Abstract: Latin America continued to experience social, economic and political turmoil in 2021. The vulnerabilities set by preexisting conditions such as persistent inequality, a high level of labour force participation in the informal economy, and exclusionary social protection systems have been exacerbated by recent health and humanitarian crises that are unprecedented in the region’s modern history. These crises have significantly affected socioeconomic indicators, reflected in the increased levels of vulnerability and poverty, combined with stagnant economic growth. Public sector responses have been made but have been insufficient to cushion the effect of these multiple crises and, in many cases, have revealed the extent of governments’ fiscal conservatism that limited the role of the state in providing adequate support to its citizens. The chapter explores efforts to tackle the effects of compounded deprivation in terms of spatial segregation, a pervasively high informal labour force, gendered and racialized vulnerabilities and the education crisis, and explores the options that governments in the region face in terms of reversing the adverse effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, while sustaining the economic recovery. In a context of polarized political participation, discontent will inevitably lead to contention and, in some cases, instability and violence, if the governments choose to ignore the need for a socially just recovery.

Abstract: The use of bacterial pigments with biotechnological potential advances are growing and more and from this natural source are developed several products with different applications in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics and other industries, presenting advantages in economic and environmental issues, fulfilling a demand and bringing benefits For consumer health and reducing the use of chemical synthetized products. The aim of this study was the production, working volume and characterization of pigments synthesized by Chryseobacterium KR6 and Lysobacter A03 bacteria isolated from chicken and penguin feathers, respectively. The pigments were characterized by KOH 20% test, UV-visible, colors system CIELAB, HPLC-DAD-MS, FTIR and was evaluated the antioxidant capacity. The pigments from KR6 and A03 presents some characteristics from flexirubin and xanthomonadin non- brominated type pigments respectively. Pigment from KR6 shows a positive bathochromic shift when colonies or the extracted pigment are in presence of alkaline solution (KOH20%) and also have a λmax at 450nm in acetone when analyzed by UV-Vis. The FTIR analysis shows some principal functional groups that might be from a flexirubin molecule. Pigment from A03 didn’t present any shift when flooded with KOH and the λmax was 419 nm and 427 nm in acetone and chloroform respectively. The two pigments presented antioxidant activity evaluated by the capture of the free radical ABTS. It was not possible to propose a chemical structure for the two pigments; purification processes are necessary for a molecular identification of the biotechnologically viable pigments.

Abstract Purpose: By considering the organizational legitimacy framework, this work examines how offending companies decouple their narratives from the facts as a communication strategy when handling environmental crises in the Latin American context. It also considers the implications of such behavior in terms of its potential inconsistency with the organizational value system, and therefore with the ethical sense of the crisis communication practice. Design/methodology: The research relies on a multi-case study approach, where four major environmental incidents involving four extractive companies in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina are analyzed. By scrutinizing public sources, these companies’ crisis communication processes are examined to allow for the linking of theory and practice. Findings: Results obtained suggest that to defend their legitimacy, companies deliberately conveyed untruthful messages and decouple their communication in crisis from reality, which in turn exposes a delinking between values and actions, resulting in ethical concerns for the practice of both crisis management and crisis communication. This work identifies four different decoupling-based crisis communication strategies performed by companies and the way these are accompanied by secondary strategies. Research limitations/implications: By emphasizing the connection between legitimacy and crisis communication, the study illustrates how narrative-fact decoupling (i.e., untruthful crisis communication practices) can be an indicative of more profound organizational contradictions. However, due to the constraints of case studies, it is acknowledged that the results obtained have boundaries for generalization. Originality/value: Instead of approaching decoupling as a trigger for crisis, the present investigation considers decoupling as a communicational strategy some companies engage with, when handling crisis. Furthermore, by focusing on Latin America, the study reflects the potential impact that the geographical context may have on the bodies of knowledge of organizational crisis communication and legitimacy.

