Erica Salvaj

• PhD IESE Business School
• Professor (Full) at Universidad del Desarrollo

The literature on multinational corporations argues that a foreign firm can legitimize its activities, improve its reputation in a host country, and reduce the risk of hostile actions by the host government (including expropriation) by approaching and incorporating influential members of the domestic elite in its business. By using the concept of o...

In this paper we examine the relationship among business groups (BGs) in Chile in the long run, focusing on the relations between the state viewed as a BG and privately-owned BGs from 1970 to 2010. Our analysis proceeds within the methodological perspective of interlocking directorates (IDs) analysis. Working with a unique database of the boards of...

This paper compares the corporate network strategies between multinational corporations of two different origins (United States and Spain), business groups, and state-owned enterprises in the public utility sector of a developing country going through economic and political transitions. The transitions we consider are from an import substitution in...

There are many studies of the conditions in which social contagion affects adoption processes in the marketing and diffusion literature. Yet most of these studies assume that social interactions do not change over time, even though actors in social networks exhibit different likelihoods of being influenced across the diffusion period. Rooted in phy...

This article examines the interlocking directorates' structure of prominent Argentine business groups at the end of the import substitution period (1970–72), identifying corporate relations among and between business groups and the largest companies, during a period characterised by high institutional and macroeconomic instability. Applying social...

Based on the case of FML we analyze the role of "emancipatory entrepreneurship" in overcoming the "stigmatization" that affects women who are released or on parole, both inside and outside prison.

El sector de la mecánica ligera y los repuestos para automóviles está asociado históricamente al género masculino. Sin embargo, en el Chile de la década de los 80s, una mujer lidero la creación de una empresa de repuestos automotrices y mecánica ligera: Yudis Mardones en "Central Frenos". La llegada de Mardones a este rubro a comienzos de los 80s,...

Resumen en español e inglés

Research background: The observable discrepancies in entrepreneurship activity across countries have motivated both researchers and policymakers to comprehend the sources of these variations. Certain scholars have suggested that the answer to this empirical puzzle lies in the macrolevel processes that influence entrepreneurial endeavours. Purpose o...

The purpose of this study is to analyze interlocking directorate (ID) networks of family and nonfamily firms (FFs) in Chile, Mexico and Peru. Design/methodology/approach-Social network analysis methodology allowed us to analyze the position of FFs within the structure of IDs at the local and transnational levels. Findings-FFs tend to have a hig...

This article discusses the application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to corporate networks in a long-term and historical perspective. Starting with the basic concepts of corporate networks and the main research themes it has addressed in business history, the article then introduces how historical quantitative archival data can be played with an...

The purpose of this study was to examine how female leaders reflect on a type of curiosity practice considering: a) the role of the asking of questions; and b) how women draw from the asking of questions in contexts of gender inequality. To accomplish this goal, we drew from social practice theory and a typology of questions. With this framework, w...

The literature about women’s roles in corporate structure does not provide clear, systemic, integrative answers to fundamental questions such as which factors shape board gender composition and women’s roles in business and corporate networks? With the intention to help overcome this gap in the literature, this paper examines the dynamics of women’...

Purpose: This paper aims to provide insights into the internationalization strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Latin America. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on information from eight leading Latin American private universities. The data were obtained from official sources such a...

Purpose In this exploratory multiple case study, we aim to compare the internationalization of two state-owned enterprises (SOEs) owned by subnational governments with three owned by central governments in Latin America. This study provides a contextualized answer to the question: What are the differences in the internationalization of subnationall...

Una de las discusiones vigentes en el ámbito de los gobiernos corporativos es el impacto que pueden tener las redes que se arman a nivel de los directorios en las grandes empresas-las que conforman un "círculo interno"-, sobre el desarrollo económico de los países. En los últimos años este debate se ha visto exacerbado en Chile, como consecuencia d...

Purpose This study aims to build on embedded approaches to stakeholder management and examines how organizational decision-makers consider social responsibility toward proximal stakeholders in crises that encompass an entire system of stakeholder relationships. Design/methodology/approach Within a criterion-based sample of eight Latin American pri...

The Iberoamerican Academy of Management (IAM) and Management Research: The Official Journal of IAM (MRJIAM) seek Iberoamerican scholars interested in conducting research in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enacted by the United Nations in 2015. We hope to gather at the next Academy of Management conference to discuss how Iberoamerican sc...

This article proposes a novel management model for cultural, creative, and historic tourism cities. The creation of the model is based on previous literature and in the study of Barrio de las Letras, in Madrid, to identify the key components to successfully develop creative tourism ecosystems. The model integrates the literature on city center mana...

This research contributes to the study of subnational phenomena and SOEs internationalization by comparing the expansion abroad of Subnational SOEs (SSOEs) and Central SOEs (CSOEs). Through a qualitative comparative case analysis, we find that SSOEs’ fewer resources and needs to increase income push them to follow a gradual market-driven internatio...

