Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2016-07-18"
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- Public-Private Partnerships in the hospital sector : analysis of the performance of the four PPP Hospitals in PortugalPublication . Carnall, Mariana Ferreira; Pinheiro, Susana Frazão Ferreira FernandesPPPs are being used worldwide in the hospital sector, despite the absence of a consensual definition and structural model. For the purpose of this thesis, a review of the existing PPP definitions, models and main drivers was conducted. A particular focus was given to the existing PPP hospitals models within Europe. The main discrepancies/differences seem to be between the PPP hospitals models that include the provision of clinical services and the ones that don’t (i.e. only involve infrastructure). Portugal announced an intensive PPP hospital program in 2001. PPPs were introduced while a complete reorganization of the hospital sector was occurring, leading to a shift in the Portuguese government /Ministry of health's role regarding the healthcare sector. So far the literature was not able to prove and to demonstrate the advantages of the use of PPPs in the hospital sector for all cases and models. In order to analyze and understand the performance of the PPP hospitals compared to the remaining public hospital, an analysis was conducted. This was based on the data provided by the ACSS. In general, PPP hospitals presented better values than the national average and an improvement tendency. The PPP hospitals particularly stood out in both quality and financial-based analysis. Given this study’s conclusion and limitations, suggestions for further research were given, namely a Value for money analysis should be conducted.
- Living Goods : sustainability and impact of hybrid models in the developing world : the need for a scalable game-changing health solutionPublication . Páscoa, Filipa Isabel Ângelo Carvalho; Pinheiro, Susana Frazão Ferreira FernandesThe aim of this dissertation is to study how an innovative system, the hybrid model, has the potential to solve the severe health issues that are present in today’s developing world. The problem statement is based on understanding how can this type of model be sustainable and how great of an impact it can achieve; while also realizing if it presents itself as a scalable solution. In order to do so, a teaching case was developed, based on LG, an American based social enterprise that created a personalized hybrid model to tackle the health issues in the developing world, with the ultimate goal of improving health status of entire populations. A pioneer user of this model in the healthcare industry, LG is now a fully established organization, operating in Uganda, Kenya, Myanmar and Zambia and having improved the lives of millions. In the following pages the dissertation’s entire outline is introduced and there is a methodology section to explain how the data was collected. After that, we the present an overview of the existing literature on the relevant topics that influence what is being studied. The next section presents the case study, which focuses on LG as a social enterprise and goes deeply into the organization’s disruptive model; followed by teaching notes to debate the case during class. In the end, important conclusions are presented alongside some guidelines and topics for possible future researches.
- A projecção dos diferentes tipos de grupos societários na governação das sociedades coligadasPublication . Martins, Vera de Lemos Cabral Granadeiro; Cunha, Paulo Miguel Olavo de Pitta e
- Segmentation of online behaviour : the website & the social networkPublication . Slits, Petra Janna Elizabeth; Costa, Ana Isabel de AlmeidaEffective marketing communication activities require companies to identify and target the right customer segments. This dissertation explores the potential of social network analysis as a tool for online behaviour segmentation. To this end, the patterns of user interactions in the Facebook page of a Portuguese company, alongside clickstream data from its website, were cluster analysed. The cluster analysis of the interaction patterns yielded four clusters, mainly based on differences in content of the posts on Facebook. These clusters were the Photo-fans, Route-lovers, Promo-people and Video-viewers. The SNA metrics were able to provide concrete insights to characterize these segments. The analysis of clickstream data also yielded four clusters: Prospect, Info Seekers, Curious and Scanners. These consumer segments differ in terms of search detail, which could be attributed to their relative level in the purchase process. A field study on the Facebook page was conducted to link the interaction patterns to the browsing behaviour on the website. For the content of the posts during this field study, the clickstream data of the website did not show substantial differences. This dissertation concludes by noting that SNA tools can be useful and provide insights for marketers that attempt to segment social network audiences. Also, the link between the behaviour of social network audience and website visitors potentially leads to useful and actionable insights
