Search results

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between collaborative innovation and the financial performance of information technology (IT) firms through the mediating role of strategic agility and absorptive capacity. Customer knowledge management capability (CKMC) is also explored as a potential moderator.

Data were collected from 300 respondents working in different small to medium IT enterprises operating in different cities around Portugal. The simple random sampling method was used for data collection, and Smart partial least squares-structural equation modeling (Smart PLS-SEM version 3.2.8) was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that collaborative innovation contributes significantly to the financial performance of IT firms in Portugal. The results also indicate that absorptive capacity and strategic agility both positively and significantly affect the relationship between collaborative innovation and firms’ financial performance. However, while the moderating role of CKMC has a positive and significant effect on the relation between collaborative innovation and strategic agility, CKMC insignificantly moderates the relation between collaborative innovation and absorptive capacity.

Few studies have explicitly connected collaborative innovation with firms’ financial performance; this study attempts to fill that gap. Moreover, this research investigates the mediating role of strategic agility and absorptive capacity in the relationship between collaborative innovation and financial performance. Finally, by discussing the moderating effect of CKMC, which leads to enhanced financial performance, this study proposes that when complex and unpredictable situations occur, managers should focus on customer-oriented strategies and innovation at the same time to outpace their competitors.

Intellectual capital (IC) plays a crucial role in today’s volatile business landscape, yet its measurement remains complex. To better navigate these challenges, the authors propose the Integrated Intellectual Capital Measurement (IICM) model, an innovative, robust and comprehensive framework designed to capture IC amid business uncertainty. This study focuses on IC measurement models, typically reliant on secondary data, thus distinguishing it from conventional IC studies.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis across Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO Business Source Ultimate in February 2023. This yielded 2,709 IC measurement studies, from which the authors selected 27 quantitative papers published from 1985 to 2023.

The analysis revealed no single, universally accepted approach for measuring IC, with company attributes such as size, industry and location significantly influencing IC measurement methods. A key finding is human capital’s critical yet underrepresented role in firm competitiveness, which the IICM model aims to elevate.

This is the first SLR focused on IC measurement amid business uncertainty, providing insights for better management and navigating turbulence. The authors envisage future research exploring the interplay between IC components, technology, innovation and network-building strategies for business resilience. Additionally, there is a need to understand better the IC’s impact on specific industries (automotive, transportation and hospitality), Social Development Goals and digital transformation performance.

For Lusophones, saudade is a common psychological experience related with the physical separation from loved ones and/or familiar locations. This study aims to examine the relationships between perception of discrimination, adaptation and saudade.

The sample consisted of 655 African migrants from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique living in Portugal with a mean age of 38 years. The average duration of stay in Portugal was 22 years.

Results indicated that length of residence impacted the difficulties experienced with saudade: respondents with longer lengths of stay in the society of settlement experienced less difficulty with saudade. As predicted, the results indicated that higher perceptions of discrimination and loneliness correlated positively with experienced saudade, while sociocultural adaptation correlated negatively with experienced saudade.

Path analysis was conducted to investigate mediation impacts of sociocultural adjustment and loneliness on the relationship between perception of discriminatory events and difficulty with saudade. This study suggests that sociocultural adaptation and loneliness partially mediated the relation between perception of discrimination and saudade. Notwithstanding the low level of perceived discrimination found in this African background sample, this antecedent plays a relevant role in the saudade experienced. This evidence may be useful in targeting programs to improve sociocultural adjustment and to reduce loneliness which may help to alleviate the difficulty with feeling saudade among African migrants.

This study is a targeted review of some of the major changes in European regulation that guided energy policy decisions in the Iberian Peninsula and how they may have aggravated the problem of lack of flexibility. This study aims to assess some of the proposed short-term solutions to address this issue considering the underlying root causes and suggests a different course of action, that in turn, could help alleviate future market strains.

The evolution of the most important (macro) energy and price-related variables in both Portugal and Spain is assessed using market and grid operator data. In addition, the authors present critical viewpoints on some of the most recent EU and national regulation changes (official document analysis).

The Iberian energy policy and regulatory agenda has successfully promoted a rapid adoption of renewables (main goal), although with insufficient diversification of generation technologies. The compulsory closings of thermal plants and an increased tax (mainly carbon) added pressure toward more environmentally friendly thermal power plants. However, inevitably, this curbed the bidding price competitiveness of these producers in an already challenging market framework. Moving forward, decisions must be based on “a bigger picture” that does not neglect system flexibility and security of supply and understands the specificities of the Iberian market and its generation portfolio.

This work provides an original account of unprecedented spikes in energy prices in 2021, specifically in the Iberian electricity market. This acute situation worries consumers, industry and governments. Underlining the instability of the market prices, for the first time, this study discusses how some of the most important regulatory changes, and their perception and absorption by involved parties, contributed to the current environment. In addition, this study stresses that if flexibility is overlooked, the overall purpose of having an affordable and reliable system is at risk.

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.

Companion animals and social media are two important factors of social interaction and well-being among the older population. This study aims to compare social media use and/or having companion animals with respect to sociodemographic variables in conjunction with loneliness, social isolation, depression, satisfaction with life and satisfaction with social support.

