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The use of building information modelling (BIM) methodology has been increasing in the architecture, engineering, construction and operation sector, driven to a new paradigm of work with the use of three-dimensional (3D) parametric models. However, building information modelling (BIM) has been mostly used for as-built models of a building, not yet been widely used by designers during project and construction phases for occupational risks prevention and safety planning. This paper aims to show the capacity of developing tools that allow adding functionalities to Revit software to improve safety procedures and reduce the time spent on modelling them during the design phase.

To reach this objective, a structural 3D model of a building is used to validate the developed tools. A plugin prototype based on legal regulations was developed, allowing qualitative safety assessment through the application of job hazard analysis (JHA), SafeObject and checklists. These tools allow the automated detection of falls from height situations and the automated placement of the correspondent safety systems.

Revit application programming interface allowed the conception and addition of several functionalities that can be used in BIM methodology, and more specifically in the prevention of occupational risks in construction, contributing this paper to the application of a new approach to the prevention through design.

This paper is innovative and important because the developed plugins allowed: automated detection of potential falls from heights in the design stage; automated introduction of safety objects from a BIM Safety Objects Library; and the intercommunication between a BIM model and a safety database, bringing JHA integration directly on the project. The prototype of this work was validated for fall from height hazards but can be extended to other potentials hazards since the initial design stage.

The purpose of this paper is to measure and compare the technical efficiency of construction companies in seven European countries: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, during the 2008–2015 period. The analysis involves nine sectors grouped into three divisions: construction of buildings (F41), civil engineering (F42) and specialized construction activities (F43), by NACE classification.

Multidirectional efficiency analysis was adopted to investigate the levels of efficiencies, the differences in those levels and the possible causes of such differences by further defining two new indices.

It showed that F43 is the most efficient division during the study period, followed by F42 and F41. The sectors/countries with less efficiency are: construction of roads and railways/Poland, construction of other civil engineering projects/Hungary, demolition and site preparation/Poland, other specialized construction activities/Portugal. Globally, the development of building projects sector uses resources in the most inefficient way and there was a drop in the efficiency in 2011 and 2013, showing a delay in the crisis impact. After 2010, civil engineering projects required a substantial effort to access resources. Other features regarding (in)efficiency were further identified.

The analysis was conducted with one of the most effective techniques in frontier analysis. The first introduced index allows for comparing efficient/inefficient subgroups, and the other index measures the resource acquisition effort, allowing a better comparison along years. The study provides a good understanding of the performance of the construction industry and indirectly exposes the strategies to overcome the crisis, through the identification of the inputs/outputs which are well/badly used.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the level of disclosure about mobile banking (MB) on bank websites.

The study sample comprises Brazilian and American banks, and the authors employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze the data. An index of 14 items was used to measure levels of disclosure. The quantitative stage involved descriptive analysis of disclosure levels, which was associated with other variables through the application of multivariate regression analysis. The qualitative stage involved a content analysis technique.

The statistical analysis indicated that size and country were significant explanatory variables for the level of information disclosed on bank websites. American banks disclosed more information about MB on their websites than Brazilian banks.

In the approach, using elements of voluntary disclosure theories, the authors expect to provide insights on how to increase MB information for potential users through a low-cost mechanism, web-based disclosure.

The authors aimed to triangulate food intake data obtained by two qualitative methods (in-depth interviews and participant observations) and one quantitative method (food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ)). The purpose of this paper was to analyze the kind of data each method produced and how these different pieces of information are methodologically related to the characteristics and limitations of different methods used and theoretically connected to participants' identities and masculinities.

The analysis was based on data from an ethnographic study; whose participants were 35 men who self-identified as gay bears. The participants' food intake was investigated through participant observations, in-depth interviews and an FFQ.

The qualitative methods indicated an overconsumption of meat and beer and a rejection of fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables, as diacritical signs of the bears' identity. The FFQ showed a major consumption of minimally processed food, with fruits and vegetables being eaten more than meat. The authors proposed that the participants have compartmentalized their many habitual intakes and assessed one of them, separately, according to the method used (what was being asked and the context of that moment). Additionally, the authors connected these two patterns of habitual intake to the participants' identities and masculinities, questioning the existence of a constant hegemonic masculinity among this group.

The triangulation of methods employed in the present study is seldom addressed in the literature. This approximation provided a rich discussion regarding the connections between eating, sexuality, gender and identity, through a novel methodological and theoretical lens.

The purpose of this paper is to study the portrayal of early accountants in the unfamiliar site of Portugal by examining Portuguese-language realist literature from the second half of the nineteenth century.

Two popular literary works – Uma Família Inglesa (An English Family), written by Júlio Dinis and published in 1867, and Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura (The Idiosyncrasies of a Young Blonde Woman), written by Eça de Queirós and published in 1873 – were examined through a qualitative content analysis.

The dimensions of the accounting stereotype discerned for the two early accounting practitioners featured in these works are portrayed as: modest; on-the-job trained practitioner; uncreative, conservative and unenergetic; honest financial manager; servant of the capitalist (i.e. merchant), and warm and sentimental. The accountant stereotype depicted from 1860s to 1870s period is similar to the conventional accountant stereotype, identified as the “traditional accountant” stereotype. Variations from this stereotype, however, are identified in the local, time-specific settings of Lisbon and Oporto.

