite positive for the scalability process and have been concerned with identifying factors that contribute to the scalability process. The challenge that most stood out among the papers was the financial sustainability of a social innovation. At the end, a research agenda was proposed.