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This study investigates the drivers of CSR practices among construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria.

This research adopted a questionnaire survey to achieve the aim. A purposefully chosen group of managing directors, directors, other senior construction experts or management personnel working for small, medium and large-sized construction enterprises in Nigeria were given questionnaires to complete. 196 questionnaires were issued, out of which 103 were properly completed and returned, with a return percentage of 61% which served as the basis for this study. Utilizing both descriptive and inferential statistics, the collected data were examined.

The results from the study revealed that “vision of the founder”, “creating public attention”, “competitive advantage” and “business strategy” were the top most four drivers of CSR initiatives among construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria. The results also showed that, there is a statistically significant degree of agreement between various categories of construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria regarding the drivers of CSR initiatives.

The study contributes more effectively to CSR studies by highlighting the drivers of CSR initiatives in construction companies. The finding would facilitate the adoption and implementation of CSR initiatives in construction organizations. The adoption of best CSR practices fosters strong relationship among construction companies, project stakeholders and communities.

This study aims to facilitate access to vascular disease screening for low-income individuals living in remote and conflict areas based on the results of a pilot trial in Colombia. Also, to increase the amount of diagnosis training of vascular surgery (VS) in civilians.

The operation method includes five stages: strategy development and adjustment; translation of the strategy into a real-world setting; operation logistics planning; strategy analysis and adoption. The operation plan worked efficiently in this study’s sample. It demonstrated high sensibility, efficiency and safety in a real-world setting.

The authors developed and implemented a flow model operating plan for screening vascular pathologies in low-income patients pro bono without proper access to vascular health care. A total of 140 patients from rural areas in Colombia were recruited to a controlled screening session where they underwent serial noninvasive ultrasound assessments conducted by health professionals of different training stages in VS.

The plan was designed to be implemented in remote, conflict areas with limited access to VS care. Vascular injuries are critically important and common among civilians and military forces in regions with active armed conflicts. As this strategy can be modified and adapted to different medical specialties and geographic areas, the authors recommend checking the related legislation and legal aspects of the intended areas where we will implement this tool.

Different sub-specialties can implement the described method to be translated into significant areas of medicine, as the authors can adjust the deployment and execution for the assessment in peripheral areas, conflict zones and other public health crises that require a faster response. This is necessary, as the amount of training to which VS trainees are exposed is low. A simulated exercise offers a novel opportunity to enhance their current diagnostic skills using ultrasound in a controlled environment.

Evaluating and assessing patients with limited access to vascular medicine and other specialties can decrease the burden of vascular disease and related complications and increase the number of treatments available for remote communities.

It is essential to assess the most significant number of patients and treat them according to their triage designation. This management is similar to assessment in remote areas without access to a proper VS consult. The authors were able to determine, classify and redirect to therapeutic interventions the patients with positive findings in remote areas with a fast deployment methodology in VS.

Access to health care is limited due to multiple barriers and the assessment and response, especially in peripheral areas that require a highly skilled team of medical professionals and related equipment. The authors tested a novel mobile assessment tool for remote and conflict areas in a rural zone of Colombia.

Circular economy (CE) is receiving increasing worldwide attention as a manner to overcome the challenges linked to current trends of unsustainable energy and resource consumption. This paper aims to fill this gap and analyze the adherence to sustainable, access-based and collaborative consumption practices by exploring the role of CE awareness, specifically in the context of Porto, the second-largest city of Portugal.

The methodology of choice is quantitative, based on partial least square-based structural equation modeling.

The result shows that there is an influence of CE awareness on subsequent sustainable consumption models.

Present research contributes to the theory on CE awareness and sustainable consumption. It proposes a model that could be applied in other countries. As this research is developed within the city of Porto, it may limit generalizations of obtained results.

As CE practices are embodied into national and local policies, this research contributes to understanding local contexts of CE practices dissemination, providing practical suggestions for businesses and policymakers aiming the transition to the CE.

An original approach to measuring the awareness of CE economy is proposed, that is analyzed not only from the familiarity perspective but in six dimensions of its construction: familiarity, importance, perception or interpretation, advantages, social impact and barriers in this process. Further, the conceptual model of the impact that these dimensions have on the adoption of sustainable consumption models (purchase of sustainable products, access-based and collaborative consumption) is proposed.

This study aims to present a methodological experience using geodesign as a process and instrument that facilitates citizen awareness and the use of alternative urban parameters in a discipline of an undergraduate course in architecture and urbanism, about urban planning at a local scale.

