De Multilatina a Latina Global: Descubriendo las elecciones a nivel corporativo sobre estrategia de internacionalización del Grupo Nutresa
| Autor | Maria A. De Villa |
| Cargo | Associate Professor, Alta Dirección, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia |
| Páginas | 23-57 |
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AD-MINISTER
MARIA A.
DE VILLA
JEL: F, M
R e c e i v e d : 1 7 / 0 4 / 2 0 1 6
M o d i f i e d : 2 3 / 0 5 / 2 0 1 6
A c c e p t e d : 2 0 / 0 6 / 2 0 1 6
DOI: 10.17230 /ad-minis ter.29.2
www.ea fit.e du.co/ad- minis ter
Creative Commons (CC BY)
From Multilatina to Global Latina: Unveiling the
corporate-level international strategy choices of
Grupo Nutresa
De Multilatina a L atina Globa l: Descubriendo las elecciones a nivel corporativo sobre estrategia
de intern acionalización d el Grupo Nutresa
ABSTRACT
Research on Multilatinas has underexplored multinationals from Colombia and their corporate-level
international strategy choices to develop into Global Latinas. Building on interviews, documents, and
archival data about Grupo Nutresa –Colombia’s most international firm in manufactured goods–, this
study unveils and discusses this firm’s corporate-level international strategy choices between 1960 and
2014. A prevailing notion is that most multinationals from Latin America continue to target international
operations to focus mainly on their home region through an export, multidomestic or transnational
corporate-level international strategy. In contrast, data show that Grupo Nutresa chose to evolve
through a sequential approach from an export to a transnational corporate-level international strategy
while its international operations were able to transcend its home region to reach North America, Asia,
Europe, Africa, and Oceania. These results add to international business research on emergent market
multinational companies (EMNCs) from Latin America by unveiling the corporate -level international
strategy choices of a Colombian origin Multilatina that transformed into a Global Latina.
KEYWORDS
Corporate-level international strategy; multilatinas; global latinas; Grupo Nutresa.
RESUMEN
Las investigaciones sobre Multilatinas han estudiado poco a las multinacionales de origen colombiano y
las elecciones a nivel corporativo que estas empresas han realizado sobre su estrategia de internacio-
nalización para convertirse en Latinas Globales. A partir de entrevistas, documentos y datos de archivo
sobre el Grupo Nutresa –la empresa colombiana más internacional de bienes manufacturados–, este
estudio descubre y discute las elecciones a nivel corporativo que esta empresa realizó sobre su estrate-
gia de internacionalización entre los años 1960 y 2014. Una noción que prevalece acerca de la mayoría
de multinacionales de América Latina, es que estas empresas continúan dirigiendo sus operaciones
internacionales principalmente hacia su región a través de una estrategia de internacionalización a nivel
corporativo exportadora, multidoméstica o transnacional. En contraste, los datos evidencian que el Gru-
po Nutresa eligió evolucionar a través de un proceso secuencial de una estrategia de internacionalización
a nivel corporativo exportadora a una transnacional, mientras que sus operaciones internacionales logra-
ron trascender su región para llegar a Norteamérica, Asia, Europa, África, y Oceanía. Estos resultados
aportan a la investigación en negocios internacionales sobre multinacionales de mercados emergentes,
particularmente de América Latina, al descubrir y discutir las elecciones a nivel corporativo sobre estra-
tegia de internacionalización de una Multilatina de origen colombiano que se transformó en Latina Global.
1 Associate Professor, Alta Dirección, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia. Email: mdevilla@eafit.
edu.co ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4628-6000
AD-mi nister Nº. 29 julio -dicie mbre 20 16 pp. 23 - 5 7 · ISS N 1692 -0279 · eISSN 2256-4 322
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Maria A. De Villa
From Mu ltilatin a to Gl obal Lat ina: Unv eiling the corp orate-l evel int ernatio nal stra tegy cho ices of Grupo N utresa
PALABRAS CLAVE
Estrategia de internacionalización a nivel corporativo; multilatinas; latinas globales; Grupo Nutresa.
INTRODUCTION
A growing number of emergent market multinational companies –EMNCs or
multinationals with an emerging country of origin– are transcending their home
region to operate in other emerging and/or developed markets (Ramamurti and
Singh, 2009). These EMNCs are focused on consolidating their multinationalization
and global scope through dierent corporate-level international strategy choices.
Among them, are Infosys from India, South African Breweries –now Anheuser-Busch
InBev– and Haier Group from China (Khanna and Palepu, 2010). A sub-group of
EMNCs that share a Latin American country of origin and international operations
that mainly target Latin America, referred to as Multilatinas, are also following this
trend by significantly expanding their international operations beyond their home
region (Casanova, 2009; Cuervo-Cazurra, 2010). By doing so, these Multilatinas are
becoming what some scholars refer to as Global Latinas, that are EMNCs with a
Latin American country of origin that have value-added operations in two or more
continents dierent from Latin America (Casanova, 2009; Casanova et al., 2009).
