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The continuous improvement in the performance and satisfaction of all stakeholders is a permanent management objective and part of an organisation’s strategy. To achieve this goal, organisations invest in technological upgrades, process improvements and management models that assure efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to verify the possibility of measuring the management maturity level of an organisation that is dedicated to passenger public transportation; this organisation is used as a reference framework for the self-evaluation maturity-level measurement tool provided by the ISO 9004:2009 standard.

The objective of this paper was accomplished through a case study in which the selected measurement instrument was applied to the management system of the maintenance area of one of the largest subway companies in Brazil.

The results of the study showed that the referential method was capable of precisely and adequately measuring the maturity level of the appraised management system. The method also enabled the researchers to identify best practices for the study organisation, which can be employed by the administration to develop action plans to improve their management system.

As a limitation, the results obtained by this paper cannot be generalised, because they were based on only one company. As a result, the conclusions established cannot be extended to other types of companies since their competitive priorities and management practices may be different and generate characteristics of maturity that were not considered in this work. However, these limitations can be minimised if additional researches ponder other types of organisations.

On the practical side, this paper motivates companies to improve their operations management by using the self-evaluation tool to identify gaps in their management systems and consequently plan actions to achieve the related improvements.

The ISO 9004:2009 standard provides a self-evaluation instrument that can support companies on measuring their respective management system maturity level. However, this paper was able to demonstrate that the aforesaid tool can be used in a broader way as it allows management to define action plans to boost their management systems towards a full utilisation of best management practices.

Despite the relevance of firm size in the analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement, there is still much to know about the specific impact of firm size on CSR formalisation. Moreover, in order to better understand such a relation, the interaction effects of development strategies on which companies may base its growth, namely diversification and internationalisation, will be also taken into account. Specifically, this work contributes to shed light on these issues by combining theories related to external and internal drivers of CSR. Using a sample of Spanish listed firms, the results show that firm size affects positively CSR formalisation, and that this effect is stronger in the case of adopting a diversification strategy, while no evidence was found for the moderating effect of internationalisation strategy.

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.

Based on a decolonial perspective from Latin America, this paper aims to offer a different history of the creation of Brazil’s Consumer Defense Code (CDC), analyzing the process through which Eurocentric influences, especially coming from Consumers International (CI), became present in the development of the code.

A qualitative historical research was developed using marketing amnesia and decolonialism as its theoretical backdrop. Primary and secondary data are used as source of information. Primary data were obtained through interviews with two authors of the CDC. Secondary data were collected from academic articles and books, reports, magazines and consumer organization websites, as well as journalistic articles.

During the drafting of the CDC and after its promulgation, the presence of Eurocentric forces was constant, given the interests of CI and other agents in influencing Brazil’s consumer practices, subordinating them to those of the Global North. This Eurocentric presence was accepted by the Brazilian jurists that drafted the CDC, which led to the incorporation of both laws and bills from Eurocentric countries and the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection into the code.

Such discussions are scarce in marketing, due to the area’s amnestic state regarding the past. While selectively forgetting certain pasts, marketing fails to both acknowledge its tendency to subordinate consumerist actions to those accepted by the Eurocentric world, and to establish analyses that deal with mimetic processes, to minimize asymmetries between companies and consumers, especially in emerging economies, and, even more, dichotomies between the Global North and the Global South.

Few studies have analysed the determinants of exports in emerging economies, which are critical in the exporting reality of firms. Two variables decisively affect the export performance of firms – their size and their export experience. This paper analyses the relationship between size and export experience in the export intensity of Brazilian firms. In addition, it considers two variables (location and sector) that identify firms in Brazil and could affect their export intensity. This research answers the question of which characteristics of Brazilian companies determine their export intensity.

A statistically significant sample of 318 firms is collected from Brazilian exporting companies. Regression analysis is performed, and data describing the relationship between the export determinants and the export intensity of Brazilian firms are presented. Three evaluation models are proposed. In the first, the location and sector variables are considered. In the second, the firm size, firm location and sector are presented. In the third, the firm size, export experience, location and sector are proposed.

The results of the third model confirm that only export experience is statistically significant. Therefore, there is no relationship between firms' size, location and sector and export intensity for companies in Brazil.

This work shows the organisational characteristics that affect export performance in Brazil from the firm’s perspective; these are aspects that have been analysed less in emerging economies.

Smart campuses can be seen as the future of higher education efforts, especially for their contributions to sustainability and to encourage innovation. This paper aims to present the benefits of smart practices in a Higher Education Institutions and highlights its connections to the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The methodology is divided into three steps: first, an international search and assessment of smart practices at universities; second, the identification of smart practices in a university campus in southern Brazil; and third, the presentation of the benefits of smart practices and their relationship with the SDGs.

The results showed that globally, the area most covered by smart practices in universities is the environment and, specifically, focused on waste reduction. in the context of this case study, the benefits of implementing smart practices mainly reach SDGs 4 and SDG 9, especially due to aspects of teaching technologies for the new classroom models and the optimization of campus infrastructure management.

The study encourages other universities to implement smart practices in their campuses, to becoming smart campuses while they also collaborate in achieving the SDGs while raising the discussion on the importance of committed actions taken on a university campus with the UN SDGs, to leverage synergies on campus operations at universities.

This paper presents a set of smart practices that universities are applying both globally and locally (in southern Brazil). In addition, it contributes to sustainability research by showing how smart practices have the potential to promote SDGs in universities, especially through campus operations.

This research investigates the barriers impeding innovation within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Brazil, exploring 54 innovation-related barriers categorized into six distinct groups to offer substantial insights and analyses pertinent to the decision-makers, researchers and SMEs.

This research employed a mixed quantitative and exploratory approach, utilizing fuzzy Delphi, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) methods. The fuzzy Delphi method confirmed the categories and barriers through quantitative analysis, the fuzzy AHP ranked the validated obstacles and the fuzzy DEMATEL method identified causal connections among the top-priority barriers.

Out of 54 barriers, 23 significantly impacted SMEs. The “Financing and Financial” category was the most significant barrier, with “Access to Financing” being the most critical impediment. The barrier with the most influence was “Instability of Fiscal Policies,” and the highest causal priority was “Survival of the Priority Business,” identifying the government’s unstable fiscal policy as the principal barrier confronting SMEs in Brazil.

The primary challenges for Brazilian SMEs center on financing, fiscal policies and maintaining ongoing operations. By addressing these barriers and fostering a resilient business environment, SMEs’ innovation capabilities and competitiveness can be enhanced, serving as key drivers for sustainable economic growth in fluctuating economic conditions. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting and validating the main barriers to SME innovation, providing highly relevant information about the innovation process.

The objective of this paper is to assess and synthesize the published literature related to the application of data analytics, big data, data mining and machine learning to healthcare engineering systems.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to obtain the most relevant papers related to the research study from three different platforms: EBSCOhost, ProQuest and Scopus. The literature was assessed and synthesized, conducting analysis associated with the publications, authors and content.

From the SLR, 576 publications were identified and analyzed. The research area seems to show the characteristics of a growing field with new research areas evolving and applications being explored. In addition, the main authors and collaboration groups publishing in this research area were identified throughout a social network analysis. This could lead new and current authors to identify researchers with common interests on the field.

The use of the SLR methodology does not guarantee that all relevant publications related to the research are covered and analyzed. However, the authors' previous knowledge and the nature of the publications were used to select different platforms.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper represents the most comprehensive literature-based study on the fields of data analytics, big data, data mining and machine learning applied to healthcare engineering systems.