Search results

Most scientific research has focused on understanding Ponzi schemes from the point of view of the schemes and their operators, based on qualitative analysis. This paper aims to analyze Ponzi schemes from the perspective of their investors, emphasizing behavioral aspects, which have been little explored in the scientific literature, especially in quantitative research. In this way, the authors sought to understand the effects of heuristics and cognitive biases in understanding investor behavior.

A logistic regression was carried out with Brazilian investors, some of them participants in Ponzi schemes, who answered a structured questionnaire by means of a survey.

The authors found that social pressures, overconfidence and deliberate ignorance lead to credulity, generating little risk analysis and the desire to make a lot of money quickly.

Helping investors improve their levels of information through financial education and self-knowledge about their behavior. Contribute to the competent authorities in the search for improvements in the information displayed to investors.

Understanding the mechanisms used when making a financial decision from the point of view of investors in general, but especially those exposed to Ponzi schemes, has the mission of enlightening them about the importance of financial education and the weight of psychological factors so that they can reduce the effects of heuristics and analysis biases when faced with a financial decision.

The basis of this work will be the inclusion of psychological variables and financial education, adapting existing models in an attempt to demonstrate the effects they may or may not have on mental accounting in the specific case of investors

The purpose of this paper was to assess the knowledge on sport and exercise science held by a sample of Brazilian physiotherapists, nutritionists and physical educators.

A cross-sectional research design was used. The answers given by 1,147 professionals (300 physiotherapists, 705 physical educators and 142 nutritionists) who participated in a qualifying process for a specialization course on exercise physiology were analyzed. Questions were analyzed on maximal oxygen uptake (four questions), physical fitness assessment (three questions), physical training (two questions), bioenergetics (one question) and exercise in extreme environments (one question).

The results revealed misconceptions held by Brazilian health professionals on a number of concepts related to sport and exercise science, such as maximal oxygen uptake.

These results reinforce the need for continuing education programs to maximize the quality of the service provided by sport and exercise science professionals in Brazil. Improvements in the undergraduate courses curriculum are also recommended.

This is the first study to assess misconceptions about sport and exercise science among Brazilian health professionals.

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.

This chapter examines the professional identities of Brazilian journalists. It does so through an analysis of the growing professional autonomy of journalism from 1950 to 1990 through the life stories of 10 intellectual-journalists, individuals whose journalistic activities have crossed over into other intellectual fields.

This study applies a symbolic interactionist framework to understand how these actors managed their reputations and careers within the intellectual world. The narratives were taken from qualitative semi-structured interviews, and supported by additional research such as interviews, biographies, and articles which have been published about their lives.

The life stories were compared to the extensive structural changes affecting the world of journalism and the world of intellectuals in Brazil. This comparison revealed gaps between these two spheres of practice, within which the ambivalent form of journalists’ identities have been constructed.

This chapter offers two contributions to the study of Brazilian journalists. From a theoretical and methodological viewpoint, it advances beyond other studies that focus more on the prevailing representations of journalists’ professional identities and their role in society. From an empirical standpoint, it describes the complex negotiations between the worlds of journalism, culture and politics. This chapter also reexamines the current dominant explanation for the changes in Brazilian journalism. It shows that building careers and new levels of interpersonal cooperation for intellectuals and journalists has been a slow process. Ultimately, this development has left some behind, especially those actors stretched between multiple professional identities such as those who self-identify as intellectual-journalists.

The paper aims to present a literary itinerary inspired in Julio Dinis’ novel An English Family (Uma Família Inglesa) through a comparative analysis of the places identified in the novel and the touristic attraction proposed by Visit Porto website. This novel is representative of the cultural identity and society of Porto city in the 19th century. Developing an itinerary based on this novel can facilitate the reading and understanding of the historical and cultural development of Porto.

This case study is based on the reading of the Julio Dinis’ novel An English Family (Uma Família Inglesa), whose storyline takes place in Porto city, Portugal in the 19th century. It used QGIS v. 3.12 software, a geographical information system to identify the places, to produce the maps and to create the itinerary.

The comparison between the places identified in the novel and the tourist attraction in Visit Porto website revealed that only 6 points in the novel are referenced on Visit Porto website. These points correspond to the ones in the historical city centre of Porto. However, the creation of an itinerary that brings together all the points mentioned by Julio Dinis in his novel, will allow the development of a new touristic itinerary, alternative to existing itineraries in the city and that can be seen as a distinguish offer that allows a different view of the urban space of Porto.

There are some limitations to this study that can be highlighted. First, it was difficult to find the correct location of some points identified in the novel, due to difficulty of finding historical maps with quality of the data. At the same time, as tourist information is dispersed by several sources, and most of those data is not georeferenced, it was time consuming the integration of all the information in the same geodatabase. The choice of the shortest path can also be considered as a limitation, rather than the route followed by the author in the novel, but geographic information systems operates on spatial and temporal scale, which can present a limitation in tourism analysis. In the case of this project, we have chosen the shortest path, assuming that tourist would prefer that.

This research allowed to address two areas of knowledge that are emerging in the study of urban centres as tourist areas: the use of GIS and literary tourism. Despite the fact that there are already articles on this subject, the originality focuses on the approach made around one of the greatest writers of Portugal in the 19th century, allowing to present a tourist itinerary about one of his literary works, and the comparison made between the places identified in the novel and the tourist points identified on the Visit Porto website.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the innovation process of organizations representing the main sectors of Brazilian economic activity.

