Small and Medium Enterprises in Mexico and the Craft Beer Sector in Baja California: Dynamic Capabilities, Culture, and Innovation

This article studies how Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in emerging economies implement adaptative strategies to respond to constant changes in demand and global uncertainties, such as those stemming from the current SARS-COV2 pandemic. In this study the knowledge management capabilities used by SMEs in the craft beer sector in a region of northern Mexico are the focus of analysis. The objective is to present the competitive capabilities that craft beer sector has demonstrated in Baja California region and how small companies compete with the national industrial brewery and survive. Sources are data from a sample of companies and interviews with brewery owners, with which the analysis approaches, also, the Baja California business environment. The article highlights the routes of creativity, innovation, and symbolic capital of the companies in the region, and uses ideas from dynamic capabilities and knowledge management theoretical frameworks, to understand the craft brewery milieu. The conclusions in this article include the confirmation about the usefulness of these analytical frameworks based in the capabilities approach and the territorial knowledge. Also, the description of the existence of a complex Baja Californian milieu, where a multimodal scheme of craft beer characterized by different places of distribution and types of beer container, food-districts, at Mexicali, Tijuana, and Ensenada and a second generation of entrepreneur groups leading local business, is identified.

Chilean Public Policies and their Impact on Biotechnology Small and Medium Enterprises

It is difficult to find cases of technology-based Small and Medium Enterprises in developing countries, however Chile has some within the biotechnology sector. How has this been possible? As a consequence of the different public policies and structural economic conditions that allowed their emergence, especially in the 1990s. This study describes the historical conditions and how they have been able to create a sector within the Chilean economy. From the analysis of secondary data the emergence of this type of company within the country is described. This analysis shows the link between structural conditions and appropriate public policies, meaning that these companies did not emerge by chance. Understanding their development process is crucial to promote the creation of more such technology-based Small and Medium Enterprises, as they have many positive externalities and are more globally competitive.

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Ecuador: Evolution and Challenges

The main objective of this article is to analyze the evolution of Ecuadorian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME), their contribution to the national economy, institutional framework, and internal operating characteristics. To this end, the focus is on companies related to the manufacturing sector in Ecuador. The main periods of the analysis are: i) the 1990s, ii) 2000-2008 and iii) 2009-2019; however, the decades of the 1970s and 1980s have been included in the first part of the article for their relevance. Literature review is the main data collection methodology, and the databases used are from official sources. Data from the Banco Central del Ecuador (BCE, Central Bank of Ecuador), the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC, National Institute of Statistics and Census), regulations and research around the SME sector have been used. The main findings are that SMEs are crucial within the Ecuadorian industrial fabric, because of its specialization in products that contribute to satisfying basic needs, but also because they provide parts and supplies to other companies. The quantitative contribution of SMEs, however, has been declining over time, both in number of establishments, staffing, and production, which reveals the increasing relevance of large industries. In this process, the institutional framework has had an influence in the evolution of SMEs, with certain strengths and weaknesses in terms of supporting the development of SMEs. In turn, in regards to internal operation, it becomes apparent that despite some improvement, there has not been significant progress during the period under analysis. In short, this work contributes to the larger discussion about the relevance of SMEs in Ecuador, their history, and whether there might be grounds for public policies to support their development.

Small publishing houses in Argentina. Their dynamism and limitations within the publishing industry

The goal of this article is to analyze the market insertion that small Argentine publishing houses underwent between the late twentieth century and 2015. We take into account the sector’s evolution in the country, the worldwide concentration of the publishing market, and the business strategies these firms adopted, from a historical standpoint. Sources are institutional and periodical publications, oral sources obtained through interviews with key actors, statistical sources, repository information, and secondary literature. Some comparisons with other Latin American countries are also presented. The conclusions highlight elements such as the publishing houses´accumulated historical experience, business strategies, speed of adaptation to digital and multimedia formats, production focused on specific areas or topics, and the leveraging of a minimal and flexible structure, many times in unfavorable circumstances, as key factors that allow a correct understanding of the complexities of the business of publishing for small and medium enterprises in Argentina.

Latin American Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Historical Perspective

This special issue seeks to appreciate the long-term study of SMEs as key players in the Latin American economies, with contributions on six countries: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile. This is a representative sample of the Latin American subcontinent’s diversity when it comes to economy size, population, and inequality index. The articles presented spot key topics in the study of Latin American SMEs. This introduction focus on three central issues that arise from those articles: the role of public policies in SME emergence and development, the strategies pursued by these firms to adapt to environment changes, and the links between informality and SME creation.

