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The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a technical procedure for the manufacturing of medical implant prototypes.

The paper was performed on a new hip implant design and manufactured with different metallic alloys F75 (ASTM) commonly used in biomedical applications. Dimensional parameters between the computer‐aided design (CAD) geometry and the prototypes and surface roughness for different casting alloy were compared. A CAD model was used for machining of a prototype. Room temperature vulcanising (RTV) rubber moulds allowed the manufacturing of wax models of the femoral prosthesis. A specific lost‐wax casting (LWC) technology was used to manufacture prototypes for in vitro tests. The final geometry was dimensionally controlled using different type of parameters (performance, average, standard, maximum and minimum deviations), surface roughness (Ra, Rt and Rp) were measured for all prototypes.

To obtain a small number of implants, RTV rubber vacuum casting technique can be used to obtain lost wax models with good dimensional stability. No significant dimensional differences were observed relatively to the virtual model. However, the temperature of the wax and the rubber mould were important parameters to obtain good quality wax models. Surface roughness was different for different alloys.

The design and development of a new hip femoral prosthesis prototype based on rapid tooling techniques to manufacture LWC prototypes is suitable for clinical trials.

This paper describes a biomanufacturing methodology to manufacture biomedical implant prototypes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine theoretically and empirically what type of leadership facilitates e-business adoption in large manufacturing firms. The digital transformation of firms requires leadership that can promote the adaptive quality of organizational culture.

The authors conducted an empirical study using two key informants from a sample of 181 incumbent firms.

The authors find significant evidence that adaptive culture is the vehicle by which transformational leaders positively influence e-business adoption.

Given the digital economy’s external pressures, many e-business adoption processes fail due to organizational factors originating in leadership and its capability to change followers’ values, norms, and motivations. To solve this problem, the authors propose a model that explains how transformational leadership first plays a key role in changing characteristics of culture and then facilitates e-business adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of Portuguese firms’ performance.

To achieve this aim, the authors used data from 37 non-financial firms in the period between 2010 and 2015. Three dependent variables were tested and the estimation of the model using the Generalised Method of Moments shows that internal, external and institutional factors are important to explain the performance of firms listed in Euronext Lisbon.

The determinants of firm performance vary depending on the variable used to measure the performance. Specifically, the results show that when the authors use a market variable of performance, the firm-specific variables are not so important to explain performance. The macroeconomic factors, including the investor’s sentiment and insider ownership, more effectively explain the firm’s performance. The evidence suggests that the determinants of firm performance change according to the way in which different stakeholders appreciate firm performance.

The main contribution of such approach is to show that internal and external factors influence performance measures in distinct ways, thus helping managers who are expected to make decisions according to the investors’ expectations. It provides initial guidelines for policy makers to understand how to improve the performance of their firms using firm-specific factors. Additionally, this work also demonstrates that the firm’s characteristics, macroeconomics and governance factors could affect the Portuguese firms’ performance, conveying a valuable contribution for investors.

The purpose of this paper is to present and interpret the “Enterprise Politics Model (EPM)” developed by Professor Antonio Valero, Founder and first Dean of IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain.

Drawing from a careful reading of Valero’s writings in their original context and some developments of these by his followers, this paper systematically presents and discusses the key ideas of Valero’s model for management and corporate governance.

The main features of Valero’s philosophy of the firm and of senior management can be summarized in four points: the firm as a community of persons; the firm as an intermediate social institution serving the common good of society; the different nature of political and technical practice, which leads senior management to exercise practical reason – not only science or technique, and at the same time a kind of political art, or wisdom; and the role and responsibility of entrepreneurs and top management. Valero emphasizes the political nature of management and, from a practical perspective, suggests a global analysis based on four big areas of governance: business activity, managing structure, institutional configuration, and professional community. He makes his model applicable by developing “political procedures”.

Valero’s “EPM” is an original humanistic approach to management and corporate governance, with implications to business education. Valero’s contributions were based on his business and teaching experience and in a deep humanistic background, but adopted an intuitive outlook and need further conceptual development, actualization to contemporary business context and empirical research on the relationship between this model and performance.

Valero’s “EPM” is a practically oriented humanistic approach to management and corporate governance which can be a realistic alternative to conventional, and often criticized, approaches to management and corporate governance. In fact, it has already been successfully applied in several companies.

In a context of growing discontent toward capitalism and the role of business in society, the “EPM” – discussed in this paper – shows how business might be run and organized to be socially responsible, contributing to the common good and respecting individual rights and flourishing.

The paper discusses, systematizes and interprets an innovative way of understanding management and corporate governance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of firms’ general and specific human capital on the export propensity and intensity.

The resource-based view of the firm provides the theoretical background to examine export performance. Empirical analysis is carried out using a national representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms and employing Logit and Tobit models. Export performance is evaluated in a dual way, as export propensity and export intensity. In relation to human capital a distinction is made between general and specific human capital.

The results shown that differences exist in the effect of general and specific human capital. While the firms’ general human capital (education of the firm’s employees) affects both export propensity and intensity, only some dimensions of specific human capital (employees’ experience at the workplace) affects export propensity and intensity but no the employees’ training. Moreover, the firms’ general human capital generates greater changes than the effect of specific human capital on the export behavior.

This paper extends a line of research underexplored in the literature by analyzing the effect of organizational human capital on the firm’s export performance; moreover, it is the first study for Spanish manufacturing firms; the distinction between general and specific human capital enhances our comprehension of the human capital as a determinant of export performance. In relation to the specific human capital, besides training, we add a new variable related to experience at the workplace.

This study aims to conduct a pertinent assessment of the concept of business competitiveness and how Portugal can progress in that field, for the sake of becoming a more sustainable and wealth-creator economy.

The research was elaborated with 65 in-depth interviews with expert persons from the Portuguese business ecosystem, who were asked to reflect on the state of the economy and competitiveness of the country.

There is much room for improvement in almost all areas of activity, in particular by promoting an innovative, value-adding and exporting private sector and a lighter and more efficient public sector. The conclusions point to modernisation of the Portuguese economy as a way of making it more competitive in a highly competitive and demanding global scenario.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time that a reflection with experts of the local Portuguese economy has been carried out, especially after a difficult period of COVID.

The West African Republic of Guinea-Bissau has been unstable since gaining its independence in 1974. The 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections are being closely analyzed to study how the United Nations and the Guinean people have reacted to the outcomes of these elections. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Sociological methodologies and a comparative approach have been used in this paper to understand why the elections in 2014 were so important in this country.

The author finds that stability is possible in Guinea-Bissau after years of political uncertainties.

Particular focus has been paid to studying the responses of specific aspects of society, including the youth population, the political elite, the main political party, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, the opposition parties and the army and whether these different groups will be able to cooperate after electing a sustainable and relatively wide-ranging government.

The purpose of this study is to investigate labor congestion in the automotive industry in Mexico.

By using the cluster and subcluster definitions by Delgado et al. (2016) and relying on an efficiency and production function perspective, this study estimates a standard production function and measures marginal returns of labor at the regional cluster and subclusters levels. To assess whether wages affect the finding of congestion and productivity, the model also measures the individual impact of wages on both total productivity and marginal returns of labor.

Among other results, this paper finds evidence of labor congestion in the automotive cluster in Mexico. This congestion deepens with wages and it is specific to some regions and some subclusters.

The methods used are based on panel data techniques but are fundamentally cross-section in nature. The time period available may condition these findings.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study reporting congestion in the automotive cluster in Mexico.