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In a world where sustainability is a major aim at all socioeconomic levels, social entrepreneurship plays an important role in achieving the goals that have been set. The purpose of this study is to broaden the knowledge of social start-ups, social incubators and founding teams, highlighting the value of each one. The aim is to use quantitative analysis to determine the possible link between social incubators and social start-up success and identify the founding team profile of social start-ups from each sector according to a sector-based ranking.

Bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to calculate the efficiency of social incubators and social start-ups and thus quantify the impact, in terms of increased efficiency, of social incubators on social start-ups. Then, using cross-efficiency methodology, a synthetic index was used to analyse the founding team profile of social start-ups. The study is based on primary data from a survey of Spanish social incubators and social start-ups.

The study provides strong quantitative evidence of the positive effect of social incubators on the development of social start-ups. The size of this effect exceeds the know-how of start-ups. In terms of efficiency gains, this research quantifies the impact of social incubators on this entrepreneurial ecosystem. This impact exceeds 35%. The study also shows that the strongest social start-ups are in the food and information and communication technology (ICT) sectors. The founding teams in these cases have a strong business background, have a high educational level, receive subsidies and express a desire to retain control of the company.

There is an extensive literature dedicated to the analysis of the behaviour and characteristics of traditional incubators, accelerators and start-ups. However, despite the recent rise of social entrepreneurship, studies of social incubators and social start-ups remain scarce. This study provides two novel findings. (1) It shows the importance of creating a social start-up in a context where it receives support throughout all its development stages, providing quantitative insight into the contribution of social incubators and social start-ups. (2) It reveals the profile of founding teams in the highest-ranked business sectors.

This paper analyzes tourism competitiveness in Latin America, providing a country-level ranking of tourism competitiveness. The study also identifies which areas of management to focus on in order to increase competitiveness in each case.

The study is based on the variables used by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to measure tourism competitiveness. The DP2 distance method is used to create a synthetic indicator. This method helps identify which areas best explain differences in competitiveness between countries.

In tourism, the most competitive Latin American countries are Costa Rica, Chile, Panama, Mexico and Uruguay. The areas that best explain the differences between countries relate to cultural and natural resources, the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), international openness and transport infrastructure. These are therefore priority areas for tourism managers.

This paper provides detailed analysis for each country. The situation in each country is presented in terms of the key areas highlighted by the analysis. This approach can aid the individual decisions of companies and public managers, thus enhancing tourism competitiveness. This greater competitiveness can strengthen the tourism sector, which is crucial in uncertain times.

Based on a synthetic indicator, this research offers the first country-level analysis of tourism competitiveness in Latin America. The study is also novel in its ability to detect the areas where action should be taken to improve tourism competitiveness. This analysis offers an alternative to the WEF Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), which has certain weaknesses. The results can help enhance tourism competitiveness in Latin American countries through the specific recommendations presented in this paper.

Este documento analiza la competitividad del turismo en América Latina, proporcionando un ranking a nivel país. El estudio también identifica en qué áreas de gestión deben enfocarse los esfuerzos para aumentar la competitividad en cada caso.

La investigación se basa en las variables propuestas por el Foro Económico Mundial (WEF) para medir la competitividad del turismo. El método de distancia DP₂ se utiliza para crear un indicador sintético. Este método ayuda a identificar qué factores explican en mayor medida las diferencias de competitividad entre países.

Los países latinoamericanos más competitivos en cuanto a la actividad turística son Costa Rica, Chile, Panamá, México y Uruguay. Los factores que mejor explican las diferencias entre países se relacionan con los recursos culturales y naturales, la implementación de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC), la apertura internacional y las infraestructuras de transporte. Por tanto, estas serían las áreas prioritarias de trabajo para los gestores turísticos.

