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This research aims to investigate the influence of the implementation of technical cycles on both captured value and shared value in the circular economy context. Moreover, it analyses the moderating effect of competitive criteria on the relationship between technical cycles and captured value. Finally, it examines the relationship between the captured value and the shared value.

This research follows survey-based research with data gathered from 50 countries and 16 sectors, whose final sample represented 233 organisations. In order to validate the structural and measurement model, the authors applied the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique in the strict rigour of the confirmatory algorithm.

The validated research model demonstrates the value flow through technical cycles. Moreover, it shows the crucial role of the competitive criteria in the value stream through direct, moderate and indirect effects by influencing the relationship between technical cycles and captured and shared values. Finally, the study fills the gap for quantitative studies in the circular economy field.

From a practical perspective, this study contributes to structuring circular business models more robustly, by understanding the influence of competitive criteria (cost, quality, flexibility and delivery) on the conversion of operation strategy in the implementation of the technical cycles in the circular economy context. It contributes to decision-makers, in deciding on which competitive criteria to invest more, which brings more consistent results for technical cycle implementation. It also confirms the importance of partnerships, demonstrating how value cascades from the company through the value network.

As far as is known to date, this is the first study investigating the influence of competitive criteria in the circular economy context. Furthermore, it sheds light on the direct and indirect effects of the technical cycles on value captured by organisations and flow shared value with other players.

This study aims to systematize the acquisition phase of absorptive capacity microprocesses that contribute to project management (PM) knowledge identification.

An exploratory and descriptive qualitative research was adopted. The first stage consisted of building the conceptual framework based on four systematic-literature-reviews. The data collection process in the second phase involved in-depth interviews, which are adequate to understand the interviewee’s reality. The sample composition consisted of 15 respondents who are PM professionals with an average of 15 years of experience. Each interviewee was chosen based on their expertise and ability to transmit the entire management process of several projects. The data were analyzed using the Atlas. Tecnology information software following the grounded theory technique with three coding cycles: open, axial and selective.

Based on the results, the authors organized the microprocesses into three groups: events, social interaction and the use of tools and techniques.

The primary limitation of the study was the number of respondents. Future studies will be able to identify other microprocesses and evaluate their role in the knowledge identification process.

This study presents a systematization of microprocesses in knowledge identification, as it occurs in the context of PM. Based on the results of this study, organizations will be able to choose the microprocesses that best fit their operations and activities according to the complexity, innovation and/or criticality of their projects.

The systematic literature review revealed a gap in the knowledge identification phase of knowledge management as it pertains to PM. Thus, this study presents a systematization of how knowledge identification occurs in the context of PM.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the use of flexible budgets may influence different institutional logics (organizational inertia and flexibility).

A qualitative research based on a single case study in a multinational subsidiary company was carried out. The data were mainly collected using the dialog technique through open-ended and semi-structured interviews and complemented with direct observation in informal and formal meetings and the analysis of internal documents. Content analysis was used for the analysis of the findings.

The use of flexible budgets, which isolates the negative variations due to the decrease in sales volume, may contribute to organizational inertia. However, this can be counterbalanced if the managers try to minimize the decline in performance through initiatives that promote organizational flexibility. In this case study, it was found that the alignment between the production director and the controller, who frequently work under different institutional logics, was important to stimulate organizational flexibility particularly in continuous improvement projects.

The findings of this paper are based on only one in-depth case study. Hence, the results cannot be generalized, but a theoretical contribution can be made. Furthermore, the findings are constrained by the constructs used and the specific managerial and theoretical perspectives that have supported the analysis.

These results can be useful particularly for companies that are dealing with the abrupt drop in the sales volume and use the flexible budget as a performance assessment technique. These firms must pay attention because this combination can stimulate organizational inertia. To counteract this problem, it is necessary that controllers and the managers work by understanding the initiatives that promote organizational flexibility, mainly by Kaizen projects, which can minimize performance decline.

The main contribution may be how to deal with the different managers’ behaviors, given the decrease in sales volume, and it can help an organization survives in times of economic recession and fierce competition environments.

This paper contributes to both practical and academic dimensions. Indeed, despite being widely used, flexible budgeting is not a widely researched topic.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how sentiment affects economic activity in Brazil.

Based on a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, this study examines in detail the short-term and long-term asymmetric impacts between the variables during the period from January 2007 to December 2020.

There are three main results of this study. First, sentiment is an important factor for economic activity in Brazil, and its effect possibly occurs through the channels of consumption and investment, which are the two main components of economic growth. Second, sentiment affects economic activity in different ways in the short and the long term: in Brazil, although in the short-term, immediate shocks of sentiment may be confusing, the negative shocks from previous periods have a negative impact on economic activity. Third, the effect of shocks of optimism and pessimism on economic activity is asymmetric, and in the long run, only shocks of optimism have a significant and positive impact.

The relationship between sentiment and economic activity is still a controversial issue in the literature and this study seeks to advance its understanding in Brazil.

This study aims to investigate how the dynamics of compliance, internal controls and ethics can generate tensions in the domain of project governance. Moreover, it investigates the tensions between these constructs and the search for project success from a practice-based perspective.

