Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between firms’ entrepreneurial orientations (EOs) and the adoption of quality management (QM) practices. The role of environmental uncertainty as the moderator of the former relationship is considered. Design/methodology/approach Using theories and related empirical evidences, two research hypotheses were argued and proposed. These hypotheses were tested using data collected from a unique sample of 301 Uruguayan and Argentinean manufacturing companies with more than 20 workers assessed through personal interviews. The empirical methodology includes statistic treatment for scale validation, statistic descriptive techniques and regression analysis. Findings Firms’ EO is determinant for the adoption of QM practices. The environmental uncertainty strengthens the positive impact of EO on the adoption of QM practices, mainly human resource management practices. Research limitations/implications The data come from a particular geographical context and refer to manufacturing plants. It would be interesting to extend the scope of this study to services. The collection of data from only one individual in each organization can generate a potential problem with using single-source information. Practical implications Innovative manufacturing companies that try to adopt advanced QM practices will benefit from hiring managers who are able to take risks, and to seek a long-term orientation toward being aggressive with their environment, especially in highly competitive contexts. Mustering these features may ensure perseverance in the adoption of advanced manufacturing practices, even in the presence of complex and uncertain environments. Originality/value The principal contribution of this paper is that it advances the study of the intersection between operations management and entrepreneurship, analyzing how firms’ EO affects the adoption of new methods and practices in manufacturing. Furthermore, it is important to highlight the fact that the authors use data from a unique survey of manufacturing companies from Argentina and Uruguay in the southern cone of Latin America. The authors also contribute to the open debate about the universality of QM practices.

The estimation of the burden of a disease is one of the tasks with the longest tradition in Health Economics, which allows us to know the volume of resources that a country allocates to a specific health problem, and to compare countries and diseases. Although the fundamental objective of Health Systems is not to reduce the cost of the disease, but to improve the health of the population, the studies of burden of disease establish the economic seriousness of the problem, orienting the priorities of action. Government-funded medical expenditure in Uruguay for the last ten years has tripled in US dollars. The increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity has contributed to this growth. According to the World Health Organization, Uruguay has the highest growing trend in the prevalence of both overweight and obesity in South America. We have previously estimated that economic burden linked to obesity will be more than US$500 million by 2020, a figure close to 1% of the country’s GDP. In this study, we tried to generate a measure of value to ascertain the cost of inaction in the fight against obesity and its consequences linked to several non-communicable diseases. The cost of inaction is not defined as the cost of not doing, but as the cost of not implementing the right policies (in this case health prevention policies) at the right time.

Purpose – This paper aims at providing new evidence on the relationship between advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) and quality management (QM) practices on manufacturing performance. Design/methodology/approach – The expected relationship between both AMTs and QM practices on manufacturing performance are tested using a unique sample of 301 manufacturing companies from Argentina (151) and Uruguay (150), employing at least 20 workers, which have been assessed through personal interviews to plant managers and engineers. Findings – Findings evidence the complementarities between QM practices and AMTs to explain enhanced manufacturing performance. Although QM practices have a direct effect on manufacturing performance, the effects of AMTs are significant only in the presence of QM practices. Research limitations/implications – First limitation of the paper is the cross-sectional character of the data analysis. Secondly, the paper cannot avoid the disadvantages inherent in research based on surveys, especially when the answers are of a subjective nature. In addition, the information used is based on the perceptions of managers. Practical implications – Industry practitioners should focus on the implementation of innovation policies that promote long-term economic growth, creating more favorable and better technological and infrastructure institutional conditions to lead to substantial improvements in this economic growth. Originality/value – The paper provides evidence on the interdependence between QM practices and AMTs’ adoption to improve performance of manufacturing companies in the south of Latin America, something that has received very little attention up today. Thus, the paper contributes also to the international debate on differences observed in the implementation of manufacturing innovations in different regions.

En los últimos diez años en Uruguay, el gasto médico total financiado con fondos públicos se ha triplicado en dólares americanos corrientes. Un aumento sustancial en la prevalencia del sobrepeso (IMC ≥25) y la obesidad (IMC ≥30) ha contribuido a este crecimiento. Según la Organización Mundial de la Salud, Uruguay es el país con mayor prevalencia tanto en sobrepeso como en obesidad de América del Sur, con tendencia creciente. Esta realidad nos ha motivado a estudiar en profundidad el costo de atención sanitaria de la obesidad y sus enfermedades relacionadas. Nuestra estimación es que los costos de atención de estas enfermedades para el 2030 ascenderá a más de 500 millones de dólares americanos, lo que equivale a casi el 1% del PIB del país. Las políticas antiobesidad implementadas en la última década han tenido un desem- peño difícil de medir, y en algunos casos han resultado ineficientes, no tanto por la política o programa en sí, sino por su deficiencia en la implementación y seguimiento.  Nuestro estudio intenta generar una forma de medición de valor para determinar el costo de inacción sobre el combate a la obesidad y sus enfermedades no trasmisibles. El costo de inacción no es definido como el costo de no hacer, sino como el costo de no implementar las políticas adecuadas (en este caso de prevención en salud), en el momento oportuno.