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1 – 10 of 52Cleomar Gomes da Silva and Fábio Augusto Reis Gomes
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the teaching of undergraduate macroeconomics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the teaching of undergraduate macroeconomics.
Design/methodology/approach
To suggest a roadmap, based on a consumption function, to be used by instructors willing to teach the Lucas Critique subject.
Findings
Therefore, this paper proposes a lesson, which consists of three parts, to help undergraduates better understand the subject: (1) a grading exercise to bring the topic closer to students’ lives; (2) a Keynesian and an optimal consumption function, followed by an example based on an unemployment insurance policy; and (3) two optional topics consisting of extensions of the optimal consumption function and some empirical results related to the Lucas Critique.
Originality/value
The Lucas Critique influenced the evolution of research in macroeconomics, but it is not easily grasped in a classroom.
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Keywords
Rouzbeh Shabani, Tobias Onshuus Malvik, Agnar Johansen and Olav Torp
Uncertainty management (UM) in projects has been a point of attention for researchers for many years. Research on UM has mainly been aimed at uncertainty analyses in the front-end…
Abstract
Purpose
Uncertainty management (UM) in projects has been a point of attention for researchers for many years. Research on UM has mainly been aimed at uncertainty analyses in the front-end and managing uncertainty in the construction phase. In contrast, UM components in the design phase have received less attention. This research aims to improve knowledge about the key components of UM in the design phase of large road projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a literature review and case study. The literature review was used to identify relevant criteria for UM. These criteria helped to design the interview guide. Multiple case study research was conducted, and data were collected through document study and interviews with project stakeholders in two road projects. Each case's owners, contractors and consultants were interviewed individually.
Findings
The data analysis obtained helpful information on the involved parties, process and exploit tools and techniques during the design phase. Johansen's (2015) framework [(a) human and organisation, (b) process and (c) tools and techniques)] was completed and developed by identifying relevant criteria (such as risk averse or risk-taker, culture and documentation level) for each component. These criteria help to measure UM performance. The authors found that owners and contractors are major formal UM actors, not consultants. Empirical data showed the effectiveness of Web-based tools in UM.
Research limitations/implications
The studied cases were Norwegian, and this study focussed on uncertainties in the project's design phase. Relevant criteria did not cover all the criteria for evaluating the performance of UM. Qualitative evaluation of criteria allows further quantitative analysis in the future.
Practical implications
This paper gave project owners and managers a better understanding of relevant criteria for measuring UM in the owners and managers' projects. The paper provides policy-makers with a deeper understanding of creating rigorous project criteria for UM during the design phase. This paper also provides a guideline for UM in road projects.
Originality/value
This research gives a holistic evaluation of UM by noticing relevant criteria and criteria's interconnection in the design phase.
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Keywords
Felipe Bastos dos Reis, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos Gomes and PauloTromboni de Souza Nascimento
The Internet of Things (IoT) real-time data collection can help to more efficiently optimize and control companies' internal processes. Prior research analyzed IoT benefits and…
Abstract
Purpose
The Internet of Things (IoT) real-time data collection can help to more efficiently optimize and control companies' internal processes. Prior research analyzed IoT benefits and potential applications. Nevertheless, there is little empirical evidence and theoretical understanding of how IoT impacts new product development (NPD). This article aims at narrowing this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 54 case studies were selected from an IoT database – IoT ONE. IoT ONE has a section on NPD. NPD was divided into three phases: discovery, development and commercialization. The adopted IoT technology maturity level was also analyzed. A content analysis was carried out to identify the impacts of IoT in NPD.
Findings
This study’s findings capture the emerging patterns of IoT adoption and its impact on NPD. Of the total, 33 IoT adoption cases in the sample were in the machinery and equipment sector. Adopted technologies were at least two years old in 85% of the sample. Only 15% adopted cutting edge technologies (less than 2 years old). Key actors (e.g. vendors) facilitate IoT adoption. By a small margin, the larger impacts of IoT were in the commercialization phase, where it was primarily applied to improve and optimize production processes, to better execute and synchronize new products launching, and to increase the factories' productive capacity. In the discovery phase, IoT was mainly used to identify new opportunities in the market and to collect customer data, to generate a better customer experience. In the development phase, IoT allows greater integration across departments, increasing internal collaboration and allowing more flexible NPD.
