In Ecuador, the participatory political design of the political party forming the government from 2007 to 2017, along with the constitution of 2018, created opportunities for citizen participation. Participatory budgeting (PB) is the most commonly used citizen participation mechanism. The direct participation of citizens is reflected in improving the governance by democratizing decision processes. The contribution of PB to the local management and governance of seven rural communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon was analyzed using a case study. Based on (1) the level of compliance with municipal planning through management indicators and, the amounts allocated to PB, (2) along with the level of citizen satisfaction, complementary perspectives (acquired through a survey) on the implementation of PB are provided. These sources of evidence allowed us to critically assess the effects of PB in the improvement of local management and governance. We found low levels of municipal planning compliance, i.e., a 20% (2017) and 43% (2018), high levels of citizen dissatisfaction (around 91%) and also a “disagreement” with the PB implementation process. Finally, it is observed that the implementation of the participatory budget in rural communities presents deficiencies that limit the obtaining of representative benefits and that imply an improvement in the governance and quality of life of the citizenry. This is mainly caused by the low interest of citizens to participate in the phases of execution and monitoring of projects, due to a low culture and participatory education.

Los estados financieros reflejan la situación financiera de la empresa como resultado su gestión interna y externa. Esta investigación diagnostica los estados financieros del sector industrial manufacturero ecuatoriano, específicamente de la ciudad de Cuenca, mediante la aplicación de indicadores financieros y el método caso-control, con la finalidad de determinar las razones financieras de relevancia o de especial interés para este sector. El estudio aplica indicadores de liquidez, endeudamiento, actividad y rentabilidad, de cuyos resultados se comprobaron hipótesis que reflejan las causas de las deficiencias financieras entre los grupos establecidos como caso —compañías no auditadas— y control —compañías auditadas—. Los resultados muestran los indicadores endeudamiento al corto plazo, rotación del activo no corriente, rotación de inventarios y margen de utilidad neta como los más representativos. Se observa que las compañías no auditadas presentan mayores niveles de liquidez y rentabilidad; sin embargo, su endeudamiento al corto plazo es elevado con respecto a los resultados de las compañías auditadas.

Since the 1900s, a new form of democracy has emerged, where the social representation is reinforced and the citizens participate in the public policy and they determine the budget for their location. The level of diffusion and application of participatory budgeting is unknown. The implications caused for democratic processes are also unknown. In this context, a systematic literature review of publications indexed from 2000 to 2016 was conducted. Using the software NVivo for qualitative analysis and using matrices the following information was organized, analyzed and synthesized: title, author, year of publi-cation, research line and application of common themes. The results show to Porto Alegre in Brazil as the area of greatest application of this methodology, the political will as the main factor of success, and a time of controversy in the process.

The application of the Participatory Budget (PB) allows citizens to participate in the decision-making process of their local government budget. In order to implement PB, theoretical guides and models have been created to focus on ensuring public participation. This article compares a theoretical model based on an extensive bibliographic review, with the PB application of a rural municipality using the qualitative analysis software of qualitative data Nvivo. The application provided evidence contributes to the improvement of the participation mechanism on the rural areas, due to its particularity, the theoretical model cannot be fully applied.

Manufacturing companies oversee converting raw materials into finished products, characterized by the intervention of machinery and labor force. The article analyzes, through correlation of variables, the relationship between indebtedness and profitability of a group of companies in the Ecuadorian manufacturing sector. The results showed an average debt ratio of 332.70%, which indicates that most of the companies work with money from suppliers or with credits offered by financial institutions. The return on investment shows an average of 113.57%, which indicates that the companies have excellent earnings in terms of what they invest in their economic activity. Correlational analysis showed little or no relationship between return on equity and debt ratio at 21.9%. Likewise, a weak negative relationship between profit margin and indebtedness was evidenced with a -42.4% correlation. In conclusion, the research data indicate that the manufacturing companies have not improved their profitable level by making adequate use of debt.

The Altman Z-Score model helps to determine the possibility of a company's bankruptcy, offering the opportunity to make corrective decisions in a prompt manner. This article compares the financial situation of manufacturing companies in the years 2019 and 2020, through the analysis of financial ratios and the Altman Z-Score model. This research aims to determine the changes in the financial situation and the probability of bankruptcy in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The results show a negative impact on liquidity (0.11%), the profitability showed an increase of 4%, demonstrating that profits have been generated despite the fact that sales did not increase. The probability of bankruptcy is 2.22 for manufacturing companies in 2019 and 1.97 for 2020, because of a 10% decrease in sales.