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One of the most profitable industries worldwide is automotive manufacturing, with an estimated economic impact of 2.9 trillion dollars, which employs 8% of the economically active world population, both directly and indirectly. The main 12 world powers in the automotive sector account for 80% of the total manufactured vehicles, and Mexico ranks seventh in the world and is part of the free trade agreement in the Pacific Alliance (PA). This fact may have a direct impact on boosting the domestic automotive industry in Mexico by leveraging the manufacturing supply chain in primary and secondary industries in the three commercial partners: Chile, Colombia, and Peru. This chapter found that there is a coincidence in the competitiveness pillars of the Mexican automotive industry and its business partners in the PA. This presents a strategic panorama of competition and economic development for the region.

This chapter discusses the creation of the Pacific Alliance comprising four countries: Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Colombia. It shows that is not only a free trade agreement between these countries but also a multidimensional regional integration with political, economic, and cultural perspectives. Programs and actions have been structured in a way that allows and promotes integral growth of Latin American citizens. For this reason, it is important to analyze in this chapter the opportunities that Alliance Pacific generates with respect to each of these three aspects. (1) Political and diplomatic implications like eliminating visa requirements for the members, sharing some embassies, facilitating labor mobility between these countries, and proposing the creation of a joint parliament. (2) Economic and trade implications with a gradual elimination of tariffs that will allow companies to be more competitive, creation of different government agencies in each country to support business and promote intra-regional trade of goods and services, and create a joint platform to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and gender equity. Finally, (3) Cultural and educational implications, as the creation of “Student and Academic Mobility Platform” of the Pacific Alliance with scholarships for students and researchers, the integration of a “Technical Education Group” to foster integration and social inclusion of children and adolescents, and the creation of “Sports Diplomacy Program” and a “Scientific Research Network on Climate Change.” Although there are still several challenges for improvement in the Pacific Alliance, it is an agreement that will bring stability, welfare, and development effects for the members of these countries.

This chapter presents an overview of social entrepreneurship and social innovation in Colombia and explores its implications in the Pacific Alliance. It is organized into five sections that provide an overview of the fields of social entrepreneurship and social innovation with the aim of sharing experiences that have occurred in the country with the international academic community. It offers a description of the social and economic context of Colombia and then presents the situations that currently serve as the basis of social entrepreneurship and social innovation. It also discusses the main actors that are active in this context. In particular, the chapter emphasizes the experience of the city of Medellín, which is thought to provide an auspicious scenario for the establishment of a business ecosystem based on social entrepreneurship and social innovation. The learnings of Colombia can serve as a relevant example for the countries of the Pacific Alliance that are currently building their social business ecosystems.

This chapter presents information regarding the significance of the Pacific Alliance in the commercial development in Mexico. Mexico’s integration with the countries of the Pacific Alliance (Peru, Colombia, and Chile) is highlighted through statistical analysis of the composition of Mexico’s exports, the future of the country’s exports, and the balance of trade. Some of these challenges are the growth and diversification of exports, internationalization of small business enterprises, and reduction of the balance of trade deficit with respect to some of its main export products. Results showed that Mexico’s three Latin American commercial partners together represented the third-highest destination for its exports, where Mexico had a favorable balance of trade, which suggests that a further opening of these countries’ economies would bring benefits to Mexican economy.

The decrease of Mexican exports since 2012 to countries such as Chile and Colombia are symptoms that the Pacific Alliance free trade agreement needs more support in order to represent an opportunity to increase export diversification, since most of the Mexico-exported goods go to the United States. This can bring economic and political risks because of the overreliance on one trading partner.

The results also showed that most of Mexico’s exports to the Pacific Alliance country members are hi-tech products. The principal exports in terms of sales come from the telecommunications industry, transportation industry, and the home appliance industry. The rest of the main products exported come from medium- or low-technology industries, with high levels of local added value.

This chapter provides an overview of entrepreneurship in Latin America and indicates the relevance of this for economic development in Mexico and Chile. Through the literature review we explore first entrepreneurship and then the relationship between this and economic development, mainly in the developing countries. Therefore, the evolution of entrepreneurship in Latin America is analyzed and a comparative data drawn from Mexico and Chile presented. We made a specific analysis of the undertakings at the services sector, their initial stages, and their degrees of participation in early entrepreneurial activity. Finally, considering the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals developed by the United Nations, entrepreneurship as a trigger for social and economic impact in Mexico and Chile was also studied. This study summarizes the broad exploration of the importance of entrepreneurship in Latin America. It indicates how important it is to focus on the task of solving social and economic problems; exploratory, descriptive, and documentary researches have been utilized for this purpose.

