Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Portuguese hospital inpatient satisfaction.

The study was conducted at a major university hospital in Portugal. Using the IAQH-IA mailed questionnaire, data were collected over three months (March to June 2015) from patients and families. From 1,500 former inpatients, 434 participated (29 percent response rate). Using the structural equation modeling, the authors derived satisfaction models and analyzed the relationship between quality, satisfaction and patient attitudes. Inferential statistics (bivariate analysis) were used to deal with global satisfaction determinants.

The satisfaction model was confirmed using factor analysis. Results show that developing a system for delivering timely information to both patient and relatives is relevant. Communication is a fundamental aspect for patients, which to date, seems to have been neglected by hospital managers. Education and current perceived health are important global satisfaction determinants.

Hospital managers can use the authors’ findings to measure and improve operational performance.

Knowledge about patient perception and satisfaction leads to continuing improvement in healthcare quality.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused job losses to rise dramatically. Herein, the purpose of the article is to identify which personal and job characteristics make individuals more vulnerable or more resilient to COVID-19 unemployment in Portugal and thus to help policymakers, organizations and individuals themselves, in creating mechanisms to avoid unemployment within this new context.

Using extensive personal and job-related data on the complete population of newly unemployed in Portugal over several months after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, a logit model is estimated to identify the characteristics that make workers more resilient or more vulnerable to COVID-19 unemployment, in comparison with the pre-crisis period.

The COVID-19 crisis is shown to be disruptive by changing the unemployment structure, increasing socioeconomic inequalities and weakening traditional mechanisms of employment protection. Additionally, the authors identify a higher vulnerability of low-skilled individuals and of those in occupations with low working-from-home feasibility and/or from non-essential sectors (particularly tourism).

Policy indications are given aiming to protect the most vulnerable individuals, sectors and regions in Portugal, in this new and unprecedented context.

A seven-month period following the emergence of the pandemic is considered, which allows investigating both the immediate and the medium-term effects of the COVID-19 crisis on job losses. Additionally, by matching data from three different sources, an extensive set of multilevel variables is considered, some of them new in the literature.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an insight into the fundamental changes taking place in Port wine production value chains. Specifically, the authors examine two distinct production regimes: when Port is aged and sold in the Greater Oporto and, alternatively, when it is produced, aged and sold in Douro.

The authors apply a tri-regional input–output model (Douro, Greater Oporto and rest of the country) for Portugal’s economy. This framework comprises a significant level of detail, with 431 products and 136 industries, the corresponding supply and demand for the products, by industry (for intermediate consumption) and final demand.

This study shows that the two regimes generate noteworthy, but quite heterogeneous, regional impacts. In both cases, the distribution of value added generates international and interregional trade flows. Moreover, the study reveals a greater capacity to capture national value added by getting the supply chain more intensive in localised services and by using state-of-the-art production techniques.

Using detailed regional data, the authors use disaggregated information, both for industries as well for territories, overcoming a common limitation in similar works that are grounded in international databases. Additionally, the approach integrates the trade interactions among industries and regions, which proves essential to uncovering spillovers resulting from the (direct and indirect) use of inputs from other regions and other countries.

The commercialization of research produced by universities constitutes a core facet of academic entrepreneurship (AE). Academic literature reveals the need to shed light on entrepreneurial processes in higher education institutions (HEIs). This study intends to fill this gap by researching the mechanisms for facilitating AE and the variables that can moderate the relationship between such mechanisms and AE in Portuguese HEIs.

Our research model aims to assess the mechanisms of academic entrepreneurship (AE) within a sample of 125 Portuguese public higher education institutions (HEIs). To test our research hypotheses, we employed a structural equation model (SEM) using the partial least squares (PLS) method. Additionally, our evaluation examines the potential moderating effects of incubator programs, support initiatives, and proof-of-concept programs (PoCs). Our research model seeks to evaluate the mechanisms for facilitating AE and explore the effects of including incubator programs, support initiatives, and PoCs as moderators. The seven variables (Research mobilization, Unconventionality, Industry collaboration, University policies, Incubator programs and support initiatives, Proof-of-concept programs, and academic entrepreneurship) were measured using a 7-point Likert scale.

The results revealed that different drivers of AE influence the creation and development of entrepreneurial activities. Our findings also show the moderating effects of incubator programs, support initiatives, and proof-of-concept programs on AE. We find that incubator programs, other support initiatives, and PoCs maintain a moderating effect on AE and benefit their respective HEIs.

