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The purpose of this paper is to identify the way different economic sectors in Brazil use knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and explore which features of KIBS use are associated with better innovation outcomes.

Clusters and regression analyses were used to analyze data from the national innovation survey (PINTEC) from 2014.

The results show that most of the 55 sectors of the Brazilian economy studied make little use of KIBS, but industries in which firms that interact with KIBS providers also have better innovation performance and offer more innovative offerings. The relationship with higher education institutions and research institutes proved particularly relevant, while the interaction with consultancy firms seems to be a strategy that leaves firms “stuck in the middle”.

The outcomes confirm the arguments of the literature that the use of KIBS has positive outcomes for customer firms. More importantly, however, the paper complements the existing literature by showing that the type of KIBS used in each country is relevant to understand firms’ innovation performance. The outcomes can guide firms and public policy initiatives oriented at the articulation of the national innovation system.

This study aims to develop and validate a scale for measuring accounting service quality (ASQ), which is named ACCOUNTQUAL.

The authors initially investigated the service quality literature in the context of accounting. To develop the scale, the authors carried out three studies. First, the authors conducted 20 in-depth interviews to generate the ASQ items. Then, they undertook a survey with 174 accounting services clients to group these items into factors through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Finally, the authors carried out another survey with 330 clients to purify and validate the scale through a confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) and structural equation modeling (SEM).

The authors were able to validate the ACCOUNTQUAL scale, which is composed of the following dimensions: efficiency, trust, technological innovation and accountant knowledge, the latter being composed of three aspects: consultative view, technical capacitation and knowledge about clients.

The authors concluded that ASQ is a multidimensional construct that covers the assessment of technical, tooling, relationship and qualification aspects of the accounting service. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that developed and validated a scale for measuring ASQ. If accounting service providers meets the elements presented in the scale, they will potentially deliver a high-quality service.

The aim of this paper is to briefly present aspects of public brownfield management policies from Brazilian and German points of view.

The data collection method combined literature and documental research. The bibliography included Brazilian and German literature about brownfield management. The documental research includes Brazilian and German legislation and official documents published by CETESB, the Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Furthermore, publications of German governmental research institutions have been integrated in the paper.

In Brazil, despite the lack of a federal public policy, the State of São Paulo has approved specific rules to deal with contaminated sites. Topics that could be targets of scientific studies have been identified. Experiences in Germany show that it is essential to have political will and cooperation between the different political levels and technical disciplines. Partnerships between German and Brazilian universities would be welcome as there is a wide range of opportunities for academic post‐graduation studies and research focusing on human resources capacitation in environmental management.

The paper makes an original contribution of exploring an area (brownfield management) that is at the forefront of discussion in academe and industry.

While government is known to provide political guidance and exercising its executive function, it is also has regulatory powers through laws it enacts. In fostering sustainability, it is important to inquire how government's role can be innovated to facilitate sustainability, particularly in the travel and tourism industry. By reviewing tourism governance literature and mapping governance roles in the travel and tourism industry, this chapter creates a policy framework that underscores a new approach to tourism governance. We underscore that government's role must pivot toward being more developmental than regulatory so that it can effectively stimulate the market to sustainability by fostering value creation, supporting manpower capacitation, ensuring health and safety, and protecting the environment. This can be done if government will not fix the market and promote free market policymaking.

The authors investigated the effect of basic human values in the prediction of COVID-19 vaccination behavior amongst public security agents in Brazil.

A sample of 15,313 Brazilian public security agents responded to the portrait values questionnaire and a COVID vaccination behavior measure. Multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) was used to observe the order of the predicted by the theory. For hypotheses, the authors ran a series of Structural equation modeling (SEM) with direct effects between values and vaccination rate.

Results suggest that the values of conservation and self-transcendence positively predicted vaccination. A nonsignificative negative prediction was obtained for openness to change and self-enhancement values on vaccination behavior.

Data were collected using self-report questionnaires.

Institutional management should encourage capacitation campaigns aimed at public security agents, enabling a significant increase in vaccine protection for the public security institutions.

The reinforcement of conservation and self-transcendence values lead to the perception of the vaccine as a measure of caring for people in general and for the members of the ingroup, hence motivating the vaccination behavior.

The findings confirm that values encourage individuals to be vaccinated, due to their intrinsic motivation. This relationship did not appear to be clearly tested by previous empirical studies.

Technological firms increasingly depend on open innovation to compete in hypercompetitive markets. To openly engage the creativity of a multitude of private actors, firms can rely on crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing challenges global companies as they span organizational boundaries to attract multiple local partners. Global companies must engage in boundary spanning to successfully communicate and create a sense of community with smaller local partners despite status and cultural differences. The collaboration between Google and developers in China deserves to be studied in particular, because it operates within a restricted market.

This paper argues that crowdsourcing for innovation on a global scale requires effective boundary spanning capabilities. These boundary-spanning practices ensure smooth cooperation with the crowd and solve problems relating to differences in status and organizational contexts. This study applies Bourdieu's theory of practice including the concept of capital (economic, intellectual, social and symbolic) to understand the social relationships between Google and a growing community of Chinese developers. It also draws on a case study including ten semistructured interviews, which have been triangulated with internal documents and data from selected websites.

