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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), democracy and carbon intensity. This study examines the influence of types of democracy on the relationship between inward FDI and carbon intensity. For this purpose, it uses five varieties of democracy, including a composite democracy indicator as moderating variables.

This study applies the fixed-effects panel quantile regression approach that considers unobserved heterogeneity and distributional heterogeneity using panel data from 160 countries during 1990–2020. By taking into account sudden changes in the volume of inward FDI, an event study is conducted across various sub-samples of democracy to check the robustness of the results.

The results show that FDI has a significantly negative impact on carbon intensity of the host country in the upper quantiles. In general, different types of democracy have a significant positive impact on carbon intensity across different quantiles. After considering the other factors, including industry intensity, trade openness, green technology, fossil fuel dependency and International Environmental Agreements, there is evidence that all types of democracy moderate the relationship between FDI and carbon intensity, thereby supporting the halo effect hypothesis. In addition, the interaction effects have a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of low- and high-carbon-intensive countries.

This paper offers several contributions to the literature on the effect of FDI and democracy on carbon intensity. This study overcomes the limitations related to the conceptualization and measurement of democracy found in the literature. While prior research has predominately concentrated on how democracy promotes the selection of FDI host-country locations, this study seeks to answer the question of whether democracy type has any effect on inward FDI, thus contributing to improving carbon intensity. Furthermore, this paper analyses the interaction effect on carbon intensity in different countries with different carbon intensity levels separately.

Analysis of public sources.

The bank named “Novo Banco” (New Bank in Portuguese) was created because of an emergency intervention by the Bank of Portugal to save the “good” assets of the once great but bankrupt Banco Espírito Santo (BES) on August 4, 2014. The toxic assets remained in BES (dubbed “bad bank”). BES was one of the biggest private banks in Portugal, with origins mounting back to the year 1869. In 2013, it was headed by the founder’s great-grandson, Ricardo Salgado, when an external audit revealed several problems with the bank’s accounting and concluded that BES had a severe financial problem (the risky credit represented 11.1% of the bank’s accounts). The bank underwent a public capital increase (endorsed by several public figures, including the Portuguese President at the time, Cavaco Silva) of €1.045m to reposition itself, which was 100% successful (demand of about 160%, with a significant part of foreign investors). However, continued amounts of suspicions led Ricardo Salgado to be replaced by Vitor Bento (via a settlement between BES’s shareholders and the Bank of Portugal) in July 2014. At the end of that same month, BES announced imparities totaling the amount of €4.2535m. This led the European Central Bank to suspend BES’s access to the financial operations, forcing it to reimburse its credit to the Eurosystem in the value of €10.000m. In two days, the stock prices dropped by 80% to around €0.03 per share. It was later proven that the administration led by Ricardo Salgado had disobeyed the Bank of Portugal 21 times between December 2013 and July 2014, apparently acting against the institution’s best interests. Some carousel schemes with companies within the Espirito Santo Group were also detected in BES’ financial movements to improve the bank’s financial statements.

Finance Valuation, Strategy

This study aims to validate a model to assess the level of lean maturity of Brazilian hospitals based on the adaptation of the SAE J4000/2021 standard.

The methodology was divided: (1) adaptation of the standard to the health context, (2) application of the questionnaire through a survey, and (3) comparison of the results of the level of maturity in the standard and by the clustering technique, using Minitab.

The research presents two contributions: (1) validation of a model to assess the level of lean maturity based on the SAE J4000/2021; (2) insights into the level of maturity of Brazilian hospitals. It was observed that only 10% of the sample was classified at maturity level 3 and 75% at level 2. Private and large hospitals showed greater maturity compared to the others.

This includes the limited number of hospitals that participated in the survey, given the difficulty of adherence to due constraints of time and staffing from hospitals, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article presents a lean maturity assessment proposal, adapting a consolidated standard in the automobile industry to the health context. Insights on the lean maturity of Brazilian hospitals can contribute to the development of policies to encourage the implementation of the lean philosophy directed to each specific environment.

This study serves as a guide for public agents interested in monitoring the quality of hospital indicators through the SAE J4000/2021 standard. From this lean maturity analysis, hospital managers can understand their opportunities for improvement in both human and organizational aspects. This favors the improvement of service delivery to society that depends on health services.

Due to the lack of research that validates lean maturity level assessment models in Brazilian hospitals, this study can be considered a pioneer in this Brazilian research by validating the SAE J4000/2021 standard in its updated version in the health context.

