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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the profitability of 27 universal banks in Portugal over the period from 2002 to 2011.

The paper conducts ordinary least squares estimations with fixed effects using three measures of profitability: the return on average assets, the return on average equity and the net interest margin. Several independent variables were included concerning both bank-specific and macroeconomic and industry-specific characteristics which have not been considered in previous studies. In addition, the sub-sample between 2008 and 2011 was considered for comparative analysis.

The authors concluded that the independent variables selected, with few exceptions, behaved accordingly to what was expected.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first attempt to examine determinants of banks’ profitability in Portugal, both internal and external, using time series data, which have not been considered in previous studies.

This chapter addresses the issue of arbitration in tourism from the perspective of litigation. International tourism requires two or more legal systems to solve a given problem, which creates great complexity. To diminish this effect, organizations have been encouraged to use arbitration instead of courts, and thus, it is necessary to measure its effect on them. The analysis used the Biplot methodology, a multivariate technique in the context of reduced dimensionality. The results obtained indicated that tourism demand and supply were willing to pay for arbitration, but the latter erroneously considered the former unwilling to pay. This chapter suggests that tourism companies can raise the price of their products to increase their profit.

This study aims to operationalize and test some predictions of a social exchange theory of elder abuse. The theory proposes that the combination of low resources and high dependency/low relational power increases the older adult’s risk of abuse. The authors tested these predictions by exploring the association between morality (indicator of resources) and abuse, moderated by social skills (indicator of power).

This was an exploratory study. The authors collected data from 62 participants between 64 and 94 years old who frequented social-recreational centres.

The authors found a positive association between the moral intuition harm/care and the report of emotionally and financially abusive behaviours and denial of rights. The moral intuition authority/respect is negatively associated with the same types of abuse. The effects of moral intuitions on the types of abuse increased in older adults with generally high social skills and low assertiveness.

This study provided initial results for a psychological interpretation of a social exchange theory of elder abuse and highlighted the importance of relational models where moral intuitions interact with social skills to predict elder abuse.

The article aims to introduce the strategic question and demonstrate its relevance and reality. It also profiles the articles selected for the annual global trends issue and explains how they illustrate the various angles impacting the adoption of a new paradigm to measure tourism success.

The paper draws on a review of articles selected to identify commonalities and differences in respect to the evolution of the concepts and methodologies explored in this global trends issue: sustainability, the contribution of tourism to host communities and measures of tourism success. A brief explanation of the positions and proposals presented by authors as well as their key contributions is also presented.

The tourism industry has traditionally been based on economics and financial return, with the metrics for measuring tourism performance remaining fairly static over the years. These placed a strong emphasis on the number of tourists and their levels of expenditure at the destinations. However, it is interesting to note a clear evolution towards a new perspective for a holistic and balanced approach between the economic, social/cultural and environmental dimensions of sustainable tourism development.

This introductory article sets the scene for an emerging paradigm to measure tourism success, and it highlights the various contributions to the development of sustainable tourism and the challenges faced by the tourism sector, the role of Destination Management Organizations and the need for quality data to support decision-making by public and private organizations.

The purpose of this article is to critically review the contributions made by the global trends issue participants and to present the lines of action in the form of a proposal for measuring tourism success that is based on a clear move towards sustainability.

A content analysis of the papers selected was performed so as to identify the most significant outcomes of this global trends issue in terms of the contributions to knowledge and/or professional practice.

The wide range of perspectives put forward by authors provide a thorough review of the concept and practice of sustainability and its application to the tourism sector, explore a variety of angles that are central to the balanced development of tourism and shed light on new approaches to the measurement of tourism success.

The articles contained in this global trends issue demonstrate that tourism cannot solely be an economic equation, but rather an engine for sustainability across its three commonly accepted pillars: Economic, Socio-cultural and Environmental.

The Spain–Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Program launched the “Espomar” project in 2017, with the aim of designing a sustainable and transboundary maritime transport system in the Gulf of Cádiz, which includes the Spanish provinces of Cádiz (its Atlantic coast) and Huelva, together with the Portuguese region of the Algarve. This chapter limits the scope to the Algarve-Huelva connection and the resident population demand. The findings suggest a maritime connection defined and marketed as part of leisure activities. The demand for potential tourism packages created around boat trips appears to be promising. The sun beach, gastronomy wine and culture landscape vectors are the main attractors.

Identifying and assessing social skills has been a powerful way of linking human behaviour and human interaction with their consequences at significant developmental levels. There are some data connecting social skills with interpersonal violence but not yet with elder abuse. The reason might be the scarcity of quick and easy-to-apply measures of social skills. This study aims to adapt and validate the social skills inventory (SSI) (Del Prette and Del Prette, 2001) to the Portuguese population.

The authors conducted two studies. In Study 1, the authors gathered the psychometric characteristics of the SSI-Del-Prette through exploratoryfactor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In Study 2, the authors correlated the new measure with measures of depression and empathy to test for divergent and concurrent validity.

