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Based on the resource-based theory, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between operational employment levels of gender diversity and business performance over a multi-year period. This study also explores if gender parity moderates this relationship and how gender diversity is directionally developed.

A cross-lagged panel design and path analysis is applied to a global data set of women employees, women managers and women senior executives – in relation to revenue, of over 6,000 companies over the six-year period from 2012 to 2017.

Overall results confirm a positive relationship between women managers and revenue over a multi-year period for all companies. A moderating analysis also finds a positive relationship between total women employees (as well as women managers) and revenue growth of companies headquartered in countries with medium levels of gender parity. The overall and moderating analysis do not find a positive relationship between senior women executives and revenue growth. Longitudinal analysis also finds that the multiple operational levels of gender diversity directionally develop in a mutually cyclical manner.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first diversity and business performance study to use a global data set of multiple operational levels of women employees, managers and senior executives over a multi-year period. This study contributes new perspectives on the positive relationship between women managers and business performance. This study also confirms prior findings of a positive relationship between women employees and business performance in medium gender-parity countries. Finally, this longitudinal study introduces the concept of the gender pipeline of executive advancement along the multiple operational levels of employment and finds that gender diversity is directionally developed in a mutually cyclical, bidirectional pattern.

This study aims to understand the contributions and challenges of voluntary organizations towards the integration of refugees into the job market.

Descriptive research with a qualitative approach based on interpretivism was used, applied to mediators of social entities in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

The findings of this study support the importance of voluntary organizations in the employment of refugees, based on background that will contribute directly to the training of displaced persons in the Brazilian labor market. Meanwhile, difficulties such as post-employment refugee monitoring, legislative obstacles to the verification of skills, structural and human capital limitations of mediators, the national economic crisis and the lack of government support are identified as the main challenges for long-term assistance to refugees.

The results of the study can foster greater participation of public policymakers and society in supporting the third sector, aiming at a greater reach in the provision of services of mediators for the effective integration of refugees in Brazil.

This study contributes to the literature on the integration of refugees into the labor market by demonstrating the importance of voluntary organizations in this process. It also demonstrates how the main challenges of the third sector in the Brazilian context impact its support in facilitating and maintaining the employment of displaced persons.

This study aims to understand consumer behavior related to the purchase of meals by delivery services before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Brazil.

An online survey was conducted between September and October 2020. The total number of valid responses was 971.

About 55% of the participants reported a decrease in consumption or not having consumed food delivery during the pandemic. Of the total, 48.3% feared contracting COVID-19 from food delivery. A significant association was observed between fear of contracting COVID-19 from food delivery and variables such as education level (p = 0.001), observance of social distancing (p = 0.03) and food delivery consumption frequency (p < 0.001). More people were careful about cleaning food packaging (from 12.4% before to 66.1% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and disposal (from 47.6% before to 66.4% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and heating the food before consumption (from 7.6% before to 13.7% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and used payment methods without approximation (from 29.8% before to 43.2% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) compared with the pre-pandemic period. More people also reported that application of security protocols during delivery (from 29.8% before to 43.2% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and in restaurants (from 7.2% before to 25% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and possessing knowledge about the financial difficulty of the establishment (from 4.6% before to 17% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) were the most important factors for choosing a food service.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore consumers’ fear of contracting COVID-19 from food delivery and consumer behavior related to food delivery services during the pandemic in Brazil – that is, way to order and payment methods, as well as concern and care related to the purchase of these foods.

This study aims to assess Brazilian adult consumers’ behavior, aged 18–70, when purchasing ready-to-eat food during the first months of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Participants answered an online questionnaire about behaviors related to the purchase of ready-to-eat food from food services: changes in usage frequency during the pandemic, reasons for altering purchase habits, types of food and beverages bought before and during the pandemic and the frequency of on-site (consumption in food services) and off-site (delivery, take-away and drive-through) service utilization at lunch and dinner.

