Competitiveness in small and medium sized businesses in the Metropolitan District of Quito

[SPA] Basado en el modelo de competitividad planteado por el World Economic Forum (WEF) se pretende analizar, conocer y comparar el nivel de competitividad en las PYMES de los sectores priorizados: Turismo, Alimentos, Textil, Farmacéutico, Metalmecánico, Confección y Calzado en el Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, de manera descriptiva y no experimental; la información se obtuvo a través del análisis documental y encuestas. Para determinar el nivel de competitividad y conocer la realidad de las PYMES se realizó la caracterización de los sectores, determinando la importancia de éstos para la transformación de la matriz productiva. El índice de competitividad se obtiene con el cálculo de tres subíndices, que están formados por doce pilares, cada uno de ellos compuesto por variables establecidas según el sector analizado. Se plantea estrategias para mejorar la competitividad, alineadas al cambio de la matriz productiva, encaminadas hacia la transformación de materias primas a producto final que podría ser exportado y, de esta manera, agregar valor en beneficio del sector industrial del Ecuador. Existe la posibilidad de realizar el estudio al resto de sectores priorizados y en todas las provincias del país.[ENG] The present investigation analyzes, knows and compares the level of competitiveness in the Small and Medium Enterprises of the prioritized sectors in the change of the productive matrix: Tourism, Food, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Metalworking, Clothing and Footwear in the Metropolitan District of Quito. This study is based on the competitiveness model proposed by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The study is non-experimental descriptive. The methods to obtain the data were the documentary analysis and surveys to obtain the soft data required by the WEF method. To determine the level of competitiveness and know the reality of SMEs, the characterization of the sectors was carried out, determining the importance of these for the transformation of the productive matrix, the competitiveness index according to the methodology is obtained with the calculation of 3 sub-indices, which are formed by 12 pillars and each pillar composed of variables established according to the sector analyzed. From the research of the current situation of SMEs and the determination of the level of sectoral competitiveness strategies for the national industry, with the vision of achieving better levels of competitiveness, these strategies are alienated to the change of the productive matrix, to search so that Ecuador stops being a producer of only raw material and becomes an exporter of final products with added value, benefiting both the business sector and Ecuador. The research could be extended by including the remaining sectors and the left provinces from Ecuador

Public procurement the graphic production services offered by SMEs of in Quito

[ESP] El análisis de la contratación pública se ha realizado considerando: precautelar los intereses gubernamentales aplicando los procedimientos según normativa, el apoyo del gobierno a las PyMES y las estrategias y políticas de gobierno para impulsar las compras públicas. La presente investigación ha seleccionado a la industria gráfica en el Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, buscando analizar la participación de las PyMES en compras públicas en el periodo 2010 a 2015, considerando tres variables: (1) montos adjudicados y participación en número de empresas, (2) procedimiento de contratación utilizados, y (3) entidades públicas con mayor asignación fiscal. Para el análisis se consideró: la información del Servicio Nacional de Contratación Pública, Superintendencia de Compañías, y los resultados de la investigación realizada a los representantes de las PyMES del sector gráfico. Se busca responder las siguientes interrogantes: ¿Conocen cómo participar en procesos de compras públicas las PyMES del sector gráfico?, ¿Han participado las PyMES del sector gráfico en procesos de compras públicas? ¿En los últimos años cuál es la participación de las PyMES del sector gráfico en compras públicas?. Con este estudio se presenta la situación del sector gráfico en procesos de compras públicas y la posibilidad de realizar el mismo análisis a otros sectores. [ENG] This Government procurement analysis has been made upon consideration: forewarn government interests using the procedures according to regulations; government support to SMEs; and strategies and government policies to boost public procurement. This research has selected the printing industry in the Metropolitan District of Quito, seeking to analyze the participation of SMEs in public procurement in the period 2010-2015, considering three variables: participation in award amounts and number of enterprises; procurement procedure used; and public entities with greater fiscal allocation. The analysis considers: the information from the National Public Procurement Service; Superintendence of Companies; and the results of research conducted with representatives of SMEs in the graphic sector. The aim is to answer the following questions: Do SMEs in the graphics industry know how to participate in public procurement processes? Have SMEs in the graphics sector been involved in public procurement processes? What is the participation of SMEs in the graphics sector in public procurement, in the past few years? This study presents the situation of the graphics sector in procurement processes and the ability to perform the same analysis to other sectors

