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This paper tests the impact of the financial structure of banks on the bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in Colombia.

We use a monthly panel of 51 commercial banks for the period 1996:4–2014:8.

An increase in the monetary policy interest rate significantly reduces bank loan growth. The magnitude of this effect depends on banks’ financial structure. Additionally, we identify an asymmetric effect in which the bank lending channel is stronger in monetary contractions than during expansions. We show that this behavior is due to the heterogeneous response of banks with different levels of solvency. This finding has important implications for the design and implementation of monetary policy and coordination of central bank’s policy with key economic agents.

The fact that the BLC is stronger in times of monetary contraction is quite interesting for central banking, as it shows that monetary policy transmission is harder during macroeconomic downturns. When investment plans are depressed, monetary stimulus may prove insufficient to reactivate credit demand. This has proven to be true in advanced economies after a strong recession and our results suggest that is also true in emerging market economies for economic downturns in general. Central banks may have to provide stronger shocks to reactivate private credit when the economy is facing a slow economic recovery.

Our findings point out that an increase in the monetary policy interest rate significantly reduces bank loan growth. However, the magnitude of this effect critically depends on two aspects. First, bank heterogeneity matters. Particularly, the loan supply of better capitalized banks is less sensitive to monetary policy shocks. Second, the response of credit supply to shifts in short-term interest rates critically depends on the monetary policy stance. The BLC is stronger in times of monetary contraction than during expansions. Moreover, we show that this asymmetric behavior is due to the heterogeneous response of banks with different levels of solvency to the monetary policy stance.

This paper aims to propose an analytical structure for scientific and technological parks (STPs) as innovation ecosystems based on generating knowledge spillovers.

The analytical structure is constructed using a strategic approach, with STPs being viewed as an ecosystem and their interactions with the social context based on knowledge spillovers. In the empirical phase, a case study is developed in a Brazilian STP focused on food and renewable energy, enabling the application of the proposed analytical structure.

This study proposes that STPs can be central for innovation ecosystems, coordinating activities and resources. Also, STPs generate knowledge spillovers for geographically close and external actors, expanding the impact and benefits of innovation. The integration of these two propositions composes the proposed analytical structure that emphasizes the STP as the protagonist of the discussion on ecosystem management.

This study explores the relationship between STPs, innovation ecosystems and knowledge spillovers to clarify their strategic role in fostering innovation. It integrates multiple theoretical perspectives to propose new, broadly applicable frameworks. Given the limited and recent research on STPs within innovation ecosystems, the study provides a timely opportunity to investigate the management role of STPs at the organizational level.

This chapter reviews Colombia's unique environmental and social features and Colombia's realities in the third decade of the twenty-first century. It is crucial to understand the country's recent past and to take its structural and historic struggles into account when building sustainable futures.

This chapter also reports the findings of a primary data research study using futures scenario methodologies. The study participants represent different stakeholders' visions of four alternative futures regarding the climate crisis and massive biodiversity loss and social and economic crises.

This chapter's empirical study identifies Colombia's constraints to building a future that is just, inclusive and centred on nature. In addition, we describe in detail the structural changes needed for Colombia to achieve the best possible future scenario (socioeconomic prosperity and resilience to climate change). Finally, this chapter offers conclusions and recommendations.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive perspective on different facets of knowledge management and their effects on the performance of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial ventures.

The empirical setting involves small and medium-sized enterprises located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Primary data for 223 knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) firms was obtained through questionnaires applied to ventures which applied to the innovative research in small business program, a small business innovation research-like initiative run by the São Paulo Research Foundation. Econometric results assessed the drivers of competitiveness in terms of firm growth, research and development intensification and technology transfer.

Results highlight the complexity involved in establishing effective knowledge management processes in terms of driving KIE performance. Notwithstanding, some interesting insights on the moderation effects of strategic knowledge management (SKM) systems over technical skills could be identified with particular emphasis for the case of academic spin-offs. Ecosystem drivers present a good explanation power for technology transfer practices but fall short in providing answers for firm-level growth dynamics. It is also noteworthy that public and private investments in KIE firms are similarly associated with positive impacts – contrary to the view that private investors perform better than governmental sources in picking promising small ventures.

The assessment has provided novel evidence for a sample of KIE ventures concerning the appraisal of performance drivers associated with three dimensions of knowledge management, namely, technical knowledge, SKM and ecosystem features. Firms’ outcomes were addressed from a multidimensional perspective, thus providing a comprehensive perspective of the events under scrutiny.

This work aims to present existing management system standards (MSSs) published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) through a bibliometric analysis, thereby outlining their academic research status and highlighting their relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to environmental, social and governance (ESG) themes.

The study firstly retrieves a preliminary set of MSSs standards from ISO and filters it in accordance with certain exclusion/inclusion criteria. Secondly, a bibliometric search is performed in the database Scopus. Thirdly, performance analysis is conducted to quantitatively measure the scientific output in academia, and science mapping of co-occurrences of keywords is applied to identify related topics. Thereby, the standards’ relationships to sustainability are outlined. Eventually, the work discusses future research opportunities.

The findings reveal that whereas research on MSSs focuses predominantly on only a few standards by now, there are actually numerous further standards that address sustainability-relevant topics, which are getting increasing attention among scholars as measured by the number of publications. Therefore, an action plan for future research is derived. Moreover, the findings support the argument of integrating MSSs to cover a broad range of corporate sustainability issues.

The paper connects the concepts of MSSs and sustainability, an upcoming research branch yet characterized by shortage of academic studies (given that research continues to focus on a few standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001). The work therefore opens up the line for more in-detail research on less known but nevertheless sustainability-relevant ISO MSSs.

The social sciences have extensively studied meals; nonetheless, a few have investigated the menu format, with all the data originating from European countries. Within this framework, the novelty of this research is that it analyses the relationship between social class and lunch structure among adults in a Global South city: Santiago, Chile.

The study worked with data from the Survey of Commensality in Adults (>18) of the Metropolitan Region, which used a questionnaire and a self-administered eating event diary. The analysis unit was lunches (n = 3,595). The dependent variable was the structure of the lunches (single course, starter with a main course, a main course with dessert or a full-course menu with starter, main course and dessert). The independent variable was the individual’s social class (either the working, intermediate or service class).

The data showed that lunches are mostly semi- or fully structured (only 44.5% of the lunches reported by the participants contained a single course). The odds of eating a single course were lower in the service class than the working one and the odds of eating a full-course meal were higher in the service class than the working one.

The results provide new quantitative evidence from a representative sample of a Global South city about the relevance of social class as a differentiating factor in food, specifically regarding the existence of simpler meals among the lower classes.

We propose to see, regarding the Venezuelan context and at the same time in dialogue with the literature on Latin American prisons, the prison through the prison-neighborhood correspondence. This includes, for example, looking at how the prison organizes crime outside, attributes social and reputational capital, extracts and redistributes illegal profits, export/import modes and logics of action and domination. The purpose is to (a) discuss the “hydraulic” theses on prison gangs, dominant in North American literature, which explain their emergence through conditions endogenous of the prison, and instead put the emphasis on the dynamics of exclusion and the “lumpen economies” in which the poor subsist, and (b) nuance the perspectives on the relations between prison and community from the point of view of the peripheral South, marked by high rates of exclusion, informality, and an economy strongly dependent on commodities and a significant labor surplus population, in contrast to the industrial economies of the Global North.