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1 – 10 of 25Linda Montanari, Robert Teltzrow, Sara Van Malderen, Roberto Ranieri, José Antonio Martín Peláez, Liesbeth Vandam, Jane Mounteney, Alessandro Pirona, Fadi Meroueh, Isabelle Giraudon, João Matias, Katerina Skarupova, Luis Royuela and Julien Morel d’Arleux
This paper aims to describe the impact of the COVID-19 containment measures on the provision of drug treatment and harm reduction services in European prisons in15 countries…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the impact of the COVID-19 containment measures on the provision of drug treatment and harm reduction services in European prisons in15 countries during the early phase of the pandemic (March –June 2020).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a mixed method research approach that triangulates different data sources, including the results of an on-line survey, the outcome of a focus group and four national case studies.
Findings
The emergence of COVID-19 led to a disruption in prison drug markets and resulted in a number of challenges for the drug services provision inside prison. Challenges for health services included the need to maintain the provision of drug-related interventions inside prison, while introducing a range of COVID-19 containment measures. To reduce contacts between people, many countries introduced measures for early release, resulted in around a 10% reduction of the prison population in Europe. Concerns were expressed around reduction of drug-related interventions, including group activities, services by external agencies, interventions in preparation for release and continuity of care.
Practical implications
Innovations aimed at improving drug service provision included telemedicine, better partnership between security and health staff and an approach to drug treatment more individualised. Future developments must be closely monitored.
Originality/value
The paper provides a unique and timely overview of the main issues, challenges and initial adaptations implemented for drug services in European prisons in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Julian Strizek, Alexandra Karden and João Matias
The purpose of this paper is to assess the relevance of cryptomarkets, characteristics of purchasers and possibilities for survey research by approaching users directly on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the relevance of cryptomarkets, characteristics of purchasers and possibilities for survey research by approaching users directly on cryptomarkets.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-country comparison of the results from the European Web Survey on Drugs (EWSD) and summarizing lessons learned during the data collection was carried out.
Findings
Purchasers of drugs on cryptomarkets are still a rather small segment of all drug purchasers, and most people who use cryptomarkets also use other sources of supply to buy drugs. The percentage of people using cryptomarkets is unevenly distributed across countries and substances. Purchasers on cryptomarkets in most countries are more likely to be men and more likely, on average, to use more substances. Other characteristics such as age or place of residence do not show a consistent pattern across countries. Recruitment of respondents on cryptomarkets calls for specific techniques and procedures. Specific attention should be paid to build trust and guarantee credibility and anonymity.
Research limitations/implications
Interpretation of the quantitative results is limited by nonprobabilistic sampling and different recruitment strategies in different countries.
Practical implications
Users of cryptomarkets show some specific characteristics, providing a challenge for research and prevention agencies to keep up with digital technology. Increasing knowledge about characteristics of users of cryptomarkets may help to create adequate responses for harm reduction measures in different supply settings. However, collecting self-reported data from users on cryptomarkets is limited owing to significant privacy concerns and requires specific skills and strategies.
Originality/value
The EWSD provides a rare opportunity for detailed analyses of consumption patterns and characteristics of active drug users across several European countries. Furthermore, experiences of a new recruitment strategy are discussed.
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Cláudia Viegas, João Lima, Cláudia Afonso, András Jozsef Toth, Csaba Bálint Illés, András Bittsánszky, Zvonimir Šatalić, Sanja Vidaček Filipec, Valeria Fabijanic, Samuel Duran, Jairo Alonso Torres, Monica Spinelli, Andrea Matias, Ana Maria Souza Pinto and Ada Rocha
The aim of this study is to identify and characterize kids' menu offer in fast-food and traditional restaurants located in shopping centres in five different countries.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to identify and characterize kids' menu offer in fast-food and traditional restaurants located in shopping centres in five different countries.
Design/methodology/approach
An observational cross-sectional study is carried out, though a study was performed in all restaurants located in shopping centres from main cities, in five countries: Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Hungary and Portugal. A tool for assessing the quality of menus is used for the analysis (Kids Menu Healthy Score (KIMEHS)). Menu prices between countries were compared.
