João Pedro C. de Souza, António M. Amorim, Luís F. Rocha, Vítor H. Pinto and António Paulo Moreira
The purpose of this paper is to present a programming by demonstration (PbD) system based on 3D stereoscopic vision and inertial sensing that provides a cost-effective pose…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a programming by demonstration (PbD) system based on 3D stereoscopic vision and inertial sensing that provides a cost-effective pose tracking system, even during error-prone situations, such as camera occlusions.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed PbD system is based on the 6D Mimic innovative solution, whose six degrees of freedom marker hardware had to be revised and restructured to accommodate an IMU sensor. Additionally, a new software pipeline was designed to include this new sensing device, seeking the improvement of the overall system’s robustness in stereoscopic vision occlusion situations.
Findings
The IMU component and the new software pipeline allow the 6D Mimic system to successfully maintain the pose tracking when the main tracking tool, i.e. the stereoscopic vision, fails. Therefore, the system improves in terms of reliability, robustness, and accuracy which were verified by real experiments.
Practical implications
Based on this proposal, the 6D Mimic system reaches a reliable and low-cost PbD methodology. Therefore, the robot can accurately replicate, on an industrial scale, the artisan level performance of highly skilled shop-floor operators.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the sensor fusion between stereoscopic images and IMU applied to robot PbD is a novel approach. The system is entirely designed aiming to reduce costs and taking advantage of an offline processing step for data analysis, filtering and fusion, enhancing the reliability of the PbD system.
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Antonio Carrizo Moreira, Pedro Miguel Silva and Victor F. Moutinho
The purpose of this paper is to identify and compare different groups of customers’ perceptions (i.e. stayers, switchers, and heavy switchers) of several loyalty antecedents such…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and compare different groups of customers’ perceptions (i.e. stayers, switchers, and heavy switchers) of several loyalty antecedents such as satisfaction, trust, service quality, switching costs, marketing communication, and loyalty itself.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was carried out based on data collected through a questionnaire from 353 telecommunication services users in Portugal and using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and analysis of variance.
Findings
The three types of customers – stayers, switchers, and heavy switchers – clearly differ among themselves. Stayers differ from switchers regarding their communication efforts perceptions, and from heavy switchers in their loyalty, satisfaction, and trust levels. Switchers differ from heavy switchers in their loyalty levels.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should examine differences between customers taking into account the impact of their personality, price sensitiveness, and orientation toward the adoption of new technologies.
Practical implications
As there are several differences among stayers, switchers, and heavy switchers, companies should not only recognize the heterogeneity of their customer base, but also target their marketing efforts accordingly.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few identifying groups of customers perception’s toward service providers. It also complements previous research by splitting them intro three different groups and by analyzing their behaviors across a set of previously unexamined marketing variables.
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Pedro Tavares, Daniel Marques, Pedro Malaca, Germano Veiga, Pedro Costa and António P. Moreira
In the vast majority of the individual robot installations, the robot arm is just one piece of a complex puzzle of components, such as grippers, jigs or external axis, that…
Abstract
Purpose
In the vast majority of the individual robot installations, the robot arm is just one piece of a complex puzzle of components, such as grippers, jigs or external axis, that together compose an industrial robotic cell. The success of such installations is very dependent not only on the selection of such components but also on the layout and design of the final robotic cell, which are the main tasks of the system integrators. Consequently, successful robot installations are often empirical tasks owing to the high number of experimental combinations that could lead to exhaustive and time-consuming testing approaches.
Design/methodology/approach
A newly developed optimized technique to deal with automatic planning and design of robotic systems is proposed and tested in this paper.
Findings
The application of a genetic-based algorithm achieved optimal results in short time frames and improved the design of robotic work cells. Here, the authors show that a multi-layer optimization approach, which can be validated using a robotic tool, is able to help with the design of robotic systems.
Practical implications
The usage of the proposed approach can be valuable to industrial corporations, as it allows for improved workflows, maximization of available robotic operations and improvement of efficiency.
Originality/value
To date, robotic solutions lack flexibility to cope with the demanding industrial environments. The results presented here formalize a new flexible and modular approach, which can provide optimal solutions throughout the different stages of design and execution control of any work cell.
