Mexican Firms Research Articles

The diffusion of advanced automation in developing countries: factors and adoption process

This paper reports the results of an empirical research into the diffusion of advanced automation in Brazil, India, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela. It shows that the extent of the use of advanced automation on a normalised basis is higher in Mexican firms, followed by Thai, Turkish and Venezuelan firms. Brazilian and Indian firms are among the least automated of the sample. Diffusion is higher among customised products manufacturers and small domestic firms. Macroeconomic factors underlying diffusion were a stable economic environment, low interest rates, availability of finance and a growing engineering goods demand. Firm factors for adoption comprised technical ones such as quality, flexibility and machine productivity, although industry considerations permeated the relative importance of each factor. Economic factors for adoption included labour and unit cost considerations. It also found that developing country firms, while searching for information on advanced automation through trade fairs and suppliers, do not make use of all available sources. The assessment of the potential of the new technologies is relatively simple and based on management intuition. There was also little preparation and not enough skilled workers prior to the installation of the new equipment. The paper concludes that the unstable environmental conditions and limited depth of knowledge in which advanced automation is used in developing countries calls for policy intervention at the aggregate and firm levels.

The strategies pursued by Mexican firms in their efforts to become global players

Almost 60% of the biggest non-financial groups in Mexico carry on at least two types of activities in transnational markets. This article describes and analyses the various internationalization paths and strategies of Mexican firms. This drive for internationalization is taking place against the background of an open export-oriented economy and growing integration with the United States and Canada. There are various national and international factors, as well as others specific to the firms themselves, which influence the strategies chosen and their results. This article consists of an introduction (section I);, followed by six sections analysing the various paths followed by Mexican firms in order to become players. Section II identifies the firms which have set up subsidiaries in developed countries. Section III reviews the firms which have resorted to strategic alliances that could convert them into transnational corporations, and some outstanding examples of this are cited. Section IV describes the presence of Mexican firms on the international securities markets and the interaction that this involves with world financial institutions. Section V looks at the strategies followed by some Mexican firms in order to establish global marketing networks. Section VI examines the rapid expansion of the solutions and strategies applied by firms to gain a world-level position, and finally section VII offers some conclusions evaluating the paths and preferences of Mexican firms seeking to become transnationals, the obstacles they have had to overcome, and the consequences of their international activities.

México bajo el TLCAN: Información contable en una economía cambiante

México ha implementado con éxito las políticas para comenzar el comercio exterior, estabilizar el peso, controlar la inflación, desregular a las empresas privadas, reducir las empresas del estado, eliminar burocracia y abrir más inversión extranjera. Este proceso comenzó antes de que el TLCAN fuera considerado; sin embargo, el TLCAN ayudó a hacer estos cambios económicos permanentes. Ante un ambiente de negocios más propicio, es pertinente investigar y entender la información financiera informada por las empresas mexicanas. Este trabajo analiza elementos del modelo contable utilizado en esa economía y los compara con las características de la práctica de contabilidad de su contraparte en Estados Unidos. En su conjunto, la práctica contable mexicana ha alcanzado un buen nivel de competencia. En su búsqueda de soluciones a los problemas y las cuestiones no incluidas en sus normas de contabilidad, la Comisión de Principios de Contabilidad de México ha prestado mucha atención a los US GAAP y los principios adelantados por el Comité de Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad. Una nueva ley del mercado de valores ha añadido mecanismos, para garantizar una sana operación del mercado de valores y para aumentar la transparencia de las transacciones y las revelaciones financieras de las empresas cuyos valores cotizan en la bolsa. Todo esto refleja la nueva economía abierta y los mecanismos de libre mercado adoptados por el gobierno mexicano.

Aprende-se com as empresas japonesas? - Estudo comparativo entre empresas brasileiras e mexicanas

O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar o processo de aprendizagem em empresas brasileiras e mexicanas, processo este provocado pela interação com empresas multinacionais clientes; mais especificamente, pesquisaremos as relações entre empresas subsidiárias japonesas e suas fornecedoras locais no Brasil e no México, analisando como e em que estas influenciam o processo de aprendizagem das empresas locais. À medida que as empresas japonesas são consideradas berço do desenvolvimento de muitas das técnicas atuais de gestão da qualidade e de gestão de pessoal, um estudo com base em survey realizado em empresas nos dois países pode trazer contribuições interessantes a este debate.

Shareholder wealth effects of free trade: U.S. and Mexican stock market response to nafta

We investigate shareholder wealth effects of congressional passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in November 1993. Shareholders of U.S. firms experienced insignificant abnormal returns on average when Congress voted to approve the measure, while Mexican firms received positive returns. Returns were significantly negative on average to U.S. firms in sectors that received special attention in the agreement. Shareholders in the agricultural, textile, and apparel sectors gained, while shareholders in the communications, motor vehicles and equipment, and financial services sectors were harmed by the agreement. Regression analysis shows that returns are proportional to Tobin's q, labor intensity, and firm size. Results suggest that value-added growth firms and labor intensive firms gain from trade liberalization with Canada and Mexico.