- Atitudes de enfermeiras e médicos face a morfina na região do Valais, SuiçaPublication . Ferreira, Maria das Dores Lopes de Almeida; Vieira, Margarida Maria; Vidal, Pedro MarquesOs enfermeiras e outros profissionais de saúde são muitas vezes relutantes em prescrever e administrar morfina para o controlo da dor dos pacientes. Há que compreender as razões de tal relutância utilizando instrumentos validados. O nosso conhecimento, tal instrumento não existe para a Suíça francófona. Este estudo dividiu-se em duas partes: na primeira, avaliámos as propriedades psicométricas da versão francesa de um instrumento que afere as atitudes face à prescrição e administração de morfina. Na segunda, avaliámos essas mesmas numa amostra de profissionais de saúde do cantão do Valais, Suíça. O instrumento inicial de 24 itens apresentou uma correlação intraclasse (CIC) de 0,69 (CI 95%: 0,64 a 0,73, P<0,001), e um α de Cronbach de 0,700. Após a exclusão de cinco itens, a versão breve revelou uma CIC de 0,74 (CI 95%, 0,70 a 0,77, P<0,001) e um α de Cronbach de 0,741. A análise factorial conduziu a cinco componentes que explicam 54.3% da variância total. Os cinco componentes denominaram-se: “risco de adição/dependência”, “razões operacionais para não utilizar morfina”, “risco de agravamento”, “outros riscos (que não de dependência) ” e “razões externas (não operacionais) ”. Na aplicação do instrumento, mais de metade dos participantes revelou uma atitude negativa em relação à maioria dos eventos adversos relacionados com a morfina. Numa análise bivariada, os participantes que trabalham em geriatria demonstraram uma atitude mais negativa face à utilização da morfina que os participantes que trabalhavam em medicina e cirurgia. Os participantes suíços revelaram uma atitude mais positiva face à utilização de morfina do que os estrangeiros. Não foram encontradas diferenças relativamente ao género, à profissãoou >14 anos) e à religião (católicos vs. outra/nenhuma religião). Estas conclusões foram ulteriormente confirmadas por ajuste multivariado. Este trabalho permitiu simplificar e validar a versão francesa de um instrumento de aferição da opiofobia nos profissionais de saúde da zona francófona da Suíça, e mostrar que As atitudes face às várias utilizações da morfina advêm principalmente dos potenciais efeitos adversos que lhe são associados e são influenciadas pela especialidade e pela nacionalidade do profissional de saúde. (enfermeiras ou médicos), o tempo de experiência profissional (≤14 anos ou >14 anos) e à religião (católicos vs. outra/nenhuma religião). Estas conclusões foram ulteriormente confirmadas por ajuste multivariado. Este trabalho permitiu simplificar e validar a versão francesa de um instrumento de aferição da opiofobia nos profissionais de saúde da zona francófona da Suíça, e mostrar que As atitudes face às várias utilizações da morfina advêm principalmente dos potenciais efeitos adversos que lhe são associados e são influenciadas pela especialidade e pela nacionalidade do profissional de saúde.
- Co-creation vs. professional design in smartphones : differences in perceived perceptions and preferencesPublication . Correia, Ana Sofia Cunha; Costa, Cláudia Isabel de SousaAn increase number of existing literature mentions the importance of introducing users in existing new product development across the industries. This study is focused in the smartphone industry. Co-Creation is an active collaboration between the smartphones manufacturers and consumers, which is an innovative concept. There is little known about how consumers who did not participate in this collaboration react to it for high-complexity products, like the case with the smartphone. Considering that, this study aims to find the differences in perceptions and preferences consumers have towards different NPD processes - Co-Creation and Professional Design. Consumers’ perceptions were measured by easy-adoption of Innovation and brand-consumer identification and preferences were evaluated by purchase intention. Using the analysis of differences in means (ANOVA) it was assessed these perceptions and preferences. There was also constructed a linear model to test what was the relationship of the different variables with the Purchase Intention. In the end, the study revealed that there were positive perceptions towards the Co-Creation concept but consumers had a higher purchase intention for the Professional design. Through the outcomes of this research design, smartphone brands can use user innovations to improve the product perceptions but their brand positioning should not mention the use of this process to the general public. Limitation and opportunities for further research are also discussed.
