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This paper investigates the performance of Islamic fundamental weighted (FW) portfolios compared to that of non-Islamic counterparts, to examine whether Shari'ah-compliant stocks can protect investors during crises in the Middle East and North Africa region. Portfolios' performance is assessed using several risk-adjusted performance measures including more robust measures in the context of recently developed multi-factor models. The study's findings suggest that the performance of Islamic and non-Islamic FW portfolios depends on the performance measures used and on the periods under analysis. Both Islamic and non-Islamic FW portfolios underperform against the cap-weighted benchmark. Furthermore, the Islamic portfolios underperform compared to their non-Islamic counterparts during the period of the global financial crisis, while they perform similarly to their non-Islamic counterparts during the Arab Spring period. Based on these results, we conclude that Islamic FW portfolios do not seem to protect investors from losses during crises., This work was carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference no POCI-01-0145-FEDER006683, with the FCT/MEC's (Fundacaopara a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding and by the ERDF through the Operational Programme on "Competitiveness and Internationalization COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement".

This paper investigates whether investment strategies using rankings based on different portfolio performance measures lead to different future abnormal returns. A set of 13 commonly used risk-adjusted performance measures is applied to a dataset of US equity mutual funds over the period July 1970 to September 2019. The results show some evidence of short-term performance persistence, suggesting that portfolios formed on different performance measures ex-ante can generate abnormal returns ex-post. A strategy of investing in the top performing funds and shorting the poor performing funds provides positive excess returns and five-factor alphas. However, when adjusting for the momentum factor, there is less evidence of abnormal performance. The results also show that overall there is little difference arising from the use of different performance measures, but with one notable exception: the Rachev ratio., This work was carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference nº POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683, with the FCT/MEC’s (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding and by the ERDF through the Operational Programme on "Competitiveness and Internationalization –COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.

"ahead-of-print", Purpose – The Paris agreement for climate changes brought new attention to the themes of reduce carbon emissions, green ecosystems, the circular economy and the need to ensure the emergence of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. This study aims to investigate entrepreneurship from the perspective of circular economy and waste collection in the Portuguese context. Design/methodology/approach – Following a quantitative approach, the sample comprises 2,690 firm-year observations related to 354 firms from different industries within the waste from electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) scope. Findings – The results show that a large part of SMEs started to comply with waste management regulations as of 2006 and are still not prone to innovation. Regulatory compliance is expected to have a positive impact on innovation, with a significant and positive change in the number of patents and the value of intangibles after companies comply with the waste management regulation. Originality/value – This paper is original because it addresses equally to entrepreneurial ecosystems and circular economy (studies that address these two aspects are rare), with the Portuguese context in an embryonic stage with an extensive path to follow in the applicability of circular economy to business., This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project “UIDB/03182/2020”.

In this paper we report and discuss estimates of life-cycle consumption profiles obtained using microdata for Portuguese households. The estimated profiles are much flatter than the profiles usually reported in the literature for other countries, namely the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. In addition, we also report estimates of cohort and business cycle effects on consumption. The estimated cohort effects are consistent with the post-war progress in median standards of living. However, there is a deceleration in the trend of consumption growth for more recent cohorts. The business cycle estimates suggest that the recent debt crisis has had a strong negative impact on household consumption., his research is financed by National Funds of the FCT – PortugueseFoundation for Science and Technology within the project UID/ECO/03182/2019.This paper benefited greatly from the comments of the Editor, the Co-Editor and two anonymous referees.

This paper investigates the effect of financing constraints following the 2008-9 financial crisis on executives’ gender inequality. We use linked employer-employee data for the universe of private sector firms in Portugal, and exploit pre-crisis variation in external finance dependence across industries for identification. We find that the crisis had a positive effect on female executives’ pay in exposed firms. Firms in financially more constrained industries reduce the gender pay-gap and increase the share of females in executive positions after the crisis. At the worker-level, females in exposed industries are more likely to be promoted to executive and less likely to be demoted. We discuss channels and interpretations for the effects. Our results are consistent with female managerial characteristics, such as attitudes toward risk, being more valued after the crisis in exposed firms. A reduction in preference-based discrimination cannot be discounted., We thank participants at the ESPE 2019 conference, the Worker Flows, Match Quality and Productivity workshop, RWI, Germany, and the NIPE Seminar Series for suggestions. Access to the data from the Office for National Statistics (INE) is gratefully acknowledged. The research was partially funded by COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683) , and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, project UID/ECO/03182/2019.

Dance is proven to offer a myriad of physical, psychological, and social benefits. However, because dance has been frequently perceived as a feminine practice, there is a prevailing prejudice towards boys who dance, making it hard for them to engage in this physical activity. Social marketing has been presented as a promising framework to deal with different social problems, including prejudice, although its effectiveness is still difficult to establish. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), a quasi-experimental study involving a sample of 436 children and adolescents, composed of 51.38% boys and 48.62% girls was implemented to measure the effectiveness of a Social Marketing Intervention (SMI) in reducing prejudice towards dance and boys who dance, in particular, and in increasing their intentions to practice this physical activity. The study furthermore aimed to compare the influence of the SMI on participants of two different stages of child development to ascertain when it is most effective to intervene. The questionnaire was used to collect information and included items derived from relevant literature. To assess differences between children and adolescents before and after the SMI, the analysis relied on independent t-tests and paired t-tests. Results suggest positive effects of the SMI on some dimensions of the TPB., The authors would like to thank the board of the schools that collaborated in the implementation of the research, as well as all the teachers, children and adolescents and their parents/legal guardians that participated in the study or helped in its implementation.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (in early 2020) has dictated significant changes in society and territories by anticipating trends, changing priorities, and creating challenges, which are manifested in the territories. These are influenced by the levels of economic, cultural, and social restructuring, in the measures implemented by public administration or in attempts to redefine strategies for tourism destinations. This paper examines the perceptions and behaviors of tourists before and during COVID-19 in the municipality of Porto, the main area of the Porto Metropolitan Area, in Portugal. Research was based on the application of a questionnaire survey, probing the sensitivity of tourists to the crisis in the decision-making of daily routines, as well as future travel plans in the presence of a serious health concern. A total of 417 surveys were collected in the summers of 2019 and 2020. In addition to descriptive statistics, this paper also includes the results of the analysis of explanatory factors, being a reference for future studies. There were significant changes in the use of public space and the way tourist visits are handled, namely: (i) the concentration of visiting time (shorter visit than usual in certain tourist profiles), (ii) spatially limited visiting areas, and (iii) the ability to attract standard tourists from certain countries where tighter lockdown rules were imposed. Main implications of this study are reflected in the challenges that are imposed on the local agenda, where traditional problems are added to the responsibilities in crisis management and the ability to establish a third order of intervention in tourism.

