Suchergebnisse

Purpose
This paper aims to study and explore the activities and the use of institutional network resources by industrial business associations (IBAs) to support and facilitate internationalisation processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Other goals are to understand the internationalisation follow-up process and the future vision of IBAs to improve this internationalisation support.


Design/methodology/approach
Based on empirical evidence and following an abductive approach, this paper presents a qualitative exploratory field research, providing insights from interviews performed with 20 IBAs based in Portugal.


Findings
The findings suggest that the current institutional network support to internationalisation is mainly provided through promotional activities; counselling, training and technical and legal support; information sharing; and cooperation with other institutional entities. Each support category is explored and explained and a new conceptual model is developed to represent these findings. Regarding the internationalisation follow-up, IBAs provide a continuous support for the international operations by using some instruments and mechanisms to assist SMEs after an internationalisation initiative. Finally, collaboration and the use of new information technology are the main aspects to improve IBAs' support in a near future.


Research limitations/implications
The qualitative methodological approach adopted in this work can imply a larger difficulty to obtain a generalisation of the findings. Another limitation is that the participating IBAs are based in only one country.


Practical implications
Findings can help SMEs to understand the functioning and the benefits of using the institutional network resources of IBAs in overcoming their lack of resources to operate in international markets. IBAs can also understand their current position in terms of internationalisation support and think about new ways for improving this support.


Originality/value
This paper contributes to a better understanding of the influence of institutional networks in SME internationalisation by exploring the specific role of one of the institutional actors rather than focusing on the institutional network as a whole. Therefore, this study details the current activities and uncovers other types of support provided by IBAs that are not based on export promotion programmes. New knowledge is also obtained about the specific information content, information sources and means and channels of information sharing used by IBAs for supporting SME internationalisation.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether nonprofits that serve a membership (that is, mutual nonprofits) have more in common with cooperatives (also member-oriented associations) than with nonprofits that are oriented toward the public. A MANOVA was used to analyze the effect of organizational type of which there were four categories (publicly oriented nonprofits, mutual nonprofits, cooperatives without shares, and cooperatives with shares) on the five dependent measures (social objectives, volunteer participation, democratic decision making, government dependence, and market reliance) derived from the social economy framework. The results offer some support for the hypothesis that serving a membership is an important factor in the basic characteristics of an organization, and that is true regardless of whether the incorporation is nonprofit or cooperative. However, charitable status also appeared to influence on the results. The implications for the social economy and civil society are discussed.

Introducción: La multiplicación de la oferta de contenidos audiovisuales de actualidad y entretenimiento en el renovado contexto digital motiva a las corporaciones de radiotelevisión pública a ejecutar e interiorizar procesos innovadores que les permita ser relevantes en la vida de las personas. Estos procesos no solo se limitan al desarrollo e integración de sofisticados prototipos tecnológicos, sino que se vinculan estrechamente con una filosofía de cambio constante y renovación de ideas y formas de pensar. En este proyecto de investigación se ofrece una radiografía completa de las propuestas innovadoras de los medios de servicio público estatales de la península ibérica, Radiotelevisión Española y Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, con un enfoque particular en el prisma estratégico, tecnológico y de captación de nuevas audiencias. Metodología. Para ello se realizan entrevistas en profundidad a los directores de los departamentos de innovación y tecnología de las corporaciones, así como a los responsables de sus principales proyectos de contenidos juveniles, PlayZ y RTP Arena, respectivamente, lo que se complementa con una revisión de los productos online y redes sociales de ambos grupos. Resultados. Se identifica que la propuesta de RTVE tiene un mayor componente disruptivo, con iniciativas destinadas a optimizar la experiencia de usuario, el Mobile Firts o tecnologías como la IA, 5G o 4K; mientras que el enfoque de la RTP tiene un mayor corte cultural, tratando de renovar el lenguaje y rutinas de creación de sus contenidos tradicionales y nativos. Conclusiones. Las estrategias de innovación de ambas corporaciones parten de un objetivo central de actualización, con cautelosas aproximaciones a las nuevas tecnologías. La reciente creación de un departamento burbuja en la RTP se contrapone a la realidad de RTVE, con la intención de difuminar los límites de esta sección en su estructura para alcanzar una innovación plenamente transversal.

The Iberian Electricity Market (MIBEL) emerges in the context of the integration and cooperation between the Portuguese and Spanish electricity markets, in response to the European Union incentive for regional electricity markets creation. The present study, focus on the modeling and forecasting of the hourly competitive strategies of the electricity producers in the MIBEL. For this analysis, the studied variable was the MIBEL's conjectural variation, which estimates the level of competitiveness of the electricity producers on the day-ahead electricity market. The methodology adopted for forecasting was time series analysis, using ARIMA and exponential smoothing models. The results obtained show that the estimated models that best suit the hourly MIBEL conjectural variation forecast were mainly of the ARIMA seasonal type with daily seasonality, followed by ARIMA non-seasonal type models. It was also observed, that the selected models were mainly estimated with a time series of 5 working days. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Temporary opportunities for studying and working abroad have been growing globally and intensifying the movement of highly skilled temporary populations. To attract this group, cities need to address their residential and mobility needs. This study focuses on factors influencing residential and travel satisfaction of transnational temporary residents, highlighting the occurrence of residential self-selection, its impacts on residential and travel choices and on derived levels of satisfaction. We have estimated a Bayesian Structural Equations Model and found that lower levels of residential satisfaction (residential dissonance) are associated with lower rents, living farther away from the place of study or work, and having higher transport expenditures. In contrast, higher levels of residential satisfaction (residential consonance) are related to individuals' stronger preferences for active modes, lower levels of public transport use, and reduced transport monthly expenditures, which suggest shorter commuting distances. These findings reveal the tradeoffs involving residential location, monthly rent, and transport expenditures, highlighting that providing good public transport connections can reduce the burden of commuting distances. Our results indicate that better transport supply and land-use balance near the residence can improve both residential and travel satisfaction.

AbstractA benchmark was performed, comparing the results of three different methodologies proposed by three institutions to calibrate a network of low-cost PM2.5 sensors, on an hourly basis, using synthetically generated real concentrations and sensor measurements. The objective of the network calibrations was to correct the 2000+ sensor measurements in the Netherlands for the sensitivity to (local) environmental conditions. The option to use real measurements was dropped because the number of low-cost sensors sufficiently close to the 40 reference measurement locations was assessed to be spatially insufficient to benchmark the proposed approaches. Instead, synthetic real concentrations were generated to enable validation at all sensor locations. Hourly actual sensor and actual fixed concentrations, as well as interpolated concentration maps, were used as underlying data to generate the synthetic data sets for the period of 1 month. The synthetic sensor measurement errors were constructed by sampling from a collection of differences between actual sensor values and actual measurements. Of the three tested calibration methods, two follow a similar approach, although having differences in, e.g., outlier analyses and method of grouping sensors, leading also to comparable corrections to the raw sensor measurements. A third method uses significantly stricter rules in outlier selection, discarding considerably more sensors because of insufficient quality. Differences between the methods become most apparent when analyzing data at a smaller time scale. It is shown that two network calibration methods are better at correcting the hourly/daily bias.