Aiming to develop solutions more suited to the reality of the area and attentive to contemporary practices of collaborative urban planning – for and with people – the methodological approach was divided into two complementary steps. The first step was elaborated through a general plan of ideas, with the aid of the Geodesign Hub platform, and for the more detailed second step, we used the Brazilian virtual GISColab geodesign platform. Both steps were conducted in workshop format.

In this experience, by incorporating geoinformation technology resources, geodesign proved to be a potential tool for creating opinions and decision-making regarding co-creative planning and experimenting with alternative urban parameters.

In the context of a current scenario of city growth oriented from the perspective of motor vehicles, the urban sprawl and in turn, the progressive loss of the human dimension in the urban space, students were introduced and encouraged to reflect on the different functions of the street and on the possibility of measuring urban quality from alternative parameters: completeness indicators.

This paper aims to investigate not only the performance of Portuguese mutual funds investing in domestic and international equities but also which fund characteristics, such as age, size, family size, expense ratios and flows, influence future performance.

Fund performance is evaluated over the 2005–2022 period by a robust six-factor model, while the impact of fund characteristics on performance is assessed by a set of fixed-effects panel data regressions with two-way cluster-robust standard errors.

The results show that, while funds investing in domestic equities predominantly exhibit neutral performance, most international equity funds have significantly negative alphas. The authors document a negative and statistically significant relationship between fund age and performance for all fund categories. Total expense ratios have an inverse relationship with domestic equity fund performance but do not impact the performance of international equity funds significantly. Though fund flows have a neutral effect on performance across the overall period, they are important determinants of both domestic and international funds’ performance in more recent years.

The authors contribute to the literature by carrying out a comprehensive analysis, based on recent and robust methodologies, of the impact of mutual fund characteristics on the future performance of Portuguese equity funds. The research findings serve as a premise for advising investors on how to choose the top-performing funds.

This study aims to investigate organizational learning, represented by the absorptive capacity, as a condition for the firm to learn about marketing data and make more informed decisions. The authors also aimed to understand how the behavior of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) businesses differ in this scenario through a multilevel perspective.

Placing absorptive capacity as a mediator of the relationship between business analytics and rational marketing decisions, the authors analyzed data from 224 Brazilian retail companies using structural equation modeling estimated with partial least squares. To test the cross-level moderation effect, the authors also performed a multilevel analysis in RStudio.

The authors found a partial mediation of the absorptive capacity in the relation between business analytics and rational marketing decisions. The authors also discovered that, in the MSMEs firms’ group, even if smaller companies find it more difficult to use data, those that do may reap more benefits than larger ones. This is due to the influence of size in how firms handle information.

The sample size, despite having shown to be consistent and valid, is considered small for a multilevel study. This suggests that our multilevel results should be viewed as suggestive, rather than conclusive, and subjected to further validation.

Rather than solely positioning business analytics as a tool for decision support, the authors’ analysis highlights the importance for firms to develop the absorptive capacity to enable ongoing acquisition, exploration and management of knowledge.

MSMEs are of economic and social importance to most countries, especially developing ones. This research aimed to improve understanding of how this group of firms could transform knowledge into better decisions. The authors also highlight micro and small firms’ difficulties with the use of marketing data so that they can have more effective practices.

The research contributes to the understanding of organizational mechanisms to absorb and learn from the vast amount of current marketing information. Recognizing the relevance of MSMEs, a preliminary multilevel analysis was also conducted to comprehend differences within this group.

The main aim of this study is to characterise and identify specific chemo-sensory profiles of ciders from the Canary Islands (Spain).

Commercial samples of Canary ciders were compared to ciders from the Basque Country and Asturias. In total, 18 samples were studied, six for each region. The analysis comprised their sensory profiling and chemical characterisation of their polyphenolic profile, volatile composition, conventional chemical parameters and CIELAB colour coordinates. In parallel, the sensory profile of the samples from the Canary Islands was first compared with their Basque and Asturian counterparts by labelled sorting task. Then, their specific aroma profile was characterised by flash profile. Further quantification of sensory-active compounds was performed by GC–MS and GC-FID to identify the volatile compounds involved in their aroma profile.

Results show that Canary ciders present a specific chemical profile characterised by higher levels of ethanol, and hydroxycinnamic acids, mainly t-ferulic, t-coumaric and neochologenic acids, and lower levels of volatile and total acidity than their Asturian and Basque counterparts. They also present a specific aroma profile characterised by fruity aroma, mainly fruit in syrup and confectionary, and sweet flavours related to their highest levels of vinylphenols formed by transformation of hydroxycinnamic acids.

