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As economies with high economic complexity and productive capabilities may easily adapt their productive structure due to product differentiation and innovation, the central variable of competitiveness for these countries is the product quality, not price. On the other hand, the price can be an important determinant of less complex countries, and hence, real exchange rate (RER) misalignments may have long-term impacts. This paper aims to empirically assess variations in the magnitude of the impact in RER misalignments on output growth subject to countries’ economic complexity.

The estimation technique used is the generalized method of moments-System estimator as this method is robust to reverse causality. Heterogeneous regressions using interaction models are undertaken to analyze to what extend promoting economic complexity can reduce price competitiveness dependence and allow countries to grow faster without relying on cost competitiveness.

Estimates show that economic complexity (which measures technological and productive capabilities) determines cross-country differences regarding the effects of RER misalignments on countries’ long-term growth rates. The results suggest that exchange rate devaluations may not be effective for countries at the top end of the technological ladder while an overvalued RER may damage the long-term growth rate of countries with low levels of economic complexity.

This paper contributes to the literature by empirically investigating the impact of RER misalignments in countries with distinct technological and productive capabilities based on the recent developments of countries’ economic complexity analysis. It investigates whether more diversified and complex economies are less sensitive to RER misalignments as they can adapt their production, undertake other tasks, create new products and increase the quality of products they produce. Less complex economies, on the other hand, are less capable of innovating because it demands productive capabilities they do not have, and hence, they are more dependent on their current export basket.

This paper aims to assist higher education institutions (HEIs) in their decision-making process to define initiatives and foster research projects contributing to sustainable development (SD) and minimizing the deficits found in the municipalities.

A documental analysis was performed to select HEIs and Brazilian regional development indicators. Then, the assessment of the sustainable and institutional performance of Brazilian municipalities that have HEIs consisted of three parts: clustering with an unsupervised machine learning model, ranking with a hybrid multi-criteria decision making method and visualization of sustainability performance with the dashboard.

The critical analysis of institutional and sustainability indicators contributes to a more active role of HEIs in matters of social responsibility, with a more holistic view of the performance and quality of municipal education. Furthermore, this critical analysis creates a scenario where HEIs can develop public policy proposals in partnership with the government to mitigate the main issues identified.

With this study, HEIs will be able to direct their actions to minimize the deficits found in the municipalities, consolidating their social responsibility.

This study proposes a new decision-support tool with a dashboard of indicators so that HEIs can foster research projects with a focus on regional SD.

Baru is a fruit of the Brazilian Cerrado, important to the local economy and social culture. The use in food formulation is due to it being highly available and its nutritional profile; however, the changes in the texture of products are still unclear. In this study, an experimental design was conducted to develop cakes by replacing different levels of wheat flour with baru nut flour, and comparing them.

Cakes were developed with 20, 40, 60, and 80 replacement of wheat flour by baru nut flour and compared with standard formulation (100% wheat flour). The physical-chemistry composition of the flour, nutritional composition of the cakes and texture profile analysis were evaluated.

Baru nut flour showed greater protein, lipids, and ash than wheat flour, and this result was also observed in the cakes developed. The cake with 80% of almond baru flour showed an increase of 60.3% in protein. The texture profile analysis showed that the addition of baru nut flour affected the texture of products. The cakes showed more hardness and chewiness; however, the springiness and cohesiveness were decreased.

The findings of this study demonstrate that baru nut flour is a great option as a new ingredient for bakery products, due the increase of protein. This is the first study analyzing the effect of baru nut flour addition on the texture profile of bakery products. These results can orientate future studies, especially sensory assays.

This paper aimed to identify the impact that Industry 4.0 can have on the service sector and how its combination can generate benefits for Sustainability 4.0 in the context of the Triple Bottom Line.

A Systematic Literature Review (RSL) was developed using the following combinations of keywords on the Web of Science and Scopus databases: Industry 4.0 And Sustainability, Industry 4.0 And Service, and Industry 4.0 And Sustainable Development, in which 24 papers were selected.

As a result, the authors found 100 benefits for sustainable development, which were further categorized into 54 advantages for the economic area, 25 for the social segment and 21 for environmental aspects. In this way, the results can help private companies understand the use of these technologies aimed at sustainable growth, plus bolstering the government to conduct public policies to encourage these practices in technology organizations.

As a practical implication, this study offers insight into the evolution of sustainable development. It enables the emergence of works that wish to explore the service sector, providing relevant information for decision-making and influencing managers and policymakers on the importance of applying Industry 4.0 toward the sustainability of the service sector and its applications.