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the case of Ximena Aguilera, a prominent Chilean epidemiologist, as an exemplar of a champion in times of COVID-19 in Ibero-America. We also refine our understanding of the nature of a champion facing wicked problems. Methodology: We use qualitative case analysis to examine Aguilera’s actions in res...

The issue of women participation in top management and boardroom positions has received increasing attention in the academic literature and the press. However, the pace of advancement for women managers and directors continues to be slow and uneven. This study fills a knowledge gap by reviewing the latest empirical evidence from 2009 to 2016 to ide...

The new trends in the tourism industry have led to the emergence of an offer of urban tourism of experiences to which creative destinations respond, such as that of Barrio de Las Letras. The cultural, commercial and leisure offer of Barrio de las Letras implies an adaptation and remodeling of a historic center that offers new experiences to tourist...

This article examines non-profit investments by business in education in emerging markets between the 1960s and the present day. Using a sample of 110 interviews with business leaders from a recently developed oral history database, the study shows that more than three-quarters of such leaders invested in education as a non-profit activity. The art...

This working paper examines why a significant number of businesses have made non-profit investments in education in emerging markets between the 1960s and the present day. Using a sample of 110 interviews with business leaders from an oral history database at the Harvard Business School, the study shows that more than three-quarters of such leaders...

Research summary This paper studies two interrelated questions. First, why did business groups in emerging markets thrive and prevail after pro‐market reforms were implemented in their countries? And, second, what type of adaptation strategies can multinational corporations develop in order to be competitive in economies dominated by business group...

The disintegration of the ‘first global economy’, accelerated by the Great Depression, had a profound and negative impact on the Chilean economy. Previous studies have focused on the economic behaviour of Chile in the 1930s. However, there is little historical research on the processes of adaptation that occurred in the corporate strategies of the...

Debido a la extensa proliferación del turismo urbano a nivel internacional, surge la necesidad de potenciar y entender cómo los barrios históricos, al ser intervenidos estratégicamente, pueden resultar ser destinos turísticos de turismo experiencial, poniendo en valor recursos y servicios que a su vez mejoran la vida de la población local. El obje...

RESUMEN: El patrimonio cultural ha comenzado a implementar nuevas estrategias, debido a la extensa proliferación del turismo urbano a nivel internacional. Es por ello que surge la necesidad de potenciar y entender cómo los barrios históricos, al ser intervenidos estratégicamente, pueden resultar ser destinos de turismo experiencial y de ocio difere...

The issue of women participation in top management and boardroom positions has received increasing attention in the academic literature and the press. However, the pace of advancement for women managers and directors continues to be slow and uneven. Built on a novel framework organized around factors affecting 1) career persistence (staying at the...

Evaluar la diversidad en la red personal es clave para la efectividad de un lider.

In this paper, we investigate how differences in policy risk levels between the home and the host country affect private participation projects. While traditionally distance has been associated with obstacles and challenges adversely affecting investments, a recent body of literature emphasizes the potential positive effects of distance. Drawing on...

Research Summary: We conduct a historical analysis of the multinational corporations’ strategy of creating connections with a host country’s elite as a way of legitimizing its operations in contexts characterized by long‐term political, social, and economic changes. We argue that the success or failure of these strategies depends on (a) the perceiv...

Sobre la base de las tradiciones y el patrimonio cultural, las pequeñas empresas pueden, a través de la organización, la colaboración social y el emprendimiento, aprovechar estos activos y transformar los espacios urbanos. La Asociación de Comerciantes Barrio de las Letras está transformando dicho barrio madrileño en un destino turístico de experie...

Este capítulo analiza las estrategias y prácticas de relacionamiento, coordinación y colaboración entre las mayores empresas de Chile en el año 1939. Aportando a la investigación histórica sobre el proceso de adaptación de las estrategias corporativas de las empresas y empresarios chilenos durante la desintegración de la primera economía global y l...

This paper analyses the evolution of the corporate networks in two Latin economies – Argentina and Italy – from 1913 to 1990 by using the interlocking directorates’ technique. The paper focuses on six benchmark years for which the largest 25 banks and 100 non-financial companies have been selected in both countries. After showing a descriptive stat...

The purpose of this study is twofold: first, we intend to understand how the social dynamics on evolving real-world (non-simulated) social networks affects the diffusion of adoptions of new products and services, and second we assess the predictive ability of individual traits and network effects in the diffusion of these adoptions. We take a nove...

Presentación - CorpArtes 2017

Factores que afectan la persistencia y el avance de las mujeres hacia los cargos en la Alta Dirección. Situación en Chile.

La habilidad para construir alianzas es una de las capacidades más importantes para quien lidera un emprendimiento, la implementación de una innovación o un cambio organizacional. Los aliados representan uno de los recursos más valiosos para un empresario que desea sacar adelante un negocio. Esto se debe a que el éxito de un proyecto empresarial es...

