Alexandre Rabêlo Neto, José Milton de Sousa-Filho and Afonso Carneiro Lima
This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of soft power on the relationships between affinity toward country, country image, cosmopolitanism and preference on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of soft power on the relationships between affinity toward country, country image, cosmopolitanism and preference on the internationalization of Brazilian cultural products.
Design/methodology/approach
This survey used data collected from a non-probabilistic sample of 478 Portuguese respondents, which was further analyzed using the partial least squares technique.
Findings
Affinity related to Brazil, the image of Brazil and cosmopolitanism influenced preference, and this, in turn, influenced the internationalization of Brazilian cultural products. Soft power moderated the relationships between cosmopolitanism and preference, country image and preference and preference and internationalization of cultural products.
Research limitations/implications
This study focuses on the internationalization of a cultural product from one particular emerging economy (Brazil) to a specific developed economy (Portugal). Thus, the findings are bound to this specific context. However, it contributes to the field of international marketing research by concentrating on the moderating effects of soft power in the relationship between the investigated constructs.
Practical implications
In the case of Brazilian cultural products, i.e. music, emphases on Brazilian unique resources, i.e. the beauty, excitement, fantasy, mystique, prestige, etc. of natural resources, may be important features to be taken into consideration in national cultural policies.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the international marketing and consumer behavior literature by showing that consumer preference, affinity toward country and cosmopolitanism are important antecedents of the internationalization of cultural products.
Details
Keywords
Afonso Carneiro Lima, José Augusto Giesbrecht da Silveira, Fátima Regina Ney Matos and André Moura Xavier
To analyze capital budgeting practice in a group of small cotton ginning firms in Brazil. The study aims at describing how investment decision-making in the agribusiness context…
Abstract
Purpose
To analyze capital budgeting practice in a group of small cotton ginning firms in Brazil. The study aims at describing how investment decision-making in the agribusiness context may be influenced by heuristics and by the business setting.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopted an exploratory and qualitative approach in gauging the practice of capital budgeting in Brazilian cotton ginning firms and discussing actual managerial decision-making. Data collection involved interviews with managers of ten different firms and a further content analysis was performed.
Findings
Results reveal a practical managerial approach aimed at ensuring satisfactory net operating results in the short run. Sophistication in capital budgeting is not considered as essential, as institutional and strategic environment influences directly affect impose high risks. Investment decision-making is highly influenced by managerial experience.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach, results may lack generalizability. However, in addressing a specific sector in a specific location, one can identify and craft strategies in response to managerial needs more effectively.
Practical implications
The paper clarifies how heuristics, managerial experience and the institutional context may influence investment decision-making in cotton ginning operations. It also suggests how actions aimed at evaluating risk and improving the screening of investment perspectives could contribute to improve investment decisions.
Originality/value
The paper provides an in-depth perspective in addressing the practice of capital budgeting in the context of a specific activity and describing key issues related to it.
Details
Keywords
Welington Norberto Carneiro, Octavio Ribeiro de Mendonça Neto, Paulo Afonso, Jose Carlos Tiomatsu Oyadomari and Ronaldo Gomes Dultra-de-Lima
This article aims to understand the challenges and key takeaways of implementing total quality management (TQM) in a virtual organisation.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to understand the challenges and key takeaways of implementing total quality management (TQM) in a virtual organisation.
Design/methodology/approach
An interventionist research (IVR) methodology combined with a qualitative critical event analysis was used to evaluate the challenges and concerns faced during the company’s adoption of TQM and understand the roles of the key players involved.
Findings
Standard process tools such as desktop procedures (DTP), focused teams, and service-level agreements (SLAs) were fundamental to implementing TQM in the company. These processes require the right leaders, but external agents may also be influential, acting as accelerators of change in adopting and using management practices in small companies. Indeed, the researcher acted as a problem solver, bringing innovative solutions to the firm using a hands-on iterative approach.
Practical implications
This research underscores the importance of critical success factors (CSF), such as employee engagement, training, and project management tools. These factors are not just important but crucial for the success of TQM in organisations seeking to adopt the industry’s best practices.
Originality/value
This study, conducted as a virtual IVR for TQM implementation, provides novel insights for practitioners and academics. It elucidates the pivotal role of some quality management tools in the journey towards TQM and the role of both internal and external critical players in the process, particularly in small virtual organisations based on innovative business models.
Details
Keywords
Welington Norberto Carneiro, Jose Carlos Tiomatsu Oyadomari, Paulo Afonso, Ronaldo Gomes Dultra-de-Lima and Octavio Ribeiro de Mendonça Neto
This paper seeks to understand kaizen in practice as it travels through time and space in the organisational setting.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to understand kaizen in practice as it travels through time and space in the organisational setting.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study was carried out at a multinational company using mainly interviews for the data collection that were analysed from an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective.
Findings
This paper finds that the company deals with a series of paradoxes while managing the kaizen process. Efficiency and quality paradoxes are the basis for starting kaizen projects. Furthermore, intrinsic, and extrinsic motivation, emerge in these processes, and paradoxes relate to how spontaneous ideas emerge in a deliberated context of cost-saving objectives. The supply chain finance team coordinates kaizen projects with the collaboration of plant managers, promoting the paradox of autonomy and control. In addition, as kaizen mobilises and enrols the actors, some trials of strength emerge, showing actors who oppose the kaizen network and create competing networks that mutually exist in the firm.
Practical implications
This study presents valuable insights for professionals to successfully implement kaizen methodologies that take advantage of developing a network for problem-solving in organizations.
Originality/value
This study highlights the supply chain finance team's role in enrolling the actors within a network built by practitioners engaged in kaizen projects. Usually, engineers, quality, or manufacturing teams lead kaizen projects, and only occasionally, accounting and financial teams participate, including multidisciplinary teams.
Details
Keywords
Barbara de Lima Voss, David Bernard Carter and Bruno Meirelles Salotti
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…
Abstract
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.
Details
Keywords
Danieli Artuzi Pes Backes, Fernando Antonio Ribeiro Serra and Feris Abdalla Zarour Neto
The purpose of this paper is to identify the structural similarities between stricto sensu post-graduation programs in management through the formation of clusters, with the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the structural similarities between stricto sensu post-graduation programs in management through the formation of clusters, with the strategy tripod as a backdrop (Peng, 2002; Peng et al., 2009).
Design/methodology/approach
The co-plot method was used as a tool. It was chosen because it simultaneously enables joint and individual observations of comments and variables.
Findings
The results showed the formation of clusters among the programs, identifying a series of similarities between their components. The age and number of lines of research of the programs were the determining variables to identify isomorphism among the clusters.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of the study lies in the updating of information at the source of the data collection. All the data were collected from the Sucupira Platform for CAPES Triennial Evaluation of 2013. However, when the authors accessed the portals of the programs, the authors found that some data were outdated. Nevertheless, the authors limited themselves to using official data. Therefore, even if the authors found divergences or inconsistencies regarding the published information, the authors decided to use the official data made available by CAPES on the Sucupira Platform for the period in question.
Originality/value
Understanding that the results through the approaches of the industry-based view, resource-based view and institution-based view were insufficient for a thorough analysis, it is demonstrated in isolation that none of these succeeds in explaining the organizational context that permeates Brazilian stricto sensu post-graduation institutions. In this organizational field, the three views are not at the same theoretical level. The institutional view overlaps with the strategic competitive views. Therefore, the study contributes to reorganizing the strategy tripod and the proposed articulation between the arrangement of theory, method and field research.