Some examples of Multilatinas that have emerged into Global Latinas are Vale from
Brazil and Cemex from Mexico (Casanova, 2009). Through their corporate-level
international strategies, these two companies have expanded operations beyond
their Latin American home region to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Nevertheless, although Vale, Cemex, and many other Latin American
multinationals, have been experimenting an acceleration in their internationalization
processes (Carneiro and Brenes, 2014; Casanova, 2009), international business
research has directed scant attention to their international expansion compared to
multinationals from other emerging regions such as Africa or Asia. Scholars such
as Birnik and Bowman (2007) and Fastoso and Whitelock (2007, 2011), contend that
Latin America and Latin American multinationals have largely been neglected in
international business research. Evidence that strongly supports this claim is that
between 1963 and 2009, only 206 articles in 17 academic management journals were
found to discuss Latin America (Nicholls-Nixon et al., 2011). However, in particular
Multilatinas have managed to attract the attention of several researchers in the
international business and strategy fields (Dominguez and Brenes, 1997; Brenes,
Ickis, and Olsen, 2000; Carneiro and Brenes, 2014; Casanova, 2009; Casanova et al.,
2009; Cuervo-Cazurra, 2008, 2010; Fleury and Fleury, 2011; Parente et al., 2013). Yet,
upon their work, scarce literature examines in detail the corporate-level international
strategy choices of Multilatinas that have transformed into Global Latinas (see
Casanova, 2009; Casanova et al., 2009). Furthermore, existing research focuses on
Multilatinas that have become Global Latinas having countries of origin such as
Brazil, Mexico, and Chile (Casanova et al., 2009) since these countries have nurtured
the largest and the highest number of international firms in the region (América
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AD-mi nister Nº. 29 julio -dicie mbre 20 16 pp. 23 - 5 7 · ISS N 1692 -0279 · eISSN 2256-4 322
Economía, 2014; Santos, 2013). This is reflected in Casanova and colleagues’ (2009)
compilation of case studies of Multilatinas emerging into Global Latinas for the
Interamerican Development Bank, where their cases include: five firms from Brazil
–Vale, Petrobras, Embraer, Natura, and Politec–, three from Mexico –Bimbo, Cemex,
and América Móvil–, one from Chile –Viña Concha y Toro–, one from Peru –Astrid
y Gastón–, and one from Guatemala –Pollo Campero–. Such an array of case studies
illustrates how empirical research on Multilatinas emerging into Global Latinas is
still highly atomized to a few Latin American countries of origin (Casanova et al.,
2009; Kosaco et al., 2014). Consequently, an in-depth exploration of the corporate-
level international strategy choices of dierent country of origin Multilatinas that
have transformed into Global Latinas, can broaden our understanding of corporate-
level international strategy in EMNCs from Latin America.
Thus, with the purpose of delving into the case of a Multilatina that emerged into
a Global Latina having a country of origin other than Brazil, Mexico or Chile, the
records of América Economía (2014) were reviewed. These records identified Peru,
Argentina, and Colombia to be simultaneously ranked in fourth position, as countries
of origin oering the highest number of the most international Latin American firms.
Regarding Peru, research was conducted by Casanova and colleagues (2009) on the
case of Astrid and Gastón, a Peruvian Multilatina emerging into a Global Latina.
Similarly, the case of Argentinian Arcor, a Multilatina that transformed into the world’s
largest producer of candies was documented by Kosaco and colleagues (2014).
However, at the time of this research, scant studies were found to provide a fine grained
analysis of a Colombian country of origin case. Moreover, the Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean –ECLAC– claimed that the Latin American
multinationals that had recently advanced the most in their internationalization
came from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and lately Colombia (ECLAC, 2011). Altogether,
this indicated that an in-depth study of Colombia’s most international firm had
the potential of providing interesting empirical insight to a more complete view of
corporate-level international strategy choices by EMNCs from Latin America. Thus,
to provide evidence from Colombia, this study addresses the question: how has the
most international Colombian multinational oriented its corporate-level international
strategy choices to transform from Multilatina to Global Latina?
To address this research question, through América Economía’s 2014 ranking of
Multilatinas, Grupo Nutresa –the leading Colombian multinational in the processed
food industry– was identified as the most international Colombian multinational
in manufactured goods since 2007. This source is a reliable reference since it has
been utilized in extensive research such as the annual analyses of foreign direct
investment –FDI– in Latin America published by United Nations (ECLAC, various
years) and the work of Cuervo-Cazurra (2007, 2008, 2010) a cited scholar who studies
Multilatinas. Another important Latin American magazine, Latin Trade (2004, 2015),
in its ranking of the top 500 companies in Latin America, included Grupo Nutresa
–former Grupo Nacional de Chocolates– in position 266 in 2004 when the ranking
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