Rogério Lopes, Francisco Barros, Francisco Q. de Melo, Nuno V. Ramos, Rafael Cunha, Ricardo Maia, Rui Rodrigues, M.P.L. Parente and P.M.G. Moreira
The vehicle´s body front pillar should absorb most of the striker kinetic energy, while only a fraction of that is absorbed by the door structure. This study aims to discuss the…
Abstract
Purpose
The vehicle´s body front pillar should absorb most of the striker kinetic energy, while only a fraction of that is absorbed by the door structure. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issue. In this test the striker is a virtual entity. Six uniaxial strain gauges are installed throughout the door. Additionally, contactless 3D digital image correlation (DIC) allows to assess the major door panel’s continuous deformation and strain fields.
Design/methodology/approach
A coach is a large and heavy long-distance passenger transport vehicle. Their structural certification, classifies coaches as M3 Class III vehicles. New coach structures’ designs need analyses of each sub-system for critical pre-validation of the entire structure, aiming driver and passenger carrier safety. Also, a thorough examination due to increased travel speed is needed.
Findings
Experimental pseudo-dynamic (PSD) results were compared and validated using finite element method (FEM) with two pieces of distinct FEM software (Abaqus® and PamCrash®). The time dependent solution was carried out by explicit techniques. Results by FEM and PSD test showed good agreement, evidencing the reliability of the tools selected. Results by PamCrash® were closer to the experimental data.
Practical implications
R-29 is truck-only regulation, however can be adapted to coaches in case of a frontal collision. The present work focuses on the impact behavior of the passenger front door subsystem.
Originality/value
As a first validation the entire structure, the behavior of a vehicle door, under in-plane impacts was studied. The corresponding deformation energy absorbed by the frontal passenger coach door under virtual impacts of a swinging striker was assessed using a PSD approach.
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Jonas Oliveira, Rogério Serrasqueiro and Sara Nunes Mota
This paper aims to assess the risk reporting practices extent to which firm’s and corporate governance characteristics explain risk-related disclosures (RRD) motivations across…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the risk reporting practices extent to which firm’s and corporate governance characteristics explain risk-related disclosures (RRD) motivations across two European Latin countries (Portugal and Spain). Moreover, drawn on elements of agency, legitimacy, resources-based perspectives and institutional theory, this study also intends to assess whether the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on risk reporting is mediated by strategic/institutional legitimacy interests.
Design/methodology/approach
From a sample of 60 non-finance Portuguese and Spanish companies with securities traded on the Euronext Lisbon stock exchange market and on the Madrid stock exchange market, respectively, at December, 2011, the Corporate Governance reports and the “risk/risk management” sections of the Management reports included on consolidated annual reports for 2011 were manually content analysed, according to prior literature. Further, multiple linear regressions were used to assess the potential relationships between corporate governance mechanisms and risk reporting. The paper’s theoretical framework draws on elements of agency, legitimacy, resources-based perspectives and institutional theory. To understand the risk reporting practices of Portuguese and Spanish non-finance listed companies, the paper conducts a content analysis of 60 consolidated annual reports for 2011.
Findings
Results indicate that visible companies, operating in a country with a weaker legal environment, and during periods of financial distress disclose more discretionary RRD, basically to contextualize their negative outcomes. Some corporate governance mechanisms were crucial to improve risk information.
Originality/value
The paper goes beyond prior literature work and assesses whether the theoretical framework grounded on agency, legitimacy, resources-based perspective and institutional theory is suitable in explaining RRD in an under-researched setting (European Latin countries, such as Portugal and Spain, with low agency costs and different corporate governance models). Moreover, the analysis embraces a wider and homogeneous range of internal and external corporate governance mechanisms and uses a period in which both countries were severely affected by a sovereign debt crisis with negative impacts on company’s liquidity and financial risks. A research setting like this has not been studied hitherto.
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Rogério Puga‐Leal and Zulema Lopes Pereira
The purpose of this research is to develop an index for assessing service capability when the customer considers satisfactory a certain range of service performance, the so‐called…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to develop an index for assessing service capability when the customer considers satisfactory a certain range of service performance, the so‐called zone of tolerance.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature on service research and statistical process control (SPC) was used to develop a conceptual approach that is later worked out for implementation. Some of the quality function deployment principles are used in the approach to articulate customer perceptions and expectations with parameters of service performance.
Findings
It is demonstrated that traditional capability indices do not cope properly with service performance characterized by a zone of tolerance and that the new capability index, proposed by the authors, is more than adequate to deal with the specific features of services.
Research limitations/implications
It was assumed that performance levels within the zone of tolerance are not perceived as different by customers and that service performance could be considered as normally distributed. Further research is clearly needed, not only to test the assumptions in different service environments, but also to assess the robustness of the proposed index when the assumptions are violated.
Practical implications
Improvement efforts of the organizations can be better allocated if the relation between customer expectations and service performance is understood and characterized.
Originality/value
A new approach to understand the relationship between customer expectations and perceptions and service performance is launched. The approach led to the development of a service capability index and might constitute a contribution to all researchers and practitioners that intend to spread SPC principles within the service sector.
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Rogério dos Santos Morais and Carlos Roberto Camello Lima
A competitive business strategy with a greater chance of success depends on an accurate quantitative analysis of business strategic factors prevailing in a company. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
A competitive business strategy with a greater chance of success depends on an accurate quantitative analysis of business strategic factors prevailing in a company. The purpose of this paper is to conduct the latter to determine the level of competitiveness in a sector.
