Silvio J. Simoes and Ana P. Barros
This paper seeks to address the issue of persistent and widespread drought conditions during 2000 and 2001, which were the apparent cause of the decline of water levels in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to address the issue of persistent and widespread drought conditions during 2000 and 2001, which were the apparent cause of the decline of water levels in the reservoirs of Brazilian hydroelectric power plants.
Design/methodology/approach
This issue is addressed here through a case study of the hydroclimatology of the Paraíba river basin, in Southeast Brazil, home to four large multi‐purpose operational reservoirs.
Findings
The data analysis shows that neither changes in the frequency nor magnitude of extreme hydrological events (droughts and floods) nor in annual rainfall amounts can be detected from the existing climate record. The explanation is consistent with the fact that the terrestrial water and energy cycles are tightly, and non‐linearly, coupled through evapotranspiration.
Research limitations/implications
Therefore small change in the seasonality of rainfall can have a significant impact on the basin's overall hydrologic regime, and thus on the availability of water resources.
Originality/value
Often, adaptation and resilience to climate variability are discussed in the context of catastrophic events such as floods and droughts. This study suggests that a different type of impacts, those associated with subtle, yet persistent changes of seasonality in the terrestrial water cycle, cannot be ignored in studies of long‐term sustainability of water resources.
Details
Keywords
Dario Messina, Ana Cristina Barros, António Lucas Soares and Aristides Matopoulos
To study how supply chain decision makers gather, process and use the available internal and external information when facing supply chain disruptions.
Abstract
Purpose
To study how supply chain decision makers gather, process and use the available internal and external information when facing supply chain disruptions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews relevant supply chain literature to build an information management model for disruption management. Afterwards, three case studies in the vehicle assembly sector, namely cars, trucks and aircraft wings, bring the empirical insights to the information management model.
Findings
This research characterises the phases of disruption management and identifies the information companies use to recover from a variety of disruptive events. It presents an information management model to enhance supply chain visibility and support disruption management at the operational level. Moreover, it arrives at two design propositions to help companies in the redesign of their disruption discovery and recovery processes.
Originality/value
This research studies how companies manage operational disruptions. The proposed information management model allows to provide visibility to support the disruption management process. Also, based on the analysis of the disruptions occurring at the operational level we propose a conceptual model to support decision makers in the recovery from daily disruptive events.
Details
Keywords
Ricardo Zimmermann, Luis Miguel D.F. Ferreira, Antonio Carrizo Moreira, Ana Cristina Barros and Henrique Luiz Correa
This paper investigates the effect of the fit between supply and demand uncertainty (SDU) and supply chain responsiveness (SCR) (SC fit) on business and innovation performance in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the effect of the fit between supply and demand uncertainty (SDU) and supply chain responsiveness (SCR) (SC fit) on business and innovation performance in Brazilian companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study presented an analysis carried out on an empirical study based on a sample of 150 manufacturing companies. Business and innovation performance of companies with different types of SC fit ( high–high and low–low fits) and misfit (positive and negative) are compared and discussed.
Findings
The results indicated that SC fit had a positive effect on both business and innovation performance. Further analyses suggested that companies with SC fit present similar business performance, independent of the level of SDU that characterizes the environment where they compete, while companies in environments with higher levels of uncertainty tend to present superior innovation performance. Companies with positive and negative misfit present similar performance.
Originality/value
An analysis of the literature showed that there is no consensus when it comes to the definitions and measurements of SC fit. The paper investigates the effects of SC fit on business and innovation performance, while previous empirical studies have mainly addressed its impact on financial performance. Moreover, this study compares the effects of two types of fit and two types of misfit and assesses SC fit in Brazilian manufacturing companies, analyzing the context of an under-researched reality.
Details
Keywords
Rúben Silva Barros and Ana Maria Dias Simões da Costa Ferreira
Building on the growing body of research that has addressed management control systems and innovation, the purpose of this study is to assess the extent and nature of the use of…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on the growing body of research that has addressed management control systems and innovation, the purpose of this study is to assess the extent and nature of the use of controls in an innovative setting and how they work together unveiling the relationships and tensions amongst the Simons’ levers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study resorts to an in-depth and single case study in a company that has both a strong orientation to innovation and stable control practices in place. Evidence was collected from 32 interviews, visits to the company and internal documentation.
