REPOSITÓRIO P.PORTO
Repositório Científico do Politécnico do Porto
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Startups em Tempos de Covid-19: Desafios e Conexões de Ideias
Publication . Martins-Rodrigues, Maria Carolina; Rosa, Luciana Aparecida Barbieri da; Sousa, Maria José; Monteiro de Oliveira, Antonio; Dias, Marta Ferreia
importância no que tange às relações no ambiente de negócios, seja através de pesquisas voltados para uma face empreendedora, tecnológica ou inovadora. Nesta perspetiva, é importante referir que, as empresas voltadas para a área tecnológica vêm se realçando e seus componentes emergem de instituições de ensino, orgãos públicos, etc. Nesse sentido, que se aponta e se fundamentam as startups (Molodchik.et al, 2014)
Neste cenário, um dos temas que está entrelaçado com as startups é capital intelectual (CI), que vem sendo discutido nas esferas teóricas sobre diferentes abordagens. Nesse sentido, Padrão e Andreassi (2013), destacam que o CI procede de princípios que se originam do conhecimento dos indivíduos, esses são habilidades importantes para as organizações e para sua competitividade.
Nesta perspetiva, o capital intelectual tem um impacto direto no sucesso empresarial, ou seja, nas Startups (HORMIGA; HANCOCK; VALLS-PASOLA, 2013; BAPTISTA; KARAOZ; MENDONÇA, 2014). Nesse sentido, sabe-se da atual crise de saúde pública, causada pelo Coronavírus, está causando uma crise econômica global. A crise obrigará as empresas a criar novos modelos de negócios em diferentes setores, como restauração, comércio, turismo, pois levará a mudanças nos padrões de consumo, no comportamento dos indivíduos, além de hábitos de trabalho em diversas empresas.
Segundo Martins-Rodrigues (2018), em um contexto de permanente mudança, as incubadoras de empresas emergiram como motores do desenvolvimento empreendedor, destacando-se como impulsionadores do desenvolvimento local nas regiões. As startups sentem o impacto negativo nos negócios causado pelo coronavírus. As quedas de receita são visíveis, deixando os empresários preocupados com o possível encerramento das suas empresas.
Assim, para mitigar os efeitos da pandemia, é importante que as startups se reinventem. Portanto, é necessário que o Capital Intelectual (IC) da Incubadora flua efetivamente para as Startups, facilitando a inovação para se reinventarem, garantindo a sustentabilidade e capaz de sobreviver, garantindo seu sucesso, durante e após a pandemia. (Martins-Rodrigues, 2018).
Nesta ótica emerge a questão do estudo: Como é que o Capital intelectual flui da incubadora para as Startups, facilitando a inovação neste período de crise da saúde pública?
Diante dessas contemplações, o objetivo desse artigo é identificar se o IC flui da Incubadora para a Startup, facilitando a inovação para reinventar, sobrevivendo ao período da crise de saúde pública. A metodologia aplicada para esse fim é um estudo de caso qualitativo, estando em fase de entrevistas com a Incubadora da Universidade de Aveiro sobre o impacto causado pelo Covid-19 nas incubadoras em Portugal.
Nesse sentido, é importante destacar a importância deste estudo e da parceria de investigadores portugueses e brasileiros no projeto, além dos empresários das startups.
Brand, Ethics and Competitive Advantage
Publication . Monteiro de Oliveira, Antonio; Lima Rua, Orlando; Arias-Oliva, Mario; Pelegrín-Borondo, Jorge; Murata, Kiyoshi; Palma, Ana Lara
Media refer that customers buy brands because of ethical or moral concerns and that the majority of
the population confirms this by saying that they take moral and ethical concerns in account while
making a purchasing decision. Devinney (2012) proves this statement wrong with his research. He
sustains that customers indeed care about ethical concerns of products, brands and companies but
that these are not the most important ones in customers’ purchasing decisions. On the contrary of
what the media call “ethical consumers”, the majority of the consumers chose price, taste, positioning,
the context in which they buy, and convenience over a company’s ethical concerns. To summarise,
there is an attitude gap, which means that consumers say they make their purchasing decisions based
on ethical reasons, while in reality, the company’s social and ethical responsibility isn’t the most vital
criterion.
