International Conference on Strategic Management in Latin America

The Strategic Management Conference (SMLA) brings together academics and practitioners interested in Latin America.

The world is facing unprecedented challenges in multiple arenas, what has been termed a VUCA (Volatile Uncertain Complex Ambiguous) context. This invites companies to question and revisit their strategic outlook. Particularly, this turmoil requires academics and managers to broaden their scope of analysis and incorporate the changes taking place in technology, the environment, geopolitics, economic, social, and legal dimensions. These radical transformations require revisiting not only current theories/perspectives in the field of strategy but also the relationship of firms with the government, unions, NGOs as well as take notice of new players such as entrepreneurs and changes in consumer preferences.

The conference attendees will have the opportunity to discuss their research with colleagues from different countries that share an interest in LATAM and to validate their concepts with entrepreneurs, managers and public policy decision makers.

Key Dates & Deadlines

Submissions Deadline: September 7th, 2020

Decision Notifications: November 27th, 2020

Early Bird Registration: From November 27th – January 15th, 2021

Regular Registration: From January 16th – February 26th, 2021

Conference Dates: March 11th - 12th, 2021

CONFERENCE TRACKS

SMLA invites theoretical papers, applied or empirical research and cases studies as well as panels and special session proposals. Presentation Paper sessions will be scheduled in a 120-minute block of time during the 2-day conference. Papers will be grouped into paper sessions of 3-5 papers per session.

We encourage original contributions that explore the following topics: Competitive and Corporate Strategy, Internationalization, Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, Public Private Collaborations (state capitalism) and Strategy Processes, Practice, Strategic Leadership and Governance. Papers will be double-blind reviewed.

1. Competitive and Corporate strategy formulation

Track chair: Maria José Murcia (IAE, Argentina)

Contemporary managers face unprecedented challenges when making portfolio and business-level strategic decisions. When considering of corporate-level decisions pertaining to, for instance, market diversification, macroeconomic volatility and political uncertainty are no longer confined to developing or emerging markets, but the globe is becoming increasingly volatile and uncertain as whole. When considering vertical integration decisions, societal values are shifting towards sustainability and enhanced responsibility, such that new criteria may now impinge upon sourcing strategies. In addition, competitive strategy gets increasingly complex in the current exponential era, where technological change may speedily render entire business models obsolete. This track takes up the fundamental question ‘which are those corporate and competitive strategies that may better fare in a VUCA context?’ Among many potential research questions, we would like to encourage novel work considering:

How firms may successfully navigate recession-prone markets
Strategic sourcing in face of uncertainty, resource scarcity, and shifting societal values
Technology and innovation management in the exponential era
International diversification patterns in a VUCA world

2. Internationalization

Track chair: Santiago Mingo (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Chile)

The internationalization of companies continues to be a critical issue for many firms around the world. This is especially relevant in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) context where the level of globalization has been showing ups and downs during the last 15 years. Moreover, national borders and distances of different kinds still present significant challenges to the internationalization strategies of firms. This track welcomes scholarly research on internationalization and global strategy dealing with questions that can have both general or specific implications for the Latin American region. Studies that use an empirical context that is linked to Latin America are particularly welcomed. This includes studies that offer insights related to:

Latin American companies entering other countries
Companies from other countries—both advanced economies and emerging markets—that are doing business in Latin American nations

3. Sustainability

Track chairs: Andres Barrios Fajardo (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) and Cliff Shultz (Loyola University, USA)

Environmental sustainability is vital to the well-being of business, policy, and consumer-citizens, locally and globally. This reality has become increasingly obvious and takes on greater urgency. Sustainable policies and practices are especially important in Latin America, from the responsible use and exploitation of vast natural resources (e.g. the Amazon, coastal fisheries) to dense urban spaces degraded by pollution, congestion and toxic materials. Given that business contributes to environmental degradation, business must devise new products, services, and managerial, accounting, manufacturing, logistics and marketing practices to reverse this degradation and to enhance environmental sustainability.

This session aims to discuss various management approaches for environmental sustainability from various perspectives; some examples include:

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as opportunities for businesses and/or management trends in environmental protection (e.g., B corps)
Consumption trends that involve sustainable practices (e.g., Circular economy)
Multilateral, collaborative trends to shape sustainable policy, production and consumption
Challenges and opportunities of social traps and commons dilemmas, for businesses, policy makers and consumer-citizens
Macromarketing explorations of complex systems, and policies and business practices to ensure sustainable prosperity and societal well-being

4. Entrepreneurship

Track chair: Ernesto Amoros (EGADE, México)