Design/methodology/approach
This study develops a tool based on literature classics and tested in the telecommunications industry to determine market segment competitiveness, market attractiveness and the relative ability of companies to generate profits.
Findings
The proposed tool allows managers to quantify each strategic factor and, thus, identify positive factors leading to a competitive advantage and weaknesses leading to vulnerability, which enables an improvement in daily strategic decision making.
Practical implications
Implementing the tool can enable managers to both quantify each strategic factor and improve strategic decision making.
Originality/value
This methodology employed here is novel. As such, this study provides new insights into how to compete in the telecommunications industry and discusses useful implications for academia, new entrepreneurs, buyers and suppliers.
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Rogério Puga Leal and Zulema Lopes Pereira
Empirical research on quality improvement in service organisations has been growing in recent years but it still lags behind the developments observed in manufacturing. It has…
Abstract
Empirical research on quality improvement in service organisations has been growing in recent years but it still lags behind the developments observed in manufacturing. It has been generally recognised that more research is needed in the field, especially with regard to the application of quantitative methods that can help managers in the decision‐making process. Results of research carried out in a bank are presented, focusing the main aspects of the service recovery process after a complaint has occurred. A specific methodology is proposed to analyse the failures and corresponding complaints in service delivery, with the ultimate goal of articulating internal and external measures of performance. The methodology provides a better knowledge of the impact caused by operational factors (internal measures) on customer perceptions (external measures), so that management actions can then be taken accordingly.
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Robledo de Almeida Torres Filho, Vanelle Maria da Silva, Lorena Mendes Rodrigues, Paulo Rogério Fontes, Alcinéia de Lemos Souza Ramos and Eduardo Mendes Ramos
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the classification ability of pork quality by cluster analysis in relation to reference criteria proposed in the literature. Verify if…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the classification ability of pork quality by cluster analysis in relation to reference criteria proposed in the literature. Verify if clusters were theoretically significant with major pork quality categories. Verify if classificatory parameter values of quality attributes determined “a posteriori” may be used for following categorization.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 60 pork loins were classified into pale, soft and exudative, reddish-pink, soft and exudative, RFN and dark, firm and dry by reference criteria and hierarchical cluster analyses were performed to identify groups of samples with different attributes, based on only pH45min and on pHu, L* and drip loss.
Findings
Cluster analysis divided total samples into different (p<0.05) smaller groups. Two groups were formed based on only pH45min and five groups were formed based on pHu, L* and drip loss. By these five groups, L* of 44 and 52 distinguished between dark, reddish-pink and pale meat colors and drip loss of 2 and 6 percent distinguished between dry, non-exudative and exudative meats. Cluster analyses identify pork groups with different attributes and the proposed parameters can be used to distinguish between groups theoretically similar to major pork quality categories.
Originality/value
To decide the best destination to pork carcass and to reduce economic losses, the correctly classify of the pork quality is decisive. This study proves that cluster analysis is able to classify pork into groups with significantly different quality attributes, which are significant with major pork quality categories, without unclassified samples.
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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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Alexandre F. S. Andrada and Mauro Boianovsky
This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the…
Abstract
This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the most important economic debate that took place under the military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985. The perceived sharp increase in income inequality posed a challenge to the economic legitimation of the military regime, which had by the early 1970s achieved high rates of economic growth. This chapter discusses the apparent paradox of relatively open economic debate during a period of political repression, as well as its international dimension as reflected in the role played by institutions such as the World Bank.
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Leandro da Silva Nascimento, Rafaela Cabral Almeida Trizotto, Nathália Amarante Pufal, Guilherme Freitas Camboim and Paulo Antonio Zawislak
This paper investigates which innovation capabilities are more important for driving technological and non-technological innovations and which of the two innovation types has the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates which innovation capabilities are more important for driving technological and non-technological innovations and which of the two innovation types has the greatest impact on the financial performance of manufacturing companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a theoretical model of four innovation capabilities – two technological: Technology Development Capability and Operations Capability, and two non-technological: Management Capability and Transaction Capability – a database of 1,331 Brazilian manufacturing companies was analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The results indicate that technological capabilities (Technology Development and Operations) have a greater impact on technological innovation. However, both technological capabilities also affect non-technological innovation, with the Technology Development Capability being the most influential in this relationship. Results also indicate that non-technological capabilities (Management and Transaction) have a greater impact on non-technological innovation. Nevertheless, both non-technological capabilities also impact technological innovation, especially the Transaction Capability, which is the most influential in this relationship. Furthermore, it was identified that non-technological innovation has a more significant impact on financial performance than technological innovation, presenting a novel finding to the field of innovation in manufacturing.
Originality/value
This manuscript refutes prior discussions and opens new possibilities for the interconnection of dynamic and ordinary innovation capabilities in two different arrangements, each aimed at improving a specific type of innovation. A theoretical framework is proposed to highlight that, depending on the innovation type focused on, ordinary innovation capabilities can be more relevant than dynamic ones for innovation in the manufacturing sector. From these theoretical advancements, practitioners can understand that investments in non-technological resources, skills and routines can also boost technological innovation, as well as sales, profit and market share growth.