Abstract: This study examines outsourced workers’ assessment of job satisfaction and the degree to which it can be affected by their perception of the reputation of the outsourcing company (i.e., their employer), that of the user company (i.e., their client), and their level of affective commitment to each one of them. Therefore, this study proposes a partial least squares structural equation model with four correlational hypotheses and two mediation hypotheses. A cross-sectional instrument was administered to 138 outsourced workers employed by the same outsourcing company in Colombia. The results indicate that the outsourcing company’s reputation has a slight influence on its employees’ affective commitment to said company, but not on their job satisfaction. Finally, the user company’s reputation has a strong influence on its outsourced workers’ affective commitment, and the latter variable plays a partial mediating role in the link between the user company’s reputation and outsourced employee satisfaction. Resumen: El presente estudio se propuso indagar por la forma en que los trabajadores en condición de tercerización laboral conciben su nivel de satisfacción en su trabajo, y el grado en que dicha valoración puede ser afectada en función de su propia percepción de reputación sobre la empresa subcontratista (su empleador) y la empresa usuaria (su cliente), así como de su nivel de vinculación afectiva con respecto a cada una de ellas. Para ello se planteó un modelamiento de ecuaciones estructurales mediante mínimos cuadrados parciales, empleándose cuatro hipótesis correlacionales y dos hipótesis de mediación. De esta manera, se aplicó un instrumento transversal sobre una muestra de 138 trabajadores tercerizados, vinculados a una misma empresa subcontratista en Colombia. Los resultados obtenidos indican que la reputación de esta empresa parecería incidir ligeramente sobre la vinculación afectiva de los trabajadores con respecto a ella misma, más no sobre su propia satisfacción en el trabajo. Finalmente, se observa una fuerte incidencia de la reputación de la empresa usuaria sobre la vinculación afectiva de sus trabajadores, variable que a su vez ejerce un rol de mediación parcial dentro del vínculo existente entre la misma reputación (de la empresa usuaria) y la satisfacción de los trabajadores.

Resumen: Este artículo ilustra el papel del populismo en la defensa de empresas estatales transgresoras, a partir del estudio del caso de la empresa Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) y su relación con el Estado venezolano durante la era del autodenominado “socialismo del siglo XXI”. Para ello se hace una investigación descriptiva y de sistematización de datos sobre algunos eventos de transgresión socioambiental en los que incurrió la compañía entre 2010 y 2020. Los resultados apuntan al uso continuo de una retórica incendiaria, constituida por el antielitismo, la defensa de la soberanía popular y la consideración de una ciudadanía homogénea y virtuosa. Esto sugiere que el populismo también puede ser utilizado como un estilo discursivo particular para defender la legitimidad de empresas transgresoras subordinadas al poder. Abstract: This work illustrates the role of populism in defending transgressing state-owned companies, based on the case of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and its relationship with the Venezuelan state during the self-titled era of ‘21st-century socialism.’ To this end, a descriptive research design and systematization of data was performed on some socio-environmental transgressions by this company between 2010 and 2020. The results point to the continued use of inflammatory rhetoric, represented by anti-elitism, defense of popular sovereignty, and the consideration of homogeneous and virtuous citizenship. These findings suggest that populism can be used as a particular discursive behavior meant to defend the legitimacy of transgressing, subservient-to-power companies.

Abstract: The adoption of teleworking as a work modality in organizations has grown exponentially due to the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis. This phenomenon has allowing the development of remote activities that are normally carried out in person. However, there is a concern among managers and employers due to the apparent absence of control and decreased productivity when using teleworking. For this reason, this article reviews, through two case studies of teleworkers surveillance and control software, the way in which their use provide support to the theory of formal and informal control, and how it can improve perception about the teleworking application and offer guarantees to employers. Similarly, the manuscript discusses the effects on the quality of life and personal behavior of employees who are involved within this modality. Resumen: La adopción del teletrabajo como modalidad laboral en las organizaciones ha crecido exponencialmente debido a la crisis actual de pandemia por COVID-19. Esto ha permitido el desarrollo de actividades a distancia que normalmente se realizan de forma presencial. Sin embargo, existe una preocupación en los gerentes y empleadores por la aparente ausencia del control y disminución de la productividad en su uso. Por tal razón el presente artículo revisa, a partir de dos casos de estudio de softwares de vigilancia y control de teletrabajadores, la forma en que su utilización brinda soporte a la teoría del control formal e informal, y cómo puede mejorar la percepción en la aplicación del teletrabajo al ofrecer garantías a los empleadores. De igual manera, se discuten las afectaciones en la calidad de vida y comportamiento personal de los empleados involucrados en esta modalidad.

