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This issue includes five of the best papers, from six different countries, presented in the Cladea Assembly of 2015. This introduction summarises the papers and presents an analysis of Latin American publications on management, and of the advantages and conditions for international collaboration. The first article looks at the positive impact of the decentralization of decision-making processes and the formalisation of work in the innovation of small and medium enterprises. The second studies the fear of failure in work and its relationship to demographic variables. The third analyses the impact of the domestic violence suffered by workers on customer services in Puerto Rican companies. The fourth discusses the relationship between teleworking and the work-family conflict, and finally, the fifth is aimed at optimising the management of dependent demand inventory systems.

This issue includes five articles chosen among the best papers presented at the Cladea Assembly of 2015 organised by Universidad de Valparaíso (Chile). The articles were sent in from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain, and Puerto Rico, and were the best assessed in the fields of organisational behaviour, leadership and human capital management, entrepreneurships and SMEs, technology management and innovation, and operations management and value chains.

The selection process began with the evaluation of the works sent to the conference for each topic. The author wish to thank the organisers, those in charge of each topic, and all the evaluators that helped select the best works. In particular, we thank Sergio Olavarrieta, José Ernesto Amorós, Jorge Ayala, Silvio Borrero, Daniel Cabrera, Reinaldo Calvo, Consuelo García, Valeska Geldres, Jorge Gilbert, Olga Pizarro, José Antonio Robles, and Jorge Tarzijan. Authors interested in publishing their articles were asked to send in a revised version. These new versions were then subjected to a double blind evaluation, and subsequent revisions until reaching the current publication. This has been a collective process in which dozens of academics from all the Cladea schools and countries have taken part.

Este número incluye cinco de los mejores trabajos presentados en la asamblea de Cladea 2015, provenientes de seis países. En la presente introducción se resumen y comentan los trabajos, se ofrece un análisis acerca de las publicaciones latinoamericanas sobre gerencia y de las ventajas y condiciones de la colaboración internacional. El primer artículo analiza el positivo impacto de la descentralización de las decisiones y la formalización del trabajo en la innovación de las PYMES. El segundo estudia el miedo al fracaso en el trabajo y su relación con variables demográficas. El tercero analiza el impacto en el servicio al cliente de la violencia doméstica experimentada por trabajadoras en empresas de Puerto Rico. El cuarto estudia la relación entre el trabajo a distancia en el hogar (teletrabajo) y el conflicto familia-empresa. El quinto se orienta a optimizar el manejo de inventarios en sistemas con demanda dependiente.

En este número publicamos cinco artículos escogidos entre las mejores ponencias presentados en la Asamblea de CLADEA 2015 organizada por la Universidad de Valparaíso (Chile). Los artículos provienen de Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, España y Puerto Rico, y fueron los mejor evaluados en los temas de comportamiento organizacional, liderazgo y gestión del capital humano, emprendimientos y PYMES (pequeña y mediana empresa), gestión tecnológica e innovación, y gestión de operaciones y cadena de valor.

El proceso de selección se inició por las evaluaciones que se hicieron en cada tema para aceptar los trabajos enviados a la asamblea. Debemos agradecer a los organizadores, a los encargados de cada tema y a todos los evaluadores que permitieron tener una selección de los mejores trabajos, en especial a Sergio Olavarrieta, José Ernesto Amorós, Jorge Ayala, Silvio Borrero, Daniel Cabrera, Reinaldo Calvo, Consuelo García, Valeska Geldres, Jorge Gilbert, Olga Pizarro, José Antonio Robles, y Jorge Tarzijan. Posteriormente desde esta revista procedimos a solicitar versiones revisadas a los autores que estuvieran interesados en publicarlos, versiones sometidas a evaluación doble ciego, que llevaron a posteriores revisiones hasta la publicación actual. Ha sido un proceso colectivo donde participaron docenas académicos de todas las escuelas y países de Cladea.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the relationship between student assessment method and e-learning satisfaction. Which e-learning assessment method do students prefer? The assessment method is an additional determinant of the effectiveness and quality that affects user satisfaction with online courses.

