Search results

This paper aims to investigate the ways in which gender influences entrepreneurial motivations and barriers in the Brazilian tourism sector. As an economic process, tourism entrepreneurship is widely spread in Brazil, with tourism development programs promoting it as a strategy to empower women, however limited research exists on how gender roles influence entrepreneurial ideals. This nationwide study aims to provide a contemporary insight into how tourism entrepreneurs in Brazil are situated within current entrepreneurship theorizing by questioning the complexity caused as gender roles influence entrepreneurial conceptualizations of what constitute motivations and barriers.

This study uses online questionnaires aimed, for the first time, at a large variety of tourism sub-sectors in Brazil. Having nation-wide scope, the questionnaires produce knowledge on what motivates and what constrains Brazilian tourism entrepreneurs through a gender lens. Quantitative analysis using SPSS statistical software tests the statistical significance of results and is complemented by the integration of feminist economic theories into the analytical framework.

The current study’s findings highlight the invisibility of gender’s workings, as the majority of participants did not conceive gender as playing a role in their entrepreneurial experience. Entrepreneurial motivations and barriers show a departure from past literature, such as the fact that similar numbers of male and female tourism entrepreneurs perceive networking as a significant entrepreneurial barrier. This and other interesting findings prompt for alternative conceptualizations of discourses surrounding women’s involvement in tourism entrepreneurship.

This study consists of an original contribution to knowledge on tourism entrepreneurship in Brazil as this is the first time an empirical study has been made on a nation-wide scale regarding the role of gender in Brazilian tourism entrepreneurs’ motivations and constraints.

This chapter presents the strategy employed to develop a methodology to evaluate research collaboration networks in a higher education context. The research design comprised four successive tracks. We understand these methodological tracks as the tactics employed to organise available means to accomplish an objective. In the first track, we selected the key subjects, the ego networks and the network leaders to be analysed. In the second track, we visualised networks through graphs. In the third track, the statements of the subjects about formed networks were pursued, based on interviews. In the fourth track, case studies were researched and described. The study included qualitative and quantitative data to uncover the interactive processes of doing collaborative research inside a network. The methodology was useful to obtain visual understanding of the networks of co-authorial relations, quantitative and qualitative markers to be used in participatory evaluation of collaborative research networks, as well as an extended view of the life cycles of collaborative research networks. The main contribution of the chapter is to show a sequence of cross-disciplinary methodological steps allowing to understand different types of relations inside research network.

This study shows how 152 researchers from several research centers of a Portuguese university perceive the facilitators and barriers to knowledge management. Three domains are considered – knowledge gathering, creation, and diffusion. Three dimensions of barriers and facilitators were considered – individuals, socio‐organizational processes, and technology. Regarding both barriers and facilitators, but mainly barriers, the findings suggest that researchers are more sensitive to the “soft” aspects of knowledge management (i.e., individuals, socio‐organizational processes) than to the “hard” ones (i.e., technology). This suggests that, although technology is an important facilitator, it is people and their interactions that create knowledge and promote the knowledge flow.

The paper aims to identify and discuss barriers and facilitators to four processes implied in knowledge management (KM; acquisition, creation, sharing, and transfer). Technological, socio‐organizational, and individual barriers and facilitators are considered.

A literature review was carried out. Four databases (ISI Web of Science, EBSCO, Emerald, and ProQuest) were used for identifying relevant papers. The search covered the time period between January 1985 and August 2010.

Factors affecting the four KM processes involve some form of social capital and the interaction between technology and users' needs and activities. In addition to technology and social capital variables, other factors such as leadership, performance‐oriented culture, training and development practices, and T‐shaped skills emerged as relevant for KM processes. The authors conclude that KM thrives in positive organizational contexts and fails when the infrastructure establishing positive contexts is absent.

A hybrid positive approach (adopting the “positive deviance” lens of positive organizational scholarship without neglecting the negative features of organizational life) is adopted. The authors argue that the strategies to fight negative features of organizational life for improving KM processes are potentially different from those seeking to promote positive qualities with the same aim. A fruitful perspective for studying and improving KM processes may be to look for the constructive tension emerging from positive and negative features of organizational life. In short: only by advancing positivity and removing negativity may KM flourish.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the case of the Valorbio research project, in which students of different high-level programs were involved in the experimental work and in the dissemination of results in collaboration with the research team.

The inclusion in higher education curricula of content related to the sustainable development should be a preferred mechanism for the dissemination of good practices of sustainability. Another equally important way to achieve this is to involve students in research projects that seek solutions to the societal challenges related to sustainable growth. The Valorbio project aims to meet the needs for treating and reusing wastewater and solid waste. Its main goal was the development of modular systems for wastewater treatment based on constructed wetlands, exploring the possibility of the treatment systems being composed of solid waste and by-products from significant industrial sectors.

The students’ contribution to the research work was relevant and simultaneously allowed them to acquire skills on sustainable development. Additionally, the students contributed to the dissemination of the results. The Valorbio project can thus be considered a successful application of the concept of project-based learning (PBL), as a way to include sustainability issues content in the higher education curricula.

