Relationship marketing in Latin American context: Implications for small Finnish software companies in Latin American B2B partnerships

After a productivity decrease of established national export industries in Finland such as mobile and paper industries, innovative, smaller companies with the intentions to internationalize right from the start have been proliferating. For software companies early internationalization is an especially good opportunity, as Internet usage becomes increasingly homogeneous across borders and software products often do not need a physical distribution channel. Globalization also makes Finnish companies turn to unfamiliar export markets like Latin America, a very untraditional market for Finns. Relationships consisting of Finnish and Latin American business partners have therefore not been widely studied, especially from a new-age software company’s perspective. To study these partnerships, relationship marketing theory was taken into the core of the study, as its practice focuses mainly on establishing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders at a profit, so that the objectives of all parties are met, which is done by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises. The most important dimensions of relationship marketing were identified as trust, commitment and attraction, which were then focused on, as the study aims to understand the implications Latin American business culture has for the understanding, and hence, effective application of relationship marketing in the Latin American market. The question to be answered consecutively was how should the dimensions of trust, commitment and attraction be understood in business relationships in Latin America? The study was conducted by first joining insights given by Latin American business culture literature with overall theories on the three dimensions. Through pattern matching, these insights were compared to empirical evidence collected from business professionals of the Latin American market and from the experiences of Finnish software businesses that had recently expanded into the market. What was found was that previous literature on Latin American business culture had already named many implications for the relationship marketing dimensions that were relevant also for small Finnish software firms on the market. However, key findings also presented important new drivers for the three constructs. Local presence in the area where the Latin American partner is located was found to drive or enhance trust, commitment and attraction. High-frequency follow up procedures were in turn found to drive commitment and attraction. Both local presence and follow up were defined according to the respective evidence in the study. Also, in the context of Finnish software firms in relationships with Latin American partners, the national origins or the foreignness of the Finnish party was seen to enhance trust and attraction in the relationship

Immigration experience of Latin American working women in Alicante, Spain: an ethnographic study

Objective: to describe the experience of Latin American working women regarding immigration, taking into account the expectations and conditions in which this process takes place. Method: ethnographic qualitative study. Data collection was performed by means of semi-structured interviews with 24 Latin American immigrant women in Spain. The information collected was triangulated through two focal groups. Results: the expectations of migrant women focus on improving family living conditions. Social support is essential for their settling and to perform daily life activities. They declare they have adapted to the settlement country, although they live with stress. They perceive they have greater sexual freedom and power with their partners but keep greater responsibility in childcare, combining that with the role of working woman. Conclusions: migrant women play a key role in the survival of households, they build and create new meanings about being a woman, their understanding of life, their social and couple relationships. Such importance is shaped by their expectations and the conditions in which the migration process takes place, as well as their work integration.

An analysis of herd behavior in Latin American stock markets

This research investigates whether the major stock markets in Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Argentina) exhibited herd behavior over the period January 2, 2002 to June 30, 2014, using the variation in the returns overall and by sector in the most representative stock market index in each country, using the model proposed by Christie y Huang (1995) -- The results do not reveal any herd behavior in the total market, or in the sectors of the markets examined in the study

Interpreting independence in Latin American cinema today: the digital option

Globalisation has transformed “independence” into, at best, “inter-dependence”. In Latin American film, this process has been experienced as a decline in the national productions, now usually co-productions, and a tendency towards the self-exoticising as films cater for a festival-circuit global audience; similarly, theatrical exhibition takes place in one of a handful of the global multiplex complexes. Moreover, narrative film itself has long been regarded as inherently “dependent”, on the conservative sectors that have provided its finance, with the word “independent” referring to authorial features only. However, the very same processes that have allowed for such an unprecedented corporate control of these film industries have also spawned a parallel network of local, regional and national filmmaking, distribution and exhibition through digital media. From the “Mi Cine” project in Mexico to the “Cine Piquetero” in Argentina, digital filmmaking is empowering viewers and restoring agency to local filmmakers. In this paper I argue for this understanding of “independence” in the contemporary cinematic spheres of Latin America: the re-appropriation, amidst the transnationalism of the day, of the democratising potential of cinema that Walter Benjamin once thought was inherent to the medium.

Better Regulation in Latin American Countries: A tool for accountability?

