Vol. 7 No. 1 (2013)

This is the seventh edition of the Journal of Globalization, Competitiveness and Governability Magazine, which faithfully complies with the frequency of publication for our readers, using quality criteria, internationally accepted standards audited by LATINDEX (which guarantees scientific quality criteria in Latin America and the Caribbean). GCG begins 2013 indexed in one of the main current databases SCOPUS (Elsevier Bibliographic Databases) and remains in EconLit (American Economic Association), ABI / INFORM Complete (Proquest), Ulrich´s Periodicals Directory; Ebsco Publishing´s Databases (Business Source Complete); DICE (ANECA-CSIC), RESH, etc. The fact that a political party is seen as innovative thanks to the support of new technologies makes it more attractive. This innovation can be materialised through offering differentiated electronic services and in improving the visual appeal of the party and its candidates thanks to the functionality of its Website. In the first article, the professors Natalia Vila López, Eduard Amorós Kern and Joaquín Aldas Manzano (University of Valencia, Spain) carry out a study to determine to what extent the innovative aspects of a political party´s Website will increase: the perceived quality, the confidence towards the service of the Website, the loyalty towards the Website and the predisposition towards recommending it (word of mouth). In the following article, the professors Janaina de Moura Engracia Giraldi and Fabiana Gondim Mariutti (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil) analyse the management of the Brazil brand for promoting tourism, based on the convergence of the communication strategies defined by the Brazilian National Tourism Office (Embratur) with those effectively used by travel agencies and operators in the United States of America to attract and retain tourists. The authors conclude that there are differences between the strategies defined by Embratur and those carried out by travel agencies, and that there is limited financing for the promotion of the Brazil brand in the USA. For companies to be able to improve their degree of competitiveness, they have to achieve acceptable quality levels. Jorge Benzaquen de las Casas (CENTRUM Católica-Pontificia, Peru presents a longitudinal study comparing nine quality success factors in Peruvian companies in 2006 and 2011, to compare the evolution over time of the scope of quality management. The study shows that Peruvian companies have significantly improved in the nine factors which are the object of the study. The professors Belén González Díaz, Cristina López Duarte and Marta María Vidal Suárez (University of Oviedo, Spain) carry out an empirical analysis of the determining factors for the mode of implementation in the recipient market (creation against acquisition) in the specific case of investments made by Spanish companies in the European Union. The results obtained indicate the cultural distance between the nations involved in the process, the country risk of the recipient nation and the experience built up by the investor company in the internationalisation process and in the recipient company of the investment as main factors affecting the choice between the two formulas. Next, the professors Nádia Campos Pereira and Cristina Lelis Leal Calegario (Universidade Federal de Goiás – UFG, Brazil) investigate whether the growing flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) are able to have an impact on the Brazilian balance of payments through the rise in exports and imports, and if there is a predictable relationship between the foreign direct investment strategies and commercial surpluses. The results show that FDI promotes an increase in exports and imports, particularly for companies taking part in the market-seeking strategy; a rise in exports in the short and long term, prompting an increase in imports only in the short term. In the following article the professors Lismara Ribeiro Macêdo, Maribel Barreto, Jamerson Viegas Queiroz and Hélio Roberto Hékis (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil) attempt to analyse how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies can influence the personal and professional conduct of employees in the retail network of supermarkets in the municipality of Lauro de Freitas, Bahía - Brazil. The investigation is on an exploratory nature, in light of the growing number of publications which address Corporate Social Responsibility in the field of supermarket retail. For the professors Juliana Pascualote Lemos de Almeida and Silvia Inês Dallavalle de Pádua (Universidad de Sao Paulo, Brazil), the current organisational context means that business processes have to be improved in order for them to be competitive. BPM as a management philosophy becomes important in this context. Given the few existing articles regarding BPM applied to the financial sector, the objective of the article is to describe the promotion of BPM in a closed private pension fund entity. Results based on the case analysed show how BPM is promoted in this sector, detects certain difficulties related to the change, and the relationship between the tasks and the life cycle of BPM. Once again we would like to thank everyone who has made it possible for this magazine to run so smoothly: members of the Advisory Board, Editorial Board, Editors and Associated Editors of the area, evaluators, authors, and, above all, readers. Editor in Chief