ESHT - Departamento de Sistemas de Informação e Matemática
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- Privatization and optimum-welfare in an international Cournot duopolyPublication . Ferreira, Fernanda A.; Ferreira, FlávioIn this paper, we will analyse the relationship between privatization of a public firm and tax revenue for the domestic government in an international competition, with import tariffs. We consider a duopoly model where a domestic public firmand a foreign private firmcompete in the domesticmarket, asCournot players. Furthermore, the domestic government imposes a tariff to regulate an imported good, and may have a higher preference for tariff revenue than for social welfare. We compute the outputs at equilibrium and we show that privatization (i) will increase the profits of both domestic and foreign firms; (ii) will increase the tariff imposed to the imported good; and (iii) will decrease the domestic welfare. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a rise in the government’s preference for tariff revenues raises the social welfare in both mixed and private models.
- Trends in hotel pricing: identifying guest value hotel attributes using the cases of Lisbon and PortoPublication . Castro, Conceição; Ferreira, Fernanda A.; Ferreira, FlávioPurpose – The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare the effect of different hotel characteristics and room attributes on room rates of hotels in the cities of Lisbon and Porto, the capital and second most important city in Portugal. Design/methodology/approach – Using the hedonic pricing method, hotel characteristics are decomposed and analyzed, giving us the perception of the impact of each hotel attributes on the room rates and the people’s willingness to pay for this. Ordinary least square regression analysis was applied to the hedonic price model to find which variables could explain differences in the hotel room rates in Lisbon and Porto. Findings – The results suggest that in Lisbon and in Porto, a number of common characteristics have significant effects on consumer willingness to pay for a stay in a hotel as star rating, consumer rating and the room size. In Porto, the existence of a fitness centre and in Lisbon, the distance to the city centre are also attributes that create a premium in room rates. Practical implications – The knowledge of the most valued characteristics by consumers is an important tool for hotel managers to define a price strategy. Also important is the knowledge of the attributes that provide more added value for consumers as these should be taken into account in new investment decisions. Originality/value – This study highlights the implications of the way one defines and measures qualitative hotel characteristics in hedonic pricing. Although the hedonic method has been applied in several studies, to our knowledge, in Portugal, there are few studies applied only to hotel room rates, and there are no studies comparing hotel room rates in different Portuguese cities. Moreover, the research highlights the critical role of a proper definition and measurement of the variables in hedonic pricing in general and the hotel star in particular.
- Assessment experiences in a math course-grading questions and dilemmasPublication . Soares, Filomena Baptista; Nunes, Maria Paula; Lopes, Ana PaulaSimultaneously inherent “validation” tasks, as far as grading and assessing are concerned, fundamentally from the students’ point of view, but, sometimes, even from our own. The generalised Math “trauma” is a difficult start up invisible barrier that we must overcome every single semester, by implementing different strategies, developing new materials, motivating with digital and technological resources (using students’ digital skills), among many other tactics and schemes. But, in the end, the numerical grade – the knowledge and skills construction validation – must appear posted in the “system”. As Math lecturers in a Higher Education Institution, for more than twenty years, these problems are a daily challenge we face, and the issues we intend to analyse here, emerge as a consequence of a certain "emptiness" we feel regarding the assessment we have to carry out, in the sense that we still don’t have an answer to the following question: “Is it legitimate to "close your eyes" to the basic errors (some severe) when assessing learning outcomes in advanced subjects?” We teach at "end of the line", as far as General Mathematics is concerned, since our students are, essentially, from Management and Accounting Bachelor degrees. This paper will be structured in four distinct parts, starting with the Specific and General Outcomes and skills in the Math course in question, giving also a global vision of all its syllabus components and the teaching Methodologies implemented. Subsequently, we will refer to the coherence between teaching methods and the course learning objectives as well as their connection to the syllabus items. Finally we will go through a section of small questions and answers, with their respective detailed analysis, in order to provide an objective reading material, trying to promote a fruitful and open discussion on the subject.