In the last few years, a steadily increasing number of Latin American countries have been adopting policy assessment instruments and new governance structures for them, as part of their policymaking process. Even though the literature argues that these instruments serve, among other things, as tools for accountability, for this to be so, it is necessary to take into account the legal system, decision-making process, and regulatory relationships that exist in the adopting countries. This Thesis researches the policy assessment arrangements adopted and implemented in the Latin American region to understand why are these countries adopting and implementing tools for policy evaluation? Can this contribute towards regulatory accountability, and if so, in which conditions? The Thesis first analyzes the rationales that these countries might have to adopt these regulatory policy arrangements. It then studies the various tools used for policy assessment, paying attention to the scope of the assessments, the times and the stages on which regulations are assessed, referred to as the Policy Evaluation Cycle (PEC), as well as to the governance of these processes. The Thesis develops a framework where each of these components are organized and classified based on which goals or rationales they serve. This can assist countries on deciding how to implement their policy evaluation arrangements, to serve their own goals. Since all of the studied countries have presidential systems, this Thesis studies how regulations are made in this system, and the multiple needed delegations for policymaking, which results in various regulatory relationships. Thus, the desired accountability of policymakers towards their different forums makes relevant the adoption this agenda for regulatory accountability reasons. Bringing to together the literatures on public law, accountability and policy evaluation, this Thesis builds a framework for assessing the contribution towards accountability that each stage of the PEC might have in a specific regulatory relationship. The framework shows to which degree the stages, and the cycle as a whole, contribute towards accountability in specific relationships of a presidential constitutional system. The results evidence that even when a policy assessment structure might contribute towards accountability, this contribution is not absolute as it only operates in specific regulatory relationships, and even more, only in some stages of the PEC contributing at different degrees. This framework can be used by governments or regulatory agencies as an instrument to assess the contribution to accountability of their existing or potential regulatory policy structures in order to improve it.

Algo más que una relación epistolar : Francisco Romero, Edgar S. Brightman y el personalismo norteamericano

Dentro del epistolario de Francisco Romero, que permanece inédito, se analizan las cartas que intercambió con el filósofo personalista Edgar S. Brightman (1884–1953), como así también se alude a otros representantes dentro del movimiento en EEUU. Este escrito se apoya en la hipótesis del interés compartido por esta corriente de ideas dentro de los años que van desde la II Guerra Mundial hasta los inicios de la llamada Guerra Fría. Se alude también al propósito de ambos corresponsales por acercar la filosofía estadounidense y la desarrollada en América Latina. Las cartas en el repositorio se extienden entre 1939 y 1952. Se incluye como anexo la nota necrológica sobre Brightman redactada por José Vasconcelos con el fin de mostrar que su filosofía interesaba también en otros países latinoamericanos.

Filosofía latinoamericana, humanismo y emergencia en la obra de Arturo Andrés Roig

En el siguiente trabajo se retoman las tesis desarrolladas por Arturo Roig en relación a la problemática del sujeto y la dimensión antropológica, entendiendo que constituyen ejes conceptuales centrales que se presentan en su propuesta filosófica. Desde la elaboración singular de lo que denomina como “a priori antropológico", que supone un ejercicio de autoafirmación y reconocimiento, hasta la enunciación de una “moral de la emergencia", es posible ubicar sucesivas formulaciones que sigue en su tratamiento teórico. A partir de la referencia a estas cuestiones se pone de relieve la revisión crítica que implican en relación al humanismo, en el sentido de la especificidad que reviste el mismo en el contexto latinoamericano.

Filosofía latinoamericana en la época de la globalización: colonialidad, interculturalidad y filosofía de la liberación

Este trabajo parte de la periodización del pensamiento latinoamericano del último medio siglo, en tres fases. La autora se detiene en algunas expresiones de la filosofía latinoamericana de la última de estas fases: la globalización, desde el estudio de dos posturas: la de “repensar el imperialismo” y la del “regreso al humanismo”, que proponen Walter Mignolo y Raúl Fornet Betancourt, respectivamente. Además, vincula estas perspectivas con los debates sobre la filosofía de la liberación de décadas anteriores y sugiere la necesidad de construir un nuevo proyecto filosófico, antropológico y social.