Este documento proporciona un análisis detallado de cada país. La situación individual se presenta mediante un análisis de las áreas clave destacadas como responsables en mayor medida de la competitividad. Este enfoque puede ayudar a las decisiones tomadas por los gestores de las empresas y los administradores públicos, mejorando así la competitividad del turismo. Esta mayor competitividad puede fortalecer el sector turístico, que es crucial en tiempos de incertidumbre.

Basado en un indicador sintético, esta investigación ofrece el primer análisis a nivel país de la competitividad turística en América Latina. El estudio también es novedoso por su capacidad para detectar los ámbitos en los que se debe actuar para mejorar la competitividad turística. Este análisis ofrece una alternativa al Índice de Competitividad de Viajes y Turismo (TTCI) del Foro Económico Mundial (WEF), que tiene ciertas debilidades. Los resultados pueden ayudar a mejorar la competitividad del turismo en los países de América Latina a través de las recomendaciones específicas presentadas en este documento.

The purpose of this paper is to study the efficiency and financial situation of Spanish airlines by conducting a comparative analysis of those operating in hubs and those that employ the point-to-point system.

Data envelopment analysis and accounting rates are implemented to do so.

The results show that hubs do not result in the companies that use them being efficient. Instead, it is the charter, low-cost and private flight operators that best manage their resources.

The study makes a novel contribution to the literature, as there has been no research on Spanish airlines that compares the two types of operators (hubs and point to point).

This chapter investigates the social determinants (urbanisation, population, literacy and corruption) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the top 100 developed and developing emitting countries. The data were collected from central repositories for the different variables explored for the period 2012–2020 in a cross-country analysis. Fixed effects ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to analyse the data. The results for all top 100 countries and developing countries show that urbanisation and corruption are significantly positive and negative determinants of GHG emissions, respectively. In addition, literacy is a significant positive determinant of GHG emissions in developing countries but not in the top 100 and developed countries. Population is not significant in the top 100 developed and developing countries. The results for the control variables suggest that primary energy consumption is a positive significant determinant of GHG emissions in the top 100 developed and developing countries. However, gross domestic product (GDP) is not a significant determinant of GHG emissions. The findings have important policy implications.

This paper aims to characterize the sexual maturation of M. flexuosa plantations in Tulumayo.

The methodology in this paper was selection of three plots in open field and usage of different densities of planting, after the maturation of the first plants, we began the quarterly evaluation. There was total 28 evaluations in seven years of age.

As a result, it was determined that at 12 years, the plots with lower density presented a greater number of mature individuals, with a predominance of female palms that produced an average of four bunches of fruit per year, and males five inflorescences. In addition, 15% of adult female plants went dormant, whereas males accounted for 3.4%. Reproductive cycles began in September and culminated in October of the following year, which were synchronized with rainfall.

Planting density was a determining factor in the early maturity of M. flexuosa and sustainable plantation management.

The cycle of external indebtedness of dependent countries has become a huge constraint on any strategy for radical social change.

Argentina has recently entered a new process of debt overhang and renegotiation with the International Monetary Fund and private global creditors. The dominant debate around the country's foreign debt revolves around the conditions that can guarantee the sustainability of repayment. The underlying objective is to remain in the debt system that produces and reproduces dependency.

This chapter will seek to analyze the question of debt sustainability from another point of view: Is it possible to guarantee the (financial) sustainability of the debt at the same time as guaranteeing the sustainability of life? Our argument is that by remaining in the global debt system, Argentina creates conditions that violate the requirements for the sustainability of human and nonhuman life. Drawing on a discussion from Marxist dependency theory and the traditions of Marxist feminism and environmentalism, we will discuss how the debt sustainability argument presupposes the impossibility of reproducing life. In particular, we will show how the conditions required to guarantee debt sustainability in Argentina entail the deepening of the superexploitation of the “productive” and “reproductive” labor force, and the exacerbation of extractivism, putting social reproduction in crisis.

This paper aims to unveil the business‐government‐society relationship in China, as compared with that in the USA.

