Search results

The purpose of this study is to present validation evidence of a Portuguese version of the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale, an instrument within the framework of the Self-Determination Theory, suitable for both Brazil and Portugal.

The current study demonstrates the suitability of this version in both Portugal (N = 999) and Brazil (N = 720). The authors applied confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and tested the invariance between samples.

Results from CFA found the same structural dimensions as in the original study, invariant across both samples. Convergent and discriminant validity were shown through correlations between motivation subscales with affective commitment and emotional exhaustion.

Overall, the data provided strong evidence for the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the scale and reinforces the instrument as a cross-culturally valid measure of work motivation.

O objetivo deste estudo é apresentar evidências de validação de uma versão portuguesa da Escala Multidimensional de Motivação para o Trabalho, um instrumento enquadrado na Teoria da Autodeterminação, apropriado para utilização no Brasil e em Portugal.

O presente estudo demonstra a adequação desta versão da escala tanto em Portugal (N = 999), quanto no Brasil (N = 720). Realizámos Análise Fatorial Confirmatória e testámos a invariância da medida entre as amostras.

Os resultados da Análise Fatorial Confirmatória mostram a mesma estrutura fatorial encontrada no estudo original, assim como invariância entre as presentes amostras. As validades convergente e discriminante foram evidenciadas pelas correlações com as escalas de comprometimento organizacional afetivo e exaustão emocional.

Em geral, os dados mostraram forte evidência de confiabilidade e validade da versão da escala para português e reforça a validade intercultural desta medida de motivação para o trabalho

motivação para o trabalho, Escala multidimensional de motivação para o trabalho, Teoria da autodeterminação.

Artigo de pesquisa

El objetivo de este estudio es presentar evidencia de validación de una versión portuguesa de la Escala Multidimensional de Motivación Laboral, un instrumento en el marco de la Teoría de la Autodeterminación, adecuado tanto para Portugal como para Brasil.

El presente estudio demuestra la adecuación de esta versión de la escala tanto en Portugal (N = 999) como en Brasil (N = 720). Realizamos un análisis factorial confirmatoria y probamos la invariancia de medición entre muestras.

Los resultados del análisis factorial confirmatorio muestran la misma estructura factorial encontrada previamente en el estudio original, así como la invariancia entre las medidas. La validez convergente y discriminante se mostró mediante correlaciones con las escalas de compromiso organizacional afectivo y de agotamiento emocional.

En general, los datos mostraron una fuerte evidencia de confiabilidad y validez de la versión en portugues de la escala y refuerza la validez intercultural de la medida de motivación laboral.

motivación laboral, Escala multidimensional de motivación labora, Teoría de la autodeterminación

Artículo de investigación

Factors like bid price, submission time, and number of bidders influence the procurement process in public projects. These factors and the award criteria may impact the project’s financial compliance. Predicting budget compliance in construction projects has been traditionally challenging, but Machine Learning (ML) techniques have revolutionised estimations.

In this study, Portuguese Public Procurement Data (PPPData) was utilised as the model’s input. Notably, this dataset exhibited a substantial imbalance in the target feature. To address this issue, the study evaluated three distinct data balancing techniques: oversampling, undersampling, and the SMOTE method. Next, a comprehensive feature selection process was conducted, leading to the testing of five different algorithms for forecasting budget compliance. Finally, a secondary test was conducted, refining the features to include only those elements that procurement technicians can modify while also considering the two most accurate predictors identified in the previous test.

The findings indicate that employing the SMOTE method on the scraped data can achieve a balanced dataset. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the Adam ANN algorithm outperformed others, boasting a precision rate of 68.1%.

The model can aid procurement technicians during the tendering phase by using historical data and analogous projects to predict performance.

Although the study reveals that ML algorithms cannot accurately predict budget compliance using procurement data, they can still provide project owners with insights into the most suitable criteria, aiding decision-making. Further research should assess the model’s impact and capacity within the procurement workflow.

Previous research predominantly focused on forecasting budgets by leveraging data from the private construction execution phase. While some investigations incorporated procurement data, this study distinguishes itself by using an imbalanced dataset and anticipating compliance rather than predicting budgetary figures. The model predicts budget compliance by analysing qualitative and quantitative characteristics of public project contracts. The research paper explores various model architectures and data treatment techniques to develop a model to assist the Client in tender definition.

Based on the goal content theory (GCT), the purpose of this paper is to focus on the essence of goals and examine the associations between different work goal contents (intrinsic and extrinsic goals) and work performance.

The data were collected from 279 employees and their immediate supervisors, and the theoretical hypotheses were tested by correlation and hierarchal regression analyses.

