Maria Elisabete Duarte Neves, Maria do Castelo Gouveia, Adriana Martins and Joaquim Carlos da Costa Pinho
The main goal of this paper is better understand the risk/return trade-off of investing in socially responsible investment funds (SRIF) and green investment funds (GIF).
Abstract
Purpose
The main goal of this paper is better understand the risk/return trade-off of investing in socially responsible investment funds (SRIF) and green investment funds (GIF).
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve our aim a green investment fund portfolio, a socially responsible investment portfolio and a conventional fund (CF) portfolio from the United States of America (USA) were selected to compare the efficiency of these three different portfolios, by using Value-Based Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology.
Findings
The results point out that SRIF and GIF are more efficient than CF. For five years, the CFs have not outperformed the GIF.
Originality/value
The results suggest that there is a growing awareness on the part of investors that sustainable companies are the companies that will allow a better quality of life and a more sustainable environment. It seems that somehow managers and investors are aware that the market will compensate them for thinking about a cleaner and more equitable world.
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Andreia C.B. Ferreira, Ricardo Gouveia Rodrigues, Ana R. Gouveia, Oliva M.D. Martins, Hugo Ferreira, João Alfredo Pereira and Paulo Duarte
The use of insects as food is a proposed solution for the increased demand for food worldwide, but it lacks acceptance because of restrictive emotional factors. This article aims…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of insects as food is a proposed solution for the increased demand for food worldwide, but it lacks acceptance because of restrictive emotional factors. This article aims to understand better customers' emotions’ role in considering and consuming insect-based food.
Design/methodology/approach
To assess their acceptance, an experiment was developed with 38 participants living in Portugal to identify how people feel when consuming processed insect bars compared to cereal bars (of equal flavour). A video was recorded “before”, “during” and “after” the consumption of such foods, and the triggered emotions and affective states were identified using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and the circumplex model of affect, respectively. After consumption, the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) was asked to be completed.
Findings
It was observed that the valence and arousal of the emotions and affective states triggered during consumption were higher in the insect bar than in the cereal bar. Its consumption resulted in surprise and a positive evaluation. Processed insect-based foods may result in a potentially increased acceptance of this new food alternative in the market.
Originality/value
Prior studies briefly identified disgust as a primary emotion activated by insect-based food. The current research deeply studied emotional responses to insect-based processed foods in the Western world using the dimensional emotional models. This study offers arguments for the insect-based food industry to invest in processed food justified by its potential for acceptance. In addition, it motivates further research focused on other insect-based products (e.g. non-processed ones).
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Carlos A. Albacete-Saez, Adriana P. Moreno-Marcial, María Isabel Roldan Bravo, Elisa Rescalvo-Martin and Francisco Javier Llorens Montes
Based on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to understand how employees’ level of mindfulness serves as a boundary condition capable of negatively conditioning the…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to understand how employees’ level of mindfulness serves as a boundary condition capable of negatively conditioning the process through which empowering leadership affects employees’ proactivity and extra-role service (ERS) behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 361 Spanish frontline employees in the hospitality sector collaborated in this research. We tested our hypotheses using a bootstrapping method to perform a regression study employing the PROCESS macro developed for Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
Findings
As expected, our results confirmed the direct and indirect positive effects between empowering leadership and ERS. However, these effects nearly disappeared when employees exhibited high levels of mindfulness.
Originality/value
Worker ERS behavior is a key way for hotels to distinguish themselves from competitors. Paradoxically, ERS is discretionary and not part of the employee’s formal duties. Although mindfulness is often promoted to enhance organizational functioning, our study highlights its drawbacks in hospitality. Hotel work requires proactive decision-making, and we found that mindfulness curbs this, thereby impeding ERS. This study suggests that mindfulness may act as an anchor in a service work environment.
