International strategy of the 500 largest firms in Latin America: an analysis from its mission and vision

Abstract

A mission and vision well designed are important for the business strategy. In addition, the Latin American firms are a relevant topic, but sub-studied in literature about international business. Thus, the main aim of this paper is identify the presence of international strategy (IS) in the strategic approaches of the 500 largest firms from Latin America. For this purpose, a qualitative technique of content analysis was carried out in official web pages of these firms. Several keywords were analyzed to locate the presence or absence of the IS. These words are: multinational, global, international, internationalization, world, worldwide, among others. With this, 375 firms were identified that mention the IE either its mission, vision or both. Likewise, this sample was subdivided in private firms (338) and state firms (37). The results indicate that the studied firms do not consider mostly the IE in the mission and vision. Another important finding is that companies consider the IS mostly in their vision. In adittion, another important finding is the increased presence of inclusion of IS in the vision of state companies (64.86%) above their private peers. Keywords: international strategy, Latin America, mission, vision, strategic approaches. JEL Classification: M15, M16