Originality/value
Many articles studied the impact of information technologies in NPD. Few address the impact of IoT in NPD. IT tells about the impact of better communications with relevant people. IoT tells about machine acquired information and knowledge. This is new, much broader and deals with quite different impacts on NPD.
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Ximena Alejandra Flechas Chaparro, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos Gomes and Paulo Tromboni de Souza Nascimento
The purpose of this paper is to identify how project portfolio selection (PPS) methods have evolved and which approaches are more suitable for radical innovation projects. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify how project portfolio selection (PPS) methods have evolved and which approaches are more suitable for radical innovation projects. This paper addressed the following research question: how have the selection approaches evolved to better fit within radical innovation conditions? The current literature offers a number of selection approaches with different and, in some cases, conflicting nature. Therefore, there is a lack of understanding regarding when and how to use these approaches in order to select a specific type of innovation projects (from incremental to more radical ones).
Design/methodology/approach
Given the nature of the research question, the authors perform a systematic literature review method and analyze 48 portfolio selection approaches. The authors then classified and characterized these articles in order to identify techniques, tools, required data and types of examined projects, among other aspects.
Findings
The authors identify four key features related to the selection of radical innovation projects: dynamism, interdependency management, uncertainty treatment and required input data. Based on the content analysis, the authors identified that approaches based on different sources and nature of data are more appropriated for uncertain conditions, such as behavioral methods, information gap theory, real options and integrated approaches.
Originality/value
The research provides a comprehensive framework about PPS methods and how they have been evolving over time. This portfolio selection framework considers the particular aspects of incremental and radical innovation projects. The authors hope that the framework contributes to reinvigorating the literature on selection approaches for innovation projects.
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Tatiane Andreza de Souza Silva, Victor Silva Corrêa, Gláucia Maria Vasconcellos Vale and Ernesto Michelangelo Giglio
The purpose of this article is to investigate if and how social capital offline – stemming from face-to-face interactions – and social capital online – stemming from social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to investigate if and how social capital offline – stemming from face-to-face interactions – and social capital online – stemming from social digital media – can influence early-stage entrepreneurs, i.e. ventures with up to 42 months of existence.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used herein a qualitative research approach. The method used was the case study. The authors investigated three early-stage entrepreneurs in order to achieve the objective of the paper. These entrepreneurs are both the unit of analysis and the unit of observation.
Findings
The outcomes of this research indicate (1) the combined importance of social capital offline and online; (2) the different performance of the two different types of social capital (they seem to operate in relatively distinct ways) and (3) the existence of recursiveness between resources stemming from the two social spheres (offline and online).
Research limitations/implications
As research limitations, the authors point out the following: (1) the use of semistructured interviews as the only data collection instrument; (2) the limitation of the outcomes to entrepreneurs only (3) the absence of information on the performance of the business ventures; the focus of the paper was only on establishing causality between social capital offline and online and entrepreneurial performance.
Originality/value
This paper provides important research contributions. Initially, the paper presents a range of offline and online variables, which can be used in further research. At the same time, the paper emphasizes the combined impact of social capital offline and online, expanding the literature related to entrepreneurship. Moreover, this study proposes the creation of an integrative model. Finally, the authors point out the need for new theoretical and empirical studies on the subject, which still presents a gap in the literature.
