Latin America Leadership Program

Author: Ricardo Ernst

Peruvian agricultural export products have gained importance in world markets in recent years. Danton Arturo Escalante Yaulilahua, Jimena Melissa Olivera Recuay, Mayte Rocio Miranda Galván, and Pedro Bernabé Venegas Rodríguez (Universidad Continental, Peru) study the five main Peruvian products in contrast with similar products from other Latin American countries in a pre-pandemic period of development and energy crisis (2010-2019), analyzing two categories: the level of specialization and the level of competitiveness. The authors highlight the high level of specialization in all the Peruvian products analyzed, especially for the category of blueberries; likewise, grapes, blueberries and avocado presented high levels of competitiveness, while coffee and asparagus were the least competitive due to their low performance in the analysis of the level of specialization.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought great economic consequences in the markets. Francisco Gálvez-Gamboa, Erik Muñoz-Henríquez and Andrés Valenzuela-Keller (Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile) analyze the relationship between the progress of vaccination programs and Latin American financial markets. A Wavelet coherence analysis approach is used to evaluate the co-movement of markets and the progress of inoculation strategies based on daily data from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The authors conclude that the advancement of inoculation programs in Latin American countries has had positive and significant effects on their financial market returns.

In the next article, Daiane Inacio da Silva Nottar, Gislaine Siebre Cezar, Vinicius Abilio Martins, and Geysler Rogis Flor Bertolini (Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná, Brazil) aim to verify the relationship between the indicators and the volatility of the shares of financial intermediaries listed in the BM&FBovespa Index in the period of the 2008 and 2020 crises (COVID-19). The methods used for the analysis were Spearman correlation, multiple linear regression and T-test. The period analyzed includes the year 2008, the second half of 2019, and the first half of 2020, which include the periods before and during the 2008 and 2020 crises. For the authors, the results indicate that only the total asset turnover rate indicator has a significant relationship with stock price volatility.

The following article, written by Daiane Antonini Bortoluzzi (Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso (UFMT), Brazil), Januário José Monteiro (Norwich Business School, United Kingdom), Rogério João Lunkes and Fabricia Silva da Rosa (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil), aims to analyze the effects of Machiavellianism, organizational commitment and personal control on budget slack by surveying 150 managers of companies listed on the Brazilian Stock Exchange (Brasil Bolsa Balcão-B3). The results show that managers with high scores in Machiavellianism create budgetary slack and tend to adopt staff controls, according to their preferences. It was also verified that there is a partial mediation of staff controls in the relationship between Machiavellianism and budget slack. The authors conclude that it is necessary to hire individuals with personality traits that adhere to the company's preferences, in order to have employees committed to the organization and with less tendency to create budgetary slack.

Kátia Lemos, Sónia Monteiro and Vânia Oliveira (Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal) seek to identify the degree of compliance with the reporting requirements of IFRS 16, in its first year of mandatory adoption, and to identify its determinants. The authors perform a content analysis of the reports and accounts of a sample of companies listed on Euronext Lisbon, developing a multiple linear regression model, which assumes the IFRS 16 compliance rate as the dependent variable, and some company characteristics as possible explanatory factors. The authors conclude that, in the first year of IFRS 16 adoption, the average level of compliance with the disclosure requirements demanded by the standard is approximately 0.66; and that entities with accounts audited by one of the Big Four show a higher level of disclosure than those audited by other audit firms.

Professors Anderson Betti Frare and Ilse Maria Beuren (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina - UFSC, Brazil), analyze the effects of proactive personality on routine performance at work, considering the mediating role of self-efficacy. For this purpose, they conduct a survey of employees of one of the largest Brazilian startups, operating in the financial services segment (fintech). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and complemented with importance-performance map analysis (IPMA). The authors conclude that proactive personality is directly and indirectly (through self-efficacy) associated with habitual job performance and that it has higher importance and performance, in favor of routine job performance.

I would once again like to thank all those who have made this journal possible: members of the Advisory Board, the Editorial Board, Editors and Associate Editors, assessors, authors and, last but not least, the readers.

Editor-in-Chief