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This paper is a historical account of the process by which Michael Porter and INCAE Business School put together a regional competitiveness strategy for Central America that was officially adopted by the governments of five participating countries, and implemented through a series of Presidential Summits that occurred between 1995 and 1999. The paper provides a unique case study on the adoption of the concepts put forth by Porter in his book “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” (1990) at the highest level of government. The study arrives at a series of practical implications for policy makers that are particularly relevant for the implementation of supra-national regional strategies.

The authors conduct an extensive literature review of 190 policy papers produced by INCAE Business School, that are used to recreate the historical evolution of the regional competitiveness strategy. The effect of Porter’s intervention is also assessed by comparing the main economic indicators of each participating country with those of 2005-2010. One of the authors was the main protagonist in the successful implementation of the strategy, and the paper relies partially on his accounts of events.

This study describes how economic policy in Central America was profoundly influenced by Michael Porter’s thinking in the second half of the 1990s. These policy changes promoted international competition of Central American clusters and firms, and opened the region for international investment and tourism. The region experienced important increases in its economic integration, its international trade, foreign direct investment and tourist arrivals. Gross domestic product growth was accelerated in Honduras and Nicaragua.

Like all case studies, this study has limits related to the generalizability of its conclusions. Additionally, it is not possible to determine the precise nature of the relation between the implementation of the regional economic strategy, and the impact on economic growth, integration, FDI attraction and exports.

The paper has several practical implications that relate to the design of regional economic strategies. First, it identifies policy areas that are more effective as part of regional strategies, and distinguishes them from those that should be resolved at the national level. Second, it suggests a process that can facilitate execution. Finally, it provides an example of the coordinating role that can be assumed by an academic institution such as INCAE.

The Central American Competitiveness Initiative provides a unique setting to study the implementation of competitiveness policy for several reasons. First, in all countries in Central America, Michael Porter’s diamond framework (1990) and cluster theory were officially adopted at the highest level of government. Second, in addition to their individual competitiveness strategies, all countries adopted a regional strategy for cooperation and economic integration. Finally, the Central American Competitiveness Initiative was founded on one of the first competitiveness think tanks of the world.

The purpose of this paper is to understand business students' intention to behave ethically in general, and in particularly in the business context of a developing country, India.

The paper surveyed 250 final semester MBA students from different business schools in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh in India. The study employed the most popular behavioural theory, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to understand the intention of business students to behave ethically. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse direct effects of the constructs on behavioural intention, and the overall model.

Findings revealed that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are positively related and have strong influence on ethical behavioural intention of business students. All constructs together explain 67 percent variance in intention. Attitude alone contributes 46 percent in explaining variance in ethical behavioural intention.

Business ethics field can benefit from this study as it provides an empirical explanation of the contribution of each factor that is, attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, in ethical behavioural intention of business students. This is directly beneficial for business schools and for education policymakers as the information can help policymakers to understand the potential of existing business ethics education. This study is limited to a data set of 250 business students in the context of a single country which cannot be generalized. So, there is need for research of this type in a more collaborative international context.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first study in the Indian context to predict the intention of business students to behave ethically, using the TPB model. This study contributes valuable knowledge to the domain of business ethics, behavioural studies as well the field of business education, and suggests to explore ways to strengthen the three constructs attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, as these constructs were found to have a strong influence in forming ethical behavioural intention of business students of business schools in India.