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This paper seeks to investigate the role of income‐inequality on the size of local government.

First, the paper extends the model proposed by Meltzer and Richard, allowing for spatial interaction in the redistributive in‐kind transfers from the local governments. Second, it estimates the determinants of the size in local government taking into consideration spatial dependence in the variables.

This model points that the poorer the median voter is, the higher should be the level of local public expenditures, but the spillover effect (spatial effect) in spending is undetermined. Second, using data on Brazilian states public finance, the results suggest a negative relation between expenditures (and tax revenues) and the median voter income, in favor to the model. While both public spending and tax rates exhibit negative spatial correlation (substitute goods), behavioral significance can be attached to the spatial process in public spending but not to the spatial process in the local tax rate.

The paper provides a small extension of the Meltzer and Richard model allowing for spatial interaction and contributes to the empirical debate about inequality and the size of the government presenting the results for Brazil.

Improper levels or excess of iodine may present a greater risk to health, for this reason, this paper aims to assess the iodine content present in salt and estimate the iodine concentration in school meals in a Brazilian northeast region.

Six samples of different salt brands sold in the city of Lagarto, Sergipe, Brazil were gathered for analyzing iodate concentration. The amounts of salt added to meals of four schools in the city and the weight of the provided meals were recorded during two consecutive days of gathering, thus obtaining data to estimate the iodine content of these meals. The rest of the meals and the nutritional composition of school meals were analyzed. A questionnaire for participants on the perception of salt was applied. For data analysis, α = 5% was used.

The iodine concentration in all salt samples followed legislation (15 to 45 mg of iodine/kg of salt), with the average of iodine ranged between 26.5 ± 1.29 and 33.9 ± 2.49 mg/kg (p < 0.001). The estimated iodine content in consumed school meals was 0.025 mg (25 µg), in meals of schools A and C, it was 0.03 ± 0.02 mg, and to schools B and D, it was 0.02 ± 0.01 mg (p < 0.001). Percentages of rest of the meals greater than 10% were found and the assessed food preparation showed low caloric and nutritional values.

The iodine content is in accordance with the salt iodization policy in Brazil, and that the average iodine estimate in school meals was considered adequate for this population.

This paper aims to investigate to what extent sustainable and nonsustainable attributes can be used to characterize different clusters of consumers in an emerging market, where economic conditions can increase the relevance of price. Consumers seem reluctant to engage frequently in pro-sustainable behavior, mainly for financial reasons. However, purchasing decisions can be understood as a multidimensional process.

The authors conducted quantitative and descriptive research employing a choice-based conjoint/hierarchical Bayes (CBC/HB) experiment in malls in a low-income city in northeast Brazil with 1,287 potential buyers of denim jeans. The conjoint analysis therefore collected data on preferences in the course of actual decision-making. The authors then took the individual part-utility from each respondent and ran a cluster analysis to identify similar groups in the sample. The classification and regression tree (CART) method was used to determine the relationship between the conjoint attributes and the sociodemographic characteristics.

The data demonstrate that buying decisions constitute a complex process of interplay between many different factors, often involving trade-offs between a wide variety of nonsustainable and sustainable attributes. The survey confirmed that price is still of paramount importance when it comes to consumer choices. The authors also found that sustainable attributes played a relatively more significant role than brand or origin of production. The authors identify notable differences between groups of consumers in the “pro-sustainable” and “non-pro-sustainable” clusters and different levels of importance regarding the sociodemographic characteristics.

Although price emerged as the most significant attribute, the research also demonstrates that there is a market in Brazil for products and practices based on a genuine commitment to the natural environment and social issues. The findings suggest that marketing managers and policymakers should consider different combinations of concerns over sustainability with product attributes and include sociodemographic variables rather than considering the textile market as uniform or thinking that there is no space for sustainability in fashion.