This chapter aims to analyze whether member countries of the Pacific Alliance agreement showed economic and financial convergence during the 2010–2016 period. The sample consists of four Latin American countries that are members of the Alianza del Pacífico (Pacific Alliance): Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. We use an economic convergence index (ECI) to classify the degree of the countries’ convergence regarding a given monetary area, considering the size of their economy, and compute three criteria: (1) nominal variables (used to define the Maastricht criteria), which are inflation, long-term interest rates, public debt, fiscal deficit as percentages of gross domestic product (GDP), and exchange rate volatility; (2) real and cyclical variables such as real GDP growth, gap between real GDP and potential GDP, unemployment, current account balance as a percentage of GDP, and short-term interest rates; and (3) a conditional combination that unequally weights nominal and real variables. We also use correlation analysis to compare coefficients. The results can be analyzed in the medium term in terms of descriptive statistics of their real and nominal variables, convergence indexes, and correlation analysis. The results show that the countries of the Pacific Alliance under study are converging in terms of nominal variables such as interest rate, exchange rate, fiscal deficits, and government debt. Also it can be observed that convergence occurs in real and weighted variables, although to a lesser magnitude. In relation to real variables related to GDP growth and foreign trade, these variables adjust less quickly than nominal ones.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss new product development (NPD) based on a traditional stage-gate process and to examine how NPD tools, such as Lean design for Six Sigma, can accelerate the achievement of the main goals of NPD: reliable product quality, cost-effective implementation, and desired time-to-market. These new tools must be incorporated into a new approach to NPD based on the Advanced Product and Quality Planning methodology.

This research paper is based on the theoretical background presented in peer-reviewed scientific research papers during the period 1990-2012. In the second section of this study, the author provides examples of the proposed tools and of advanced techniques to show evidence that validates the hypothesis.

This study presented the theoretical background on the NPD process and related functions in today’s organizations as it relates to competition. NPD was identified as one of the top priorities of every firm, which is why the NPD process must be optimized and oriented toward customers to ensure the quality and reliability of products while minimizing manufacturing costs. The effect on timing and cost is greatly appreciated by top management, and it is well known throughout the firm when a strong, reliable product is launched that it is flawless.

To fully deploy all NPD tools requires basic steps such as the following: marketing and planning, design, process, product process validation and the integration of operations from a concurrent engineering standpoint.

This research paper provides step by step guidance in order to apply Lean Sigma tool in NPD process in order to achieve Six Sigma quality level in manufacturing.

Promoting the practice of Lean design for Six Sigma and its tool enables firms to increase their competitiveness since they will make more reliable products delivered to its consumers.

The approach of this research paper combines proven statistical tools to be applied in an original sequence in order to design robust product to match manufacturing capabilities.

This chapter analyzes organizational culture and organizational citizenship behavior in Peru. A research was conducted at the beginning of 2017 in Peru, and 250 employees in Lima, Peru, participated in the research. The research was on the influence of organizational culture on citizen behavior. The results of the research study conducted in Peru indicated how participation, consistency, adaptability, mission, and performance impact the dimensions of behavior such as help, loyalty, initiative, civic virtue, self-development, and sportsmanship. It revealed a broad influence of consistent cultural traits on citizen behaviors of support, in addition to the development of citizen behaviors for initiatives and self-development if the company excelled at offering an opportunity for participation for collaborators. Overall, the results demonstrated the role of culture in Peru’s economy. Accordingly, knowledge regarding Peru’s language, religion, customs, cuisine, crafts, music, and dance is significant. The methodology of this study was based on the collection of documents and studies where the Andean culture has been the main reason for economic development in Peru. This chapter helps clarify the foundations for doing business in Peru by understanding the perception of Peruvian citizens and their distinctive characteristics of organizational behavior. The results presented in this chapter are obtained from the analysis of the economic evolution of Peru, its culture, its demography, and the study of how they do business in that country, in addition to analyzing how they make decisions, agreements and how they develop based on the principles of the Andean culture.

This chapter analyzes the practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability in Chilean small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This work follows an explorative and descriptive methodology that uses analysis of secondary information as data collection instrument. Results suggest that SMEs in Chile seem to have a higher degree of adoption of CSR practices when compared to those of other countries in Latin America. Chilean SMEs tend to concentrate their efforts in the area of human resources; therefore, these organizations are more willing to invest in labor-related issues than in the negative impacts they may generate in the environment and society. This can be evaluated as a natural first stage, since worker-focused CSR programs generally have a faster return on investment than those focused on other areas. Also, the relations that SMEs develop with local communities to create value are still an area of opportunity that can be addressed through the SMEs and CSR technical groups of the Pacific Alliance. This alliance is an ideal platform to share best CSR practices among SMEs, which probably will increase their competitiveness.