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Sri Lanka’s diversity reflects its situation in the Indian Ocean and its trading potential. The existent diversity was further enhanced with the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century ad. The Portuguese were driven by the twin goals of trading and proselytising which led to territorial control and cultural flows. Historical narratives have centred around conflicts, wars, treaties, heroes, tensions and have omitted the day-to-day interactions and cultural flows. Recovering these narratives lead to creating new knowledge systems with more comprehensive pictures of the past which enable societies to understand the present better. Negative portrayals of the Portuguese have centred around the destruction to the religious philosophies in the island – Buddhism and Hinduism – and the loss of land to the Portuguese. These were further exacerbated by the ruthless and corrupt practices of colonisation. Documented historical narratives ignored the porosity and human interactions between the coloniser and colonised (De Silva Jayasuriya, 2008a). Concurrent occurrences of the official presence have not been separated from the unofficial that remain unrecognised. Alternative narratives of culture (material culture, artistic expressions, clothes, domestic lifestyles, etc.) relay the unrecognised. This chapter highlights sociocultural connections between communities in multiethnic pluricultural Sri Lanka which evolved during the colonial era. Histories built from the bottom up and alternative narratives which include culture contact mirror colonial encounters (de Silva, 2007). The impact of the Portuguese on Sri Lankan culture, economy and lifestyle has been explored. The degree to which colonial histories have influenced and informed new ways of knowing within Sri Lankan culture is considered. Drawing on the author’s critical self-reflections and her long-term interest in researching and writing about the Portuguese encounter and spillover effects in Sri Lanka, this chapter argues that a new historiography is called for in order to appreciate and acknowledge the Portuguese legacy in Sri Lanka and its contemporary relevance.

This essay examines how two Marxist anti-colonial intellectuals from Portuguese India and French India – Aquino de Bragança and V Subbiah – differentially theorized movements for independence from colonial rule. Through the analysis of primary source documents in French, Portuguese, Italian and English, I compare V Subbiah's Dalit, anti-fascist anti-colonial Marxism to Aquino de Bragança's internationalist anti-colonial Marxism. Both theorists' approaches have similarities in (1) theorizing the relationship between fascism and colonialism given that the Portuguese Empire was administered by Salazar's Estado Novo and the French Empire was under Vichy rule, (2) rethinking Marxism to better fit the Global South context and (3) intellectual and political connections to Algeria were critically important for theory and praxis. Despite the distinct geographic and social spaces in which they lived and worked, both produced remarkably similar theories of anti-imperialism.

Based on theoretical principles of Semantics, Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis/Discourse Studies, the present work analysed a corpus of opinion articles, published in Portuguese newspapers and news magazines from December 2011 to March 2013, in order to foreground the dominant social representations of ‘Troika’, ‘The Portuguese Government’ and ‘The Portuguese’ in these discourses.

A systematic analysis of discourse structures in the corpus was developed in order to examine their potential in the expression of ideological content. Concepts such as Semantic/Thematic Roles, Force Dynamics and Symmetry were combined with analytic models from Discourse Studies to illustrate the Ideological Discourse Representations and the Positions in the Discourse Space (DS) of Social Actors. The linguistic hypotheses and generalisations were generated bottom up, departing from the regular patterns observable in the empirical data and extracting conclusions from them. The interpretative practice was, therefore, made in adherence to corpus evidence.

This integrated analysis has shown that the reconstruction of ‘Portugal’ and ‘the Portuguese’ vis-a-vis ‘Europe’, represented by ‘Troika’, corresponds to opponent positioning that polarise these entities, foregrounding the distance and the conflict between them and contributing to a vision of a disintegrated Europe. In fact, the reality depicted in the opinion articles analysed was a polarised reality, in the sense that these articles repeatedly used linguistic constructions that placed (through several rhetoric devices that will be analysed) Europe and Troika on one ‘pole’ and ‘The Portuguese’ on the other ‘pole’, expressing, thus, the movement of the actors to polar opposites.

On the theoretical level, this chapter proposes an integrated approach towards opinion discourse in the press, combining Critical Discourse analytic and DS Theory perspectives with the insights from Socio-Cognitive approach by Van Dijk and aspects of Cognitive Linguistics by Talmy.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of listed Portuguese companies' specific determinants on adjustment of actual debt towards target debt ratio. The specific determinants on adjustment of actual debt towards target debt ratio that we consider are: asset tangibility, size, profitability and market to book ratio.

