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This study explores the trajectory and challenges faced by a doctoral researcher in her successive attempts to gain access for conducting an ethnography within the production or organisation of a musical theatre performance. Contemplating the four unsuccessful access attempts and the final, triumphant one, we ponder the reasons and impediments for conducting research within this particular context. We operate under the premise that research access possesses a relational characteristic, contingent upon the relationships established between the researcher, the researched, potential informants and the dynamics of the field as a whole.

This is an exploratory and qualitative study, and the empirical research is based on an ethnographic-inspired case study of the organisation/production of a musical theatre play in São Paulo, SP, Brazil, which we have given the pseudonym MusiCom.

The study contributes by allowing us to affirm that access is intertwined with at least two aspects: the peculiarities of the organisation itself and the characteristics or context in which it exists or is constructed, and the identity of the researcher, developed during the formal access negotiations through the relationships formed between her and the subjects during the dynamics of the field.

Our contribution reinforces the numerous challenges posed to researchers when conducting ethnographies and illustrates how access relies not solely on the skills, aptitudes and learning of the researchers.

Food waste has received attention during the last decade, especially due to its environmental and social impacts. An important contributor to food waste is consumers’ low preference for purchase fruits and vegetables with unusual appearance, products with damaged package and products close to the expiration date, technically called suboptimal food products. Researches show that consumers tend to reject these products when buying food, increasing avoidable food waste. However, consumer considerations when deciding to buy or not to buy suboptimal food are still unknown. The purpose of this paper is to use two different approaches to investigate consumers’ perceptions towards suboptimal food and how they impact their acceptance.

The first part of the study involved a qualitative analysis of participants’ open-ended responses (282 answers), where participants were asked to write down the impressions they had about three suboptimal food images. The second phase explored consumers acceptance of suboptimal food through a focus group discussion.

Results reveal that considerations about suboptimal food are divergent, with some participants rejecting them because they are impelled to search for perfection when buying food products. However, some individuals are disposed to accept suboptimal products, mainly because they have concern with the environment and cook abilities.

As a whole, this study contributes for food waste reduction strategies and has implications for marketing actions.

This study aims to identify the relationship between different maintenance practices and productive efficiency in continuous process productive plants as well as the moderating effect of good training practices.

The empirical data were drawn from a database containing 609 observations of 29 productive units. Scales were validated using the Q-sort method. The panel data technique was used as the analysis methodology, with the inclusion of fixed effects for each productive plant.

Maintenance practices can effectively contribute to increasing the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of firms. Application of predictive maintenance practices should be considered as the primary training tool.

This study used a secondary database, limiting the research design and data manipulation.

The article provides practitioners with an analysis of maintenance practices by category (predictive, preventive and corrective), and the impact of each practice on the OEE of continuous process productive plants. Moreover, it explores the importance of training for extracting more results from maintenance practices.

Companies are investing in new technologies, but it is also essential to invest in training people. There is a demand for Industry 4.0 through the introduction of upskilling and reskilling programs.

This study used practice-based view (PBV) theory to explain how maintenance practices help firms achieve greater OEE. Furthermore, it introduced training practice as a moderating variable in the relationship between maintenance practices and OEE.

Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) and phase angle (PA) have importance in assessing nutritional and prognosis, and this study hypothesized that these measurements can have a relationship with nutritional risk and outcomes. This study aims to analyze the association between Nutrition Risk in the Critically ill (NUTRIC) score and bioelectrical impedance measures with hospital mortality in critically ill patients.

A prospective, cohort study was performed with a consecutive sample of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), between January and June 2017 at a hospital university in Northwest Brazil. The NUTRIC score and the bioelectric measures, such as resistance (R), reactance (Xc), PA and BIVA, were completed within the first 24 h of admission. The Student’s t or Mann–Whitney, Pearson’s or Spearman’s coefficient and Fisher’s exact tests and BIVA were used for statistical analyses.

The sample consisted of 81, with a mean age of 57 (16.7) years, with 60.5% women. It was detected that PA and Xc were lower (p < 0.001), and age was higher (p < 0.001) in a high nutritional-risk group. It was found an association between low nutritional risk and hospital discharge (p < 0.001), and that individuals who died spent more days in the ICU (p = 0.0375), had significantly lower PA and Xc values (p = 0.043 and p = 0.0172, respectively) and higher NUTRIC scores (<0.0001). There was a displacement of the mean impedance vector in men and women with high nutritional risk (p = 0.0037 and p = 0.004, respectively).

The height measurement was estimated using predictive formulas, which may affect the accuracy of the values; BIA was performed only upon admission of the patient to the ICU and the study population was heterogeneous, as it is a general ICU.

This paper shows that, in critically ill patients, nutritional screening and the assessment of bioelectrical measures help in clinical-nutritional decisions, and were able to predict outcomes.