A methodological approach is taken, with a case-based research carried out in a large European multinational company. Data were gathered through 21 interviews, between project managers and other key stakeholders, and documentary data from 64 projects for triangulation and critical analysis.

As a result, four patterns of tensions were identified: Tension A between compliance and project success, Tension B between internal controls and project success, Tension C between compliance and internal controls and Tension D between compliance and ethics.

Some limitations should be acknowledged. The first, ontological, is inherent in the post-positivist perspective, accepting human subjectivity and the complexity of social reality intrinsic to research applied to the social sciences, respectively implying interpretive bias and incompleteness in the comprehension of the facts. The second limitation comes from the use of a single case study, in which singular contextual characteristics make it difficult to generalise the results.

This study has implications for practice, as it highlights weaknesses that may occur in organisations owing to tensions between the elements of compliance, internal controls and ethics. This, therefore, implies ways of strengthening the consistency of project governance. The project governance domain and its tensions affect the project-success holistic view in both efficiency and effectiveness, since the elements of internal control and compliance can create tensions that favour one project success perspective to detriment of the others. Understanding the nature of tensions, their implications and the long-term holistic perspective can lead to better decisions by managers.

The results suggest that a formal code of ethics, a project management methodology, internal controls and a well-established training programme are not sufficient, because, in the practical context, the interaction between these elements creates tensions that impact their logical consistency lost when interacting with each other.

The paper describes a prototype developed to de‐palletize non‐flat ceramic pieces in the final stage of production, just after they leave the high temperature oven, feeding the final human operated inspection lines. The prototype is installed at ROCA, a Spanish company operating in Portugal, and works with all their models of toilets and bidets. Special attention is given to human machine interfaces (HMI) and safety. The emphasis is on components and on integration with the environment chosen for operation rather than the specifics of operating system selection.

This study aims to put forward a conceptual framework to promote strategies for exploring and exploiting value co-creation with suppliers through dynamic capabilities development.

The conceptual framework was developed by applying deductive logic to blend the theoretical perspectives of value co-creation and dynamic capabilities concerning interaction and innovation.

The suggested framework emphasized that to co-create value with suppliers, health-care organizations need to integrate innovation abilities with interactional abilities for assimilating mutual processes and resources. The study also points out the crucial role of middle managers to articulate the diverse value perspectives and act as change catalysts.

This paper provides a roadmap for health-care managers to develop internal bundles of resources and integrate inter-organizational processes in the direction of co-creating value. The approach suggests the use of project pipelines and performance measures as managerial tools for aligning value co-creating initiatives with suppliers.

The study is a pioneering attempt to develop a conceptual framework for co-creating value with suppliers and, consequently, to provide innovative services to patients. The study aligns with previous value co-creation and dynamic capabilities works in terms of interaction and innovation development. However, based on the interrelation of these two dimensions, the study puts forth four interrelated processes (experimenting new possibilities of value creation; articulating value alignment initiatives; implementing mutual benefits; and executing and managing performance improvement) attached by mutual change mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to research the way in which Lean practices are affecting the performance of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), analyzing the effects of Lean practices on companies’ operational, financial and market performance.

An online questionnaire was distributed among Portuguese organizations that fitted the category of SMEs and belonged to the manufacturing sector. A sample of 329 enterprises was analyzed with partial least squares–structural equation modelling. Four hypotheses on the impact of Lean practices on company performance were tested.

The results show that the effects of Lean on performance are positive, which stresses the benefits attainable with the implementation of Lean practices. The aggregated implementation of Lean practices, namely, customer involvement, statistical process, continuous flow and total productive maintenance leads to improvements in company’s global performance measured by market, financial and operational performance measures, and also improves each of these performance measures individually. It was also noticed that financial capability is one of the indispensable factors for the successful implementation of Lean practices.

The results contribute to the investigation on the topic, broadening the literature on the implementation of Lean practices in companies around the world.

The research outcomes may be used as a motivation for other SMEs to implement Lean practices by acknowledging the positive impact on their performance. Furthermore, the degree of Lean implementation in the particular industry may constitute a signal for government and/or economic decision makers to define incentives such as fiscal benefits for companies that engage in Lean implementation programmes, partly financing workers cross-training, among other necessary investments.

This is the first study that examines the impact of the effect of Lean on operational, financial and market performance in a discriminated and simultaneous way.

This chapter makes a brief incursion through a trajectory of over three decades of activism by the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of São Paulo (Núcleo de Estudos da Violência in Portuguese, NEV) in Brazil, recovering the legacy of its forms of activism and academic reflection while analysing the interfaces between violence and democracy in Brazil. The 1980s in Brazil were marked by expectations of profound political and social changes in the context of democratic transition. After 21 years of dictatorship (1964–1985), the military gradually withdrew from government, returning the state’s executive branch to civilian representatives. This was a moment of optimism for progressive groups and social movements, which had fought to dismantle the tradition of arbitrariness and violations of rights perpetrated by the state during the military dictatorship. In this context, NEV was founded as a research unit linked to the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences. Its core academic objective was to analyse and scientifically denounce the conjuncture of violence and human rights violations that remained recurrent; consequently, it demonstrated the continuity of unequal power relations, social and cultural practices that fuel authoritarianism in times considered not authoritarian.