The study examines only the Portuguese HEI context. Therefore, generalizing these results necessitates reservations. However, the responses came from various actors in HEIs, from different academic backgrounds and research interests. This makes the results more generalizable. Limitations are evident in external validity, given that we gathered the data over a relatively short period.

Observed factors are explored to gain a deeper understanding of their influence on the mechanisms of AE. The implications arise from the new perspective presented and the methodology used to identify mechanisms capable of fostering AE. We hope this research will encourage other researchers to study this topic further.

the engagement of universities at the global level should be emphasised in future policy. While universities in innovation systems often have a local focus, their engagement in innovation ecosystems transcends the boundaries of geographic locations.

PoCs had a significant positive moderating effect on the impact of research mobilization and university policies on AE. Thus, we find interactions between universities and industry boost AE. This study demonstrates how AE benefits HEIs by extending orientation towards mobilizing research, unconventional approaches, cooperation with industry, and university policy implementation. We thus advocate a new approach, demonstrating the influence that the mobility of research, unconventionality, industry collaboration, and university policies hold over AE.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how important technology transfer offices (TTOs) – which in Portuguese are called “industrial property support offices” or GAPIs – are in terms of fostering patent applications and technology transfer in countries characterized by low performance records in these activities.

Among the existing 23 Portuguese GAPIs, only eight agreed to provide answers to a semi-structured questionnaire survey. Content analysis was performed on the data collected using NVivo software.

The results show that GAPIs play an important role in the innovation life-cycle, speeding up the transfer of knowledge and technology to society. The regulation of intellectual property (IP) ownership and royalty sharing with inventors was identified as a major result, strengthening entrepreneurial universities’ role. In addition, after the GAPIs were created, networks were formed that facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience and promote the development of further collaborative partnerships.

This study’s results offer new insights into how GAPIs contribute to socio-economic growth by fostering more entrepreneurial universities and increasing the transfer of technology to society. In addition, these offices promote the creation of networks between GAPIs, enabling them to leverage universities’ potential for participation in socio-economic development.

No previous research has focused on GAPIs/TTOs’ point of view regarding policies that enhance IP and technology/knowledge transfer.

The strategic human resource management (SHRM) emerged in the middle of the 1980s and is currently seen as a relevant research and practical field in the area of business administration (Kaufman, 2015). Its academic relevance has been receiving international attention due to the importance of the strategic performance of human resource management (HRM) (Jackson, Schuler, & Jiang, 2014). It is possible to define SHRM as a vertical connection between HRM practices and international strategy and horizontally as the congruence among the several human resource practices (Wright & McMahan, 1992).

Taking into consideration the emerging research gaps in the area, the necessity to bring to attention the implementation of policies and strategic practices of human resource management became prominent. Our study characterizes the national scenario regarding this specific research theme. For such, we developed a bibliometric review of national journals in the area of business administration with level Qualis B2 [1] or above, described the institutionalization of the research in Brazil and established a sociogram with research relationship networks in the country.

Between 1997 and 2017, only 19 articles on the implementation of SHRM were published in the 32 journals researched. The characterization of the studies indicates a predominance of qualitative articles, which adopt as methodological approach the case study, and most of them use interviews and content analysis as techniques of data collection and analysis, respectively. The use of such investigation tools is in line with the nature of the phenomenon studied. The scenario indicates that the implementation of SHRM is still a developing theme in Brazil.

There is a lack of studies that combine the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches and focus on public organizations. Besides, the results indicate the need to diversify the methodological approaches used. Regarding the institutionalization of research in Brazil, it is possible to notice the growth of research groups investigating SHRM, even though their only focus does not rely on implementation. The academic production regarding the theme is regionally located in the state of São Paulo, even though academic production is also to be found in a decentralized way in the country, with rare networks.

This way, the main contribution of this article is the accomplishment of the first bibliometric review regarding the implementation of SHRM in Brazil, showing the scientific community that the theme still presents a gap to be explored in national studies and showing human resource professionals and the society that the transformational switch of human management to organizational outcomes – despite prolific in the academia – still has not been realized in practice.

In the articles analyzed, the most common finding was that the effective implementation of SHRM and strategic practices of HR, such as the competency management, still deserves attention of the academia through the accomplishment of deeper qualitative studies that exhibit not only interfering factors but also the initiatives that must be adopted by the organization to favor the implementation process.

