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This paper aims to provide insights into the internationalization strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Latin America.

This study is based on information from eight leading Latin American private universities. The data were obtained from official sources such as institutional communications and university administrators.

The authors identify two main issues that HEIs should consider while responding to the pandemic. First, greater attention and resource allocation to the universities' main local stakeholders can affect traditional internationalization activities. Second, a focus on revitalizing foreign partnerships and strengthening “virtual internationalization” can help maintain and eventually increase international presence.

While this study analyses how these Latin American HEIs responded during the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is important to conduct follow-up studies to shed light on how HEIs are adapting to the COVID-19 crisis as it continues to unfold.

This study is based on unique information gathered from leading private, not-for-profit HEIs in Latin America, which, contrary to state-owned HEIs or other private institutions in developed economies, have exhibited different means and conditions to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Finally, the authors contribute to the literature on the internationalization of HEIs by discussing the role of a significant disruptive event on the internationalization of higher education and, particularly, business schools.

Este artículo discute las respuestas estratégicas de internacionalización frente a la pandemia del COVID-19 implementadas por Instituciones de Educación Superior (IES) en América Latina.

Este estudio se basa en información de ocho universidades privadas líderes en América Latina. La información fue obtenida de fuentes oficiales tales como comunicados institucionales y autoridades.

Identificamos dos temas principales que las IES deben considerar mientras responden al COVID-19. Primero, una mayor atención y reubicación de recursos hacia los principales grupos de interés local puede afectar las actividades tradicionales de internacionalización. Segundo, revitalizar las alianzas extranjeras y fortalecer la “internacionalización virtual” puede ayudar a mantener y eventualmente incrementar la presencia internacional.

Si bien este estudio analiza cómo un grupo de IES Latinoamericanas respondieron durante las etapas iniciales del COVID-19, es importante continuar analizando cómo las IES se siguen adaptando a medida que la crisis COVID-19 avanza.

Este estudio se basa en datos únicos obtenidos de IES privadas, sin fines de lucro, y líderes en América Latina que, al contrario de las universidades públicas u otras IES en economías desarrolladas, exhiben medios y condiciones diferentes para responder a la expansión del coronavirus. Finalmente, este trabajo contribuye a la literatura sobre internacionalización de IES mediante la discusión del rol de un evento disruptivo de escala mundial en la internacionalización de universidades y, particularmente, escuelas de negocios.

This study aims to build on embedded approaches to stakeholder management and examines how organizational decision-makers consider social responsibility toward proximal stakeholders in crises that encompass an entire system of stakeholder relationships.

Within a criterion-based sample of eight Latin American private universities, this paper develops in-depth exploratory case studies to examine the prioritization of stakeholders in higher education institutions’ decision-making during the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis.

Contrary to the notion that during crises organizations prioritize stakeholders that provide resources that are critical to survival, this study finds that in contextual crises stakeholder management is informed by social responsibility. In addition, the findings suggest that crises may be tipping points for changes toward mission-driven approaches to governance.

Acknowledging the roles of social responsibility and proximity in stakeholder management during contextual crises allows for more informed governance of organizations that face disruptions in their system of stakeholder relations.

This study contributes unique insights into the decision-maker’s prioritization of stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis. The uncertainty associated with the emerging “new normal” allowed for an extreme test of socially embedded versus resource-oriented approaches to stakeholder management.

This paper aims to analyse how local agri-food systems (LAFS), compared to other production models, can offer innovative responses to the important environmental challenges facing food production under the twin transition. These responses are more conducive to community inclusion and local development.

The paper combines territorial development, clusters and industrial districts literature with studies on agri-food industry environmental problems and twin transition technologies to develop an agri-food systems typology. This typology is based on a territorial approach to environmental challenges of food production and serves to illustrate the ways in which LAFS can provide innovative responses to these challenges.

The study allows to visualise the differences between LAFS and other agri-food production models, showing how the operationalisation and implementation of digitisation occur at territorial level and how rural communities are involved in the process. The theoretical proposal emphasises not assuming that technology is inherently beneficial but ensuring that its implementation is inclusive and generates social value for the communities.

The paper aims to enrich future research by adopting a territorial perspective to study the twin transition challenges associated with food production systems.

The learning outcomes are as follows: students will identify the reasons for a firm to internationalize and its specific internationalization entry mode; students will distinguish how to follow the client and how physic distance strategies work; students will analyze a host country’s external environment using the PESTEL framework, and they will analyze the international strategies followed by a multinational enterprise using the integration-responsiveness framework as well.

The authors explore the case of DICOMA Corporation, a Costa Rican multinational enterprise with presence in five countries. Adrian Sanchez, who is Dicoma’s president, needs to craft an international strategy to increase the international sales in the foreign markets where the firm operates. The company may follow two paths. On the one hand, Dicoma can adopt the strategy of following its major clients to expand overseas, which will lead to the opening of operations in more countries, but making the foreign sales highly dependent on these types of partnerships. This has been so far the path pursued by Dicoma in its international expansion. On the other hand, Dicoma can opt to focus on increasing commitments in the existing international markets where it already has operations by capturing new clients in those locations but scarifying the potential business opportunities to enter into other countries in partnership with its major clients.

Post-graduate early stage business students enrolled in programs such as Master of Business Administration, Master of Management, Master of International Business, executive education programs, among others.

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CSS 5: International Business.

The purpose of this paper is to review and examine the recent investment trends of firms operating in the food, feed and biofuel production and processing sectors in Latin America. The inter-related nature of these three sub-sectors and the great expansion they have gone through in the last decade showcases a series of socioeconomic and environmental policy challenges thus making it relevant to identify their different business models through a typology.

The paper first presents an unprecedented literature review based on field observations and media coverage of agri-business strategies of the food, feed and biofuel production in the region. It then moves to an in-depth analysis of investment operations that serve to classify such firms into a business model typology considering degree of internationalization and integration. The typology is a useful mechanism to enhance public policy analysis and uncover market or government incentives behind business decisions.

By focusing on investment strategies, the paper illustrates how both market and government incentives shape and affect the performance and consolidation of different players in the food, feed and biofuel sub-sectors in Latin America. The resulting effects have strong economic as well as social and environmental implications because such economic activities have an impact on global food and energy security.

Limitations include a reliance on largely qualitative evidence and research methods due to unavailability of consistent numerical data in these specific agri-business sub-sectors.

This paper is unique in its focus on business models in a particularly relevant set of agri-business sub-sectors in Latin America and its implications to promote investment and innovation in value chain development while considering regional-specific challenges.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.