Mucho se ha escrito sobre el tema de la diversidad de género en las empresas y la necesidad de incorporar más mujeres en cargos de alta dirección y liderazgo. En la última década, la gestión del talento femenino se ha transformado en un tema prioritario en la agenda de gobiernos, multinacionales y organizaciones sociales. ¿Qué razones impulsan este...

En este artículo se plantean los errores mas frecuentes que cometen los líderes en la toma de decisiones durante el cambio organizacional. La probabilidad de éxito de un proceso de cambio organizacional se incrementa cuando los líderes mejoran el aprendizaje y la efectividad del equipo que lidera el cambio. Para que esto suceda deben darse tres con...

Esta charla aborda tres temas: ¿Que es Estrategia? ¿A que nuevos ambientes competitivos se enfrentan hoy las empresas? ¿Como se organizan y cuales son las características de las empresas exitosas en los ambientes de negocios de nuestro tiempo?

To study the persistence of non-market strategies and associated governance structures during a transition from a limited political and economic system to a more open one, this article analyzes the network strategies of domestic business groups, multinational corporations, and state-owned enterprises in Chile, relative to its historical context of...

La presentación aborda tres temas. La importancia de las redes sociales, cuales son las características de las redes sociales que ayudan a crear ventajas competitivas y como son las redes de altos directivos en Chile

This chapter focuses on factors that fueled changes and shifts in Argentine interlocking directorates (IDs) throughout the twentieth century. Our research shows that the corporate networks built by Argentina's largest firms never achieved a very cohesive structure and, by the mid-twentieth century, they lost any cohesiveness they might have had. Du...

This is a case about Carenado, a software development company that created high-quality add-on , mainly aircraft, for general aviation simulators that ran in a platform-mediated network, which was marked by constant technological changes. Carenado had to maintain the pace of growth experienced in recent years, the company had a compounded annual gr...

Las redes de directorio se configuran a partir de directores comunes o compartidos entre empresas. A partir de estas redes las organizaciones construyen un capital social que les permite acceder a información, conocimiento, estatus y otros recursos necesarios para la consecución de sus objetivos. Las redes de directorios han sido muy estudiadas en...

La investigación sobre redes de directorios se ha llevado a cabo principalmente en los Estados Unidos y los países europeos. Escasos son los trabajos de investigación, ya sea de la naturaleza teórica o empírica, que han estudiado las características y los factores que afectan a esta importante red inter empresarial en economías periféricas y turbul...

Eje Temático Emprendimientos globales y sus vínculos con los procesos de integración Resumen Este trabajo explora las distintas teorías o autores que realizaron aportes sobre la internacionalización acelerada de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (Pymes). La literatura reciente se está enfocando en las empresas más pequeñas y muestra cómo pueden apoy...

In this book, Gabriela Martínez studies the history of Telefónica, currently Spain's most important telecommunication company and one of the largest in the world. Martínez focuses on how political, social, and economic changes had an impact on the growth and rapid expansion of this firm. Covering from 1884 until the present times, this book studies...

Este caso relata el proceso de fundación y crecimiento de Central Frenos, una empresa del sector de mecánica ligera fundada por un mujer en Chile en la década del 80. En casi 20 años la emprendedora logra transformar un local de venta de repuestos de frenos en una cadena de mas de 20 servitecas en todo el país. Al final del caso se plantean interro...

In the last three decades, interlocking directorates have become a prominent area of research in the Corporate Governance literature. An interlocking directorate is created when a person affiliated with the board of directors of one organization sits on the board of another organization (Mizruchi, 1996). Over the years, researchers have studied the...

When we talk about corporate power in Spain, we tend to think of a few names (or families) as owning and controlling the country's leading companies. But is that really the case? Professor Fabrizio Ferraro of IESE and doctoral candidate Erica Salvaj have applied network analysis to the interlocking directorates and cross-shareholding networks of th...

Este documento presenta los resultados del estudio ‘Gestión del Conocimiento y Competitividad en la empresa Española – 2003’. Se trata del segundo estudio de investigación sobre Gestión del Conocimiento (GC) que IESE y Capgemini elaboran conjuntamente. Como el primero, que se realizó en 2001, se basa en las respuestas a un cuestionario administrado...

Interlocking directorates have been associated with a wide range of economic and corporate outputs. Research on interlocks has studied primarily the US and European corporate structures. Little work of either theoretical or empirical nature has been done to study the factors that affect the characteristics and the evolution of corporate networks in...

What political strategies do MNCs from recently developed countries follow when investing in an emerging economy? We analyze the case of Spanish MNCs investing in politically sensitive industries in Chile when a center-left party that distrusted foreign control over socially sensitive sectorsruled the country. Chile also had a private sector domina...