The present research aims to compare the entrepreneurial intention of university students before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, some dimensions were analyzed, such as the availability of this target audience to undertake an activity at their own risk, the preference for a future while employed by others, their perception of the values that society places on entrepreneurship, and the entrepreneurial abilities/skillsets. A comparative study of a quantitative nature was used, associating two samples composed of students of higher education in Portugal, the data were obtained before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of the results permits us to conclude: (1) in the circumstances of macroeconomic changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, entrepreneurial activity does not decrease, (2) respondents are less interested in being employed by others and more attracted to being entrepreneurs, (3) there is a growing concordance with the values that society places on entrepreneurship, and (4) there is now a greater aptitude for entrepreneurial activity. The present research is original, as it compares data obtained in different contexts of economic and social stability. It contributes to theory and practice, in the sense that it points to conclusions in the opposite direction of other studies carried out in situations of disasters of another nature, and can serve as a reference for the development of strategies to promote entrepreneurship, within higher education institutions and official entities to publicize and promote new public policies.

We develop a dynamic model of hospital competition where (i) waiting times increase if demand exceeds supply; (ii) patients choose a hospital based in part on waiting times; and (iii) hospitals incur waiting time penalties. We show that, whereas policies based on penalties will lead to lower waiting times, policies that promote patient choice will instead lead to higher waiting times. These results are robust to different game-theoretic solution concepts, designs of the hospital penalty structure, and patient utility specifications. Furthermore, waiting time penalties are likely to be more effective in reducing waiting times if they are designed with a linear penalty structure, but the counterproductive effect of patient choice policies is smaller when penalties are convex. These conclusions are partly derived by calibration of our model based on waiting times and elasticities observed in the English NHS for a common treatment (cataract surgery). (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., We thank two anonymous referees for valuable suggestions. SS and Straume acknowledge funding from COMPETE (ref. no. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683), with the FCT/MEC's (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding and by the ERDF through the Operational Programme on Competitiveness and Internationalization - COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. SS thanks FCT/MEC for the PhD Studentship SERH/BD/129073/2017, financed through national funding and by the ESF.

The duration of most collar arrangements provided by governments to encourage early investment in infrastructure, renewable energy facilities, or other projects with social objectives are finite, not perpetual. We extend the previous literature on collar-style arrangements by providing an analytical solution for the idle and active values, as well as the investment triggers, for projects where collars are either finite-lived or retractable. What is the difference between these types of arrangements with their perpetual counterpart? Lots, including different vega signs, and substantially different values for different current price levels. Often, finite and retractable collars justify earlier investment timing than perpetual collars. In general, we demonstrate that the finite-lived and retractable versions have a significant impact on optimal behavior, relative to the perpetual case. An important consideration when negotiating the floors, ceilings, and duration (or signalling the expected duration) of a finite or a retractable collar is the current price level of the output and its expected volatility over the life of the contract. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., We thank the anonymous referees, Luiz Brandao, Glaucia Fernandes, other participants at the ROC 2018 and Stein-Erik Fleten (the discussant) for helpful comments on previous versions. This work was carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference n. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683 (Artur Rodrigues) and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006890 (Paulo J. Pereira), FCT/MEC's (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding and by ERDF through the Operational Programme on Competitiveness and Internationalization - COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.

This paper presents novel empirical evidence for the prediction from Becker’s (1957) classical theory, that competition drives discrimination out of the market. We use a comprehensive business registration reform in Portugal as a quasi-natural experiment to study the effect of increased product market competition on gender discrimination. We use employer-employee data for the universe of private sector firms and workers, and exploit the staggered implementation of the reform across municipalities for identification. Increased competition following the reform increases growth of the female employment share and reduces the gender pay gap for middle-managers and for medium- and high-skilled workers but not for top-managers or the unskilled. We also find that discriminatory employers, approximated by a low female employment share, are more likely to exit and those that survive reduce overall employment growth following the reform, while non-discriminatory employers grow faster. Existing evidence has shown that gender discrimination reduces output; our findings suggest that entry deregulation can contribute to reduce inefficiencies arising from gender discrimination., The brief study that we will present below is part of a wider research on the toy book — an investigation 0 Lugar do livro-brinquedo »a infancia: arquitetura, (inter)texturas e outros desafios (provisional title) which we have been carrying out in the scope of the PhD course in Children's Studies in the specialty of Literature for Children, at the Institute of Education, at the University of Minho. Aiming at reflecting upon the main verbal-iconic singularities of the puppet books for small readers, we will take as theoric frameworks concepts and subjects of the domains of Literary Studies, History, Analysis and Textual Hermeneutics. We will proceed to the reading and investigation of these works, using textual analysis techniques, in order to conclude about the most relevant strategies (verbal and illustrative) and/or rhetorical-stylistic mechanisms of puppet books. Although this study has an embryonic character, we consider that it is based on novelty and pertinence, given the lack of academic research focused exclusively on the approach to the problems announced, in particular the History and the singularities of the aesthetic object in question. For the realization of our theoretical-analytical reflection, we set as an exemplary textual corpus of this study a set of contemporary works — all published in the XXI century — listed here by chronological order, by foreign authorship, namely, See you later, Alligator! by Annie Kubler (Child's Play, 2004), A Very hungry Caterpillar's Finger Puppet Book, by Eric Carle (Puffin Books, 2010), Hello Spot! A Puppet Play Book, by Eric Hill (Frederick Warne, 2012), Little Mouse Finger Puppet Book, illustrated by Klaartje van der Put (Chronicle Books, 2015), One More Tickle! by Sam McBratney (Walker Books, 2016), as well as of others available in the national book market, Patinho Bisnaga and Sapinho Bisnaga, both illustrated by Laila Hills (Babel, 2012). We have added to this a collection, with Portuguese translation, edited by Porto Editora, in 2006, which includes the following titles: A Gata Gabriela, A Rã Raquel, 0 Pássaro Pascoal, and O rato Rafael. The authors are grateful to two anonymous referees for valuable comments that contributed to improve the paper. They also thank seminar participants at Bristol, participants at the ESPE 2018 conference and at the GEE/Nova Lisbon Competition conference for suggestions. Data access from the Portuguese Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity and the Office for National Statistics (INE) are gratefully acknowledged. The research was partially funded by COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683), the FCT/MEC, and ERDF through COMPETE 2020., info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s1112 7-019-00647 -x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users, In the literature, it has been suggested that political budget cycles are context-conditional, i.e., do not occur in all countries or under all circumstances. What about the underlying economic conditions? It has already has been shown that recessionary expectations reinforce the political budget cycle. This paper argues theoretically that opportunistic policymakers expecting a recession during an election year allow the primary deficit to increase even more when the stock of debt is very high, but reduce the deficit by more during an expected boom (in an election year). For the empirical estimation we use panel data from Portuguese municipalities. Plots of average marginal effects for election years show that differences between high- and low-debt municipalities become more pronounced in stronger expected recessions as well as booms; the stronger effect on the deficit in highdebt municipalities is caused by changes on both the revenue and the expenditure side. A whole armada of robustness tests (non-linear effects, alternative specifications of excessive debt and forecasts, various methods to account for time effects and clustering, several sample restrictions) confirms our results., Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)