The study compares how distinct mechanisms that connect pre-established policy objectives to professionals' practices, and the health policy implementation context influenced different approaches to frontline staff participation. The authors analysed 26 teams in six cities from two Brazilian states, during the last cycle of the National Program for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ).

About 172 in-depth interviews were conducted with frontliners – community health workers (78), nurses (37), doctors (30) – and managers (27). Interview guides were based on key issues identified in the implementation and pay-for-performance (P4P) literature. Drawing on thematic analysis and synthesis of the literature, three types of participation mechanisms were identified: relational, motivational and incremental learning. They were analysed considering distinct contexts at the local level to understand how they influenced different forms of participation: mere adherence, result-oriented and transformative.

Administrations with stronger institutional organizational structures were able to control work processes and reduce professional discretion. However, sustained participation was more likely where there was greater integration between management and frontline health care teams. Motivation based only on financial incentives could not bring about transformative participation. This depended on the degree of professional's ideational motivation towards primary care. Finally, contexts with unfavourable working conditions tend to demotivate professionals, but incremental learning helps teams cope with these obstacles.

The study overcomes gaps in the literature in relation to PMAQ's implementation process. Overall, the study delves into which/how mechanisms alter frontliners participation in performance-oriented health programs.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze circular business models of Brazilian companies.

The authors analyzed 105 business models of adopting companies from the perspective of the circularity of resources. These were classified as analytical sector category, business model design aligned with sustainability, sustainable practices adopted, level of maturity of business models and determinants of the circularity of resources.

The results show that companies belonging to the service sector predominate, which, above all, offer the virtualization of processes, sharing, ecological products, socially responsible and emphasis on recycling. Of these, 92.38 percent were already aligned with the sustainability assumptions, which contribute decisively to the operationalization in a circular perspective. Therefore, the materialization of the circular economy (CE) in Brazil is occurring, although there is potential for a stronger engagement with the determinants of the CE, especially in the perspective of the biological cycle and in the short cycles of technical levels.

In addition, the authors promote advances in the maturity levels of business models to optimize the optimal level, where processes are predictable, critically analyzed and continuously improved.

This paper deals with the insertion of workers aged 50 years or more in the Brazilian labor market. Considering this question, the purpose of this paper is to raise evidence about the existence of ageism – prejudice against that age range. The paper identifies the characteristics of participation by workers age 50 or older in Brazil’s formal labor market. The paper also identifies whether and how the specific issues of these workers are handled in the individual employment contract, with the human resources management (HRM) policies and practices of a group of companies.

The study applied a quantitative approach in an analysis of the older population in the Brazilian labor market (Annual Social Information Report (RAIS) database and “MEPT” survey database – 2011/2016). The RAIS data are collected annually by the Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego – MTE, coming from all establishments with or without formal employees, whether statutory (public servants) or private organizations. MEPT survey is an annual study focused on quality of the organizational environment and HRM practices (organizations participate voluntarily). A qualitative approach was applied also in a document content analysis on information about HRM policies and practices based on MEPT companies’ research evidence reports.

There is evidence of ageism among private companies in Brazil with better HRM. These companies hire proportionally less old workers than the market and their HRM policies and practices scarcely handle with employees. The workers age 50 and over among the workers employed (private and mixed capital companies) have growing participation in the labor market. The profile of these workers is predominantly male, higher level education considering the market average, and working under longer lasting formal contracts comparing all workers combined. People involved in the individual hiring of workers from this age group do not even give this subject much attention.

The specific objective of verifying if and how the specific issues that workers of 50 years and older are dealing; in the individual hiring for work, encountered limitations based on the restricted character of the data presented. In particular, the information related to the best companies (MEPT) is representative only of its own group and thus is restricted to the private sector. Although this cannot be generalized, they offer support for reflections on the subject.

This paper shows how companies with advanced HRM handle with older workers in their policies and practices.

This work points out that that the aging of workers will be a problem to be discussed by the companies HRM in the future.

This paper identifies the need to study how companies will deal with the increasing number of older workers.

