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This purpose of this paper is to investigate the main characteristics, buying habits, motivations, influences, and overall satisfaction of Portuguese online consumers of wine, as well as to assess whether this market segment can be considered a niche.

A survey was conducted in a Portuguese online wine shop during the last three months of 2009. The questionnaire included questions about the consumers’ socio‐demographic characteristics, motivations, buying habits and factors influencing online buying behaviour. The questionnaires were delivered by e‐mail to regular and new customers when a transaction was processed online. Of the 82 questionnaires received, 74 were sufficiently complete to be used in the study.

The online wine market can be considered a niche in Portugal. As the authors’ empirical work shows, this segment is mainly composed of young, male, well‐educated, high‐income consumers who buy wine online from home often less than once a month. They are motivated by convenience, a wider selection of wines, availability, and price. As decision factors, they value the origin/brand of the wine, the price, the recommendation of the online shop, and their own experience. A comparative analysis with international online wine consumers found differences based on profile and consumer buying behaviour (patterns and influences).

The non‐probabilistic sample contained only data from a Portuguese online wine store. Thus, future studies should examine other online wine stores to determine the level of generalisation of the findings to the entire community of online wine consumers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research conducted in Portugal to identify the main characteristics, buying habits, motivations, influences, and overall satisfaction of the Portuguese online consumers of wine. The paper provides useful insights into the topic, as well as a basis for future studies.

Purpose: This research investigates the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on Portuguese and Brazilian consumers’ vulnerability in contrasting age groups. It seeks to establish the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and the pandemic’s impact on customer’s vulnerability to help companies design strategies to cope with this new market context and be prepared to address these vulnerabilities in a future international health crisis.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This study employs a quantitative research method to assess the different impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer vulnerability. Based on Portuguese and Brazilian residents’ surveys, an age/country-segmented cross-cultural multi-group analysis was performed to understand the differences in vulnerability.

Findings: Outcomes proved how the pandemic aggravates distinctively the vulnerability dimensions of consumers living in Portugal and Brazil. Besides, results highlight significant differences in consumers’ vulnerability during the pandemic given their age group. A positive correlation between age and fear of COVID-19 was also verified.

Value: Results were obtained based on consumers’ perceptions and scores rather than postulated behaviors. The findings highlight the need for health prevention measures to avoid neglecting existing vulnerable groups, whilst verifying how COVID-19 has managed to proliferate consumers’ vulnerability. Suggestions are drawn for both firms and governments based on obtained results and existing literature. Exemplar business strategies to avoid these vulnerabilities are put forward and discussed. The potential business advantages of firms shaping their activity according to their customers’ current vulnerabilities, during international pandemics, are also pointed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Millennials’ formation of trust towards a travel website and identify the similarities and the differences in trust formation among consumers from two countries – Denmark and Portugal.

The study is based on online surveys conducted with convenience samples from two culturally-distant countries. Independent t-tests, structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis are used to verify the conceptual model and test the hypotheses.

Results support a strong relationship between initial trust towards a travel website and consumers’ behavioural intentions. The results also suggest that cultural differences between countries moderate the formation of initial trust and behavioural reactions hereto.

The study provides new insights into understanding how Millennials from Portugal and Denmark form initial trust towards an e-travel website.

This study investigated the viability of using a Pan‐European approach for professional service offerings in Europe by first establishing measurement equivalence and then exploring the influence of culture on service quality and customer satisfaction. Utilizing scenarios involving a dental office visit, respondents from Portugal, France, and Germany participated in a 2X2 factorial experiment in which the researchers manipulated both expectations (low/high) and service performance (low/high). Respondents from France and Portugal expressed similar levels of customer satisfaction and perceived service quality, which were significantly different from those of the German respondents except when both expectations and performance were low.

In an increasingly competitive global market, firms try to conquer a special place in customers’ minds and – when possible – in their hearts and spirits in order to succeed. Hence, through a competitive strategy based on differentiation, companies tend to focus their efforts in creating the right value proposition for consumers. They also establish upstream and/or downstream partnerships based on win–win relationships for the parties that constitute their value chain. The particular characteristics of ethnic products influence these strategies and the brand crossover. How can the ethnic-national identity of a product be employed successfully – regarding its liabilities and assets – in international sales? This case study¹ focuses on Nata Pura, a rather young Portuguese firm that has built its internationalization strategy based on exporting a traditional product pastel de nata using innovative solutions, which include the development of partnerships to produce and promote this as an organic pastry made with high-quality-adapted ingredients. Earlier, the traditional product was mainly sold and distributed within Portuguese Diaspora. Nata Pura company markets and distributes the re-invented product, originally a traditional Portuguese food product, and bridges cultural and administrative distances by combining the traditional with global tendencies and tastes.