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Carolina Pantuza Vilar dos Santos, Evandro Luiz Lopes, Julia Costa Dias, André Gustavo Pereira de Andrade, Celso Augusto Matos and Ricardo Teixeira Veiga
Based on the assumption of the service-dominant logic (S-D logic) that every exchange is service-for-service and on the relevance of the beneficiary’s role in the co-creation of…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the assumption of the service-dominant logic (S-D logic) that every exchange is service-for-service and on the relevance of the beneficiary’s role in the co-creation of value, this paper aims to investigate the effects of engagement in the context of social marketing, where the value proposition is an invitation to practice mindfulness.
Design/methodology/approach
A field experiment was carried out with 72 volunteers, using a pre-test/post-test control group design. The treatment applied was a set of strategies to increase the engagement of the participants to attain a better result in five dependent variables associated mainly with the benefits of mindfulness practice. Measurements were made from a profile analysis, and submitted to Mann-Whitney and t-tests.
Findings
A large effect of group and time factors were observed in the multivariate test, as well as differences in the co-creation of value between groups.
Originality/value
This study can contribute to stimulate experimental transdisciplinary research in humans, using concepts from S-D logic and social marketing to promote positive behavioral change. This approach is probably more efficient at explaining and improving human behavior, given its complex nature.
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Augusto Bargoni, Jacopo Ballerini, Demetris Vrontis and Alberto Ferraris
This paper aims to explore the impact of brand authenticity dimensions (i.e. aesthetic, symbolism, heritage, originality, quality commitment and virtue) on consumer engagement in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the impact of brand authenticity dimensions (i.e. aesthetic, symbolism, heritage, originality, quality commitment and virtue) on consumer engagement in the context of social media. This study answers to the need of scholars to understand consumer behaviour towards family and non-family firms’ brand authenticity constructs and for practitioners to find the correct levers to increase consumer engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Top 10 European family firms with a retrievable Facebook (FB) page from the Global Family Business Index have been selected. Then, the study analysed family firms’ social media consumer engagement versus their non-family business direct competitors on a sample of 21.664 FB posts over a four-year period, leveraging multi-group analysis.
Findings
The results outline that three out of six brand authenticity dimensions posted on FB are statistically arousing more interactions respect to non-authenticity-related contents when posted by family firms. However, there are no statistically significant findings when brand authenticity content is posted by the non-family competitors.
Practical implications
This research is helpful for practitioners and entrepreneurs who might want to strengthen their social media brand strategies. With this regard, the study provides insights on which elements of brand authenticity are perceived by consumers as more engaging and which levers to use when communicating the familiness of the company.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is one of the earliest studies crosscutting the family business and brand authenticity literature streams to conduct an empirical analysis based on official FB data with a data set of over 20,000 observations. Moreover, this study assesses that not every dimension of the brand authenticity construct is relevant in the context of social media and that its effectiveness depends on the firms’ familiness.
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Elisa Verna and Domenico Augusto Maisano
Nowadays, companies are increasingly adopting additive manufacturing (AM) technologies due to their flexibility and product customization, combined with non-dramatic increases in…
Abstract
Purpose
Nowadays, companies are increasingly adopting additive manufacturing (AM) technologies due to their flexibility and product customization, combined with non-dramatic increases in per unit cost. Moreover, many companies deploy a plurality of distributed AM centers to enhance flexibility and customer proximity. Although AM centers are characterized by similar equipment and working methods, their production mix and volumes may be variable. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel methodology to (1) monitor the quality of the production of individual AM centers and (2) perform a benchmarking of different AM centers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes the quality of the production output of AM centers in terms of compliance with specifications. Quality is assessed through a multivariate statistical analysis of measurement data concerning several geometric quality characteristics. A novel operational methodology is suggested to estimate the fraction nonconforming of each AM center at three different levels: (1) overall production, (2) individual product typologies in the production mix and (3) individual quality characteristics.
Findings
The proposed methodology allows performing a benchmark analysis on the quality performance of distributed AM centers during regular production, without requiring any ad hoc experimental test.
Originality/value
This research assesses the capability of distributed AM centers to meet crucial quality requirements. The results can guide production managers toward improving the quality of the production of AM centers, in order to meet customer expectations and enhance business performance.
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