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João Paulo Cerdeira Bento and António Moreira
This paper aims to examine how foreign direct investment (FDI) and firm-specific advantages (FSAs) of US multinational enterprises (MNEs) majority-owned subsidiaries affect…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how foreign direct investment (FDI) and firm-specific advantages (FSAs) of US multinational enterprises (MNEs) majority-owned subsidiaries affect environmental pollution in host countries. The research results contribute to helping managers and policymakers understand the environmental impact of MNEs activities, and encourage these firms to develop environmentally responsible management (ERM) as an element of their corporate social responsibility practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Panel data consisting of developing and developed countries spanning the years 2004 through 2014 are used. The dynamic panel generalised method of moments technique is implemented. This method avoids common estimation bias, such as endogeneity, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation.
Findings
This paper finds that the direct environmental impacts of FDI vary significantly between the two groups of countries. The environmental benefits of FDI to the recipient country are achieved through capital and technology transfer. The study also reveals that R&D intensity moderates the relationship between FDI and environmental pollution in both developing and developed countries in such a way that environmental pollution decreases.
Research limitations/implications
Future research could explore the environmental impact of MNEs on host countries by considering both equity and non-equity entry modes. The findings offer some support to host government policies offering generous incentive packages to attract R&D investment to improve environmental pollution. This research raises questions as to the reasons corporations operating in developing and developed countries should pursue their ERM practices.
Originality/value
This research examines both the direct effect of FDI and the moderating effects of FSAs on the relationship between FDI and the environment. Although previous studies have already looked at the relationship between FDI and the environment, the moderating effect of FSAs is very under-developed in this relationship.
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Pedro Silva and António Carrizo Moreira
The existing literature suggests that multinational corporations (MNCs) divest subsidiary units whenever they cease to enjoy the advantages of ownership, location or…
Abstract
Purpose
The existing literature suggests that multinational corporations (MNCs) divest subsidiary units whenever they cease to enjoy the advantages of ownership, location or internalization. However, not all MNCs divest under these conditions. This paper aims to explore the factors that contributed to the survival of a particular subsidiary and prevented it from being divested.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis focuses on an individual subsidiary of a large foreign MNC in the electronics industry, which divested other subsidiaries from Portugal. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews.
Findings
The subsidiary’s diverse customer base, specificity and high level of efficiency, the local advantages, the existing governmental agreements and the parent MNC’s previous unsuccessful relocation experiences seem to have contributed to the survival of the subsidiary.
Research limitations/implications
Although the results of the case study are not generalizable to the entire population of firms, the featured case study is a rare survival success story in the Portuguese electronics industry.
Practical implications
The proposed framework may offer public authorities measures to create conditions to encourage firms to retain their investment in a particular site. For corporate strategists, new perspectives on subsidiary survival are provided.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the few qualitative studies in the field of subsidiary survival. The results offer an integrative framework on which factors contribute to the survival of a subsidiary located on a comparatively unfavorable labor cost location and support the role of the organizational learning and of previous failed relocation experiences and relocation barriers when a parent MNC decides whether to retain a unit.
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Angela Christina Lucas, Rodrigo Bombonati de Souza Moraes and Antonio Moreira De Carvalho Neto
Cecília Rendeiro Carmo, José António Cardoso Moreira and Maria Cristina Souto Miranda
The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt for private companies in a “code-law” country (Ball et al., 2000). The analysis…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt for private companies in a “code-law” country (Ball et al., 2000). The analysis controls for company size, debt level and audited information.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the ordinary least squares regression technique to test the relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt.
Findings
The collected empirical evidence shows a negative relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt and controls for company size and debt level. Such a relationship is stronger when the company information is audited.
Research limitations/implications
Similar to other studies, this paper has two main limitations. There was no access to specific data on the interest rates charged on bank loans, implying that the cost of debt is measured by the ratio of the interest expense to interest-bearing debt. The research only uses earnings quality measures based on abnormal accruals.
Practical implications
The collected evidence suggests that earnings quality have economic consequences for private companies by affecting their cost of debt, similar to those observed in previous studies for listed companies. This evidence can be seen as an incentive for private companies to increase their financial information quality. For debt providers, namely, financial institutions, the findings can be of interest to help them price properly the loans they make available to private companies. In general, the findings of this research can be of interest for company managers and financial institutions in countries with an institutional environment similar to that of Portugal.
Originality/value
The relation between earnings quality and the cost of debt has been so far studied for listed companies in “common law” countries. This paper provides new and complementary evidence about such relation for private companies and “code-law” country.
