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Environmental studies have developed slowly within social sciences in Latin America. This paper seeks to assess and systematize the contribution of social sciences in the research on the human dimensions of global environmental change (HDGEC) in the region outlining its state of the art and process of development.

The approach taken is the organization of a manual compilation and systematic review of publications on topics related to the HDGEC in order to investigate major research topics covering the period between 2001 and 2008.

Although it is possible to identify an emergent body of the literature and scholarship in the region, the involvement of Latin American social science in the HDGEC research is still timid and tentative and not yet institutionalized. The evidence from this compilation has shown that this literature is fragmented bringing difficulties for the homogenization of criteria for analysis and assessment.

The paper is one of the very few attempts to assess and analyze the research on HDGEC in Latin America through an international perspective. It provides an overview of its development building upon the progress of environmental studies in the region and looks to its challenges ahead in order to call for more involvement of social sciences in these research activities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors shaping climate policies in two megacities in Brazil – São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro – through a multilevel perspective. The paper seeks to explore how climate change is being framed and how local governments are responding to it in terms of policy strategies.

Through empirical research based on two case studies, the authors discuss the governing of climate change action and analyze the factors that can constrain or undermine these actions based on information collected from reports, institutional web sites and academic and newspaper articles.

The participation in transnational municipal networks has been central for promoting and supporting climate change actions in both cities following the international experience. The organization and implementation of climate change measures rely on a landscape formed by multiple actors often spanning several sectors and levels of governance.

Most of the literature on climate change policy at the local level focuses on the context of developed countries. Analyses of advanced developing countries like Brazil are sparse as well as comparison in light of the international experience. The paper also draws attention for the lack of awareness for adaptation at the local level in these countries, building upon recent scientific findings on global climate change.

Doctoral programs are primarily intended to train new professors and researchers to take positions requiring research competency. This paper aims to observe the scientific production of 734 Brazilian new PhDs in management and the possible link between the scientific output of the graduates and doctoral program rank.

Methodologically, the authors built a database collecting the journal publications of the first six years after doctoral degree of all PhDs in management graduated by Brazilian doctoral programs during the period of 1998-2008. The authors use cluster and descriptive analysis to explore PhD publication.

Results show a great disparity of productivity, where 10 per cent of all new PhDs account for most of the Brazilian research productivity, while most of the PhDs have a very low performance – and that the CAPES (the Brazilian institutional system) qualification of doctoral programs is not a good predictor of the performance of the future graduates. Results are discussed to understand this productivity gap among researchers in a context of a developing country where support institutions are working to improve quantity and quality of publication.

The results are useful for recruiters that need to decide between hiring new PhDs with low productivity graduated from high-ranked programs or new PhDs with high productivity from programs with more modest ranking. At least in part, the authors’ results question the real impact that the doctoral program’s prestige has on the performance of its graduates.

There are implications for the future candidates to a management PhD program, for the Directors of these programs and for the institutional agencies that regulate and promote science and that establish the prevailing rules and norms that researchers and institutions follow.

The results are adamant in pointing out that there is a small group of highly productive new PhDs – that the authors called “stars”. Generally speaking, they may find these “star” new PhDs in several doctoral programs. They have also found that some of the new PhDs have a relatively higher level of international papers published, but not necessarily a larger volume of publications. Meanwhile, most PhDs present a very low level of performance. This has important contributions to the way they perceive the doctoral education in management, especially in Ibero-America, revealing insights about the quality of PhDs and PhD courses.

Recent research has suggested the beneficial effects of omega-3 fatty acids on kidney function; however, differences in these benefits have not been well-documented with respect to different omega-3 fatty acid sources. Hence, the purpose of this study is to compare the effects of plants, marine sources of omega-3 fatty acids and their combination on biomarkers of renal function in overweight and obese individuals.

Ninety-nine overweight and obese women from a weight loss clinic received three weight-reducing diets with fish (300 g/week), walnuts (18 walnuts/week) or fish + walnuts (150 g fish + 9 walnuts/week) for 12 weeks. Serum biomarkers of renal function were measured at the beginning and the end of the intervention.

After 12 weeks, a reduction in serum creatinine was statistically higher for both the fish + walnut (−0.16 ± 0.09 mg/dL, p = 0.001) and walnut (−0.15 ± 0.05 mg/dL, p = 0.001) diets compared with the fish diet (−0.05 ± 0.04 mg/dL). A significant decrease was seen in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level in the fish + walnut group (−0.12 ± 0.05 mg/dL, p = 0.03) and walnut group (−0.10 ± 0.04 mg/dL, p = 0.03) compared to the fish group (−0.05 ± 0.03 mg/dL). The effect of serum creatinine and BUN in the fish + walnut diet group was relatively higher than in the walnut diet group. Also, a significant difference was observed regarding weight loss in the fish + walnut diet (−7.2 ± 0.9 kg, p = 0.03) compared to in the other groups. The change in other indices was not different among the three diets.

This study found synergistic benefits of the plant and marine omega-3 fatty acids in reducing serum creatinine, BUN and weight compared with isolated marine omega-3s in overweight and obese women.

In the context of a profound digital transformation, the need for social interactivity is becoming fundamental for consumers on e-commerce sites. It allows them to interact with the company in the same way as with salespeople in physical stores. Among the different existing virtual agents used by companies to offer online solid interaction, this study focuses on virtual recommendation agents (VRAs). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of VRA on consumers’ psychological states and online impulse buying.

An experimental website was designed for this study. After interacting with VRA, respondents had to take part in a survey. The questionnaire included measures of perception of the VRA, perceived enjoyment, online impulse buying and perceived risk. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model.

The results confirm the positive influence of the VRA on perceived enjoyment, which is positively associated with online impulse buying. The effect of the VRA’s presence on perceived enjoyment is moderated by gender.

Only one product category was studied, for which the advice of VRAs is undoubtedly essential. However, this could also be valid for other products, such as technological products, where the consumer’s level of expertise may be low. Hence, the authors propose to extend this study to various products for a better generalization of the results.

This study provides practitioners with relevant findings on the efficiency of VRAs and offers them guidelines to design more interactive commercial websites with higher levels of social interactions. Such interactions should reduce perceived risks and make visitors more confident. This can encourage more traffic and sales, which implies growth in incomes and revenues.

Through this technology, VRAs can create more humanized links between consumers and companies.

Working on VRAs is original as they represent the technology that can replace salespeople. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to test the impact of VRA on online impulse buying. By examining the VRA’s set of fundamental capabilities, this study contributes to existing research on how companies should integrate digital technologies in their sales interactions with consumers, which to date has focused on other sales channels such as social media platforms.

Most research and development (R&D) activities in Brazil are performed by science and technology institutions (STIs). The purpose of this research was to determine whether environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) developed by these organizations were transferred to companies, either through cooperation during research or through mechanisms such as licensing agreements or spin-offs.

In total, 1,939 research groups and 702 patent registers, identified from the same set of words related to ESTs, using semantic search in open-access databases, covering a period from 2005 to 2014, were examined. The two data sets (patents and research groups) were overlaid, and it was possible to associate inventors’ names with researchers’ names.

The results showed that only six patents could be related to the 1,939 identified research groups. Of the six patents, only one was the object of a licensing agreement, and no spin-off was identified.

This study evidenced that it is necessary to expand the mechanisms of knowledge transfer, directed not only from STIs to companies but also in the opposite direction, given that companies recognize potential market opportunities.

This study shows that improvements in the Brazilian National Innovation System are necessary, as ESTs research groups demonstrated a weak association with technologies transferred to companies, with only one case of technology transfer in the form of a licensing agreement.