Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2016-10-18"
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- Assessing the market performance of social media, monitoring dashboards : identification of key attributesPublication . Restrepo, Hernan Dario Dussan; Costa, Ana Isabel AlmeidaWhich technical features drive market demand for social media monitoring dashboards (SMMDs)? Social networks are a “door of opportunity” to establish a product or brand through social media, and to engage new consumers. Social media makes it easier to monitor, collect, analyze, and manage sentiment, attitudes, complaints, software inquiries, and discussions. A measurement strategy is a fundamental factor to obtain these types of information. Although there are alternative ways to gather this data, different SMMDs enable data analysis, allowing management to glean business insights that enables enterprises to capitalize on all this information to make informed decisions. This dissertation includes key features that can be used to analyze SMMDs. A literature review helped to identify research questions for this study. Consequently, questions were formulated in the interview script addressed to informants in Colombia and Portugal. This interview filtered key features identified as most important when facing the need to choose a dashboard. Once the information was gathered, a survey was designed. The survey focused around three key features: visualization/user interface, real-time processing, and cost. These attributes emerged from an analysis of the respondents’ survey. Responses were then categorized, and themes began to be gleaned from the respondents’ answers. Finally, these categories were evaluated by community managers (CMs), which total number of collected samples was 169 surveys. The intentionality behind this methodology was to discover a criteria by which to select dashboards, concluding real-time processing as a key feature chosen by 69,2% of responders. Respondents chose it as a fundamental attribute. Another relevant issue during analysis, considered by CMs, based on years of experience with the tool, was Hootsuite since it is a well-known dashboard, with a mean of 3,39, and a σ=1,22. This choice represented approximately 33%, which made it the most preferred tool by CMs at middle to large companies.
- Managing organizational knowledge dynamics : how can MNC’s leverage knowledge dynamics to facilitate internationalization processes and further business development?Publication . Magro, Marina Bittencourt Vasconcelos; Leglise, LaureThis thesis sought to provide insight into how MNC’s leverage knowledge sharing dynamics for business improvement, by looking into the mechanisms of sharing, acquiring and retaining knowledge. This investigation also engendered a thorough appreciation of the factors obstructing knowledge exchange and the characteristics rendering knowledge sharing a strategically valuable process during international expansions and business developments. To investigate the research questions, a qualitative, single case-study methodology was employed, building upon empirical data obtained from a total of 16 semi-structured and 7 indepth interviews, as well as both internal and external contextual data on the Jerónimo Martins – the largest Portuguese international organization, operating in the Food Distribution, Manufacturing and Services sectors. The data collected was treated through the coding system, yielding an organized and exploitable structure for dataset analysis. This thesis argues that the likelihood of MNCs improving their internationalization processes and enhance business development, by leveraging knowledge sharing, is greater when the organization is able to effectively and, in an equitable way, transfer, acquire and retain knowledge across its internal network. This is particularly important for organizations that aim to approach new markets through local adaptation. Furthermore, this can only be successfully materialized through the reinforcing of both formal and informal organizational practices, which align cooperation, communication, ability, and motivation. This investigation’s originality lies in its fruitful endeavor to fill the gap in the literature concerning mostly the overlap in the fields of knowledge and internationalization, producing thus a combined integration of concepts for posterior, purposeful academic and managerial application.
- Do public firms invest less than their privately-held peers? : evidence from European firmsPublication . Caetano, Madalena Matias da Costa Dias; Moussu, ChristopheThe impact of the ownership structure on managerial decisions is a major topic within the corporate finance field. By following two alternative methodologies, this master thesis compares the corporate investment behavior of observably similar privately-held and publicly-traded European companies for the period of 2006 to 2015. The study unveils that unlisted firms do invest more in R&D than their stock market listed peers. Yet, when corporate investment is measured as the annual increase in gross fixed assets instead, the relationship is no longer clear. Still, the impact of the firms’ listing status on corporate investment is much stronger when the latter is measured by R&D expenditures. We, thus, suggest that the legal requirements imposed upon listed enterprises to disclose key financial information are a deterrent for companies whose competitive advantage heavily relies on R&D to go public. The overall attained results are consistent with the agency theory’s view on the impact of short-termism and managerial myopia on public firms’ underinvestment. When considering the European financial crisis’ effect on investment levels, we find that private and public firms are equally affected. Even though it did have an impact on absolute investment levels, the financial crisis seems to have not significantly affected the relative corporate investment behavior of private and public companies. In fact, private enterprises were documented to invest more in R&D than their publicly-listed peers regardless of the period being considered. When gross investment is considered, results vary for the post-crisis period though.