Investment in wind power has grown remarkably in the past decades in Portugal. Although economic development is an argument for investment incentive policies, little evidence exists as to their net impact on local-level unemployment. Using data for all 278 Portuguese mainland municipalities for the years 1997-2017, we assess the existence, distribution and duration of local-level labor impacts of wind power investment. Our results show there are short-term effects during the construction phase. We estimate a decrease of 0.17 and 0.23 percentage points in the total unemployment rate per 100 MW of installed power in each of the two years of the construction phase. These effects are felt mainly for unskilled labor and male workers. Further analysis of spatial interaction finds positive spatial spillovers for municipalities that are 30 km or less away but not farther, implying workers are willing to commute but not migrate. We find a very small sustained impact during the operations and maintenance phase, despite both short- and long-term impacts on municipalities' revenues. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., The authors thank Francois Cohen, Alexandra Gomes, Ralf Martin and participants of the GranthamResearchWorkshop at London School of Economics, the TSE Environmental winter seminars at the Toulouse School of Economics, the 4th IZA Workshop on Labor Market Effects of Environmental Policies, the EAERE 2017, and the FSR Climate Annual Conference 2017 for valuable comments. Helia Costa acknowledges funding fromthe ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, from the European Community's 7th Framework Program under Grant Agreement No. 308497 (RAMSES), from the ANR under grant ANR-17EURE-0010 (Investissements d'Avenir program), and from the IDEX Chair. Linda Veiga'swork is financed by National Funds of the FCT -Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technologywithin the project UID/ECO/03182/2019

Patterns of inequality tend to seriously undermine any attempt at economic growth policy when the inequality is perceived by significant groups of individuals as unjust, inhuman, and insurmountable. One country with a high degree of inequality has been Brazil (usually in the world top-10). Brazil had also witnessed strong dynamics of certain indicators, such as the Gini coefficient, over the last several decades. However, so far, such dynamics have not been properly analyzed, especially considering the significant differences across Brazilian states. For filling that gap, this study used econometric techniques specific to time series and tried to identify structural breaks in the series of Gini coefficients for the 27 Brazilian states since 1976. Results showed a tendency towards an increase in inequality until 1995, followed by a reduction in inequality since 2000. Some cases of Brazilian states were related to the absence of structural breaks, showing a maintenance of historical trends in the evolution of inequality, which raises important policies’ challenges., This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT–Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project “UIDB/03182/2020”.

This article offers a more nuanced analysis of employee promotion decisions; specifically, how they are affected by firm size, gender and stages within the business cycle. Drawing upon data from Portugal, we find that during times of adverse macroeconomic conditions, promotion prospects in all firms decline. Within large firms, women are more likely to be promoted during economic downturns, reflecting the ‘glass cliff’ hypothesis. In small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), overall promotion rates are less affected by adverse economic conditions, however, women are less likely to attain promotions. Our results emphasise the importance of market volatility and firm heterogeneity upon promotion and importantly, reveal differing forms of gender discrimination. In large firms, women are in effect, afforded greater responsibility for the effects of market volatility whilst SMEs invest more confidence in male employees to manage during crises.

This research aims to detect the factors that best explain the performance of regional innovation in the European Union (EU), in the year 2019, and compare the obtained results with the factors used to elucidate the performance of regional innovation in the EU during the year 2016. This comparison allowed us to identify the variations that have occurred during these 3 years. The methodology used is quantitative and served to identify the factors that clarify the performance of regional innovation in the EU in 2019. The data collected was treated in the econometric software Eviews10. Estimations used a multiple linear regression method. The attained results show that with the implementation of the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization (RIS3), the Leader and Strong Regions benefited from its implementation. On the other hand, Moderate and Modest Regions failed to improve their innovative performance with the implementation of RIS3. On the practical contributions, it provides suggestions to the actors of the triple helix (Academy–Government–Industry) to improve the performance of innovation. Furthermore, it contributes to the theory by updating the knowledge of the existing literature with new dimensions from the 2019 RIS database. This research is original as it allows to appraise the evolution of the open innovative performance of the regions, by using comparative data from 2019 and 2016., This work is supported by national funds, through the FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the project «UIDB/04630/2020».

This paper analyzes the French and the Vietnamese versions of the TV game show “The Price is Right”, using data from 130 episodes. We focus on the bidding game, covering 434 rounds and 1,736 bids. We document that players deviate signifi cantly from what is predicted by the model of rational expectations, especially in the French population. Moreover, Vietnamese fourth bidders are found to win more frequently than their French counterparts in spite of using strategic bids less often. We attribute these results to cultural reasons. Contestants from the collectivistic, uncertainty-tolerant culture (i.e., Vietnam) are more reluctant to engage in strategic bidding than individuals from the individualistic, uncertainty-avoidant culture (i.e., France). However, Vietnamese contestants pay more attention to the estimates of the previous players and thus make a better use of the informational advantage inherent to the sequential nature of the game. Overall, our evidence suggests that culture is an important omitted variable in studies that examine cross-country differences in decision-making.

