Andreia C.B. Ferreira, Ricardo Gouveia Rodrigues, Ana R. Gouveia, Oliva M.D. Martins, Hugo Ferreira, João Alfredo Pereira and Paulo Duarte
The use of insects as food is a proposed solution for the increased demand for food worldwide, but it lacks acceptance because of restrictive emotional factors. This article aims…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of insects as food is a proposed solution for the increased demand for food worldwide, but it lacks acceptance because of restrictive emotional factors. This article aims to understand better customers' emotions’ role in considering and consuming insect-based food.
Design/methodology/approach
To assess their acceptance, an experiment was developed with 38 participants living in Portugal to identify how people feel when consuming processed insect bars compared to cereal bars (of equal flavour). A video was recorded “before”, “during” and “after” the consumption of such foods, and the triggered emotions and affective states were identified using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and the circumplex model of affect, respectively. After consumption, the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) was asked to be completed.
Findings
It was observed that the valence and arousal of the emotions and affective states triggered during consumption were higher in the insect bar than in the cereal bar. Its consumption resulted in surprise and a positive evaluation. Processed insect-based foods may result in a potentially increased acceptance of this new food alternative in the market.
Originality/value
Prior studies briefly identified disgust as a primary emotion activated by insect-based food. The current research deeply studied emotional responses to insect-based processed foods in the Western world using the dimensional emotional models. This study offers arguments for the insect-based food industry to invest in processed food justified by its potential for acceptance. In addition, it motivates further research focused on other insect-based products (e.g. non-processed ones).
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Jose Paulo Marques dos Santos, Marisa Martins, Hugo Alexandre Ferreira, Joana Ramalho and Daniela Seixas
This paper aims to explore brain-based differences in national and own-label brands perceptions. Because price is a differentiating characteristic, able to discriminate between…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore brain-based differences in national and own-label brands perceptions. Because price is a differentiating characteristic, able to discriminate between national and own-label brands, its influence is also studied.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses the Save Holdings Or Purchase (SHOP) task with functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the differences in brain functioning for national versus own-label branded products.
Findings
For the same product, the higher priced national brands and the lower priced own-label brands lead to more buying decisions. It is also found that there are brain structures that are more active/deactive for national than for own-label brands, both marked with real market prices. Price is a powerful driver of buying decisions and has its neural correlates. Parietal regions activate when brand information is subtracted from brand-plus-price information. The most surprising finding is that visual and visual associative areas are involved in the contrasts between branded products marked with switched prices and marked with real market prices.
Originality/value
The activation/deactivation brain patterns suggest that accepted models of brain functioning are not suitable for explaining brand decisions. Also, to our knowledge, this is the first time that a study directly addresses the brain’s functioning when subjects are stimulated with national versus own-label brands. It paves the way for a new approach to understanding how such brand categories are perceived, revealing the neural origins of the associated psychological processes.
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Cleopatra Veloutsou, Francisco Guzman, John Gountas and Luiz Moutinho
Pedro Ferreira and Hugo Barbosa
This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of what influences consumers’ choice of mandatory prescribed drugs, by looking with more detail to the substitution of branded…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of what influences consumers’ choice of mandatory prescribed drugs, by looking with more detail to the substitution of branded drugs by generics. Specifically, this research looks at three factors that can influence this decision, namely, participative decision-making, perceived risk and price consciousness, within the recent changes introduced in the Portuguese pharmaceutical market by new legislation.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study was conducted, using a self-administered questionnaire, to survey a sample of consumers/patients that visited a doctor and were prescribed some kind of drug. Data were treated using factor analysis for dimensionality reduction purposes and regression analysis to test the main hypothesis.
Findings
The results show that participative decision-making has no impact on purchase decision of generics, while perceived risk and price consciousness show a predictive power regarding purchase intention of generic drugs.
