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The maintenance of process improvement programs within organizations is not an easy task. Some processes do not maintain the results achieved with the improvement project and again present low performance shortly after completion of the project. This paper aims to identify the socio-technical causes responsible for the loss of process performance after applying improvement projects, in order to support the mitigation of the problem.

A systematic review of the literature was carried out, which allowed the selection of 28 articles. The empirical stage used the benchmarking technique, along a large Brazilian mining company with an international standard of production and quality. This organization has been using improvement projects for more than ten years.

The research complements the literature regarding the prioritization of the 26 identified failures and the identification of seven new failure factors and two resources. Findings in this study can be an inspiration for other organizations, considering the similarity of methodological aspects of improvement projects since internationally standardized methodologies such as Six Sigma, Lean, Kaizen and 5S are used.

The research presented a proposal of guidelines that corroborate to the mitigation of loss of process performance after improvement project.

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.

This study aims to estimate the overall SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and evaluate the accuracy of an antibody rapid test compared to a reference serological assay during a COVID-19 outbreak in a prison complex housing over 13,000 prisoners in Brasília.

The authors obtained a randomized, stratified representative sample of each prison unit and conducted a repeated serosurvey among prisoners between June and July 2020, using a lateral-flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA). Samples were also retested using a chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLIA) to compare SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and 21-days incidence, as well as to estimate the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) and determine the diagnostic accuracy of the LFIA test.

This study identified 485 eligible individuals and enrolled 460 participants. Baseline and 21-days follow-up seroprevalence were estimated at 52.0% (95% CI 44.9–59.0) and 56.7% (95% CI 48.2–65.3) with LFIA; and 80.7% (95% CI 74.1–87.3) and 81.1% (95% CI 74.4–87.8) with CLIA, with an overall IFR of 0.02%. There were 78.2% (95% CI 66.7–89.7) symptomatic individuals among the positive cases. Sensitivity and specificity of LFIA were estimated at 43.4% and 83.3% for IgM; 46.5% and 91.5% for IgG; and 59.1% and 77.3% for combined tests.

The authors found high seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within the prison complex. The occurrence of asymptomatic infection highlights the importance of periodic mass testing in addition to case-finding of symptomatic individuals; however, the field performance of LFIA tests should be validated. This study recommends that vaccination strategies consider the inclusion of prisoners and prison staff in priority groups.

This paper aims to analyze how judgment bias (optimism vs pessimism) and temporal distance influence self-control decisions. This research also analyzes the mediating role of perceived control on judgment bias and temporal distance.

Three studies (one laboratory and two online experiments) analyze how judgment bias and temporal distance influence self-control decisions on consumers’ willingness to pay.

The findings uncover an important boundary condition of temporal distance on self-control decisions. In contrast to previous research, the findings indicate that individuals exposed to optimism (vs pessimism) bias display more self-control in the future and make choices that are more indulgent in the present. The findings also reveal that perceived control mediates the effects of judgment bias and temporal distance.

The findings help managers to adapt short- and long-term marketing efforts, based on consumers’ momentary judgment biases and on their chronic judgment bias orientation.

This research contributes to the literature on self-control and temporal distance, showing that judgment bias reverses previous research findings on self-control decisions.

In specifically examining uses of freemium applications for children, this study aims to investigate the effects on user well-being after the experiential value by examining the influence of experiential value in terms of domain-specific innovativeness; the impact of domain-specific innovativeness in terms of child well-being; the moderating role of child socialization; and the relevance of contextual variables associated with media exposure during freemium game use.

The study is based on a survey of children who had downloaded freemium games on their smartphones. A total of 410 completed questionnaires were collected from children of 9 to 12 years of age. Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation models were applied to examine and test the study hypotheses.

The results indicate that experiential value influences domain-specific innovativeness; domain-specific innovativeness is a significant predictor of well-being; parental materialism and communication with friends significantly moderates domain-specific innovativeness and well-being; and contextual variables do not influence the model.

Public policy managers should be cognizant of these results and should make every effort to prevent the identified relationships from becoming too strong, given the strong effect of domain-specific innovativeness on child well-being.

This paper contributes to the extant literature by incorporating experiential value and domain-specific innovativeness variables within a comprehensive model and by accounting for the effects of relevant contextual variables and the moderating role of child socialization.

Hedonic and utilitarian shopping values have been researched since the mid-1980s in the fields of marketing, retail and specially on consumer behaviour. A number of studies have found evidence of their effects on satisfaction, buying intention and loyalty, but others have found no such effects or negative results. The purpose of this study is to apply a meta-analytic review on the shopping values.

This paper presents a meta-analysis of the relationship between hedonic and utilitarian value on shopping response, using 190 studies. The authors also limited their search to the past 19 years (1995-2014).

The findings are as follows: hedonic shopping value is positively associated with utilitarian, ρ = 0.56; hedonic and utilitarian exhibit positive main effects on satisfaction, buying intention, loyalty, perceived benefits and search for information; in general, these associations are stronger (vs weaker) for utilitarian value; the effect size for the association between utilitarian and buying intention is stronger in the experimental condition and the indirect effect of hedonic on value, loyalty and word-of-mouth by the mediating effect of value.

The authors proposed and found support for the parallel mediating effect. They also observed that not only hedonic and utilitarian shopping values had indirect effects on loyalty and word-of-mouth through perceived value and satisfaction but also both shopping values had different effects depending on the respective mediator. The indirect effects of hedonic values occur because the emotional and psychological circumstances of experience increase the perceived value, influencing consumers’ responses.

