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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether analysts’ personal cognitive traits mitigate the efficacy of graphical impression management.

Three experiments are conducted wherein 525 professional accountants working as financial analysts rate a hypothetical company’s performance graph depicting its net income trend. The manipulation is the presence (absence) of impression management techniques. Hypotheses test whether different techniques are effective and whether analysts’ cognitive reflection ability mitigates manipulation efficacy.

Presentation enhancement is effective only with impulsive analysts, showing the weakness of this technique through the use of colors. Measurement distortion and selectivity techniques are effective for reflective and impulsive analysts; however, reflective analysts are more critical about graphs prepared via selectivity that emphasize profit recovery following crises.

Each impression management technique is investigated in isolation and in controlled conditions. Further research could consider how personal cognitive traits impact the efficacy of combined techniques and whether imbedding manipulated graphs with other information mitigates impression management efficacy.

Research on impression management is mostly “task-oriented;” few “people-oriented” studies focus on decision making by those using financial reports. Users’ cognitive reflection ability is shown to undermine the efficacy of some impression management techniques.

Financial analysts, auditors and regulators could develop mechanisms to avoid pervasive usage of (or enhance skepticism regarding) techniques not mitigated by users’ reflectiveness.

Evidence from financial analysts with an accounting background provides insights on individual characteristics’ influence on graphical impression management efficacy.

This paper aims to analyse how the supreme audit institution (SAI) monitors related party transactions (RPTs) in the Brazilian public sector. It considers definitions and disclosure policies of RPTs by international accounting and auditing standards and their evolution since 1980.

Based on archival research on international standards and using an interpretive approach, the authors investigated definitions and disclosure policies. Using a topic model based on latent Dirichlet allocation, the authors performed a content analysis on over 59,000 SAI decisions to assess how the SAI monitors RPTs.

The SAI investigates nepotism (a kind of RPT) and conflicts of interest up to eight times more frequently than related parties. Brazilian laws prevent nepotism and conflicts of interest, but not RPTs in general. Indeed, Brazilian public-sector accounting standards have not converged towards IPSAS 20, and ISSAI 1550 does not adjust auditing procedures to suit the public sector.

The SAI follows a legalistic auditing approach, indicating a need for regulation of related public-sector parties to improve surveillance. In addition to Brazil, other code law countries might face similar circumstances.

Public-sector RPTs are an under-investigated field, calling for attention by academics and standard-setters. Text mining and latent Dirichlet allocation, while mature techniques, are underexplored in accounting and auditing studies. Additionally, the Python script created to analyse the audit reports is available at Mendeley Data and may be used to perform similar analyses with minor adaptations.

Reducing inequity in accessing healthcare among rural and remote populations remains a problem. Internationally, eHealth is now touted as a potential solution, with a range of diverse approaches and impacts. Yet, the equity gains of implementing eHealth are often not realized due to a lack of effective strategies for citizen participation. The purpose of this paper is to present the background to, and results of, a multidisciplinary eHealth assistance project in a remote region of the Brazilian Amazon, highlighting the importance of citizen participation within planning processes.

The project was conducted in three phases – pre‐mission, mission, and post‐mission. Discussions were held between health teams and local community leaders, and were coordinated by government health organizations in partnership with the Amazon State University. A multidisciplinary team visited five remote communities in the Brazilian Amazon, where participants underwent clinical assessment using eHealth technologies within pharmacy, cardiology, dermatology, and/or odontology. Analysis and second opinion were provided by relevant specialists and the results were delivered electronically to local healthcare teams.

A total of 111 patients were evaluated with an average age of 54 years. There were several important findings following specialist second opinion, which improved the quality of care they received. These comprise identifying drug interactions and patients requiring further investigation for cardiological and dermatological complaints, including suspected malignancy.

Due to a breakdown in communication, data from the post‐mission phase are lacking, particularly regarding treatment outcomes. Furthermore, the authors did not perform an analysis of cost‐effectiveness. If eHealth technologies are to become part of routine clinical practice it is important that the financial implications are acceptable.

This project demonstrates how equity can be designed for with a multidisciplinary approach to eHealth activities in rural and remote environments within Brazil. Such activities typically focus on one particular area, yet primary healthcare facilities see patients with a variety of problems.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of firm-, industry- and country-level determinants on real annual sales growth in the context of a cross-classified multilevel perspective.

The authors studied 11,381 firms from 17 industries in six Latin American countries based on the data collected up to 2015. Since the data are nested in two levels (level 1: firms; level 2: cross-classification of industries and countries), the authors use a cross-classified multilevel model. The significant variability in all levels of analysis confirms the option for the multilevel model.