Findings
A total of 192 kids' menus were collected, 44 in Portugal, 57 in Brazil, 66 in Chile, 15 in Hungary and 10 in Croatia. All the countries have average negative KIMEHS values for the menus, indicating that the offer is generally poor in terms of healthy options. The cost of children's menus in European countries is generally low. In Brazil, the price is significantly more expensive, which may limit the accessibility by social economically deprived populations. No significant differences were found in the average cost of meals from different restaurants typology. Traditional/Western restaurants present the highest price.
Practical implications
Globally, kids' menus are composed by unhealthy food items, pointing to the need of improvements in food availability, aiming to promote healthy food habits among children.
Originality/value
This study presents innovative data on children's menus, allowing for characterization of meals offered to children and comparison between different countries.
Key points
Kids’ menus are composed by unhealthy food items.
Improvement of kids' menus quality will promote children food habits.
Healthier out-of-home food consumption will contribute to public health.
Kids’ menus are composed by unhealthy food items.
Improvement of kids' menus quality will promote children food habits.
Healthier out-of-home food consumption will contribute to public health.
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José Cadima Ribeiro and José Freitas Santos
Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) located in particular geographical areas are producing and selling regional products to domestic and foreign markets. Most of the local…
Abstract
Purpose
Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) located in particular geographical areas are producing and selling regional products to domestic and foreign markets. Most of the local activities are embedded in historical tradition and geographic, cultural and social specificity. This article aims to investigate the effect of local environment on the success of two Portuguese SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use case study methodology to understand whether local environment influences the nature of the competitive advantage of the small firms and their ability to gain access to resources that enable them to compete with the industrial low price substitutes produced by larger firms.
Fingings
The key conclusion of the study is that the two firms analysed rely strongly on the specific characteristics of the local environment and on partnerships with local producers (raw materials or products) in order to achieve the economic scale that allows them to compete in the domestic and foreign markets.
Originality/value
Due to the limitations of the present analysis concerning the way buyers affect small suppliers' ability to maintain core artisanal knowledge, future research should also examine how this influence works. For example, how firms learn from their network links and how belonging to a network might drive them to internationalisation, and the choice of countries made. In addition, future research should explore the impact of the region of origin concept on new business formation and internationalisation.
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Manuel Castelo Branco, Teresa Eugénio and João Ribeiro
The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in levels of voluntary environmental disclosures of Cimpor and Secil in response to increased public awareness of its activities…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in levels of voluntary environmental disclosures of Cimpor and Secil in response to increased public awareness of its activities resulting from the co‐incineration controversy in Portugal.
Design/methodology/approach
The annual reports of Cimpor and Secil for the period 1994‐2003 are analysed. The extent of environmental disclosure directly relating to the co‐incineration and the locations of the co‐incineration sites is also assessed.
Findings
Findings suggest that Cimpor used environmental disclosure as a mechanism of managing its legitimacy which was threatened by the co‐incineration controversy. However, the strategy adopted by Cimpor may be described as one of trivializing or skirting the issue, by not directly addressing it. Secil has directly addressed the issue since its inception.
Research limitations/implications
First, only two companies and their reaction to one environmental event are examined. Second, only annual reports are analysed. Third, the content analysis method employed simply quantifies disclosure in annual reports.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the scarce research on environmental disclosure by Portuguese companies by providing new empirical data. It uses legitimacy theory in a situation in which companies are placed in the spotlight and see their legitimacy threatened not because they have done something detrimental to the environment but because the potential for detrimental environmental impacts resulting from their activities became the focus of the public and media attention.
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Carlos Manuel Inácio da Silva, Carlos Manuel Pereira Cabrita and João Carlos de Oliveira Matias
The purpose of this paper is to emphasize that the choice of the most appropriate maintenance model and policies is the best way to reduce significantly the maintenance costs as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to emphasize that the choice of the most appropriate maintenance model and policies is the best way to reduce significantly the maintenance costs as well as to optimize the useful Key Performance Indicators – failure rates, reliability, mean time between failures, mean time to repair, and equipment availabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to implement the Asset Effectiveness Optimization AEO as well as the Overall Equipment Effectiveness OEE, improving productivity in a complex food‐products plant, the paper presents a theoretical and experimental study related to the maintenance costs directly associated with the equipment used in production tasks.