Findings
At the case company, it was possible to find the presence of controls according to all the levers of control. Likewise, joint effects of controls used according to interactive and beliefs approaches and diagnostic and boundary controls showed a consistent reinforcement that push the organization in a single direction. Signs of some countervailing reinforcement between these pairs were also detected, creating tensions. This in general shows that innovation can be weighed against the necessity of goal achievement taking place within fields in which the company can exploit the effort developed.
Originality/value
This study documents the collective use of controls in a context in which innovation is needed and how the combination of the levers of control with their inner workings and tensions allow the company to have a corporate environment of innovation that is friendly.
Details
Keywords
Renata Lohmann and Ana Taís Martins
This research is located at the intersection of communication, memetics, and the study of the imaginary. As a presupposition, we put forward the existence of a communicational…
Abstract
This research is located at the intersection of communication, memetics, and the study of the imaginary. As a presupposition, we put forward the existence of a communicational imaginary, in which the contemporary person functions through their competencies in social networks, by meeting the demands of the public and the private, managing the obsessiveness of the sharing of intimacy and the exorbitant number of images. Considering memes as a significant aspect of this communicational imaginary, we seek to understand the dynamics and path of memes in the midst of this plethora of images. From the concept of iconophagy, we deal with the exacerbated multiplication of the images and the path of memes starting from a marginalized environment until it is integrated into social roles and a rational level of thought. Thus, it is the general objective of this research to understand the dynamics and the path of memes amidst the plethora of images in the context of communicational imagery and to investigate the multiplication of memes as representative of the myriad images in contemporary imagery.
Details
Keywords
Rúben Silva Barros and Ana Maria Dias Simões da Costa Ferreira
By designing a pilot time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) model, this study aims to examine in depth the suitability and the complexity of TDABC in a manufacturing company.
Abstract
Purpose
By designing a pilot time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) model, this study aims to examine in depth the suitability and the complexity of TDABC in a manufacturing company.
Design/methodology/approach
To obtain a deeper understanding on the matters to analyse, this research adopts an interventionist approach. The host organisation is GP, a Portuguese company in the frozen food sector.
Findings
The authors’ experience allows them to assert that TDABC is suitable for a manufacturing company and it is able to deal with the variability of the industrial processes. Nonetheless, through a comparison with the models presented in the literature, TDABC appears to be more complex for manufacturing. The authors argue that this happens for two reasons. First, the two types of resources (human labour and machinery) used in production areas create a need to split tasks and to create two equations for each process, something that does not happen in service companies. Second, times are difficult to individualise for certain highly automated procedures, which could also give rise to some errors.
Research limitations/implications
The designed model is compared to other models presented in the literature.
Practical implications
This study shows a real example of TDABC in manufacturing and the procedural innovation of the time equations.
Originality/value
As the TDABC literature has been mostly focused on examples of service companies, the authors examine the technical suitability and the complexity of TDABC in manufacturing companies.
Details
Keywords
Carla Susana Marques, Gina Santos, Vanessa Ratten and Ana B. Barros
Rural entrepreneurship is an emergent field of study, with these start-ups becoming one of the most noticeable ways to promote rural development, but the few studies concerning…
Abstract
Purpose
Rural entrepreneurship is an emergent field of study, with these start-ups becoming one of the most noticeable ways to promote rural development, but the few studies concerning innovation among artisans have thus far only been exploratory. The purpose of this paper is to examine the entrepreneurial artisan initiatives of young innovators in a peripheral northern area of Portugal where black pottery is produced.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data analysis was carried out on in-depth semi-structured interviews with three young artisan innovators and entrepreneurs and one individual who functions as a cultural booster. The content analysis was done using QSR International’s NVivo Version 11 software.
Findings
These young entrepreneurs have developed commercial activities and introduced innovations (i.e. design and process) into black pottery production, while taking advantage of endogenous materials, local culture and traditional knowledge. These individuals have sought not only to generate their own innovations but also to keep their culture and local traditions alive, thereby contributing to rural development by establishing networks with local young artisans.
Research limitations/implications
Some limitations are linked to the sample’s size and basis in a specific geographic reality.
Practical implications
The findings provide a fuller understanding of why some rural artisan firms grow, suggesting that artisans’ networks and innovative and entrepreneurial behaviours play a key role.
Originality/value
This research’s results contribute to the literature on the role that innovation can play as a booster of rural artisanship through networks and entrepreneurship. This paper is among the first to discuss black pottery as a form of artisan entrepreneurship. The results underline the value of innovations and networks, which were found to be the core ingredients in rural artisan entrepreneurship.
