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Abstract
The aim of this article was to develop and validate a scale to measure the complexity of social intervention with adults in hospital care settings. Two separate studies were conducted (N1 = 224 and N2 = 224). Study 1 was focused on the development of the Social Work Intervention Complexity (SWIC) scale and on its dimensionality. The exploratory factorial analysis was conducted to identify its factor structure, and reliability was assessed. Study 2 examined the construct validity of the scale and tested its robustness in the two samples with an invariance test. Single-group and multi-group confirmatory factor analyses were used. The results confirmed a three-factor structure and convergent validity, and discriminant validity was guaranteed. The invariance of the measuring instrument across the two groups was also proved. The practical implications arising from the validation of the SWIC scale are also a distinctive feature of this work. The application can be implemented to monitor the complexity of social intervention with adults in hospital care settings. In the future, different hospitals could integrate the application of the SWIC scale into their protocol since the social worker's professional practice must be combined with scientific rigor and the quality of social intervention.

The fight against money laundering has taken center stage in the global arena. The European Union (EU), in line with various international organizations, plays an active role in the fight against this crime and promotes anti money laundering directions to its member states. The statistics regarding Portugal (a member of the EU since 1986) indicate that it lags behind most of the EU members in terms of reporting of suspicions of money laundering. This paper adopts a game theory approach to study the efficiency of the combat against money laundering in Portugal, both with regard to the financial and the non financial sector of the economy. Additionally, the paper studies the impact of the increase of sanctions, as recommended by the 4th Directive 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20th May of 2015, on that combat. The results show that the low probability of the institutions being caught (and fined) for not complying with their reporting duties, coupled with the low conviction rates for money laundering crimes, justifies the reduced number of suspicious transactions reported. The findings highlight that an increase of sanctions, on both financial and non financial institutions, would tend to augment the efficiency of the combat against money laundering in Portugal.

• Summary. The main aim of this article is to assess the attention paid in social work to the role of parenting coordinator (PC). These professionals offer individualised support to high-conflict families in their implementation of parenting plans, normalising the relationship between parents and safeguarding the protection of minors. This form of alternative dispute resolution is being incorporated into the judicial system of various countries in a highly heterogeneous manner, with some countries such as Spain and Portugal experiencing uncertain times. A systematic literature review was performed, incorporating existing international studies in English, Spanish and Portuguese as well as court rulings in Spain, to identify the presence of social work as a discipline in this new professional role. • Findings. The findings show that despite the suitable training background of social workers, the involvement of their professional associations and their contributions to the function performed by PCs, there is no specific social work research focused on this area of knowledge. • Applications. The main contribution of this study is the commitment to a new professional niche for social work, traditionally occupied by psychologists. The emphasis should be placed not so much on the original training of the professional, but rather on his or her complementary training and accredited experience in highly conflictive situations.

This study discusses political and electoral reasons for the allocation of intergovernmental transfers in a federal state. We tested the influence of political alignment with the federal government and deputies, and the effects of elections and changes in alliance status upon Brazilian discretionary transfers. We performed a panel data analysis encompassing 2,856 municipalities from 1999 to 2011. The results suggest that the federal government buys support in Congress by awarding grants to deputies. Moreover, the alignment between the municipal and federal chief executives is central to the allocation of grants, and a negative correlation exists when the mayor is affiliated with an opposition party and when an opposition deputy has a strong support base within the municipality. Furthermore, changes in alliance status between the budget‐voting and budget‐implementation stages influence the number of transfers. The federal government also increased the allocation of grants in years featuring municipal and federal elections, particularly the latter.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of local public health expenditure in a decentralized health system, taking into account the electoral calendar and the effect of central and local elections, besides spatial interaction among municipalities and political alignment. The authors state that the expenditure in public health at the local level is positively influenced by vicinity and by elections calendar.Design/methodology/approachThe authors performed a Spatial Durbin Model with a balanced panel using the data from 399 Brazilian municipalities from 2005 to 2012. The authors use a distance-based spatial matrix, whose choose was based on simplicity and relevance of Moran'sIand Geary'sCcoefficients for spatial autocorrelation. The authors also cluster the data in the estimations, according to the distribution of regional facilities in the entire period and considering the occurrence of regionalization in public health services.FindingsThe empirical contribution lies in four issues: first, the authors demonstrate a positive spatial effect in the public health expenditure. Second, the estimations show that election-year shifts public spent, as a response for vote-seeking incumbents' behavior. Third, reelected mayors increase local public health allocations, as well as single candidates and incumbents from the same party of central governments. Finally, populational concentration directly decreases health expenditure (even if those municipalities represent a lower unit cost of acquiring votes, the optimization of public health infrastructure and mobility in achieving public health services negatively affect health spent).Originality/valueThis study supports the statement that public health spent at local level is positively influenced by vicinity and by occurrence of elections.