Abstract: A common difficulty in data analysis is how to handle categorical predictors with a large number of levels or categories. Few proposals have been developed to tackle this important and frequent problem. We introduce a generative model that simultaneously carries out the model fitting and the aggregation of the categorical levels into larger groups. We represent the categorical predictor by a graph where the nodes are the categories and establish a probability distribution over meaningful partitions of this graph. Conditionally on the observed data, we obtain a posterior distribution for the levels aggregation, allowing the inference about the most probable clustering for the categories. Simultaneously, we extract inference about all the other regression model parameters. We compare our and state-of-art methods showing that it has equally good predictive performance and more interpretable results. Our approach balances out accuracy versus interpretability, a current important concern in statistics and machine learning. Resumen: Una dificultad común en el análisis de datos es cómo manejar predictores categóricos con una gran cantidad de niveles o categorías. Se han desarrollado pocas propuestas para abordar este importante y frecuente problema. Introducimos un modelo generativo que realiza simultáneamente el ajuste del modelo y la agregación de los niveles categóricos en grupos más grandes. Representamos el predictor categorial mediante un gráfico donde los nodos son las categorías y establecemos una distribución de probabilidad sobre particiones significativas de este gráfico. Condicionalmente sobre los datos observados, obtenemos una distribución posterior para la agregación de niveles, lo que permite la inferencia sobre el agrupamiento más probable para las categorías. Simultáneamente, extraemos inferencias sobre todos los demás parámetros del modelo de regresión. Comparamos nuestros métodos y los de última generación mostrando que tiene un rendimiento predictivo igualmente bueno y resultados más interpretables. Nuestro enfoque equilibra la precisión con la interpretabilidad, una preocupación importante en la actualidad en las estadísticas y el aprendizaje automático.

Abstract: The adequate provision of service delivery is essential for social welfare; however, providers performance varies, tending to underperform in developing countries. Therefore, whether providers responsiveness is sensitive to citizen oversight remains a relevant question for public governance. To this extent, Understanding the dynamics of accountability as a strategy to foster access, quality, and affordability of services delivery is vital to ensure development. This thesis establishes a quantitative assessment of the relationship between accountability and development. First, I systematically reviewed the empirical literature evaluating how accountability interventions affect service delivery in developing countries between 1990-2020, finding twenty-one papers from nine developing countries. Then, I conducted a meta-analysis based on an RVE model with over 90 outcomes to quantitatively synthesise the effectiveness of accountability in triggering citizen oversight of service delivery and providers responsiveness. The findings suggest that although accountability increases citizen knowledge of civic and political means to demand service delivery reforms, factors such as context, accountability structure and interventions length influence its effectiveness. While the results provide evidence to inform policy-making about aspects that effectively ignite citizen participation, they also suggest future research avenues to further conceptualise this relationship in an era of widely accessible information and new approaches to democracy.

