Artículos Economía y Negocios

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  • Publication
    The role of culture as an informal institution in cross-border venture capital investment
    (2024) Mahn, Daniel; Poblete, Carlos; Wang, Cong; Heaton, Chris
    Grounded in Hofstede cultural dimensions theory, we examine how informal institutional factors shape cross-country venture capital (VC) flows. Separating VC activity into flows, our method studies how an increment in inflows supports ventures, and an increment in outflows more investing activity. Results suggest that (1) uncertainty avoidance negatively affects investors and ventures (the last with a larger effect), (2) individualistic attitudes equally support both investors and ventures, and (3) a higher level of power distance contributes to a larger private investors sector, an effect that is greater under strong for mal institutions (FIs). Effects of masculinity, long-term orientation, and indulgence are inconclusive. Results are robust to various specifications, use of instruments, and endogeneity treatments. The implication is that the optimal characteristics of informal institutions for fostering VC activity differ depending on the level of FIs, as both institutions interact to affect both investors and ventures.
  • Publication
    Entrepreneurial identity construction among communitarians: Unraveling the psychological mechanisms
    (2025) Poblete, Carlos; Acuña, Cristina; Mahn, Daniel; Rifo, Felipe
    Purpose – Nurturing the social identity approach, encompassing social identity theory and self-categorisation theory, this study aims to unravel the process of entrepreneurial identity construction among communitarians. It seeks to uncover the psychological mechanisms through which entrepreneurs categorise themselves as communitarians, highlighting the importance of community salience, trust, and engagement. Design/methodology/approach – This quantitative study comprises a sample consisting of 253 entrepreneurs. This research presents a sequential mediation model, drawing on salience, trust, and engagement as antecedents of social entrepreneurial identity. By analysing the step-by-step mediation process, the research offers a nuanced understanding of how these community dynamics contribute to shaping entrepreneurial identity. Findings – Entrepreneurs deeply connected to their communities do not naturally identify as communitarians; rather, it is the trust they build and the engagement they foster that shape their entrepreneurial identity. Communal bonds are not merely a backdrop for entrepreneurship but a driving force that moulds identity and action. This study evidenced that the salience of community positively influences community trust and engagement, which, in turn, enhances the development of entrepreneurial identity as communitarians. This underscores the role of social dynamics in shaping entrepreneurial attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Originality/value – This research confers a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurs construct and enact their identities, shedding light on the dynamic interplay between social context, shaping attitudes, cognition, and behaviours. Exploring entrepreneurial identity among communitarians, offers new insights into how social dynamics shape entrepreneurial actions. The study’s value extends to practical applications, offering guidance for policymakers and community leaders in fostering supportive environments that enhance entrepreneurship through greater community engagement and trust
  • Publication
    Human-animal mutualism in regenerative entrepreneurship
    (2024) Muñoz, Pablo; Hernandez, Mauricio
    In this paper, we explore the micro-interactions through which a regenerative enterprise engages with proximate natural ecosystems in its attempt to repair and protect them. Through an ethnographic study of a regenerative farming enterprise in rural Southern Patagonia - Fundo Panguilemu - we discover a reciprocal relationship between the enterprise and animals, central to their regenerative efforts. This relationship is formed and actively maintained by the founders through three practices – joint rewilding, ambivalent relationality, and task interdependence. We leverage nature relatedness to conceptualize the relationship between these practices as human-animal mutualism in regenerative work. We advance regenerative entrepreneurship research by revealing novel human-nature interactions formed and fostered by a rural enterprise in the pursuit of local regeneration and expand our understanding of micro-level phenomena in rural entrepreneurship.
  • Publication
    How founders harness tensions in hybrid venture development
    (2024) Muñoz, Pablo; Farny, Steffen; Kibler, Ewald; Salmivaara, Virva
    Although the simultaneous presence of multiple ambitions is inherent in hybrid venturing, pursuing social and/or environmental missions while securing commercial viability can generate ambivalence among stakeholders. In this study, we draw on the notion of “holism” to show how venture founders both embrace tensioned ambitions and sustain hybridity during critical venture development phases. Based on 6 years of data on The People’s Supermarket in the United Kingdom, we identify three distinct practices—fantasizing, bartering, and conjuring—used by founders to harness tensions productively, without compromising their venture’s multiple ambitions. These practices demonstrate the founders’ ability to maintain a venture’s hybrid nature throughout the ideation, organizational, and scale-up phases, thereby shedding light on the application of “holism” within the realm of hybrid venturing.