The study employs data from 1,114 students. The first set of data was obtained from a questionnaire on the online platform. The second set of information was obtained from the external assessment reports by e-learning specialists. The satisfaction revealed by the students in their responses to the questionnaire is the dependent variable in the multivariate technique. In order to estimate the influence of the independent variables on the global satisfaction, we use the ordinary least squares technic. This method is the most appropriate for dependent discrete variables whose categories are ordered but have multiple categories, as is the case for the dependent variable.

The method influences e-learning satisfaction, even though only slightly. The students are reluctant to be assessed by a final exam. Students prefer systems that award more importance to the assessment of coursework as part of the final mark.

Knowing the level of student satisfaction and the factors that influence it is helpful to the teachers for improving their courses.

In online education, student satisfaction is an indicator of the quality of the education system. Although previous research has analyzed the factors that influence e-student satisfaction, to the best of authors’ knowledge, no previous research has specifically analyzed the relationship between assessment systems and general student satisfaction with the course.

A debate on whether new ventures should be supported with public funding is taking place. Adopting a position on this discussion requires rigorous assessments of implemented programs. However, the few existing efforts have mostly focused on regional cases in developed countries. To fill this gap, this paper aims to measure the effects of a regional acceleration program in a developing country (Medellin, Colombia).

The economic notion of capabilities is used to frame the analysis of firm characteristics and productivity, which are hypothesized to be heterogeneous within the program. To test these relationships, propensity score matching is used in a sample of 60 treatment and 16,994 control firms.

This paper finds that treated firms had higher revenue than propensity score-matched controls on average, confirming a positive impact on growth measures. However, such financial growth is mostly observed in service firms rather than other economic sectors.

Further evaluations, with a longer period and using more outcome variables, are suggested in the context of similar publicly funded programs in developing countries.

These findings tip the balance in favor of the literature suggesting supportive programs for high-growth firms as opposed to everyday entrepreneurship. This is an insight, especially under the context of an emerging economy, which has scarce funding to support entrepreneurship.

Fama–French model (FFM) has been successful in helping to predict the financial markets, but investors have been interested in creating more sophisticated models to better predict the performance of the stock market. The objective of the extended version is to create a more robust econometric model to better predict the performance of the Mexican Stock Market.

The study divides the Mexican Stock Market into six different portfolios. The criteria to build those portfolios are the same one used in Fama–French (1992). The study comprises 78 stocks listed in the Mexican Stock Market that are analyzed monthly during 1997–2018. The study analyzes the period before and after the 2008–2009 financial crisis to identify whether there are important changes. The estimation applies the traditional and an extended version of the FFM that include macroeconomic variables such as country risk, economic activity, inflation rate, and exchange rate and some financial variables recommended in the literature.

Results indicate that classic FFM variables are statistically significant in most cases, but relevant macroeconomic variables such as the interest rate, exchange rate and country risk stand out for being weakly relevant in most of the portfolios. However, it is noticed that some of these macroeconomic variables became relevant for different portfolios only after the 2008–2009 crisis, especially in portfolios which include small market capitalization firms.

The study includes the stocks listed in the Mexican Stock Market. One limitation is the small number of stocks available, which reduces the possibility of creating well diversified portfolios. This study includes 78 stocks. The stocks removed from the sample are from firms that were not listed during six consecutive months or whose market capitalization did not change in the same period. Outlier data were removed from the sample to capture in better way the general performance of the stock market.

The objective of the extended version is to create a more robust econometric model than the traditional model. It is expected that such estimations can be helpful to investors to make better decisions when they try to predict performance in the stock market.

An extended version of the FFM can be helpful to investors to make better decisions when they try to predict performance in the stock market.