Out of 970 individuals who participated in the study, during the pandemic, 38% of participants reduced their food service usage, whereas 18% stopped using it. The main reasons given by participants who reduced and stopped food service usage were cooking at home (52% and 59%, respectively) and feeling afraid of contracting COVID-19 (26% and 22%, respectively). The reduction was more frequent among divorced/widowed/single individuals (p = 0.001) and in total social distancing, that is, all day long (p = 0.03). A significant reduction in on-site consumption frequency occurred for lunch and dinner (p < 0.001), whereas an increase in the off-site consumption frequency service for lunch (p = 0.016) and a reduction for dinner (p = 0.01) occurred compared to pre-COVID-19. However, 48% of participants used these services at least once a week in both periods. Most consumed foods and drinks before and during the pandemic were pasta/pizza (74% and 64%, respectively), snack/burgers (66% and 59%, respectively), soft drinks (41% and 37%, respectively) and alcoholic beverages (37% and 25%, respectively).

Knowledge about food choices away from home during the pandemic is scarce. High consumption of food away from home has been associated with a greater risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and others. Eating behavior is influenced by the cultural, social, economic and personal characteristics of each individual. Understanding the main changes related to the consumption of ready-to-eat food and what the affected consumers profile in a time of unprecedented crisis, it is important to provide scientific knowledge that allows one to anticipate the implications for the future of individuals’ health and food systems and, consequently, to develop public policy or awareness and promotion actions of public health that encourage adopting healthier and balanced eating habits.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a 15-week dietary intake of cactus flour on metabolic parameters, body weight and dietary intake of rats.

Male Wistar rats were divided into four experimental groups (n = 8-10): control or westernized diets added or not of cactus flour. The following parameters were evaluated during the period of dietary manipulation: body weight, food intake, glycemic and lipid profile (oral glucose tolerance test, metabolic parameters, hepatic and muscular glycogen dosage), visceral and body fat (relative weight to body weight). Data were analyzed using Graphpad Prism®5, p = 0.05.

Animals fed on a Western-style diet together with flour cactus presented lower weight gain (335.7 ± 20.0, p = 0.05) over the evaluated period, even when the volume of food intake was not different among the groups. The addition of cactus flour to a Western-style diet appears to lower glucose levels at 30 and 60 min (p = 0.05), as shown in the glucose tolerance curve. There was a downward trend does fat stores, cholesterol levels and triglycerides. Therefore, it was concluded that this addition cactus flour is effective even when the diet is hyperlipidic, demonstrating its ability to attenuate risk parameters for the occurrence of metabolic syndromes such as sub fraction high cholesterol levels and glucose tolerance.

The addition of functional foods to diets may work to improve the harmful effects of this type of diet. Opuntia ficus indica has high nutritional value and has hypoglycemic and hypolipemic properties besides being antioxidant.

This article examines the extent of collaboration experienced by 191 Brazilian shippers, logistics service providers (LSPs) and carriers in their logistics operations in urban freight transport. This study investigates relationships over time, the type of service and the nuances associated with the frequency of meetings, frequency of technical visits and frequency of training.

The authors carried out a component analysis and, based on factor loadings, calculated indexes for use in non-linear canonical correlations to evaluate company-level differences in perceptions of the degree of collaboration and strength of relationship over time.

The results indicate that in the triad, LSPs are the strongest supporters of collaboration over time regardless of whether the logistics service is shared or dedicated; shippers demonstrate the weakest support for collaboration and prioritize relationships of one to three years in length. Carriers seek to develop short-term relationships and participate actively in meetings and technical visits because they strongly support strategic and interpersonal collaboration. Carriers also follow LSPs in terms of strategic and interpersonal collaboration and shared logistics services.

This article contributes to understanding the perceptions of interactions among specific logistics collaboration elements related to strategic, tactical and interpersonal relationships that the Brazilian companies face in their daily urban freight transport.

This study aims to test and analyze factors that may influence the satisfaction of university students, specifically, from the built environment, price fairness and teaching care.