Four types of capital (symbolic, intellectual, social and economic) have been identified as important devices to understand the sources of power and the stakes of Googlers and developers in the joint field. These types of capital contribute to structure the social fields in which developers and Google cooperate and their practice. The success of the collaboration between Google and Chinese developers can arguably be attributed to Google's ability to create boundary-spanning activities in order to reduce the endowment differential in the four types of capital and improve their communication. Therefore, this research provides a deep and conceptualized description of boundary-spanning practices, as well as providing a useful contribution for managers involved in crowdsourcing via platform in culturally different markets.

The main limitation of this study is methodological in nature, relating to the absence of interviews with board members of Google China who are reluctant to speak about Google activities in China for political raisons. This restriction is partly counterbalanced by the analysis of publicly available secondary data such as news and communications.

This research has generated practical recommendations for managers of organizations, which require optimal boundary spanning for crowdsourcing. Managers must understand the different sources of social boundaries between their organization and the crowd. The crowd should be segmented into smaller groups with distinctive identities, and organizations should systematically design boundary-spanning activities to address each boundary of each segment. The boundary-spanning activities involve a specific set of tools, programs and platforms to address the target group. Efficient boundary spanning depends on the necessity to select boundary spanners with high cultural intelligence and communication skills.

This paper draws on Bourdieu's theory of practice to investigate the role of boundary spanning in crowdsourcing for innovation, specifically in the joint field between Google and Chinese developers. This research reveals how boundary objects such as developer documents, websites, programs and events are essential for developers to be able to participate on Google's platform. Companies should be prepared to invest in the design and delivery of boundary-spanning activities and objects, knowing that these are also a locus for negotiation with local partners.

This research contributes to the literature by applying the boundary-spanner theory to Google crowdsourcing practices within a restricted market. Bourdieu's theory of practice has proven to be a potent perspective with which to better understand the positive role of boundary spanners in the joint field between Google and Chinese developers. Moreover, this practice perspective has not been used in prior research to highlight power relations in crowdsourcing for innovation. This study has shown that, in addition to boundary objects, boundary spanners can also contribute in the transfer of intellectual capital, which is the pivotal resource for boundary spanning in this field.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to understanding of the process of innovation in the biotechnology companies operating in Brazil. The paper identifies the most critical factors in the innovation process of the enterprises in this sector; the paper then analyses the dynamics of the sector and the contribution of the universities and incubators to the innovation process and also evaluates how these elements affect the management process of the technological innovation within and outside the organization.

The research was of the qualitative exploratory type and involved seven case studies of biotechnology companies of different sizes, acting in various sectors, having undergone or not an incubation process. For interpretation of the results, content analysis was utilized.

The study indicated that, among the many obstacles to innovation, access to finance is the most critical. Partnerships have been adversely affected due to institutional and regulatory factors, namely a lack of clear laws and rules regarding intellectual property. The companies have sought to compensate by making their internal processes agile, creating flexible organizational structures and an organizational environment favourable to innovation, which is internalized, as a practice, in a tacit manner.

Limitations are associated with the case study methodology: the results presented pertain to the companies studied, and, therefore, cannot be generalized or extended to other companies or areas.

The management process of innovation occurs in an informal and less than systematic manner. The innovation process in Brazilian biotechnology companies benefits from a pro‐active posture adopted by them to manage and learn from adversity.

The paper increases understanding of the innovation process in Brazilian biotechnology companies.

As host to over one million Syrian refugees, Lebanon continues to experience challenges addressing the needs of refugee families. This research examined the experiences of Syrian families with the refugee support system in Lebanon. The purpose of this study was to better understand the strengths and gaps in existing mechanisms of support for these Syrian families, including informal support from family, neighbors and community and more formalized support provided through entities such as nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies.

Data were collected from 46 families displaced by the war and living in Lebanon (N = 351 individuals within 46 families). Collaborative family interviews were conducted with parents, children and often extended family.

The data identified both strengths and gaps in the refugee support system in Lebanon. Gaps in the refugee support system included inadequate housing, a lack of financial and economic support, challenges with a lack of psychosocial support for pregnant women and support for disabled youth. Despite these challenges, families and community workers reported informal community support as a strong mediator of the challenges in Lebanon. Furthermore, the data find that organizations working with Syrian families are utilizing informal community support through capacity building, to create more effective and sustainable support services.

This study provides an overview of strengths and gaps in supports identified by refugees themselves. The research will inform the development and improvement of better support systems in Lebanon and in other refugee–hosting contexts.

The established global understanding of inclusive education often positions the antithesis of inclusion as segregation, exclusion, marginalisation and its multiple variants. Drawing local articulations from Sri Lanka, this chapter positions the politics of disposability as the primary agitator of inclusive education. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the ways in which disposability is constructed within school systems by imposing deficit frames on students deemed disposable while simultaneously using the same to provide escape routes to those who are deemed worthy. As a result, these realities perpetuate the politics of disposability which incessantly pummels progress toward inclusive education, calling into question established tenets of inclusive education. This chapter draws from a study conducted in Sri Lanka using critical institutional ethnographic inquiry and participatory action research. Specifically, this chapter highlights teacher narratives as commentary on the complex ways in which sociocultural, historical conditions shape their everyday decision making in communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Teachers and students described the ways in which students became constructed and confined to disposability based on their backgrounds and assumed deficits.