On the other hand, marketing strategies should be aware of online social networking tends in the
digital domain, where consumers are able to communicate more proactively (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014).
Knowledge and relationship are boosted by the digital dimension, allowing individuals to share
different cultures (Budden, Anthony, Budden, & Jones, 2011; Kumar, Novak, & Tomkins, 2010).
The brand is one of the most fundamental intangible resources (Kayo, 2002). Fakhrutdinova,
Kolesnikova and Yurieva (2014) state that this should be the cornerstone of a sustained and
differentiated international strategy that can ensure the organization’s competitive advantage and
clearly communicate its positioning to its audiences (Morgan and Pritchard, 2004). Holt, Quelch and
Taylor (2004) argue that brand value is even more relevant in an international context, where
competitiveness levels are also higher. Thus, it should convey a unified and coherent idea, but it must
also be adapted to local specificities, ie, it should be oriented to the markets in which it operates (Kirca
Jayachandran and Bearden et al., 2005), ensuring an effective response to consumers’ needs and
demands (Kohli & Jaworsk, 1990).
Market orientation is the concern of an organization to understand and respond to the characteristics
of the market in which it operates (Kohli et al., 1990), shifting its focus from an internal perspective to
an external perspective (Kirca, Jayachandran & Bearden, 2005). Popoli (2015) argues that the
organization’s direct link to the needs of its markets is central to the effective and full realization of a
strategy through differentiation, so the present study aimed to test the following hypothesis:
There is a progression where internationalization is defined by the “specific priorities of a country,
institution or a specific group of stakeholders” (Knight, 2015, p. 2), and where the success of its
implementation depends not only on the costs of but of the ability of organizations to understand
differences in the home and international markets, as well as to develop competitive advantage and
respond to the difficulties that arise from this heterogeneity (Brouthers, Brouthers & Werner, 2008;
Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2007; He, 2012), through a recognized and differentiated brand (Popoli,
2015). We intend to conduct an online survey to marketing managers from Portuguese footwear firms
analysing their (1) Facebook, (2) Twitter, (3) Orkut and (4) blogs. Based on the preceding discussion
the following hypotheses were developed for this study:
H1: Brand has a positive effect on market orientation on digital consumers.
H2: Brand has a positive effect on competitive advantage through differentiation on digital consumers.
H3: Market orientation has a positive effect on competitive advantage through differentiation on
digital consumers.
H4: Market orientation mediates the relationship between brand and competitive advantage through
differentiation on digital consumers.
The Impact of Ethics on Loyalty in Social Media Consumers
Publication . Lima Rua, Orlando; Monteiro de Oliveira, Antonio
We live in the Era of connectivity, characterized by the integration and transparency of information
technologies. Especially the social media that influence and enhance a market fostered by customers
with demanding choices and strong competition between the traditional market and the online
market. The market for selling products or services to end customers need to understand that their
consumer has free access to information when connecting to the internet. For example, when the
customer is chatting with the store attendant and then checking the feedbacks of real consumers,
either online or in conversation with friends, or when he is looking for an item online and many ad
suggestions appear in the browser with more affordable prices. Thus, for a company to build the bases
for sustained competitiveness, it is necessary to take into account innovation and the dynamic learning
capacity (Rua & Melo, 2015), and ethics usually are not considered in this process.
Due to a large number of options present in the market, if a company does not know how to formulate
strategies that differentiate it from its competitors, win the loyalty of its customers and have
reputational and relational values in its brand, it can involuntarily pass unnoticed before the choice of
its consumers. Barney (1991) explains that what makes companies different from each other is the
management and development of existing resources and capacities within the organization. According
to Kotler, Kartajaya and Setiawan (2017, p. 87) “the number of brands that people recommend is less
than the number of brands that people buy, which, in turn, is less than the number of brands that
people know”. Thus, while a company may be disregarded by its potential customers because its
products do not have an intangible value compared to the options available in the market, it can also
be “discarded” due to its reputation, built through reports of shopping experience shared by social
circles and digital media.