The technology acceptance model (TAM) has been one of the most influential theories in the information technology literature, but it has not been used in the marketing literature to understand consumer acceptance of international web sites. Thus, the purpose of this study is to use TAM to study international consumers' acceptance and use of MNEs web sites designed specifically for their country.

This study applies and extends the TAM to study the B2C international web sites of American and Japanese MNEs for Brazilian, German, and Taiwanese consumers. In total, there were 2,243 usable questionnaires and the structural equation modeling method was used to analyze the data.

This study provides strong support for the applicability of TAM in explaining international web site usage in Brazil, Germany, and Taiwan and shows that cultural adaptation is an important explanatory variable that should be included in the TAM when exploring cross‐cultural issues.

The value of this paper is that it not only extends the use of TAM to study user acceptance of international e‐commerce web sites, but also sees how the cultural adaptation of international web sites impacts the attitude and the purchase intention of consumers.

In an online banking context this study seeks to explore the relation between the relationship marketing factors of customer intentions to continue to use services and to recommend these services to others, and the technology acceptance factors of self-control, usefulness, customer value, technology-based service encounter satisfaction and reputation. Innovatively this study also compares the proposed model in two countries, Portugal and Austria.

Derived from a review of previous literature, a survey was developed and data were collected using the online survey service of universities in two countries, Portugal and Austria. The partial least squares approach was employed to test the hypotheses.

The findings showed that self-control and usefulness are important antecedents of customer value delivery. Furthermore perceptions of online bank reputation were enhanced by the satisfaction derived from positive customer encounters with online banking services. Unlike the Portuguese, Austrians' perceptions of bank reputation did not significantly influence their intention to continue to use or their propensity to recommend online banking to others.

Based on literature which suggests that constructs such as customer value, trust, satisfaction and reputation are inter-related to the technology acceptance model, this paper extends earlier theoretical frameworks and is the first study to incorporate relationship marketing constructs into a model examining intention to use, and recommending online banking services. The study also differentiates the model in two countries that represent different business and cultural settings: Portugal and Austria.

This chapter aims to understand the communication practices of CSR in technological environments, specifically corporate websites. It is important to know what are the dimensions of CSR most valued in online communication, what content is more widespread, and if there is dialogic communication between organizations and different stakeholders. It was used a quantitative method of analysis, using the expanded web content analysis. It was based on the study results of the 1,000 largest Portuguese companies published by the Economic Journal in 2014. The chapter includes the analysis of the best companies from 24 sectors of activity of Portugal. Portuguese organizations use their websites to communicate about CSR practices. A large majority of companies dedicate to these subjects a higher number of pages. The findings indicate that the issues disseminated are various, but the predominance content is related to environmental dimension. Results suggest a low level of dialogic dimension adoption. It is proposed a theoretical framework of online communication of CSR that integrates a set of indicators from three interlinked dimensions: the technical dimension, the informational dimension and dialogical dimension, considering the different kind of publics and the different practice areas inherent to CSR. This framework is a contribution to the deepening of knowledge and understanding of online communication of CSR practices, on the perspective of public relations theory. It has practical implications to communication, because it proposes guidelines that should be considered in an effective online communication of CSR in organizations of various sectors of activity in Portugal. It is proposed a theoretical framework of an effective online communication of CSR that integrates a set of indicators from three interlinked dimensions that are part of the dialogical capacity of organizations.

This paper aims to identify the current state of the Portuguese tourism, its opportunities and challenges based on the conclusions of the International Tourism Forum (ITF)/Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) Round Table attended by representatives of the main public and private entities of the tourism sector in Portugal.

This paper presents and discusses the main conclusions resulting from the ITF/WHATT Round Table. The event was organized by the Institute for Tourism Planning and Development, under the theme “Tourism in 2016: from trends to results”.

The ITF/WHATT Round Table concluded that the tourism industry worldwide and in Portugal, in particular, is facing major challenges that call for innovative ways of managing the tourism experience. On the other hand, world tourism growth was seen as a reality that will remain, and destinations will have to continue working to achieve better tourists instead of getting more tourists.