In the context of research in the field of social work, we have carried out an analysis on the relationship between two social policy measures intended to promote the social well-being of its beneficiaries in Portugal. Through a deductive methodology, the results show the impact of the adopted measures aimed at reducing spending on social policies. Conclusions highlight that social workers can collaborate with alternative social responses in an evidence-based manner, enhancing practice, namely, regarding competencies for the realisation of social diagnosis within the context of peoples' living conditions in order to promote access of citizens to social support.

The governance challenge of management succession is critical in the family firms. This paper provides insight on the role that the emotional factors as well as the founder's governance approach, have on successor selection in family firms. The successor selection is studied using game theory. The paper models games for both approaches of the founder towards successor selection and then compares both. The results demonstrate that the emotional factors determine the successor outcome. The founder's governance approach is essential to ensure firm continuity as well as secure that his preferred successor is indeed appointed successor. This is one of only few studies investigating family firm succession using game theory, and the first, to the best of our knowledge, to include the emotional factors as variables in the analysis. This paper also contributes to analytically demonstrate the importance of the founder adopting an activist approach to the succession process to ensure family firm intergenerational continuity.

Faced with the demands of globalization Social Work has a key role in promoting community development. The relationship between Social Work and Human Rights focuses on values and principles essential to the integration of any person regardless of their social, economic, and cultural context. Through a study of social work praxis in an intercultural community context with immigrants, secondary statistical data were analysed, a semi-structured interview was applied to social workers and a categorical content analysis was chosen to treat the data. The results allowed us to realize that social workers appeal to an ethical and ontological matrix in relation to individuals, families, groups and communities and that community development intervention in the field of social policies implies participation strategies in favour of citizenship and Human Rights.

Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the divestment behavior of emerging market multinationals from Latin America – multilatinas – by examining how their foreign market entry decision impacts the likelihood of subsidiary divestment.


Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested using Cox's proportional hazard rate model in a longitudinal database of Brazilian multinational companies established in 43 countries.


Findings
Results indicate that these subsidiaries can thrive in environments that bear similarities to their home country, being less likely to divest in institutionally weak countries. Contrary to developed country multinationals, these firms benefit from foreign entry decisions that entail handling partnerships abroad; thus, wholly-owned greenfield (WOGF) investments have a higher likelihood of being divested.


Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to analyze foreign divestment from multilatinas, accounting for how entry mode strategy and host country institutions may impact these firms' de-internationalization.

Citizens with disabilities wish and have the right to fulfill all social roles, including the consumer role. Business practitioners and scholars, however, frequently fail to consider these potential consumers. This study aims to analyze if the attributes the visually impaired most value in leisure services and environments are present in restaurants in Rio de Janeiro. Results point to certain fundamental attributes as being valued by people with low or no visual acuity in leisure restaurant outings: menus in Braille; personnel trained to serve ; tables with legs on each of its four corners and without sharp edges; low sound and light intensity; attendant paging devices; and adequate restroom facilities. Observations and interviews show that most restaurants have accessibility issues. Practical and social implications point to mandatory investments in infrastructure and personnel training in order to tend to the needs of the visually impaired according to legal and market requirements.