Considering the current turbulent macroeconomic environment, the aim of this research is to explore the influence of innovation in tangible and intangible resource allocation. The literature underlines that organizations are facing a revolution in their business processes. As such, there is a need to understand the value of knowledge resources and to identify ways to manage them. This paper explores the field of resource allocation, namely dynamic capabilities, and highlights the importance of monitoring intangible resources. This research has three specific contributions. The first contribution provides a comprehensive picture of what has occurred in the field of tangible and intangible resource allocation, such as intellectual capital and its importance towards organizational performance. Secondly, it offers evidence about the actual need for performance measurement tools that foster intangible resource monitoring. Organizations devote special attention to market demands which consequently lead managers to adapt their strategies in areas concerning resource allocation. Given this importance, this research, comprising major innovative organizations in Portugal from diverse activity sectors, provides new insights and stresses the importance of tools to follow the overall performance of resource allocation. Managers of innovative organizations recognize the very powerful features of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in monitoring and linking strategic resources of both tangible and intangible natures. Thirdly, this research, with a view to enrich the field of intangible natures, points out some aspects for future research areas, bearing in mind the relevance of this research area confirmed by managers of the major innovative organizations. Thus, it provides prominent information for both academia and innovative organizations., This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project «UIDB/03182/2020.

This article proposes an activity-based costing decision model that considers the life cycle of physical assets particularly, the logistics costs of non-repairable spare parts. The Weibull based failure rate behavior along the life cycle is considered to have a more realistic representation of the demand and a more accurate computation of the logistics costs associated with the different types of spare parts. Thus, through the use of this model it is possible to evaluate different inventory policies and their respective parameters in order to define efficient long-term inventory policies. Also, it represents a decision-making tool for assessing the effects of the different failure rates of each critical spare part. Finally, it can be used as an optimization tool for supporting the design of logistics policies namely, in terms of stock and service levels, and costs. The activity-based life-cycle costing (AB-LCC) model proposed here mitigates limitations of both activity-based costing (ABC) and life-cycle costing (LCC) approaches through a novel combination of these concepts. Theoretical and managerial contributions and several applications and extensions of the AB-LCC model are expected as it is discussed at the end of the article. Specifically, the model presented here is a valuable tool for maintainers to manage critical non-repairable spare parts inventories., The first author would like to acknowledge the support of 1170915 FONDECYT Regular: Design and optimization of a life cycle based critical spare parts management system.

In this paper we examine for the first time the short-term predictability of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) in reaction to extreme price movements. Based on an analysis of 2,911 extreme price movements that took place within either normal trading hours or after-hours in the period 2001-2019, we conclude that those extreme returns were on average followed by significant reversals. This response represents an overreaction in prices, which challenges the weak version of the efficient market hypothesis. Price reversals are especially pronounced following extreme returns observed during after-hours, which lends support to the assertion that ADR markets are particularly inefficient during this trading period. These findings carry important implications for both market practitioners and regulators.

This research received no external funding., Economic development causes significant changes in the innovative processes of resource management. The purpose of this article is to discuss the sustainability of resource management in sugar–alcohol companies operating in the most productive areas of Brazil and to analyze the profile of the companies in the sector in terms of innovation and adherence to practices of human resource management. The methodological procedures were based on qualitative research. Data collection was directed toward the population of companies in the sector of cane brandy production, having as the main criteria representativeness of human resource management and to be active. The results indicate that human management tends to be traditional in spite of several current economic challenges. The conclusions also highlight that the most highly mechanized companies are those that have adhered to strategic policies and practices, and that the traditional model of human management prevails in more than 70% of companies., (undefined)

We revisit religiosity, gender, age, ethics education and experience as drivers of ethicality, while expanding prior research from Anglo-Saxon and Asiatic/Euro-Asiatic countries to a Latin European country, Portugal. We apply the Merchant (1989) instrument of attitudes towards earnings management, in a sample of Portuguese accounting students and alumni. We find no significant evidence of a positive association between religiosity and accountants’ judgments on earnings management. However, gender, age, education (and accounting ethics education) and experience are significant predictors of accountants’ judgments. The results are unchanged when we control for the intent (selfish benefit) of earnings management. Females, older individuals and alumni judge accounting earnings management more harshly than males, younger individuals, and students (who have not yet completed an accounting ethics course). A higher level of accounting work experience induces accountants to judge accounting earnings management as a less ethically questionable practice. This finding is theoretically relevant because it underscores the necessity of taking people’s constraints in the workplace into consideration when studying ethical behavior in business contexts. The results are also practically relevant, as they highlight the importance of a systematic ethics education throughout the accountant’s life., Funding -This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT –Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project UID/ECO/03182/2019

Purpose: Propose a research model that involves the conceptual relationships between the theoretical support of the absorptive capacity and analytics, emphasizing the way in which the tool contributes to the formation of absorptive capacity within the companies. Originality/value: It was possible to delineate a model with the theoretical associations between absorptive capacity and analytics from the voices of experts and decision makers of Portuguese companies, contributing as a tool to guide strategies that help companies for a better understanding of how the absorption of knowledge occurs in analytics implementations to better target efforts at incremental value generation. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study was carried out with the adoption of Grounded Theory as a research strategy. In this way, techniques and procedures of the method were followed that allowed the constant collection and analysis of the data, supported with the use of Atlas.ti software. Findings: The main theoretical contribution is the proposition of a conceptual model that considers emerging categories, subcategories, properties, and dimensions, that qualify the conceptual alignment between absorptive capacity and analytics and explain the existence of the construct over implementation. As entrepreneurial contributions, the configuration of knowledge absorption according to two analytic use patterns is emphasized: as oriented towards solving specific problems and as a guideline of institutional planning., This paper was financed by National Funds of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) within the project «UID/ECO/03182/2019».

It is widely acknowledged that having efficient financial markets is paramount in the allocation of social resources to their most productive uses. This paper explores the informational efficiency of six of the most important African stock markets for indication of seasonal predictability in stock returns. The results reveal that all markets exhibited some kind of seasonal patterns. The prevalence of the phenomenon was higher in the Egyptian and Tunisian markets, suggesting the presence of inefficient prices. Surprisingly, the only advanced emerging market of the sample (South Africa) showed a relatively large number of anomalies. This paper also reports the existence of strong pre-holiday effects and turn-of-the-month effects in most of the markets under scrutiny. Moreover, this study is the first to document the presence of quarterly effects in African markets. Collectively, the evidence obtained highlights the opportunity for arbitrageurs to reap profits as well as the need of decision-makers to implement legal and regulatory reforms in the markets of the continent.