This chapter examines women’s participation at the Portuguese punk scene, suggesting the use of fanzines as an alternative medium able to spread feminist narratives. Through the words and pictures of the Portuguese punk fanzines – X.cute, Modern Girl, Global Riot, Sisterly, Mulibu and Cuecas Quentes – we highlight the strength of the symbolic resistance of the Portuguese punk women. This approach allows us to show the existence of an imaginary structure of equality within an actual scenario of inequality and reproduction of society’s gendered structure. The theoretical discussion involves themes related to feminism, the punk movement (Guerra, 2013, 2017; Guerra & Silva, 2015; Guerra & Straw, 2017), the riot grrrl scene (McRobbie & Garber; 1987; McRobbie, 2000, 2009), and the universe of alternative media and fanzines (Guerra & Quintela, 2014, 2016; Triggs, 2006; Worley, 2015).

Population censuses collect socio-demographic and economic information regularly and in an institutionalized manner. The decision of what topics to include in their questionnaires reflects political priorities, but also it is a materialization of symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1991; Loveman, 2005). Gender practices – including budgeting, policy-making, implementation and monitoring of programs – depend significantly on census results. Understanding the institutional dynamics of public statistics sheds light on structural obstacles to exercise gender rights. To study this phenomenon, the authors look at the last century of the Brazilian and Ecuadorian censuses. The research provides a better understanding about the process of including or rejecting questions related to gender, specifically the arguments used in the process of selecting questions. Brazil and Ecuador were chosen because of the different profiles of each of their statistical institutions. The Brazilian institute, IBGE, is a larger, stable and semi-autonomous statistical office; Brazil has conducted population censuses since the nineteenth century. The Ecuadorian institute, INEC, is a smaller and more politically dependent statistical office; it has conducted population censuses since 1950.

Using archival analysis within the questionnaires and interviewing key demographers, activists and statisticians in both countries, the authors argue that the presence or absence of gender questions in the Brazilian and Ecuadorian censuses is historically and politically contingent. In contrast to the dominant narrative that suggests that changes in the vision of public statistics is correlated with the modernization of the state, it appears that the statistical visibility of gender issues in each society does not follow a linear path.

This research paper seeks to explore two narratives identified in a project focusing on CSR in Brazil: the “official view” promoted by the company, and “divergent voices” that called into question the legitimacy of the official view.

This takes the form of a qualitative design and interpretive approach. Semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews supplemented with corporate materials, web searches, informal conversations with external stakeholders, and non‐participant observation are also used.

The study revealed that the official narrative emerging from the “corporate performances” organized by the key informant was consistently positive. The divergent narrative portrayed the company in a negative light, and was unveiled through web searches and further reflection in the post‐fieldwork period.

Data collection could have been carried out more systematically if the researcher had had greater control over the situation, especially with regard to recruitment of participants, which was done by the key informant.

The study contributes to a better understanding of the concept of “CSR as organizational culture”, which has not been significantly explored in the literature. It addresses the scarcity of works on CSR in the Brazilian mining sector and stresses the importance of going beyond the official view when researching CSR cultures, to consider a diversity of perspectives.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

This study aims to propose guidelines for developing circular products based on waste recovery that are aligned with sustainable production and consumption.

A systematic literature review and case studies on circular product development were conducted. In total, 15 companies with products based on waste recovery and aligned with sustainable production and consumption goal were studied.

The results show the decisions and strategies applied at each stage of the new product development process, including the design for recycling, the use of waste as a raw material for products and the concern for reducing pollution and recovering end-of-life products.

The cases studied meet the goals of efficient use of natural resources and waste reduction by preventing, reducing, recycling and reusing waste. For practitioners, a set of guidelines is proposed to help companies develop circular products based on waste recovery.

Previous studies have not evaluated the new product development process and circularity from the institutional theory and waste valorization perspectives.

The current body of research has separately examined ethics education design and evaluation, as well as the development of ethical identity in managers. However, a notable deficiency in the literature lies in the absence of a comprehensive investigation into the interconnections between these two areas. This conceptual paper aims to address this lacuna.

Building on the theoretical foundations of identity control theory, this paper presents a conceptual model that outlines the dynamics of ethics education for managers, whether outside the organization or as a human resource development (HRD) initiative. Drawing upon a diverse range of literature sources, the model places significant emphasis on the interactive nature of identity formation, taking into account both individual agency and the educational context.

The conceptual model developed based on identity control theory illuminates the functioning of ethics education and its impact. The model illustrates the multifaceted nature of the relationship between ethics education and the development and sustenance of ethical identity in managers. It underscores the iterative process of identity control, wherein managers continuously navigate their ethical identities in response to internal and external influences.

While ethics education in management and HRD studies is widely acknowledged, there is a significant gap in understanding the psychological mechanisms that explain the maintenance of self-identity and the dynamic interplay between individuals and their social environment. This gap is particularly relevant to educational programs, which not only shape the social environment for trainees but also aim to foster the development and preservation of their individual identities.