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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are fundamental to the socioeconomic development of a country or region. They directly contribute to increasing employment generation and improving income distribution. Despite the importance of SMEs, there are still opportunities for developing works that support and guide SMEs to use digital technologies, especially to digitalize their customer service. Therefore, this work aims to propose drivers containing recommendations for developing and improving the digitalization of customer service in SMEs.

This work uses a qualitative approach to systematize the main SMEs' characteristics and identify the boosting elements of the digitalization of customer service in the scientific literature. To this end, the authors conducted a content analysis of the most influential empirical and theoretical articles on the theme published from 2016 to 2021 in the Scopus database.

This work identified 38 boosting elements of the digitalization of customer service based on the scientific literature. These elements were grouped into six drivers for developing and improving the digitalization of customer service. The drivers contain recommendations that were adapted for SMEs according to their characteristics and based on the experience of the authors of this work.

This work contributes to promoting socioeconomic development, providing important solutions for managers and owners of SMEs to improve their customer service. The proposed drivers support and encourage the use of digital technologies for developing and improving customer service, overcoming the challenges of digitalization in these companies. Thus, SMEs will be able to increase the satisfaction of their customers and improve their competitiveness.

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.

This study aims to evaluate two bacterial cellulose (BC) films as an alternative textile surface suitable for use in the manufacture of clothing prototypes.

A combination of experiments for the production and characterization of BC films with traditional techniques for sewing fabrics was carried out. BC films were produced from the bacterum Gluconacetobacter hansenii UCP1619 and from Kombucha, a consortium of microorganisms grown on sugared tea. The BC films were then purified, characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and evaluated for mechanical strength. Two clothing prototypes were developed by combining BC films with a flat fabric composed of 70% linen and 30% polyester to assess the viability of the garment for future clothing making using biomaterials.

The results showed that the combination of flat fabric with BC-based biomaterials is a viable alternative for the innovative use of BC films in the manufacture of apparel products, especially after optimizing the mechanical properties of the artefact.

BC application studies in the textile industry are still in their early stages, although they are attracting more and more the attention of researchers around the world. The experiments carried out in this research provide new information on the handling and application of this material in innovative products for the textile industry.

Identifying and assessing social skills has been a powerful way of linking human behaviour and human interaction with their consequences at significant developmental levels. There are some data connecting social skills with interpersonal violence but not yet with elder abuse. The reason might be the scarcity of quick and easy-to-apply measures of social skills. This study aims to adapt and validate the social skills inventory (SSI) (Del Prette and Del Prette, 2001) to the Portuguese population.

The authors conducted two studies. In Study 1, the authors gathered the psychometric characteristics of the SSI-Del-Prette through exploratoryfactor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In Study 2, the authors correlated the new measure with measures of depression and empathy to test for divergent and concurrent validity.

The obtained version of the SSI-Del-Prette showed a good model fit and internal consistency. This measure presented six factors: conversation and social confidence, easiness of self-exposure, self-expression of positive affect, coping assertively with risk, defending interests and opinions and giving and receiving praise. The indicators of convergent and divergent validity supported the integrity of the measure.

The adaptation of this measure of social skills opens new possibilities for studying these skills.

This paper provides an adaptation of a measure of six social skills expanded to the older adult population.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the sodium content displayed on the labels of conventional processed food products (C) and of those with nutrition claims suggesting the absence or reduced levels of nutrients (AR).

Cross-sectional study analyzing the ingredients list, nutrition facts and nutrition claims on food labels. Subjects: all processed food products with added salt or additives containing sodium that were for sale in a large supermarket in Brazil from October to December 2011.

All 3,449 products were analyzed and categorized into 66 groups according to Brazilian legislation. The median of sodium content in the AR was 42.7 percent higher than in the C (p=0.007). In 33.3 percent of the groups there was difference in sodium content between AR and C (p < 0.05) and in 68.2 percent of these the sodium content was higher in AR. The variation range of sodium in products from the same group reached 2,905.0 mg in C and 1,712.0 mg in AR. Even when the median of sodium was lower in the AR, the minimum sodium values were lower in the C.

