El Mobbing: Un estudio en el sector educativo español

Este artículo se propone analizar el mobbing o acoso en el trabajo y sus relaciones con diversas variables relacionadas con la persona, las interacciones en el entorno de trabajo y el comportamiento organizacional que pueden ser antecedentes o consecuentes del acoso en el sector educacional. La metodología es correlacional y transversal, y emplearon escalas autoinforme en una muestra de 103 participantes. Algunas de las relaciones y los efectos propuestos se han confirmado en este estudio. A través del análisis de mediación se confirma el efecto directo de la tolerancia organizacional sobre el mobbing, que puede explicar hasta el 20 % de la varianza en la escala NAQ, así como las variables nivel de estudios y género. Igualmente, se confirma el efecto directo del mobbing en la salud. El modelo propuesto explica el 25 % de la varianza en el autoinforme de salud. Es destacable la alta incidencia de acoso psicológico en esta muestra. Este estudio busca proporcionar información que ayude a las organizaciones a desarrollar políticas orientadas a mejorar el lugar de trabajo en materia de acoso.

Inter-Cultural Competency in International Locals and their Performance

This paper examines the relationship between intercultural competencies and performance in “international locals”, defined as employees who, albeit not formally appointed to any international position, are regularly exposed to different types of intercultural interactions. From a sample of 258 employees of a multinational company, we selected a sub-group of 94 international locals, and examined the effect of ethnocentrism (ET), cultural intelligence (CQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) on their performance, utilizing multiple regression analysis. The results show that the higher levels of CQ and/or EQ, the better the performance of international locals. Evidence also indicates that EQ interacts with CQ, triggering or enhancing the effect on performance. Finally, ET does not have any effect on the performance of international locals. The research implies that EQ and CQ are essential for performance in international business situations, and that international locals, who are continually exposed to regular intercultural interactions, need to focus on developing these two competencies. By assessing and helping international locals to develop higher EQ and CQ, organizations can ensure that they have enthusiastic and perseverant employees, who enjoy intercultural interactions, and can contribute to develop competitive advantages and capabilities.

Store Format Diversification, Customer Orientation and the Performance of Foreign Retailers

Foreign retailers contend with unrelenting challenges to discover and resolve issues affecting their performance in different host country markets. These retailers bear some wealth of international experience and also some liabil-ity of foreignness. Accordingly, managers of foreign retailers must enact strategic decisions that will position their businesses in order to be competitive and profitable. In this study, the authors examine two generally overlooked fac-tors —degree of store format diversification and customer orientation— relating to improved foreign retailer per-formance. The authors also investigate the potential moderating effects of three host country characteristics —retail modernization, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance— on this relationship. Based on the 2001-2015 panel data for 24 international retailers, results for main effects indicate that foreign retailer performance is influenced nega-tively by store format diversification and positively by customer orientation. These effects are moderated by host country retail modernization, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance. In particular, host country retail modernization reverses, from negative to positive, the influence of store format diversification on foreign retailer performance. Fur-thermore, both collectivism and uncertainty avoidance strengthen the positive influence of customer orientation on foreign retailer performance. Finally, uncertainty avoidance strengthens the negative influence of store format diver-sification on foreign retailer performance.

Editorial

Being an academic researcher implies making several decisions in the course of one’s career. For instance, what topic to investigate, which methodology to use, where to study and test the hypotheses, whether to cover as many topics as possible or concentrate on a specific line of research, where to submit and publish the finished articles, etc. Yet another important decision is to decide whether to work as a single author or as part of a team, which is the focus of this editorial.

Caso: MASISA Venezuela – Un mar de incertidumbres

MASISA era un grupo empresarial chileno dedicado a la fabricación y comercialización de tableros de madera, que contaba con presencia en gran parte de América Latina y un importante volumen de exportaciones a otros conti-nentes. Este caso se centra en las operaciones de su filial venezolana entre los años 2015 y 2018, en los cuales la posición financiera y los resultados económicos de esta subsidiaria fueron impactados por un proceso hiperinflacionario y una importante devaluación del tipo de cambio como consecuencia de una profunda crisis económica en la que había estado inmersa Venezuela. Estos factores exógenos causaron que MASISA perdiera el control económico de sus ope-raciones en dicho país, lo que conllevó a que el Directorio tomara la decisión de desconsolidar las operaciones de MASISA en Venezuela a partir de octubre del 2018. Andreas Eggenberg, presidente del Directorio de MASISA, tras revisar los estados financieros del 2018 el 31 de marzo de 2019, se planteó una serie de interrogantes contables sobre los efectos que conllevaría la desconsolidación de dicha filial ¿Era la desconsolidación de la filial venezolana irrever-sible? y ¿cuáles serían las implicancias de la situación hiperinflacionaria en Venezuela para el futuro de MASISA?

Understanding Governance Mechanisms in Small and Medium Family Firms in Latin America

Governance mechanisms help manage, direct, and control people, resources, and the interests of those involved in a firm. In family firms, understanding the use of governance mechanisms is particularly important given their rela-tionship with the sustainability of the family and the business. Even though we know a great deal about family business governance in North America and Europe, we still know very little regarding the use of governance mechanisms in small and medium (SME) family firms in Latin America, nor do we know whether the use of governance mech-anisms impacts financial performance. To address these gaps, this paper presents the results of a survey completed by 2287 representatives of family business SMEs from 24 Latin American countries. Participants indicated the like-lihood of their using different governance mechanisms and responded to questions concerning their businesses. Our results indicate that the small and medium Latin American family firms in our study were not very likely to use formal business and family governance mechanisms, however, the use of formal business governance mechanisms was related to financial performance. The implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.

