When Kim B. Clark became Dean of Harvard Business School in 1995, he established several initiatives to be the focal point of his years in office. Among them were globalization and an increasing emphasis on carrying gout close-to-practice research around the world. For that effort to be successful, he stated, the School needed to have a long-term presence in other countries. Thus was born the concept of establishing research offices abroad to help HBS faculty establish collaborative relationships with businesses and universities in the area and facilitate the process of writing cases, articles, working papers, books, and other forms of intellectual capital.

In 1999, the School opened its first international office in Hong Kong. Last August it launched the Latin America Research Center (LARC) in Buenos Aires with a conference in that city titled "Partnering for Knowledge Creation." Speakers, panelists, and other participants included leading academicians and executives from throughout Latin America. In addition, a dozen HBS professors profiled their current research efforts in the region. Commenting on the opening of the LARC, President Fernando de la Rua of Argentine called it "a link between Latin America and Harvard Business School, a center for mutual learning and support that will grow and become a beacon of light."

This special issue of Working Knowledge aims to shed some light of its own on Latin America by featuring the findings and viewpoints of several of the HBS faculty members who took part in the LARC's inaugural conference.

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Jim Aisner