Findings
The developed tool is an efficient method of calculating the maintenance costs and allows one by means of computational simulation to define the most advisable maintenance policy. On the other hand, the proposed relationships are universal and could be used as an economic evaluation indicator for other industries and equipment.
Research limitations/implications
Further research should include the application of the proposed methodology to the similar equipment of other food‐products plants as well as to other different equipment in order to create benchmarking procedures. This generator of technical information is the most appropriate method of optimizing maintenance key performance indicators.
Practical implications
As is well known, equipment availability must be as close to 100 per cent as possible, in order to avoid non‐planned breakdowns with the consequent production losses. Then it is important to adopt the most advisable maintenance policies and practices, the proposed methodology being an efficient tool for evaluating the maintenance performance and, in addition, for optimizing procedures.
Originality/value
The proposed methodology represents an efficient way to evaluate the maintenance performance as well as to choose better maintenance policies and practices in order to reduce costs and increase maintenance key performance indicators.
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Gabriel Silva, João Lisboa and Mahmoud M. Yasin
States that owing to foresight and planning by Portuguese business executives, most firms in Portugal survived the difficult 1970s and 1980s and, as a consequence, are stronger in…
Abstract
States that owing to foresight and planning by Portuguese business executives, most firms in Portugal survived the difficult 1970s and 1980s and, as a consequence, are stronger in today’s competitive internal and external challenges. Sets out the methodology used and gives data analysis and results in a descriptive way, with the use of explanatory tables. Closes by stating that time‐based differentiation may offer new ways for firms competing in highly differentiated markets.
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Alzira Marques, João Lisboa, Thomas W. Zimmerer and Mahmoud M. Yasin
An empirical investigation of the Portuguese crystal industry focused on the current strategies of the 12 firms in the industry that produce 98 percent of the industry’s output…
Abstract
An empirical investigation of the Portuguese crystal industry focused on the current strategies of the 12 firms in the industry that produce 98 percent of the industry’s output. The chief executive officers in each firm completed the survey instrument. The research discovered that the two groups of firms with positive returns on equity pursued a cost leadership strategy based on efficiency of production and cost leadership strategy based on production innovation.
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Barbara de Lima Voss, David Bernard Carter and Bruno Meirelles Salotti
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…
Abstract
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.
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Vinícius Rosa Cota, Cleiton Lopes Aguiar, Bezamat de Souza Neto and Miguel Benegas
The purpose of this paper is to argue in favor of the open hardware philosophy (open-source hardware – OSH) as a technological innovation and academic entrepreneurshipmodel in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue in favor of the open hardware philosophy (open-source hardware – OSH) as a technological innovation and academic entrepreneurshipmodel in Brazil.
Design/methodology/approach
This argument is based on three pillars. The first one refers to a bibliographic review of theoretical frameworks related to academic entrepreneurship and technological innovation to emphasize the disruptive innovation capacity of academia. Second, a few elements related to the Brazilian political, economic and structural scenario, which entail a (more) favorable environment to technological innovation and academic entrepreneurship, is presented. Finally, concepts related to OSH and its business model are approached to demonstrate the facilitating effect toward the whole process.
Findings
As a result of the argument made herein, it is possible to perceive the viability of the OSH model in terms of entrepreneurship and technological innovation in the academic sphere, and to perceive its benefits before social and economic needs in areas such as health and education.
Research limitations/implications
There are no empirical or quantifiable data in the literature that enable comparison between OSH and traditional technological innovation models.
Originality/value
The considerations on the philosophical value of OSH and its business models are scarcely explored in international literature. As far as we know, relating OSH to technological innovation entrepreneurship in the academic sphere, as well as its singularities in Brazil regarding the innovation national system and social and economic demands, is a unique approach in literature.
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