Introduction to the special issue of best papers Business Association of Latin American Studies 2010 Xavier Mendoza a, ⁎, Jorge Carneiro b, 1 a ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University, Spain b Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rua Dezenove de Fevereiro 127/201, Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 22.280-030 Brazil abstract article info Article history: Received 1 June 2011 Received in revised form 1 October 2011 Accepted 1 October 2011 Available online 16 November 2011 Keywords: Latin America BALAS This “Introduction to the Special Issue” briefly addresses the best papers presented at the BALAS 2010 Con- ference held in March 2010 in Barcelona, Spain. These papers were selected from twelve general business tracks and three conference theme tracks. The seven papers in this special issue cover a wide variety of topics in different fields: marketing, strategy, international human resources management, performance measure- ment systems, performance of biotech spin-offs, and sustainability. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction to the Special Issue It is a great pleasure to bring to your attention a selection of the best papers presented at the 2010 annual conference of the Business Association of Latin American Studies (BALAS). The conference took place from March 24th to 26th in Barcelona, Spain, hosted by ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University. Founded in 1984, BALAS is the first international business and eco- nomics association to focus exclusively on the study of economics, management, leadership and industry-related issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. BALAS brings together scholars, professional managers and decision makers to share ideas and research studies on the Latin American business environment and management practice. The main theme of the BALAS 2010 conference was ‘The coming age of regulation and corporate response’. Paper sessions were orga- nized into 13 general business tracks and three conference theme tracks. A total of 184 papers were submitted and, after a blind peer re- view process, 89 were accepted for presentation at the Conference (a 48% acceptance rate). The 13 general business tracks were: Accounting, Taxation and Management Information and Control Systems; Consumer Behavior; Corporate Finance; Culture, Social and Ethical Issues; Economic Envi- ronment and Regional Integration; Entrepreneurship and Family Business; Financial Markets, Investment and Risk Management; Human Resource Management; Information Technology Manage- ment; Marketing Management; Management Education and Teaching Cases; Strategies for Global Competitiveness; and Supply-Chain and Operations Management. The three conference theme tracks were: Business–Government Relations and non-Market Strategies, Knowl- edge and Innovation Management, and Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development. The selection of the best papers for this special issue occurred in two phases led by guest editors Xavier Mendoza (ESADE Business School and BALAS 2010 Conference Chair) and Jorge Carneiro (PUC- Rio). Track chairs, session chairs and BALAS Executive Committee members first identified the papers they felt deserved consideration for inclusion in the special issue. This initial pre-selection consisted of 18 papers with a wide diversity of focuses (empirical, methodolog- ical and also practitioner-oriented approaches) as well as geographi- cal locus of data collection (13 papers covered seven different individual countries and five papers covered a multiplicity of coun- tries in the region). ‘Financial Markets, Investment and Risk Manage- ment’ track papers were not considered eligible because they were subject to an independent selection process for publication in Academia: Revista Latinoamericana de Administración. In August 2010, authors were invited to submit a revised version of their papers. The authors of two papers declined the invitation be- cause they had already submitted their work elsewhere. As a result, 16 papers entered the second phase — the double blind review pro- cess. After 11 months, and two rounds of double blind peer reviews, seven papers were finally selected for publication. All in all, we counted on the expertise of 36 reviewers from 23 leading academic institutions and 13 distinct countries (see the list at the end of this article). The seven papers in this special issue cover a variety of topics in different fields: marketing, strategy, international human resources management, performance measurement systems, performance of Journal of Business Research 65 (2012) 1749–1751 ⁎ Corresponding author at: ESADE Business School, Avenida de Pedralbes, 60–62, 08034-Barcelona, Spain. Tel.: + 34 93 495 2157. E-mail addresses: xavier.mendoza@esade.edu (X. Mendoza), jorgemtc@iag.puc-rio.br (J. Carneiro). 1 Tel.: +55 21 9163 4177. 0148-2963/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.033 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research