Following the structural reforms, the industrial sector in Latin and Central America has faced a new competitive regime and an unstable macroeconomic environment.
Differences among countries and sectors require for a deeper analysis, which takes into account also meso and micro states and trajectories. In the present paper we analyse the dynamics of the footwear sector in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.
The four countries have followed similar macro paths, though not identical and with some differences in timing. Nonetheless, the performance of the sector differs strongly among them, with Argentina and Chile lagging well behind the international competition, while Brazil and Mexico become ‘world competitors'.
Hence, after focusing on macro reforms and the sector-specific factors at the international level, we deeply analyse the interaction with micro and meso forces. The formers are related with the particular behaviour of ‘different' economic actors in managing, investing, learning and innovating. In particular we focus on their reaction to strategies adopted confronting the challenges of liberalisation. The latter regard the analysis of the institutional environment in which firms operate, and the peculiarity of the ‘technological regimes'. In particular, we concentrate on the industrial organisation of the sector, which in a number of successful cases is characterised by strong vertical linkages, spatial concentration and institutional support. Controlling for different industrial and trade policies, those micro and meso conditions provided to be a positive determinant of sector competitiveness, even in unstable environments, with a sudden increase in foreign competition.