Latin America Leadership Program

Author: Ricardo Ernst

The first article aims to estimate the effect of the announcement of the “special military operation in Ukraine” made by the President of Russia on the performance of emerging stock markets. Eduardo Sandoval Álamos (Metropolitan Technological University, Chile) contrasts the Fama and French 5-factor model using four different econometric methods. The results indicate that global investors who timely sought refuge in the stock markets of China, Colombia, Mexico, and Malaysia had superior stock performance in economies that collectively showed positive economic growth rates in 2022 and 2023.

Luciana da Silva Moraes Sardeiro (University of Brasília, Brazil); Paulo Vitor Souza de Souza (Federal University of Pará, Brazil); Yara Consuelo Cintra (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); and Raimunda Maria da Luz Silva (Federal Rural University of the Amazon, Brazil) study the use of counter-accounting as a means of resistance in socio-environmental issues during the Carne Fraca and Carne Fria operations in the Brazilian meat industry. Based on pragmatic critical emancipatory accounting, the authors reveal that NGO counter-narratives challenged the state and corporations by monitoring agreements, participating in technical work, and proposing solutions to institutional gaps. They conclude, through descending hierarchical analysis, how discourses influence social arenas and how language sustains power or generates resistance.

The United States is the world’s largest importer of tomatoes, importing large quantities from Mexico. Daniel Hernández-Soto and Mónica Elizabeth Alcalde-Jiménez (National Technological Institute of Mexico in Celaya) analyze whether an annual increase of 20% in the quantity of Mexican tomatoes imported into the U.S. market would be economically viable. In this simulated scenario, the Benefit/Cost Ratio for producers in Sinaloa, Jalisco, Sonora, and Baja California would be 2.3434, 1.2886, 2.8524, and 3.5025 respectively. The authors conclude that, given a 20% increase in the export quantity, producing tomatoes for the U.S. market in these states remains profitable.

For Tiago Rabaço, Fábio Albuquerque, and Paula Gomes dos Santos (Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, Portugal), there may be an attempt by entities affected by the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war to obscure or emphasize positive news using impression management strategies. The authors evaluate the use of these strategies for 212 listed European entities using consolidated annual reports from 2021. They conclude that two-thirds of the entities reporting this event, mainly in voluntary sources, exhibited reduced readability levels. Additionally, although neutrality prevailed, the entities expressed some uncertainty related to their claims of being immune to the war's effects. Occasionally, differences by country and industry were identified.

The image people have of robots/AI often does not match reality. This can affect the effective implementation of these technologies in a country, negatively impacting its competitiveness. Jose Luis Arroyo-Barrigüete (Pontifical Comillas University), José Ignacio López-Sánchez, and Antonio J. Guillén (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) analyze whether the perception of a robot influences the perception of the impact of robotization on employment. The results confirm that: (i) the more distorted an individual's image of a robot (erroneous image), the greater their perception of robots/AI as a threat to jobs; and (ii) in countries where robot density is higher (operational robots per 10,000 workers), this perceived threat level is lower.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) seeks to meet the needs of stakeholders. Pedro Severino-González; Yeison Morales-Mejias; Raimundo Pérez-Dolarea (Catholic University of Maule, Chile); and Giusseppe Sarmiento-Peralta (National University of San Marcos, Peru) describe the perception of university students on CSR from the perspective of consumers of air passenger transport services in the Maule region (Chile). The authors find significant differences based on gender, age, and location. They conclude that companies should include CSR strategies that create value according to the requirements of each stakeholder group.

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