A survey was conducted with 250 students from a university in southern Brazil. The data were analyzed by structural equation modeling.

The main results proved that the built environment, price fairness and teaching care have a significant and positive influence on the satisfaction of university students.

The factors presented explanation power for student satisfaction, which shows that they are essential aspects and, therefore, must be observed by universities to satisfy their students.

The study identifies the impact of factors such as the environment, price and teaching service on student satisfaction.

This study aims to contribute to the healthy eating literature by analyzing whether fear of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), ability to prepare food and the safety-seeking are antecedents of the intention to consume healthy foods during COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors conducted two studies. The first study was done with a sample of 546 valid respondents. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data. The second study was qualitative, in which 40 subjects took part. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

The main findings reveal that ability to prepare food and the safety-seeking are strong antecedents of the intention to consume healthy foods. In addition, safety-seeking mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and intention to consume healthy eating. However, high levels of fear did not influence the ability to prepare food and intention to consume healthy foods. Also, the ability to prepare food does not mediate the relation between fear of COVID-19 and intention to consume healthy food.

This study is among the first to consider terror management propositions to analyze the intention to consume healthy foods during COVID-19 pandemic. From a scientific point of view, it has several contributions to the literature. First, this study provides advances and innovation in the field by identifying new explanatory relations. Second, this study extends the scope of terror management health model (TMHM) by analyzing it in the pandemic context. Third, the findings seem to provide empirical support for recent criticism of TMHM assumptions. Moreover, practical implications are outlined to public health decision-makers and healthy food businesses on increasing consumers’ intention to healthy eating.

This chapter provides the results of the motivations and the profile of the creative tourist. Results originate from the major studies done worldwide, concerned with the different types of activities. This analysis is essential to design new products based on Creative Tourism and sustainability. Also, because at an international level, including South Europe, the profile of the creative tourist has not been characterised, especially the one that visits medium-sized cities and rural areas. This chapter intends to answer the following questions: Who is the participant in Creative Tourism activities? Is he/she mainly domestic or an international tourist? Why does this type of tourist participate in these creative experiences? What type of information sources do these tourists use to find the experiences in which he/she participates? This chapter uses primary and secondary data. The secondary data follow a content analysis approach of activities offered by Airbnb Experiences Platform. Regarding the primary data, 595 questionnaires applied in 45 creative experiences in the Northern region of mainland Portugal were analysed. The creative experiences were divided into seven categories: ‘creative festivals’, ‘nature and creativity’, ‘photography workshop’, ‘gastronomy experience’, ‘industrial experience’, ‘technology and creativity’ and ‘art and crafts’. The methods used were quantitative in nature. The questionnaire used consisted of 31 closed questions aimed at the profile and the motivations of the creative experience participants. Descriptive statistical analysis was used. The main results showed that participants in the seven categories of Creative Tourism experiences have relatively large differences in terms of demographic and socio-economic characteristics. These differences were also evident in their motivations for participating in Creative Tourism experiences.

The term “Brazilian popular music” refers to a varied repertoire of musical styles with a strong connection to local culture. The initiatives of representation of this domain of interest occur through adaptations of generic models and strategies coming from contexts and musical styles that differ from the essential characteristics of the national music. The purpose of this paper is to present a characterization of Brazilian popular music as a conceptual model which supports the communication and analysis of this domain and serves as a reference ontology for various applications in the field of Information Science and others.

To achieve the purpose, a mapping about Brazilian popular music was done from a literature review and a data collection with expert users, based on domain analysis theory. From this characterization, the conceptual model was built using an Ontology Engineering approach. To facilitate understanding, the results were described using a more user-friendly notation.

The paper presents a conceptual model as a first semantic reference on Brazilian popular music that serves (1) to better understand, communicate and analyze the domain of Brazilian popular music and, (2) to supply some semantic aspects not covered by the adaptations that have been proposed on the literature for musical representation.

The paper adds a new perspective to the understanding of Brazilian popular music and open opportunity to explore other repertoires about popular music.