In this second issue of 2013, INNOVAR presents six articles and two teaching cases. The articles are grouped in four sections: Strategy and Organizations, Colombian Research, Marketing and Contributions towards Research and Teaching.

The first section presents an article that analyzes the behavior of variables –such as operational performance, economic growth, efficiency and productivity– and the changes that these undergo at Labor-Owned Firms (LO Fs) and Participative Capitalist Firms (PCFs).

The second section consists of three articles. The first chronologically addresses the development of occupational hazard prevention from an analytical perspective. It maintains that both ancient and modern societies have been characterized by their indifference regarding the health and safety of their workers, using the Second World War period as the starting point for analysis and continuing until the present. The aim is to show that there has been significant development on the ground at the technical and administrative levels, with the goal of integrating occupational hazard prevention with organizational structure. The second article shows how, using cost and profit margin indicators, it is possible to study the efficiency of productive systems in the dairy sector based on a case in northern Antioquia. This section closes with an article that presents another application dealing with the professors’ competition at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, as an instrument for achieving academic quality.

The Marketing section presents an article titled “The Role of Sociodemographic Variables in the Use of Internetbased Applications for Older Adults”, which examines the hypothesis that there are differences within the group of older adults (over the age of 60) in the use of Internetbased applications based on their age, gender, level of education and past employment activity.

The section on Contributions towards Research and Teaching includes a very interesting article on an interdisciplinary method that facilitates study of the way in which diverse authors of scientific articles use the citations they include to make their own epistemic claims in a particular scientific community, thus contributing towards collective construction of knowledge.

Finally, two teaching cases are included: 1) the Superbrix case and 2) the Mango case. The first shows how the possibility for a comparatively small Colombian company arises to export and achieve presence in the markets of Asian countries. Will it be successful? What will be the cost of such an initiative? The Mango case is fundamentally based on the characterization of the company and on demonstrating how different business strategies become relevant in trying to position a brand and in improving competitiveness.

GLORIA I. RODRÍGUEZ L. Ph. D.
Director and General Editor - INNOVAR
Full-time Associate Professor School of Administration and Public Accounting
Economic Sciences Faculty, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá campus