An integrated strategy to explore the typicity of the currently existing Canary ciders in the market was developed. The results are important in that they will help other regions to identify specific typical chemo-sensory profiles and to promote the creation of certifications supporting regional typicity.

This study aims to adapt and validate the Job Crafting Scale (JCS), a measure based on the conceptualization of job crafting of the job demands–resources theory, for a sample of Portuguese workers and to test its psychometric properties regarding validity (factor, convergent, discriminant, and criterion) and reliability.

Two subsamples (n1 = 315 and n2 = 329) of Portuguese workers aged 18 years old and over participated in this research. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to assess the factor structure.

The results indicated that the Portuguese version of the JCS, with 18 items, has a factor structure composed of four-correlated factors. Furthermore, the results demonstrated the existence of factor, discriminant, and criterion validity, as well as reliability.

This study provides a job crafting measure adapted to the Portuguese language that can serve as a diagnostic tool for workers and organizations.

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo adaptar y validar la Job Crafting Scale (JCS), una medida basada en la conceptualización de job crafting de la Teoría de Demandas-Recursos, para una muestra de trabajadores portugueses y probar sus propiedades psicométricas en cuanto a validez (factor, convergente, discriminante y de criterio) y confiabilidad.

En esta investigación participaron dos submuestras (n1 = 315 y n2 = 329) de trabajadores portugueses de 18 años o más. Se utilizó un análisis factorial exploratorio y un análisis factorial confirmatorio para evaluar la estructura factorial.

Los resultados indicaron que la versión portuguesa del JCS, con 18 ítems, tiene una estructura factorial compuesta por cuatro factores correlacionados. Además, los resultados demostraron la existencia de validez factorial, discriminante y de criterio, así como confiabilidad.

Este estudio proporciona una medida de job crafting adaptada a la lengua portuguesa que puede servir como herramienta de diagnóstico para trabajadores y organizaciones.

Este estudo teve como objetivo adaptar e validar a Job Crafting Scale (JCS), uma medida baseada na conceptualização de job crafting da Teoria das Exigências-Recursos, numa amostra de trabalhadores portugueses e testar as suas propriedades psicométricas quanto à validade (fatorial, convergente, discriminante e de critério) e fiabilidade.

Duas subamostras (n1 = 315 e n2 = 329) compostas por trabalhadores portugueses com 18 ou mais anos foram recolhidas. Foram utilizadas uma análise fatorial exploratória e uma análise fatorial confirmatória para analisar a estrutura fatorial.

Os resultados obtidos indicaram que a versão portuguesa da JCS, composta por 18 itens, possui uma estrutura fatorial composta por quatro fatores correlacionados. Além disso, os resultados demonstraram a existência de validade fatorial, discriminante e de critério, bem como de fiabilidade.

Este estudo fornece uma medida de job crafting adaptada para a língua portuguesa que pode servir como ferramenta de diagnóstico para trabalhadores e organizações.

This study probes the psychological interplay between investor sentiment and the returns of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum. Employing the Granger causality test, the authors aim to gauge how extensively the Fear and Greed Index (FGI) can predict cryptocurrency return movements, exploring the intricate bond between investor emotions and market behavior.

The authors used the Granger causality test to achieve research objectives. Going beyond conventional linear analysis, the authors applied Smooth Quantile Regression, scrutinizing weekly data from July 2022 to June 2023 for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The study focus was to determine if the FGI, an indicator of investor sentiment, predicts shifts in cryptocurrency returns.

The study findings underscore the profound psychological sway within cryptocurrency markets. The FGI notably predicts the returns of Bitcoin and Ethereum, underscoring the lasting connection between investor emotions and market behavior. An intriguing feedback loop between the FGI and cryptocurrency returns was identified, accentuating emotions' persistent role in shaping market dynamics. While associations between sentiment and returns were observed at specific lag periods, the nonlinear Granger causality test didn't statistically support nonlinear causality. This suggests linear interactions predominantly govern variable relationships. Cointegration tests highlighted a stable, enduring link between the returns of Bitcoin, Ethereum and the FGI over the long term.

Despite valuable insights, it's crucial to acknowledge our nonlinear analysis's sensitivity to methodological choices. Specifics of time series data and the chosen time frame may have influenced outcomes. Additionally, direct exploration of macroeconomic and geopolitical factors was absent, signaling opportunities for future research.

This study enriches theoretical understanding by illuminating causal dynamics between investor sentiment and cryptocurrency returns. Its significance lies in spotlighting the pivotal role of investor sentiment in shaping cryptocurrency market behavior. It emphasizes the importance of considering this factor when navigating investment decisions in a highly volatile, dynamic market environment.