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The purpose of this paper is to ask why poor performance management practices persist in Portugal, in the middle of claims to increase productivity.

An inductive micro-practice analysis is used to understand barriers to management practice that do not require massive institutional changes.

The practice of performance management in Portugal typically displays three weaknesses: (1) insufficient planning (2) process and integrity issues, and (3) a non-meritocratic logic.

The paper discusses the important topic of persistence of bad practices, showing how institutionalized patterns might be difficult to eradicate even they are suboptimal.

The authors identity key issues in the functioning of performance management, therefore helping managers in developing remedies to improve the quality of their practice.

The paper explains the persistence of bad management practice whose continuity hinders not only organizations’ effectiveness but also that of their members.

The interaction of consumers and technology has become a challenge for companies and marketing professionals. Technological acceleration has transformed how business is conducted and the consumer-company relationship. The need to establish communication with (potential) consumers to promote engagement with the brand highlights the importance of using mobile instant messaging (MIM). In this context, this paper aims to investigate the use of MIM as a tool for interaction between companies and consumers.

This article investigates, through a systematic literature review (SLR), the state of the art of scientific research regarding the use of MIM as a tool for interaction between companies and consumers. To analyze the selected articles, the authors used a research protocol composed of three stages: (1) planning, (2) conducting and (3) disseminating knowledge.

This study made four main contributions to the MIM field: (1) extends the literature on MIM, focusing on the perspective of companies and consumers; (2) expands the ongoing discussions, suggesting the limited availability of research on MIM as a tool for interaction between companies and consumers; (3) development of a typology composed of three classes, namely “Consumer relationship,” “Social interaction and technology, and “Social media as channels strategy”; (4) the fourth contribution concerns identifying future research areas and answering questions.

This article is the first to investigate, through a SLR, the state of the art of scientific research regarding the use of MIM as a tool for interaction between companies and consumers.

This study aims to examine the role relational dynamics, grounded in the theories of social exchange and social capital, play within the context of geographic indication (GI) food supply chain network (FSCN) performance.

A total of 30 qualitative interviews were undertaken with key informant stakeholders across a variety of organizations within Turkish GI FSCNs. An open, axial and selective grounded theory coding process was used for the analysis, teasing out critical themes that underpinned the conceptual framework.

The findings identify the formal and informal mechanisms which govern GI FSCNs. These two forms of governance mechanisms influence network performance, which was found to comprise logistics, production, business and socio-economic performance dimensions. Transparency, GI traceability, trust and psychological contract violations were found to mediate the link between governance and network performance outcomes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore GI FSCNs from the perspective of relationship marketing and through the lens of social exchange and social capital theory. Accordingly, both academics and practitioners can benefit from the study, as it unveils relevant relational factors underpinning such networks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of explanation on customer satisfaction in the service failure stage. It seeks to better understand the dynamics of consumer repurchase intention through a mediating effect of customer satisfaction.

A structured questionnaire was e-mailed to collect the primary data. With three reminders, this study managed to obtain 322 responses from customers who complained about their internet service in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling techniques were applied to examine both direct and mediating effects between variables.

Results reveal that all four dimensions of explanation have significant partial mediating effect on repurchase intention through customer satisfaction. Results also disclose that there is no significant relationship between excuse and customer satisfaction in service failure. Among all dimensions, reference and apology have higher influence on repurchase intention through customer satisfaction.

The results are particularly valuable for managers, as it supports the role of using explanation as a practical tool for fostering positive and profitable outcomes like repeat customer purchases.

The findings of this study will help organisations rethink their explanation strategies with the eye to foster greater customer repurchase intention.

The results are particularly valuable for managers, as they support the role of using explanation as a practical tool for fostering positive and profitable outcomes like repeat customer purchases.

This study aims to identify evolution and advancement in the field of business-to-business (B2B) loyalty knowledge area by analyzing its intellectual structure.

The authors use bibliometric analysis for quantitative evaluation of scholarly studies published on B2B loyalty area over a period of 27 years (1993–2020). The authors analyze intellectual knowledge base of B2B loyalty area by looking into 263 studies with 14,028 references authored by 693 researchers.

The results provide a comprehensive review of B2B loyalty area by identifying its foundations, influential works and intellectual communication linkage between these works. Notably, the analysis reveals most cited studies, key authors, important keywords, intellectual turning points and emerging trends of research in the discipline.

This study creates a baseline for presenting precise and comprehensive insights into research themes in B2B loyalty area, and identifies progressive trends over a period. This study is also helpful for researchers in identifying future directions of research in the discipline.

This study reveals the intellectual structure of B2B loyalty area.

Managing trust recovery in case of violation of halal products should be seen in light of the severity of violation as perceived by the consumer. This study aims to investigate how the severity of violation on halal directly impact negative consumer behavior (avoidance, boycott and revenge), and its moderating effect on the relationship between trust recovery and avoidance, boycott and revenge.

In total, 212 questionnaires were distributed amongst customers who were aware and/or had experienced the violation of a halal product in Klang Valley, Malaysia – each of whom were selected using convenience sampling methods. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling techniques, were partial least squares (PLS) software was used to measure the direct and indirect relationships between the variables.

The results of this investigation showed that trust recovery and negative consumer behavior are negatively related; severity is positively related to avoidance, boycott and revenge; and severity moderates the relationship between trust recovery and avoidance.

Empirically, it was found that severity and trust recovery are a significant component that influence negative consumption behavior. This study has significant implications alongside research implications despite some limitations.

In a severe violation case, a company needs to ensure that the strategy to fix the problem is genuine and trustworthy, as consumer trust on the recovery action by company is significance to influence customer avoidance in consuming the company’s product.

The uniqueness of this study exists in the fact that it is the first known one to concentrate on halal violation and examine the moderating effect of severity of halal violation on the relationship between trust recovery and negative consumer behaviors (avoidance, boycott and revenge).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of acai pulp consumption on biometric parameters and inflammatory biomarkers (sCD40L, CCL5, TNF-a and CRP) in apparently healthy women.

Nutritional intervention was performed with women who consumed 200 g of acai pulp daily during 30 consecutive days. Firstly, they were divided into two groups: normal weight and overweight related to BMI. Then, such volunteers were subdivided into other two groups according to values below or above the median of sCD40L.

sCD40L (ρg/mL) concentrations increased in overweight volunteers post-consumption of acai (964 ± 542) compared with the same volunteers pre-consumption of acai (633 ± 187, p = 0.03), and the CCL5 concentrations (ρg/mL) decreased in volunteers with sCD40L concentrations below median after the treatment (4.1 ± 1.5) when compared in same volunteers before the treatment (5.8 ± 1.8, p = 0.02). Protein consumption (g) reduced in volunteers with sCD40L concentrations below median after the intervention (96.6 ± 44.5), when compared before the intervention (96.7 ± 33.8, p = 0.03).

This paper concluded that the acai consumption can modulate the inflammatory profile in both stratified volunteers according to the BMI and the sCD40L marker median.