  • Publication
    Emerging energy sources' social acceptability:
    (2024) Ponce, Roberto D.; Estay, M.; Barrientos, M.; Estevez, R.A.; Gelcich, S.; Vásquez Lavín, Felipe
    Any decrease in global warming and its effects can only occur with a substantial reduction in anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In this context, renewable energy sources, particularly emerging sources, may play a central role in accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources. Emerging energy sources are renewable and have the potential to reduce global warming emissions; however, they are in the early development stages. These technologies include enhanced geothermal processes, artificial photosynthesis, and marine energy. In this study, we assess the main attributes that determine the social acceptance of renewable marine energy projects, highlighting individual preferences and heterogeneity for these projects. The results show that energy generation, ecological impact, job creation, co-ownership, and distributional justice are statistically significant attributes that support projects. However, individual preferences are highly heterogeneous. The existence of distinct classes (two in this case) with different preferences for marine energy attributes indicates that the one-size-fits-all approach may be inappropriate. Instead, policymakers and energy producers should tailor their proposals to meet the needs of both groups, considering their preferences and concerns.
  • Publication
    University technology transfer ofces’ capabilities in responding to societal challenges:
    (2024) Roncancio‑Marin, Jason; Guerrero, Maribel
    Over the last decades, the University Technology Transfer Ofces (UTTOs) literature has focused on how technology transfer contributes to economic development and only a few studies have focused on social development. This study explores how UTTOs transform into ambidextrous organizations capable of simultaneously addressing economic and social challenges, during external crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, we explore which dynamic capabilities and strategies should be developed or reconfgured by UTTOs to respond to complex societal challenges. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 20 UTTO ofcials from universities across Europe, North America, and Latin America, carried out in 2020 and 2021. Our fndings show that UTTOs reconfgured their dynamic capabilities and implemented inclusive strategies, such as fexible intellectual property models, inclusive technology transfer practices, and newmetrics that integrate social value. These adaptations enable UTTOs to respond efectively to the COVID-19 pandemic by facilitating the translation of impactful technologies to societal needs. We propose a theoretical framework that incorporates the role of dynamic capabilities—sensing, seizing, and transforming—into how UTTOs align economic and social goals by translating knowledge-creation processes to make discoveries that address social needs and fnancial opportunities. This study highlights some strategic implications based on the emergence of ambidextrous UTTOs, which focus on simultaneously driving both economic and social impacts.
  • Publication
    Class, gender and the work of working-class women amid turbulent times
    (2024) Warren, Tracy; Torres, Luis; Lyonette, Clare; Tarlo, Ruth
    The article focuses on the work of working-class women (WCW) amid turbulent times. Its timespan is just prior to and during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. The women's work, and the key skills involved, are fundamental to everyday lives, but both have been under-valued and under-rewarded. The pandemic shone a fresh light on the societal importance of this work and highlighted how its under-valuation and the women's systemic low pay and inferior working conditions have serious ramifications not only for individual workers and their families but for the provision of key services. The article centres WCW, at the intersection of classed and gendered disadvantage, to ask about inequalities in work experiences. Analysing nationally representative samples of thousands of workers in the UK prior to and as Covid-19 rolled out, we compare WCW with other workers. We show that the women faced both persistent and new inequalities at work: enduring low earnings, pandemic-led risks to jobs and paid hours, little opportunity to work from home or flexibly, and stressful key working roles. We reveal the heavily classed nature of some of these findings, show that others were more strongly gendered, while still others were classed and gendered outcomes that require intersectional analyses of the women's working lives.