This paper aims to investigate how sustainable solutions in the textiles and clothing industry are decided through business-to-business collaboration.

A qualitative and inductive study of the Brazilian textiles and clothing industry is carried out, an industry in which sustainable denim products are increasingly being recognized as subject to competition. The paper adopts a focal net perspective to understand the collaborative arrangements through which firms combine the products they offer as a sustainable solution. Documentary data were collected and in-depth interviews conducted with the top managers of one of the world’s largest denim-manufacturing companies present in the Brazilian market, which is involved in providing sustainable solutions in cooperation with its partners.

The authors describe the factors that reflect the conditions for generating a sustainable business performance, including a corporate policy that assumes and articulates the responsibility for social interest, core-business stakeholders and regulatory requirements; a sustainable product-service system (S.PSS) based on innovative interactions between the stakeholders in the value production system; relations between stakeholders that promote business sustainability through a dependable value chain characterized by a sense of collaboration and collective actions; and a business model for sustainability that combines economic with social and ecological value creation. These factors help a business establish a more strategic position in the value network, enabling it to capture more value.

Sustainable solutions are developed dynamically and collaboratively within an S.PPS. Managers need to focus not only on tangible products but also on intangible services designed and combined so that they are jointly capable of fulfilling customer’s needs and creating social and ecological value. Managers within the solution provider must develop business models for sustainability that are continually evolving to satisfy the interest in resource-efficiency by actors in civil society, business and government.

The research contributes to the existing literature by applying approaches involving corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategic nets to the study of the implementation of an S.PSS. Sustainable initiatives and offers developed by an S.PSS are not isolated phenomena but result from collaboration in finding solutions among different actors linked in a strategic net. In this sense, companies need to adjust their business models for sustainability to generate positive economic, social and ecological value and gain credibility for their missions.

This paper aims to identify the influence of dimensions of movie theater service on customer behavior intention, comparing linear and nonlinear methods.

With a sample of 345 cinema customers, the analysis compares penalty–reward contrast analysis (PRCA) and multiple linear regression analysis (MLR).

This research demonstrates that PRCA brings a better identification of the antecedents of customer behavior intention than MLR, showing that a nonlinear analysis can bring superior decision information to movie theater managers. Also, this study shows that superior performance of aspects related to the client's feelings leads the consumer to a tendency to return and recommend the cinema (behavior intention). This study also confirms that successful recovery actions can compensate for failures.

Although the nonlinear antecedents of customer satisfaction have been studied in the scientific literature, there is a gap of studies applying methods to identify nonlinear antecedents of customer behavior intention (tendency to return and recommend), particularly in the industry of movie theater services. The findings of this research may allow movie theaters to improve the service provided, confronting the great challenges of online movie-watching alternatives.

This paper employs implementation theory and the political literature on performance measurement to understand how frontline health workers know, participate and evaluate the Brazilian National Program for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ, 2nd round).

This paper develops an implementation theory-driven qualitative analysis. The research is developed in the city of Goiania (Brazil): a challenging organizational context in primary care (PHC). Interviews were carried out with 25 frontliners – managers, doctors, nurses and community health workers. Data were thematically and hierarchically analysed according to theoretical concepts such as policy knowledge, policy adherence, forms of accountability, alternative logics, organizational capacity and policy feedback.

Results show the need to foster organizational capacity, knowledge, participation and policy feedback at the frontline. Successful implementation would require those adaptations to counteract policy challenges/failures or the emergence of alternative logics.

The study was conducted in only one setting, however, our sample includes different types of professionals working in units with different levels of organization capacity, located in distinct HDs, expressing well the implementation of PMAQ/P4P. Qualitative researches need to be developed for further exploring the same/other factors.

Findings can be used to improve discussions/planning and design of P4P programs in the city and State of Goias.

The majority of analysis of PMAQ are of a quantitative or results-based nature. This article focuses on politically significant and unanswered questions regarding the implementation of PMAQ.