Search results

The purpose of this paper is to focus the application of design of experiments (DOE) using industrial equipments, reinforcing idea that non‐statistical aspects in planning and conducting experiments are so important as formal design and analysis.

Two case studies are presented to illustrate typical industrial applications and difficulties. Supported on these case studies and literature, this paper presents guidelines to planning, conducting and analysis involving technical and organizational aspects.

Solving problems in industry, including in companies recognized as competent in the respective industrial sector, is not just a question of applying the right technique. Ceramic industry case study illustrates how important are non‐statistical issues in DOE application. Paint industry case study illustrates the strong relationship of the results with incorporating presented guidelines into practice. Moreover, both case studies consolidating a fundamental advantage of DOE: experimentation provides more knowledge about products, processes and technologies, even in unsuccessful case studies.

Unsuccessful cases studies are very useful for identifying pitfalls and others limitations. This paper highlight difficulties aroused from non‐statistical aspects, although it is possible to find unsuccessful case studies due to statistical issues also. So, papers illustrating inadequate application of statistical techniques are welcome.

Successful DOE implementation depends on statistical and non‐statistical aspects. Although none of them shall be neglected, technical skills and technological knowledge about processes and products, management understanding of potential possibilities of statistical techniques and statistical fundamentals and knowledge about techniques of DOE must be ensuring to successful case studies in industrial setting.

This paper highlights non‐statistical aspects instead of the statistical ones. Tob overcome difficulties structured guidelines were designed to support DOE application in industrial setting.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multidimensional innovation index (MII) framework for measuring and benchmarking multidimensional innovation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and groups of SMEs.

A counting dual cut-off method is employed. First, output and input innovation profiles and composite scores of individual SMEs are computed. Second, a set of four composite innovation indices are generated characterizing the group of SMEs under analysis: MIIo and MIIi measure multidimensional output and input innovation, respectively; while MIIr and MIIa assess the ratio and average of MIIo and MIIi, respectively. To test the MII framework, a survey was conducted among SMEs of the metalworking industry in Portugal.

In 2012, about 28.9 percent (42.2 percent) SMEs of the Portuguese metalworking industry were determined to be multidimensional output (input) innovative. The average percentage of dimensions for which output (input) innovative SMEs were innovative was 65.0 percent (66.0 percent). Thus, the industry MII vector was (MIIo; MIIi; MIIr; MIIa)=(0.188, 0.279, 0.674; 0.233). Significant differences were found across the industry, individual SMEs’ multidimensional output and input innovation scores, enabling the identification of groups of SMEs, which can be characterized and compared by computing the corresponding and specific MII vectors.

The research has limitations because of the small size of the sample and the benchmarking possibilities it provides.

The novelty of the MII framework lies in the counting dual cut-off method employed.

This conceptual paper aims to present a new, integrated model for change readiness that focuses on affective sensemaking among intra-organizational members. Change processes are often hindered by lack of preparedness, which can be justified by organizational members' emotional resistance to change and divergent understandings of its meaning. Our paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to change.

The authors offer a conceptual process model that describes how employees prepare for organizational change. The model illustrates how emotionally laden narratives enable employees to make sense of organizational change communicated by middle managers.

The sensemaking process is initiated by the negative emotions employees often experience when organizational change is first presented. Then middle managers must transform the negative felt emotions into positive valence via the strategic use of narratives that contain an affective component. This is done to increase the likelihood that convergent sensemaking takes place. Until this stage, intra-organizational members holding different perspectives about the need to change, engage in discussions in which the conflicting views are supported by the instrumental and systematic use of emotional tools with different valence.

First, we contribute to the change readiness literature by offering a detailed process for managers to influence individual readiness for change in their organizations. Our paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to change. Future work needs to empirically test our model.

We contribute to the sensemaking literature by integrating positive and negative valence into the process for understanding organizational change. Finally, we contribute to our practical understanding of convergent sensemaking processes through the strategic use of narratives in organizations.

Our paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to organizational and social change.

Our main contributions are three-fold. First, we contribute to the change readiness literature by offering a detailed process for managers to influence individual readiness for change in their organizations. Secondly, we contribute to the sensemaking literature by integrating positive and negative valence into the process for understanding organizational change. Finally, we contribute to our understanding of convergent sensemaking processes through the strategic use of narratives.

The purpose of this paper is to address misconceptions about the design of experiments (DoE) usefulness, avoid bad practices and foster processes’ efficiency and products’ quality in a timely and cost-effective manner with this tool.

To revisit and discuss the hindrances to DoE usage as well as bad practices in using this tool supported on the selective literature from Web of Science and Scopus indexed journals.

A set of recommendations and guidelines to mitigate DoE hindrances and avoid common errors or wrong decisions at the planning, running and data analysis phases of DoE are provided.

Errors or wrong decisions in planning, running and analyzing data from statistically designed experiments are always possible so the expected results from DoE usage are not always 100 percent guaranteed.

Novice and intermediate DoE users have another perspective for developing and improving their “test and learn” capability and be successful with DoE. To appropriately plan and run statistically designed experiments not only save the user of DoE from incorrect decisions and depreciation of their technical competencies as they can optimize processes’ efficiency and products’ quality (reliability, durability, performance, robustness, etc.) in a structured, faster and cheaper way at the design and manufacturing stages.

DoE usefulness will be increasingly recognized in industry and academy and, as consequence, better products can be made available for consumers, business performance can improve, and the link between industry and academy can be strengthened.