This cross-sectional study involves a sample of 250 older community-dwelling adults. The questionnaire comprised sociodemographic, companion animals and social media questions and scales to assess social isolation, loneliness, satisfaction with life and social support and depression. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Four groups emerged: “companion animal/s, no social media” (37.6%); “none” (33.6%); “social media and companion animal/s” (14.4%); and “social media, no companion animal/s” (14.4%). Social media users (with or without companion animals) are the youngest and with higher levels of education; caregivers of companion animals (no social media use) are in-between in terms of age and level of education; and those without companion animals and no social media users are the oldest and with less formal education.

This research examines and compares two key influencers of older adults’ well-being and social interaction (social media and companion animals), that have been researched mostly separately. Findings underlined the cohort effect in the use of social media, suggesting that future older adult cohorts will use more social media whether they have or do not have companion animals.

This work uses survey data from the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (Comissão de Mercado de Valores Mobiliários – CMVM) to examine financial literacy and literacy bias. The main objective of this study is to shed light on this issue by identifying the individual characteristics that are associated with financial literacy, namely overconfidence and underconfidence, which in turn might help explain individuals' financial decisions. The study distinguishes two groups, i.e. students and nonstudents, and considers several characteristics that are usually employed in this stream of research.

The data are based on a survey conducted by a partnership between the CMVM and a consortium of Portuguese universities. This paper has a three-fold aim. First, it studies the main individual features associated with objective financial literacy. Second, it analyzes the relationship between those variables and the bias between self-perceived and objective literacy, distinguishing overconfidence and underconfidence. Third, and most originally, this framework was also used to examine the differences between students and nonstudents. Those aims are pursued using cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions, except for the study of the literacy bias, for which the authors use an ordered probit.

Literacy is higher in individuals of the male gender who are older, have higher incomes, live in metropolitan areas, are highly educated, have a field of study related to finance and have high self-perceived literacy. Younger people are more overconfident. Unconditionally, women are less overconfident than men, but conditionally, they overestimate their knowledge. People holding securities and with a field of study related to finance are more overconfident. The gender effect is mainly driven by students, and the impact of a field of study and of holding securities on overconfidence decreases and increases, respectively, for students. The results highlight the importance of financial education.

Due to the way that the questionnaire was made available, there is no guarantee that the sample is representative of the Portuguese general population, or, for that matter, representative of the typical Portuguese retail investors or households. Also, there is no guarantee that the same individual did not answer the questionnaire more than once, although this is highly improbable. The link to the online questionnaire was only transmitted within e-mail databases owned by the CMVM and Portuguese universities, so the authors cannot guarantee its unbiasedness.

The authors' results may help the National Plan for Financial Education (the acronym in Portuguese is PNFF) fine-tune the required actions towards different target groups and, most importantly, highlight that different groups may require different approaches aiming to narrow the gap between objective and perceived literacy. The first step should be creating procedures to provide feedback on the objective and perceived literacy of those who enroll in financial formation programs.

The study distinguishes two groups, students and nonstudents, providing additional insights that might guide policymakers on how to structure financial education to enhance individual financial behavior. This is especially important in a country such as Portugal which has the lowest objective financial literacy in the Eurozone.

This study contributes to the financial literacy literature, in particular to the stream of research that focuses on psychological biases, by shedding light on the factors associated with both individual overconfidence and underconfidence. Differentiating between students and nonstudents provides additional insights, which might guide policymakers on how to structure financial education to enhance individual financial behavior.

Recent developments in the psychometric assessment of youth psychopathic traits suggest that the inclusion of a conduct disorder (CD) factor to the traditional three factors of the psychopathy construct may improve the incremental validity of these measures. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether the addition of a CD factor incrementally improves the ability of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory Short version (YPI-S) to predict criminal recidivism.

A longitudinal quantitative research design was used with a sample detained male youth (N = 214, M_age = 16.4 years, SD_age = 1.3 years).

Results using the area under the curve analysis suggest that the inclusion of a CD factor slightly improves the capacity of the YPI-S to predict one-year general criminal recidivism, but it does not significantly increase its capacity to predict violent criminal recidivism. Results also indicate that a CD scale outperforms the YPI-S, even with an additional CD factor included, in terms of predicting one-year general and violent recidivism.

Self-reported youth psychopathic trait measures, even those that include a CD factor as a fourth factor, should be used with caution when the aim is to predict youth criminal recidivism.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study using a self-reported youth psychopathic traits measure with a CD factor to examine youth criminal recidivism.

This paper aims to investigate whether executive compensation, corporate social responsibility (CSR)-based incentives, environmental social and governance (ESG) performance and firm performance are the significant predictors of CSR committees, in addition to CEO, firm and corporate governance characteristics, from the tenet of stakeholder and managerial power theories.

Switzerland is an exemplary country from the perspective of corporate governance and executive compensation. This empirical study includes a panel data set of listed Swiss companies, so fixed-effect logistic regression has been used.

It has been found that the companies that offer CSR-based incentives and higher compensation to their CEOs and have better ESG performance are more likely to have CSR committees.

This empirical paper fills the gap in the literature, guides practitioners about the factors that influence the creation and efficiency of CSR committees, and inspires regulatory bodies to ponder on a mandatory CSR committee to form resilient and sustainable organizations worldwide.

COVID-19 has re-emphasized the prominence of sustainability and the stakeholder approach. Thus, this paper indicates that CSR committees require the adaption and implementation of a holistic sustainability policy that integrates both external and internal factors and thereby provides a whole process for sustainability issues.

The impact of CSR committees on corporate social performance (CSP) has already been investigated. However, the predictors of CSR committees have been less scrutinized in the literature.