- “Flipped classroom with a MOOC” an e-learning model into a mathematics coursePublication . Lopes, Ana Paula; Soares, Filomena BaptistaNowadays, the online environment and technology tools are changing the way professors are developing and presenting course curriculum. Alongside this growth, we have assisted to the fast development of distance learning tools such as Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and the use of new teaching and learning models such the “Flipped Classroom” or “Inverted Classroom” model. This model is a pedagogical inversion of the traditional teaching paradigm: the main actions of the teaching and learning process that are used in classroom are now prepared by students previously before coming to class and provides the instructor with better opportunities for quality interaction with the students and helps students to develop a better understanding of the content and a deeper sense of community as a result of the student interaction in the course development and engagement. The purpose of this paper is to present an experimental Higher Educational plan called “Flipped Classroom with a MOOC”, within the project “Mathematics without STRESS - MOOC”, that is using flipped classroom model as a pedagogical strategy. Furthermore, it relates such strategy with active learning practices and discusses its effectiveness, investigating how the flipping affects student’s achievement and engagement. We also will present the results of a survey in which students were asked about “Flipped Learning with a MOOC” as a teaching method, using their experience from the course Mathematics Zero.
- Promoting audiovisual insights in math subjectsPublication . Soares, Filomena Baptista; Lopes, Ana PaulaIt seems that the digital world is all around us, wherever we turn to. Although not palpable, this world is already an important part of our everyday lives. When we talk specifically about the teaching/learning process we see that, at least in the last decade, the development of alternative and new strategies has been huge. The way students react to some methods and tactics is changing and engaging then into their own learning process is becoming a constant “challenge” to teachers, in all different educational levels. As Math professors in a High Education Institution where Mathematics is a basic and supporting course to other advanced (but non-Mathematical) ones, this so called “challenge” grows exponentially. In this paper we analyse the impact of introducing and supporting some Math contents through video lectures, in a voice over presentation style, based on animated arrangements, in our own mother language. These videos were developed for a first-year Math course in several Management degrees in the Tourism and Hospitality Area. The specific curricular items were chosen with a primary objective of trying to level up the mathematical competencies that are fundamental to the development of ‘mathematical literacy’ of our students. Our video lectures are available to students in our institutional Moodle platform, with all its features, along with other resources (as texts and proposed exercises) as well as in a YouTube channel. We will also describe students’ background areas of study in preuniversity level and analyse if this has any influence in the way they interact with video-lectures in their own learning development and knowledge construction and report student’s perception of the eventual benefits of using this digital resource in engaging and promoting their self-responsibility in the leaning process. Finally, we will analyse students’ evaluation of the videos recorded by the professors and uploaded to the Moodle platform and YouTube as a learning tool.
- Environmental taxation: privatization in an international duopoly with tariffsPublication . Ferreira, Fernanda A.; Ferreira, Flávio
- The LinkedIn platform in human resources recruitmentPublication . Silva, Cândida; Silva, Susana; Martins, DoraLinkedIn is one of the leading social networks aimed at professional use, proving to be a tool highly valued by human resources technicians and also by users in general. This tool helps professional to keep their information up to date. The main goal of this studywas to understand what human resource consultants look for in a LinkedIn profile, what skills are most valued, and why some companies privilege LinkedIn tool in the recruitment process. To carry out the study were selected nine human resources consulting companies that use the LinkedIn tool in the recruitment and selection process. Therefore, was conducted a qualitative method, supported on Grounded Theory technique for codding purposes. The instrument for gathering information was a sociodemographic questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. In total, were conducted nine interviews with each of the human resources consultants responsible for the recruitment of candidates from the selected companies. The results suggest the gradual use of the LinkedIn tool to support the recruitment and selection processes. However, using LinkedIn as a recruitment technique that is not used in isolation, recruiters only use it as a complement to the recruitment process.At the end of the paper the results are discussed and some future research directions presented
- Tourism demand in the Algarve region: evolution and forecast using SVARMA modelsPublication . Lopes, Isabel Cristina; Soares, Filomena Baptista; Silva, Eliane Costa eTourism is one of the Portuguese economy’s key sectors, and its relative weight has grown over recent years. The Algarve region is particularly focused on attracting foreign tourists and has built over the years a large offer of diversified hotel units. In this paper we present multivariate time series approach to forecast the number of overnight stays in hotel units (hotels, guesthouses or hostels, and tourist apartments) in Algarve. We adjust a seasonal vector autoregressive and moving averages model (SVARMA) to monthly data between 2006 and 2016. The forecast values were compared with the actual values of the overnight stays in Algarve in 2016 and led to a MAPE of 15.1% and RMSE= 53847.28. The MAPE for the Hotel series was merely 4.56%. These forecast values can be used by a hotel manager to predict their occupancy and to determine the best pricing policy.
