Search results

This study describes how maintenance capability should be created during the design and construction phases of construction projects. Purpose of the abstract to define the elements for creating the maintenance capability and the process to be used in construction life cycle projects for buildings.

An inductive and qualitative research method was used to construct the proposed process based on the literature and 18 interviews in two large construction companies.

The results indicate that the maintenance phase is usually overlooked during the design and construction phases, and capabilities are not systematically built. In particular, processes are lacking in data management, causing severe problems in maintenance.

This study presents a process including key requirements and activities for creating maintenance capability in conjunction with the design and construction phases, which is novel to the literature. The validated process can be adapted based on the needs of the construction company.

The purpose of the study is to understand how the consumption of online pornography runs through fantasy, discourse and the exercise of female sexuality.

First, the study analyzed a few information obtained from a secret group of the social media Facebook. Secondly, the research was developed based on the information gathered during the observation period; 11 in-depth interviews were conducted with women that participated in the aforementioned group. In order to analyze the data, the study used the French discourse analysis as methodological tool.

It was possible to realize that the consumption of pornographic content is motivated by curiosity, pursuit of variety and sexual fantasies, and it ends up strengthening stereotypes related to the concept of beauty and body standards. Also, the consumption of pornography can be seen as an important feature in the reformulation of perceptions and creation of senses related to pornography itself, pleasure, self-knowledge and in the constitution of the subjectivities of the consumers, despite the influence of the cultural context in which they are inserted into.

The consumption of online pornography can be seen as an important “social operator”; that is, the consumption of pornography reflects and refracts what is socially established as beautiful and adequate in terms of the human figure. The outcomes of this research lead to debates that can challenge standardized world perspectives, besides expanding the discussion of such consumption made by women.

Taking into consideration the significant volume of pornography consumption and the high figures that this market indicates, one can notice that literature related to consumption studies has neglected this specific theme.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the structural similarities between stricto sensu post-graduation programs in management through the formation of clusters, with the strategy tripod as a backdrop (Peng, 2002; Peng et al., 2009).

The co-plot method was used as a tool. It was chosen because it simultaneously enables joint and individual observations of comments and variables.

The results showed the formation of clusters among the programs, identifying a series of similarities between their components. The age and number of lines of research of the programs were the determining variables to identify isomorphism among the clusters.

The main limitation of the study lies in the updating of information at the source of the data collection. All the data were collected from the Sucupira Platform for CAPES Triennial Evaluation of 2013. However, when the authors accessed the portals of the programs, the authors found that some data were outdated. Nevertheless, the authors limited themselves to using official data. Therefore, even if the authors found divergences or inconsistencies regarding the published information, the authors decided to use the official data made available by CAPES on the Sucupira Platform for the period in question.

Understanding that the results through the approaches of the industry-based view, resource-based view and institution-based view were insufficient for a thorough analysis, it is demonstrated in isolation that none of these succeeds in explaining the organizational context that permeates Brazilian stricto sensu post-graduation institutions. In this organizational field, the three views are not at the same theoretical level. The institutional view overlaps with the strategic competitive views. Therefore, the study contributes to reorganizing the strategy tripod and the proposed articulation between the arrangement of theory, method and field research.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency in financial intermediation and the cost efficiency in banking service of credit unions in Brazil, based on essentially accounting variables, and to analyze the temporal evolution of the efficiency of these cooperatives.

With a sample of 315 cooperatives over the period from 2007 to 2014, this research uses a two-stage process: application of regression models with panel data to verify which variables are related to the defined outputs, with the reduction of 31 variables to 8 variables in both models; and application of the data envelopment analysis method to obtain an analysis of credit unions’ efficiency.

The results demonstrate a high level of efficiency in financial intermediation, with low variation over time, associated with a low efficiency in the banking service, in which few cooperatives have remained efficient over time. In addition, the cooperatives with highest efficiency in financial intermediation were also the most efficient in providing services.

This research has some limitations about the capacity of the proxies used to capture the real effect of the variables and assumptions of economic relations resulting in restrictions to generalize the results.

Cooperatives are usually analyzed under just one dimension. By separating the analysis into financial intermediation and banking services, cooperatives that are more efficient in each dimension can be identified, in addition to analyzing the evolution over time. The authors found that efficiency tends to be lower in banking services, and few cooperatives remain at the highest level of efficiency over time in both models.

Credit unions provide an important service in the banking and credit market. Therefore, understanding its operation and the characteristics that influence its efficiency allows a better management of the cooperatives themselves and a greater understanding of this important segment of the financial market.

This study aims to establish a Japanese-style healthcare program customized for Japan and Asia under ISO 9001: 2008 (ISO: International Organization for Standardization) to improve problem areas and to inspect the effectiveness of the program. Furthermore, the authors wanted to create this health program using the ISO widely available in Asian countries and make an international contribution.

