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The purpose of this research was to identify the major environmental impacts occurring in Melo Creek, Minas Gerais, Brazil, especially as regards to its water quality.

Initial evaluation was based on aerial photograph interpretation. All the small creek catchments were delimited and 12 stream segments were chosen for sampling and analyses. The segments had their water discharge calculated and channel pattern described. Also determined for these segments were the physical and chemical parameters of the water, as well as the microbiological content. Both water and sediment samples were analyzed for metals and trace element quantification. Meanwhile, an environmental inquiry was conducted in all the small villages along the creek.

Data show a decrease in water discharge during the last decades, related to the increased destruction of the Atlantic Forest, especially at the riverheads and in permanent preservation areas (PPA). Most of the native vegetation was cut down to create farmlands and pasture. The water quality is also diminishing because for most of the properties, the main activities are pig raising and sugarcane liqueur production, which discharge their untreated effluents, along with domestic wastewater and sewage, directly into the creek. The results indicated that during its passage through the catchment, stream water became significantly contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria. As a consequence, the area possesses a high endemic disease index for water transmitted parasitism, especially for Schistosomiasis mansoni.

This was the first study done in the Melo catchment, a small rural basin without basic sanitation and with a highly prevalent schistosomiasis rate.

This study aims to examine how knowledge acquired from a network built on trust and commitment can increase the management team’s effectiveness (MTE) in implementing an ambidextrous subsidiary.

An online survey was conducted with top managers of foreign subsidiaries operating in Brazil. A total of 289 valid respondents were statistically evaluated using the partial least squares-structural equation modeling technique to test the model and hypotheses. A multilevel analysis research methodology was applied because the conceptual model relates constructs at the micro (political behavior and management team effectiveness) and macro (improved external ties [IET] and contextual ambidexterity [CA]) levels.

Subsidiaries need to improve the MTE to achieve CA. The authors found that the local network built on trust and commitment facilitates access to differentiated knowledge. Unique knowledge reduces conflicts amongst team members and enhances explorative and exploitative activities to reach CA.

The authors suggest that top managers can increase decision-making effectiveness by using trust and commitment to building a robust local network with selected stakeholders. Privileged knowledge allows attaining constructive political behavior (PB) and leverages exploitative and explorative activities.

The novelty resides in three aspects. First refers to linking CA and foreign subsidiaries in Brazil. Second, suggesting that IET has a double effect, as a moderator between PB and MTE, and concurrently has a direct effect on CA. Third, suggesting that capturing valuable resources from a local network built on the pillars of trust and commitment. Fourth, the authors examine the influence of differentiated knowledge on MTE.

This study applies an Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI) model to quantify the level of job satisfaction and explores the factors that influence employee satisfaction, performance and loyalty to an information technology recruitment and outsourcing organization in Portugal.

As an instrument of data collection, questionnaire was applied to the company's employees, which was divided into two parts: the first part consisted of a previous questionnaire, with questions related to sociodemographic characterization; the second part consisted of the ESI. The company operates only in the information technology (IT) market, and there are currently 300 consultants with different skills.

The results confirm that the company's employees are globally satisfied, and this satisfaction contributes positively and significantly to the reinforcement of contextual performance and to their loyalty to this organization.

Job satisfaction takes on a growing interest in understanding quality of life, strategic management and organizational performance. Job satisfaction contributes to the professional finding, that is, in employees’ activity and in adopting positive attitudes toward customer satisfaction, thus promoting organizational performance.

The aim of this paper is to understand the importance of consumer loyalty in the specific context of Hotel Family Business. This study proposes a conceptual model to examine how perceived service quality and corporate social responsibility (SCR) influence guest satisfaction and loyalty, and also how they relate to corporate image, perceived value and price.

Through the structural equation model (SEM), a research model was proposed to examine SQ and CSR affect satisfaction and loyalty to the Douro Family Hotel and also, how they interact with corporate image, perceived value and price. The main purpose is to analyse the drivers of guest loyalty and its importance for the development and sustainability of family hotels in Douro (Portugal).

