Abstract
Multinational operations in Latin America – whether foreign or locally owned – experienced a dramatic change in their environment during the decade of the 1990s. Starting from a world in which each country was virtually isolated from their neighbors, a series of dramatic political changes brought about significant economic liberalization in its wake, including an explicit policy of market integration both regionally and globally. Firms that operated historically in a federal governance structure, with each subsidiary essentially operating exclusively in its own market and protected by high trade and investment barriers, were driven to change their operational, ownership and managerial structures in order to survive and prosper. The difficulties associated with these changes were significant and many firms and owners failed to adopt the necessary governance structures that would facilitate this change. A comparison of Multinational with Multilatina firms show significant differences in their approaches and suggests the need for the latter to accelerate their managerial investments.
