Vol. 16 No. 2 (2022)

In the first paper, Erik M. Muñoz (Universidad de Talca, Chile) and Francisco Gálvez-Gamboa (Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile), analyze the return and volatility spillover of Latin American and U.S. financial markets, using a time and frequency domain approach. The results of this study indicate high inter-market connectivity and volatility and return spillover between Brazil, the U.S., and Mexico. Frequency domain findings show that the short term (1 to 5 days) contributes most to a return spillover, while volatility spillover mostly occurs in the long term (more than 20 days). The rolling-window analysis indicates that extreme events directly affect the spillover effect.

Javier Bilbao-Ubillos (University of the Basque Country, Spain), and Rosalía Calvo-Clúa (Ministry of Economic, Planning, and Development of the Dominican Republic) analyze FDI performance in the Dominican Republic over the last three decades. The hypotheses derived from their theoretical framework were tested using correlation analysis, gravity equation, and significance analysis. The authors conclude that the profitability of investment has grown; there are causal relationships between FDI and GDP, GDP per capita, productivity, and exports; the stock of FDI in free trade zones generates a positive impact on net exports; and that there are also causal relationships between FDI and the technological levels of exports.

To measure the stock market performance of developed markets during the Covid-19 period, Eduardo Sandoval Álamos and Claudio Molina Mac-Kay (Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana, Chile) carried out a time-varying application. The authors used the "Jensen's alpha," estimated from the Fama & French model with heterocedastic residuals for this study. The results indicate that, during the crisis, the developed countries with the best-performing stock markets are Denmark, Israel, and the Netherlands, while the worst performers are Singapore, Belgium, and Germany. Good performance is associated with efficient and well-targeted fiscal policies, thus these represent markets that outperform others and good value creation alternatives for global investors.

The main objective of the next article is to analyze the role of customer engagement and experience in the creation of brand equity for retailers in relationship with customer awareness and loyalty. The relationships between these variables contribute to the creation of customer loyalty, and, in turn, generate brand equity for the retailer. The paper written by Valentín Gallart-Camahort (Cardenal Herrera University - CEU, Spain); Luis Callarisa-Fiol and Javier Sánchez-García (Jaume I University of Castellon, Spain) contributes to the study of customer engagement, considered as a relatively new concept in marketing. The authors analyze the influence of customer engagement and experience on customer awareness and loyalty for brand value creation in the retail market.

Danton Arturo Escalante Yaulilahua; Diana Verónica Lezama Verástegui; Lucy Pamela Verástegui Espíritu; Luis Miguel Muñoz Acevedo; Pedro Bernabé Venegas Rodríguez of Universidad Continental (Peru) seek to analyze the competitiveness levels of the five most representative agricultural products of the Netherlands compared to its main competitors. RCA and ICTB indicators were also analyzed. As a result, the Netherlands showed a high degree of specialization in all the products studied, demonstrating great comparative advantage and high or constant competitiveness versus the main importing countries, and serving as a reference for agricultural production and exports in Latin America and developing countries.

The last article of this issue is written by Andréia Cittadin (Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense, Brazil); Bruna Benita Weber Sanchez Lopez ; and Fabricia Silva da Rosa (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil); and Januário José Monteiro (Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil). The authors seek to analyze whether sustainability education influences accounting students' perception of the FEW-Nexus. The results show that students' knowledge of sustainability issues significantly influenced the perception of the water and food elements of the FEW-Nexus. The authors conclude that sustainability education can help sensitize young professionals, who might in the future work in the management of public and private organizations facing the challenges of the FEW-Nexus.

We want to thank all those who make this publication possible: members of the Advisory Board, Editorial Board, Area Editors, and Associate Editors, evaluators, authors, and, above all, the readers.

Editor in Chief