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This paper analyses the possibility of Latin America's (LA) major economies adopting dollarization, considering that in the last decade macroeconomic instability has once again challenged the ability of certain economies to properly manage their own currency.

To determine the feasibility of adopting the US dollar as official currency, the author uses the framework of optimum currency area (OCA) theory, since, in fact, dollarization is an incomplete monetary union. The author uses a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model to identify what type of structural shock — country-specific, regional or global — prevails in LA economies. For this purpose, the US output is used to represent the global output and determine how the shocks of the US influence the output trajectory of each LA nation. The higher the influence of the US product, the lower the costs of adopting the US dollar.

The results of the variance decomposition show that the influence of the US shocks in the gross domestic product (GDP) trajectory of LA countries has significantly decreased over the last two decades, even in the currently dollarized economies. The estimates for Venezuela and Argentina show that the importance of US shocks in the trajectory of their GDP is low. Therefore, the cost of adopting the US dollar as the official currency would be high.

In view of hyperinflation and macroeconomic imbalances in certain LA nations, the dollarization debate has resurfaced in recent years. However, the literature that empirically evaluates the feasibility of adopting dollarization as a monetary system under current economic conditions is limited.

The higher education system must move closer to society and its requirements, and therefore, the process of transformation in the university context brings new challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present research on a case study that examines the perception of the middle managers’ role from their own perspective: how they describe it, the associated tasks, the skills perceived as necessary and what they think about the need to become academic leaders.

The authors have adopted a mixed-method approach. Data were collected through an in-depth interview and an adapted version of the Personal Construct Grid (Kelly, 1955). Two types of analyses have been carried out: statistical analysis and content analysis following a category system. The participants were academics performing a management position selected in accordance with certain criteria relevant for the study.

The research shows how their perception collides with the traditional characteristics of the university, which focus on the managerial and bureaucratic tasks of the middle managers. The study also reveals evidence of the poor visibility of these managers with no place for action due to their lack of power and decision-making opportunities.

The participants claim that it is necessary for people who hold the position to become agents of change by creating a shared identity through teamwork and collaboration. To this end, this paper presents a proposal for the development of a framework for action.

COVID-19 has spread so quickly and uninterruptedly that it has put great pressure on the capacities of emerging countries, especially the Latin America area. Its impacts that will have on businesses and entrepreneurs, it can be inferred that the duration of this crisis is still uncertain; thus, the aim on this chapter is to aggregate the current knowledge on how COVID-19 has impacted the entrepreneurship, and their expectations in the short and medium term. We examined 37 articles published between 2020 and 2021. To develop the discussion, we conducted descriptive review including year, affiliation of the first author, type of study, research methods in reviewed papers, and the origin of the empirical sample. We follow our thematic analysis within four broad categories: (1) crisis; (2) digitalization; (3) education; and (4) employment. Our results show that the call to address grand challenges, particularly relate to digitalization, public policies focused on supporting entrepreneurs and education in entrepreneurship in the Latin America context.

Researchers from different disciplines have advocated for the incorporation of Systems Thinking in higher education in various fields such as environmental studies, engineering, economics and management. Nevertheless, educational experiences that seek to integrate the systems approach and citizenship education are not numerous and have not been sufficiently documented. This research paper presents classroom research aimed at understanding how Systems Thinking and citizenship education are articulated within a general education course.

The research was designed using Grounded Theory within an exploratory-descriptive approach. To collect data, the following techniques were used: participant observation, focus group and documentary analysis. The data analysis was carried out through the constant comparative method in its open, axial, selective and theoretical contrast coding phases.

The data analysis highlights the potential of Systems Thinking within the context of Citizenship Education as a comprehensive set of cognitive, affective and methodological tools. Moreover, it sheds light on the pedagogical practices, the teaching strategies and the type of socioemotional interactions in the classroom that are key elements in promoting citizenship attitudes, ideas and behaviors.

The research underscores the importance of a systemic vision of education that explicitly incorporates social-emotional learning and experiences of citizen participation beyond the classroom where students can build new knowledge from first-hand interactions with processes of social transformation.