Comparisons of sodium content of conventional and AR processed food are scarce in the literature, especially covering all food for sale in a large supermarket. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first census making this comparisons in Latin America.

Estuaries and shallow coastal areas are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, being recognized as important nursery areas for marine fish. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the causes and consequences of recruitment variability in marine fish, contributing to ecosystem‐based management strategies of estuarine and coastal areas.

The authors conducted a literature review, exploring the role of estuaries as nursery areas for marine fish, and analyzed the connectivity between estuaries and coastal areas, the main processes driving recruitment variability in marine fish during their pelagic (larval) and estuarine residency (juveniles) phases, and how it can be translated into variable coastal stocks.

Recruitment variability in marine fish is still one of the most important issues in marine fisheries ecology. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the potential of several processes for inducing variability in recruitment, including density‐independent mechanisms such as temperature, hydrodynamics, river flow and large‐scale factors, as well as density‐dependent processes, related with food abundance, competition and predation. Lastly, the authors evaluated the connectivity between estuaries and the ocean, and how this relationship can influence coastal stocks in the future. The main findings were analyzed in the context of climate change, which has been demonstrated to influence marine life at the individual, population and ecosystem levels.

This paper is a valuable tool for marine researchers and stakeholders, since it summarizes some of the most important processes that drive recruitment variability in marine fish, and how this information can be used for establishing sustainable ecosystem management programmes.

The purpose of this paper aims to discuss the outreach strategies of higher education institutions (HEIs) to promote the inclusion of refugees, focusing on two case studies of programs in southern Brazil.

This paper analyzes two outreach programs of Brazilian universities: the Welcome Program for Immigrants (Programa Acolhida ao Imigrante) of the University of South Santa Catarina, a private higher education institution and the Support Center for Immigrants and Refugees (Núcleo de Apoio ao Imigrantes e Refugiados), sponsored by the Federal University of Santa Catarina, a public university. The activities of the two institutions were compared with the targets of the sustainable development goals to discuss the outreach strategies of HEIs aimed at promoting the inclusion of refugees, through descriptive research, with a qualitative approach based on documentary and bibliographic research.

The results show that academic participation in research and outreach programs provides refugees with an education but also represents a social contribution far beyond qualifications and technical training, by mitigating local and global problems. The practice of inclusive education allows a reduction in historically existing inequalities. The findings of this study indicate that the results are much more effective when universities, government and society work together to reduce inequalities.

This study addressed how universities can and should ensure life quality (SDG 3), including an equitable education and fostering lifelong learning opportunities for everybody (SDG 4) and gender equality (SDG 5), to reduce unemployment (SDG 8) and inequalities among people (SDG 10), through outreach projects.

This study aims to offer a bibliometric analysis of the already substantial and growing literature on global virtual teams (GVTs).

Using a systematic literature review approach, it identifies all articles in the Web of Science from 1999 to 2021 that include the term GVTs (in the title, the abstract or keywords) and finds 175 articles. The VOSviewer software was applied to analyze the bibliometric data.

The analysis revealed three dialogizing research clusters in the GVTs literature: a pioneering management information systems and organizational cluster, a general management cluster and a growing international management and behavioural studies cluster. Furthermore, it highlights the most cited articles, authors, journals and nations, and the network of strong and weak links regarding co-authorships and co-citations. Additionally, this study shows a change in research patterns regarding topics, journals and disciplinary approaches from 1999 to 2021. Finally, the analysis illustrates the position and centrality in the network of the most relevant actors.

The findings can guide management practitioners, educators and researchers to the most meaningful clusters of publications on GVTs, and help navigate and make sense of the vast body of the available literature. The importance of GVTs has been growing in the past two decades, and Covid-19 has accelerated the trend.

This study provides an updated and comprehensive systematic literature review on GVTs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also the first systematic literature review and bibliometry on GVTs. It concludes by suggesting future research paths.