The originality of this study lies in expanding the understanding generated by 4.0 technologies, by diverting attention from the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, which have abundant literature on the subject. With this, this work demonstrated that modern technologies have greater possibilities of an action directed at the service sector, in addition to being able to contribute to Sustainability 4.0 from the perspective of the sustainability tripod.

This study assesses outsourcing risks using the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP).

This descriptive research combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Risks identified in the literature review were classified with FAHP using questionnaire data from respondents in operations, procurement and risk management in Brazilian Navy Industrial Military Organizations (OMPS-I, by its Portuguese acronym).

The results indicate that FAHP is a method capable of producing relevant information to decision-making in the risk management process. A framework was created incorporating 16 major risks related to outsourcing. The results point to higher inherent risk levels related to outsourcing in the context of OMPS-Is: in order, hidden costs and unrealized savings; loss of knowledge/skills and/or corporate memory and difficulty in reacquiring a function; and loss of opportunities and reputation. The category of economic risk was revealed as the most important.

This study improves understanding of outsourcing risks and improves risk assessment by refining decision-making information and developing a system of decision analysis with several criteria. It also contributes to the development and implementation of a usable version of decision analysis with several criteria at a managerial level.

The Public–Private Partnership (PPP) modality plays an important role in the procurement of global infrastructure projects. Regarding PPP's complex transaction structure, pricing of a PPP project is critical to both parties where the government pursues a high value for money (VFM) and the investor strives to maximize its financial gains. Despite the straightforward win–win principle, a formidable compromise is often the case to end up with a fairly acceptable price, subject to many determinants such as the risk profile, expected return, technological innovation and capacities of both parties. Among them, this study chooses to examine the “managing flexibility” (MF) capacity of investors in pricing of a PPP project, in light of the widely recognized importance of a real-option perspective toward the long term, complex and uncertain PPP arrangement. This study addresses two major questions: (1) how is MF in PPP projects to be valued and (2) how are PPP projects to be priced when considering a project's MF value.

A binomial tree model is used to evaluate the MF value in PPP projects. Based on the developed MF pricing model, net present value (NPV) and adjusted VFM value are then calculated. Finally, a multi-objective decision-making method (MODM) was adopted to determine the optimal level of returns based on invested capital (ROIC), return on operation maintenance (ROOM) and concession period.

The applicability and functionality of the proposed model is investigated using a real project case. For a given return, extended NPV and adjusted VFM value were calculated and analyzed using sensitivity analysis. Factor influence is shown by the model to be dependent on factor impact on cash flow. Subsequently, a multi-objective decision-making (MODM) model was adopted to determine the optimal level of returns, where the solution approximates the real-world bidding price. Results confirm that the pricing model provides a reliable and practical PPP proposal pricing tool.

This study proposes an integrated framework for valuing MF in PPP projects and thus more accurately determine optimal pricing of PPP projects than revealed in extant research. The model offers a practical tool to aid in the valuation of PPP projects.

Shortly before the Second World War, a woman who had never accepted her orphan status, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, nicknamed ‘Little Coco’ by her father and known as ‘Coco’ to her relatives, became the first women in history to build a world-class industrial empire. By 1935, Coco, a fashion designer and industry captain, was employing more than 4,000 workers and had sold more than 28,000 dresses, tailored jackets and women's suits. Born into a poor family and raised in an orphanage, she enjoyed an intense social life in Paris in the 1920s, rubbing shoulders with artists, creators and the rising stars of her time.

Thanks to her entrepreneurial skills, she was able to innovate in her methods and in her trendsetting approach to fashion design and promotion. Coco Chanel was committed and creative, had the soul of an entrepreneur and went on to become a world leader in a brand new sector combining fashion, accessories and perfumes that she would help shape. By the end of her life, she had redefined French elegance and revolutionized the way people dressed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the benefits of an approach in which document management systems (DMSs) are based on a formal and explicit document model, primarily in terms of facilitating domain-specific customization.

Within this paper, a generic document model is proposed. The model consists of two layers. A general purpose layer, which represents common features of the documents, and a domain-specific layer, modeling properties particular to application domain. The general purpose layer is based on ISO 82045, providing high degree of interoperability with other systems developed with respect to this set of standard.

Splitting document model into the layers enables DMSs to be tailored for each particular domain of application, depending on the general purpose layer. The existence of domain-specific layer allows documents to be interpreted differently in different domains of application.

In order to enable customization of DMS for a particular domain, the implementation of domain-specific document layer is required. Also, the proposed model does not explicitly deal with document dynamics.

The proposed document ontology is general enough to provide the representation of documents not depending on a specific scope of application, yet flexible enough to enable extensions through which domain-specific document features can be expressed. The separation of document model enables development of core DMS offering services relying explicitly on the general purpose layer on one hand, as well as domain-specific customization of DMS on the other.