Accounting Valuation and Current Cost Disclosures: The Case of Mexico

This study investigates the relation between the market value of publicly traded Mexican firms and their disclosures of accounting information adjusted for changing prices. The volatile hyperinflationary environment in Mexico provides an ideal setting for investigating the value relevance of inflation accounting disclosures. Specifically, I investigate the only accounting information that is required in the body of the financial statements: general price level-adjusted and current cost disclosures. Extending the work of Edwards and Bell (1961) and Ohlson (1995), I estimate a valuation model that relates inflation accounting disclosures to firm value. The results indicate that general price level-adjusted and current cost disclosures explain a significant portion of the cross-sectional variation in the market value of Mexican firms. Further, the explanatory power of holding gains is robust to inflation rates that vary from 130% to 20%. These results suggest that current cost and constant peso disclosures are relevant for determining firm value over a wide range of inflation rates.

Economies of scale in the Mexican automotive sector

Recent growth of the Mexican motor vehicle industry has sparked a great deal of controversy on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border regarding the potential effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement. One of the key factors affecting the future competitiveness of the Mexican motor vehicle industry relative to U.S. producers is whether the Mexican firms can exploit economies of scale as their output expands. This article investigates that possibility as well as the direct and cross-price elasticities of demand for the inputs by estimating translog cost functions for the Mexican motor vehicle and autoparts industries. The results are consistent with the hypotheses that substantial economies of scale remain to be exploited by the Mexican motor vehicle industry, but that the autoparts industry is operating with diseconomies of scale. However, the lack of investment in new technology and X-inefficiency on the part of the autoparts firms may have been partially responsible for the latter finding.

An Attitudinal Model to Determine the Export Intention of Non‐exporting, Small Manufacturers

Proposes and tests a model for determining export intention among non‐exporting small and medium‐sized manufacturers. The model posits that export intention is a function of three constructs: perceived competitive advantage, organizational readiness and perceived risk. Testing was done on a probability sample of Mexican firms. The results show that intention is explained only by organizational readiness. Explains the use of the organizational readiness concept both as a screening and as a diagnostic tool.

A Financial Comparison Between Mexican and U.S. Firms: A Cross-Balance Sheet Canonical Correlation Analysis

Canonical correlation analysis is used to investigate the cross-balance sheet relationships for a sample of Mexican firms. The results are compared to a similar analysis of large and small United States firms. Like US companies, Mexican firms tend to match the maturities of short- and long-term assets with their liability/equity accounts. Unlike their US counterparts, however, Mexican firms appear to employ short-term debt, primarily accounts payable, to manage risk. Also, in the 1982 through 1988 period, the use of accounts payable to finance current assets declines, as does the importance of accounts receivable. It is suggested that these changes were the result of the hyperinflation in Mexico in the 1980s and, to a lesser degree, the Stabilization Plan implemented in the early part of the decade.

Dynamic comparative advantage: Some implications for trade policy in North America

This paper explores the implications of changing North American trade policies for dynamic comparative advantage and shows, with examples from the energy and high-technology sectors, how a new policy based on interdependence might work. Newly industrializing countries such as Mexico should aim to break into industries with progressively higher technological and value-added components, such as computer manufacturing—industries that are entering a period of expanded demand and going beyond the period of greatest capital intensity. Although few Mexican firms might be expected to enter such oligopolistic markets alone (at least in the short run), they could combine forces with established enterprises abroad in order to permit gradual market penetration. The examples in the paper illustrate the need for a stable macroeconomic framework for policymaking that includes exchange rates, investment incentives, relative price behavior, taxes, intellectual property rights, labor and environmental regulations, capital market policies, harmonization of standards, and other measures. There is also a need for policies that anticipate the potential private and social returns of activities that might be overlooked in a static framework.

The State and the National Bourgeoisie in Postrevolutionary Mexico: 1920-1940

Studies of the private sector of contemporary Mexico generally go back no further than the 1940s when the promotion of industrialization began to take precedence in the policy of the Mexican government. Presumably because the national bourgeoisie-economically weak and politically on the defensive-had only a marginal role in the historic struggles of the immediate postrevolutionary period, there have been very few systematic studies of the Mexican bourgeoisie during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite this neglect, an understanding of the development of the national bourgeoisie and the role of the state in its formation in the two decades following the revolution is of critical importance. It was during this period that many of the major institutions of contemporary Mexican capitalism-banks and industrial firms, chambers of commerce and industry as well as other business institutions-were established, and important patterns of collaboration were developed between private capitalists and between them and the state (or certain factions within the state). Thus an examination of the process of capital accumulation in this early postrevolutionary period helps to explain the model of development which has emerged in Mexico today. Among the components of this model are a prominent role for the state in what is essentially a capitalist economy; a strong injection of foreign capital and technology, primarily in the form of multinational corporate investments but also through loans, machinery imports, and other technology transfers; and a tendency toward concentration of control in all sectors of the economy (and toward monopolization in some sectors) by the state, foreign capital, and dominant groups among the national private sector. In Mexico, as in other third world countries, the state1 has had a

Performance and technology of United States and national firms in Mexico

This study uses pairing of Mexican‐owned manufacturing firms and firms with direct United States investment, to examine the effects of ownership structure on firms’ performance and sources of technology. Results suggest that in terms of profitability, growth and export performance the Mexican firms were competing successfully during the period 1966–73. Furthermore, the basis for this strong posture by the Mexican manufacturers was not due to a heavy reliance on foreign technology imported through formal channels, but rather is linked with internal innovative activity and the use of domestic consultants.

A comparative study of executives in mexican and american firms in mexico

A comparative study of executives in mexican and american firms in mexico