Historia de las ideas en la filosofía latinoamericana

In this article I present Horacio Cerutti ́s main epistemological y methodological views, which he considers as requisites or “orientations” to do Latin American philosophy. The contextualization and the historical dimensions are common places of the Latin America philosophy.

Management of Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis in Latin America A Consensus Position Paper From Pan-American League of Associations of Rheumatology and Grupo Latino Americano De Estudio de Artritis Reumatoide

Objective: A consensus meeting of representatives of 18 Latin-American and Caribbean countries gathered in Renaca, Chile, for 2 days to identify problems and provide recommendations for the care of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Latin America, a region where poverty and other health priorities make the efforts to provide effective and high quality care difficult. This report includes recommendations for health professionals, patients, and health authorities in Latin America, with an emphasis oil education and therapeutic issues. Methods: Fifty-one rheumatologists (list available only online on the JCR website) from 18 Latin-American and Caribbean countries with a special interest in RA participated in the consensus meeting. Participants were experts identified and appointed by the National Societies of Rheumatology affiliated with the Pan-American League of Associations for Rheumatology (PANLAR) and by the Grupo Latino Americano De Estudio de Artritis Reumatoide (GLADAR)-an independent group of Latin American rheumatologist researchers were also invited to the meeting. Eight topics were identified as priorities: patient, community and allied health professional education, health policy and decision making, programs for early detection and appropriate treatment of RA, role of classic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), role of biologic therapy, and drug safety surveillance. To reach consensus, a survey with questions relevant to the topic of interest was sent to all participants before the meeting. During a 2 day meeting, the answers of the survey were reviewed and discussed by each group, with final recommendations on action items. Results: The specific topic of the survey was answered by 86% of the participants and 68% of them answered the entire survey. It was agreed that RA and rheumatic diseases which are currently not but should be public health priorities in Latin America, because of their prevalence and impact on quality of life. Conclusions: Strategic areas identified as priorities for our region included: early diagnosis and access to care by multidisciplinary teams, creation of databases to identify infections with the use of biologic agents in RA which are relevant to Latin America, and overall efforts to improve the care of RA patients in accordance with international standards. Implementation of educational programs aimed to improve self-management for patients with RA was also considered crucial.

Pedagogical practices carried out during an in-service teachers education project: approaching history and philosophy of science to physics teaching

We report here part of a research project developed by the Science Education Research Group, titled: "Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices and formative processes in Science and Mathematics Education" which main goal is the development of coordinated research that can generate a set of subsidies for a reflection on the processes of teacher training in Sciences and Mathematics Education. One of the objectives was to develop continuing education activities with Physics teachers, using the History and Philosophy of Science as conductors of the discussions and focus of teaching experiences carried out by them in the classroom. From data collected through a survey among local Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics teachers in Bauru, a São Paulo State city, we developed a continuing education proposal titled “The History and Philosophy of Science in the Physics teachers’ pedagogical practice”, lasting 40 hours of lessons. We followed the performance of five teachers who participated in activities during the 2008 first semester and were teaching Physics at High School level. They designed proposals for short courses, taking into consideration aspects of History and Philosophy of Science and students’ alternative conceptions. Short courses were applied in real classrooms situations and accompanied by reflection meetings. This is a qualitative research, and treatment of data collected was based on content analysis, according to Bardin [1].

Marx and the Bible: José Miranda’s Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression

This paper critically examines the liberation theology of José Porfirio Miranda, as expressed in his Marx and the Bible (1971), with a focus on the central idea (and subtitle) of this work: the “Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression.” Miranda’s critique is examined via certain key tropes such as “power,” “justice,” and “freedom,” both in the context of late twentieth-century Latin American society, and in the state of the “post-Christian” and “post-Marxist” world more generally, vis-à-vis contemporary liberal justice theory. Close examination of the potentialities, paradoxes and subtle evasions in Miranda’s critique leads not to the conclusion that Miranda does not go far enough in his application of Christian principles to justice theory.

Philosophy of Computer Science and its Effect on Education: Towards the Construction of an Interdisciplinary Group

This article presents an interdisciplinary experience that brings together two areas of computer science; didactics and philosophy. As such, the article introduces a relatively unexplored area of research, not only in Uruguay but in the whole Latin American region. The reflection on the ontological status of computer science, its epistemic and educational problems, as well as their relationship with technology, allows us to elaborate a critical analysis of the discipline and a social perception of it as a basic science.