The interventions occurred in an organization can or cannot stem from an articulated HR strategy. Some policies can be implemented without a previous explicit planning, and other planned strategies may never even be effectively implemented (Truss & Gratton, 1994). As reported by Kaufman (2015), some critical success factors to a large-scale organizational change – which is necessary for the effective adoption of strategic HR models – are the commitment of leaderships and a carefully planned and managed implementation. For such, it is necessary to manage programmed organizational changes properly and to act promptly on the cultural pressure perceived by all levels of the organization (Guest, 1987). Such premises are associated with the SHRM perspective proposed by Wright and Snell (1998), in which the authors claim that the main role of HR is to implement organizational strategies. Lengnick-Hall et al. (2009) present a research agenda that highlights the need to give more emphasis on issues related to the implementation of strategic human resource management, specifically regarding the vertical and horizontal alignment of HR systems.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the risks to which agrifood supply chains are exposed and to analyze how these risks impact the degree of coordination of the chain.

The present investigation was executed in two steps. Initially, a literature review and interviews with slaughterhouse managers were carried out to identify the main risks to which agrifood supply chains are exposed. The second step consisted of a survey involving 66 Brazilian slaughterhouses to identify how the perception of risks influences the degree of coordination in the examined chains.

The study revealed that risks, transaction costs and creation of collaborative advantages are determining factors in defining the degree of coordination in the analyzed agrifood supply chains.

The results allow slaughterhouse managers to more easily recognize the risks to which the supply chains are exposed and evaluate in more detail strategies for relationships with their suppliers. These strategies may be able to avoid conflict and create value for the supplier by stimulating longer relationships and facilitating animal purchase transactions for slaughter. This can lead to quality improvements, lower costs and reduced risk.

Studies of risks in agrifood supply chains are rare in comparison with those developed in other sectors. The present investigation is innovative in identifying the main risks specific to agrifood supply chains and associating those risks with a degree of coordination that minimizes them.

The purpose of this paper is to involve the differences in the entrepreneurial intentions of student at higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Portuguese regions (mainland and insular).

Applying a sample of 594 valid responses, the authors analyzed the data according to linear regression models.

The results convey how HEI students generally do not intend to become entrepreneurs in both the mainland and the insular regions. Although HEI students broadly do not aim to launch their own businesses, the results show that students in mainland regions feel they have the skills to start a business and drive it to success. In insular regions, students feel encouraged by their friends and family to set up their own business. When comparing insular and mainland regions, the results demonstrate how in insular regions, there is a greater probability that HEI students become entrepreneurs than in the mainland regions. Furthermore, entrepreneurial intentions in the mainland regions develop in terms of “opportunities” while driven by necessity in the insular regions.

This furthermore makes recommendations to regional governments and to HEIs in order to enable better encouragement of entrepreneurship in academia.

This study is original and innovative due to its comparison of the entrepreneurial intentions prevailing in mainland and insular regions and may propose new highlights to the academic scientific literature.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and identify the various characteristics of the institutional environment and the factors that propitiate the attraction of franchise chains to cities in the interior, using Brazil as an analysis.

Secondary data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics were used. It comprised a sample of 1,683 Brazilian cities with commercial outlets featuring franchise brands. It was limited to cities with populations of up to 100,000 inhabitants that did not constitute metropolitan regions. The statistical technique performed was multiple regression.

The results of the multiple regression confirm the explanatory power of R² = 36% for the analyzed model. Such presence of franchise chains is based on four institutional dimensions and their environmental characteristics: demographic (demographic density); economic and financial (average monthly salary of formal workers and number of banking agencies); business (number of active companies and presence of shopping centers); and human resources (presence of higher education units).

The main contribution of the study encompasses the call that regional institutional characteristics are part of knowledge guidelines on regional development and institutional environments for entrepreneurship. In this sense, the paper contributes to studies on regional development in particular, by punctuating the characteristics of the institutional environment of cities that are related to the existence of franchise chain brands.

Such contributions are addressed to managers and directors of expanding franchise chains, given the choice of locations that best enable the concept of their franchises. The fact that only 20% of franchises have a presence in these cities, even if it is admitted that for 70% of these chains, their businesses have the capacity to make these locations viable, shows the importance of this contribution.

This study is addressed to public managers, represented by secretaries of municipal developments, in view of the construction of an institutional environment conducive to entrepreneurial activity, in this specific case, by franchises. It is an important mechanism for attracting new businesses and creating a virtuous cycle of regional development.

Specifically, knowledge is generated about the insertion of ventures based on the franchise business model in small- and medium-sized regional markets. A second feature involves the understanding of the insertion of enterprises in a large and heterogeneous emerging market.