Entrepreneurship like a wide concept is has gradually acquired increasing significance for many types of organizations. The individuals leading entrepreneurial actions and the results of these actions have become a key topic in strategic management literature. Innovation and entrepreneurship are not only relevant for academic research, but also for their several practical implications including policymakers. This track aims to consider the diverse forms of entrepreneurship, from social and institutional to intrapreneurship. This includes the analysis of the multi and transdisciplinary nature of entrepreneurship and its relationship with other socials sciences under the lens of the strategy approach. We encourage papers proposals that examine:

The start-ups phenomena
How strategic entrepreneurship could shape different types or organizations under VUCA environments
Contributions that look specifically at entrepreneurial eco-systems putting focus on Latin America and/or Latin-American connections across the world

5. Public - Private Collaborations

Track chair: Diego Finchelstein (UdeSA, Argentina)

The track of public private collaborations of SMLA contemplates several topics involving public private relations within the management field and with a main regional focus in Latin America. We encourage institutionally based studies connecting State agencies, public policies or regulatory frameworks to private companies’ strategies and performance. In a similar fashion, research related to State Capitalism also is also acceptable for this track. Articles about State owned companies as well as mixed ventures including both private and State ownership are also welcomed. We also encourage studies originated in other social sciences but connected to some of these topics. Some of the studies that could be included in this track are:

The development of political strategies
Business-government relations
SOEs strategies
Effects of institutions and public policies on a firm's strategy

6. Strategy Processes, Practice, Strategic Leadership and Governance

Track chair: Carlos Rodriguez (INCAE, Costa Rica)

The strategy process track of SMLA focuses on how strategies are formed, implemented, and changed. It includes processes and practices involving the implementation of business, corporate or geographical strategies, the ability to seize and deploy strategic initiatives (acquisitions, alliances, divestitures, internal ventures, etc.), and the leadership and management of strategic issues associated with such processes. We welcome contributions that:

Examine particularities of the strategic processes in Latin America
Extends current paradigms, theories, and frameworks using Latin American data
Comparative works between Latin American and other regions highlighting similarities and differences

COMMITEE

Chairs

Jaqueline Pels, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina

Jaqueline Pels is Director of the Inclusive Business Think Tank (ENI-DiTella) and professor of marketing at the University Torcuato Di Tella Business School, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her research experience is in the areas of inclusive business, emerging economies, marketing theory, and relationship and networking marketing.

Her publications have appeared in leading international journals including Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Marketing Theory, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Relationship Marketing, amongst others. She has served on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Marketing, Marketing Theory, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, amongst others.

Jaqueline holds a PhD in Business Administration from Leicester University, UK.

Erica Salvaj, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile & Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina

Erica Salvaj is Professor of General Management and Strategy at Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD), Chile and Visiting Scholar at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina. Her primary fields of research are strategy, leadership, organizational change, social networks, corporate governance and business history.

She was GCEE Fellow at Babson College and has received fellowships and research grants from the Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica de Chile (CONICYT) and Agencia de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica de Argentina (CONICET). Recently she has been awarded with the fellowship “Alfred Chandler” from Harvard Business School and the Australia-APEC Women in Research Fellowship.

Her publications have appeared in leading journals including Global Strategy Journal, Journal of Business Research, Harvard Business Review, Business History, Enterprise and Society, Business History Review, Corporate Governance: an International Review, Harvard Deusto Business Review, Academy of Management Proceedings and IESE Insights, among others.

Erica completed his Ph.D. in Business Administration at IESE Business School, Barcelona.

Keynote Speakers

Álvaro Cuervo Cazurra, Northeastern University, USA

Álvaro Cuervo Cazurra is a Professor of Global Strategy and the Lloyd Mullin Research Fellow at the D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University, USA.

He is also the Bualuang ASEAN Chair Professor at Thammasat University, Thailand; Senior Fellow at the Center for Emerging Market Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; and Faculty Associate at the Center for Emerging Markets and at the Business Sustainability Initiative, both at Northeastern University, USA. Besides, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, the top association of international business scholars, in 2016. He is an expert on global strategy, and study three topics in his highly-awarded research: the internationalization of firms, with a special interest in emerging market multinationals; capability upgrading, particularly technological capabilities; and governance challenges, focusing on corruption in international business.

Álvaro has received an Honorary Doctorate from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, in 2019.

Fernando Rocchi, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina

Fernando Rocchi is an Emeritus Professor at the Historical and Social Department at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT), Argentina. He has been Director of the HS Department – UTDT, and Director of its History postgraduate program and La Nación-UTDT Master in Journalism.

He has also been a Visiting Professor at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Beijing and Nankai Universities (China), Universitat de Barcelona, CSIC-Centro de Estudios Históricos (Madrid), Universität Hamburg, Saint Antony’s College (Oxford) and Warwick University.

