Papers presented by Andrea Lluch since 2019

2023 Detroit, MI, United States

"ILO and the productivity and management development missions: the experience of the Productivity Center of Argentina (1958-1967)"

Andrea Lluch, Universidad de los Andes & CONICET

Abstract:

The 42nd ILO conference in 1958 declared that the productivity project should include management development programs to train top executives. This led to several ILO projects on management development in more than 40 developing countries, very often in cooperation with the United Nations Special Funds, which funded the projects. Argentina’s position as one of the pioneers’ projects worldwide on management development programs makes it highly relevant to explore how ILO’s initiative was received and matched with other local initiatives to develop the Argentine system of making managers. Considering this, the paper will analyze the concrete experience of the ILO’s designed Productivity Center of Argentina (CPA, from now) from its origin in the late 1950s to 1967, when the CPA was absorbed into the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Especially two processes invite us to explore the matching between the international ILO initiative and local conditions. In this specific period, both the productivity question and the need to institutionalize management education and development programs were put on the agenda, both by the government, business, and labor unions. The paper is based on Argentine sources and documents from the UN’s and ILO’s archives

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2023 Detroit, MI, United States

"Economic Development in South America, 1870s-1914s: Does the Lens of Trademark Registrations Provide any New Insights?"

Andrea Lluch, Universidad de los Andes & CONICET
Teresa da Silva Lopes, University of York

Abstract:

It is well established that South America has fallen behind in terms of economic development since the late nineteenth century, but why and when exactly this occurred is still an ongoing debate. There are several competing views explaining the level of economic development of the region, drawing on a wide variety of indicators. However, the use of intellectual property rights data relying on trademark registrations has been absent from such debates. This study analyses and compares the evolution of intellectual property regimes in South America during the first global economy, from the 1870s to 1914, and assesses the branding and trademark protection strategies of local companies and multinational enterprises operating in the region. This is a period when several South American countries developed for the first-time new industries in consumer goods, which became key for the countries’ economies. This study focuses on the cases of Colombia, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and draws on a variety of primary and secondary sources. An original database with all the trademark registrations for each of these countries was collected for the first time. Corporate archives when available, as well as import and export statistics, and foreign direct investment data were also used. The study addresses the following questions: Is it possible to identify patterns in terms of trademark registrations indicative of spillovers and learning by local entrepreneurs and businesses, resulting from different modes of entry into those markets by multinational enterprises? How significant are entrepreneurial diasporas in explaining the creation of industries, and the long-term competitiveness of those industries in global branded consumer goods industries? What new insights does the lens of trademark registrations provide on explanations of economic development in South America during the first globalization wave?

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2022 Mexico City

"ILO and the making of managers in Argentina"

Rolv Petter Amdam, BI Norwegian Business School
Andrea Lluch, CONICET and Universidad de los Andes

Abstract:

Research on the international development of management education after World War II has focused mainly on the role of key U.S. institutions such as the US government, business schools, and the Ford Foundations (e.g. Engwall, Kipping, & Üsdiken, 2016; Gemelli, 1998). This perspective has recently been challenged by extending the international perspective to include the Global South, and by accentuating the role of local actors (Kumar, 2019; Wanderley, Alcadipani, & Barros, 2021). In this paper we challenge the dominating perspective by exploring how the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with headquarters in Geneva contributed to promote the idea of management education in developing countries from the mid-1950s to around 1970. Just after the war, ILO engaged heavily in initiating productivity projects in several developing countries. This work included the idea of vocational education. ILOs 42nd conference in 1958 represented a shift in this work, when the organization declared that the productivity project should include management development programs to train top executives. This led to several ILO projects on management development in more than 40 developing countries, very often in cooperation with UN. This paper will analyze how ILO’s initiative matched other processes of developing management education in Latin America by focusing on Argentina. This focus is relevant since ILO prioritized Argentina highly in this context, and in some documents are mentioned as the most important country in addition to Poland. We also know that the role of national institutions and actors in Argentina was strong and independent versus relevant U.S. actors. In this way, the paper will challenge the conventional U.S.-European focus in the literature on the post-war development of management education. The paper is based on archival research at ILO’s archive as well as Argentine sources.

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2022 Mexico City

"Big Business in Argentina: An Analysis of the Corporate Elite in the Long Term, 1913-1971"

Norma Lanciotti, CONICET/ Universidad Nacional de Rosario
Andrea Lluch, CONICET and Universidad de los Andes

Abstract:

In economic historiography, the analysis of large companies constitutes a relevant topic associated with economic development. Since the pioneering studies of Alfred Chandler, Business History has contributed to identify the expansion strategies that gave rise to the large multinationals and develop a typology of companies to explain the development of industrial capitalism in developed countries. On the other hand, in debate with Chandler's thesis, studies of large companies in other countries have identified other dominant organizational forms, including economic groups. Likewise, in recent years, the question about the relationship between the corporate structure and the forms of capitalism has returned. As refers to Latin American economies, the leading role of diversified economic groups and foreign companies in coordinating Latin American economies and its impact on economic development has also been pointed out. The entry of Argentina into the first globalization as a supplier of raw materials, its late industrialization and its focus on the domestic market implied the dominance of foreign companies and diversified economic groups in the corporate elite. This paper will analyze the profile and transformations of large companies in the long term in Argentina. The main contribution of the research consists in the elaboration of the rankings of the 200 largest companies according to their social capital between 1913 and 1971 and the construction of a database of large companies in Argentina based on homogeneous sources and criteria. After the registration and processing of information on the companies registered in the country, the rankings of the 200 largest companies by social capital were elaborated for selected years: 1913, 1923-4, 1930-1, 1937-8, 1944, 1959- 60 and 1970-1. The sources for the elaboration of this database were the directories and companies’ annual reports published in Argentina. The research also contributes to integrate the information provided by the numerous sectorial and case studies, in a first attempt to identify the dynamics and extent of the life cycles of the largest companies in Argentina.

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