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Innovation and internationalization of Latin American services

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Innovation and internationalization of Latin American services

Editor: Hernández, René - Hualde, Alfredo - Mulder, Nanno - Sauvé, Pierre Physical Description: 274 páginas. Editorial: ECLAC Date: July 2016 ECLAC symbol: LC/L.4177 ISBN: 9786074792072

Description

Innovation and internationalization in services are key drivers of structural transformation, productivity growth and overall economic performance in Latin America. The services sector accounts for two thirds of the region’s GDP and provides over 60% of its employment. These shares are higher than in other developing regions, but still lower than in countries with higher levels of per capita income.
The spread of information and communication technologies in Latin America over the past three decades has vastly enhanced both the tradability of services and the sector’s propensity to innovate. Long considered unrelated processes, both internationalization and innovation are today widely recognized as key and complementary sources of firm-level competitiveness and human capital enhancement. The advent of many novel types of business and consumer services is furthermore a key factor in the rising insertion of Latin American firms in regional and global value chains and transnational production networks, which are now the predominant form of organization of international production and trade.
This volume explores three different levels of interaction between internationalization and innovation in the services sector in Latin America. Part I analyses the role of services in manufacturing and other sectors’ global value chains from a theoretical perspective, drawing on the experiences of Brazil and Mexico. Part II reviews innovation and internationalization policies and their effects on the performance of the services sector. Part III presents a series of case studies on innovation and internationalization linkages in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico. The book concludes that, in order for Latin American countries and firms to upgrade into services value chains, public and private initiatives must generate a host of regional public goods —enhanced investment climates, supply of skills, greater access to finance, improved protection of intellectual property, better value appropriation, enhanced efforts at standardization and quality certification— to strengthen the links between innovation and internationalization.

Table of contents

Introduction .-- Part I: The role of services in manufacturing and other global value chains. -- 1. Global structural change and value chains in services: a reappraisal / Maria Savona .-- 2. The contribution of services to manufacturing competitiveness in Brazil / Jorge Arbache .-- 3. Internationalization, integration, and innovation in multinational
enterprises in services versus manufacturing: evidence for Mexico / Redi Gomis, Jorge Carrillo .-- Part II: Innovation and internationalization policies .-- 4. Evaluation of public policies on production: the Chilean Global Services Cluster / Dorotea López Giral, Felipe Muñoz Navia .-- 5. Innovation in services and the internationalization of services SMEs: challenges and the policy spheres in which they can be overcome / Luisa Rodriguez .-- Part III: Case studies on services innovation and internationalization .-- 6. The evolution of call centres and the implications for service quality and workforce management in Mexico / Alfredo Hualde, Jordy Micheli .-- 7. Revealing the spillover effects of foreign direct investment on offshore services in Costa Rica /
Yoshimichi Murakami, René A. Hernández .-- 8. The role of quality certifications in exports of Chilean information technology services / Marcela Gómez, Nanno Mulder .-- 9. Value creation, configuration and appropriation: a case study on a knowledge-intensive service firm in Brazil / Fabio Morganti, Dimária Silva e Meirelles.