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Social participation or public participation is a mechanism that aims to enable decision makers to understand the real needs of society and to promote more appropriate and acceptable public policies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze, through Douglasian Cultural Theory, the public-consultation mechanism, and to what extent it encourages the participation of people with different points of view in the formulation of public policies.

This research paper uses theoretical propositions from Douglasian Cultural Theory to investigate the process of public consultation adopted by the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) in the formulation of public policies for Brazil’s health sector.

The results contribute to the findings of previous studies, i.e., that social participation is unequal, and that some points of view are dominant in policy formulation. This indicates that public managers should seek mechanisms of participation that promote more inclusive and pluralistic public participation.

The main limitations of this study are the subjectivity inherent in the classification of “voices” in Douglasian Cultural Theory, the small number of contributions analyzed and the absence of some unpublished data.

The analysis contributes to the literature by supporting some and rejecting other propositions of Douglasian Cultural Theory, as well as indicating possible potential from this theory through public administration in the evaluation of mechanisms of social participation.

This review aims to identify the determinants of voluntary disclosure of corporate social performance (CSP) and to analyze and consolidate previous quantitative studies to identify the theoretical perspectives and the variables used in measuring the determinants of CSP disclosure (CSP-D).

A literature review of articles published from 1987 to 2015 was conducted using the three databases, Ebsco, ISI and Jstor, with CSP-D as the dependent variable. The goal was to identify the theoretical perspectives underlying the studies and the independent variables.

The literature revealed a set of variables and their general measures, but the consensus confirmed that there was no single explanation for what determined CSP-D. The published theories that support a relationship between CSP-D and its determinants are legitimacy, institutional, stakeholder, agency and voluntary disclosure theory.

The results allowed us to identify the perspectives underlying the major theories and disclosed a set of factors considered by the literature as the ones that influence CSP-D. This information will be useful for researchers interested in developing their own studies on CSP-D because it presents the evolution of CSP-D factors over time and organizes the findings of multiple studies developed since the emergence of the theme.

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.

Hotels provide high-quality guest experiences to generate perceived value for money (PVM), positively influencing word-of-mouth (WOM) and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication. This study aims to (1) verify the impacts of the perceived quality by the guests about their experiences in hotels on their PVM; (2) inspect the influence of guests' perception of hotel prices on PVM; (3) examine the impacts of guest PVM on their hotel experiences on WOM and eWOM and (4) investigate the consequences of the hotel guests' behavioural engagement on social networking sites (HGBE-SNS) on eWOM.

This quantitative and descriptive study consists of a survey with 371 guests who evaluated their experiences at three hotels in Brazil. PLS-SEM tested the hypothetical model that resorted to the stimulus-organism-response theory (S-O-R), proposed by Mehrabian and Russell (1974). Cluster Analysis compared the PVM, WOM and eWOM of groups of hotel guests with different levels of social media engagement.

Perceived quality by hotel guests positively impacts PVM. Perceived price negatively influences PVM. PVM had a positive and robust impact on WOM. PVM impacts and explains weakly eWOM. In contrast, HGBE-SNS affects and better explains eWOM than PVM.

This unprecedented investigation concomitantly exhibits the relationships between perceived quality, price, PVM, WOM, eWOM and HGBE-SNS. Hotels must offer high perceived quality experiences to influence PVM and WOM positively. PVM is unable to stimulate eWOM strongly. HGBE-SNS is pivotal for guests to share their hotel experiences through eWOM. This study suggests marketing strategies for hospitality companies to amplify customer engagement on SNS.

This study aims to estimate the overall SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and evaluate the accuracy of an antibody rapid test compared to a reference serological assay during a COVID-19 outbreak in a prison complex housing over 13,000 prisoners in Brasília.

The authors obtained a randomized, stratified representative sample of each prison unit and conducted a repeated serosurvey among prisoners between June and July 2020, using a lateral-flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA). Samples were also retested using a chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLIA) to compare SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and 21-days incidence, as well as to estimate the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) and determine the diagnostic accuracy of the LFIA test.

This study identified 485 eligible individuals and enrolled 460 participants. Baseline and 21-days follow-up seroprevalence were estimated at 52.0% (95% CI 44.9–59.0) and 56.7% (95% CI 48.2–65.3) with LFIA; and 80.7% (95% CI 74.1–87.3) and 81.1% (95% CI 74.4–87.8) with CLIA, with an overall IFR of 0.02%. There were 78.2% (95% CI 66.7–89.7) symptomatic individuals among the positive cases. Sensitivity and specificity of LFIA were estimated at 43.4% and 83.3% for IgM; 46.5% and 91.5% for IgG; and 59.1% and 77.3% for combined tests.