He is an expert on advertising origins, history of industry and history of consumption in Argentina, as well as on the influence of industry on Argentinian federal issues and the historiographical debate on studies of consumption in Latin America.

Fernando holds a PhD in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, and completed his Postdoctoral studies in Economic History as a visiting researcher in London School of Economics and Political Science, UK, in 1999.

Sergio Lazzarini, Insper, Brazil

Sergio G. Lazzarini is a Full Professor at Insper. He was Dean of Research Degree Programs at Insper and he was Director of Insper’s Center for Strategy. He was visiting professor at Harvard University in 2010 and in 2012.

He does research on strategic management, with particular emphasis on how emerging market contexts affect business strategy, and the organization of the public-private interactions. He has worked in partnership with various nonprofit organizations to disseminate the so-called “impact investments” to obtain measurable social results as well as financial returns. In this context, Lazzarini coordinates Center for the Measurement of Social and Environmental Impact Investments (Insper Metricis).

He holds a PhD in Business Administration from the John M. Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis, USA.

Track Chairs

José Ernesto Amorós

Dr. Amorós is Professor and Doctoral Programs Director at EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico. Until December 2015 he was the Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute at Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Sciences from ESADE Business School.

He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and MSc in Marketing from Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico. Member of several academic organizations and VP of Iberoamerican Academy of Management. His research interests are entrepreneurship and competitiveness, high growth new business, entrepreneurship and gender and corporate entrepreneurship.

Andrés Barrios Fajardo

Andrés Barrios is Associate Professor of marketing at Universidad de Los Andes - Bogotá, Colombia. He holds a PhD in Marketing from Lancaster University, UK. Andrés’ research analyzes the intersections among markets, development and social conflicts, from different theoretical perspectives.

He is currently developing different research projects around market-based programs for ex-combatants, after the peace accord signed between the Colombian government and FARC guerillas.

Diego Finchelstein

Diego Finchelstein is an Assistant Professor at Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina) and a researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina (CONICET). He holds a PhD from Northwestern University.

His main areas of expertise are related to the relation between institutions, State actions and internationalization, innovation from emerging markets as well as the evolution of business groups in Latin America. His research has been published in the Journal of World Business, Apuntes, Desarrollo Económico and Multinational Business Review, among others. He has also published chapters in edited books by prestigious publishers such as Cambridge University Press. Diego is an active member of the Emerging Markets Research Network and the Latin America and Caribbean chapter of the Academy of International Business, in which he is part of its executive board. He has also done consultancy work for the Argentine Secretariat of Energy and the IADB.

María José Murcia

María José Murcia (PhD), University of British Columbia; MBA, IAE Business School; BA in Economics (Hons.), Universidad de Buenos Aires. Dr. Murcia is an Assistant Professor in Strategy and Sustainability at IAE Business School, Universidad Austral (Argentina) and a Visiting Professor at University of British Columbia (Canada).

She is passionate about studying how sustainability will revolutionize strategies and ways of doing business. In her research, she uses multiple lenses, ranging from how individuals conceive and tackle sustainability-related challenges, how firms and industries shape their strategies in light of their sustainability orientation, to how sustainability may improve livelihoods and communities through social innovations.

Santiago Mingo

Santiago Mingo is an Associate Professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez’s School of Business in Santiago de Chile. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Harvard University. Santiago’s research explores how the institutional and business environment affects corporate strategy, global strategy, and entrepreneurial activity.

Most of his work focuses on emerging markets. Santiago has published in academic journals such as Management Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Industrial and Corporate Change, and Journal of World Business, and has presented his research at numerous conferences and universities around the world. He is also an associate editor of the Journal of Business Research and is affiliated with the Nanyang Business School Center for Emerging Markets. At Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, he teaches business strategy, global strategy, and international business.

Carlos Rodríguez

Carlos is an Assistant Professor at INCAE Business School. He teaches in the Strategy and Organizational Change areas. He holds a PhD from McGill University (Canada).

His two main research areas are: Processes of "Offshoring" and Globalization of the Value Chain and Business Practices in Latin America, where he studies how different parts of the firm organize and adopt managerial practices and its performance implications. Carlos won the Gunnar Hedlund Award from the Stockholm School of Economics as the best written thesis in International Business for 2014-2016.

Clifford J. Shultz,

II, PhD - Columbia University, is Professor and Kellstadt Chair of Marketing at Loyola University Chicago. He has expertise in macromarketing and policy in transitioning and recovering economies.