  • Publication
    Environmental education and children’s pro-environmental behavior on plastic waste: evidence from the green school certification program in Chile
    (2024) Salazar, César; Jaime, Marcela; Leiva, Mauricio; González, Nuria
    Environmental education provides people with the information they need to understand the causes and consequences of environmental issues, helping to promote positive attitudes toward nature. This paper uses a multivalued treatment effects model to evaluate the effects of a green school certification program on children’s proenvironmental behavior in Chile. Pro-environmental behavior is measured by knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to the consumption and disposal of plastics. Results evidence a positive effect of schools’ higher certification level on children’s plastic waste behavior. This effect seems stronger in practices where children have more decision-making power (e.g., packing a lunch box). The observed reverse effect when switching from basic to intermediate level of certification is in line with the potential non-linear effects of environmental education on pro-environmental behavior regarding the consumption and disposal of plastic. To improve the design of the program, it is important to redefine incentives in the certification system to differentiate better the benefits of reaching each level of environmental certification
  • Publication
    Exploring the impact of ocean acidification information on consumers’ preference for seafood
    (2024) Barrientos, Manuel; Carrasco-Garcés, Moisés; Vásquez Lavín, Felipe; Ponce, Roberto D.; San Martín, Valeska A.; Gelcich, Stefan
    We conducted a discrete choice experiment to explore whether providing information about a lesser-known issue related to climate change, ocean acidification (OA), affects consumers’ preferences for seafood products in a middle-income country in the southern hemisphere. Our objective was to determine whether OA information affects consumer preferences for seafood using stated preference (SP) techniques. Seafood attributes include shell size and appearance, meat color, texture, taste, nutritional composition, product assortments, and price. We applied a split-sample approach to test for information effects, with one sample receiving information about OA while the other did not. We analyze the differences between samples using visual instruments and statistical tests. The results demonstrate that although the statistical test does not identify a difference between models, we did find that OA information increases the precision of ’consumers’ responses. Moreover, using visual instruments, we found differences in specific parameters – not detected in the statistical analysis - which can lead to substantial differences in the willingness to pay for seafood attributes. The article is relevant as understanding these matters is essential when generating more effective communicational strategies regarding the impacts of global changes.
  • Publication
    Senior entrepreneurship in Latin America:
    (2024) Torres-Marín, Alfonso; Amorós, José Ernesto; Leporati, Marcelo; Roses, Sergio
    Purpose: The purpose of this study is to make an exploratory analysis of the impact of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) as defined by Acs et al. (2014) on opportunity-driven senior entrepreneurial activity in Latin America. Design/methodology/approach: The research uses data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute of five Latin America countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico), providing a total of 15,019 observations of people that are 50+ years old, between the years 2013 and 2017. A multi-level logistic regression model was used to estimate the relation between the total entrepreneurial activity by opportunity of seniors and some EE indicators. A total of three equations were estimated on the data set described. Findings: This research confirms the relevance of some elements of EE on senior entrepreneurship in Latin America. Entrepreneurial attitudes have a positive relationship with senior entrepreneurs, generating higher levels of entrepreneurial ventures. The combination of institutions that support these attitudes on the EE enhances senior entrepreneurial activity. It also demonstrates that a higher level of entrepreneurial education at postschool stages is relevant to increasing senior entrepreneurial activity. Originality/value: This research makes some interesting contributions in the field of measuring the impact of EE on senior entrepreneurship by opportunity in developing countries, filling a literature gap. It allows us to glimpse some measures that policymakers could take to improve the entrepreneurial activity of this segment in the region, such as implementing programs that facilitate networking opportunities and mentorship, along with providing training in business and financial literacy.
  • Publication
    The optimism effect on country productivity and innovation activities
    (2024) Mahn, Daniel; Wang, Cong; Kent, Danielle; Heaton, Chris
    This study focuses on how optimism translates into innovation outcomes. While the link has been established at a microeconomic level, its translation to an aggregate economic effect is still an open question. Empirical analysis draws from a yearly sample of 42 (mainly OECD) countries between 2000 and 2020 to test the effect of economic optimism on R&D measures from both the consumer's and producer's points of view at the aggregate level. Using modern econometric techniques that address potential endogeneity issues, the results suggest that economic optimism supports an increase in innovation activity and economic performance but not an increase in innovation outcomes, such as more patent production. The implication is that an economically optimistic environment is an important contribution to a nation's entrepreneurial ecosystem. This novel insight shows that firms need not specifically recruit optimistic individuals to reap the benefits of the optimism effect. Policies that encourage economic optimism can orchestrate an environment in which the benefits of the optimism effect are realized, independent of the individual personality traits of its citizens.
  • Publication
    What drives solar energy adoption in developing countries? Evidence from household surveys across countries
    (2024) Mahn, Daniel; Best, Rohan; Wang, Cong; Abiona, Olukorede
    This study investigates household solar energy uptake in developing countries by combining household surveys for 11 countries with area-level data. We use data from World Bank surveys for countries in Africa, Asia, and Central America. Our probit regressions use up to 36,653 household observations and cover actual uptake rather than intentions. The main result shows that households further from capital cities are less likely to have solar home systems. Furthermore, there are strong links between assets and solar uptake across solar types such as solar home systems, solar lighting systems, and solar lanterns. This is an important finding given the small number of prior studies that use actual uptake data for developing countries and the mixed results from prior literature. We do not find evidence that households in sunnier areas are more likely to have solar home systems across countries. This study motivates policymakers to consider greater support for households far from capital cities, in sunnier regions, and with low levels of assets.