The study’s portrayal of early accounting practitioners occurs during a period of transformation marked by liberalism. It augments an understanding of the image of early accounting practitioners, reflecting their social positioning at a time of significant social, economic, political and cultural changes, thereby contributing to an appreciation of the historical legacy of the accountant stereotype in continental Europe. Importantly, a taxonomy is proposed for content analysis that can be used and developed by future researchers.

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 authors analyse the impact of European funding research programmes on the topic of Ambient Assisted Living by considering its status, future context, and the implications for prospective knowledge management.

The authors apply our variation of classical Systematic Literature Review – Systematic Literature Network Analysis, which also includes bibliographic networks – to identify the readership cliques of the associated technological publication outputs.

The authors’ main conclusion suggests that there was an increase in scientific production on AAL fields just after the start of the two EU funding programmes (2008 and 2014). Three main research directions were identified: activity and vital sign recognition, human-computer interaction and technology acceptance.

To date, previous reviews on Ambient Assisted Livig focus on specific aspects, such as the study of technology. The present review provides a complete overview of Ambient Assisted living technology and it grasps how the European funds have impacted on the development of this technology.

In response to consumer and society demands for firms to be socially responsible, brands have been taking a strategic approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) by integrating socially responsible activities into their brands’ core value propositions to strengthen brand equity. Thus, from a brand building perspective, this paper aims to investigate the immediate effect that brand CSR communications have on the change in brand awareness, perceived quality and loyalty, to provide a deeper understanding of how each dimension affects the overall change in brand equity.

With evidence from an experiment conducted in three different countries (Australia, United States and Spain), based on an actual brand CSR program, this paper explores the different immediate effects of change in brand awareness, perceived brand quality and brand loyalty, after the exposure to a CSR message, on the overall immediate change in value that consumers give to a brand. Furthermore, it examines the role of brand-cause fit and the influence that differences in cultural, economic and political environments have on this effect.

The change in brand loyalty due to CSR communication is the key dimension driving the immediate positive change in overall brand equity. In addition, change in brand awareness has an inverted U-shape relationship with change in overall brand equity, whereas the change in perceived brand quality does not have an influence. Finally, the results indicate that this immediate effect holds regardless of the level of brand-cause fit, but is greater in countries where firms are expected to participate and CSR reporting is not mandatory, making such practices be seen as voluntary.

The findings of this study offer research implications for academics, and practical considerations for brand managers, interested in how to rapidly generate changes in consumer perception by leveraging CSR activities for brand building in global settings. Specifically, it indicates that when the aim is to quickly build brand equity, the goal of communicating CSR activities must be to increase the level of attachment that consumers have to the brand since loyalty is the main driver of the immediate change in overall brand equity.

Although many scholars have demonstrated the impact of CSR on various consumer behavior outcomes (e.g., brand attitude, purchase intention, loyalty), from a brand build perspective the implications of the immediate effect of a brand communication of CSR practices on consumer-based brand equity remain less clear. This study addresses this gap to gain a deeper understanding of how to rapidly generate changes in consumer perception to build strong brands while leveraging CSR practices.

Literature on internationalization focuses widely on the challenges that firms face when entering new countries, leaving an opportunity to understand the role of the home country and the exchange of emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs) with local politicians. We argue that, in the case of EMNEs, nurturing political connections with the home country government is an important driver of internationalization. We use publicly traded Brazilian firms and data covering 2006–2009, comprising years before and after the 2006 election. We measure political connections through corporate financial contribution to candidates in the 2006 election. We find that politically connected firms show greater levels of internationalization than their non-connected counterparts when comparing before and after the election. Our results suggest that EMNEs pursue connections with political actors within their home country's institutions in order to reinforce their international position.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of Saccharomyces boulardii on the kinetics of fermentation for organic and conventional apple pulp and to verify the effect of the antioxidant quercetin on the response to cellular oxidative stress.

The kinetic parameters, the content of phenolic compounds, the quantity of quercetin and the antioxidant activity were determined during the fermentation process. The effect of quercetin on cellular oxidative stress was also investigated.

The content of phenolic compounds, the antioxidant activity and the quercetin concentration were higher in the organic fermented apple pulp (ORG) than in the conventional fermented apple pulp (CON). However, both apple pulps were considered ideal substrates for the growth of S. boulardii, suggesting that they are potentially probiotic. After fermentation, the quercetin concentration in the ORG treatment and YPDQ treatment (YPD broth with 0.1 mg quercetin rhamnoside/mL) increased viability by 9%, while in the CON treatment generated there was an increase of 6% in viability, compared to the YPD control treatment (YPD broth).

The high concentration of quercetin in the organic apple pulp supports the proposal that quercetin reduces the oxidative stress mediated by reactive oxygen species through its antioxidant action on S. boulardii that have similarities to mammalian eukaryotic cells. These findings suggest that fermented organic apple pulp could be consumed as a potential non-dairy probiotic product.