The results of the study indicate that CSR and SQ perceived by the guest have a direct and positive effect on guest satisfaction and loyalty to Douro family hotels. These variables are also determinants of the perceived value, corporate image and price.

The sample is restricted and obtained by the convenience technique, but with sufficient size for the application of the structural equations model. However, the results obtained cannot be generalised to all hotels or contexts, as they only reflect information on family hotels in the Douro.

Family businesses are a substantial share of the European economy, from the industrial sector to the services industry, including also hospitality. In Portugal, family businesses likewise play a key role, both in terms of wealth creation and job creation.

These findings provide knowledge to family hotels on how they should implement a CSR policy that promotes service quality, corporate image and guest satisfaction, and therefore their loyalty and the competitiveness of the family hotel business.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a maintenance philosophy, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), on the operational performance of the Portuguese industry, identifying how it enables the systematic reduction of waste in maintenance.

A structured questionnaire was constructed and sent to 472 Portuguese enterprises, having obtained a sample constituted of 84 valid answers. With a five-point Likert scale, it was possible to assess the impact of the TPM on five operational performance dimensions, being them: quality, flexibility, productivity, safety and costs.

It was found that the planned maintenance, together with education and training are the practices with the highest degree of implementation in the Portuguese industry, exceeding 70% for both. The productivity is the dimension with a higher degree of impact from the implementation of TPM and costs the dimension that suffered a lesser impact.

This paper shows and analyses the current state of TPM implementation in the Portuguese industry and it will be useful for maintenance professionals, researchers and others concerned with maintenance, in order to understand the effects of TPM implementation on the operational performance of the Portuguese industries.

The findings from this paper will be valuable for professionals who desire and are looking forward to implement an effective maintenance approach in the maintenance management system, in order to achieve the excellence in maintenance.

Portuguese handicrafts are distinctive artisan products that have been shaped by cultural and historical conditions. The aim of this chapter is to focus on understanding the inherent innovativeness embedded within different handicraft that is made in Portugal. This involves taking a country perspective to handicraft production and the reason why it has continued or revived over time. This involves focusing on the role of entrepreneurs in the handicraft industry and how artisan entrepreneurship can be utilized. Specific examples of Portuguese handicrafts are stated in this chapter that showcase the cultural connections individuals feel. Theoretical and managerial implications are stated that highlight the importance of handicrafts to cultural preservation. Future research suggestions are also stated that stress the need to continue research into Portuguese handicrafts and artisan entrepreneurship.

This paper explores how racial neoliberalism is the latest evolution of race and global capitalism and is analyzed in the example of global tourism in Costa Rica. Racial neoliberalism represents two important features: colorblind ideology and new racial practices.

Two beach tourism localities in Costa Rica are investigated to identify the racial neoliberal practices that racialize tourism spaces and bodies and the ideological discourses deployed to justify racial hierarchical placement that perpetuates new forms of global and national inequality.

Three neoliberal racial practices in tourism globalization were found. First, “neoliberal networks” supported white transnational actors’ linkage to national and global tourism providers. Second, “neoliberal conservation” in beach land protection policies secured private tourism business development and impacted current and future racial community displacement. Third, “neoliberal activism” exposed how community fights to change local tourism development was demarcated along racial lines.

An inquiry into the mechanisms and logics of how racism contemporarily operates in the global economy exposes the importance of acknowledging that race has an impact on different actor’s global economic participation by organizing the distribution of material economic rewards unevenly.

As scholarship exposes how gender, ethnicity, and class are constituted through global economic arrangements it is imperative that research uncovers how race is a salient category also shaping current global inequality but experienced differently in diverse geographies and histories.