A supplemental perspective on how to succeed with DoE and foster its usage among managers, engineers and other technical staff is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the most common individual entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) beliefs profiles associated with high entrepreneurial intentions (EI) and how these differ when belonging to an entrepreneurial venture team (EVTeam).

After a general test of the ESE theory using a structural equations modeling, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used, on a multi-dimensional ESE scale, to find empirical evidence supporting the existence of different individual ESE profiles, equally associated with high EI individuals. Dividing the sample based on the existence or not of an EVTeam (EVTeam), differences for each group are identified and possible implications are discussed.

This research corroborates ESE as an important antecedent of EI and, from a more in-depth analysis, it also suggests that the highest levels of EI are compatible with different ESE profiles, some of which may be related to having established an EVTeam, or not.

These findings may be useful for entrepreneurs and educators to reflect upon the needed competencies for an EVTeam and the research design might also be useful for policy makers to identify cultural, educational, and institutional shortcomings of the entrepreneurial context. A greater focus should be placed in developing ESE of potential entrepreneurs for the specific entrepreneurial activities for which the lack of perceived capabilities hinders entrepreneurial behavior and success.

This research may be useful for entrepreneurs and educators to reflect upon the needed competencies for an EVTeam. The research design might also be useful for policy makers to identify cultural, educational, and institutional shortcomings of the entrepreneurial context.

This research tests ESE theory in Angola – a country from the African continent from which there is limited empirical evidence – and by exploring the existence of different ESE profiles, with a method that allows for conjunctural causation, new insights and empirical support for future research are provided relative to the complex ESE-EI relationship.

At the core of understanding the practice of marketing sustainable tourism lies an appreciation not only of the evolution of the concept of sustainability, but also of the co-productive process between consumer and producer. This chapter establishes a conceptual overview on sustainable tourism and its alternative terms (ecotourism, responsible tourism, soft tourism, ethical tourism). Its origins stem from the pivotal works of the Brundtland Report. The author considers the complex structures that interact with the tourism industry, such as the social, environmental and economic impacts of tourism in vulnerable or sensitive climates. For example, in Central Thailand, cities such as Bangkok have experienced rapid urbanisation as well as burgeoning tourism. This has resulted in high levels of air pollution from traffic congestion and manufacturing, while escalation in the tourism industry places burdens on waste management systems. Further strains on waste management in both the Eastern and Southern regions, particularly along the coastlines, which suffer from high levels of coastal litter, are attributed to the rising tourism industry – a process other popular destinations have undergone, such as Costa Rica. Examination of cases such as Thailand will elicit further discussion of public awareness of the impacts of the tourism industry in vulnerable climates. Lastly, the chapter will look at cases of demotion or de-marketing of tourism in certain regions in order to limit the number of visitors, such as that of the Blue Mountains National Park in Australia. In addition to the case studies reviewed in this chapter, there is a practice exercise in developing an environmental performance index, based on existing data on country-specific environmental performance.

In an increasingly competitive global market, firms try to conquer a special place in customers’ minds and – when possible – in their hearts and spirits in order to succeed. Hence, through a competitive strategy based on differentiation, companies tend to focus their efforts in creating the right value proposition for consumers. They also establish upstream and/or downstream partnerships based on win–win relationships for the parties that constitute their value chain. The particular characteristics of ethnic products influence these strategies and the brand crossover. How can the ethnic-national identity of a product be employed successfully – regarding its liabilities and assets – in international sales? This case study¹ focuses on Nata Pura, a rather young Portuguese firm that has built its internationalization strategy based on exporting a traditional product pastel de nata using innovative solutions, which include the development of partnerships to produce and promote this as an organic pastry made with high-quality-adapted ingredients. Earlier, the traditional product was mainly sold and distributed within Portuguese Diaspora. Nata Pura company markets and distributes the re-invented product, originally a traditional Portuguese food product, and bridges cultural and administrative distances by combining the traditional with global tendencies and tastes.

This chapter seeks to describe the successive stages in the training and recruitment of economists at the service of the political regime that ruled over Portugal between 1926 and 1974. This chapter presents the main institutional settings for the education and practices of those who served the government in economic functions throughout this period. Its main aim is to show the changes that occurred in the understanding of the problems related with the development of the Portuguese economy, seeking to elucidate the processes of legitimation of an authoritarian regime, but also to show the signs of a critical break with a model of economic and social organization and a political regime that had reached the point of exhaustion.

How does social capital matter to the creation of neighbourhood networks in cities? Social housing in Portugal is some times viewed as a single architectural and building environment development failure. This article discusses a relevant Portuguese urban planning landscape and aims to contribute to the discussion of one of its main purpose – the social housing experiment. The author discusses the case of this landscape as urban policy-making and evaluates its implementation and relevance. She hypothesizes that “neighbourhood units” have become a relevant case in the context of neighbourhood planning and housing social-mix in Lisbon. Firstly, she uses theoretical arguments and findings to discuss an urban experiment - Alvalade Landscape. Secondly, the paper analyses relevant data that demonstrates its links to the housing policies thus enriching the urban design. The article offers evidence from the Alvalade Landscape case study in Lisbon of theoretical and empirical community ties in the 1940s. Thirdly, the paper identifies some elements such as community units, social mix, sidewalks, and that have an impact on neighbourhood design as well as people’s lives. The findings show that supportive neighbour ties provide important network resources (social capital) concerning daily life, illness, support or financial aid. Finally, the paper suggests the relevance that social neighbourhood community has in housing programs and policies.