Abstract
This article looks at the relationship between business initiative data (derived from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) and the institutional setting for business (derived from the World Economic Forum) in order to identify trends on the potential increase in competitiveness in the Latin American region.Given the obvious high levels of business initiatives in the region, and the low level of sustainability of these businesses over time, the article examines the main challenges faced by Latin American countries in order to achieve greater competiveness in their business patterns.
These key challenges include the need to lower costs resulting from crime and violence; to increase legal independence and the efficiency of legal frameworks, and to make concerted efforts from within businesses to increase the added value of productive processes and to develop competitive advantages not dependent on the extraction of natural resources.