The obtained version of the SSI-Del-Prette showed a good model fit and internal consistency. This measure presented six factors: conversation and social confidence, easiness of self-exposure, self-expression of positive affect, coping assertively with risk, defending interests and opinions and giving and receiving praise. The indicators of convergent and divergent validity supported the integrity of the measure.

The adaptation of this measure of social skills opens new possibilities for studying these skills.

This paper provides an adaptation of a measure of six social skills expanded to the older adult population.

With the growing popularity of social media, it has become common practice for consumers to write online reviews to share their opinion and experience as well as consider others' reviews to inform purchase decision-making. This study investigated how online review sentiments towards four key aspects (food, service, ambience and price) change after a restaurant is awarded a Michelin Star to shed light on how the award of a Michelin Star affects online reviews as well as what factors contribute to positive online restaurant reviews.

The authors conducted a sentiment analysis of online restaurant reviews on TripAdvisor. A total of 8,871 English-written reviews from 87 restaurants located in Europe were extracted using a web crawler developed by Beautiful Soup, and data were then processed using Semantria.

The study findings revealed that overall sentiments decreased after restaurants were awarded a Michelin Star, in which service sentiment was the most affected aspect, followed by food and ambience. Yet, price sentiment showed a prominent increase. This provides valuable insights for Michelin-starred restaurant operators and owners to create a unique and compelling gastronomic experience that triggers positive online reviews.

The results of this study argue that consumers tend to hold higher expectations for this type of upscale restaurants given its recognition and quality assurance, so they are more likely to have negative feelings when their expectations are disconfirmed. Therefore, restaurants should continuously improve their food and service while paying attention to small details such as ambience, through creativity and innovation. Also, high-end restaurants, especially Michelin-starred restaurants, usually have the edge in premium pricing, yet competitive pricing may backfire considering its perceived luxurious values.

This study analyzed changes in customer sentiments when a restaurant is awarded a Michelin Star through text analytics. Through the lens of online restaurant reviews, the study findings contribute to identifying aspects that are most or least affected by the award of a Michelin Star as well as highlight the role of ambience in customer satisfaction which might have been overlooked in previous studies.

隨著社交媒體日趨普及，消費者出現一種常見的做法，就是在網上書寫評論，分享他們的意見和體驗，他們也會參考其他消費者的評論，以在購物時能作出知情決定。本研究擬探討當餐館獲得米其林星級時，消費者對它們在四個主要方面 (即食物、服務、情調和價格) 的網上評價會如何改變。我們藉此能更容易了解、餐館獲得米其林星級會如何影響其網上評論，以及是哪些因素、會為這些餐館帶來正面的網上評價。

我們對貓途鷹平台上的網上餐館評論進行情感分析。透過BeautifulSoup 研發的網絡爬蟲，我們取出位於歐洲87間餐館、共8,871個以英文書寫的評論，並把這些數據以Semantria加以處理。

研究結果顯示、當餐館獲得米其林星級時，顧客的整體情緒會下降，而其中最受影響的是服務情懷，其次是食物和情調; 但價格情緒卻有明顯的上升。這研究結果給獲得米其林星級餐館的經營者及其東主提供寶貴的啟示，讓他們了解如何為顧客創造一個可帶來正面網上評價的獨特而難忘的美食體驗。

本研究透過文本挖掘、去分析當餐館獲得米其林星級時，顧客情緒會如何改變; 透過網上餐館評論這面透視鏡子，本研究得到的結果、幫助我們確定米其林星級的聲譽所影響最大和最小的是哪些方面，以及讓我們更深入了解餐館的情調在顧客滿意程度上所扮演的角色，而這個角色在過去的研究中似被忽視。

本研究的結果提供了論據、證明由於消費者對擁有相關的認可和品質保證的這類高檔餐館一般予以較高的期望，故當他們發現期望與現實不符時，他們更容易產生負面的情緒; 因此，餐館在關注如情調方面的細節的同時，也應透過創造力和新觀念、去不斷改善他們提供的食物素質和服務水平; 而且，高檔餐館，尤其是獲得米其林星級的餐館，通常在溢價定價方面享有優勢，但當考慮到感知的奢華價值時，具競爭力的價格或會為餐館帶來反效果。

The desired balance between human activity and environmental development and protection requires a clear and equitable distribution of responsibilities, regarding consumption and behavior toward natural and cultural resources. This paper aims to take a look at the relationship between tourism and sustainable development and the prospect of certified sustainable tourism destinations.

The paper examines the literature on the impacts of tourism and the application of sustainable development principles in the context of destination development.

Environmental certification has proven to be an important policy instrument, helping consumers to choose products and services that are less harmful to the environment and more authentic, serving as a marketing tool for companies that differentiate their products in the market.

The process of certification of tourist destinations is an issue that is little discussed, despite the numerous advantages for the destinations.