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Adriana Monge, Lorena Macias, Hannia Campos, Martin Lajous and Josiemer Mattei
Legume consumption has decreased in Mexico as part of a global nutrition transition that has shifted the intake of healthy traditional foods to more processed unhealthy foods…
Abstract
Purpose
Legume consumption has decreased in Mexico as part of a global nutrition transition that has shifted the intake of healthy traditional foods to more processed unhealthy foods. This study aims to assess preferences and patterns of legumes consumption, attitudes toward legumes and reasons to consume legumes among adults in Mexico City.
Design/methodology/approach
A convenience sample of 86 adult participants living in the Mexico City region completed interviewer–administered surveys.
Findings
The participants had an average age of 42.9 years (SD 13.5) and 51.2 per cent were women. Most reported consuming legumes = 1/week (59.5 per cent) and =1/3 cup/meal (52.4 per cent) and using corn tortillas to accompany legumes (83.3 per cent). Participants reported consuming 7 out of 15 types of legumes probed, of which black beans (96 per cent), lentils (79 per cent) and garbanzo beans (64 per cent) were more frequently consumed. Participants had positive (vs negative) perceptions about legumes’ taste (96 per cent), nutritional value (88 per cent), tradition (80 per cent), cost (75 per cent), availability (75 per cent) and health effect (73 per cent), but not for their digestive effect (37 per cent). The main reasons for participants to currently consume legumes were their taste (93 per cent), nutritional value (49 per cent) and affordable cost (48 per cent); whereas main reasons for potentially consuming more legumes were their nutritional value (63 per cent) and health effect (64 per cent).
Practical implications
Legume intake in Mexico is lower than the recommended 1.5-2 servings per day (1 serving = 1/2 cup), despite favorable perceptions and reasons to consume them. The identified characteristics, attitudes and reasons for consuming legumes could inform interventions to increase intake of this traditional food in Mexico.
Originality/value
Studies on attitude and reasons for food consumption are seldom conducted, yet they are valuable in shaping tailored strategies for eating behavior change.
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Juan Carlos Leiva, Ronald Mora-Esquivel, Catherine Krauss-Delorme, Adriana Bonomo-Odizzio and Martín Solís-Salazar
This paper analyses how contextual factors at universities (entrepreneurship education and program learning) and cognitive variables (perceived behavioral control, implementation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyses how contextual factors at universities (entrepreneurship education and program learning) and cognitive variables (perceived behavioral control, implementation intentions, and attitude) influence entrepreneurial intentions among Latin American university students.
Design/Methodology/Approach
The empirical analysis employs a multilevel (hierarchical) linear model with a sample size of 9012 university students taken in 2018 from nine Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, México, Panamá, and Uruguay.
Findings
Overall, the university context and cognitive variables contribute to explaining entrepreneurial intentions in university students. Whereas program learning constitutes a variable that directly and indirectly explains entrepreneurial intentions among university students, attending entrepreneurship courses negatively influences their entrepreneurial intentions.
Originality/value
A central premise of this study is that the entrepreneurial process in university students is a multilevel phenomenon, given that university context and cognitive variables are key factors in entrepreneurial intentions. The findings support this premise and contribute to the existing literature on entrepreneurship in emerging economies. Nevertheless, the results reveal a more nuanced picture regarding the role of university context on the entrepreneurial intentions of students.
Propósito
Este artículo analiza cómo las variables del contexto universitario (educación emprendedora y aprendizaje adquirido) y las variables cognitivas (control de conducta percibido, intenciones de implementación y actitud) influyen en la intención emprendedora de los estudiantes universitarios latinoamericanos.
Diseño/metodología/aproximación
El análisis empírico es por medio de un modelo lineal multinivel (jerárquico) con una muestra de 9012 estudiantes universitarios de nueve países latinoamericanos, a saber: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, México, Panamá, y Uruguay.
Resultados
En general, el contexto universitario y las variables cognitivas contribuyen a explicar la intención empresarial de los estudiantes universitarios. Mientras que el aprendizaje adquirido (program learning) constituye una variable que explica la intención emprendedora de los estudiantes universitarios directa e indirectamente, matricular cursos de emprendimiento influye negativamente en su intención emprendedora.