Small and Medium Enterprises in Bolivia, a Look Back to the Future, 1900 - 2020

The main objective of this article is to analyze Bolivian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), their evolution, and their contribution to the country's economy. The globalization of markets is currently a reality to which companies are exposed for their survival, growth and development. In developing countries such as the plurinational State of Bolivia, this reality becomes more relevant due to the socioeconomic characteristics of the country, where the main economic activity is dependent on the export of non-renewable natural resources (natural gas and minerals), and to a lesser extent the export of primary products. In this context, the article shows that SMEs struggle to consolidate their position in local markets, and have a low participation in global markets. The article reviews relevant secondary and primary literature, and concludes that SMEs require public and private support to contribute to the promotion of entrepreneurial culture, enter into global production chains, develop technological and innovation capabilities, and achieve growth in a sustainable manner and with high levels of competitiveness. The research method used is the review of relevant primary and secondary bibliographic sources of information about the origins, evolution and current situation of SMEs in Bolivia, and about possible alternatives for growth and development.

Sources and Methodologies for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Study in Brazil

This article uncovers relevant sources and methodologies to gather knowledge about micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in Brazil. To achieve its purpose, the text presents sources and methodologies. This type of study is relatively neglected concerning MSMEs. Until this moment, not much data has been reported about these companies’ categories, and even less in advanced research. Among the most significant data and methodology of addressing MSMEs in the country, the text highlights the surveys conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (SEBRAE), and the international annual research Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) a study on the entrepreneurial activity, which Brazil is part for more than 20 years. The Brazilian institutions, as well as consulting for those companies, collect key data that posteriorly become research sources. Also, when explaining how institutions chose and treated the data, they own specific methodologies regarding those businesses in Brazil. The paper also points out the importance of constant law monitoring, adjustment, and technology incentives. This article's contribution is to present a research methodology on MSME in Brazil with relevant data.

Academic patents and entrepreneurial intention. To what extent are other knowledge transfer mechanisms affected in a Mexican university?

This research aims to expand the explanations about the debate on academic entrepreneurship and other knowledge transfer mechanisms, to respond to what extent entrepreneurial intention affects the diffusion and dissemination of knowledge in a Mexican university. The lack of indicators of commercial activity, leads us to propose the analysis of a pre-commercial stage of technology that we call entrepreneurial intention. After the literature review, we present a database of academic inventors in patents granted to the university, identifying patenting with an entrepreneurial intention, following Lomas (1993) knowledge transfer taxonomy. Data about publications and received citations by academic inventors is also considered for knowledge diffusion; as well as the supervision of end-of-degree projects in undergraduate and graduate studies; before and after the patent was granted, for knowledge dissemination. Using a binomial model, we estimated two data sets, one for the period 1984-2000 and the second for 2001-2020. Our findings reveal, an average increase of 60% in the number of patents obtained. We also found that the characteristics of the research group are significant in both models, but in the 2001-2020 period it is more important to integrate foreign inventors than patenting with firms, the dissemination of knowledge is more significant and has greater importance in the model. To respond to what extent entrepreneurial intention affects the diffusion and dissemination of knowledge, greater attention should be paid to the diffusion of knowledge since in both models the variable that represents publications after patenting is not significant. The explanation about the dissemination of knowledge improves substantially from one period to another.

A state-owned bank for small farmers in Chile, c.1926-1953

This article deals with the creation and operations of the first agricultural development bank ever created in Chile, the Caja de Crédito Agrario (CCA), founded in 1926, in operations until 1953. The main sources are the annual reports of CCA from 1933 to 1951. The main contributions are to show first that the CCA was instrumental to provide subsidized long-term capital to small farmers in Chile to promote agricultural production, but that also had a “social mission”. The CCA soon became a protagonist within the local financial market. Given the lack of knowledge about the modus operandi of development banks in Latin America, we provide the first account of the management and financial activities of the CCA. We show that the management structure of the firm, and in particular its strategy of decentralization, was key to explain its success. Likewise, the CCA managed successfully to raise increasing amounts of capital from other state institutions at low interest rates, thus being able to cover its increasing loan operations.

Luis Banchero Rossi (1955-1972), the best entrepreneur in Peru’s fishmeal industry: market governance, social capital, and embeddedness

In the 20th century, Peru was one of the major fishmeal producers worldwide. Luis Banchero Rossi (1929-1972) was the main driving force behind this economic boom. This article discusses how, given a set of historical conditions favoring such a setting, Banchero’s business performance surpassed that of other Peruvian and foreign producers in the industry, and enabled this development. This research uses complementary methodologies; i.e., case study work and financial databases. The authors find that Banchero’s share in Peru’s total exports reached 15.3 % in 1968, far above the next largest Peruvian exporter. In this regard, Banchero operated his organization following a set of criteria, called market governance by Williamson, plus several advantages, including negotiation abilities, social capital formation, human capital management, and tacit knowledge development, building on Peru’s specific sociological conditions. These conclusions help understanding how an entrepreneur of humble origins like Banchero worked around a commodity such as fishmeal to become a successful business leader worldwide.