This analysis provides knowledge about the current state of the Portuguese tourism, its challenges and opportunities while identifying innovative ways and likely solutions to improve the experience of tourists visiting Portugal.

The profiling of the current state of the Portuguese tourism, its opportunities and challenges contributes to the design of more effective strategies to improve the Portuguese tourist offer and the experience of tourists visiting Portugal.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effect of health risk perceptions on the degree of decisiveness of a person towards e-commerce (e-commerce acceptance), self-awareness towards leisure and self-awareness towards socialisation in pandemic contexts. The identified gap was related to the COVID-19 pandemic, where the development of studies inherent to this context is becoming urgent. Thus, it was necessary to understand how the health risks perceived by individuals influenced their choice regarding online shopping and, simultaneously, socialising and leisure activities.

To reach this goal, a conceptual model was developed based on the self-determination theory, and data were collected from two countries (Portugal and Croatia). The model was estimated using the structural equation modelling (SEM).

The results showed that the perceptions regarding health risks have a positive effect on the degree of decisiveness of a person towards e-commerce acceptance and self-awareness towards socialisation. In turn, the perceptions of health risks have a positive effect on self-awareness towards leisure, not supporting the model conceptualisation.

The paper contributes to fill a gap in literature by analysing the simultaneous effect of individuals’ e-commerce motivations for leisure and socialising activities within a pandemic context. These results have significant managerial implications for several stakeholders that must communicate to the specific public regarding this type of events.

El propósito de este estudio es analizar el efecto de las percepciones de riesgo para la salud sobre i) el grado de decisión de una persona hacia el comercio electrónico (aceptación del comercio electrónico); ii) la autoconciencia hacia el ocio; y iii) la autoconciencia hacia la socialización en contextos de pandemia. La laguna identificada estaba relacionada con la pandemia de COVID-19, donde era urgente desarrollar estudios inherentes a este contexto. Así, era necesario comprender cómo los riesgos para la salud percibidos por los individuos influían en su elección respecto a las compras en línea y, simultáneamente, a las actividades de socialización y ocio.

Para alcanzar este objetivo, se desarrolló un modelo conceptual, basado en la teoría de la autodeterminación y se recogieron datos de dos países (Portugal y Croacia). El modelo se estimó mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM).

Los resultados mostraron que las percepciones sobre los riesgos para la salud tienen un efecto positivo en el grado de decisión de una persona hacia la aceptación del comercio electrónico y la autoconciencia hacia la socialización. A su vez, las percepciones sobre los riesgos para la salud tienen efectos positivos sobre la autoconciencia hacia el ocio no suportando la conceptualización del modelo.

El artículo contribuye a llenar un vacío en la literatura al analizar el efecto simultáneo de las motivaciones de comercio electrónico de los individuos para actividades de ocio y socialización en un contexto de pandemia. Estos resultados tienen importantes implicaciones de gestión para varios actores que deben comunicar al público específico sobre el tipo de eventos.

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar o efeito da perceção dos riscos para a saúde sobre i) o grau de decisão de uma pessoa em relação ao comércio eletrónico (aceitação do comércio eletrónico); ii) a auto-consciencialização em relação ao lazer; e iii) a auto-consciencialização em relação à socialização em contextos pandémicos. A lacuna identificada estava relacionada com a pandemia da COVID-19, onde era urgente desenvolver estudos inerentes a este contexto. Assim, foi necessário compreender como os riscos de saúde percebidos pelos indivíduos influenciaram a sua escolha relativamente às compras on-line e, simultaneamente, às atividades de socialização e lazer.

Para atingir este objetivo, foi desenvolvido um modelo concetual, com base na teoria da autodeterminação e foram recolhidos dados de dois países (Portugal e Croácia). O modelo foi estimado utilizando a modelação de equações estruturais (SEM).

Os resultados mostraram que as perceções relativas aos riscos de saúde têm um efeito positivo sobre o grau de decisão de uma pessoa em relação à aceitação do comércio eletrónico e de auto-consciencialização em relação à socialização. Por sua vez, as perceções dos riscos de saúde têm efeitos positivos sobre a auto-consciencialização em relação ao lazer não suportando o modelo concetual.

O artigo contribui para preencher uma lacuna na literatura ao analisar o efeito simultâneo das motivações do comércio eletrónico dos indivíduos para atividades de lazer e socialização em um contexto de pandemia. Estes resultados têm implicações de gestão significativas para vários intervenientes que devem comunicar ao público específico sobre o tipo de eventos.