Retailers can create specific stores for consumers to attend to their shopping values. For example, the Adidas brand centre in Beijing/China provides the consumer with a unique and interactive retail experience. This kind of concept store and its experience (e.g. tunnel entry and team room) are congruent with shoppers’ hedonic value. Conversely, Nike Factory Store in the USA provides the consumer with a simple and fast retail experience.

The authors provide sufficient evidence that the two dimensions, hedonic and utilitarian value, are positively associated. This result is congruent with Batra and Ahtola (1991), Babin et al. (1994) and Spangenberg et al. (1997). The results support Chiu et al.’s (2005) argument that utilitarian and hedonic are positively associated based on Fishbein and Ajzen’s affect–cognition link and suggested that the instrumental and functional values are related to spontaneous responses that are more subjective and personal.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to distinguish between various types of antecedents and consequences of impulse buying. The authors tested it using a meta-analytical approach.

The authors examined 12 databases and analyzed 178 relationships in 100 articles. For the quantitative data analysis, the authors used the coefficient of correlation r as a metric to measure the effect size of the studied scope variables.

The findings of this meta-analysis demonstrated significant relation of antecedents and consequences of the impulse buying behavior, such as consumer impulsiveness (r = 0.464), materialistic consumption (r = 0.344), purchase pleasure (r = 0.270), hedonic value (r = 0.311), income (r = 0.703), gender (r = 0.150), age (r = −0.062), store atmosphere (r = 0.166), decision-making (r = 0.703) and positive emotions (r = 0.323).

This meta-analysis reviewed relationships found worldwide in the literature, expanding and improving the current knowledge. The meta-analysis identified ways that research on impulse buying is lacking and presented suggestions for the elaboration of new studies to allow future researchers to better define their agendas.

This meta-analysis brings important questions, such as impulse buying behavior is associated not only with consumer impulsiveness but also with materialistic consumption.

This research tested the impact of the antecedents and consequences of impulse buying and presented important results through this meta-analytical review. This meta-analysis contributes to the marketing literature, with a set of empirical generalizations, including relationship coefficients and calculated fail-safe numbers.

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic framework with a meta-analytical approach to distinguish various types of antecedents and consequences of satisfaction in the banking sector.

The authors conducted searches in 13 databases and analysed 811 relationships in 210 articles. For the quantitative data analysis, the authors used the coefficient of correlation r as a metric variable to measure the effect size of the studied scope variables.

The findings of this meta-analysis demonstrated ten dimensions that directly influence satisfaction in the banking sector: a bank’s atmosphere, special treatment and relational benefits, timesaving features, the dimensions and determinants of service quality, customers’ overall perceptions of service quality, end-user computing, service recovery, external factors, strategic orientation and behavioural outcomes. These ten dimensions were derived from 55 variables.

This meta-analysis reviewed relationships found worldwide in the literature, expanding and improving the current knowledge. It identified ways that research on satisfaction in the banking sector is lacking and presents suggestions for the elaboration of new studies to allow future researchers to better define their agendas.

The results show that managers should care about satisfaction because it results from the consumer’s banking experience. The ten dimensions affect satisfaction to differing degrees.

This research tested the impact of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction in the banking sector and presented important results through this meta-analytical review. This meta-analysis contributes to the marketing literature, with a set of empirical generalizations, including relationship coefficients and calculated fail-safe numbers.

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic framework with a meta-analytical approach to find various types of antecedents, consequences and moderation effects of the technological acceptance model (TAM) in banking contexts.

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of a total of 142 articles, which generated 636 observations, in an accumulated sample of 45,781 respondents.

The findings of this meta-analysis demonstrated 18 constructs that were antecedent to the TAM and four constructs that functioned as consequences. Most of these relationships were significant and consistent. The authors also found some methodological, cultural, economic and theoretical moderations effects between TAM constructs and the attitudes/behavioural intentions of banking technological devices.

This meta-analysis reviewed the relationships found worldwide in the literature on TAM constructs in banking contexts. It was possible to identify new avenues for future research. Some specific limitations, such as the non-use of qualitative studies and the clipping of adverse concepts, exist in the secondary data and should be registered.

The work could assist managers in decision-making because the findings resulting from the meta-analysis are more consistent than those from traditional primary surveys.

This research tested the impact of the antecedents, consequences and moderators of the TAM in the banking sector and presented important results via a meta-analytical review. This meta-analysis contributes to the marketing literature by offering a set of empirical generalisations, including relationship coefficients and calculated fail-safe numbers.

Human beings spend about a third of their day working, so it is very important that they are integrated into a good community work environment. When the setting is teleworking in a family and housing context, it is important to keep a good environment and also a good physical, psychological and ergonomic aspects to attain job performance. The purpose of this paper is to characterize teleworking carried out in Portuguese communities in the context of the state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey questionnaire was used, which analyzed general information about teleworking and the individual’s adaptation process and the difficulties they faced during the teleworking period. The sample consists of 359 individuals aged 18 years or over, who were teleworking in their homes and in a family environment.

The results show that adapting to teleworking was easy or very easy and that it happened very quickly. The main difficulties encountered by the individuals were the lack of professional interaction/communication with coworkers, the lack of resources related to support infrastructures, such as the internet or a printer, and the reconciliation of teleworking with family life/household chores/dedication to children and time/schedule management.

This study hopes to contribute to the increase of the scientific knowledge in the teleworking field and to allow companies to rethink the teleworking strategies to optimize resources and costs and to improve the organization’s productivity without harming the quality of life and well-being of their workers.