  • Publication
    Intrapreneurial universities in digital times - New ways of thinking and future challenges
    (2024) Klofsten, Magnus; Brem, Alexander; Guerrero, Maribel; Urbano, David
    Despite extensive research on academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial universities, this special issue challenges conventional beliefs by examining intrapreneurship in academia. It aims to investigate how faculty and staff can adopt entrepreneurial behaviors and cultivate an entrepreneurial approach within their roles as researchers and educators, in diverse academic contexts. The 11 papers included in this issue span various domains of intrapreneurial universities, broadening the original concept beyond initial expectations set forth in the call for papers. Exploring a spectrum of intrapreneurial initiatives, this issue seeks to enhance understanding and broaden perspectives on intrapreneurial behaviors within universities through various research approaches and methodologies. Based on the contributions received, we reflect on theoretical and practical implications and delineate future directions for academic intrapreneurship research.
  • Publication
    Policy disclosure as a predictor of environmental behaviour: evidence from the chilean retail sector
    (2024) Ibáñez, María José; Vásquez Lavín, Felipe; Ponce, Roberto D.
    This study examines the relationship between corporate environmental policy disclosures and firms’ environmental investments. Using an endogenous switching probit (ESP) model to mitigate potential endogeneity issues, this study serves two purposes. Initially, it estimates the influence of six organizational characteristics—size, age, manager gender, export orientation, family ownership, and corporate group affiliation—on the probability of firms declaring pro-environmental policies. Subsequently, we test whether such policy disclosures are reliable predictors of environmental investment. We use the retail sector as a case study because of its pivotal role as an intermediary between primary producers, manufacturers, and consumers, thereby holding a uniquely influential position in driving sustainable consumption and production. Our results show a positive relationship between size, manager gender, export orientation, family ownership, and corporate group affiliation. In addition, we find that declaring an environmental policy positively affects the likelihood of businesses investing in environmental protection. This study contributes to the existing literature in three significant ways: it increases the evidence supporting a causal relationship between environmental policy disclosure and environmental investments; it is the first to explore this relationship within the retail industry; and it broadens our understanding of this dynamic in the context of developing countries.
  • Publication
    When given two choices, take both! Social impact assessment insocial entrepreneurship
    (2024) Muñoz, Pablo; Gamble, Edward N.
    This paper examines how social entrepreneurs construct impact arguments as they begin to assess social impact. We examined the experiences of 68 social entrepreneurs in Chile and discovered that the construction of arguments for the purpose of thinking about and experiencing impact is different than the arguments constructed to establish dialogues around it. We explain this dual argument construction as arguments for worth and arguments for legitimacy. We expand scholarship on argumentation by clarifying social entrepreneurs’ efforts to pursue adherence facing competing demands and reinforcing their willingness and ability to engage with social impact assessment. We advance the understanding of social impact assessment in social entrepreneurship across three areas: tensions, accountability and performance and extend Nicholls’ general theory by explaining what precedes the discursive space where the assessment of social impact reconciles facticity and validity to establish materiality.
  • Publication
    Tourism metamorphosis:
    (2024) Ibáñez, María José; Ponce, Roberto D.; Diaz-Avendaño, Julian
    Through Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) on destination attractiveness characteristics at the country level, this study identifies attribute configurations in the pre- and post-pandemic period to analyze the changes and differences generated by an exogenous event (COVID-19). The results suggest that the destination attractiveness attributes work together, in multidimensional configurations, to increase leisure travel volume. We found an important change in pat-terns/configurations of attractiveness between the pre- and post-pandemic scenarios. Our findings suggest that the destination attributes may change in importance and valuation or disappear for some configurations. The conclusion has implications for the stakeholders related to the destination attractiveness development, showing possible patterns of tourism attributes to guide the action to improve the resilience in the tourism sector and recover these activities in a disaster scenario.
  • Publication
    Pivot, persist or perish? Knowledge problems and the extraordinarily tight boundary conditions of entrepreneurs as scientists
    (2024) Hunt , Richard A.; Townsend, David M.; Lerner, Daniel A.; Brownell, Katrina M.
