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The purpose of this paper is to identify, measure and optimise financial risk and its effect on returns from innovation projects on an accrual basis and on a cash basis in a commodity industry.

A hypothetical case study, based on a real case, of a petrochemical commodity industry in Brazil was analysed with commodities pricing rules based on actual contracts. Earnings at risk (EaR) and cash flow at risk (CFaR) measures were applied, as well as a metric proposed in this paper called cash balance at risk (CBaR).

The paper demonstrates that financial risk measurement and optimisation are important issues in the decision-making process in the petrochemical industry. EaR, CFaR and CBaR measures are helpful when used alongside standard procedures of project evaluation. The findings also show that innovative technologies, in certain conditions, may act as “natural hedging”. It was found that the time delay between revenues and expenses leads to financial risk exposure to changes in prices and foreign exchange rates. Projects can use financing and hedging to boost their results.

An innovative project was compared with an expansion project in a petrochemical industry. A model for petrochemical commodities contract pricing was added in an analysis that included financing and hedging. The findings in this paper suggest that it is important to consider financial risk measures in project evaluation.

O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar, medir e otimizar o risco financeiro e seus efeitos sobre os resultados de projetos com inovação, tanto na perspectiva do regime contábil quanto do regime de caixa, em uma indústria de commodities.

Um estudo de caso hipotético, baseado em um caso real de uma indústria petroquímica brasileira, foi analisado com regras de precificação de commodities baseados em contratos reais. As métricas Earnings at Risk (EaR) e Cash Flow at Risk (CFaR) foram utilizadas, assim como uma métrica proposta neste trabalho, denominada Cash Balance at Risk (CBaR).

Este artigo demonstrou que a mensuração e otimização do risco financeiro são questões importantes no processo de tomada de decisão em uma indústria petroquímica. As medidas EaR, CFaR e CBaR se apresentaram como contribuições ao processo padrão de avaliação de projetos. Os resultados também demonstraram que inovações tecnológicas, em certas condições, podem funcionar como um “hedge natural”. Foi verificado que descasamentos temporais entre recebimentos e despesas geram uma exposição financeira a oscilações em preços e em valores de moedas estrangeiras. Financiamento e hedge podem ser utilizados em conjunto para aprimorar resultados de projetos.

Um projeto com inovação foi comparado com um projeto de expansão em uma indústria petroquímica. Foi realizada uma analise de risco que agrega ao financiamento e ao hedge o uso de contratos de precificação de commodities. Os resultados desse projeto demonstram que é importante considerar medidas de risco financeiro nas avaliações de projetos.

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 aim of this chapter is twofold: first, it will discuss the roots and the aims of the curriculum reform launched in Portugal in 2017, suggesting that it shows the influence of international policy borrowing. Secondly, it aims to present and to discuss the trends that this reform is putting in place, highlighting some successful practices as well some misconceptions and controversial practices. To accomplish such aims, it follows the analytical framework that inspires this book, namely the approach that understands curriculum making as a dynamic process of interactions between different layers of the system, emphasizing the meso and the micro layers of curriculum decision-making. The focus on the experimental period that this chapter narrates is also an opportunity to analyse dynamics among the layers of curriculum making.

This study identifies and analyzes practices related to declarative knowledge of organizational learning in the product development process (PDP) that uses the Stage-Gate (SG) system.

The field research was conducted with a qualitative approach through a case study. The study object was a multinational company in the automotive sector that is highly competent in truck chassis design with a PDP based on the SG system.

The authors identified PDPs associated with the elements of declarative knowledge of organizational learning in intra- and inter-development teams. Rather than merely being a checklist, each gate in the SG system has the potential to become a more effective and robust intra-team learning practice and promote inputs for continuous improvement in the process through its use as a checkpoint of the five elements of declarative knowledge during the development activities.

The case study was conducted in a multinational company in the automotive sector, whose business units are divided by competencies. The unit studied is a reference in truck chassis and is located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

The research model presented can be used to evaluate how companies exploit their activities and practices to leverage organizational learning in PDP. That is, the model can be used as a diagnostic reference for declarative knowledge in companies that apply the SG system to manage PDP.

The study focuses on a model of PDP analysis, aspects of organizational learning and declarative knowledge, in that the model it assists in the collection, distribution and use of information to the development team members with a view for products with greater innovation potential.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo identificar e analisar práticas relacionadas ao conhecimento declarativo da aprendizagem organizacional no processo de desenvolvimento de produtos que utilizam o sistema Stage-Gate (SG).

A pesquisa de campo foi realizada com abordagem qualitativa por meio de um estudo de caso. O objeto de estudo foi uma empresa multinacional do setor automotivo de alta competência em projeto de chassis de caminhões com processo de desenvolvimento de produto baseado no sistema Stage-Gate.