"Available online 7 February 2017. Article in press", Given the scientific uncertainties and differing arguments for and against genetically modified food, perceptions and valuation may depend on information about their different and conflicting potential effects. In this study we explore generic attitudes towards genetically modified organisms, particularly in food, and adopt an economic contingent valuation approach to highlight the relevance of information provision. The study focuses on young college students, who are more scientifically informed than the rest of the population. It explores perceptions and economic valuation of genetically modified food, and exposes respondents randomly to three information treatments concerning genetically modified organisms’ impacts (negative, positive or mixed). Applying the contingent valuation methodology allows us to expose individuals to a situation where they can express their willingness to accept a genetically modified ingredient in exchange for lower prices. We observe that exposing respondents to critical arguments about this kind of food negatively affects their economic valuations, whereas positive or mixed information have no impact. Albeit the conclusions are limited in terms of generalizability to the rest of the population, the results suggest there may still be scope for information provision. Furthermore, both policy-makers and firms may benefit from a more informed public. Policy-makers can gauge public opinion to legitimize policy options and firms can shape market decisions based on more informed and stable consumer preferences., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The use of experimental methods to determine consumers' willingness to pay for "quality" food has been gaining importance in scientific research. In most of the empirical literature on this issue the experimental design starts with blind tasting, after which information is introduced. It is assumed that this approach allows consumers to elicit the real value that they attach to each of the features added through specific information. In this paper, the starting hypothesis is that this technique overestimates the weight of the features introduced by information in consumers' willingness to pay when compared to a real market situation, in which consumers are confronted with all the information at once. The data obtained through contingent valuation in an in-store setting was used to estimate a hedonic model aiming at assessing consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for the feature "geographical origin of the variety" of pears and apples in different information scenarios: i) blind tasting followed by extrinsic information and ii) full information provided at once. The results show that, in fact, features are more valued when gradually added to background information than when consumers receive all the information from the beginning., This work was supported by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation [PTDC/EGE-ECO/114091/2009 - The use of experimental economics methods in the assessment of consumer willingness to pay for traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables]., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

We study how General Practitioners (GPs) respond to fee changes with respect to the number of visits and treatment intensity. Our empirical strategy is to exploit within GP variation in the fee schedule due to specialisation in general medicine that implies a higher consultation fee, and to use only a narrow time window around the date of the fee change to identify the GPs' supply responses. Making use of detailed administrative claims data covering all GPs in Norway over a six-year period (2006-2011), we find that a higher consultation fee increases the number of visits (with an elasticity of 0.2), but reduces the treatment intensity per visit (and per patient). This is a pure substitution effect where GPs respond to the fee increase by seeing more patients but spending less time with each, without changing the total amount of time spent per month treating patients. Thus, our analysis suggests that fee-for-service is a powerful policy instrument that needs to be carefully designed in order to ensure optimal provision of care., COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020, FEDER, FCT, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This paper identifies a causal link between changes in product market competition, firm reorganization and within-firm wage inequality. We exploit a unique episode of comprehensive firm entry deregulation as a quasi-natural experiment and use exceptionally detailed linked employer-employee data for the universe of private sector firms and workers in Portugal. Following deregulation affected firms flatten their hierarchies: the number of layers is reduced and managers’ span of control increased. Dropping a hierarchy layer is accompanied by a significant reduction in wage inequality within the firm, by 8% for the average pay ratio between the top and the bottom layer and 4.4% for the 90-50 percentile wage ratio, showing that there are real changes arising from firm reorganization. Overall wage dispersion, measured by the standard deviation of hourly pay, is also reduced. We discuss mechanisms and interpretations for these changes., We thank two anonymous referees for comments that contributed to improve the paper. Data access from the Portuguese Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity and the Office for National Statistics (INE) is gratefully acknowledged. The research was partially funded by National Funds of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) within the project «UID/ECO/03182/2019.

This paper adds the standard input–output linkages into a multi-sector endogenous growth model to study the interaction effects between linkages and technology adoption for aggregate productivity and for income per capita. We show that the greater the intensity with which a good is used as input by other sectors, the smaller are the technology adoption lags and the greater is the technology adoption intensity, and thus the greater are the increases of the Total Factor Productivity and of economic growth. Therefore, distinct input–output relationships between sectors explain inter-country income differences. By using OECD data, we then estimate the model for nine developed countries and ten technologies, and confirm our theoretical findings. Financial support from Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional through the grants ECO2013-43119-P, ECO2015-70540-P and ECO2016-77200-P (MINECO/FEDER) is gratefully acknowledged.

This study focuses on the notion of competence in a perspective of structural change. It addresses the academic curriculum and the soft skills essential for the holder of a Bachelor's Degree to adapt to the labour market and endow the citizen with instruments deemed necessary for the integration of the person in the different dimensions of life. Evidence unfolds a great deal of sensitivity on the part of students regarding soft skills. Nonetheless, there are substantial differences among courses and between genders. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey, which was applied to our bachelor students between October 2013 and January 2014. We resorted to the use of the analysis of the main components and we used the VARIMAX method for determining the variance, which is analysed by means of the ANOVA model. The study underpins the importance of autonomy and social and emotional skills in the student's global university education and highlights the sensitivity of the students to transversal competences -soft skills-, as required by the current labour market., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

We assess the spillovers from the oil sector to the housing market cycle using quarterly data for 20 net oil-exporting and -importing industrial countries, and employing continuous- and discrete-time duration models. We do not uncover a statistically significant difference in the average duration of booms and normal times in the housing markets of those net oil-importers and net oil-exporters. Similarly, the degree of exposure to commodity price fluctuations does not seem to significantly affect the housing market cycle. However, we find that housing booms are shorter when oil prices increase than housing busts when oil prices decrease. We also show that the net oil-importers are more vulnerable to protracted housing slump episodes than the net-oil exporters., Compete 2020, Portugal 2020, Feder, FCT

In this paper we address Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a competitive factor in textile and fashion value chain. CSR assumes a large range of activities focused on one or multiple targets, from work conditions to social programs, or environmental impact. The influence of CSR strategies on market performance depend on how truthful consumers will understand and believe to be the values offered by companies. The qualitative research has considered seven case studies from Portuguese textiles and fashion companies. We have found that a major obstacle to SMEs was the cost of CSR programs and their internal and external communication. As a rule, SMEs have small financial investment capabilities and their human resources tend to be scarce and not available to engage more responsibilities. Moreover, managers argue they compete in the market with companies that have low production as well as low social and environmental costs. If CSR strategies establish a set of clear and transparent practices, consumers will be able to compare across world suppliers, will result in additional costs and clients are not willing to pay for. The development of an accreditation system, able to clearly establish the reality of CSR practices within companies, is an important contribution to the implementation of CSR strategies into the textile and clothing sectors. The researchers have developed a system that can be managed step-by-step, and implemented progressively as companies receive and evaluate market feedback. The system introduces a clear communication about the company's actions and commitment to CSR, resulting in an unique label, capable of stating to whom it may concern, the company' present situation and its development year after year.