The study aims to investigate the relationship between a shift in lending activities toward households, credit information sharing and bank stability.

A system generalized method of moments (GMMs) as proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) is employed to examine the relationship using a sample of 80 countries from 2005 to 2014.

The findings demonstrate that, in general, a shift in lending strategy toward the household sector may increase bank instability while credit information sharing has a positive impact on bank stability. When credit information sharing is promoted widely, this shift may become beneficial for the banking system. The results are robust when using different measures of credit information sharing, including the depth of index and the coverage of credit information sharing mechanisms.

The results demonstrate that a shift in lending activities toward households should be considered a key variable in conducting macro-prudential policies. When a shift toward household credit relative to firm credit is evolved, the findings suggest that the authorities around the world should enact laws that magnify the scope and coverage of credit information shared and thus promoting the effectiveness of information sharing.

The current study is the first attempt that examines the impacts of a shift in lending activities toward households and credit information sharing on bank stability.

This chapter is a presentation of Mexico’s efforts in advancing inclusive education as a vehicle to provide children with special needs a quality and equitable education. It provides a detailed description of the development, realignment of educational practices, and polices necessary to allow inclusive education to succeed. The chapter begins with the origins of special education in Mexico via four stages. Next, the chapter provides a comprehensive classification of disability and the prevalence rates in Mexico. Then, the chapter delineates legislation and public policy that are essential components in providing a quality and equitable special education system. Next, a comprehensive description of special education intervention models follows along with how these models are incorporated in current teacher preparation endeavors. The chapter concludes with a summary of the progress that Mexico has attained in moving toward inclusive education as well as challenges to inclusive education.

Toxic leadership is often studied from a leader-centric perspective, which focuses on the detrimental outcomes of leaders with destructive ideas and practices. In this chapter, we provide a global value chain (GVC) perspective, which accounts for effects of corporate leadership from inception of a product or service idea to its consumption across the value chain. In particular, we demonstrate how toxic leadership is sustained through an illusio, i.e., the allure of the often-charismatic leadership discourse, which is rendered unaccountable due to lack of global regulation of GVCs. This allows for global organizations and toxic leaders to exploit weaknesses in national-level regulation. Drawing on a netnographic study of toxic leadership in Amazon, we demonstrate how toxic leadership created the illusion of success while perpetuating toxicity and exploitation across their complex value chains internationally.

The Geography of Tourism in Spain is now at a par in terms of its scientific production with other European countries. Since the middle of the '80s the quality and volume of contributions is analogous to the rest of the European Union, although as a part of University Geography in Spain it has not achieved the level of dedication reached by other subjects considering the importance of tourist activities to the economy, the society and the territory of Spain. It could be said that the Geography of Tourism in Spain is in the international vanguard in dealing with Mediterranean coastal tourism, with the relationships between the residential real estate and tourism sectors and with aspects related to tourism and leisure in rural and protected areas.

This study investigates how direct cultural interaction between a supplier country’s personnel and host country purchasing decision makers (HCNs) occurring during the exporting of professional, high-contact services can help shape the latter’s perception of the image of the supplier country and their willingness to buy its services or products. The article develops a theoretical framework that identifies those key drivers and their relationship.

This is a conceptual paper based on a comprehensive review of the literature complemented by a pilot study with offshore executive MBA programs.

A conceptual model is developed with a series of testable propositions.

The framework should help companies and organizations involved in the exporting of such services devise programs to bolster the image of their country as a provider of these and other services and products.

Trade in services is becoming a lifeline for many developed countries that have seen their manufacturing industries relocate to low labor-cost countries. Thus, it is imperative for these countries to bolster their COO to gain competitive advantage. Developing countries can also use such a framework as a means of improving the overall image of their own country and its products.

This research complements those rare studies done on the acculturation of HCNs by examining, for the first time, this process in the context of the exporting of professional services and on how it can lead to changes in the perception of the HCNs vis-à-vis the image of the supplier country.