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The customer as an active and engaged value co-creator raises new challenges for theory and practice, especially in the hospitality industry. However, the connection between engagement and co-creation is little studied in the hotel/tourism literature. This paper proposes a connection between customer engagement (CE) and value co-creation frameworks to ascertain and depict the internal actors' activities and factors that foster or hinder guests' co-creation and destruction of value.

The researchers used qualitative methods (35 in-depth interviews, document analysis and four observation sessions) in seven regions of Ghana to explore the customer's perspective. Data were analyzed with NVivo11 within a thematic analysis framework.

The findings suggest that positive and negative engagement fosters or hinders guests' interactions, which lead to value co-creation or destruction. The research also discovered that negative interactions occasioned by any factor or actor trigger value destruction at multiple stages of the experience journey.

Industry players can use the framework developed to assess their businesses, explore and reflect on the proposed value they aim to generate, and thus be more aware of how they can better facilitate value co-creation with their consumers and avoid value destruction.

This research proposes a novel connection between customer interactions, engagement and value co-creation to ascertain and depict the internal actors' activities and factors that foster or hinder customers' experience in the hotel/tourism industry.

By using the Triple Helix model, the purpose of this paper is to uncover the perceptions of nascent entrepreneurs about a university–industry–government collaboration program, in particular about the role of each agent to foster rural entrepreneurship; the value and effect of this collaboration; and their own contributions to local development.

A qualitative case study method is adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and secondary data. The text is analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

The interaction of the Triple Helix partners is perceived as valuable both at the personal and the business levels. One of the most salient results is the value ascribed to the knowledge-rich environment created. Entrepreneurs are aware of their contribution to local development, identifying economic, social and cultural effects.

The research strengthens the importance of the joint efforts of the Triple Helix partners by uncovering a number of outputs from their collaboration, which affect both the entrepreneurs and local development through entrepreneurship.

Previous studies assume that the Triple Helix fosters technological innovation that favors regional development, mainly by adopting a macro-level perspective. This study makes a contribution by furthering the knowledge on the micro-level dynamics of the Triple Helix, through the view of low tech, rural entrepreneurs, considering their context.

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards No. 208 includes directives rendering the morphological estimation of passengers mandatory for advanced air bag systems. The dynamic automatic suppression system uses both the morphological and positional information about the passenger to allow or prevent air bag deployment. Various solutions have been proposed to obtain these information by using capacitive sensors. This paper presents a method, that makes possible use of such sensors in the car industry by correcting their responses from these perturbing parameters.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the practices of economic intelligence used by Portuguese firms and to identify the attributes that may increase the probability of their adoption.

A questionnaire was designed and addressed to the CEOs of Portuguese firms. The authors used the mixed logit method to select a number of significant variables that influence the use of economic intelligence by firms in the sample.

From the results, the authors concluded that firm size, information and environmental scanning connected to the markets, social networks, economic diplomacy and public policies, namely clusters and industrial policies in the context of competitive intelligence, were some of the attributes relevant in this study. It is concluded that the probability of firms adopting competitive intelligence practices lies in two spheres: in orientations of business policy and strategy and in public policies that improve business context in the perspective of competitive intelligence.

The different categories of attributes that explain the existence of economic intelligence practices are relatively limited when compared with studies made outside Portugal. This derives from specific factors tied to Portuguese entrepreneurial culture.

This paper contributes to the literature on this area of research. One of the innovations introduced here was the design of a conceptual model proposal integrating business and public policy approaches connected to the competitive intelligence and, consequently, the capacity to formulate entrepreneurial strategies and public policies geared for the adoption of competitive intelligence procedures.

Focussing on the historical experience, the purpose of this paper is to argue the need for change in the design and implementation of social policies in order to overcome the stalemate of the last two or three decades.

Starting with the social measures taken by Bismarck in the late nineteenth century, the paper shows that modern social policy has ever since been diversely developed in the world, and compares the experiences of the USA and Europe. Under this framework, the paper raises less handled social issues that are decisive for a true reform, and that must be taken into account either theoretically or for practical purposes.

In a competitive environment and in a rapidly changing world economy, it is demonstrated that the paper's topic has a strong theoretical and empirical basis. Owing to its great complexity, however, the search for sound economic foundations of social policies must be continued.

In dealing with the dilemmas faced by social policies more emphasis should be put on the development of new insights, particularly on a global scale and in a more friendly approach to technological modernisation.

The paper explores the deepening of the policy mix between public measures and civil society initiatives as a possible solution to the present difficulties. Furthermore, it stresses the relevance of marginalised issues like the full integration of technological modernisation, and of an international dimension into the social policies, so far basically domestic.

Begins by focusing on the rise of formalism in the post‐war period leading to virtual monopoly as far as the method of economic analysis is concerned, and on the main consequences of this process. After mounting criticism of formalism, internal as well as external, it is acknowledged that some signs of renewed interest in a non‐mathematical approach and in its potentialities can be observed, particularly in the 1990s. Moreover, it is postulated that free competition between different methods, as opposed to concentrating on only one, is the best framework for the progress of economics. In particular, it increases the possibilities for dealing with many economic problems in an innovative way. Finally, outlines a possible stage where the two main methods (mathematical and non‐mathematical) have a more balanced and useful role in the course of economic analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the environmental scanning practices and information sources used by large companies as well as by small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), the latter being relatively absent from scientific scrutiny. In doing so, it endeavours to contribute to a better understanding of the scanning and information‐gathering behaviour of SMEs, in order to develop measures to overcome their potential disadvantages in this respect.

Data were obtained from 165 Portuguese firms. Respondents were required to evaluate their use of 11 different environmental scanning practices and 12 information sources. For data analysis, the variables were classified using principal component analysis. Subsequently, the retained components and variables underwent a one‐way variance analysis.

Results indicate that smaller firms do not scan as broadly and as frequently as their larger counterparts. Although external information sources are used equally by larger and smaller enterprises, in general there is also a positive relationship between the exploitation of information sources and firm size.

Findings are taken from the Portuguese context, with its own idiosyncratic economic structure and climate. Generalisations should therefore be made with caution.

As the “size effect” influences the propensity for environmental scanning, SMEs are urged to adopt inter‐firm strategies in order to achieve a critical mass. The importance of building scanning and information networks among SMEs must be highlighted.

Research on environmental scanning in SMEs and comparative studies of the firm size effect have been relatively scarce. The findings reveal that firm size matters, insofar as the use of different scanning practices and information sources mostly augments with increasing firm size.

This essay sheds light on the problems arising from trade between asymmetric countries, particularly when associated with a different degree of power. At present, when the importance of external trade is clearly increasing and different countries of different size, wealth and stage of economic development establish even more extensive commercial links with one another, this raises fresh policy issues, but also theoretical challenges.