To the best of our knowledge there are no more studies in the literature of the Mexican financial market that apply the same methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of intellectual capital (IC) on sustainable economic and financial performance (EFP) and value creation (VC) in Brazilian companies.

Based on finance and accounting theories, a quantitative and descriptive long-term study was carried out in the companies listed on the Brazil Stock Exchange and Over-the-Counter Market (B3), covering 20 years period.

The results indicate that IC positively influences profitability, corporate return and organizational value sustainably; the most intangible-intensive Brazilian companies listed on B3 presented more robust results than the least intangible-intensive; and IC contributes to a systematic increase in EFP and VC over time.

Using a well-established metric, the IC-INDEX, the IC and its effects were measured, obtaining theoretical contributions (expanding the understanding of the IC influence in sustainable EFP and VC from a long-term perspective – one subject still unexplored in the literature); and empirical (increasing the understanding of the IC’s role as a driver of competitiveness, performance and organizational value).

This study increases the understanding of the theoretical and practical effects of IC, also providing a competitive benchmarking process to access sustainable EFP and VC of companies and their industries.

The originally applied and validated proposal extends existing theory by offering a set of indicators to scale the contribution of IC to competitiveness from the perspective of long-term (historical) corporate outcomes.

Digital natives constitute a substantial part of consumers nowadays. Yet, a theoretical understanding of the factors driving their engagement with new-age digital services is lacking. This study therefore aims to examine digital natives’ continuance usage of the proliferating over-the-top (OTT) services. To address these objectives, the study uses a comprehensive model that primarily integrates perceived value, cognitive absorption and customer brand engagement theories.

Data were collected using an online personal questionnaire targeting active digital natives OTT service users using the online software tool SurveyMonkey. A sample of 1,415 digital natives was analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings indicated that continuance usage is predicted by all three theories. The results illustrate that cognitive absorption and customer brand engagement are the most critical in enhancing continuance usage. Gender effects on digital natives’ value perceptions were found. The model explains 57% of the variance in users’ continuance usage.

The study adds valuable contributions to the existing literature that are relevant to digital natives’ engagement with new-age digital services. The proposed integrated model and the role of gender in value formations provide managers with novel insights when designing effective strategies to increase continuance usage for the largest consuming generation.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2022-0133

This systematic review examined the emerging threat of indoor and outdoor pollutants to public health in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

Pollutants and pollution levels are becoming an increasing cause for concern within the LAC region, primarily because of the rapid increase in urbanization and the use of fossil fuels. The rise in indoor and outdoor air pollutants impacts public health, and there are limited regional studies on the impact of these pollutants and how they affect public health. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, EBSCOhost, Web of Science and ScienceDirect databases. Significant search terms included “indoor air pollution,” “outdoor air pollution,” “pollution,” “Latin America,” “Central America,” “South America” and “Caribbean was used.” The systematic review utilized the Rayyan systematic software for uploading and sorting study references.

Database searches produced 1,674 results, of which, after using the inclusion–exclusion criteria and assessing for bias, 16 studies were included and used for the systematic review. These studies covered both indoor and outdoor pollution. Various indoor and outdoor air pollutants linked to low birth weight, asthma, cancer and DNA impairment were reported in this review. Even though only some intervention programs are available within the region to mitigate the harmful effects of pollution, these programs need to be robust and appropriately implemented, causing possible threats to public health. Significant gaps in the research were identified, especially in the Caribbean.

Limitations of the study include limited available research done within LAC, with most of the research quantifying pollutants rather than addressing their impacts. Additionally, most studies focus on air pollution but neglect water and land pollution’s effects on public health. For this reason, the 16 studies included limited robustness of the review.

Although available studies quantifying pollution threats in LAC were identified in this review, research on the adverse impacts of pollution, especially concerning public health, is limited. LAC countries should explore making cities more energy-efficient, compact and green while improving the transportation sector by utilizing clean power generation. In order to properly lessen the effects of pollution on public health, more research needs to be done and implemented programs that are working need to be strengthened and expanded.