Research limitations/implications
Although the results are only applicable to the Portuguese context, it draws important conclusions regarding consumers’ behaviour when choosing between branded and generic drugs.
Practical implications
Knowing what influences consumers’ choices of generic drugs contributes to tune marketing strategies and actions. For public institutions, this paper offers insights on how to adapt public policies.
Originality/value
This paper is valuable because it is the first to look at the Portuguese pharmaceutical market from a consumer behaviour perspective since new legislation was set up.
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Hugo Iasco-Pereira and Rafael Duregger
Our study aims to evaluate the impact of infrastructure and public investment on private investment in machinery and equipment in Brazil from 1947 to 2017. The contribution of our…
Abstract
Purpose
Our study aims to evaluate the impact of infrastructure and public investment on private investment in machinery and equipment in Brazil from 1947 to 2017. The contribution of our article to the existing literature lies in providing a more comprehensive understanding of the presence or absence of the crowding effect in the Brazilian economy by leveraging an extensive historical database. Our central argument posits that the recent decline in private capital accumulation over the last few decades can be attributed to shifts in economic policies – moving from a developmentalist orientation to nondevelopmental guidance since the early 1990s, which is reflected in the diminished levels of public investment and infrastructure since the 1980s.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted a series of econometric regressions utilizing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model as our chosen econometric methodology.
Findings
Employing two different variables to measure public investment and infrastructure, our results – robust across various specifications – have substantiated the existence of a crowding-in effect in Brazil over the examined period. Thus, we have empirical evidence indicating that the state has influenced private capital accumulation in the Brazilian economy over the past decades.
Originality/value
Our article contributes to the existing literature by offering a more comprehensive understanding of the crowding effect in the Brazilian economy, utilizing an extensive historical database.
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Within entrepreneurship literature, the conventional approaches inspired by Schumpeter's “creative destruction” have largely emphasized the role of human cognitive processes to…
Abstract
Within entrepreneurship literature, the conventional approaches inspired by Schumpeter's “creative destruction” have largely emphasized the role of human cognitive processes to come up with new business ideas. In contemporary studies, however, there is a recent research stream wherein creativity is aestheticized. As a research line of the aesthetic approach, there is an increasing interest for playfulness and other signals of enjoyment that can also stimulate the entrepreneur's creative acts.
This chapter is a reflexion about the liberating and creative role of play in the context of sport entrepreneurship, particularly, in the fitness industry. It aspires to give to the recent development of the sport entrepreneurship field a novel twist by relating it to a theology of play. Drawing on the work of one of the most influential twentieth-century theologians who has approached play theology, Hugo Rahner, we present how his theological approach may be used to widen our understanding of sport entrepreneurship. This theological perspective allows us to develop alternative thoughts based on concepts that transcend the typical rationalist business approach and its instrumental language.
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José Carvalho Ferreira, Eduardo Santos, Hugo Madureira and João Castro
To provide an innovative way for manufacturing in which the integration of rapid technologies is simultaneously used methodologically in real‐time for the rapid product and…
Abstract
Purpose
To provide an innovative way for manufacturing in which the integration of rapid technologies is simultaneously used methodologically in real‐time for the rapid product and process development (RPPD).
Design/methodology/approach
A range of related works are discussed and an experimental implementation of the RPPD methodology is described for composite functional prototype design and rapid manufacturing (RM). The simultaneous integration of VP/RP/RT/RE/RM technologies consolidates a powerful methodology to achieve the RPPD objectives.
Findings
The RPPD developed methodology takes advantage of both virtual prototyping (VP) and physical prototypes made by rapid prototyping (RP) technology to evaluate performances and design ergonomic aspects. The increasing needs to reduce lead‐time and costs have direct converting RP in rapid tooling (RT) technology for RM. Furthermore, to verify the parts and tools geometry accuracy the simultaneous use of scanning techniques for metrology control aided by reverse engineering (RE) as allow decreasing the RPPD time.
