Search results

This paper aims to investigate vulnerability factors that influence thermal comfort in residential buildings in the context of climate change and variability, as well as adaptive strategies that can be adopted. There is a need for research that systematically addresses factors influencing thermal comfort in the context of climate change.

Using a vulnerability framework, this paper reviews existing literature to identify factors driving impacts to comfort, as well as strategies to increase adaptive capacity in buildings. Data were collected from several sources including international organizations, scientific journals and government authorities, following an initial Web-based subject search using Boolean operators.

Significant impacts can be expected in terms of thermal comfort inside buildings depending on four vulnerability factors: location; age and form; construction fabric and occupancy and behaviour. Despite the fact that the majority of the existing studies are technically driven and spatially restricted, there is strong evidence of interdependencies of scales in managing vulnerability and adaptive capacity.

Results from this review emphasise the importance of balance mitigation with adaptation regarding new building design and when retrofitting old buildings. The factors identified here can also be used to assist in construction of simplified tools such as a vulnerability index that helps in identifying the most vulnerable buildings and dwellings and assist in retrofit decisions.

The paper offers critical insight regarding implications in building design and policy in a vulnerability framework.

This paper aims to propose an integrative and result-driven health-care knowledge management (HKM) model and discuss the findings of a research that examines how the KM initiatives of a major private Brazilian hospital system are linked to its health-care performance outcomes.

Data were collected from a top-level Brazilian private hospital system (Mater Dei Healthcare System – MDHS), which is composed of three large hospitals internationally accredited by ISO 9001/2000, NIAHO and JCI. Multiple qualitative approaches were used to collect data such as 16 in-depth interviews with health professionals and managers, document analysis, participatory observation and benchmarking interviews with two reference hospital networks in Brazil.

The proposed health-oriented KM model is an expansion of the organizational knowing cycle model (Choo, 1996), adding absorptive capacity (ACAP) as a new construct. The paper discusses how ACAP integrates with sense-making, knowledge creation and decision-making processes within the health-care context. Information technology and clinical governance were identified as support factors to the HKM processes.

The paper presents a pragmatic and result-driven knowledge management (KM) model using health-care-welfare key performance indicators, as well as the emergence of KM as an integrative and strategic approach to hospital management.

The present study presents a knowledge-based perspective to clinical staff management, demonstrating the tangible results of KM initiatives that contribute to health and management performance outcomes.

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.

Consumer perception of corporate brand equity has primarily focused on product brand dimensions, neglecting considerations at the firm analysis level. Assessing corporate brands requires different criteria relevant to the competitiveness of companies, such as their prominence, management and meeting society’s demands. In this sense, this study aims to develop and validate a scale of corporate brand equity founded on consumer perceptions, transcending industry boundaries and comparing its relationship with companies' market share.

The authors used an integrative approach to clarify the construct’s domain, building on previous measures. They took several steps to select appropriate items, refine the measure, validate it through reliability tests and convergent and discriminant analyses, test the validity of the second-order formative structure of corporate brand equity and assess associations between first-order factors, the second-order factor and market share.

The model identifies three first-order dimensions of corporate brands (presence, outstanding management and responsible) that shape the second-order factor (corporate brand equity). They are directly related, but not proportionally, to market share, contributing to the general and joint assessment of the company’s competitive performance considering the consumer.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to develop a comprehensive measurement model of corporate brand equity that considers the firm level of analysis, combines metrics from previous research on corporate brand evaluation criteria and includes consumer perceptions of the company’s competitiveness, unifying branding theory with the theory of the marketing firm.

This paper aims to investigate the factors associated with the voluntary disclosure of integrated reporting (IR) in Brazil of the companies listed on the stock exchange – Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão. The cultural dimensions of a nation reflect different priorities in accounting practices. The Brazilian case, therefore, becomes significant, as Brazil is increasingly important in world markets.

As an explanatory econometric model, multinomial logistic regression was used (Y = 2 to describe the probability of the IR disclosure; Y = 1 to describe the occurrence of reports with practices similar to the IR and Y = 0 to describe the occurrence of non-disclosure of non-financial reports). Applied to panel data with random effects (chosen for best performance) in the period from 2016 to 2019.

Reveals the positive association of the company’s profitability and market-to-book with the probability of the IR disclosure. Regarding the board composition, it is suggested that size does not make a difference, with the greater participation of women and independence of directors associated with better probabilities of adopting the IR in Brazil.

This work is the first to characterize the Brazilian reality of voluntary disclosure, specifying the implementation of IR, compared to publishing reports similar to the IR and not reporting structured non-financial statements. It can also be considered the first study on the relevance of the board structure in the disclosure of IR by Brazilian companies. Finally, it contributes to the literature on IR adoption, bringing practical results in understanding the most favorable conditions in which the IR framework will be fully implemented.

The paper aims to define a dashboard of indicators to assess the quality performance of higher education institutions (HEI). The instrument is termed SMART-QUAL.

Two sources were used in order to explore potential indicators. In the first step, information disclosed in official websites or institutional documentation of 36 selected HEIs was analyzed. This first step also included in depth structured high managers’ interviews. A total of 223 indicators emerged. In a second step, recent specialized literature was revised searching for indicators, capturing additional 302 indicators.

Each one of the 525 total indicators was classified according to some attributes and distributed into 94 intermediate groups. These groups feed a debugging, prioritization and selection process, which ended up in the SMART-QUAL instrument: a set of 56 key performance indicators, which are grouped in 15 standards, and, in turn, classified into the 3 HEI missions. A basic model and an extended model are also proposed.

