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The goal of this research is to evaluate obstacles to innovation according to the perception of firms in the Chilean food sector, and to assess the relationships of these obstacles with innovation spending and willingness to innovate.

We analyzed data from the Chilean National Innovation Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Innovación) of 2017 and 2019, which were administered by the Ministry of Economy and the National Institute of Statistics. This survey is designed to be nationally representative. The methods we employed to analyze the data include linear regression, probit and logit models and factor analysis.

We found that obstacles to innovation can be grouped into five types, namely: cost-based, knowledge-related, market problems, lack of necessity for innovations and regulatory. Cost was positively, and significantly, associated with innovation (expenditures and willingness to innovate). We argue that this is because as firms engage in innovation, they become aware of the associated costs. Also, knowledge obstacles and lack of necessity were negatively associated with innovation. This may mean that as firms engage in innovation, they are able to overcome said obstacles; which speaks well of their innovation ecosystem.

We develop the argument that survey-based studies of obstacles are amenable to a perception-based interpretation of obstacles, because most surveys tend to collect firms' perceptions. Consequently, we provide perception-based explanations for our findings. Additionally, most empirical studies of obstacles in the food sector are of a qualitative nature. Our work supplements this literature with a quantitative analysis that can expand our understanding of innovation in the food industry.

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the international trade characteristics of commerce between Latin American countries and some of the top economies in the world, in order to identify new business opportunities for LATAM firms in dynamical external markets.

A triple indexed gravity model, correcting with robust standardized errors clustered, and a panel data analysis was used to obtain the relationship between Latin American countries and advanced and other emerging economies.

The main finding of this paper is that innovation overcomes gravity effects and parameters typical of a knowledge society are the significant ones to explain trade among different regions. The model that includes an innovation proxy accommodates with the new international theories of trade. Besides, communication capacity is essential to reach consumers abroad with newer and more complex products. Moreover, the constant is significant when innovation is included, which may imply intersectoral trade that behaves relatively stable in bilateral trade.

The findings suggest that the economies that have some relevance in trade, have increasing numbers regarding patents. Thus, the empirical findings relate to the theoretical models which state that comparative advantages may be dynamic due to technological innovation.

This paper shows that innovation is a central parameter to engage in intratrade and develop a knowledge-based economy. Latin America sometimes appears to be a puzzle as to how to improve its economic performance and overcome its social and economic problems. Intratrade seems to be the route to increase Latin American business participation in world trade.

El propósito de este documento es comparar y contrastar las características comerciales internacionales del comercio entre los países latinoamericanos y algunas de las principales economías del mundo, con el fin de identificar nuevas oportunidades de negocios para las empresas de LATAM en mercados externos dinámicos.

Se utilizó un modelo de gravedad triple indexado el que se corrigió con errores robustos estandarizados clusterizados, y un análisis de datos de panel para obtener la relación entre los países latinoamericanos y las economías avanzadas y otras economías emergentes.

Uno de los principales hallazgos es que la incorporación de la innovación en el modelo anula el efecto de las variables típicas asociadas a la gravedad. Por lo que se podría suponer que, los parámetros propios de una sociedad del conocimiento son más importantes para explicar el comercio entre las diferentes regiones. El modelo incluye un variable de innovación que se adapta a las nuevas teorías internacionales del comercio. Otro hallazgo es que la capacidad de comunicación es esencial para llegar a los consumidores en el extranjero con productos más nuevos y complejos. Por último, la constante es significativa cuando se incluye la innovación, lo que podría implicar un comercio intersectorial que se comporta relativamente estable en el comercio bilateral.

Los resultados sugieren que las economías que tienen cierta relevancia en el comercio poseen un número creciente de patentes. Por lo tanto, los hallazgos empíricos se relacionan con los modelos teóricos que establecen que las ventajas comparativas pueden ser dinámicas debido a la innovación tecnológica.

Este documento muestra que la innovación es un elemento central para participar en el comercio interno y desarrollar una economía basada en el conocimiento. América Latina a veces parece ser un enigma sobre cómo mejorar su desempeño económico y superar sus problemas sociales y económicos. El comercio intraindustrial parece ser la ruta para aumentar la participación empresarial de América Latina en el comercio mundial.

This paper aims to analyze decisions about payment rates on credit card statements by using background factors and perceptions that indirectly influence beliefs, according to the theory of planned behavior.

Since legal and institutional frameworks and household financial surveys are heterogeneous among countries, household data on the Chilean economy is used as the starting point in this matter.

The probability that an individual chooses to pay amounts less than the total billing of their credit cards rises with essential variables related to perceived behavioral control. Being the head of the household, being younger, perceiving a high or excessive financial burden of debt and facing unfavorable and unexpected situations that divert the budget, among others, are relevant to repayment decisions.

The novelty of this article is that its psychological approach differs from the traditional focus of economic rationality regarding credit cards. The results are relevant for policymakers and financial regulators due to implications for household behavioral finance and means of payment.

Analizamos la decisión de la tasa de pago de los estados de cuenta de tarjetas de crédito a través del uso de factores de fondo y percepciones que indirectamente inciden en las creencias de acuerdo a la teoría del comportamiento planeado.

Debido a que los marcos legales e institucionales, así como también las encuestas financieras de hogares son heterogéneas entre países, se utilizan datos de los hogares de la economía chilena como un punto de partida en esta materia.

La probabilidad de que un individuo elija pagar un monto menor que el total de facturación de sus tarjetas de crédito es afectada por variables proxy asociadas al control conductual percibido. La condición de ser jefe de hogar, ser más joven, la percepción de una alta o excesiva carga financiera de la deuda, y enfrentar situaciones desfavorables e inesperadas que desvían del presupuesto, entre otras, son relevantes para las decisiones de pago.

La novedad de este artículo es que su enfoque difiere del enfoque tradicional de la racionalidad económica en relación a las tarjetas de crédito. Los resultados son relevantes para los hacedores de política y reguladores financieros debido a sus implicancias para las finanzas conductuales de los hogares y sus medios de pago.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the effects of accruals-based earnings management (AEM), International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) adoption and stock market integration for firms that belong to Latin-American Integrated Market (MILA).

The GMM estimator was used according to Arellano and Bover (1995) for panel data on a sample of 478 non-financial companies between 2000 and 2016. Multilevel mixed models was used for the robustness analysis.

AEM practices significantly and dynamically reduce agency costs. This result suggests companies use positive discretionary accruals to hide true agency costs and avoid shareholders monitoring, while negative discretionary accruals are ways to expropriate wealth and increase agency costs. This result implies that firms use AEM as a predetermined strategy to weaken corporate governance. The IFRS adoption and MILA implementation reduced agency costs. However, only IFRS adoption had the capability to mitigate the effects of AEM on agency costs.

These results reveal AEM constitutes a practice that managers use to weaken firms’ corporate governance and expropriate wealth from shareholders. These practices have effects at short-run and long-run. However, the IFRS adoption and market integration represented by MILA are mitigating factors for agency costs. These results have relevant implications for firms’ corporate governance because they guide investors and shareholders to strengthen corporate control and monitoring on business decision-making. These results also are relevant to policymakers because they orient the financial policies design to strengthen the benefits of IFRS and MILA.