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Jorge Mota, António Moreira, Rui Costa, Silvana Serrão, Vera Pais-Magalhães and Carlos Costa
The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the main firm-level performance indicators and group them in dimensions that support…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the main firm-level performance indicators and group them in dimensions that support decision-making in the wine industry.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve this goal, an SLR approach was conducted in the Scopus database from 2009 to 2019. From a set of 607 articles, only 25 studies related to firm-level performance indicators were considered and, following an inductive thematic analysis and an interpretative synthesis, separated into different specific foci that include social, economic and environmental dimensions.
Findings
There is a limited number of papers identifying indicators regarding the firm-level performance of wine firms, and even fewer studies including indicators on an integrated approach to measure the different dimensions of firm performance. This paper documents that economic and environmental indicators cover 78.2% of all SLR indicators analyzed. As this group of indicators is limited to a set of sub-dimensions, this paper found that several groups of indicators are misrepresented, such as product portfolio or certifications related to marketing activities and indicators covering purchasing and supply chain activities, which play a crucial role in the competitiveness of the wine industry.
Practical implications
For practitioners, it discloses the most pertinent indicators they need to improve to craft their business strategies. This framework is of added value for policymakers to customize their support programs for specific producers to develop their competitive strategies. It could be deployed in teaching programs as a tool to address the importance of aligning different types of indicators to achieve firm-level performance in the wine industry.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature identifying a framework of analysis that includes indicators of four dimensions, namely, economic, social, territorial and environmental. This framework aims to relate performance measures to corporate strategy as a management control tool. The framework intends to improve the fit between firms’ activities and their competitive context and to be flexibly adapted to various products/firms in the wine industry.
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Antonio Carrizo Moreira, Luis Miguel D.F. Ferreira and Pedro Silva
The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) as an effective tool for decreasing failure risk in the early phase of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) as an effective tool for decreasing failure risk in the early phase of the new product development (NPD), which adds to existing literature on the application of FMEA in NPD.
Design/methodology/approach
Through the application of action research (AR) methodology, it was possible to develop a case study examining the use of FMEA to decrease NPD risk in an early phase of NPD execution.
Findings
The importance and immediate gains of identifying NPD failures support FMEA's usefulness for NPD risk decrease. Moreover, its user-friendliness, timeliness and cost advantages facilitate the introduction of FMEA in the early phase of NPD execution.
Originality/value
FMEA is a well-known method used in manufacturing companies to identify and correct failures in products, processes and systems. This article explores the lack of practice-oriented evidence on the use of FMEA in the early phase of NPD execution and provides support to its applicability and effectiveness.
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Fernanda Pagin, Matheus da Costa Gomes, Rafael Moreira Antônio, Tabajara Pimenta Júnior and Luiz Eduardo Gaio
This paper aims to identify if there is an impact of the rating announcements issued by the agencies on the returns of the stocks of Brazilian companies listed on Brasil Bolsa…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify if there is an impact of the rating announcements issued by the agencies on the returns of the stocks of Brazilian companies listed on Brasil Bolsa Balcão, from August 2002 to August 2018, identifying which types of announcement (upgrade, downgrade or the same initial classification) cause variations in prices around the date of disclosure of the rating.
Design/methodology/approach
The event study methodology was applied to verify the market reaction around the announcement dates in a 21-day event window (−10, +10). The market model was used to calculate the abnormal returns (ARs), and subsequently, the accumulated ARs.
Findings
The hypotheses tests allowed to verify that the accumulated ARs are different, before and after the three types of rating announcements (upgrades, downgrades and the same classification); in upgrades, the mean of accumulated ARs increases in the days before the event, while in downgrades, this increase occurs after the event. This paper concluded that the rating announcements have an impact on the return of stock of the Brazilian market and that the market reaction occurs most of the time before the event happens, which indicates that the market can anticipate the information contained in the changes in credit ratings.
Practical implications
The results have considerable implications for portfolio managers, institutional investors and traders. It facilitates investment decision-making in the face of rating classification announcements. Market participants can pay more attention to their investment strategies and asset allocation during periods of risk rating announcements. Additionally, traders can understand the form of investment strategy for superior earnings.
Originality/value
The importance of the study is related to the fact that the results may explain the causes of specific movements in the Brazilian financial market related to a source of information that may or may not be able to influence the decisions of the financial agents that operate in this market. The justification is centred on the idea that, for investors who somehow react to the announcements, it is relevant to understand the impact of rating classifications on companies, as access to such information allows for more conscious decision-making.