Eduardo Antonio Letelier Araya defends his doctoral thesis
Eduardo Antonio Letelier Araya defends his doctoral thesis
Eduardo Antonio Letelier Araya defends his doctoral thesis
On December 12, researcher Eduardo Antonio Letelier Araya defended his doctoral thesis
Thesis title: Impact of the community factor (factor C) on the performance and results of rural health services social enterprises.
Director: Dr. Leire Uriarte Zabala (Mondragon Unibertsitatea-HUHEZI).
Panel:
President: Dr. Luiz Inàcio G. Gaiger (UNISINOS University- Brazil).
Secretary: Dr. Oier Imaz Alias (Mondragon Unibertsitatea-HUHEZI).
Member: Dr. Enekoitz Etxezarreta Etxarri (UPV/EHU).
Summary:
Factor C was defined in the framework of Comprehensive Economic Theory as that social energy that arises from the unity of consciences, feelings and wills of a group behind a shared objective (Razeto, 2017). Notwithstanding the relevance of this concept for the recognition and promotion of enterprises in the solidarity sector of the economy in Latin America, its definition presents some shortcomings that limit the recognition of its specific human nature and agency. To address these limitations, the present research resorted to the Theory of Social Fields and the Theory of Habitus proposed by Bourdieu (1978), redefining Factor C as symbolic capital. Additionally, the research relied on Collins' (2007) Theory of Chains of Interaction Rituals to account for the organizational mechanisms that allow the creation, maintenance and reproduction of the community factor.
Based on this theoretical framework, the research asked the question of the impact of Factor C on the functioning and results in one of the most significant expressions of social enterprises in Latin America, which are the historical rural drinking water committees (CAPR). Specifically, the research inquired into the conditions that explain the presence of high quality Factor C, integrated in the CAPRs. Similarly, it addressed how the presence of high quality Factor C influences the quality of the business function, the integration of other economic factors, the functioning and the results obtained by the RWCs. Finally, in light of the provisions of the recent Law No. 20.998 on Rural Sanitation Services, the research investigated the possible effects that an increase in regulatory requirements for the operation and management of the CAPRs could have on the community factor.
Thus, using the method of comparative qualitative analysis for fuzzy sets (Ragin, 2018) and the respective computer program (Ragin & Davey, 2016), the study of 5 cases of rural drinking water committees in the commune of Ránquil, located 400 kms. south of Santiago de Chile, was approached. Such activities were carried out in the framework of the project "Local Monitoring System for Integrated Watershed Management (SIMOL)" (ID1910121), co-financed by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) and led by the University of Concepción.
From the analysis carried out, two causal pathways are identified that explain the presence of high quality Factor C in the CAPRs, which express the high or low operational and administrative complexity of this type of social enterprises. Similarly, in relation to the influence of the high quality of Factor C on the quality of the entrepreneurial function performed by CAPR managers, the phenomenon of reciprocal substitutability of factors proposed by Razeto (2018) was evidenced. Finally, regarding how the presence of high quality of Factor C influences the integration of other factors and the performance and results obtained by the CAPRs, from the analysis performed, it was possible to recognize the existence of two efficient combinations of economic factors that can be considered solutions to the Theorem of Definite Proportions proposed by Razeto (2018). This last result allows identifying risk scenarios and recommendations for the implementation of Law No. 20,998.