Drawing from the concept of reverse entrepreneurship, a type of international new venture that originates in the emerging markets to target more developed economies, this casebook brings together seven cases of Latin American entrepreneurship. The purpose of the casebook is to develop entrepreneurial knowledge deriving from local, relevant, up-to-date cases that inform a broader audience of business students, practitioners, and academics on the latest issues in emerging Latin American international entrepreneurship.
This book is one of the few attempts to extend managerial practices on entrepreneurship and marketing to cases that originated in the emerging markets. Traditionally, entrepreneurial concepts, ideas, and exemplary cases have flowed from developed countries toward emerging markets. Daily examples abound in emerging markets, for example, “We are the Uber of food” or “We are the Starbucks of yogurts”. However, only a few examples can be found from among entrepreneurial ideas and business flowing in the opposite direction. This book aims to complement the existing literature on entrepreneurship and marketing by including case studies involving different industries, products, and services, considering both traditional and technology-based entrepreneurship as well as a variety of company sizes.
On the other hand, little academic research appears to be available to understand enterprise internationalization in Latin American economies (Felzensztein et al. 2015), leaving researchers with more unanswered questions about reverse internationalization dynamics and case studies nearer the Latin American reality. This casebook aims to provide a better understanding of enterprise internationalization from a Latin American perspective, which would have implications for academia in explaining useful cases for internationalization strategies originating in the region.
Latin America is a region characterized by limited innovation capabilities (Lederman et al. 2014), and reverse internationalization innovative models set valuable examples for international enterprise entrepreneurship, particularly in instances related to innovative solutions and business models.
This casebook, Reverse Entrepreneurship in Latin America – Internationalization from Emerging Markets to Developed Economies, provides a suitable learning tool to spread the challenges and dilemmas faced by real-world entrepreneurs during the stages of ideation, development, and growth of business projects. These case studies differ from other works in that they focus on a character—generally, a manager or an entrepreneur—who faces an international business dilemma and needs to make prompt and effective decisions under situations of uncertainty and the complex business environments of Latin America.
Case studies comprise a core methodological stream that has been utilized in business studies, in that they provide learning audiences with real-world scenarios that consider ambiguous and incomplete data, which allow learners in terms of the application of relevant theoretical models to frame issues and provide sound answers. This book includes documents and references to enable instructors, academicians, and practitioners to acquire a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurial ideas were conceived of and launched in the market.
As indicated, the case studies that are presented in this casebook explain the moves of companies that decided to go international in a variety of sectors, including agrifood, consumer manufacturing, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and entertainment, introducing original insights into how internationalizing entrepreneurs in different industries, markets, and countries put original solutions for their business challenges to test.
The first case, “The rise and fall of an international new venture: The case of an online medical tourism platform”, by Sascha Fuerst and Lasse Torkkeli, presents the multiple complexities of creating a business concurrently in two countries: developing (Colombia) and developed (the US), which add to the challenges related to the risks involved in an emerging industry such as health-care tourism. Although innovative in nature, the case leads students to recognize the internal and external factors that ultimately lead to the failure of the envisioned business, and invites students to analyze business model alternatives instead of a rather static business plan. Students will acknowledge, in this case, the importance of social interactions, risk management strategies in an innovative industry, and cultural understanding in international entrepreneurship.
In the second case, entitled “Reverse internationalization of wearable technology: shaping foreign market opportunities through innovativeness, learning, and networking”, Guillermo Jesús Larios Hernández presents a case of reverse innovation and entrepreneurship in which learning and networking become instrumental in gaining international traction. This is the case of Ironbit, a Mexican ICT company that, after years of attempts at internationalization, decides to try a wearable bracelet conceived for global markets. The case displays the firm’s struggles to determine the appropriate strategy to position its bracelets in competitive international markets. Context and relevant issues related to this internationalization are discussed, which afford students sufficient material to analyze an alternative business model as part of the company’s global strategy, and provides them with a learning experience of different reverse internationalization strategies.
In the third case, “Cinépolis México: Prospects for international growth in entertainment”, Alberto Borbolla-Albores presents the internationalization process of the largest movie theater company in Latin America. Although the company already operates in 14 countries, it faces a strategic dilemma between growing existing foreign markets versus innovation in Asian markets. The case contrasts the sector’s generic business model of movie theaters to the Cinépolis customer-centric model, which is based on best practices and innovation. This case supplies business students with an instance of reverse innovation, in which successful internationalization depends on an appropriate understanding of the context, culture, and technology factors in each market.
The fourth case, by Pável Reyes-Mercado and Jesús Berumen-Cantú, is named “Benotto Bicycles: Developing a strategy for profitable growth” and emphasizes the case of a Venezuelan company forced to reposition its branding strategy as a consequence of unpredictable market changes. The case drives students to give advice on business strategies based on Latin American business and political and social settings, emphasizing the challenges posed by a brand that was well-positioned in past generations, but from which market complexity demands a new type of branding strategy. This is the case of a family company that was required to mobilize internal resources, people, and strategy to gain traction in more competitive international markets.
Guillermo A. Zamacona Aboumrad and Adriana González Flores developed the fifth case, entitled “Mexico’s Healthy Food: looking forward to an innovative way of conducting commercial ties with suppliers”. This case emphasizes the difficulties that the international entrepreneur is forced to face when the local supply chain is characterized by unpredictable quality and quantity. Through this case, students are encouraged to seek novel business models that recognize the challenges associated with the agricultural sector in Mexico. The case also permits students to assess internationalization issues related to decision making, business process complexity, logistics and supply chain, negotiation, and social relations.
In the sixth case, “Napify app: a Mexican entrepreneurship for society in the path toward internationalization”, Lizbeth Magdalena Puerta-Sierra and Moisés Maislin Mendoza present the case of a startup that developed a mobile application seeking to minimize people’s usage of the cellphone. While this is an example of social entrepreneurship, the model also targets business clients aiming to gain customers, positioning, and loyalty. By means of this case study, students are encouraged to identify value proposition and internationalization strategies, considering the company’s prior failure due to the excessive demand of international users.
The last case, presented by Argentina Soto-Maciel and entitled “Are children the same around the world?” examines Kidzania, a successful interactive entertainment Mexican concept for children to play and learn, which is fully internationalized in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Despite its success, the firm continues to face significant challenges in reaching the US market, whose profile demands a new strategy, with implications that encourage students to develop further analysis.
References
- Felzensztein, C., Ciravegna, L., Robson, P., & Amorós, J. E. (2015). Networks, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Internationalization Scope: Evidence from Chilean Small and Medium Enterprises. Journal of Small Business Management, 53, 145–160.Crossref
- Lederman, D., Messina, J., Pienknagura, S., & Rigolini, J. (2014). Latin American Entrepreneurs: Many Firms but Little Innovation. Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/16457. Accessed 15 Sept 2016.