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Gazelle companies are characterized by rapid growth in a short time. Identifying the determinants of this exponential expansion is important as these firms have a significant impact on the economy. They generate increased employment and investment by investors interested in new opportunities. Previous studies have failed to reach a consensus about what fosters high growth in gazelle companies as each firm’s geographical, political and economic context is different. The present research uses cognitive mapping and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to overcome the limitations of prior investigations and identify factors that can potentially accelerate growth in gazelle companies.

Two sessions were held with an expert panel with knowledge about and experience with these firms. In the first session, data were collected to create a group cognitive map, while the second meeting comprised ISM-based analyses of the high-growth determinants identified and the causal relationships between them. A final consolidation session was held to discuss the results with two members of the Committee for Central Region Coordination and Development (i.e. Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Centro – a public entity that grants gazelle awards in Portugal).

The analysis system created was tested, and the results demonstrate that the dual methodology used can increase our understanding of the dynamics of high-growth determinants and lead to more informed and potentially better evaluations of gazelle companies. Indeed, once high-growth determinants in gazelle companies are understood, this information can help other firms implement the same business model to achieve similarly rapid growth. The strengths and shortcomings of this new structured analysis model are also analyzed.

The authors know of no prior work reporting the integrated use of cognitive mapping and ISM in this study context.

Strategic management plays a pivotal role in the growth and success of organizations, significantly impacting their business performance and competitive edge. In today’s globalized markets, strategic management is gaining prominence as a means to enhance company performance and distinctiveness. Within this landscape, the evaluation of organizational effectiveness takes on heightened significance, complemented by the emergence of strategic management frameworks designed to secure enduring competitive advantages for businesses.

One of the best known approaches to organizational resource assessment is the value, rarity, inimitability and organizational-oriented (VRIO) framework. However, this tool comes with inherent limitations that have hindered its advancement, primarily related to the need for less subjective means of identifying and assigning weights to resources and capabilities during the evaluation process. This study, therefore, endeavored to refine the VRIO framework, making it more transparent and empirically robust. To achieve this aim, the framework was combined with the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method (i.e. a multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method), and a real-life application was conducted.

The evaluation system created was tested, and the results demonstrate that the dual methodology used can increase the understanding of resource appraisal and lead to more informed and potentially better evaluations of resources and capabilities. The strengths and shortcomings of this new structured evaluation model are also analyzed.

The authors know of no prior work reporting the integrated use of VRIO and DEMATEL in this study context.

This research seeks to provide methodological bases for the identification, documentation and critical reflection of good practices of architectural design in built heritage. These are applied explicitly to the School of Porto architects, which express a high sense of pedagogy and community practice in this field. The methodological approach defines the selection criteria for a georeferenced inventory and the procedures for in-depth analysis of adaptive reuse strategies.

The works included in the inventory were selected according to geographical, chronological, typological, qualitative and quantitative criteria. The cases chosen for in-depth analysis have been studied along four thematic axes to dissect all the intervention processes (previous state, design/construction and final state). This approach is supported by a cross-analysis of different sources (oral, written, graphic) and using drawing as a fundamental research tool.

The research has collected and disseminated up to 150 works by 44 architects, providing a comprehensive portrait of heritage intervention by the School of Porto over the past decades. The selection of 22 buildings for in-depth documentation reveals a particular sensibility toward the cultural values through a case-by-case approach based in deep knowledge of the preexisting context and the introduction of contemporary additions in continuity and harmonious relation with the environmental and sociocultural context.

This work provides a novel methodology suitable for further extension and adaptation to other case studies, as a first contribution to a more comprehensive “Atlas of Architectural Design in Built Heritage” with European case studies. The research aims to introduce new and deeper perspectives on reference works that may constitute pedagogy for the future practice of architects within contextual, inclusive and sustainable approaches.

This paper examines the impact of extreme rainfall shocks on the performance in test scores of students living near at-risk urban areas in Brazil.

To identify the causal effect, we consider the exogenous variation of rainfall at the municipal level conditioned on the distance from the school to risk areas and the rainfall intensity in the school months.

The results suggest that extreme precipitation shocks, defined as a shock of at least three months of high-intensity rainfall, have an adverse impact on both math and language performance. Through a heterogeneous effects analysis, we find that the impact varies by student gender, with girls being more affected. In addition, among students who study near at-risk areas, those with better previous school performance and higher socioeconomic status are more negatively affected.

Our results suggest that extreme weather events can increase the differences in human capital accumulation between the population living near risk areas and those living more distant from these areas.

This study aims to present an innovative sandbox platform that implements a decision support system (DSS) to assess the sustainable development goals (SDGs) addressed at the municipal level. It intends to determine the relative importance of each SDG in municipalities and explore the synergies that can be discovered among them.

Participatory action research is used to develop a DSS and an algorithm designated as discrete heavy fuzzy was also developed, which extends the Apriori algorithm to include discrete quantitative assessments of the level of SDG compliance by each project. A scenario consisting of three municipalities in Portugal (i.e. Porto, Loulé and Castelo de Vide) was chosen to demonstrate the implementation of the sandbox platform and to interpret the observed results.

The results reveal significant differences in the typology of SDGs addressed by each municipality. It was found that municipal sustainable projects are strongly influenced by the contextual factors of each municipality. Porto has projects that address the first five SDGs. Loulé appears projects that promote innovation, the fight against climate change and the development of sustainable cities. Castelo de Vida has initiatives related to innovation and infrastructure and decent work and economic growth.

This study provides knowledge about the relative importance of the SDGs in Portuguese municipalities and explores the synergies among them. The proposed sandbox platform fills the gaps of the ODSlocal Webtool by proposing a dynamic and interactive approach for the exploration of quantitative indicators regarding the implementation status of the SDGs established in the 2030 Agenda.