The literature review focuses on analyzing the innovation process characteristics regarding the innovation types. The authors carried out interviews with executives and managers in charge of innovation at the leading large companies in the respective sectors analyzed. The data analysis of this qualitative research was structured in three steps. The first step is the analysis of data collected for encoding, the second step, the summarization of the common points presented by the companies in each sector and, finally, the interpretation of these data, aided by triangulation from secondary data that support the analysis of the collected primary data.

The main contribution of this study is to characterize the innovation process of organizations representing the main sectors of the Brazilian economy, with a classification regarding the sectoral innovation standard.

The authors’ intent is that the paper can contribute with a comparative analysis among companies of the same sector and, subsequently, among companies of the different surveyed sectors. Thus, the characterization aims to present the companies’ innovation process and the comparative analysis aims to verify the innovation sectoral patterns. In addition, as implications for management practice, some strategies for better knowledge management in the organization are suggested for each type of innovation.

The main theoretical contribution focuses on the development of a conceptual model that structures the analyzed variables of the constructs “innovation process” and “innovation sectoral patterns”, allowing not only the characterization but also the comparative analysis of the representative organizations present in the sample.

This chapter examines the economics of alternative healing in Brazil.

Two narratives are selected from extensive observations and interviews over a period of years. The presentation chronicles the accounts of people experiencing physical symptoms who sought further advice from friends and relatives after visits to conventional medical providers failed to cure them.

In response to a recommendation from one of those consulted, one person went to a spirit “received” by a Kardecist/Spiritist healer-medium while the other obtained treatment from an otherworldly being at an Umbanda center. The respective “therapeutic” procedures are described and analyzed in terms of the beliefs and the worldviews of each of the traditions. If satisfied with the outcome, the patient fulfills an implicit bargain with the otherworldly being(s) and its religious group by adopting their beliefs and practices. This conversion is “payment” for the healing services rendered.

Since some treatments are successful and others are not, the implications of this exchange is that many Brazilians may change their religions several times during their lifespan. As a result of this behavior individuals circulate among the several religious groups that are always in competition with each other.

The analysis provides a distinctive insight into, and original way to understand, alternative health care in Brazil.

Considering the cognitive challenges associated with a data-rich business environment, this research aims to investigate the relationship between data literacy (DL), perceived data overload (PDO), and technostress (TS), besides the effect of these constructs on professional's individual performance (IP).

Through survey research, the authors collected data from 321 professionals who work in data-rich and highly technological business environments. To test the hypotheses proposed, the authors developed the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) procedures.

The results showed that DL is positively associated with IP and negatively with PDO. PDO is positively associated with TS and negatively with IP. The authors found no significant negative association between TS and IP.

With this research, the authors seek to contribute to the gap in the literature concerning two cognitive challenges associated with data-rich business environments: PDO and TS, analyzing from the point of view of the individual, and highlighting the importance of DL in this context.

The results can assist managers in effectively being concerned with the DL level of their workforce. This is important considering not only the professionals' IP but also the cognitive challenges such as PDO and TS.

The innovation of this study lies in the empirical analysis of DL in the business context and its relationship with two cognitive challenges inherent in data-rich environments: PDO, and TS. Besides, the authors highlight the importance of understanding such phenomena in terms of IP.

This study aims to examine the archives’ role in Portuguese public policies from 1976 to 2021, based on an analysis of decision-making and support mechanisms, as well as other legal and normative instruments (diplomas) associated with relevant policies and legal actions in government programs, major planning options, sectoral programs and legislation.

The investigation was based on a qualitative methodological framework that follows the document analysis method, consisting of four phases: research; first reading; critical reading and data collection; and analysis and interpretation.

Survey results identified the presence of the archives on government agendas and supported tracing an evolution in the development and application of measures in this area. Additionally, it was possible to relate these measures to socioeconomic and political contexts and to previously identified reference studies. The conclusion is that the place of archives in Portuguese public policies between 1976 and 2021 was still based in historical and heritage dimensions, excluding the aspect of information management, which was not even included within the concept of archives.

This is an original case study of the state of Portuguese archive policies, compared against reference works such as Couture(1998) and more recent national developments as considered in the works of Silva(2019).

In the age of analytical competition, business models and gaining competitive advantage (CA) are directly related to organizations’ data strategy. Incorporating data strategy enables the organization to unlock the potential value of big data analytics. Therefore, this study aims to analyze how data strategy affects the achievement of CA.

Through survey research, data were collected from 103 respondents. Model testing and evaluation, partial least squares structural equation modeling and analysis of mediating effects were performed.

The supported hypotheses confirm the direct effects between the defensive and offensive positioning of the data strategy on CA, as well as the mediating effect of the offensive data strategy (ODS).

This study is groundbreaking in terms of empirically analyzing how defensive data strategy (DDS) or ODS affects CA. In conclusion, to extract value from their data, organizations need to establish their data strategy based on their strategic positioning, the potential of their resources and their analytical capabilities.

The defensive and offensive positioning of the data strategy are closely related to each other and both, in isolation, directly and positively, impact CA. It is also noted that the role of defensive positioning is to strengthen the offensive positioning of the data strategy, which in turn, plays a central role in achieving CA.

The results can assist managers in effectively incorporating analytical resources and capabilities, as well as helping them understand the dynamics and advantages of data strategy, so they can drive strategic objectives according to the organization’s positioning.

This study is groundbreaking in terms of empirically analyzing how DDS or ODS affects CA. In conclusion, to extract value from their data, organizations need to establish their data strategy based on their strategic positioning, the potential of their resources and their analytical capabilities.