Cliff has over 200 scholarly publications, including books, articles and proceedings; he served as Editor for Journal of Macromarketing and serves on several editorial and policy boards. Professional distinctions include endowed professorships, numerous research grants and fellowships, Fulbright appointments (Vietnam, Croatia), best article awards; commendations for outstanding research, teaching, service; research and policy presentations at universities and research institutes, and consultancies to government agencies, NGOs and businesses on six continents.

SUBMISSION

[Download CFP]

Submission Guidelines & Formatting Requirements

Please submit a long abstract that matches the following criteria:

Maximum word Length: 1.500 words including references and tables

Style: Times New Roman, 12-point Font, Double-spaced

Document type: Adobe PDF

Paper Size: U.S. Letter or A4, 1-inch (2.5cm) margin all around

Document must include:

Title

Abstract: 125-word Maximum

Method: Conceptual / Qualitative / Quantitative / Mixed Methods

Research limitations/implications (if applicable)

Practical implications (if applicable)

Originality/value

References

Key words (max 5)

*DO NOT INCLUDE any Author Information (Names, Affiliations, E-mails, etc.). Uploaded papers containing any author information will NOT be considered for review.

Send your submission to the corresponding Track Chair:

1. Competitive and Corporate strategy formulation: Maria José Murcia (IAE, Argentina)

2. Internationalization: Santiago Mingo (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Chile)

3. Sustainability: Andres Barrios Fajardo (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) and Cliff Shultz (Loyola University, USA)

4. Entrepreneurship: Ernesto Amoros (EGADE, México)

5. Public - Private Collaborations: Diego Finchelstein (UdeSA, Argentina)

Key Dates & Deadlines

Submissions Deadline: September 7th, 2020
Decision Notifications: November 27th, 2020
Early Bird Registration: From November 27th – January 15th, 2021
Regular Registration: From January 16th – February 26th, 2021
Conference Dates: March 11th - 12th, 2021

Conference Fees

If your proposal is accepted for presentation, the participant(s) attending to present the research or participate on a panel or in a workshop MUST be registered to attend the conference.

	Early Bird fee (until 15th Jan 2021)	Regular fee (16th Jan 2021 - 26th Feb 2021)	Late Registration fee (on site)
Full Registration	USD 300	USD 350	USD 450
Ph.D. Students	USD 200	USD 250	USD 350

Venue & Accommodation

Universidad Torcuato Di Tella

Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT) has positioned itself among the top higher education institutions in Argentina and in Latin America. With a strong commitment to academic excellence, equal opportunity and pluralism, the University´s mission is to educate new generations of academic, social, political and business leaders, and to advance research and scholarship in the arts and sciences.

The School of Business is an important hub of production of new ideas and knowledge for the business community both in Argentina and in Latin America. It is also renowned for its pedagogic excellence, which is applied to its undergraduate, graduate and executive education programs. Our objective is to form the best business leaders in the region and to contribute to knowledge production through state-of-the art academic research. This is carried out by our professors, who were educated in the top European and North American universities, and who have experience in the most successful companies world-wide. Academic excellence, international perspective and a vigorous community of students and alumni are the Business School´s distinctive characteristics.

How to get here

Av. Figueroa Alcorta 7350 - [C1428BCW] Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The university has a free shuttle bus that connects with the main bus & subway stops in the Belgrano neighborhood.

Conference General Program

Coming soon ...

Previous SMLA Conferences

The Fourth International Conference on Strategic Management in Latin America, co-sponsored by the School of Management of the Universidad de Los Andes - UASM and the Journal of Business Research, was held from January 13 to 14, 2011 in Bogotá, Colombia. The theme of this conference was "Strategic Management in Latin America".

The Fifth International Strategic Management Conference in Latin America was held in Mexico City on January 10 and 11, 2013 at the Autonomous Technological Campus of Mexico (ITAM) in Rio Hondo. The theme in this occasion was "The future of business in Latin America: Strategy in emerging market economies".

The Sixth International Conference on Strategic Management in Latin America, co-sponsored by INCAE Business School and the Journal of Business Research, was held on January 8 and 9, 2015, in San José, Costa Rica. The theme of this conference was: "Strategies for growth, regional expansion and global competition".

The Seventh International Conference on Strategic Management in Latin America was held in Santiago, Chile, and hosted by the School of Business, Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, on January 5 and 6, 2017, with the support of the Journal of Business Research. This version of the meeting was developed in the Postgraduate Building of the UAI. The theme was "Strategic Management in a changing world".

The Eighth International Conference on Strategic Management in Latin America was held in Sao Paulo, Brasil, and hosted by FGV and INCAE Business School, on February 19 and 20, 2019, with the support of the Journal of Business Research. The theme was “How can Latin American Firms Contribute to a more Rebalanced Society”.

Contact Us

For more information: [email protected]

Escuela de Negocios