Originality/value
This paper evaluated RPPD results and the metrology control plotted in error distribution function and cumulative error distribution histograms validate the best practice developed that industrial manufacturers could implement allowing time and costs reductions.
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Using Arroyo’s (2012) institutional entrepreneurship (IE) framework, the purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding of how top managers interpret change in the…
Abstract
Purpose
Using Arroyo’s (2012) institutional entrepreneurship (IE) framework, the purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding of how top managers interpret change in the macro-political and economic environment and integrate it into their performance management systems (PMSs).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper combines multiple data sources to study PMS change in the big four Swedish banks over the deregulations’ first quarter of a century.
Findings
The findings support previous research by identifying IE as a collective phenomenon. Moreover, it points to the importance of distinguishing between different types of field-level events, when investigating change initiated by such events. Finally, the findings also indicate that change at different levels of analysis have separate timings, advising future research on change to pay closer attention to the aspect of time.
Social implications
The paper tests Arroyo’s (2012) multi-level framework in an accounting setting and specifically focuses on top managers’ interpretation and integration of field-level events. It does so in the specific context of banks and thereby contributes to our understanding of how different field-level events affect banks’ PMS. In the post-financial crisis era, organizational and accounting scholars should engage time and effort to better understand this complex industry, not least to advice policymakers and regulators in the ongoing re-regulation of the financial markets.
Originality/value
Inspired by organizational studies of IE, this paper uses a longer time-frame and includes more organizations, than conventional management accounting case studies. By studying a field, rather than a single organization, the paper opens up to a “wider perspective” on PMS change.
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In this chapter, I aim to present a review on the constitution of the sociology of sport as a subfield in Brazil. To do so, I start with the debate over its history, the current…
Abstract
In this chapter, I aim to present a review on the constitution of the sociology of sport as a subfield in Brazil. To do so, I start with the debate over its history, the current status of this academic area and the factors that led to its development. Additionally, I present the main organizations, funding institutions, and the events that support this field. I briefly identify the main postgraduate programs in the country that enable sociological research in sport, mapping their distribution geographically. Next, I present some introductory works of reference on the sociology of sport in Brazil, as well as discussing some authors that were and are key to the field. I highlight the main topics of interest in Brazilian sociology of sport as well as their methodological models and the main theoretical bases of analysis used by late and early career researchers. In conclusion, I evaluate the comprehension and the representation of sport in society and in the academy, pointing to some future perspectives of development and consolidation of the sociology of sport in Brazil.
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The purpose of this paper is to theoretically hypothesise and empirically test the impact of sustainable supply chain practices (SSCPs) on firms’ financial risk.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to theoretically hypothesise and empirically test the impact of sustainable supply chain practices (SSCPs) on firms’ financial risk.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts signalling theory to explain the signalling role of SSCPs and the moderating role of the signalling environment in terms of supply chain characteristics. It collects and combines longitudinal secondary data from multiple sources to test the direct impact of SSCPs on firms’ financial risk and the moderating role of supply chain complexity and efficiency. It conducts various additional tests to check the robustness of the findings and to account for alternative explanations.
Findings
This research shows that SSCPs help firms reduce financial risk but do not affect their returns. Moreover, the risk reduction of SSCPs is greater for firms with more complex and efficient supply chains. The findings are robust to alternative variable measurements and analysing strategies.
Research limitations/implications
This research reveals the role of SSCPs in reducing financial risk, urging researchers to pay more attention to the financial risk implications of supply chain practices in general and SSCPs in particular.
Practical implications
This research encourages firms to engage in SSCPs to reduce financial risk and enables them to assess the urgency of their SSCPs investments in view of the complexity and efficiency of their supply chains.
Originality/value
This is the first research examining the impact of SSCPs on financial risk, based on longitudinal secondary data and signalling theory. The empirical evidence documented and the theoretical perspective adopted offer important implications for future practice and research on SSCPs.