The authors found high seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within the prison complex. The occurrence of asymptomatic infection highlights the importance of periodic mass testing in addition to case-finding of symptomatic individuals; however, the field performance of LFIA tests should be validated. This study recommends that vaccination strategies consider the inclusion of prisoners and prison staff in priority groups.

The purpose of this paper is to validate and apply enrichment diagrams (EDs) to determine metal and as enrichment and contamination in the sediments of Sepetiba Bay.

Through inducted coupled plasma – optical emission spectrophotometry, total element (As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) concentrations were assessed for the construction of EDs and comparison with enrichment factors (EFs) in 65 samples collected in Sepetiba Bay.

Based on the EDs, it was observed that the sediments around the urban area of Sepetiba and ItaguaíHarbor were contaminated with Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn. These contaminants were expected due to the urban and industrial discharges into the bay and the activities at ItaguaíHarbor.

The ED was successful regarding its ability to evaluate inorganic contamination in Sepetiba Bay. In addition, this method was able to define a proper background sample for calculating EFs.

This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the cross-disciplinary literature on the drivers, barriers and performance outcomes of sustainable packaging to understand the current state of research in this field and identify research opportunities.

A systematic review is conducted within no time limit. The Methodi Ordinatio methodology was applied that resulted in retaining 48 relevant and high impact articles published in 26 academic journals with various scopes.

Seven key drivers are identified and defined: the integrative and collaborative supply chain, environmental capabilities and resources, market-based instruments, cost reduction, consumer pressure, competitive advantage, and regulatory pressure. Three main barriers are identified and defined: cost/benefit ambiguity, additional costs and complex trade-offs between packaging requirements. The review shows that the drivers and barriers to packaging sustainability are contingent on the firm size. Sustainable packaging positively affects the environmental, social and economic performance; however, its operational performance requires a proactive and integrated supply chain. The results highlight the importance of integrated packaging decisions at three different levels to improve packaging sustainability: vertical and horizontal integration, upstream and downstream integration, and product-packaging integration. The authors developed research propositions and provided insightful directions for future research.

Most studies focus on specific drivers, barriers and outcomes of sustainable packaging, while this paper brings them together to build a comprehensive framework. The latter provides a deeper understanding of the factors that incentivize or deter firms from pursuing sustainable packaging and its performance outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the underlying logics applied by different project evaluation approaches and to propose an alternative research agenda.

This paper explores the project evaluation literature via conducting a qualitative research applying systematic literature review and thematic analysis.

The project evaluation literature has mainly concentrated on the objective aspects of project evaluation and overlooked the subjective aspects that reflect the temporal, dynamic, complex and subjective nature of today’s projects. The authors propose a meta-framework that helps project practitioners to select an appropriate project evaluation criterion for their projects by considering the strengths and limitations of their preferred project evaluation model as well as making project evaluators aware of the underlying logics associated to diverse project evaluation approaches.

This study suggests that new conceptual approaches to deal with some of the major challenges in the project evaluation field. Practice-based views, narrative analysis and actor-network theory are likely to be useful tools to better understand and cope with the projects’ uncertainty and complexity.

The findings of this research assist project management practitioners and particularly project evaluators to enhance their understanding of the subjectivity, complexity and dynamics of current projects. To increase the reflexivity and resilience of project evaluation practice, this study also proposes new directions to apply different criteria, sub-criteria and indicators to the evaluation practice.

The originality of this study relies on transcending the conventional objective and rational approaches prevailing in current project evaluation practices. It proposes a research agenda that pave the way to address the shortcomings of conventional project evaluation practice.

We investigate the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and the internationalization pathways of Brazilian franchises. Our aim is to unravel the patterns of firm-level entrepreneurial characteristics vis-à-vis their corresponding processes of internationalization.

We extracted and curated data from the directories of the Brazilian Franchising Association (ABF). Additionally, we scrutinized the International Intensity, International Complexity and EO degree of 27 Brazilian franchises engaged in international activities. Associations between these dimensions were assessed through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

Our findings suggest that franchisees can enhance their international activities by adopting various configurations of EO attributes. This discovery illuminates the intricacies of EO and its association with firms’ operations and performance. Accordingly, we empirically demonstrate that EO is not a monolithic element. Instead, it should be perceived as a multifaceted and dynamic construct.

This study aimed to examine the internationalization process of franchises through the EO lens, a perspective that has not been explored in the existing literature. This unique approach offers novel insights about the internationalization processes of this particular business model. Furthermore, our research delves into the intricate relationship between firm-level EO and the trajectories of firm-level internationalization.