For the second consecutive year, the Faculty of Administration and Economics (FAE) at the University of Santiago, Chile (Usach), has received international recognition. This time, the honor comes from Elsevier, one of the world’s leading academic publishers, with the Best Empirical Academic Scientific Study Award.
The prestigious award was presented to Dr. Enrique Marinao-Artigas, Director of the Master’s in Marketing at FAE Usach, and his research collaborators, Dr. Karla Barajas-Portas and Dr. Julieta Mercado-González from Anáhuac University (Mexico). Their award-winning work is titled “Push and Pull of Trust in the Business City.”
The award was presented during the 22nd Conference of the Academy of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Knowledge (ACIEK 2025), held June 18-20 in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. This award highlights research excellence across all disciplines at the conference and is considered one of the event’s most important due to its international recognition.
Last year, at the same conference, the FAE academic’s work entitled “Business destination reputation. The moderating role of familiarity and emotional and cognitive experiences” won first place in the Track of Marketing.
In the 2025 edition, the award-winning study, “Push and Pull of Trust in the Business City,” offers an innovative perspective on business tourism destination marketing. It specifically addresses how trust is established in these environments through attraction (pull) and motivating (push) factors.
“This recognition is a valuable incentive that drives us to continue our constant efforts to contribute innovatively to the expansion of knowledge in the field of marketing,” stated Dr. Marinao-Artigas, emphasizing the study’s unique approach and its impact on a little-explored area of the discipline.
Emphasizing the vital role of interdisciplinary and international collaboration, Dr. Marinao-Artigas noted: “The valuable inter-methodological collaboration of Dr. Barajas-Portas and Dr. Mercado-González was indispensable for this work to achieve its success. This recognition profoundly demonstrates the power of academic networks to create transformative knowledge.”
The award, a commemorative plaque presented by Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific publications, significantly boosts the team’s visibility for future high-impact publications. This recognition reaffirms FAE Usach’s profound commitment to developing research excellence, aligning perfectly with its mission to produce rigorous and relevant knowledge, its vision of leadership in national and international research, and its core values of collaboration, pluralism, and societal contribution.
This latest distinction represents a key milestone in the international consolidation of the FAE Usach academic body, bolstering its influence from Chile globally.