JEL classification: E62; H50, This paper analyses how the functional components and sub-components of government expenditures are affected by fiscal consolidations. A fixed-effects estimator is employed over a panel of 15 European Union countries during the period 1990–2012. The results show that spending on public services increases during fiscal consolidations, while spending on defence, public order, health, education and social protection is significantly cut. A more disaggregated analysis proves that fiscal consolidations are harmful for important social expenditures, in particular, for those related to citizens’ safety, health assistance, social protection and investment in human capital. This evidence is even stronger in a particular group of countries, known in the literature as PIIGS. Hence, fiscal consolidations can have important implications on the living standards of the more economically vulnerable citizens., Compete 2020, Feder, Portugal 2020, FCT

This paper evaluates the performance of a survivorship bias-free data set of Portuguese funds investing in Euro-denominated bonds by using conditional models that consider the public information available to investors when the returns are generated. We find that bond funds underperform the market significantly and by an economically relevant magnitude. This underperformance cannot be explained by the expenses they charge. Our findings support the use of conditional performance evaluation models, since we find strong evidence of both time-varying risk and performance, dependent on the slope of the term structure and the inverse relative wealth variables. We also show that survivorship bias has a significant impact on performance estimates. Furthermore, during the European debt crisis, bond fund managers performed significantly better than in non-crisis periods and were able to achieve neutral performance. This improved performance throughout the crisis seems to be related to changes in funds’ investment styles., Este trabajo evalúa el desempeño de un conjunto de fondos portugueses, libre de sesgo de supervivencia, que invierten en bonos denominados en euros mediante el uso de modelos condicionales que consideran la información pública disponible para los inversores cuando se generan los retornos. Observamos que los fondos de renta fija presentan un desempeño inferior al mercado y por una magnitud económicamente relevante. Este bajo desempeño no puede explicarse por las comisiones que cobran. Nuestros hallazgos apoyan el uso de modelos de evaluación del desempeño condicional, ya que encontramos fuertes evidencias tanto de riesgo como de desempeños variables al longo del tiempo, dependientes de la estructura temporal de tajas de juro y de la riqueza relativa inversa. También mostramos que el sesgo de supervivencia tiene un impacto significativo en las estimaciones de desempeño. Además, durante la crisis de la deuda europea, los gestores de fondos de renta fija obtuvieron resultados significativamente mejores que en los períodos sin crisis y lograron un desempeño neutral. Este mejor desempeño a lo largo de la crisis parece estar relacionado con cambios en los estilos de inversión de los fondos., Compete 2020, Portugal 2020, Feder, FCT, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

"Available online 23 June 2016", This paper evaluates the performance of US and European green funds that invest globally by using conditional models that consider both time-varying performance and risk measures. The results show that green funds tend to underperform the benchmark, particularly European funds. Fund underperformance is mainly concentrated in times when short-term interest rates are lower-than-normal and in non-crisis periods. Also, the performance of green funds is higher in crisis periods compared to non-crisis periods. Furthermore, although at the aggregate level green funds that are certified with a SRI label perform similarly to green funds without a label, there are relatively less certified funds presenting negative performance compared to non-certified funds. US green funds perform better than other socially responsible funds in times of crisis, whereas European green funds match their performance in crisis periods but underperform them in non-crisis periods., Financial support of FEDER through the Operational Program Competitiveness Factors – COMPETE and of National funding through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia in the context of the research project “FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-037268 (PEst-C/EGE/UI3182/2013).

The recent surge in M&A activities highlights firms' motivation to gain or maintain market leadership. Along with the unparalleled volume of M&As, more and more firms favor establishing acquisition programs that lead to multiple subsequent M&As over time. In this paper, we study the entrance in a market by means of M&A when different strategies to acquire a prominent incumbent are available to the acquirer. In particular, the firm might opt for a big leap, where it acquires the prominent incumbent; the alternative is to design an acquisition program that allows moving in small steps by acquiring a minor company first and the larger prominent player later on. We employ a dynamic game-theoretic real options model to investigate the effect of uncertainty and synergies on the strategy choices and also consider alternative contract designs for the acquisition program, such as hostile, friendly or mixed. Our findings reveal that firms prefer acquisition programs to big leap strategies when the industry exhibits high levels of uncertainty and can occur even when the acquisition of the first target destroys value. Moreover, some acquisition programs profit from a first mover pass-through where the acquirer can jointly utilize his first-mover advantage when negotiating with multiple targets. Finally, novel testable hypotheses are derived from the model. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., This work was carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference no. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683 (Artur Rodrigues) and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006890 (Paulo J. Pereira), FCT/MEC's (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P.), and ERDF through the Operational Programme on Competitiveness and Internationalization - COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. We thank the Editor and the three anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions. We also thank Lenos Trigeorgis, Dean Paxson, Han Smit, Kuno Huisman, Shahriar Khaksari, Nick Huberts, Arkadiy Sakhartov, and participants of the 2017 Annual Real Options Conference in Boston for their helpful comments. Any remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors.

In this paper we develop a model to determine the value of the opportunity to invest in a random start American real option. In contrast to a typical American option, the random start option only exists if an exogenous event occurs materializing the American option to invest. In addition, the effect of competition is also considered in the model. A higher risk of competition and a higher probability of the exogenous event promotes investment. Uncertainty has a non-monotonic effect on investment timing., This work was carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference n. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683 (Artur Rodrigues) and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006890 (Paulo J. Pereira), FCT/MEC's (Fundacao pars a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding and by ERDF through the Operational Programme on Competitiveness and Internationalization - COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.