The search for a prominent position, among the variety of offers on the market, requires companies
to have an authentic personality and the development of differentiated and/or innovative business
strategies within the value chain, and ethics should be a keystone of loyalty strategies. Augusto and
Almeida Júnior (2015), refer that the investment in the relationship with the customers can be a
possibility of differentiation before the competition. Kotler et al. (2017), state that social media is a
powerful relationship channel for the connection between client and company, as it breaks barriers
and allows the parties to interact as friends, to develop a relationship between them. Kotler and Keller
(2012, p. 19), argue that “attracting a new customer can cost five times more than maintaining an
existing one and relationship marketing emphasizes customer retention”. It is important to remember
the importance of retaining this client, as it is useless to stand out and not be able to have a stable
client base, Reichheld and Sasser (1990), carried out a study to prove that, by reducing the desertion
of clients by 5%, the profit potential of companies can increase up to 80%.
Freire, Lima and Leite (2009), refer that relationship marketing is a tool that can be used to increase
the perception of the brand value and the profitability of the company over time, as well as the
understanding and relationship management between this and its customers, current and potential.
On the other hand, Shani and Chalasani (1992, p. 44) define relationship marketing as “an integrated effort to identify, maintain and build a network with individual consumers and to continually
strengthen the network for the mutual benefit of both sides, through interactive, individualized and
value-added contacts over a long period”. Scholars such as Shani and Chalasani (1992), Hennig-Thurau
and Hansen (2000), Freire, Lima and Leite (2009), Kotler and Keller (2012) and Kotler et al. (2017) argue
that relationship marketing powers the creation of company value, specifically in intangible resources.
The aforementioned studies present characteristics and constructs of relationship marketing and
intangible resources, however, the purpose of this research is to add value to the studies by developing
a theoretical model in which it is possible to analyze the causal relationship between the theoretical
perspective and the practice of entrepreneurs on the themes of relationship marketing, loyalty and
intangible resources of the company.
Thus, this research aims to analyze the influence between relationship marketing and ethics as an
intangible resource. To make this possible, a proposed model will be developed to analyze Relationship
Marketing and its indicators (relationship, satisfaction, commitment, trust and ethics between the
parties involved) with the dependent latent variable Intangible Resources and its indicators (relational
and reputational resources), taking into account the mediator variable of Loyalty.
We intend to conduct an online survey to marketing managers from Portuguese footwear firms
analyzing their social media communication instruments.
The face of low back pain: A preliminary method for quantifying pain-related facial expressions
Publication . Parolini, Franciele; Pires, Ricardo; Santos, Sara Dereste dos; Goethel, Márcio F.; Becker, Klaus; Vilas-Boas, João Paulo; Santos, Rubim; Ervilha, Ulysses F.; Rubim Silva Santos, Manuel; Carvalho Santos Parolini, Franciele
Facial expressions of pain are essential for pain assessment, yet subjective pain reports often vary between sexes. Traditional self-report measures are prone to bias, and objective methods are needed for more reliable pain evaluation. To develop and validate a subjectivity-free automated tool to assess acute low back pain using facial expressions recorded during a functional spinal extension task. Thirty healthy adults, aged 18–40 years. Methods: Participants received intramuscular injections of hypertonic (pain) and isotonic (placebo) saline in the lumbar region during separate sessions. Facial expressions were video-recorded during a submaximal lumbar extension task and analyzed using a custom software based on Haar Cascade and Local Binary Pattern Histogram algorithms, which are techniques that do not require neither training data nor subjective labeling, contrary to what happens in deep learning solutions. The tool successfully detected significant differences in facial expressions between pain, placebo, and pain-free conditions (p < 0.001). Test–retest reliability was good (ICC = 0.85). While both sexes showed similar facial expression patterns during pain, males reported higher pain scores on the numeric rating scale (p < 0.01). Pain significantly reduced steadiness of force in both sexes. The automated tool objectively quantified facial expressions associated with acute low back pain and revealed sex-related differences in subjective pain perception. This multimodal approach integrating expression analysis, physical performance, and self-report may enhance the accuracy of pain assessment in physiotherapy settings.
Sustentabilidade, Governação Colaborativa e Iniciativas Público-Privadas
Publication . Monteiro de Oliveira, Antonio; Monteiro, Sofia
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