Luis Andrés Araya Castillo, PhD student at the Universitat de Barcelona Business School, has been awarded the best paper in the Leadership, Strategy and International Business track at the 32nd National Meeting of Management and Economics Schools (ENEFA). His paper “Strategic groups and competitive dynamics in higher education in Chile” explores the higher education from a strategic point of view and according to the strategic group theory.

The paper is co-authored by his PhD advisor and researcher at the UB Business School Mercè Bernado. Findings show that behaviour of Chilean universities is determined by their decisions on reputation, infrastructure, social responsibility, e-learning, field and advertising. Araya’s research suggests that investment in each of this areas has an impact on market share (enrolment); investment in reputation and infrastructure has an impact on ranking position; and investment in reputation has an impact on price (willingness to pay).

The 2016 National Meeting of Management and Economics Schools conference took place at the University of Santo Tomás Temuco (Chile). The central topic of the conference was “Disruptive innovation: Management’s challenge”. More than 150 presentations by national and international researchers were given during the meeting, one of the most important events in this field in Chile.