We provide a model where hospitals compete on quality under a fixed price regime to investigate (i) whether hospital competition, as measured by an increase in fixed prices or increased patient choice, increases or reduces the gap in quality between high- and low-quality hospitals, and as a result, (ii) whether competition increases or reduces (pure) health inequalities across hospitals and patient severities. The answer to the first question is generally ambiguous, but we find that the scope for competition to result in quality convergence across hospitals is larger when the marginal patient health gains from quality decrease at a faster rate. Whether competition increases health inequalities depends on the type and measure of inequality. If the patient health benet function is not too concave in quality, health inequalities due to postcode lottery will increase (decrease) whenever competition induces quality dispersion (convergence). Competition reduces health inequalities between high- and low-severity patients if patient composition effects, due to high-severity patients being more likely to exercise choice, are small. We also investigate the effect of competition on health inequalities as measured by the Gini and the Generalised Gini coe¢ cients, and highlight differences compared to the simpler dispersion measures., Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The recent European debt crisis has led many governments to impose strict measures to alleviate public expenditure and increase revenue, especially in the southern countries. Many public services and infrastructures became more costly for users due to the increase of existing fees or the implementation of new ones. In Portugal, one of the measures adopted by the government consisted in the removal of shadow tolls and the application of the user-pays principle to the entire network of rural motorways. To rapidly implement, this measure, in the context of financial constraints, the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), materialized by the installation of gantries in selected motorway segments, was the preferred solution over the more time and resource consuming construction of toll plazas. Toll revenue is directly collected by the state, which intends to cover, at least partially, the expenses associated with the contractual payments to private concessionaires for the traffic using these roads. The main objective of this research is to provide a new optimization tool to allocate toll gantries to the segments of an existing motorway with the aim of maximizing toll revenue, based on the case study of Portuguese motorways. A macroscopic decision model that predicts drivers’ decision on using a tolled segment or the fastest alternative route and an optimization model that sets the price and location of toll gantries along a given motorway work together to provide a valuable tool to maximize the revenue. A special focus has been placed on scenarios of economic downturn, characterized by a negative growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); however, the new tool allows making explanatory analyses for situations of economic growth. The results show that the optimal configuration for ETC vary with the macroeconomic scenario, with the number of tolled segments and price per kilometre inducing relevant variations on the revenue and traffic volume. The proposed methodology may be applied in other countries to assist decision makers in the implementation of ETC in motorways under different conditions. The required data is easy to collect from sources at the disposal of the practitioners.

Political budget cycles (PBCs) have been well documented in the literature, albeit not for all circumstances. However, no work has been done on the impact of economic growth on the magnitude of PBCs. The theoretical model argues that a government has an incentive to increase fiscal manipulations when a recession is expected to hit and curtail re-election chances; this amounts to countercyclical policy for opportunistic rather than Keynesian motives. Very robust evidence for this behaviour is found in Portuguese municipalities; in election years, budget deficits go up even more and significantly so, when a recession is expected., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Compete 2020, Portugal 2020, FEDER

Using a large sample of firms from 37 countries over the period of 2007–2015, we empirically analyse the impact of religion and national culture characteristics on the level of corporate risk-taking around the world and the channels through which this can take place. First, we initially observe that different religious backgrounds have different impacts on corporate risk-taking, these being negative for Catholic and Islamic-based countries and positive for firms in Protestant nations. Secondly, we observe that companies in countries with high scores of power distance, masculinity, individualism and long-term orientation tend to increase risk-taking while high levels of uncertainty avoidance moderates corporate risk-taking behavior. We also show results that in companies where institutional investors are the most relevant reference shareholder the influence of religion on corporate risk-taking is not felt, unlike when the main shareholder is an individual or a family. JEL classification: G15, G32, G34, Keywords: Corporate risk-taking, National culture, Religion, Ownership structure

Purpose By using the Triple Helix model, the purpose of this paper is to uncover the perceptions of nascent entrepreneurs about a university-industry-government collaboration program, in particular about the role of each agent to foster rural entrepreneurship; the value and effect of this collaboration; and their own contributions to local development.Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study method is adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and secondary data. The text is analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Findings The interaction of the Triple Helix partners is perceived as valuable both at the personal and the business levels. One of the most salient results is the value ascribed to the knowledge-rich environment created. Entrepreneurs are aware of their contribution to local development, identifying economic, social and cultural effects.Practical implications The research strengthens the importance of the joint efforts of the Triple Helix partners by uncovering a number of outputs from their collaboration, which affect both the entrepreneurs and local development through entrepreneurship.Originality/value Previous studies assume that the Triple Helix fosters technological innovation that favors regional development, mainly by adopting a macro-level perspective. This study makes a contribution by furthering the knowledge on the micro-level dynamics of the Triple Helix, through the view of low tech, rural entrepreneurs, considering their context., (undefined)

The literature that investigates credit booms has essentially focused on their economic determinants. This paper explores the importance of political conditionings and central bank independence and provides some striking findings on this matter. Estimating a fixed effects logit model over a panel of developed and developing countries for the period 1975q1-2016q4, we find that credit booms are less likely when right-wing parties are in office, especially in developing countries, and when there is political instability. However, they have not proven to depend on the electoral cycle. More independent Central Banks are also found to reduce the probability of credit booms. Moreover, they seem to be more likely to occur and spread within a monetary union., Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)

Author's Accepted Manuscript, This paper analyzes how electoral incentives shape fiscal policy, focusing on the introduction of mayoral term limits in Portugal. Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we find evidence that when a municipality has a term-limited (TL) mayor, it experiences a fall in revenues and expenditures. The effect seems to be driven by lower effort of lame-duck mayors, relative to reelection-eligible ones, to implement new investments and to obtain conditional grants from the central government, especially in election years. Although lame ducks are less opportunistic in general, the results suggest that opportunism may not decrease in municipalities whose TL mayors resign before the end of their terms and are replaced by their (eligible) vice-mayors., The authors thank Henry Chappell, Toke Aidt, Susana Peralta, Fabio Padovano, Mariana Lopes da Fonseca, Joao Cerejeira, Miguel Portela, Antonio Tavares, Albert Sole -Olle , Daniele Bondonio, Erik Snowberg, and two anonymous referees for their very helpful comments, and Bruno Fernandes and Joao Martins for their excellent research assistance. We are grateful for the financial support of Fundacao Francisco Manuel dos Santos. This work was also carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683 (UID/ECO/03182/2013), with the FCT/MEC's (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding, and by the ERDF through the Operational Programme on "Competitiveness and Internationalization"-COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.