Three cases – the Chinese milk scandal, the beef recall, and the peanut butter scandal in the USA – are presented and contrasted.

The business‐society‐government relationship in China sets itself apart from that in the USA, largely due to its one‐party political system and the Confucian tradition. The relative lack of independent watchdogs and advocacy groups and the relative lack of independence of the media make it more difficult for irresponsible behavior by powerful corporations to be exposed in China. Further, paternal local governments can sometimes play an enabling role to companies engaged in irresponsible behavior under their protective wings.

With little extant research in the area of corporate social responsibility in the Chinese context, future research can build on this research and further test the relationship with quantitative data.

The research provides insights into the context of business operations in China and thus has significant practical relevance.

The paper is the first to explore the business‐government‐society relationship in China.

Following a successful debt-renegotiation process in the mid-2000s, Argentina consolidated a path of growth and debt relief. The outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2007–2009 and other domestic imbalances altered the economic scenario. In this context, the authorities tried to return to global financial markets, but legal conflict with vulture funds made that option unpalatable. In 2015, the triumph of a right-wing political coalition restored the dominance of neoliberal economic policies, including the return to debt and equity markets. The subsequent cycle of indebtedness and capital flight faced by Argentina not only unleashed a major crisis but also caused the return of the International Monetary Fund, which granted the largest lending arrangement to a single country in its history. The aims of this chapter are to analyze the winding cycle of debt reduction and overindebtedness experienced by Argentina between 2001 and 2022; to examine the set of structural factors as well as the role of certain domestic and foreign actors; and to consider the long-term effects of external indebtedness and some lessons that can be drawn for other countries in the Global South.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the origins and the business model of department stores in Mexico between 1891 and 1910.

Primary and secondary source material support an historical and comparative study of retailing and marketing evolution in a market on the global periphery.

This paper finds that Mexico's vanguard position in establishing the first purpose‐built department stores in Latin America is closely linked to the strong presence of an immigrant entrepreneurial class from the Barcelonnette region of France in the retailing and textile manufacturing sectors. Mexican department stores followed Parisian models, policies, and innovations closely, yet accommodated local customs and conditions. The stores served as showcases for the success of the national government's economic and cultural modernization program and as cultural primers for Mexican consumers.

Scholarly work on department stores, consumerism, and the influential French community in Mexico is extremely limited, especially so in English. This is the first work that brings these together and analyzes them within – and in relation to – the context of Mexico's rapid modernization during the era of President Porfirio Díaz from 1876 to 1911. It also undermines the notion that the USA is the first and most influential foreign influence on modern Mexican consumer culture.

The authors explain their approach to teaching literatura infantil (children’s literature) in Spanish to bilingual teachers pursuing their master’s degree in bilingual education at a university in South Texas. In this Self-Study of Teacher Education Practice (S-STEP) research, the authors investigated how teachers can transform their practice and come to value their students’ abilities to interpret literature. They engaged the teachers in projects using quality children’s literature. The projects were carried out by graduate inservice teachers teaching Spanish/English bilingual students studying at different grade levels. Some teachers taught along the Texas/Mexico border and others taught in a large metropolitan school district in central Texas. The authors used their analysis of the inservice teachers’ projects as data to inform their own practice as teacher educators. In the first project, the bilingual teachers engaged their students in exploratory talk that allowed them to bring their backgrounds and experiences into discussions of what they read. The second project challenged the teachers to consider the importance of the images in high-quality illustrated children’s books. The teachers asked their students to read the images and expand their understanding of the books by considering more than the words in the texts. In the final project, the teachers guided their students through Ada’s stages of creative dialogue using children’s literature. The authors describe the projects in detail and give examples from four different teachers showing what they learned about teaching children’s literature and how they changed their perspectives about what their emergent bilingual students could do. Although only four teachers are highlighted, they are representative of students taking the course and engaging in the projects over three different semesters.