This study provides knowledge about the relative importance of the SDGs and the various synergies that exist between them considering the Portuguese municipalities. The sandbox platform presented and developed within this study allows filling the gaps of the ODSlocal Webtool that gathers essentially qualitative information about each project and offers a dynamic and interactive exploration with quantitative indicators of the implementation status of the SDGs established in the 2030 Agenda.

This paper aims to investigate the formation of an inter-organizational collaboration network that made it possible to repair 2,516 mechanical respirators that were inoperative in Brazil during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A qualitative approach was used in a single case study with semi-structured interviews. The interviewee selection process was non-probabilistic through snowball sampling.

The results suggest that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks, and this organizational configuration can be an alternative for facing crises where actions isolated would be insufficient or slow to urgently address complex situations.

This paper aims to (1) demonstrate that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks; (2) favor the understanding and dynamics of the formation of a network; and (3) contribute to a possible replication of this initiative in future contexts.

The case portrays an unprecedented formation of a collaboration network involving more than 144 organizations that mobilized quickly in a complex context of a pandemic and that generated remarkable results through the reintroduction of equipment that were responsible for the preservation of thousands of lives during the year from 2020.

The empirical study aims to examine the impact of board diversity with respect to gender and nationality on firm performance in an emerging economy. This research further splits the sample into family and non-family domains and investigates the diversity–performance nexus in isolation.

The sample consists of 183 listed companies in Bangladesh over the period 2007 to 2017. This study employed the generalised method of moments (GMM) technique to address the possible endogeneity issue in the governance–performance connection. To underscore the strength of diversity, three distinctive assessment measures were used: percentage representation of females and foreign directors, the Blau index and the Shannon index.

The results for the full sample models reveal that board heterogeneity regarding both female and foreign directors positively and significantly influences firm performance as measured by return on assets (ROA). Further to this, female directors in family-owned businesses have a positive association with profitability, whereas foreign nationals demonstrate a significant positive association with performance in non-family firms. Additionally, at least three women directors are needed to make a positive difference in profitability; however, a sole director with foreign nationality is capable of demonstrating a similar impact on performance.

The findings are significant for policymakers and organisations that advocate diversity on corporate boards of directors, and the minimum number of diverse board members needs to be considered depending on the identity to bring about a significant change in organisational outcome. Therefore, the findings of this study may be applied to other emerging economies with similar institutional characteristics.

This study reinforces the existing stock of knowledge on the impact of board diversity on the profitability of firms, especially in the context of an emerging economy – Bangladesh. Irrespective of the given backdrop, this study finds that both gender and nationality diversity in the case of Bangladesh is found to have a positive and significant effect on financial performance with respect to all the diversity metrics, i.e. the proportionate number of female and foreign directors on the boards, the Blau index and the Shannon index.

Seaports are vital in facilitating sustainable development, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors significantly impact an organization’s performance. Therefore, this study aims to identify and evaluate barriers and strategies of green investments to promote ESG practices within the seaport sector.

To fulfill this aim, a systematic literature review, interpretive structural modeling and the matrix of cross-impact multiplications were applied to classification analysis.

12 barriers were prioritized and categorized by experts in a focus group to optimize efforts and define the materiality of these barriers in implementing ESG strategies within seaport companies.

The implications of this study provide an alternative approach for ESG management in the context of seaports that can be applied in different regions by experts' opinion assessment.

No prior studies assessed the barriers and strategies for green investments in ESG from the port sector perspective.

This study aims to investigate how phishers apply persuasion principles and construct deceptive URLs in mobile instant messaging (MIM) phishing.

In total, 67 examples of real-world MIM phishing attacks were collected from various online sources. Each example was coded using established guidelines from the literature to identify the persuasion principles, and the URL construction techniques employed.

The principles of social proof, liking and authority were the most widely used in MIM phishing, followed by scarcity and reciprocity. Most phishing examples use three persuasion principles, often a combination of authority, liking and social proof. In contrast to email phishing but similar to vishing, the social proof principle was the most commonly used in MIM phishing. Phishers implement the social proof principle in different ways, most commonly by claiming that other users have already acted (e.g. crafting messages that indicate the sender has already benefited from the scam). In contrast to email, retail and fintech companies are the most commonly targeted in MIM phishing. Furthermore, phishers created deceptive URLs using multiple URL obfuscation techniques, often using spoofed domains, to make the URL complex by adding random characters and using homoglyphs.

The insights from this study provide a theoretical foundation for future research on the psychological aspects of phishing in MIM apps. The study provides recommendations that software developers should consider when developing automated anti-phishing solutions for MIM apps and proposes a set of MIM phishing awareness training tips.

This study aims to fill various gaps detected in the literature on mass prestige (hereafter referred to as masstige) theory. The originality of the work stems from the multidimensional application of Paul’s (2015) model, the introduction of brand addiction as a construct from the consumer-brand relationship (CBR) theory within the context of wines and the exploration of a new and less studied sector in masstige strategies.

A structured questionnaire was distributed to collect data from masstige wine brand buyers in Portugal, of whom 166 completed the questionnaire correctly. A conceptual model was developed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings include that only two dimensions of Paul’s (2015) masstige scale affect brand addiction: brand knowledge and excitement and status. Brand addiction has a positive effect on brand loyalty and electronic word of mouth (eWOM), and brand loyalty has a positive impact on eWOM. Theoretical and managerial implications were explored.

This research added a CBR perspective to masstige theory and applied masstige theory to wine brands for the first time. These three distinctive aspects collectively contribute to the novelty and significance of the research, opening up exciting possibilities for future investigations and providing a valuable contribution to the academic community and the wine industry alike.