Originalidad/valor
Una premisa central en este estudio es que el proceso emprendedor de los estudiantes universitarios es un fenómeno multinivel, resultando el contexto universitario y las variables cognitivas factores clave para explicar la intención emprendedora. Nuestros resultados apoyan esta premisa y contribuyen a la literatura sobre emprendimiento en países emergentes. No obstante, nuestros resultados revelan una imagen más matizada del papel del contexto universitario en la intención empresarial de los estudiantes universitarios.
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Adriana Tiron-Tudor, Waymond Rodgers and Delia Deliu
The paper aims to explore the sided challenges facing the accounting profession in an advanced digitalised future where humans and robots will collaborate in working teams.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore the sided challenges facing the accounting profession in an advanced digitalised future where humans and robots will collaborate in working teams.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing a qualitative approach, the paper conducts a reflexive thematic analysis to identify challenges and associated socio-ethical risks of digitalisation; it then introduces an ethical decision-making model aimed at addressing these challenges.
Findings
Key professional accountants’ (PAs) sided challenges refer to autonomy, privacy, balance of power, security, human dignity, non-maleficence and justice, each of them possessing multifaceted dimensions that are interconnected dynamically to create a complex web of socio-ethical risks.
Practical implications
The ethical decision-making pathways corresponding to each detected challenges provide a useful reference and guideline for PAs in the digitalised future of the profession.
Social implications
Using an anthropocentric perspective, the research addresses the sided challenges of accounting profession’s accelerated digitalisation; it contributes to fostering accountability and legitimacy of the accounting profession which serves the public interest.
Originality/value
By innovatively intertwining ethical positions with decision-making pathways, the paper offers a potential solution to address digitalisation’s sided challenges that might interfere with practitioners’ professional judgement and identity.
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Amanda de Paula Aguiar-Barbosa, Adriana Fumi Chim-Miki and Metin Kozak
The objective of this study was to analyze the evolution of tourism competitiveness over the years, ascertaining the state of the art and the degree of consensus among scholars on…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this study was to analyze the evolution of tourism competitiveness over the years, ascertaining the state of the art and the degree of consensus among scholars on its constituent elements to propose an integrative and updated concept.
Design/methodology/approach
A set of 130 definitions on tourism competitiveness formulated between 1999–2018 was analyzed and segmented into three periods, allowing its historical evolution to be ascertained. It is a qualitative and quantitative exploratory research that uses a combination of techniques, namely, content analysis, analysis of co-words and consensus analysis.
Findings
The results indicated a low use of elements such as the quality of life and the environment in the authors' definitions during 1999–2018, although these elements were present in the first concept of tourism competitiveness by Crouch and Ritchie (1999, 2003). Another finding of this study shows a reduction in the analysis of tourism competitiveness based on the supply and demand side. Nowadays, the research tends to turn on the basis of the population directly affected. It also reveals the enrichment of the theoretical corpus with new lines of research arising and new groups of scholars of the subject, consequently a new frontier in tourism competitiveness.
Research limitations/implications
The authors recommend deepening the analysis in each category of conceptual elements of tourism competitiveness to identify the origins of the low consensus. The authors also suggest conducting further research on the largest invisible schools of thought on this subject to understand their relations and perspectives, and thus to advance in the theoretical streams of the field. Finally, it is imperative to develop research on new models and monitors of tourism competitiveness that meet its renewed concept and integrate dimensions to consider the perspective of supply, demand, tourists and residents, as well as not excluding the economic bias but including the social side.
Practical implications
Owing to the fact that monitors of tourism competitiveness have practically no variables related to the social, most of the surveys are carried out from the supply or demand perspective, leaving the resident distant from the process. In this way, the results allow authors to indicate that new models of competitiveness measurement should be formulated based on the vision of the community impacted by tourism, i.e. a new version of tourism competitiveness not based on productivity but rather on the social aspect.
Originality/value
The findings of this study contribute to the field literature by offering an integrative concept of tourism competitiveness based on the elements with a higher level of consensus among researchers. Furthermore, the results accentuate a worrying fact regarding the operationalization of this concept, as the theoretical basis is not expressed in the monitors of competitiveness. Thus, nor it is possible in the management of the tourism industry.
