Narrow Results

After the first applications in the early 1990s, the practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Latin America has been going through a slow, but important evolution. In this paper we elaborate on the main aspects of this evolution, based on the findings of a comparative study that put the practice of SEA in different contexts into perspective. SEA systems considered included consolidated (UK, Spain and Portugal) and unconsolidated (South Africa, Mexico, Angola and Mozambique) systems. The Brazilian system is characterised by a disperse structure and a low level of self-organisation, which makes integration with plan making difficult while, at the same time, stimulating “flexible” and “adaptive” SEA processes. We suggest that the lack of both institutional drivers and a clear procedural framework are hindering further development of the Brazilian system.

The scene of Brazilian infrastructure has changed in recent years, highlighting the growing participation of the private sector and the falling public investments as a result of the constraints on the federal public expenditure as from 2016, the Lava Jato operation, and reduction in the number of available loans. Particularly, the Lava Jato operation led most Brazilian infrastructure corporations to fully rethink their processes and opened the way for new national and international companies. In the restructuring phase, project management has shown itself to be sensitive to the changes made. In this sense, fostering risk management in the corporations, combined with efficient cost management, tends to become a decisive factor to guarantee the results of projects. Integrated management solutions, obtaining licenses, regularization, and authorization also became essential to attain efficiency in the use of resources. Considering the scenario of infrastructure projects in Brazil, this chapter discusses the market and internationalization trends in infrastructure projects, and the current state of project management knowledge through diagnosis and cases. Aiming to contribute to a better comprehension of procurement, risk, cost, and stakeholder management, as well as by using Building Information Modelling (BIM) processes to support the efforts to address challenges in the sector, some recent research results are summarized. Further, ethics and governance as pillars for infrastructure project management are also discussed in the text. In the conclusion, we present some proposals about new management areas that can be truly relevant in infrastructure project management in a developing country.

Emerging markets face a challenging recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Although most nations strive to improve their competitiveness to escape from the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, the results may be different from the expectations of these governments. In this chapter, we analyze competitiveness in Mexico and Brazil. We attempt to go beyond the interpretation of results collected in well-known reports, such as the Global Economic Index, to demonstrate the need for further analysis in those countries where political factors may carry a non-comparable weight. We use the DD-Based 9-Factor Model, which considers the impact of politics in public policymaking. We compare Mexico and Brazil, as both nations are undergoing substantial political change, with personal leadership and geopolitical impact unmatched in the region. International managers should be aware of the impact of strong leadership upon public policy and national competitiveness. Those findings are no novelty in Latin America, a region where the political dimension may turn the table on investors without warning. Indeed, political factors should not be adequately addressed by competitiveness benchmarks in those nations where the rule of man may replace the rule of law.

Evidence about internet access and use in Brazil is presented using 2005 Brazilian Bureau of Census data. The importance of internet access outside home, especially by disadvantaged groups is pointed out as well as the impact of socio-technical factors on types of internet access and use is analysed. The relevance and the complexity involved in identifying and classifying internet use and social factors involved are stressed. The role played by specific "social facilitators" of internet use, with emphasis on the role of the public libraries, is also considered.

The Brazilian Fiscal Council can mitigate the consequences of the separation between cash flow and voting rights that is one of the problems of corporate governance in Brazil. The Fiscal Council that is set up in Brazilian companies should be composed of professionals who are nominated by the minority—noncontrolling common and preferred stockholders—and the majority shareholders. Its main function is to monitor the activities and financial statements of the company. The purpose of this chapter is to test, even in a weak legal system, whether there is any legal mechanism to increase the number of shareholders monitoring the management to get better results for them. As a consequence, an active Fiscal Council, as a reflection of better corporate governance, is associated with higher returns on equity, Tobin's Q and dividend payout, smaller betas, debt to equity ratios, lower costs of debt financing and more restrictions on earnings management. We found that the existence of an active Fiscal Council is associated with a higher ROE, which improves the firm's performance. We also found that firms with Fiscal Councils engage significantly less in their earnings management. The Brazilian Fiscal Council is capable of improving the shareholder protection and forcing companies to have better disclosure for their investors. Our research found real benefits for firms with a Fiscal Council in the form of higher returns on equity, lower debt costs and less earnings management. These benefits are important to firms with less corporate governance.