    The characterization of entrepreneurs as scientists (EaS) has become increasingly popular among management scholars because it fits neatly with existing theories of entrepreneurial action grounded in the assumption that entrepreneurs form and test beliefs in an intendedly rational fashion, under conditions of uncertainty, while continually seeking to obtain and process new information. Recent scholarship breathes new life into the EaS paradigm by proposing a framework that builds upon pragmatism in developing a microfoundational perspective concerning causally inferential action and rationality-based heuristics. Yet, the drift towards EaS is not without controversy. Business venturing is rarely analyzable through the lens of natural laws and orderly structures. Moreover, uncertainty is not the only knowledge problem (KP) that entrepreneurs confront. As such, EaS may be ineffective in bringing resolution to these other challenging KPs – ambiguity, complexity, and equivocality – especially when entrepreneurs are entertaining decisions to pivot or persist. In this sense, our work underscores the importance of EaS while also asserting the need for clear boundary conditions.
  • Publication
    Nudges versus prices:
    (2024) Hernandez, Francisco; Jaime, Marcela; Vásquez Lavín, Felipe
    This study evaluates the effects of two exogenous interventions targeting residential consumers using both pecuniary and nonpecuniary incentives, with the potential of increasing the moral and monetary costs of water use. The first intervention provided households with personalized reports including normative information regarding household water use compared with neighbors. The second intervention consisted of an exogenous change in water tariffs. The timing of the interventions provides a unique opportunity to separately assess both the individual and combined effects of each policy instrument. The empirical analysis was conducted on the same sample households assessed in the field experiment by Jaime and Carlsson (2018), whose behavior was followed one year after implementation. The results reveal that both nonpecuniary and pecuniary incentives significantly reduce water use when each instrument is applied separately, with the change in tariffs generating larger reductions in water use, compared with information provision, at 11% vs. 7%, respectively. However, the effectiveness of the combined policy depends on the setting of implementation. While the differentiated effects of the social information campaign associated with the change in tariffs suggest this policy remains effective, the evidence also suggests potential crowding-out effects arising upon the introduction of the new tariff regime. The largest reductions in water use are achieved when the instruments are jointly implemented. Findings shed light on the importance of accurately defining the timing and order of the interventions to maximize their impact on resource conservation.
  • Publication
    Out of sight, not out of mind:
    (2024) Henríquez, Makarena; Vásquez Lavín, Felipe; Barrientos, Manuel; Ponce, Roberto D.; Lara, Antonio; Flores-Benner, Gabriela; Riquelme, Carlos
    According to the latest global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, nature and biodiversity have experienced a global decline, making the development of conservation policies urgent. Herein, we used a contingent valuation survey to estimate the economic value of a reintroduction program for the huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus), an endangered charismatic species in Chile. Our novel approach exploits changes in the access to the site to disentangle nonuse value from use value. We use parametric and nonparametric models to estimate the willingness to pay for the program. Our findings consistently indicate that the conservation of the huemul is valued more when tourist access is restricted, as opposed to allowing visitors access to reintroduction areas. We also analyze the sensitivity of this main finding to different cut-off points of a certainty scale, showing that the results are robust. We hypothesize that people are willing to pay a “premium” to keep the conservation site “out of sight” from tourist activities. This could also be related to the belief that a reintroduction program would be more effective if access was not allowed. A cost-benefit analysis using the most conservative assumptions suggests that social benefit significantly outperforms cost.
  • Publication
    Discrete-continuous models of residential energy demand:
    (2024) Hanemann, Michael; Labandeira, Xavier; Labeaga, José M.; Vásquez Lavín, Felipe
    This paper reviews forty years of research applying econometric models of discrete-continuous choice to analyze residential demand for energy. The review is primarily from the perspective of economic theory. We examine how well the utility-theoretic models developed in the literature match data that is commonly available on residential energy use, and we highlight the modeling challenges that have arisen through efforts to match theory with data. The literature contains two different formalizations of a corner solution. The first, by Dubin and McFadden (1984) and Hanemann (1984), models an extreme corner solution, in which only one of the discrete choice alternatives is chosen. While those papers share similarities, they also have some differences which have not been noticed or exposited in the literature. Subsequently, a formulation first implemented by Wales and Woodland (1983) and extended by Kim et al. (2002) and Bhat (2008) models a general corner solution, where several but not all of the discrete choice alternatives are chosen. Seventeen papers have employed one or another of these models to analyze residential demand for fuels and/or energy end uses in a variety of countries. We review issues that arose in these applications and identify some alternative model formulations that can be used in future work on residential energy demand.