The results of the analyses showed that intrinsic goal content positively predicted task performance, dedicative performance, interpersonal performance, and adaptive performance and that extrinsic goal content positively predicted the task performance and adaptive performance; intrinsic goals were also found to enhance the relationship between extrinsic goals and task performance.

The contribution of the current study is that it explores whether both extrinsic goals and intrinsic goals can contribute to predicting work performance. Moreover, different from previous studies that focus on discussing the separate effects of intrinsic and extrinsic goals on outcomes, the authors aim to study the interaction effect between these goals, which enriches GCT.

This is a two-voice autoethnographic dialogue about Rousseau's Confessions and their relevance for the contemporary autoethnograpy. The paper examines the possibility that Rousseau was not only the creator of modern autobiography but also a forerunner of autoethnography. Many features of the Rousseau's masterpiece are analyzed and systematically compared to our contemporary autoethnographic sensibility: the purposes which brought him to write an outstandingly detailed description of his life; the fact that he acknowledges autobiography as the only source of true knowledge; his obsession for sincerity and his strong will to disclose all the truth about his own life to his readers (included the dreadful things that he did); the authority that he assigned to the readers in deciding about the truthfulness of his tale; his concern for the ethical issues and the care of the others; and the therapeutic value that he recognized to the practice of writing about themselves. In the end, Jean-Jacques was not only extraordinarily able to use his emotions to analyze human nature, but also he was a radical autobiographer at the limits of intransigence. His considerations on the value of autobiography can help us greatly to legitimize contemporary autoethnographic practice.

Alain Bouchard was born in 1949. He bought his first convenience store in 1978, when he was almost 30 years old. By then, he already had nearly 10 years of experience in the sector. He had already been involved in the start-up of more than 200 convenience stores. He understood that if he was to transform his newly acquired store into a chain and build something big, he needed to set up a team of people with complementary skills to help him make acquisitions.

In 2023, there are roughly 15,000 convenience stores operating under the Circle K/Ingo/Couche-Tard banners, employing 130,000 people in more than 30 countries. Annual sales are more than US$60 billion. Alain Bouchard officially retired from his position as President and CEO in 2014 and became Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board. He continues to be a major shareholder. He is still actively involved in strategic orientations and in identifying potential acquisitions. He has become a ‘Chief Culture Officer’ involved in executive leadership mentoring. He has never stopped communicating the importance of innovative, creative and intrapreneurial behaviour at all levels of the enterprise.

This case study presents Alain Bouchard, the man and the entrepreneur. It shows how he learned and mastered the craft of starting, acquiring, managing and developing convenience stores. It looks at how he encouraged the people around him to act as facilitators and intrapreneurs. It describes his values, how he works and learned to live with risk.

Despite rising incomes and reduction of extreme poverty, the feeling of being poor remains widespread. Support programs can improve well-being, but they first require identifying who are the households that judge their income is insufficient to meet their basic needs, and what factors are associated with subjective poverty.

Households report the income level they judge is sufficient to make ends meet. Then, they are classified as being subjectively poor if their own monetary income is inferior to the level they indicated. Second, the study compares the performance of three machine learning algorithms, the random forest, support vector machines and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression, applied to a set of socioeconomic variables to predict subjective poverty status.

The random forest generates 85.29% of correct predictions using a range of income and non-income predictors, closely followed by the other two techniques. For the middle-income group, the LASSO regression outperforms random forest. Subjective poverty is mostly associated with monetary income for low-income households. However, a combination of low income, low endowment (land, consumption assets) and unusual large expenditure (medical, gifts) constitutes the key predictors of feeling poor for the middle-income households.

To reduce the feeling of poverty, policy intervention should continue to focus on increasing incomes. However, improvements in nonincome domains such as health expenditure, education and family demographics can also relieve the feeling of income inadequacy. Methodologically, better performance of either algorithm depends on the data at hand.

For the first time, the authors show that prediction techniques are reliable to identify subjective poverty prevalence, with example from rural China. The analysis offers specific attention to the modest-income households, who may feel poor but not be identified as such by objective poverty lines, and is relevant when policy-makers seek to address the “next step” after ending extreme poverty. Prediction performance and mechanisms for three machine learning algorithms are compared.