The purpose of this paper is to describe research into attachment styles of rough sleepers and considersthe implications for practice.

The research was structured interviews with a cohort of rough sleepers analysed through evidence-based techniques, and the implications were drawn out with reference to current best practice.

The rough sleepers in the cohort had a very different pattern of attachment styles to the housed population, with 100% insecure vs c35%, and 50% insecure disorganised vs >15%.

The limitation is that the cohort was relatively small, n = 22 and was a sample of convenience. The implications are that homelessness services working with rough sleepers need to be attachment-informed as much as trauma-informed.

Practical implications are that homelessness services need to have a more rounded psychological perspective such as psychologically informed environments rather than just a trauma-informed approach.

Rough sleepers suffer from deeply pervasive and severe attachment disorders, and this may be causal to their becoming rough sleepers and is certainly a factor in whether or not they are successfully rehoused.

There is almost no other original research published into the attachment styles of rough sleepers or homeless people. The current trend is for trauma-informed services: the call for attachment-informed ones is original.

This paper aims to analyze what Samarco and Brazilian magazines speak and say about Mariana’s environmental crime. Discover their doxa in this subject. Interpret the speakings, sayings and doxas through the theories of the treadmills of production, crime and law.

It is a qualitative and documental research and a narrative analysis. Regarding the documents: 45 were from public authorities, 14 from Samarco Mineração S.A. and 73 from Brazilian magazines. Theoretically, the authors resorted to Bourdieusian sociology (speaking, saying and doxa) and the treadmills of production, crime and law theories.

Samarco: speaking – mission statements; saying – detailed information and economic and financial concerns; doxa – assistance discourse. Brazilian magazines: speaking – external agents; saying – agreements; doxa – attribution, aggravations, historical facts, impacts and protests.

The absence of discussions that addressed this fatality, with its respective consequences, from an agenda that exposed and denounced how it exacerbated race, class and gender inequalities.

Regarding Mariana’s environmental crime: Samarco Mineração S.A. speaks and says through the treadmill of production theory and supports its doxa through the treadmill of crime theory, and Brazilian magazines speak and say through the treadmill of law theory and support their doxa through the treadmill of crime theory.

To provoke reflections on the relationship between the mining companies and the communities where they settle to develop their productive activities.

Concerning environmental crime in perspective, submit it to a theoretical interpretation based on sociological references, approach it in a debate linked to environmental criminology, and describe it through narratives exposed by the guilty company and by Brazilian magazines with high circulation.

The aftermath of the recent financial crisis has shown that the ability to innovate is a vital management skill and that the methodologies used to evaluate innovation capability within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should be as holistic and integrative as possible. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue through the combined use of cognitive mapping and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

Cognitive mapping and multiple criteria decision analysis have proved over the years to be effective in handling a wide range of complex decision problems. Following a socio-technical approach, a non-parametric method of evaluating SME innovation capability – based on the results of group meetings with a panel of information technology entrepreneurs and SME chief executive officers – was created, tested and validated.

The methodological processes adopted in this study provide promising results for decision makers seeking to identify the most innovative SMEs. Furthermore, the sensitivity analyses carried out also supported the findings.

This study confirms the usefulness of integrating cognitive mapping and the AHP to facilitate evaluations of SME innovation capability. However, due to the process-oriented nature of the research, extrapolations without proper adjustments are not recommended.

The panel members who participated in this study consider the proposal extremely versatile and see great potential for further applications in the measurement of SME innovation capability.

The combined use of cognitive mapping and the AHP offers a holistic and well-informed perspective on the issue in question. The authors know of no prior work reporting this approach in the same research context.

The purpose of the paper is to provide an illustrative picture of how large corporations in a peripheral country such as Portugal engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and discuss the motivations underlying these practices.

In this study, a case study methodology was used to explore CSR practices and the underlying motivations in two Portuguese companies.

The results obtained suggest that some specificity may be present in the way of defining corporate responsibility for society by Portuguese companies. The Portuguese companies analysed seem to display an historical preference for corporate paternalism. This suggests that moral reasons can motivate firms (and individuals within them) to engage in social responsibility activities.

This work focuses on two specific case studies, but other cases might find diverse findings.

It adds to the scarce research on CSR by Portuguese companies by providing new empirical data. It contributes to the growing body of evidence which seems to suggest that cultural differences associated with different countries affect CSR dynamics.

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.