Impacto económico de la crisis COVID-19 sobre la MIPYME en Ecuador

Este estudio, presentado ahora con el énfasis ecuatoriano, es parte de una investigación más amplia que, sobre la interacción promovida desde FAEDPYME —Red Iberoamericana de Investigación en MIPYME—, contribuye a la construcción de un escenario comparativo que permite ver cómo la pandemia, por su naturaleza, ha afectado la permanencia de las MIPYME. De manera especial en aquellas que, antes de la pandemia, no generaron las reservas de resiliencia que pudieron haberles ayudado a afrontar duros desafíos como los impuestos por un evento sanitario de cobertura global que no ha estado presente, desde hace varias décadas, en el radar de ningún país del mundo.La pandemia ha generado sendos coletazos al interior del tejido productivo de los países que, pensando en el futuro, se convierten en los focos directrices para las acciones que permitirán levantar a las pequeñas y medianas empresas (MIPYME) que integran este tejido. De ahí, la importancia de estudios como el presente Impacto económico de la crisis COVID-19 sobre la MIPYME en Ecuador que, gracias a la alianza de varias universidades ecuatorianas, permite conocer la realidad productiva de las MIPYME. Con ello, mediante la participación de multiactores, se pretende proponer un plan de acción integrado que, sobre la base del perfil de una crisis tridimensional - sanitaria, social y económica-, permita activar y/o reactivar la inversión, la producción y el empleo esperado por una sociedad que, desde antes de la pandemia, estaba ansiosa por encontrar soluciones laborales que le permitan generar un ingreso para mejorar su bienestar socioeconómico, personal y familiar

Digitalización y el Desarrollo sostenible de la MIPYME en Ecuador

La digitalización en las empresas, luego de la crisis vivida por la pandemia del COVID-19, es un proceso fundamental para la supervivencia y crecimiento de un entorno empresarial en constante evolución. De acuerdo a Brynjolfsson y McAfee (2014), autores del libro La segunda era de las máquinas, la digitalización permite a las empresas ser más ágiles y eficientes, lo que es esencial en una realidad que exige respuestas rápidas a los cambios del mercado. La capacidad de adaptarse y tomar decisiones informadas se ha vuelto aún más vital en la época actual.Con la pandemia del COVID-19, en el mundo se produjo una explosión de la digitalización de las transacciones y relaciones entre personas y/u organizaciones de todo tipo; lo que conlleva una serie de desafíos que para el caso de las micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas (MIPYME), significa canalizar recursos y, sobre todo, un cambio de actitud dirigida hacia la consolidación de una serie de acciones estratégicas soportadas en los principios de la proactividad y adaptabilidad organizacional encaminada a dar respuesta a cómo enfrentar un mundo que está cambiando a una velocidad imparable. De ahí, surge la necesidad de comprender el estado situacional de esa digitalización acelerada en el sector de la MIPYME, el cual, como complemento estratégico, también servirá de base para diseñar y poner en ejecución una serie de acciones multisectoriales que ayuden a reencausarla y así pasar de un proceso de digitalización de sobrevivencia para no morir en el camino de los efectos pandémicos a uno que, luego de los tres años de pandemia, permita tener una digitalización ordenada y alineada al perfil de las MIPYME y a las estrategias que actualmente tienen vigentes

General and abdominal adiposity and hypertension in eight world regions: a pooled analysis of 837 population-based studies with 7·5 million participants

International audienceSummaryBackground Adiposity can be measured using BMI (which is based on weight and height) as well as indices of abdominal adiposity. We examined the association between BMI and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) within and across populations of different world regions and quantified how well these two metrics discriminate between people with and without hypertension.MethodsWe used data from studies carried out from 1990 to 2023 on BMI, WHtR and hypertension in people aged 20–64 years in representative samples of the general population in eight world regions. We graphically compared the regional distributions of BMI and WHtR, and calculated Pearson’s correlation coefficients between BMI and WHtR within each region. We used mixed-effects linear regression to estimate the extent to which WHtR varies across regions at the same BMI. We graphically examined the prevalence of hypertension and the distribution of people who have hypertension both in relation to BMI and WHtR, and we assessed how closely BMI and WHtR discriminate between participants with and without hypertension using C-statistic and net reclassification improvement (NRI).FindingsThe correlation between BMI and WHtR ranged from 0·76 to 0·89 within different regions. After adjusting for age and BMI, mean WHtR was highest in south Asia for both sexes, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. Mean WHtR was lowest in central and eastern Europe for both sexes, in the high-income western region for women, and in Oceania for men. Conversely, to achieve an equivalent WHtR, the BMI of the population of south Asia would need to be, on average, 2·79 kg/m² (95% CI 2·31–3·28) lower for women and 1·28 kg/m² (1·02–1·54) lower for men than in the high-income western region. In every region, hypertension prevalence increased with both BMI and WHtR. Models with either of these two adiposity metrics had virtually identical C-statistics and NRIs for every region and sex, with C-statistics ranging from 0·72 to 0·81 and NRIs ranging from 0·34 to 0·57 in different region and sex combinations. When both BMI and WHtR were used, performance improved only slightly compared with using either adiposity measure alone.InterpretationBMI can distinguish young and middle-aged adults with higher versus lower amounts of abdominal adiposity with moderate-to-high accuracy, and both BMI and WHtR distinguish people with or without hypertension. However, at the same BMI level, people in south Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa, have higher WHtR than in the other regions

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background: Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods: We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5-19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI &lt;18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For school-aged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI &lt;2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI &gt;2 SD above the median). Findings: From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation: The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesity. Funding: UK Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation (Research England), UK Research and Innovation (Innovate UK), and European Union