Differences in industries account for the largest proportion of variance (77.2 percent). This finding indicates that industry-level characteristics should be explored in the sales growth literature (it seems to the authors that they were neglected). This finding also calls attention to the roles of policy-makers in facilitating firm growth. The final model indicates that the considered variables explain approximately 55 percent of the differences in real annual sales growth in the same industry and country after having accounted for the impacts of the differences in firms. After accounting for the impacts of the differences in firms’ and countries’ characteristics, 43 percent of the variation in average real annual sales growth is due to differences in industries. The obtained results indicate that while firms from countries with higher GDP growth and more effective corporate boards present higher real annual sales growth, firms that operate in commodity producer industries have worse performance in this indicator. With respect to firm’s characteristics, larger firms (contradicting Gibrat’s law) and exporters grew less. Some results could be explained by the decrease in commodities’ prices and global purchases between 2012 and 2015.

The paper fills some gaps in the firm growth literature by testing Gibrat’s law in non-developed countries (not yet done, to the best of the authors’ knowledge) and exploring variables other than size in the explanation of firm growth (rarely used, to the best of the authors’ knowledge). Moreover, the adopted model correctly estimated the origin of the variability in firm growth in its natural cross-classified distinct levels.

This study aims to conduct a pertinent assessment of the concept of business competitiveness and how Portugal can progress in that field, for the sake of becoming a more sustainable and wealth-creator economy.

The research was elaborated with 65 in-depth interviews with expert persons from the Portuguese business ecosystem, who were asked to reflect on the state of the economy and competitiveness of the country.

There is much room for improvement in almost all areas of activity, in particular by promoting an innovative, value-adding and exporting private sector and a lighter and more efficient public sector. The conclusions point to modernisation of the Portuguese economy as a way of making it more competitive in a highly competitive and demanding global scenario.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time that a reflection with experts of the local Portuguese economy has been carried out, especially after a difficult period of COVID.

This study, a practice forum article, aims to presents the lessons learned and the development of a discrete event simulation model to support the funerary system management of São Paulo City, Brazil, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A discrete event simulation model was developed by the authors as soon as the pandemic affected the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Based on the model, several scenarios with varying minimum, median and peak demands (i.e. the number of deaths) were tested and evaluated. The lessons learned from the scenario analysis and implementation of the decision-making of the city government of São Paulo are discussed in this article.

The lessons learned about the coordination, inventory management and other operational characteristics in funerary logistics during the pandemic are shared with a model, which quantifies the demand for vehicles, coffins, graves and teams in the cemeteries in different simulated scenarios.

The São Paulo State Civil Defense used this information during the pandemic to prepare the funerary system of the municipality.

The study presents methods to mitigate the sanitary, environmental and psychosocial problems related to the funerary system.

Studies on funerary systems are scarce. This study presents the results that supported the dimensioning of the funerary system during the pandemic and operational lessons about the logistics to support decision-making in future events.

The successful implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) depends on the adoption and subsequent maintenance of accrual accounting policies. Moreover, Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS) are important drivers of reforms, and their replacement might disrupt the execution of accrual accounting policies. This paper aims to analyze the effects of FMIS replacement (or maintenance) on the retention of accrual accounting policies in Brazilian local governments.

The research adopts a sequential mixed-methods approach, starting with a quantitative analysis of the presence of accrual accounting policies in local governments and the effects of FMIS replacement. Next, a qualitative analysis is conducted with a survey, documents and interviews to observe the FMIS replacement process. Our analysis focuses on local governments from one state in Brazil, but the context is highly transferable to other states, as the same procurement law and accounting regulations apply.

FMIS replacement may reduce accounting policies retention; consequently, public procurement regulation may induce a public procurement context in which the IPSAS project would find more difficulties to prosper.

This research contributes to the IPSAS literature by examining the phenomenon of accounting policies retention or persistence, as one should not take it for granted that an adopted accounting procedure will be sustained over time. The analysis argues that FMIS replacement due to compulsory rebidding should be carefully considered.

Promoters of accounting reforms may consider the regulation of contracting out for FMIS a relevant issue to the institutionalization of accounting policies.

The analysis innovates by linking IPSAS accounting reform to the contracting out of FMIS.

The São Lourenço River (SLR) is used to supply potable waters for the cities of São Lourenço da Serra and Juquitiba, but receives the residues from the water treatment plants (WTPs) and sewage treatment plants (STPs), respectively. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of the discharges of Juquitiba’s WTP and STP on the quality of the SLR, by using an integrated approach based on different lines of evidence.

Six sampling sites were established along the river and comprised areas situated upstream and downstream of the discharges. Five sampling surveys were performed between 2004 and 2006 for collecting water and sediment samples for ecotoxicological assays. In two of these campaigns, benthic community structure and geochemistry (metals, nutrients and sediment texture) were also assessed.

Concentrations of P, Fe and Al in waters exceeded the national standards, but sediments were not considered to be contaminated by metals or nutrients. Water and sediments tended to exhibit marginal toxicities, excluding the sediments from JQT007 and JQT008 that were frequently toxic. Combination of geochemistry, toxicity and ecological indices indicated that some sites are not degraded, but in some stations the benthic alteration may be due to non-measured contaminants, especially in JQT007 and JQT008.

As the use of waters from SLR for public supply has increased, these results show that action should be taken in order to reverse the environmental degradation of SRL.

This research combined sediment and water quality assessments in order to provide a more suitable and reliable diagnostic of the environmental quality of the SLR.