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Even though urban renewal has attracted much attention in recent years, relatively few studies focus on the sustainability of urban renewal projects, which is surprising given the associated economic benefits. To fill this gap, we review 31 typical cases of urban renewal in China that have existed for over 10 years and utilize fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify causal configurations that lead to a high level of stakeholder satisfaction. Our findings show that: (1) there are four antecedent configurations that lead to the sustainability of urban renewal of urban renewal (these are: ~ preservation of history and culture * differentiation * project reformation * ~ incremental innovation; ~ preservation of history and culture * differentiation * commercial publicity * incremental innovation; preservation of history and culture * commercial publicity * ~ project reformation * incremental innovation; and preservation of history and culture * differentiation * ~ commercial publicity * project reformation * incremental innovation); (2) compared with other conditions, differentiation and incremental innovation play more important roles in the sustainability of urban renewal; and (3) not only the improvement of the environment but also the operation and management of projects should be considered carefully. This paper contributes to urban renewal literature and offers practical suggestions for sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are currently considered an important driving force of economic growth. Several studies have been developed to analyse this issue and, in particular, to assess the credit risk of SMEs. Most of these applications, however, share the same methodological limitations, such as the manner by which criteria are selected, or the methods used for calculating the weights between them. Based on the integrated use of cognitive mapping techniques and the Interactive Multiple Criteria Decision Making (TODIM) approach, this study aims to create an idiosyncratic decision support system for the identification of multiple criteria and the calculation of their respective weights (i.e.the trade-offs) in the evaluation of SME credit risk. The results show that the model created in this study allows for simple and straightforward credit concession decisions, facilitating the evaluation of SME credit applications through more informed and transparent risk assessments. Practical implications, strengths and weaknesses of the proposed framework are analysed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Information technology is an open door for governments to service citizens in a more timely, cost-efficient and effective manner. Even considering citizen resistance, cultural adversity or changes in the economic agents’ relationship, few would contest that concern over the state of electronic government (e-government) has increased over the years. This concern has been responsible for the emergence of a wide range of new initiatives devoted to development of the information and knowledge society, which occupies a central place in government policies and planning strategies worldwide. In this paper, we aim to analyze the evolutionary patterns of e-government in Portugal and, based on an application of the Delphi technique, provide development prospects considering the perceptions of a panel of administrative agents. Despite the low use of e-government services, our study demonstrates that the administrative agent expresses overall satisfaction with its use. Additionally, the high level of modernization allows us to forecast the increased use of information and communication technologies in terms of e-government services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mortgage loans for home purchase require careful analysis by all parties involved in the transaction, and credit-scoring is usually adopted to assist the decision process. From a credit institution standpoint, credit-scoring for mortgage loan risk evaluation becomes even more important in scenarios of economic turbulence and recession, primarily because of the severe restrictions imposed on credit availability that result from reduced access to both money and debt markets and subsequent decreasing liquidity. Employing an AHP – Analytic Hierarchy Process – based approach in the creditscoring system used by one of the major banks in Portugal, this study proposes a methodological framework conceived to adjust trade-offs among evaluation criteria and provide decision makers with a more transparent mortgage risk evaluation system. Practical implications of our framework are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]