Purpose User-generated content and online reviews are highly relevant in purchase decision in the hospitality sector, including restaurants, but there is a lack of knowledge about the effect of sharing pictures in this context. This study aims to focus on the relevance of user-generated photos in online platforms for restaurants' selection. Design/methodology/approach A research was conducted with a sample of 319 residents of Porto region, who had at least one meal in a restaurant over the 30 days before the answer of the survey and had searched online to select the restaurant. Findings The results show that while doing online research about restaurants, it is important for potential consumers to find pictures of food and physical evidences of restaurants generated by other users. Findings also show that consumers find user-generated photos especially at websites of reviews, although the importance of restaurant owned platforms, such as official social media pages and website Practical implications - The research results appeal restaurant managers to understand the importance of user- generated photos in online platforms by promoting photo sharing in their restaurants with appropriate marketing activities for that purpose. Originality/ value - This paper expands the state- of- the- art about the importance of user- generated content, focusing on the importance of photos from restaurants shared by consumers in online platforms., (undefined)

Purpose - This study aims to investigate the performance of fundamental weighted portfolios (using sales, cash flows, dividends, book values and a composite of all these variables), an equal weighted portfolio and a smoothed cap-weighted (CW) portfolio in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) markets. The performance of these portfolios is compared with that of a CWportfolio for the period 2005 to 2015.Design/methodology/approach - The portfolios are formed using different concentration levels, different construction schemes and different sub-regions. The performance is assessed using a large set of risk-adjusted performance measures, including more robust measures in the context of multi-factor models, such as the Fama and French (1993) three-factor model, the Fama and French (2015) five-factormodel and a seven-factor model.Findings - The results show that the fundamental portfolios, with the exception of the sales portfolio, underperform the CW portfolio using either the traditional or more robust risk-adjusted performance measures. The underperformance of the fundamental portfolios is found to be robust using different concentration levels, different construction schemes and different sub-regions. The results also show that the equal weighted portfolio outperforms the CW portfolio using traditional risk-adjusted measures. However, after controlling for additional risk factors, this outperformance disappears.Practical implications - The failure of fundamental indexation in the emerging markets could help the researchers and the academics to search for the best weighting method that could be used as an alternative to theCW indexation method.Originality/value - The results of the study add evidence to the debatable propositions on the performance of fundamental portfolios in emerging markets. Furthermore, the findings may help domestic and international investors, practitioners and decision-makers to deepen their knowledge in terms of the best portfolio construction scheme in the MENA region., This work was carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference no POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683, with the FCT/MEC's (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding and by the ERDF through the Operational Programme on "Competitiveness and Internationalization COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement".

Purpose Consultancy services for internationalisation are crucial to help companies to grow and find new businesses abroad. This kind of service used to be provided by consultancy firms operating in the home country of the clients. Considering the advantages of partnerships that theory has enhanced, this paper aims to identify the motivations and perceived opportunities from consultancy firms to establish business-to-business partnerships with international consultancy companies in other countries, with the purpose of reinforcing international trading. Design/methodology/approach As an exploratory study, this paper shows the perspective of 13 interviewed German consultancy managers focused on international business about developing a partnership with international consultancy firms from Portugal. Findings Consultants indicate that with mutual benefits, partnerships are welcome. However, the study enhances the importance of signals of status and reputation for international partnerships among business consultancy firms and reveals a lack of knowledge about the market opportunities for internationalisation that might motivate German consultancy firms to establish partnerships with consultancy companies in Portugal. Originality/value The paper highlights the low motivation of consultants from a higher-status country to establish partnerships with international business consultancy firms in lower-status countries. The study addresses useful recommendations for consultancy firms, governments and international trade agencies to intensify marketing activities and enhance country reputation and positioning in international business, communicating the opportunities and potential of markets and building signals of status and reputation for international consulting., (undefined)

Market anomalies are one of the most intriguing and fascinating phenomena observed in financial markets. This paper examines the incidence of price clustering in US and European bank stocks during the Global Financial Crisis. The results reveal a significant level of price clustering in European and US banks’ samples, which is difficult to reconcile with the Efficient Market hypothesis. The Attraction hypothesis and the Price Resolution/Negotiation hypothesis seem to be the best explanations for the clustering effect. However, the results also suggest that the uncertainty associated with the crisis did not have a significant impact in the clustering levels, which is at odds with the recently proposed Panic Trading hypothesis. Surprisingly, we observe a tendency to have less price clustering during the period of crisis and banks located in countries mostly affected by the European sovereign debt crisis exhibit lower levels of price clustering. These results are consistent with the idea that investors tend to be more analytical in their appraisals in periods of negative sentiment.

This study discusses residents' involvement in the co-creation of a city brand, their perceptions about brand identity and authenticity and the fit with their sense of place. The city of Porto, Portugal, was chosen as a case study, since a new city brand was created in September 2014. The authors analysed the descriptive book explaining the strategy of the city brand created. In order to understand residents' involvement, an interview with the head of communication of Porto City Council was conducted. Then, a focus group was developed with Porto residents from different parts of the city. The focus group gathered the residents' perception about the brand created and their opinion about authenticity and place identity. Results indicate that, despite being partly involved in the creation of Porto city logo, residents would like to have contributed to the recognised place marketing strategy in a more active way. Citizens agree that the brand fits with their sense of place identity, but consider that the strategy is designed to attract tourists and not to reinforce citizens' place attachment. The failure of internal place marketing is discussed in the paper and some recommendations for public policy are presented., (undefined)

The motivations for individual and corporate donations to non-profit organisations (NPOs) have been vastly researched. However, companies tend to diversify their donations towards different institutions, hindering the development of substantial and continuous social interventions by charities. Considering the importance of regular support to guarantee NPOs’ sustainability, this study analyses the corporate motivations and the conditions that might favour their propensity for long-term donations. Researchers have conducted twenty semistructured interviews in companies with social responsibility policies and concluded that motivations to donate goes beyond visibility or recognition the donation might bring to the business. Interviewees highlighted the sense of altruism and the perceived importance of their donation for the well-being of people the institutions are supporting. However, managers admitted they diversify their partnerships rather than donate regularly to the same institution and consider that a relationship and proactive marketing approach by NPOs would be a key point to activate long-term donations., (undefined), info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion