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This study aims to analyse how people's perceived employability was affected during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study explores individuals' perceived financial threat, age and work situation as factors that shape perceived employability.

Data were collected via a survey at three different times between October 2020 and May 2021, which were chosen to reflect the evolution of the pandemic. The participants (n = 124) reported participants' perceived employability and financial threat during the pandemic in Portugal. Perceived employability is a multidimensional concept, as this includes the following scales: employment protective behaviour, employment risk, job-seeking behaviour, self-control and self-learning.

Participants' overall perceived employability failed to record significant variance over the period under analysis. Nevertheless, perceived employment protective behaviour decreased the most, especially in the case of young adults (aged 18 to 24). Individuals' perceived financial threat varied according to the external context, being lower during the last moment of data collection, which corresponded to the less-socially and economically restrictive period. Employees with the most stable work condition, i.e. with a permanent employment contract, were those who felt less financially threatened when compared to other respondents. A negative relationship between perceived employability and perceived financial threat was identified during the third moment of data collection.

The research informs about how individuals perceive themselves in a highly unpredictable and unstable context. The longitudinal approach shows how the external context affected people's perceived employability and financial threat throughout the pandemic.

This study aims to analyse the extent of online social responsibility (SR) information disclosure by Portuguese municipalities and to identify related determinant factors, based on Institutional Theory and Legitimacy Theories.

A content analysis was performed on webpages from 60 sampled municipalities, and an information disclosure index was created.

Descriptive statistics obtained indicate the Total Disclosure Index (TDI) value was 0.46. The Economic Information sub-category exhibits the highest value (0.66), followed by the Social and Environmental Information categories (0.61 and 0.36, respectively).

The multivariate analysis results indicate that LA21 implementation the existence of tax burdens, the characterisation of a municipality as urban and environmental/SR certification application positively influence SR information disclosure. TDI is negatively affected by the existence of an inactive population (i.e. by the percentage of individuals ≤19 and ≥65 years of age).

In the search of alternatives for conventional fungicides and insecticides, the use of natural plant products for the protection of wood is one of the most appealing fields of work. Dehydroabietic acid, the main compound of dismutated rosin, a renewable raw material from Portuguese forests, and some of its derivatives, were recognized as having bactericidal, fungicidal or fungistatic properties that could eventually be used for wood protection. The work presented here is part of a project aimed at developing this possibility and to extend that action to insects, namely termites, as diterpene acids have been reported to be antifeedants against aphids and sawflies and several other similar products have been studied for the same end‐use. Pine resin and eight of its derivatives were bio‐assayed to test for termiticidal activity and to assess the LC₅₀ of the compounds, whenever toxic activity was recorded. A comparison was made with the activity of an established termiticide, boron. There was a high degree of variation between the products tested: resin, resinate, resinol, dehydroabietic acid and trans‐deisopropyldehydroabietanol showed negligible activity; dehydroabietanol and cis‐deisopropyldehydroabietanol showed activity at higher concentrations; two mixtures of cis‐/trans‐deisopropyldehydroabietanol had a promising performance in terms of anti‐termite activity and will be further evaluated. This paper presents results that will contribute to the development of new termiticides from a renewable resource and with better behaviour towards the environment.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of intellectual capital (IC) awareness among Portuguese bank managers and which disclosure techniques are most common. The annual report is regarded by some authors as the most important vehicle of information about banks’ affairs because of some specific characteristics of banks’ activities. However, organizations are increasingly using their webpages to disclose a broad spectrum of information. The objectives of this study are twofold: to investigate how Portuguese bank managers perceive the impact of IC disclosure on the bank’s competitiveness; and to assess the extent to which Portuguese banks voluntarily report their IC in annual reports vs webpages.

The methodology involved in the exploratory study includes the collection of secondary data – annual reports and websites – collected from the 28 banks operating in Portugal, and semi-structured interviews from 25 banking managers. Content analysis is applied using a constructed index based on two European frameworks – Intellectus and InCaS – slightly modified to take into consideration the peculiarities of the sector.

Results show higher level of IC disclosure in annual reports than that provided in websites. Human capital and structural capital are the most reported category in annual reports and, conversely, the disclosure of relational capital is higher in the webpages. Findings are found similar in comparison to various other studies on the subject which reveal very low level of IC disclosure, not yet receiving priority from the mentors of banks. Interviews reveal that not many managers recognize the need and significance of measuring and reporting IC, although it is recognized as a driver of competitiveness. For protecting business confidentiality, banks do not want to report information of sensitive nature.

The analysis is limited to a single sector. Future research can expand to other industries (e.g. manufacturing, technological, services) to enable a more comprehensive understanding of IC disclosure in Portugal. The cross-sectional approach is also a limitation. A longitudinal study could be conducted for capturing the trend of reporting practices during the period. Further research could apply research methods other than content analysis (e.g. questionnaire survey, interviews or mixed-methods) in order to obtain a more in-depth view of how the Portuguese organizations manage, measure and report their IC.

Research may be of relevance for both banking managers and regulators. For banking managers because it offers an opportunity to envisage their banks’ future potential for growth and competitiveness. For regulators, the relevance of the study focusses on their understanding of developing mandatory reporting or additional policy requirements. This study provides a motivation for further research that contributes to a body of knowledge and practices on the IC disclosure.

Emerging from the years of a financial crisis, restoring trust and confidence is the most critical challenge for banks to become competitive. IC disclosure could help to restore confidence.

The existing literature on the IC reporting and disclosure in the context of banking sector is limited. Based on the Intellectus model and the InCaS model we built an index of IC disclosure to banking sector which contributes to a greater accuracy, transparency and reliability in the disclosure of this unique sector. This initiative may encourage its applicability in other sectors.

This study examines the relationship between the innovation ecosystem and performance measurement models. Although the innovation ecosystem and measurement models are widely recognized, the existing literature lacks a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the proposed themes. Furthermore, it does not reveal how studies can be grouped to propose a thematic typology of the relationship.

The authors present a systematic literature review conducted in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, from a textual corpus that aided the proposition of the typology that aims to provide answers regarding the addressed themes.

The results of this review are based on a total of sixty peer-reviewed articles from the innovation ecosystem literature and performance measurement models between 1995 and 2020. The results make several contributions to the literature. First, by integrating evidence from empirical studies, the authors identified a typology formed by three classes: (1) ecosystem agents (2) analytical focus and (3) structured measurement tools. Second, the authors verified the relationship between the themes and discovered the existence of gaps to be filled, with the proposition of three drivers. Third, the authors presented a comprehensive mapping of field studies with a descriptive analysis of the textual corpus.

The results of the research provide important implications for researchers, managers and policy makers. Furthermore, the authors suggest directions for future research, including the need to examine the performance of the entire innovation ecosystem, integrating the different agents that exist for performance measurement.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the role of power relations in initiating and blocking accounting change that involves increased “responsibilisation” and “incentivisation”, and to understand how institutional entrepreneurship is steered by power strategies.

An in-depth case study was carried out between 2010 and 2015 in a cardiothoracic surgery service (CSS) where a responsibility centre was introduced.

Introducing a responsibility centre within a CSS led to a change process, despite pressures for stability. The institutionalisation of change was conditioned by entrepreneurship that flowed through three circuits of power. Strategies were adapted according to changes in exogenous environmental contingencies and alterations in the actors’ relationships.

The contributions of the paper are several: first, it demonstrates that the existing literature discussing the implementation of responsibility centres cannot be isolated from power issues; second, it expands understanding of the power dynamics and processes of institutional entrepreneurship when implementing accounting change; third, it shows how change introduced by exogenous political economic events structured organisational circuits of power and blocked the introduction of the change initiative.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of R&D investment as a determinant of ongoing or abandoned innovation activities. The literature review focuses especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that deploy R&D investment as a way of developing innovation processes.

This study’s design used a sample of 4,229 Portuguese SMEs to analyse the effects R&D investment has on the innovation activities; the results obtained demonstrate the great importance of firms investing in R&D internal activities for the development of their innovation process.

The most important findings highlight the types of activities that emerge as relevant to innovation processes susceptible for development to avoid abandoning and maintaining ongoing innovation activities. Among them, the authors would highlight the design of products or services, the introduction of innovations to the market and the acquisition of machinery, equipment and specific software, among others.

In addition, other types of activities emerge as relevant to innovation processes susceptible for development to avoid abandoning and maintaining ongoing innovation activities. This research adds value to the current literature mainly showing several determinants related to R&D, which could be used by SMEs to improve and develop their activities of innovation.

By designing a pilot time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) model, this study aims to examine in depth the suitability and the complexity of TDABC in a manufacturing company.

To obtain a deeper understanding on the matters to analyse, this research adopts an interventionist approach. The host organisation is GP, a Portuguese company in the frozen food sector.

The authors’ experience allows them to assert that TDABC is suitable for a manufacturing company and it is able to deal with the variability of the industrial processes. Nonetheless, through a comparison with the models presented in the literature, TDABC appears to be more complex for manufacturing. The authors argue that this happens for two reasons. First, the two types of resources (human labour and machinery) used in production areas create a need to split tasks and to create two equations for each process, something that does not happen in service companies. Second, times are difficult to individualise for certain highly automated procedures, which could also give rise to some errors.

The designed model is compared to other models presented in the literature.

This study shows a real example of TDABC in manufacturing and the procedural innovation of the time equations.

As the TDABC literature has been mostly focused on examples of service companies, the authors examine the technical suitability and the complexity of TDABC in manufacturing companies.

This paper aim to propose a methodological mapping approach for the evaluation of dissertations and theses of graduate programs in the area of environmental sciences in Brazil in relation to the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The research is characterized as exploratory with qualitative/quantitative approach. The proposed model was developed as a computational algorithm with a pilot being adopted as a professional master in national network for teaching in environmental sciences (ProfCiAmb) comprising associated courses from nine Brazilian public universities. 230 dissertations completed between 2018 and 2020 were analyzed.

A total of 266 correlations were identified between the texts and descriptors of each SDG. Correlation values between 0.100 (minimum value – Vmin) and 0.464 (maximum value – Vmax) were observed. SDG 4 – Quality Education (Vmax = 0.399) and SDG 6 – Drinking Water and Sanitation (Vmax = 0.464) were those with the highest correlation values, followed by SDG 3 – Health and Well-Being (Vmax = 0.299) and SDG 17 – Partnerships and Means of Implementation (Vmax = 0.249).

The construction of the computational algorithm provided consistent quantitative analyses with potential to contribute to the improvement of the multidimensional evaluation of graduate studies, as well as to support public policies related to teaching and research and strategic planning of the programs.

The relevance of this study lies in the creation of a model that involves the creation of metrics and tools regarding the impact of graduate studies on society.