Marcelino José Jorge, Frederico A. de Carvalho, Marina Filgueiras Jorge, Renata de Oliveira Medeiros and Daniela de Souza Ferreira
This paper aims to discuss and collect evidence about the hypothesis that, under imperfect information, the multipurpose public organization emulates its peers, arguing that this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss and collect evidence about the hypothesis that, under imperfect information, the multipurpose public organization emulates its peers, arguing that this hypothesis can be fruitful to the study of this kind of organization.
Design/methodology/approach
At IPEC – Instituto de Pesquisa Clínica Evandro Chagas, the clinical research institute affiliated to FIOCRUZ – Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, activities relating to infectious diseases –, e.g. diagnostic exams; outpatient care and patient admissions; teaching and research – are structured in the form of integrated action programs (briefly, PAIs). Taking into account the complexity of this organizational format, this paper applies a mathematical model allowing to define and compute managerial indicators referring to the eight main PAI programs with a view to measure their performance, to investigate whether there are any scale inefficiencies in the eight programs selected as decision‐making units (DMUs) and to assess the effectiveness of the whole organizational structure. To accomplish those objectives, the paper employs the so‐called DEA models with variable returns to scale – whereby two input and seven output variables were used to represent the eight DMUs.
Findings
Findings suggest that PAIs related to clinical research operated under increasing returns to scale between 2002 and 2006. To that extent, both the choice of PAIs as an organizational format and the current growth strategy at the Institute may be considered adequate.
Originality/value
This approach is valuable to complement the cost minimization analysis of specific activities of multipurpose organizations and has general application to the overall assessment of performance, structures and strategies in these organizations.
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Barbara de Lima Voss, David Bernard Carter and Bruno Meirelles Salotti
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…
Abstract
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.
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Frederico A. de Carvalho, Marcelino José Jorge, Marina Filgueiras Jorge, Mariza Russo and Nysia Oliveira de Sá
This paper intends to illustrate an application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess library performance from an efficiency standpoint.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper intends to illustrate an application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess library performance from an efficiency standpoint.
Design/methodology/approach
DEA modeling was applied to a convenience sample of 37 libraries affiliated to a federal university in Rio de Janeiro. Data were collected from the university's managerial database and refer to three inputs – number of employees, area and number of volumes – and four outputs – consultations, loans, enrolments and (user) traffic. Markovian analysis of transitions between efficient and inefficient states along time allowed a long‐term distribution between those states to be computed.
Findings
The retained DEA model provides a list of estimated scores that quantify efficiency status for each library unit and from which both rankings and operation plans can be determined for each unit to assist managers in their quest for library efficiency. In fact, (re)allocative measures, expressed as operation plans, indicate that, for each unit, some input(s) may be decreased and nonetheless some output(s) will increase. Those indicators may also be used to further or avoid either promised or planned changes.
Originality/value
As long as the efficiency principle is accepted the paper provides a three‐step procedure whereby any set of library units may be simultaneously assessed and ranked in relative terms and a set of quantitative operation plans may be used to (re)direct inefficient units toward efficiency. Whenever historical (e.g. annual) data are available, more adequate long‐term efficiency profiles will be computed, as well as some (e.g. yearly) durations relating to time spent in or before visiting (in)efficiency states. This model, combining short‐ and long‐term assessment, may be seen as a novelty contributed by the paper.
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Carlos Riojas and Angélica Basulto
This chapter's objective is to analyze, with a long-term perspective, the formation of an entrepreneurial culture in Mexico's Midwest, specifically in the state of Jalisco, in…
Abstract
This chapter's objective is to analyze, with a long-term perspective, the formation of an entrepreneurial culture in Mexico's Midwest, specifically in the state of Jalisco, in terms of the geographical environment, the culture in general, and the local economic institutions that, when viewed interconnectedly, will globally impact the practices, representations, and imaginaries of persons who at a given time have made the decision to undertake profitable economic activities – individual and collective entrepreneurs, in other words. To this end, we have divided the text into two sections. In the first, we conceptually review what we understand as entrepreneurial culture; in principle, we deconstruct its terms and then conjugate them from a social science perspective. We also emphasize the importance of studying the milieu as a scenario of action with different arenas, where a variety of agents have been involved. In the second part, without sidelining conceptual analysis, we present concrete empirical evidence of the role played by culture and local economic institutions that shape entrepreneurial culture in Midwestern Mexico over time, specifically in Jalisco. The text ends with some final considerations.
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José-Antonio Corral-Marfil and Gemma Cànoves-Valiente
The proceedings of the 17 editions of the conference of the Spanish Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism constitute a valuable archival resource within the research on…
Abstract
The proceedings of the 17 editions of the conference of the Spanish Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism constitute a valuable archival resource within the research on Spanish tourism. But so far their contents have not been analyzed. The aim of this chapter is to examine the research that has been presented at its conference by means of a bibliometric analysis of the proceedings of 17 editions. The study focuses on the origin of the research (countries, regions, institutions, and authors), as well as its characteristics in terms of themes dealt with, geographical areas researched, methodologies, disciplinary areas, and attitudes toward tourism. Implications for the evolution of the research are discussed in terms of knowledge contributions and the shaping of major tourism research traditions.