Abstract: Entrepreneurial Companies play a fundamental role in economic growth, the creation of employment, local and regional development, and social cohesion. Start-ups will not necessarily become the largest source for employment, but they are considered economic drivers that commercialize innovation, expand internationally and create economic value. With the recent increase in prominence of new entrepreneurial ventures all over the world, much attention has been devoted to the creation of new firms. Belgium consists of three main regions: Brussels, Flanders, and Wallonia. The breakdown of start-ups according to these regions is the following: Brussels: 31.5%, Flanders: 53.4%, and Wallonia: 15.1%. Note that Brussels, despite hosting only 11% of all active companies in Belgium, is doing exceptionally well regarding its share of start-ups and scaleups; almost 50% of all Belgian start-ups are concentrated in and around the cities of Brussels, Ghent, and Antwerp. It is no surprise that, being the largest cities of Belgium, students make up for a significant portion of the population. More than half of the companies are active in the following categories: eCommerce, Software as a Service (SaaS), consumer mobile/web applications, industrial technology/production, and education. Half of the companies are at the start-up stage (i.e. completion of MVP or initial customers/revenue). 22% is in the seed stage and 24% in growth stage - 85% of the companies are mainly in B2B. While the majority (55%) of entrepreneurs believe that their product or service is a novelty in the world, only 4% realizes that their product or service is not a market innovation. In addition to that, 23% of startups do not have employees (Mohout, 2016). The supplying side of the market for informal capital consists of high net-worth individuals with considerable business experience, commonly known as Business Angels (BAs). Business Angels invest a portion of their wealth in high-risk, high-return start-ups (Coveney & Moore, Business Angels: Securing Start-up Finance, 1998). While it is difficult to precisely quantify the size of the angel market (due to its informal nature), some studies estimate its size to be twice the size of the institutional venture capital market (Freear, Sohl, & Wetzel, 1995). This suggests that Business Angels provide the largest amount of capital among early-stage ventures and fund a greater number of firms than venture capitalists (VCs) do. After receiving a first investment from a Business Angel, start-ups face a new critical question: whether to raise new funding under the form of debt or equity and, in the case of equity, involving new Business Angels or migrating to Venture Capital. Literature suggests that these young enterprises more often than not receive funds from equity in the early stages. However, in the case of demand for more resources and having a BA as back up, the entrepreneur may appeal to traditional financing sources in order to maintain the ownership. Resumen: Las microempresas juegan un rol fundamental en el crecimiento económico de un país, la creación de nuevos empleos y el desarrollo local y regional. Start-ups no se convierten necesariamente en la mayor fuente de empleo pero si son considerados impulsadores económicos que comercializan innovación, se expanden internacionalmente y crean valor económico. Después de recibir una primera inversión de un Ángel Inversionista, Start-Ups tienen que enfrentar una nueva y critica pregunta: ¿es mejor conseguir nuevos fondos adquiriendo una deuda o nuevo capital proveniente de inversionistas y en caso de recurrir a inversionistas, conseguir un nuevo ángel inversionista o migrar a un fondo de inversión? La literatura sugiere que estas nuevas empresas a menudo reciben fondos de capital en las primeras etapas de inversión. Sin embargo, teniendo un Ángel inversionista como respaldo, el empresario puede optar por métodos de financiación más tradicionales con la intensión de mantener propia la empresa.

Resumen: En las últimas décadas en Colombia se han percibido cambios importantes en la agricultura, relacionados con la concentración de la tierra, la expansión de la frontera agropecuaria, el crecimiento de algunos cultivos propios de la agricultura empresarial, así como el interés y adquisición de tierras por parte de actores nacionales y extranjeros. A nivel de las políticas públicas, los últimos gobiernos han realizado esfuerzos por permitir, en la legislación, la adquisición o el uso de tierras públicas por parte de empresas. Se destaca, dentro de estos esfuerzos, la promulgación de la Ley Zidres en 2016. Dichas transformaciones se enmarcan dentro de dinámicas internacionales que han llevado a la adopción del modelo de agronegocio en diferentes países. Esta tesis analiza, en el marco del neoliberalismo, la expansión del agronegocio en Colombia, a través del estudio de las transformaciones a nivel productivo, territorial y de las políticas públicas. El desarrollo de esta investigación se apoyó en la discusión teórica sobre hegemonía, en los elementos del análisis del discurso y en los desarrollos conceptuales sobre el agronegocio. El recorrido histórico sobre la cuestión agraria en Colombia, así como el estudio de la implementación del neoliberalismo y los cambios generados en la agricultura, que se han profundizado en los últimos años, sugieren la disputa del agronegocio por la hegemonía. Esta se ha intensificado, principalmente, a partir del acuerdo de paz firmado entre el gobierno de Juan Manuel Santos y la guerrilla de las FARC-EP, que incluyó la pauta de la Reforma Rural Integral y dio protagonismo a la economía campesina y a la democratización de la tierra.