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Adriana Scuotto, Mariavittoria Cicellin and Stefano Consiglio
This paper aims to analyse how social entrepreneurship organizations that use approach of social bricolage adapt their business model to develop social innovation. The past decade…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse how social entrepreneurship organizations that use approach of social bricolage adapt their business model to develop social innovation. The past decade has witnessed a surge of research interest in social entrepreneurship organizations (SEOs). This has resulted in important insights concerning their role in fostering social challenges. The crisis of both public and private profit-driven models meet the arising of new initiatives designed to meet the minor and often abandoned cultural heritage consumption need. Drawing on the domain of SEOs and social bricolage framework, these initiatives are able to pursue the social and the economic mission together and to produce social innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper aims to analyze how SEOs that use strategies of social bricolage can improve the development and diffusion of social innovation. Employing in-depth multiple comparative case studies of 15 cultural SEOs in the South of Italy, through the analysis of semi-structured interview, the study enhance current understanding of the social dimension of SEOs.
Findings
First results show that SEOs in the domain of minor cultural heritage adopt an innovative business model and in particular a social business model unraveling organizational dimensions falling into the social bricolage. The relation between social bricolage dimensions and social business model criteria produces outcomes in which social innovation can be expressed.
Originality/value
This study enhances current understanding of the social dimensions of business model involved in social innovation production of cultural SEOs. This research aims to be a benchmark of the social innovation initiatives in the field of minor cultural heritage management.
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Adriana Silva, Susana Jorge and Lúcia Lima Rodrigues
Existing research has concluded that accounting quality is influenced not only by the quality of accounting standards, but also by enforcement systems. Therefore, enforcement is…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing research has concluded that accounting quality is influenced not only by the quality of accounting standards, but also by enforcement systems. Therefore, enforcement is one of the key factors for ensuring International Financial Reporting Standards’ (IFRS) compliance and achieving accounting quality. However, one still does not know what has been studied about this relationship in scientific literature. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to identify, recap and evaluate the current state of research on the relationship between IFRS enforcement and accounting quality, to provide a critical overview of publications in this field and to identify future areas of interest.
Design/methodology/approach
Supported by a structured literature review, this paper fills in a research gap by conducting a scientometric analysis of papers on the relationship between IFRS enforcement and accounting quality construed in a broad sense. It reviews papers published between 2006 and 2019 selected from the Web of Science database, particularly analyzing main journals, authors, geographic areas of study, methods used, specific topics explored and future lines of research to be developed.
Findings
Main findings show a shortage of studies analyzing IFRS enforcement practices in individual countries and, in turn, the impact these practices may have on the accounting quality. This gap calls for further research to know the effectiveness of the IFRS-related enforcement mechanisms.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous scientometric studies focused on the enforcement of IFRS and accounting quality. This study fills this research gap and improves the understanding about what has been published on the topic, also proposing an agenda for future research that can help regulators to adjust policies for the implementation and enforcement of IFRS.
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Juan Bustamante and Adriana Amaya
This paper aims to examine the factors that affect financial services design of and their effect on the improvement of the unbanked customer well-being.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the factors that affect financial services design of and their effect on the improvement of the unbanked customer well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a path analysis to examine customer well-being integration in the activities of service organizations. The theoretical estimation model was conducted using a structural equation model with maximum likelihood estimation. To build a more robust model that explains customer well-being, direct and indirect effects are used in the estimation of the research model.
Findings
Perceived customer support and interaction with the storekeeper are two major factors that, positively, influence trust and customer participation (CP). In addition, CP plays a key role in enhancing financial empowerment and thereby in the production of greater customer well-being.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the positive effects that the design of services has on customer well-being and exposes the underlying mechanisms that contribute to customer well-being through CP. It also provides a unique financial service format and specific strategies for managing trust and CP to enhance individual well-being in the unbanked population in a developing country.