Niamh Murtagh, Paulo Lopes and Evanthia Lyons
The purpose of this paper is to present research findings on the experience of career barriers by women who have changed career, and to suggest the practical implications of these…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present research findings on the experience of career barriers by women who have changed career, and to suggest the practical implications of these findings for career management.
Design/methodology/approach
An established, qualitative methodology, interpretative phenomenological analysis, was used to explore participants' experiences. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with eight women who had changed careers and were analysed to identify the salient themes.
Findings
Participants experienced career barriers, but their subjective experience did not necessarily match objectively defined barriers. One participant, for example, experienced redundancy not as a barrier to her career path but as an opportunity. It was only when situations or events threatened the self‐concept that problems were experienced as barriers. These barriers were not insurmountable and participants used a number of strategies to overcome potential barriers.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that career management or counselling should acknowledge and explore the client's subjective experience of career barriers. Strategies such as challenging or reframing potential barriers can be effective methods for helping clients to dismantle them.
Originality/value
This research points to the gap in career theory and research on the experience of barriers in adult careers. It presents evidence on the subjective nature of barriers and on strategies used to overcome them.
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Dayr Reis, Leticia Pena and Paulo A. Lopes
Successful firms are making a concerted effort to develop closer ties to their customers. However, the customer has not always been king. By describing the dialectic character of…
Abstract
Successful firms are making a concerted effort to develop closer ties to their customers. However, the customer has not always been king. By describing the dialectic character of customer service and tracing it back in history, this paper provides some of the knowledge necessary to explain its present status and predict its future course.
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This chapter deals with different perspectives and structural transformations between capitalist society and indigenous ways of life. I approach the A’uwẽ-Xavante myth of the…
Abstract
This chapter deals with different perspectives and structural transformations between capitalist society and indigenous ways of life. I approach the A’uwẽ-Xavante myth of the theft of the jaguar’s fire, one of many versions of the story of the bird-nester, which Lévi-Strauss interprets as the acquisition of culture through cooking technique. I compare it with Proudhon’s study on property as the theft of collective force which he treats as the groundwork of the manufacturing process in capitalist society. This highlights the difference between Proudhon’s ideal mutualism, based on free access to means of production and polytechnic education, and the A’uwẽ-Xavante’s acquisition of power and its technical reproduction. Proudhon’s mutualism envisages auto-organization of collective force in cooperative work favoring its collective appropriation by the workers; while in the A’uwẽ-Xavante way of life, there is an off-centered collective force from which technical acquisition is redistributed. In common with Proudhon’s ideal labor mutualism, A’uwẽ-Xavante’s ways welcome outsiders to their means of production of people; but unlike Proudhon’s, this welcome is not for free: they have to prove their generosity and personal commitment to the game.
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Jaqueline Vilas Boas Talga and Tiago Camarinha Lopes
The paper presents the concept of Solidarity Economy proposed by the Austrian-Brazilian economist and professor Paul Singer who passed away in 2018 at age 86 years in his home in…
Abstract
The paper presents the concept of Solidarity Economy proposed by the Austrian-Brazilian economist and professor Paul Singer who passed away in 2018 at age 86 years in his home in São Paulo. Singer arrived at the concept of Solidarity Economy by mixing utopian socialist thought originated in Europe during the Industrial Revolution with the wisdom of Latin American working people to find alternative paths to the capitalist economic system. Following the teachings of Paul Singer, we, as practitioners and academics, report the first stage of the formation of a popular cooperative in the sector of recycling that occurred between 2019 and 2021 in the Town of Goiás, Goiás, Brazil. Our analysis of this collective endeavour leads to two main lessons: first, Solidarity Economy is an even broader proposal of an alternative to the capitalist economy than Paul Singer imagined, because its roots are not restricted to the European cooperativism of the nineteenth century, and second, economics must be taught in more popular way because the most urgent economic problems affect primarily the working people.
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Gessuir Pigatto, Giuliana Aparecida Santini Pigatto, Eduardo Guilherme Satolo and Amanda dos Santos Negreti
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Brazilian food companies in the State of São Paulo determine the importance of and the need to adapt their internal resources as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Brazilian food companies in the State of São Paulo determine the importance of and the need to adapt their internal resources as a competitive advantage for internationalization.
Design/methodology/approach
From a resource-based view (RBV), 35 different factors grouped into four categories were identified and presented to 24 companies. The data were analyzed through a gray relational analysis to establish all factors’ order of importance.
Findings
Factors linked to human and organizational resources present greater adaptability and allow companies competitive and sustainable advantages but have not yet been explored thoroughly. Identifying and adapting internal resources do not guarantee achieving competitive and sustainable advantages, as the access to international market is also a consequence of commercial agreements developed by countries and economic blocks.
Practical implications
The analysis highlights the fragility of competitiveness among the companies analyzed in exporting products with commodity characteristics, with none or little differentiation. Such products are traded mainly through trading companies, which allow the access of the same market to internal competitors and other countries. Thus, any lapse promoted by the company may be enough for it to lose its competitiveness and, hence, market space.
Originality/value
This paper stands out in the field of strategic management, specifically in the research on RBV, exportation and competitiveness, by making use of the theory of gray correlation system in an innovative and original way.
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Luís Farinha, João Lopes, João Renato Sebastião, João José Ferreira, José Oliveira and Paulo Silveira
This paper aims to understand how the different stakeholders assess the adequacy of smart specialization policies defined for their regions.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand how the different stakeholders assess the adequacy of smart specialization policies defined for their regions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper has followed a quantitative methodology through the application of questionnaire surveys to stakeholders of the various territorial regions in Portugal.