- The impact of contest attributes on solvers’ participation and performance in crowdsourcing contestsPublication . Kutschera, Fabian; Costa, Cláudia Isabel de SousaCrowdsourcing contests as a means to leverage the knowledge of external individuals to solve firms’ innovation problems are growing in popularity. Little research has been de-voted to the question how such contests should be ideally designed in order to achieve a high level of participation and high quality solutions. By analysing a data set of 913 soft-ware engineering contests from the platform TopCoder, this study investigates the impli-cations of three particular contest elements: the number of participants, the monetary award and the problem description. The results confirm the theoretic model, stating that a large number of participants is preferable for a seeker (firm) and outweighs the arising disadvantage of lowered efforts of solvers due to a greater competition. This theoretic discussion was enriched by the finding of a curvilinear relationship between the number of solvers and the contest’s performance, wherefore adding contestants is only beneficial until a certain level. Furthermore, results show that a high monetary award captures more participants but leads to a lower contest performance, which is contrary to prior research. Regarding the problem description, it was shown that a short problem description in-creases participation and improves the contest performance whereas a problem descrip-tion, which includes URL links to other homepages, reduces participation but improves a contest’s best solution. By understanding the outcomes of this study, firms better under-stand how to design crowdsourcing contests.
- Older adult's response to social media ADSPublication . Hübner, Florian; Costa, Ana Isabel de AlmeidaDespite the fast growth of social media advertising and its global impact on the consumption behaviour of young adults, little is known about the performance of social media ads among older adults. According to the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, people of different ages prioritize different types of goals. In view of this, this dissertation investigates differences in responses to affective and rational social media ads among older adults (60+) by experimentally exposing them to advertising in Facebook about a social (hedonic) app. Results reveal that affective ad appeals have a more positive impact on older adults’ responses to social media ads than rational ones. Therefore, it can be concluded that older adults are indeed more responsive to social media ads focused on attaining emotional meaning in life than those offering solutions to practical (e.g., informational) needs. Among these, women seem to be even more prone to ads based on affective appeal than men. Therefore, a higher success rate in terms of engagement will be obtained by targeting women with affective ad appeals.
- The impact of ethical and despotic leadership on the emotions and team work engagement perceptions of individual members within work teamsPublication . Simões, João Gonçalo Madeira Fraga Fernandes; Costa, Patricia LopesThe purpose of this thesis is the study of the impact of two different leadership styles, ethical and despotic, on three different variables of members of a team: positive emotions, negative emotions and perception of team work engagement. Data was collected from both real world companies and through a laboratory study. The results show that ethical leadership seems to positively impact team work engagement perceptions and positive emotions and to negatively impact negative emotions. Despotic leadership, on the other hand, seems to be linked only to an increase of negative emotions. When analyzing data collected exclusively from companies, effects on positive emotions are not statistically significant. In terms of data exclusively retrieved from the study, only effects of ethical leadership on team work engagement and positive emotions are statistically significant. Furthermore, it was found that positive emotions seem to mediate the effect of ethical leadership on team work engagement.
- Empirical investigation of the impact of online Word of Mouth on customer based brand equity in the German product marketPublication . Eckes, Matthias Johannes; Vale, Rita Miguel Ramos Dias Coelho doFor companies, intangible assets like their brands are gaining importance. Consequently, it is crucial for marketers and for academia to understand how to build and nourish strong brands. Brands deliver value to the company and are a signal of differentiation in the customer’s mind. The brand equity residing in the mind of a customer can define the strength of a brand. In addition, previous research indicates that word of mouth (WOM) is a strong influencer on the customer’s perception in any purchase situation. Hence, this study was a step forward and brings the concepts of customer-based brand equity (CBBE) and WOM together. Therefore, a model was developed that captures the effects of manipulated WOM on the CBBE, representing the strength of a brand. Further, the researcher was interested if the effects of positive or negative WOM are moderated by the knowledge level of the customer. Using a longitudinal study design, a sample of 36 participants was exposed to either positive or negative WOM. The results of the repeated CBBE measures indicate that negative WOM has a negative impact on CBBE. Additionally, results show that novice customers are with the magnitude and number of effects stronger affected by negative WOM than brand experts. An influence of positive WOM on the CBBE could not be found. The study allows two distinct implications to protect and build a strong brand. First, an increase of the knowledge level of customers via brand education. Second, leverage on social media to encourage customer feedback.