Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The aim of this paper is to determine the management factors affecting the competitive performance of agro-industrial organizations of the animal feed complex in the province of La Pampa. Based on the literature, 67 factors grouped into nine axes are proposed, measured by indicators and condensed into a sectoral and organizational competitive performance index. A multiple case study including all the authorized agro-industrial organizations (12) was carried out, data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and 10 responses were obtained. A descriptive and multivariate analysis was developed. The environmental management axis is the one with the lowest performance, while the economic-financial management axis had the best results. Organizations are grouped by performance into two distinct clusters. Factors and axes that make performance competitive are measured, grouped and prioritized, making it possible to expand the literature and draw up a sectoral improvement agenda.

Portfolio performance evaluation is a very important issue in investment management analysis and it is typically carried out by evaluating risk-adjusted returns. This paper analyzes the behavior of Argentine equity mutual funds that have the ROFEX 20 index as a financial benchmark during the years 2019 and 2020, using reference indicators such as Alpha, adjusted Alpha, and the Sharpe, Sortino, and Treynor ratios. Methodologically, three analyses are carried out: correlation (mutual funds return against index), efficiency (funds differential return with respect to the index) and persistence (return sustainability). The results show that the analyzed mutual funds have obtained a risk-adjusted return and have been a good means to emulate it, either to replicate the index or to be used in hedging operations with financial derivatives. This article offers a new perspective given the recent creation of the ROFEX 20 index and the context of volatility during the years under study.

The social dimension of architecture has not had great development, unlike the environmental and economic ones. For this reason, the objectives of this article are: (1) to analyze the evolution of publications on social sustainability in architecture, through a systematic review of the literature, and (2) to summarize the main contributions of the most outstanding works. From the bibliometric analysis it can be identified that it is a topic of current study, with 75 % of the works published in the last seven years. On the other hand, when carrying out the content analysis, three important edges or themes are detected when defining sustainable architecture in its social aspects: citizen participation, culture and accessibility. Also, different indicators and tools used from the administration that can contribute to its measurement and monitoring are identified.

style="text-align: justify;">This paper describes a process of reflection on practices that seek to assign to Accounting tasks that compromise its informative function and analyzes the effects of intervening in areas outside its competence. The arguments are based on the reason that universally drives people in their vital actions of existence and growth, to organize themselves with such purpose of sustainability. They also show that Accounting fulfills the objective of being an explanatory instrument to guarantee the fulfillment of the company’s purpose because its own system allows reflecting the quantitative valuation of wealth, its evolution, and comparison. There is an explanation of the behavior that guarantees the proper fulfillment of this economic activity as well as a demonstration of the failure to assign to Accounting the ability to express a social non-economic purpose, to identify environmental damage that the company could cause and to formulate policies on the future of the companies.

The present study examines the effect of extended work hours on experienced exhaustion in the evening in mobile-flexible employees who work in activity-flexible offices. In a seven-day diary study, it was anticipated that daily rumination is a mediator, linked to additional daily exhaustion in individuals. In a morning questionnaire, mobile-flexible employees completed daily questions about the link between extended work hours and exhaustion. Thirty-three employees completed daily questions on the extension of working hours, rumination, and exhaustion. Multilevel analyses of up to 238 daily measurements revealed that more intense extension of working hours predicted more rumination as well as exhaustion. Extended work hours and rumination both predicted more exhaustion. A test of the indirect effects showed no mediation from the extension of working hours via rumination to exhaustion. When designing mobile-flexible work models, overtime is a risk. Occupational prevention of exhaustion should promote recovery processes, especially as new work models may lead to increased rumination due to more personal responsibility of employees.

Grounded on Self Determination Theory (SDT), this cross-sectional study aimed to explore the relationship between teacher’s autonomy-supportive and controlling style perceived by students, satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs and use of metacognitive skills in mathematics. The sample consisted of 739 students from fifth grade (M age = 10.45, SD = 0.51) from a Peruvian private school network. A path analysis was performed in order to test a model in which motivational teaching style predicted both metacognitive knowledge and regulation via need satisfaction and frustration. The model’s fit indices were optimal (χ2 = 14.65, CFI = .99, TLI = .98, RMSEA = .064, SRMR = .029).In this model, perceived autonomy supportive style positively predicted the use of metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation, mediated by the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. On the other hand, perceived controlling teaching style positively predicted metacognitive knowledge, mediated by the frustration of basic psychological needs. Results are discussed using the notion of a Bright and Dark Side of motivation towards mathematics.

The last quarter of the 20th century was a period of sustained economic growth across many countries. Countries’ institutional arrangements have been commonly employed as factors in the convergence studies of economic growth and income levels. However, the issue of whether institutions themselves converge has been under-researched. Using the nonparametric distribution dynamics approach and a sample of 194 countries during the 1980-2010 period, we examine a tendency for countries’ informational transparency (IT) to converge over time. We find that whilst there is some evidence of unconditional convergence across countries, there is stronger evidence for convergence clubs to emerge, at both regional and income levels. Notably, the level of IT of the low- and lower-middle-income countries and those situated in Africa, and Middle East regions tend to converge towards a level significantly below the global average. We also find a strong relationship between income and IT.

Economic cycles affect both unemployment and the composition of employment, which can have an impact on the well-being of individuals if these changes in composition are involuntary or involve a decrease in the quality of employment. In this article, we study the relationship between economic cycles and self-employment, distinguishing between employers and own-account workers, through a synthetic cohort methodology using data for Chile. The results suggest that the proportion of employers is procyclical and that of own-account workers is countercyclical. This suggests that own-account employment is a refuge in times of crisis from the shortage of wage-based employment. This highlights the importance of designing public policies that would improve the conditions of self-employed workers.

We analyze herding behavior in the Chinese stock markets in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic using the cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD) model proposed by Chang et al. (2000) to detect herding behavior in the time period between January 30, 2001, and June 12, 2020. We consider stock prices for all firms listed (A-shares) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SHSE) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) in China. We report the presence of herding behavior during the period under study and that herding behavior becomes stronger after December 31, 2019 (the COVID-19 event date). We also study herding activity in the context of potential asymmetries in market return and volatility states. The results show that when the market return is high and the volatility is low, there is a more predominant herding behavior trend. Our results do not depend on using different time windows. Results do not change when time-varying coefficients are considered using rolling regressions. Other control variables which may be relevant in explaining CSAD do not change the results when included in the estimations.

This paper examines whether a Northern firm prefers to export or to engage in FDI to serve the South. If the firm engages in FDI, its technology is imitated, and a Southern firm enters the market that may sell in both markets. The Northern firm may invest to prevent product piracy in the North. The two markets may have different sizes. We find that when the cost of preventing product piracy in the North is great enough: (i) If the Southern market is large enough the Northern firm engages in FDI, allowing piracy in its home market, and the South obtains the greater welfare; (ii) If the Southern market is small enough the Northern firm exports and the government of the South imposes a strong Intellectual Property Rights protection, attracting the Northern firm and improving the welfare of both countries.