Country Brand-Strength Index for G7 Countries and Turkey

Even though, in the past, competition depended on the factors of production possessed, today it depends on the production of value-added goods, their export, and finally, branding of the country today. Since the late 1990s, the brand value of countries has been an important concept that has been studied. Current academic literature is deprived of weighting sub dimensions of country brand strength index and compare index values by years. Having an import-ant role in academic literature, Fetscherin (2010) identified five dimensions of the country brand strength index as export, tourism, foreign direct investment, migration and governance, but not giving any weighting to sub dimensions. In order to contribute to current country brand index literature, sub-dimensions of the index are weighted with the help of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method, comparing 2010 and 2015. Therefore, the innovation of this paper is its weighting method and the comparison of index values by years. The Country Brand Strength Index (CBSI) is calculated for G7 countries and Turkey using the survey based AHP method, consisting of 5 different indi-cators: exports, foreign direct investments, tourism, immigration, and governance. According to the results, it is deter-mined that “exports” has the most important weight among those indicators with Canada leading the group with the best index value in 2010 and 2015. The aim of this study, which was conducted with limited resources, is to shed light on studies to be carried out in the future in order to establish a strong country brand and increase country competi-tiveness in the international markets. In this respect, repetition of this research as regards to geographical and regional variations and performing qualitative and quantitative studies, incorporating different dimensions in the index such as culture, science and technology, will strengthen the academic literature in this field.

Autoestima y motivación en la comunidad escolar, ¿cómo inciden en el ingreso a la Educación Superior?

La investigación buscó determinar si existe un efecto del grado de autoestima y motivación del establecimiento escolar de egreso de un estudiante en su ingreso a una universidad versus un instituto técnico profesional en Chile. La delimitación del objeto de estudio se circunscribe a alumnos matriculados en los años 2018 y 2019, en entidades de la Corporación Universidad de Concepción, esto es, Universidad de Concepción (UdeC) e Instituto Profesional Virginio Gómez (IPVG), en la región de Ñuble. La cantidad de observaciones equivale a 2055 alumnos. Desde un punto de vista econométrico, estimamos los factores que inciden en la probabilidad de que un estudiante haya conti-nuado sus estudios en una universidad (UNIV) en vez de un instituto profesional (IP). Utilizamos un modelo Probit binario, puesto que la variable dependiente puede adoptar dos valores discretos (cero o la unidad). Medimos el grado de autoestima y motivación por medio de su respectivo Indicador de Desarrollo Personal y Social determinado por la Agencia de Indicadores de Calidad del Ministerio de Educación. Además, incorporamos variables de control, tales como características personales del estudiante y características del establecimiento de enseñanza media. Los resulta-dos obtenidos revelan que los estudiantes que egresan de establecimientos educacionales secundarios con mayor auto-estima y motivación tienen mayor probabilidad de ingresar a la UdeC que al IPVG. Si bien el sistema de educación superior ha avanzado en cobertura, debe avanzar también en el desarrollo de políticas públicas que profundicen en la calidad y contemplen la potenciación de los factores de formación emocional como la autoestima y la motivación.

The Key Role of Consumers’ Involvement: The Case of Organic Food Consumption

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of conditions that influence the gap between positive attitude and intention towards organic food products and actual behaviour regarding these products. Thus, we propose an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to explain parts of this gap and we highlight the crucial role played by consumers’ involvement as a moderator. A structural equation modelling was performed, and the sta-tistical analysis of a sample of 1327 French consumers supports our organic food products buying behaviour model. The results showed that the difference between the means of actual behaviour was highly different between low- and high-involvement consumers. More specifically, high-involvement consumers express more positive attitudes towards buying organic food products, perceive higher subjective norms and behavioural control, they have higher behavioural intention, and buy organic food products more frequently. Additionally, the results indicated that, com-pared to low-involvement consumers, high-involvement consumers regard organic food products as more attractive, healthier, tastier, and with higher value. We proposed some marketing strategies to help managers to better promote the organic food products market and, in turn, increase their revenues. For example, marketers therefore have a vested interest in increasing consumer involvement, and, among other things, they can do so by educating them (i.e., high-lighting the benefits of consuming organic foods). Moreover, since high-involvement customers have positive atti-tude-intention and behaviour, they can be allies for marketers through their influence (social norms). Thus, we suggest the use of digital influencers to endorse organic food.

Impacto de la administración de la demanda en mercados emergentes

Este artículo pretende contribuir al análisis del impacto de la administración de la demanda (AD) en los últimos años en mercados emergentes (ME). Las empresas manufactureras y comercializadoras juegan un rol de vital importancia en la economía de los ME. Por tanto, es importante la implementación y sistematización de procesos tales como la AD, con miras a la optimización de recursos, mejorar el servicio al cliente, la coordinación con proveedores y, en general, a la gestión de la cadena de suministro. De esta manera, se contribuye a que las empresas permanezcan en el mercado y sean cada vez más competitivas, lo que reduce la incertidumbre e incrementa sus ingresos, al adaptarse a condiciones favorables con el medio ambiente. En los últimos años se ha reconocido a la AD como el primer eslabón de la cadena de suministro de las empresas productoras, sin embargo, puede variar entre países desarrollados versus países emergentes. Esto nos hace pensar que existen procesos o mecanismos implícitos que no se han considerado preponderantes o que no son necesariamente homogéneos entre bloques de países. Es indiscutible la necesidad de dominar el conocimiento científico pasado y presente sobre el tema, a fin de aportar nuevos saberes y una contribución original.