Details
Keywords
Francisco Barros, Susana Aguiar, Pedro J. Sousa, António Cachaço, Nuno V. Ramos, Paulo Tavares, P.M.G. Moreira, Luís Oliveira Santos, Min Xu and Elsa Franco
Part of the runway at Madeira Airport is a platform above the sea at a 60 m height, supported by a series of frames. When aircraft land on this section, a load is exerted on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Part of the runway at Madeira Airport is a platform above the sea at a 60 m height, supported by a series of frames. When aircraft land on this section, a load is exerted on the structure, resulting in bending of the beams which constitute the frames. A vision-based monitoring system was devised and implemented to measure the deflection of the runway's beams when a landing occurs.
Design/methodology/approach
An area on the midspan of two beams, located on the area where aircraft are most likely to land, was prepared with a speckle pattern, and a camera was assembled above a column on each of the adjacent frames, enabling the computation of displacements using digital image correlation (DIC). The camera continuously acquires images of the monitored area and compares them to a reference using DIC. If a displacement is detected, a number of frames before and after this event are saved for further DIC processing.
Findings
The installed systems successfully detected several events corresponding to landings and, for each of those events, measured the deflection of the beams over time and computed displacement fields for critical images, with strain values obtained up to this point being too small to measure using the current system.
Originality/value
This work provides novel insights into the behaviour of a unique structure and constitutes the first use of a vision system in its structural monitoring operations. It is also a valuable development in the implementation of automated DIC monitoring systems in locations of difficult access.
Details
Keywords
Eduardo Fayos-Solà, Laura Fuentes Moraleda and Ana Isabel Muñoz Mazón
Previously disregarded factors are now included in development theory and practice. A narrow understanding of capital has had profound effects on development as well as on tourism…
Abstract
Previously disregarded factors are now included in development theory and practice. A narrow understanding of capital has had profound effects on development as well as on tourism policy and governance. In this framework, purpose-designed tourism for development has been the exception. Contemporary ideas of other forms of capital playing a key role in a broader concept of development are examined, specifically the central function of human and social-institutional capital. Human capital is seen in the light of capabilities, attributes, and knowledge possessed by individuals. Social-institutional capital may empower individuals as it refers to the value of trust and cooperation deriving from formal and informal sets of behavioral rules. This chapter clarifies the foundations of tourism as an instrument for development if tourism policy and governance are designed and implemented within an adequate framework.
Details
Keywords
Mariana Crivelari Da Cunha, Patrícia da Silva Machado, Ana Beatriz Silva Araújo, Elisângela Elena Nunes Carvalho and Eduardo Valério de Barros Vilas Boas
The potential of the Cerrado fruit could be explored by development of new products, such as jellies that can be used to add value to the fruit, as well as to preserve this biome…
Abstract
Purpose
The potential of the Cerrado fruit could be explored by development of new products, such as jellies that can be used to add value to the fruit, as well as to preserve this biome. This paper aims to evaluate the effect of processing, the glass packaging type and storage time on the quality of jelly, prepared from reconstituted murici pulp, over 12 months of storage.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a completely randomized design (CRD) in factorial 2 × 5, with two types of glass packaging (transparent and amber) and five storage periods (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months), with four replications and the experimental parcel consisting of 80 g of jelly (two bottles of 40 g). The quality of jelly was monitored through 12 months using physicochemical (proximal composition, color, soluble solids, titratable acidity and pH), microbiological (coliforms at 35 °C and 45 °C, filamentous fungi and Salmonella sp) and sensory analyses (sensory acceptance and purchase intent).
Findings
The pulp processing effectively affected the physicochemical and nutritional composition (proximal composition, soluble solids and color). It was found that only the storage time significantly influenced (p < 0.05) jelly quality, considering the variables analyzed, except the soluble solids, ash, dietary fiber and sensory texture attributes. However, the glass packaging factor (transparent and amber) did not result in significant changes in those variables. Moreover, the pulp processing allows a seasonal fruit with a short harvest period and short post-harvest life to be available to consumers as a new product throughout the year.
Originality/value
Based on the present study, the native Cerrado fruit such as murici [Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) Rich] is appreciated for its pleasant peculiarities such as color, aroma and taste; however, it is underutilized as food for lack of information and studies. Although the fruit does not have widespread use as food, it is necessary to make the population aware about its importance, not only as a source of nutrients, but also for its functional and sensory potential. Therefore, the production of murici jelly can increase consumption of the fruit, besides being a way to add value and extend the shelf life and sensory acceptance of the product prepared.