A descrição das práticas já existentes no PDP de uma empresa multinacional do setor automotivo e que estão associadas aos elementos do conhecimento declarativo da aprendizagem organizacional nos ambientes intra e inter equipe. O gate ao invés de ser apenas um checklist, tem potential de se tornar uma prática de aprendizado intra-equipe mais efetiva e robusta e promover inputs para melhoria contínua do PDP através da utilização dele como um ponto de verificação dos 5 elementos do conhecimento declarativo que foram conduzidos pelo time de projeto durante as atividades de desenvolvimento.

O modelo de análise apresentado pelo artigo pode servir como base de avaliação de como as empresas exploram suas atividades e práticas de desenvolvimento de produtos durante as revisões de fase para garantir a aprendizagem organizacional, ou seja, como referencial de diagnóstico do conhecimento declarativo em empresas que aplicam a sistemática de stage-gates para o gerenciamento de PDP.

O artigo une em um modelo para análise de PDP, aspectos de aprendizagem organizacional e conhecimento declarativo, na medida em que ela auxilia na coleta, distribuição e utilização de informação aos membros do PDP com vistas a produtos com maior potential de inovação.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the wide acknowledgement of the association between innovation and economic and social development and of the importance of innovation policies has formed a kind of “misty consensus” hardly contested in Brazil. However, the innovation policies adopted in the country lack an institutional framework to support their implementation, marking what is called in this paper a “messy dissensus”.

It is argued that the reasons why the science, technology and innovation (ST&I) policies have failed to contribute more effectively increasing Brazilian technological efforts have less to do with the policies themselves and more to do with their detachment from the institutional framework used to implement them.

It is shown that this institutional framework: (i) is barely adherent to the perception of the systemic nature of the innovation process; (ii) does not create enough incentives for bureaucrats in public institutions to allocate resources in the industrial sector; (iii) encourages the pulverization of resources and the consequent loss of focus, which may reduce the efficiency of the adopted policies; (iv) encourages the replication of models and priorities usually adopted in contexts that fail to match the Brazilian reality.

In this paper, the focus is on the obstacles that undermine the potential of ST&I policies to contribute more effectively to the improvement of the Brazilian innovation indicators. It is argued that these obstacles have less to do with the innovation policies themselves and more to do with their detachment from the institutional framework used to implement them. This institutional framework includes not only the formal and legal rules but also informal social norms that govern individual behavior and structure social interactions.

This paper aims to present the results of a post‐occupancy evaluation (POE) in a complex hospital building, and also to discuss a system for analyzing and diagnosing those results.

The POE was aimed at establishing adequate use and maintenance of the building. The main approaches of the study consisted of two basic performance features, namely, physical accessibility and fire safety.

The importance of the pre‐design evaluation (PDE) might also be recalled as well as the usefulness of the POE for new designs and for remodeling existing buildings, because these instruments aid in the constant updating of directive plans of occupation, especially in the case of large complexes such as health care facilities. One indication of this importance is the relatively low number of problems detected during the POE, when one considers the complexity of the work of renovation and the dimensions of the IPq facilities.

The paper presents the results of a POE and recommendations that would make it possible to quickly identify the points where there is need for improvement, and the degree of importance or priority to be given.

This chapter examines the internationalisation of public higher education in Brazil using the theoretical triptych of internationalisation as developed by leading scholars in the field: internationalisation at home (IaH), internationalisation abroad (IA), and internationalisation at a distance (IaD). This framework – while rooted in knowledge, systems, and scholarship from researchers and institutions in the Global North – is a constructive tool for categorising and understanding internationalisation at Brazil’s higher education institutions (HEIs) when coupled with an exploration of the history, context, policy, and dynamics of internationalisation efforts. The chapter then summarises and underscores recent and important scholarship by Brazilian researchers and others in the Global South that describes the history of the nation’s internationalisation efforts. It also critiques the powerful influence that Global North-centred objectives and priorities for internationalisation have on the process at Brazilian HEIs. Following a discussion of the theoretical framework and relevant literature, the chapter provides a case study of internationalisation efforts and initiatives of an elite public university, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Content analysis of UFMG’s website and publicly available reports and data demonstrates a high level of institutional internationalisation that has unfolded in recent years, stimulated by federal funding and guided by a strategic framework developed within the Ministry of Education. An analysis of UFMG’s mission, partnerships and programmes finds that the institution serves as an example of internationalisation in Brazil’s public higher education context, as its programmes and initiatives exemplify the overarching objectives of internationalisation in Brazilian higher education.