The applied experimental work had an original approach regarding the equipment design, the waste materials valuation, as well as the integration of waste treatment processes in the circular economy paradigm. This paper is the first reported PBL experience involving students of short-cycle technical–professional programs in partnership with first and second-level students and a research team.

This study aims to examine online service quality factors as main driving forces in the degree of intention of using the Taxation Department web site expressed by certified accountants.

Drawing on a quantitative methodological approach, a survey was undertaken among a sample of 351 certified accountants to empirically test the proposed model. The paper used an ordered logit model to estimate the effects of several online service quality factors on the certified accountant's degree of intention of using the Portuguese government's tax services web site.

The results identify a number of key aspects of online service quality that contribute to the increase of the use of the taxation web site by certified accountants. This is particularly evident for web site characteristics such as convenience, research facilities, privacy and security, speed and ease of access.

This study offers the opportunity to rethink existing policies and to set forth specific measures that can be implemented to establish rigorous quality standards.

The paper provides an empirical analysis regarding the online service quality factors that determine the degree of use of a taxation web site. The methodological framework followed in this study has not, as far as is known, been used previously within the literature in this context.

This study aims to analyse the driving forces that either favour or inhibit internet adoption by organisations operating in the non‐profit sector.

Following a quantitative methodological approach, a national survey was applied to a sample of 392 Portuguese non‐profit organisations to empirically test the proposed conceptual model. Logistic regression, which enables to test models to predict categorical outcomes with two categories was used to analyse the data.

Findings drawn from this study identify key factors that facilitate or inhibit internet adoption by non‐profit organisations. The internet is perceived as a potential tool for the dissemination of social values and programs of action, the improvement of public image, the enhancement of customer satisfaction, and the improvement of service delivery. By contrast, lack of expertise and start‐up costs have been identified as the most significant inhibitors. In addition, size, age and international affiliation are shown as important internet adoption facilitators.

This study offers the opportunity to rethink existing policies and to set forth specific measures that can be designed to encourage and foster the use of the internet by non‐profit organisations.

The relevance of this study is set against a lack of consistent, detailed research on the factors determining internet adoption within the context of the non‐profit sector.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the antecedents and consequences of online satisfaction within the context of e‐government, which increasingly play an important role in modern public administrative management. Specifically, this paper examines the taxation services offered through the web‐based electronic declaration system.

Following a quantitative methodological approach, a survey was applied to a sample of 351 certified accountants to empirically test the conceptual model. Structural equation modelling was used to test the conceptual model.

The results of this empirical study validate four out of five hypotheses. It was found that convenience is an important antecedent of both satisfaction and online service quality. Additionally, findings suggest that both the degree of satisfaction and online service quality impacts on the intention of using the taxation website. Overall, results indicate that most of the relationships examined in the private service sector can be extended to the e‐government context.

This paper offers the opportunity to rethink how the Portuguese Department of Taxation web site provides online services and how it satisfies the needs of users while complying with their fiscal obligations.

Despite the entrenched nature of governmental bureaucracy which slows down the adoption of the Internet, market pressures toward fulfilling users' needs has become an increasingly important requirement. This study revealed that the proposed research model, which derives from the private sector, is relevant to the public services context.

This article sets out to examine the market orientation construct within the context of the non‐profit sector. Given the specificity of non‐profit organisations and the increasingly demanding resource environments in which these organisations operate, the adoption of the concept of marketing is viewed as an adaptive strategy for ensuring that organisations receive the necessary resources for accomplishing their missions and carrying out their activities. In line with this, the present article aims to investigate the extent to which the type of revenue strategy is related to the organisation's market orientation, towards donors and/or users.

Drawing from a resource dependence conceptual framework, the article reports findings from a quantitative study of a representative sample of Portuguese non‐profit organisations (NPOs). This approach was complemented by qualitative research methods. Combining these two approaches has given access to different levels of reality and provided a more holistic understanding of the phenomena under study.

The results from the present study demonstrate that Portuguese NPOs favour a market orientation towards users/beneficiaries, revealing a less proactive behaviour in relation to their donors. In the present study, the resource dependence theory has proved to be an important theoretical tool for understanding market orientation strategies within the non‐profit sector. The link between the type of resource strategy and the organisation's market orientation stands out as an important finding derived from the present study and is particularly visible in relation to donor market orientation. In addition, empirical data partially support the conclusion that diversification of revenue sources is likely to favour a higher degree of market orientation. Further refinement of the adequacy of the MARKOR scale within the context of the non‐profit sector stands out as an avenue for further research.

As the sample used for analysis was drawn from Portugal, the generalisability of the results to other countries remains to be tested.

The findings of the present study may assist public policy‐makers in the design of more adequate policies in the allocation of resources to non‐profit organisations.

The study contributes to a better understanding of market orientation in the specific context of the non‐profit sector. Moreover, this is done through applying the market orientation scale to two different stakeholders (i.e. donors and users/beneficiaries) in the evaluation of market orientation and in its relationship with resource strategies.