Findings
As a result, from the “resource-based view” approach applied to the various regions, the attained results highlight that the suitability of smart specialization policies defined for the Portuguese regions is not unanimous among its stakeholders.
Originality/value
The research can be used as a tool to assist regional policymakers in strategic reflection when defining and adjusting smart specialization strategies in their territories.
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João M. Lopes, Paulo Silveira, Luís Farinha, Márcio Oliveira and José Oliveira
Regional innovation performance is an important indicator for decision-making regarding the implementation of policies intended for regional development. However, regional…
Abstract
Purpose
Regional innovation performance is an important indicator for decision-making regarding the implementation of policies intended for regional development. However, regional development policies have led economies to very different competitive positions in matters of innovation. To address these issues, this paper aims to identify the variables that most contribute to the positioning of economies in terms of performance innovation in Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for this study were collected at the regional innovation scoreboard. This paper uses a quantitative methodology through a multivariate statistical technique (discriminant analysis).
Findings
The results suggest that specific innovation strategies explain the competitive positioning of economies within each group of countries. It was possible to demonstrate that economies with leader classification show greater comparative robustness in the variables “Small and medium enterprise (SMEs) with product or process innovations,” “SMEs with product or process innovations,” “research and development (R&D) expenditure public sector” and “population with tertiary education,” constituting an effective instrument of innovation policy. Furthermore, it was possible to show that the economies belonging to the modest group do not have a competitive advantage in any of the variables under study, thus providing a reflection opportunity for policymakers at this level.
Originality/value
The present research identifies which variables are most relevant to the classification considering the regional innovation performance in leader, strong, moderate and modest. Several suggestions were given to companies, policymakers and higher education institutions in the sense that the regions where they operate can improve their innovative performance, which may help to a change in their current classification.
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Anne Kathleen Lopes da Rocha, Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes and Bruno Fischer
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the microfoundations of student entrepreneurship, a cornerstone of innovation ecosystems. To this end, this paper assesses how perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the microfoundations of student entrepreneurship, a cornerstone of innovation ecosystems. To this end, this paper assesses how perceived university support for entrepreneurship influences entrepreneurial characteristics and intentions in students enrolled at Amazonas and São Paulo State Universities.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach based on multivariate data analysis using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 420 respondents.
Findings
Results indicate that the university environment positively influences entrepreneurial behavior and intention in students. Nonetheless, further integration between academia and external dimensions of the ecosystems is necessary to drive more intense entrepreneurial activity in students. The educational contexts of Amazonas and São Paulo present significant differences in the relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial intention with a stronger influence found for Amazonas. This finding suggests a relative lack of propensity of students from São Paulo to engage in entrepreneurial venturing.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitations involve the use of non-probabilistic sampling procedures and students’ heterogeneity in terms of academic seniority.
Practical implications
This research offers guidance for policies targeting the generation of entrepreneurial activity in universities embedded in developing countries’ innovation ecosystems and facing distinct levels of socioeconomic development.
Originality/value
This research presents a novel analysis of the microfoundations driving student entrepreneurship within different educational contexts in a developing country. Results highlight the necessary conditions for universities to foster entrepreneurial activity and, incidentally, feed innovation ecosystems with entrepreneurial talent.
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Sheila Walbe Ornstein, Rosaria Ono, P.A. Lopes, A.J.G.L. França, C.Y. Kawakita, Machado, L.V.L. Robles, S.H. Tamashiro and P.R. Fernandes
This paper aims to present the results of a post‐occupancy evaluation (POE) in a complex hospital building, and also to discuss a system for analyzing and diagnosing those results.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the results of a post‐occupancy evaluation (POE) in a complex hospital building, and also to discuss a system for analyzing and diagnosing those results.
Design/methodology/approach
The POE was aimed at establishing adequate use and maintenance of the building. The main approaches of the study consisted of two basic performance features, namely, physical accessibility and fire safety.
Findings
The importance of the pre‐design evaluation (PDE) might also be recalled as well as the usefulness of the POE for new designs and for remodeling existing buildings, because these instruments aid in the constant updating of directive plans of occupation, especially in the case of large complexes such as health care facilities. One indication of this importance is the relatively low number of problems detected during the POE, when one considers the complexity of the work of renovation and the dimensions of the IPq facilities.
Originality/value
The paper presents the results of a POE and recommendations that would make it possible to quickly identify the points where there is need for improvement, and the degree of importance or priority to be given.
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Paulo Dias, Sílvia Lopes and Ricardo Peixoto
This study aims to examine the associations among mastering new technologies, teleworkers’ voluntariness and involuntariness and employee well-being (i.e. work engagement and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the associations among mastering new technologies, teleworkers’ voluntariness and involuntariness and employee well-being (i.e. work engagement and exhaustion). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have explored the relationships among these constructs in the same conceptual model.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a sample of 451 individuals performing telework in Portugal. AMOS was used to test all hypotheses of the study.
Findings
The findings showed a positive relationship between mastering new technologies and teleworkers’ voluntariness and a negative relationship between mastering new technologies and teleworkers’ involuntariness. However, contrary to expectations, voluntariness in teleworking was not significantly related to either work engagement or exhaustion. However, consistent with the theoretical background of self-determination theory, involuntariness in teleworking was negatively related to work engagement and positively related to exhaustion.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by addressing the analysis of telework-related variables that may impact workers’ well-being. Implications for human resource management policies and knowledge management are discussed.