Dynamic panel estimators are used to determine adjustment of the actual level of debt towards optimal level of debt, revealing the level of transaction costs borne by companies. OLS regressions are also used, in order to estimate the impacts of companies' specific determinants on debt adjustment.

The results suggest that transaction costs are relevant in listed Portuguese companies' access to debt. Tangibility of assets and size are determinants that contribute for a greater adjustment of debt towards optimal level. The results also suggest that the capital structure decisions of listed Portuguese companies can be explained in the light of trade‐off and pecking order theories, and not according to what is forecast by market timing theory.

Through this study, the level of adjustment of actual debt towards target debt ratio in the context of companies belonging to under‐developed capital markets are determined, in the particular case of this study, belonging to the Portuguese capital market. Furthermore, from target debt ratio depending on companies' specific determinants, the explanatory power of trade‐off, pecking order and market timing theories are investigated. The results contribute for a deeper understanding about companies' capital structure decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if the relationship between growth and research and development (R&D) intensity is of a different nature in the context of low‐ and high‐tech Portuguese service small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The System Analysis of Iberian Balance Sheets database is used. Based on the European Union's recommendation, L124/36 (2003/261/CE), the authors select 764 low‐tech and 139 high‐tech Portuguese service SMEs for the period 1999‐2006. As method of analysis, panel data are used.

A negative relationship between growth and R&D intensity for low‐tech Portuguese service SMEs is identified, whatever the level of R&D intensity. For high‐tech Portuguese service SMEs, a quadratic U‐shaped relationship between growth and R&D intensity is identified. Moreover, the authors find that relationships between growth and determinants are of a special nature in the context of high‐tech Portuguese service SMEs with high levels of R&D intensity.

It is recommended that as far as possible the managers/owners of low‐tech Portuguese service SMEs, and especially high‐tech ones with non‐high levels of R&D intensity, hire qualified human resources and make more continuous investment in R&D. The authors advise managers/owners of high‐tech Portuguese service SMEs with high levels of R&D intensity to establish stable relationships with creditors. Policy‐makers should increase financial support directed, above all, to innovative Portuguese service SMEs.

The paper is pioneering in presenting different relationships between growth and R&D intensity in the context of low‐ and high‐tech service SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance of information asymmetry in the relationships between Portuguese SME's capital structure decisions and creditors, comparing the results of service SME with those found in manufacturing SMEs.

Two samples of Portuguese SMEs are considered: one sample is composed by 610 unlisted service SMEs; and, the other sample is made up by 381 unlisted SMEs in manufacturing industry, for the period 1999‐2006. To estimate the results, the two‐step estimation method is used, to control possible bias arising from data selection. In the first step, probit regression is used. In the second step, after the control for possible data bias, dynamic panel estimators are used.

The results obtained suggest that information asymmetry in the relationships between SMEs and creditors has a greater relative influence on capital structure decisions of service SMEs than on those of manufacturing SMEs.

Given the increasing importance of service SMEs in the Portuguese economy for stimulating employment, business volume, and consequently economic growth, it would be advisable for policy makers to create special long‐term lines of credit, with advantageous terms, so that Portuguese service SMEs, when internal finance is insufficient, can finance more efficiently the growth opportunities and the strategies for diversification. In addition, since SMEs' capital structure decisions present differences, both concerning the sector of industry and over time, the measures adopted by policy makers should differentiate their measures between industry sectors and over time.

First, this paper is pioneering in comparing the adjustment of actual short‐ and long‐term debts, in service and manufacturing SMEs, towards the respective target ratios. Second, it is pioneering in using dynamic estimators and in using the two‐step estimation method, in studies of determinants of capital structure decisions of service and manufacturing SMEs.

Wine is important to the Portuguese economy, and the United Kingdom is one of Portugal's oldest and most important wine markets. Yet the Portuguese are rapidly losing their share of the UK market, and have already been overtaken by Australia, Bulgaria, South Africa, the USA and Hungary. This paper reports a study of the Portuguese wine industry in the context of the UK market using Porter's structural analysis model as the analytical framework. Data were collected via depth interview with executives closely involved in the wine trade, in Portugal and the UK. It was found that Portugal's traditional source of competitive advantage, low costs as a consequence of low wages, has been eroded. The absence of any other cost advantage, low investment in products and markets and a lack of scale economies are exacerbated by production‐led convictions that Portuguese wine is best — it is just that the customers do not appreciate it. Meanwhile the customers perceive a lack of reliability in quality, lack of the ability to consistently deliver the required quantity and fluctuating prices. Portugal needs a consistent strategy for sustainable competitive advantage; some alternative strategies are discussed.

