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The behavioural theory adds a new paradigm of analysis with the assumptions of the decision maker’s cognitive biases and their repercussions on financing decisions. The aim of the study is to analyse the repercussions of these biases on the adjustment speed of firm’s capital structure toward the optimal level.

Based on a partial adjustment model, the study uses the Dynamic Panel Fractional estimator to analyse panel data from 4,990 Portuguese entrepreneurial firms.

The results show that the cognitive overconfidence bias impacts the entrepreneurial firm’s capital structure. In fact, the firms run by overconfident managers adjust more slowly than their counterparts. Furthermore, the findings suggest that entrepreneurial firms make relatively fast adjustments toward the optimal debt level and follow a hierarchical financing order in the funding process.

The results of this paper are not only interesting to the academia, but also contain practical implications for corporate, institutional and business policy and governance. First, the paper introduces a new measure of cognitive bias in optimistic managers, which is useful for current and future academic research. Also, in practical terms, the findings of the paper reveal that when a company is contemplating hiring a manager, it should consider whether they need an optimistic or non-optimistic manager based on the company's present life cycle or situation.

The current analysis extends the existing literature. The study suggests that financial classical and behavioural paradigms should not be separated, which can provide evidence to help narrow the gap between these two major perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between the firms’ ownership and control structure and their export performance. The literature is traditionally focused on the relationship between firms’ performance and internationalization, with the relationship between ownership and control structure with internationalization being much less studied, particularly in the context of family firms.

The authors focus their study on the Portuguese wine firms due to their increasing importance in the Portuguese economy and in the promotion of the country’s exports and image abroad. They used a balanced panel data sample of 82 firms for the period from 2011 to 2015 and applied a random effects model and a Tobit specification.

The degree of family involvement shows a negative and significant relationship with internationalization, meaning that family firms that intend to internationalize should be open to receive external managers with international experience and increase their internal competencies to enhance internationalization.

This paper extends the literature since assesses, at the light of the agency theory, the presence of differences in the internationalization degree and export intensity between family firms that are managed and controlled by the owners and family firms that are managed by non-family members, with an application to a less studied sector and country.

The purpose of this study is to analyze to what extent the strategic actions implemented by the libraries contribute to the containment of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, without compromising the quality of library services for their learning communities.

The research has a mixed methodology: qualitative and quantitative with a technique of documentary review and statistical analysis of data through FanPage Karma software. The documents are public and are part of the teaching programs of the universities, webinars and courses given through accounts and official sites of the Mexican Federal Government, social networks, as well as groups of experts in national and international librarianship.

The research documents and describes the library services that have emerged in libraries since the quarantine and isolation period established by the Ministry of Public Education. It also shows the strategic actions adopted by universities (their advantages and disadvantages) and the digital competencies of the library professionals to meet the information demands of their communities. Additionally, actions implemented to provide a rapid response are discussed so that they can later be improved to have a comprehensive framework for improving quality in the remote library service.

This research contributes value to the field by critically analyzing libraries’ distance services, their innovations and the necessary professional competences required to achieve the institutional academic goals. Additionally, relevant services in the digital context are described.

This chapter is about an analysis and reflection on the actions, programs, and regulatory frameworks of the Mexican government for the promotion of entrepreneurial activity during the twentieth century. A documentary review is presented based mainly on the presidential reports available in the virtual legal library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Center for Documentation, Information, and Analysis of the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados), and various publications of experts on economic history, considering the twentieth century: from the year 1900 with the end of the Porfiriato until the six-year term of Ernesto Zedillo that ended in 2000. The public policies of these 100 years were reviewed and based on this, was analyzed the importance assigned to the creation, development, and consolidation of companies and their importance in public policies. Special emphasis is given to instruments for the creation of new businesses or the development and strengthening of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Departing from a so-called “modern civil service” as an ideal type, this chapter evaluates the status of public personnel management in Latin America. Such an ideal model is considered a mix between the organizational principles of the traditional civil service and those of the new public management perspective. First, the chapter presents the different phases that public management practices have undergone in some developed countries. Secondly, following several studies and data provided by the IADB, the level of development of several civil service systems in Latin America is analyzed and several of their construction–destruction–reconstruction patterns are presented. Lastly, the cases that most approach a modern civil service are discussed and some recommendations offered to reformers in this region.

The purpose of this paper is to help Ibero-American researchers identify the key challenges and benefits of moving to an Anglo-Saxon university for a period in their careers.

This is a review of the insights provided by a number of prominent Ibero-American scholars based on the main experiences they have encountered.

The paper analyzes three situations: a research visit, searching for a long-term position in North America (NA) and pursuing a PhD program in NA. The paper introduces some principles to succeed in these situations.

The paper defines different strategies to take full advantage of a professional stage in an Anglo-Saxon/US university.

This research studied the current document management (DM) practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of a road freight transport sector in a South American city with the aim to determine strengths and challenges for improving information management.

The study was conducted using a survey approach based on measuring information management capabilities (IMC) through the following main dimensions: perception about DM practices, DM policies and tools, IT usage, organizational climate, and problems related to document management.

The main results from the work stated the challenges for these companies in adopting electronic document management systems (EDMS) and handling information effectively even though the business experience. Also, the study highlighted the top management commitment in terms of investments for IMC development. Nevertheless, this economic support tends to be not enough to afford the EDMS implementation.

Regarding the importance of information in road freight transport sector, this paper explored DM practices in a field in which no previous studies related to DM had been conducted and set the basis to make decisions to improve information management performance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the productive efficiency and the best operational practices in an armaments manufacturer.

A longitudinal case study is performed using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Using DEA, an assessment of six years in the company manufacturing process is conducted. The research aims at developing an internal benchmark on three production lines of the company.

The results show that only one of the three analyzed production lines increased efficiency over time. With this result, the most efficient production line may be used as a reference in relation to the best operational practices of the company. Moreover, it was found that the current indicators to evaluate efficiency are insufficient and may lead to wrong management decisions.

This research could allow a larger understanding of the factors that really contribute to increased operational efficiency. This is due to internal benchmark assist in the identification of the best practices. The identification of best practices can contribute to enhance the efficiency of inefficient operations without the need for external comparisons.

DEA contributes due to its robustness, for the evaluation of productive efficiency. One of the contributions of this study is to identify opportunities for improvement in key components of the operation through targets, internal benchmarking and robust assessment of productive efficiency.

The purpose of the present study is to identify and measure economically the losses related to inventory management in an oil refinery.

An exploratory case study was conducted to search for a better understanding of a phenomenon and its implications.

The results obtained based on the case study suggest the need to observe this phenomenon in other contexts and take managerial actions that will eliminate waste as one of the forms of generating value for the company. The results were related to each other and to the traditional metrics of inventory management and can be used as a base to improve mathematical and computational models for production planning and scheduling and also performance indicators.

No studies have been found that attempt to measure the economic losses derived from inventory management and their capacity in this environment.