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To promote access to their services, health-care companies provide various communication channels to their customers (beneficiaries) to enable the receipt of requests, such as authorization for examinations, procedures and hospitalizations. Under the approach of innovation studies, the management of customer relationship channels for health-care companies is characterized as a knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS). The purpose of this study is presenting innovation as a strategy to increase customer service productivity, as well as the monitoring of the quality of the service, the generation of health information for beneficiaries and compliance with the regulation set by the Brazilian National Health Agency (ANS).

The study is characterized as an applied research, as it proposes solutions to problems faced by supplemental health-care companies using the strategy of action research, i.e. an independent, social research with an empirical basis.

The result of this study shows that a computerized health-care system can increase productivity by 21.96%, and it presents an innovative solution for health-care companies to guarantee the process of meeting the demands and requests of their beneficiaries, ensuring the compliance with ANS regulations.

These results can be replicated to other healthcare companies and contribute to those seeking innovation, increased productivity and quality improvements in their services.

This work was also motivated by the lack of lstudies in the areas of health-care companies in Brazil.

The buying process is affected by many aspects, in which consumer’s age is certainly an important feature to be considered. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of packaging and labeling of Requeijão cheese on the purchasing behavior of different age groups of consumers in order to obtain marketing information that aid in increasing sales of Requeijão cheese.

Three focus groups were created, each one composed of ten participants. The first group was aged 18-30 years old, the second group included people aged 31-50, and the third group participants were aged between 51 and 70 years old. Requeijão cheese labeling and packaging was presented to all groups to facilitate a discussion. A moderator asked participants in the three groups about the factors on the packaging and labeling of Requeijão cheese that influence their desire to purchase. Seven final themes were analyzed by thematic analysis: packaging, color and images on label, information, lid, price and brand.

The factors of greatest importance that influenced purchasing for the first and second group were glass packaging and color labels. Groups 2 and 3 preferred a packaging size of 250 g, an aluminum cap protected with a plastic cap, information, and affordable prices. Group 1 demonstrated high interest in 220 g packaging, metal lid and brands. Group 3 preferred plastic packaging. All groups were attracted by images on labels related to the product origin. The results from this study may be advantageous for creating marketing strategies to increase sales of Requeijão cheese and similar milk products that are sold in comparable ways.

Concept and attitudes toward packaging and labeling have changed in modern times. The present study demonstrates how consumers of different age groups have divergent opinions about packaging and labeling of Requeijão cheese, factors that have huge influences in the purchasing of this product. The results from this study will aid in creating marketing strategies to increase sales of Requeijão cheese and similar milk products that are sold in similar conditions. The findings will also assist manufactures in creating bonds with costumers once packaging and labeling might be produced in accordance with the preference of each age group of consumers, and consequently makes the visual aspects of packaging more attractive to them.

This study collected information about the most features in packaging and labeling of Requeijão cheese that attract consumers in the food buying process. There are many companies that sell Requeijão cheese. Then, it is necessary to understand the needs of consumers in relation to packaging and labeling of similar products, to make it more competitive in the market and to meet the expectations of consumers in order to create bond with them.

This study aimed to identify, with producers of specialty beers (SBs), producers' perceptions regarding the consumers, besides analyzing the consumer's behavior of SBs regarding consumers' preferences, perceptions and determining buying factors.

In the qualitative analysis, interviews were performed with 14 professionals from the SB industry. In the quantitative study, 301 consumers of SB answered a questionnaire about preferences, perception and determining buying factors of special beer. Techniques such as content analysis, frequency analysis, cross-tabulation and hierarchical cluster analysis were used in this study.

The study demonstrated an important convergence in the perceptions of producers about consumers and the real behavior of SB consumers, mainly on factors of beer packaging, label, style and price. Those respondents consuming just SB were characterized by having higher income, frequency and time of beer consumption and willingness to pay more for the product. Cluster analysis allowed to segment respondents into three groups: (1) beginners in the universe of SBs who also drink commercial beers; (2) regular consumers willing to pay more for SB and (3) legitimate consumers of SB averse to commercial beer.

There are practical implications in this study such as new products development and assertive creation of labels and packaging for special beers.

There are social implications in this study such as the convergence between industry professionals and consumers.

By addressing professionals and consumers, this study generated scientific information and knowledge to assist the specialty brewing industry in developing new products and defining marketing strategies as well as creating actions for bringing producers and consumers closer together to benefit both parties.

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 analyzes the role of migrant networks in the migration flows in relation to the educational level of the migrants and economic growth of the states of origin and destination in Brazil.

Fixed effects estimator applied to microdata.

The results show migrant networks have a significant and positive impact on migration flows of the different educational levels. The economic growth in the destination state accentuates this effect, while the economic growth in the origin state has distinct impacts according to the educational level of the new migrant.

The authors investigate the importance of migrant networks in the internal immigration within a developing country with large internal movement of people. In Brazil, the socio-economic condition of the population varies considerably in relation to its geography, which explains the country’s large internal migration flows.

The capability approach is a normative framework that seeks to evaluate the quality of life through the evaluation of individual freedoms. It is behind the Human Development Index and it is increasingly applied in educational research, mostly in topics related to inequalities and curriculum development. This chapter provides an overview of the use of the capability approach in higher education. It first outlines its two versions, the evaluative version of Sen and the relational version of Nussbaum, arguing their complementary nature. Second, it points out its major critiques, namely the difficulties in its operationalisation. Finally, it reviews some examples of its application in higher education research, focusing mostly in Western-based contributions.

The successful management of change using a project-based intervention is crucial for any organization to succeed in the highly competitive and evolving global business environment. Whilst a number of theories of change management are widely accepted, literature suggests they are falling short of their endeavors as a result of the theories lacking a useful framework to successfully plan, implement and manage change. This paper seeks to address these issues.

This article critically argues the value of project-based management in the change management process with particular focus on PRINCE2 and PMBoK. As such, change management can be considered a project and utilize project-based processes to successfully implement change.

Using PMBoK and PRINCE2 as a reference, a number of PM processes and techniques have been detailed which demonstrate the applicability of project-based processes for implementation of CM initiatives.

It was purported the technical background of traditional project managers has resulted in a focus on tasks and results rather than the human aspects and softer skills of CM, which are equally valuable to project success. Bridging these two gaps could increase the success of CM initiatives and similarly enhance the success of projects-based interventions.

The high failure rate of change interventions suggests improvements could be made to its management, monitoring and control. The analytical focus of this research was in how the common and most utilised CM models could be improved with PM processes in order to appropriately deliver successful change. Using PMBoK and PRINCE2 as a reference, a number of PM processes and techniques have been detailed which demonstrate the applicability of project-based processes for implementation of CM initiatives.

The social science background of CM professionals and the tendency for HR to deliver change initiatives has contributed to the lack of appreciation for formal processes and technical contributions as offered by PM in delivering change. Likewise, theorists developing CM from non-technical backgrounds tend to focus on the human dimensions over all other issues.

The lack of a suitable guiding framework for CM suggests the creation of a CM body of knowledge and alignment of CM processes could enhance the field. Although CM encompasses a broad range of possible change models, the attempts by CM theorists to apply a formal structure to the change process have been scant. Treating change initiatives as a temporary project and subsequently integrating CM with PM processes will capture synergies between the two areas.