Ever since Portugal joined the European Union, Portuguese organisations have been struggling with both the challenges of new competitors flooding in from other European countries and taking advantage of the opportunities the new enlarged integrated market offered them. This is because Portuguese companies have in general low average rates of productivity growth while they lack techniques to improve not only these rates but also overall organisational performance. The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the high-performance organisation (HPO) framework, a holistic improvement technique developed on the basis of worldwide data, is valid for the Portuguese context and therefore can support Portuguese organisations in their efforts to achieve better performance.

Managers in Portuguese organisations, which were found in the Spain balance sheet analysis system database, were approached to fill in the HPO questionnaire on their company. In total, data was received from 163 organisations. This data was subsequently statistically analysed using a confirmatory factor analysis.

The study shows that the 35 items of the HPO framework are valid for the participating Portuguese organisations and as such form a reliable HPO framework for these organisations. Thus, the HPO framework can be reliably applied at Portuguese organisations to evaluate their current level of organisational performance and to propose recommendations to improve performance.

This research study fills the gap of the currently rather limited literature on the application of holistic and effective improvement techniques in Portugal, and as such future researchers can use the framework to conduct a more in-depth study of performance gains in the Portuguese context. Portuguese managers now have at their disposal a holistic improvement technique validated for their context, so they can use the HPO framework with confidence to start improving their own organisations.

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of liquidity in asset pricing in a tiny market, such as the Portuguese. The unique setting of the Lisbon Stock Exchange with regards to changes in classification from an emerging to a developed stock market, allows an original answer to whether changes in the development of the market affect the role of liquidity in asset pricing.

The authors propose and compare two alternative implications of liquidity in asset pricing: as a desirable characteristic of stocks and as a source of systematic risk. In contrast to prior research for major stock markets, they use the proportion of zero returns which is an appropriated measure of liquidity in tiny markets and propose the separated effects of illiquidity in a capital asset pricing model framework over the whole sample period as well as in two sub-samples, depending on the change in classification of the Portuguese market, from an emerging to a developed one.

The overall results of the study show that individual illiquidity affects Portuguese stock returns. However, in contrast to previous evidence from other markets, they show that the most traded stocks (hence the most liquid stocks) exhibit larger returns. In addition, they show that the illiquidity effects on stock returns were higher and more significant in the period from January 1988 to November 1997, during which the Portuguese stock market was still an emerging market.

These findings are relevant for investors when they make their investment decisions and for market regulators because they reflect the need of improving the competitiveness of the Portuguese stock market. Additionally, these findings are a challenge for academics because they exhibit the need for providing alternative theories for tiny markets such as the Portuguese one.

The results have important implications for individual and institutional investors who can take into account the peculiar effect of liquidity in stock returns to make proper investment decision.

The Portuguese market provides a natural experimental area to analyse the role of liquidity in asset pricing, because it is a tiny market and during the period studied it changed from an emerging to a developed stock market. Moreover, the authors have to highlight that previous evidence almost exclusively focuses on the US and major European stock markets, whereas studies for the Portuguese one are scarce. In this context, the study provides an alternative methodological approach with results that differ from those theoretically expected. Thus, these findings are a challenge for academics and open a theoretical and a practical debate.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the social networks of Portuguese self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), in terms of composition, diversity and roles.

Semi-structured interviews with several Portuguese SIEs from diverse occupations and who were living and working in different locations were conducted, to explore the composition, diversity and roles performed by their social networks.

The findings indicate that: first, surveyed Portuguese SIEs had both home and host social networks: while home networks fade over time, host networks were mainly work driven; second, most SIEs had an “anchor contact” prior to the relocation, which assisted in the decision to go abroad and the initial settlement; and third, surveyed Portuguese SIEs purposefully sough “fellow nationals” from a similar social status and background to get feedback and emotional support, while deliberately ignored Portuguese diaspora.

Following the findings from this exploratory study, several research propositions are outlined highlighting the interactions between SIEs’ social networks at the destination and stereotypes toward their national origin. This study helps understand what shapes the formation of social networks among SIEs.