The paper provides a useful measure of quality performance of HEIs, showing a holistic view to monitor HEI quality from three fundamental missions. This instrument might assist HEI managers for both assessing and benchmarking purposes. The paper ends with recommendations for university managers and public administration authorities.

Based on the rankings of the global competitiveness index and the fragile states index, this paper aims to suggest alternative approaches to shed some light on the effectiveness of rankings in helping emerging economies improve their competitiveness from an institutional standpoint.

The statistical analysis consisted of a two-stage analysis; the first stage consisted of constructing an updated Alternative Institutional Quality Index (AIQI), intending to design a comparative measure between dimensions over time. The second stage consisted of evidencing the structure of each of the observed dimensions' variance to evidence the existing changes or gaps of the AIQI and its components. The authors incorporated the Kruskas–Wallis (KW) model to test the results.

This paper demonstrates that the analyzed countries generally maintain their competitive position, even though changes in their scores are reflected. This makes invisible the development and progress factors generated by the countries that are mainly found with low scores and only reflect stable structures that allow them to maintain their position.

The current study has a limitation because it concentrated on a few selected indicators based on the literature review. The limitations of this research may be overlooked in the future by adding additional variables and observations. The paper could be improved by including intra- and inter-regional approaches to control based on the occurrence of specific circumstances (i.e. informal institutions, economic development or factor endowments).

The paper contributes to the applicable measurement of competitiveness and its structural change over time.

This paper proposed an alternative and simple methodology to assess the evolution of the competitiveness indicators; this methodology could be used to measure structural changes at different levels, which may be an input for the design and implementation of policies to foster competitiveness.

Population worldwide has experienced several challenges related to sustainable development, such as scarcity of natural resource, unsustainable consumption, poverty, injustice, violence, social inequality and natural disaster (including floods, tsunami and landslide). These issues interfere in sustainable development and target to achieve societal balance, structuring without compromising economic and environmental resources of future generations. The higher educational institutions are included in this context because they play a role in professional training and in education to promote sustainable practices. The higher educational institutions can assume a prominent position in the 2030 Agenda implementation for sustainable development of the United Nations, especially in the Goals 4 and 10, quality education and reduced inequalities, respectively. The purpose of this research study aims to develop a literature review and analyze the higher educational and sustainable themes, involving the Brazilian scenario.

This research study develops a literature review based on researches that involve higher educational and sustainable themes in the Brazilian scenario. Inclusion criteria are papers in English, with the search equations in their titles, and peer-reviewed papers. Paper publication year was not an exclusion criterion. This research aimed to understand opportunity and challenge processes in the Brazilian higher educational institutions and their actions, so that the Sustainable Development Goals are completely achieved and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development is fulfilled. For this, a research central question was established: What are the opportunities and the challenges to achieve the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in the Brazilian higher education?

A total of 636 papers were recovered. The “Higher Education AND Opportunities,” “Higher Education AND Challenge,” “Higher Education AND Challenges,” “Higher Education AND Opportunity,” “Brazilian AND Higher Education” and “Brazil AND Higher Education” search equations found, respectively, 165, 146, 131, 74, 62 and 25 papers, involving 94.8% of the total number of the papers found. The papers recovered enabled the vision of five clusters: policy; inclusion; culture; relationship; and environment, society and economy. The paper analyses found that innovation process, sustainable practical implementation and holistic look, involving professors and students, can allow the 2030 Agenda achievement.

The authors of this research study presented a framework based on the literature analyzed through five clusters: policy; inclusion; culture; relationship; and environment, society and economy, considered from opportunity and challenge perspectives. The authors introduced and discussed the Brazilian higher educations and their opportunities and challenges. The Brazilian panorama was linked with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, in specific, with the Goals 4 and 10. Implications of this research study are related to the higher educational opportunities and challenges in policy, inclusive, cultural, sustainable and relationship contexts, involving governmental and nongovernmental sectors, professors and students for the Brazilian educational improvement.

The Six Sigma project aims at a continual reduction in process variation, eliminating defects or flaws in products and services, optimizing processes and reducing costs. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate improvements in customer service index (CSI), product cycle time and inventory turnover after implementation of a Six Sigma project.

This research focused on the value stream mapping of a company process, performed by a multidisciplinary team that implemented a pull production system, the standard operational procedure in machines that were process bottlenecks, and the kanban system.

After three months of implementation, the authors observed an 11.7 percent reduction in product cycle time, increase in customer service index (CSI) from 93.9 to 97 percent and increase in inventory turnovers from 4.9 to 9.

The project was in accordance with the competitive strategy of the company, which is focused on customer satisfaction and cost reduction.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relations in the Marketing/Operations interface through the analysis of data of the operational reality of a Brazilian company with a low technological intensity. The study aims to quantify and determine the impacts of marketing decisions on delivery performance and on flexibility of the operations area.

A longitudinal case study was conducted and the variables used in the model were derived from established theories and were evaluated with artificial neural networks. The case of a food manufacturing company was selected to reflect the relations in the marketing/operations interface of a low technological intensity enterprise.

The results show that the decisions on Place/Channel, Price and Product dimensions of marketing exert a significant impact on flexibility and delivery performance of the operation area.

The findings of the case study cannot be generalised and the outcomes are specific to just one firm. However, the approach lends itself to replication, particularly within low technological intensity companies.

Prior studies have focussed on coordination among functional areas as marketing and operations at higher levels of abstraction. The study contemplate empirical propositions through the data analysis of a company with a low technological intensity that can be used to improve managers' decisions and alignment in the Marketing/Operation Interface.