This paper aims to firstly depict the theoretical links between place branding and strategic spatial planning to provide further theoretical and conceptual foundations. Secondly, it aims to explore the roots of place branding theory and practice in Portugal, as well as how place branding has been approached (or not) in spatial development plans, strategic initiatives and policy documents by stating the territorial, spatial-economic and sectoral development trajectories for the country and its northern region.

A content analysis of 20 spatial development plans, strategies and policy documents (of 30 identified), published by Portuguese authorities, the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, mainly for the period between 2014 and 2020, has been used.

Empirical evidence shows that tourism-oriented promotion initiatives, investment-oriented marketing campaigns and communication strategies uniquely supported by visual elements and aesthetic values (e.g. logos and slogans) deserve more attention from authorities in charge of spatial planning and policy-making. Place branding is an absent term. Moreover, there is inconsistency between current research and practice on place branding and how it has been incorporated in strategic spatial planning at EU, national and regional levels.

Whilst some of the research findings are place-specific (Portugal and its northern region), this exploratory paper aims to present a better understanding of the way in which places and branding can be conceptually addressed, primarily by assigning a spatial dimension to the idea of branding places and its alignment with strategic spatial planning and spatial plan-making.

This paper critically explores the actual or potential roles of place branding as an instrument for the attainment of strategic spatial planning goals through its integration in plan and policy-making. By guiding the attention of academics, practitioners and policymakers towards a strategic spatially oriented approach to place branding, the paper brings an alternative view to the scholarly and professional debate on place branding.

This study provides a new look at the late 19th-century university issue in Spain. Loss of self-government among universities and the state’s centralization brought a conflict between science and religion to the fore in the process of the secularization of knowledge.

We first delve into the anti-Darwinian framework associated with the scientific professionalization process, focusing on the case of the jurist Antonio Hernández Fajarnés (1851–1909). Secondly, we study the idea of the university that emerged from the Ateneo de Madrid, analyzing key speeches from the jurist Francisco Fernández de Henestrosa (1855–s.d.) given in 1887/88 and from the pharmacist José Rodríguez Carracido (1856–1928).

The study concludes that the Restoration Era in Spain was characterized by a generalized desire – shared by neo-Scholastics, conservatives and liberal rationalists – to improve the public university system. In this context, French influence was no doubt decisive; however, the Humboldtian university idea had already begun to have notable influence.

This article analyzes sources yet unknown to international research, such as the Ateneo de Madrid debates and Spanish university rectors’ inaugural speeches. It opens up a critical examination of the so-called displacement of educational principles in Spain toward a state-centered system of doctrinal moderantismo as opposed to the nation-centered system of the Cádiz liberalism. At the same time, it identifies key pockets of resistance relative to Spanish university transformation toward increased methodological secularization.

The purpose of this paper is to define the impact of the investment in training in education by the European Social Fund (ESF) in four Eastern countries, namely, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Hungary. Those countries have some political, cultural, social and economic similarities and share some common ground in the human resource development (HRD) sectors.

The authors use the human capital theory with some extensions to analyze the context, operations and impacts of the ESF in the Visegrad four (V4) countries between 2007 and 2013. The authors use three levels of methodology to access each one of those problems.

The authors conclude that the ESF helped building the vocational training system in those countries, and to help them get near the equilibrium of high skills of the V4 Western European neighbors, and therefore, this one was a success story. However, quality issues remain to be addressed that may hinder the continuation of the success in the future.

The research could be enlarged in time and space and deepened in terms of methodology. This is one a first clarifying step. Theoretical work should become aware of the dichotomy between absorption and scientific logic.

Detailed and precise evaluation practices must be implemented to guide and assess the policy.

Precisely because funds are scarce this paper enlights the dilemma and the tension between quantity and quality in the European HRD policy, this is an important social problem.

The study is original because even if the HRD in those countries had already been studied (Sheehan and Buchelt, 2016), no study analyzing specifically the ESF in those countries has been carried out so far. The authors use an innovative methodology and address questions on context, operations and impact, which are also innovative and very relevant.