The development of the Amazon region depends on the organisation and improvement of production chains able to benefit forest species and animals. The purpose of this paper is to map and categorise the studies developed on the Arapaima gigas, a commercialisable fish native to the Amazon, responding to the following research questions: first, which links of the production chain have most of the studies on the pisciculture of the Amazon region? Second, is environmental performance being approached in studies on production chains in the Amazon region? To reach the objective, the authors used the systematic literature review (SLR) method. The authors analysed a sample of 121 articles published in 95 journals between 1981 and 2018. The research contains bibliometric and contents analyses. The main conclusions include the identification of various possibilities of studies throughout the different production chains in the Amazon region; the multidisciplinarity of research on a single species in the Amazon region; the importance of empirical studies in the construction of knowledge about the natural behaviour of the species; the need for integration and sharing of knowledge to create an efficient and competitive production chain. As a limitation, this study encompasses a broad spectrum of issues in the literature, therefore, it was only possible to offer a general overview of these issues. At the same time, this broad and intentional approach presents a comprehensive framing of the themes and phenomena that occur at each link of the production chain of Amazon fish farming.

This research consists in an SLR with organised, transparent and replicable procedures as recommended in the literature (Littell et al., 2008). The SLR is suited to the mapping of areas where there is a high level of uncertainty and new studies are necessary (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006). This research method is especially useful when dealing with a large volume of information (Tranfield et al., 2003). The use of SLR limits researcher bias by trying to evaluate and select relevant studies on the study theme (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006).

There are a number of possibilities for studies of the different production chains in the Amazon region; the results of mapping the production chains help to prioritise “what” should be researched in the Amazon region to promote more effective impacts for all stakeholders; research on pisciculture in the Amazon region can be used as a diagnostic tool for public policy formulators; the development of corporate environmental management is intrinsically linked to the process of analysis and understanding of the operations and costs that arise in different links of the production chain.

As a limitation, this study encompasses a broad spectrum of issues in the literature, therefore, it was only possible to offer a general overview of these issues.

In terms of practical implications, it is possible to note that the dispersion of themes found in this study confirms the plurality of the richness of the Amazon and suggests that research institutions should be able to commit to the drafting of integrated planning of science, as well as compilation of the results reached. It is also important to highlight Brazil’s role in the leadership of research in the Amazon region compared to other countries.

The aim of the paper was twofold: to supply a focussed review of the literature on the production chain of a species in Amazon pisciculture and to identify a research agenda capable of overcoming the gaps that impede the development of this chain. More specifically, this study reviewed the available research on the chain in question to analyse the links that have the largest volume of studies and to orient future research.

Giambattista Piranesi's disturbing images of fantasy prisons set out in his Carceri d'Invenzione have had a profound impact on cultural sensibilities. The chapter explores Piranesi's distinctive visual language and situates it in an eighteenth-century penchant for ruins and what they might signify. The macabre fantasy structures bear little relation to actually existing prison buildings, but they do herald a new aesthetic combining both terror and beauty to sublime effect. The chapter examines the relationships between narrative and visual methods by considering that scholarship in art history which has sought to address the relationships between ‘word’ and ‘image’.

Much of it belongs to what was once the ‘new art history’ in the 1970s, and which had become critical of how conventional approaches in the discipline had tended to see art as the visualisation of narrative. For example, Norman Bryson's (1981) study of French painting in the Ancien Régime explored the relationships between ‘word’ and ‘image’ by examining the kind of stories pictures tell, drawing a distinction between the ‘discursive’ aspects of an image (posing questions on visual art's language-like qualities and relationships to written text) and those ‘figural’ features that place the image as primarily a visual experience – it's ‘being-as-image’ – that is entirely independent of language.

The focus on language is symptomatic of the ‘linguistic turn’ that has had such a profound influence on intellectual thought since the 1960s, and this chapter will concentrate on one strand in it. In particular, it will introduce the approach Jacques Derrida developed and defined as ‘deconstruction’, which in some important respects revealed the limitations of language, and seeks to create the effects of ‘decentring’ by highlighting how signification is a complex, often duplicitous, process. The chapter then situates Piranesi's images in an account of landscape, not least since he was a leading exponent of the veduta (a faithful representation of an actual urban or rural view) that had achieved the status of a distinctive and popular genre by the eighteenth century.

Shortly before the Second World War, a woman who had never accepted her orphan status, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, nicknamed ‘Little Coco’ by her father and known as ‘Coco’ to her relatives, became the first women in history to build a world-class industrial empire. By 1935, Coco, a fashion designer and industry captain, was employing more than 4,000 workers and had sold more than 28,000 dresses, tailored jackets and women's suits. Born into a poor family and raised in an orphanage, she enjoyed an intense social life in Paris in the 1920s, rubbing shoulders with artists, creators and the rising stars of her time.

Thanks to her entrepreneurial skills, she was able to innovate in her methods and in her trendsetting approach to fashion design and promotion. Coco Chanel was committed and creative, had the soul of an entrepreneur and went on to become a world leader in a brand new sector combining fashion, accessories and perfumes that she would help shape. By the end of her life, she had redefined French elegance and revolutionized the way people dressed.