The authors implemented a 6- to 10-month health program in Minowa Town, Matsumoto City and Nagano City in Japan. This study assessed findings from pedometric, anthropometric and blood pressure measurements and physical fitness, blood chemistry and brain function tests.

The comparisons were made by examining the interaction effects between groups of participants. Groups from three regions in Japan showed significant differences on the physical fitness tests; regarding the 10-meter obstacle walk, the results of the Minowa participants showed the greatest improvement and the Matsumoto participants showed the second greatest improvement. In the six-min walk, the time of the Minowa participants significantly improved.

This health education program, which has been conducted by the Japanese authors since 1998, measures anthropometry, brain function and physical fitness and performs blood tests before and after the program and it measures energy consumption with a pedometer during the program. With the aim of improving exercise via encouragement from friends and a sense of community with fellow participants, participants learn together with hands-on training in tai chi and aerobics about the importance of ongoing exercise and proper nutrition. This health education met the Health Education ISO in 2014.

Since 2010, Nagano Prefecture, including Minowa Town, Matsumoto City and Nagano City, where our study was carried out, has been the area with the highest life expectancy rates in Japan.

The authors want to make this health promotion through ISO widely available in Asian countries and an international contribution.

This study aimed to appropriately establish a Japanese-style healthcare program under the ISO 9001:2008 to improve problem areas and inspect its effectiveness.

Hyperautomation is a technological concept whose popularity has been growing continuously since the German manufacturing industry “initiated” the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), whereas, on the basis of theory, hyperautomation is a term still new and little recognized. This applies equally to scientific studies (articles, conference reports) and empirical studies (quantitative, qualitative). Therefore, this article attempts to fill definition gap that exists in the literature on management and quality sciences on the term hyperautomation.

The authors use literature review approach to identify the gaps in the existing literature on hyperautomation. They present a nominal definition of hyperautomation, discuss related issues and provide a comparative perspective between hyperautomation and automation.

The article’s findings include a precise definition of hyperautomation and the problems it raises. The authors point out that the term “hyperautomation” is still relatively new and underutilized in the management and quality sciences literature. It also compares hyperautomation to automation from several angles and emphasizes how it affects businesses, industries and other economic sectors.

Authors emphasize that in order to deploy hyperautomation successfully, enterprises must take a distributed and integrated approach.

This article addresses a gap in the management and quality sciences literature about the definition of hyperautomation. Authors give a thorough explanation of hyperautomation, along with relevant problems, useful implications and a comparison between hyperautomation versus automation.

This paper aims to evaluate the relation between governance and financial efficiency of credit unions in Brazil. The study shows how poor financial efficiency in credit unions may result from undesirable configurations in executive management and other variables related to governance.

The study develops an innovative methodology to classify credit unions according to the level of governance using indicators of representativeness and participation, leadership, management and supervision. This methodology integrates the use of multiple correspondence and cluster analysis. The study then applies stochastic frontier models to analyze how governance affects the indicators of financial efficiency.

The results highlight that better governance substantially increases the efficiency of credit unions in terms of a higher level of credit operations per institution.

The paper uses a pioneering survey applied by the Central Bank to almost the total population of credit unions in Brazil. The results highlight how to operationalize a subjective and broad concept related to cooperative governance to identify the remarkable impacts of good governance practices on the financial efficiency of credit unions.

The goal of this work is to create a computational finite element model to perform thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) with the usage of a non-ideal load frequency, containing the effects of the material thermal properties.

Throughout this document, the methodology of the model is presented first, followed by the procedure and results. The last part is reserved to results, discussion and conclusions.

This work had the main goal to create a model to perform TSA with the usage of non-ideal loading frequencies, considering the materials’ thermal properties. Loading frequencies out of the ideal range were applied and the model showed capable of good results. The created model reproduced acceptably the TSA, with the desired conditions.

This work creates a model to perform TSA with the usage of non-ideal loading frequencies, considering the materials’ thermal properties.

The optimisation of forest fuels supply chain involves several entities actors, and particularities. To successfully manage these supply chains, efficient tools must be devised with the ability to deal with stakeholders dynamic interactions and to optimize the supply chain performance as a whole while being stable and robust, even in the presence of uncertainties. This work proposes a framework to coordinate different planning levels and event-based models to manage the forest-based supply chain. In particular, with the new methodology, the resilience and flexibility of the biomass supply chain is increased through a closed-loop system based on the system forecasts provided by a discrete-event model. The developed event-based predictive model will be described in detail, explaining its link with the remaining elements. The implemented models and their links within the proposed framework are presented in a case study in Finland and results are shown to illustrate the advantage of the proposed architecture.