- Tourism planning and development: the case of Portugal’s Norte regionPublication . Lopes, Ana Paula; Soares, Filomena BaptistaTourism has been gaining increasing importance in the global economy, in general, and, more specifically, in Europe, Portugal, and smaller areas such as Portugal’s Norte region. The north of Portugal has a rich cultural, historical and architectural landscape heritage, including some pearls that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has classified over the years as World Heritage Sites. With its wide-ranging impact on economic growth, employment and social development, tourism can be a powerful tool with which to shape the Portuguese economy, contributing to the country’s competitiveness, richness and cohesion. Therefore, the government and tourism stakeholders have recently made a stronger commitment to developing this sector. The goal of this study was to analyse tourism policies’ contributions to the development of the tourism sector in the northernmost region of Portugal, included in the National Strategic Plan for Tourism (PENT) and in the Regional North Tourism Agenda (ART). This study sought to achieve these objectives by focusing on two main aspects. First, it examined the characteristics of the sector, identifying the tourism products in the Norte region. Second, this research analysed the overall picture of the sector’s development between 2004 and 2014. For that, we made a descriptive analysis of the main tourism indicators based on data collected from several sources, namely the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (National Statistics Institute) (INE), PENT, the Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Norte (Northern Portugal Regional Coordination and Development Commission), Turismo de Portugal (Tourism of Portugal) and Turismo do Porto e Norte de Portugal (Tourism of Oporto and Northern Portugal). The results reveal that investment in tourism in the Norte region has included offering eight primary tourism products and differentiators in four tourism subregions (i.e. Oporto Metropolitan Area, Alto Minho, Douro and Terras de Trás-os-Montes). Comparing the forecast values in terms of overnight stays, tourists and revenue set by PENT, the reality showed that the results were a little bit far from the expected; however, the findings confirm the common perception that Portugal’s Norte region is still experiencing a trend towards growth as a tourist destination.
- An empirical study on crowdsourcing innovation intermediariesPublication . Silva, Cândida; Ramos, IsabelInnovation is recognized by academics and practitioners as essential to enhance the competitiveness of organizations and foster their growth. Globalization, the Internet and technologies developments, particu- larly of Web 2.0, and the proliferation of its use by society, have created new forms of communication and interaction between individuals. These individuals become more active in the global network, they stop being mere consumers of information to be also creators. Thus, innovation is increasingly beyond organizational boundaries. The development of Web 2.0, particularly its collaborative component, boost- ed the emergence of crowdsourcing phenomenon. This is essentially a social and organizational phenom- enon in several dimensions. Thus, the main objective of this project was to understand the phenomenon of crowdsourcing for innovation and realize how this can be a path to enhance innovation in organizations. Therefore, it was conducted an empirical study with companies that realize activities of crowdsourcing innovation, open innovation and intermediation of innovation and technology. From this study has emerged a model of knowledge for crowdsourcing innovation intermediaries, which are the main result of this work. The model integrates three components of value capture and creation that an innovation inter- mediary should have to enhance and improve organization innovation capacity: facilitate collaboration between organizations, linking the organization to the external environment, and enabling mediation ser- vices.