- Which factors drive shadow banking? : an empirical studyPublication . Alhusen, Sophia Barbara; Albuquerque, Rui André Pinto de; Østergaard, CharlotteThis thesis is an empirical analysis of the factors that drive the size of the shadow banking sector. Shadow banking, in this analysis, uses the flow of fund measure. Two-way fixed-effects panel regression for a cross section of 26 jurisdictions reveals that shadow banking in emerging and developed markets is driven by different factors. In emerging countries, the growth in shadow banking is mainly associated with increased demand of institutional investors for low risk, high yield investments. In developed countries, the size of shadow banking is related with the state of the traditional banking system. The explanatory power of these variables was much greater before the Financial Crisis of 2007/2008 than after, which could be explained by tighter regulation and related changes in the shadow banking sector.
- The impact of local responsiveness on the process of internationalization : the case of Jerónimo Martins in ColombiaPublication . Morais, Mariana Carvalho Duarte de Sousa; Leglise, LaureThe case study under examination focuses on the internalization strategy held by a major Portuguese retail company that decided to expand its business to Colombia by starting a successful local supermarket chain named "Ara". The objective of the research is to provide an important insight regarding the relationship between the dilemma of standardization/adaptation, the Local Responsiveness (“LR”) impact and sustainability for the retail food industry. This dissertation endeavours to recognize the factors hidden LR as saw by administrators of Multinational Enterprises ("MNE") inside an element rising environment. This project purpose is to analyse three crucial areas that can definitely impact the success of such strategy: environment, structure and organization. The results that surfaced from this research attest the difficulty in understanding a given company’s international strategy, namely because although the internationalisation process can be easily assessed the underlying strategy suffers profound structural changes along the process. The final finding is that, to some extent, when the internationalization strategy considers LR as core goal, it supports sustainable growth and contributes to the success of the project. My goal is that the conclusions drawn from this study can make an important commitment to the current hypotheses with respect to the subject, and also helping organizations in characterizing and executing their internationalization methodologies.
- Which strategy should retail banks pursue in order to successfully engage the Millennial Generation?Publication . Saraiva, Carolina Machado de Almeida Garcia; Lino, Rute Sofia Barbosa XavierThe Millennial generation, also known as generation Y, is shaping the activity of retail banks in profound ways. This thesis aims at unveiling the main characteristics of Millennials, how they relate with banks and how the latter can adapt to them. In order to do so, it was performed a survey on both generation X and Millennials in order to understand the main differences between them in what concerns their preferences as retail banking consumers. In addition, it was also performed a focus group with participants of the Millennial generation in order to consolidate the findings of the survey. Finally, it was also performed an analysis on the strategy of an international retail bank that has been reshaping its business model with the intent of adapting to the modern times of technology and Millennials. To meet the Millennial challenge, retail banks will need to deeply change their business models and focus on a more proactive and customized relationship, invest in developing their mobile banking services and acknowledge the relevance of the social media in their relation with the clients
- Processos criativos na execução da imagem publicitariaPublication . Lopes, Filipe Campos de Sousa; Fernandes, Ana Cláudia Vieira LopesO presente estudo tem como principal objectivo promover a melhor compreensão da relação do processo criativo com a publicidade no contexto do ensino, procurando também dar resposta às necessidades dos adolescentes de compreenderem a força que a criatividade e a publicidade têm no seu dia-a-dia. A população-alvo é constituída por 29 alunos do 8.º ano da disciplina de Educação Visual. Como a temática da imagem publicitária e o marketing estão inseridas no programa curricular do 8ºano da disciplina de Educação Visual, decidiu-se aplicar um modelo síntese para as diferentes etapas do processo criativo, a fim de verificar a sua viabilidade. Este modelo é constituído por três fases distintas das quais fazem parte seis etapas. Para aplicação do modelo foi selecionado o projeto “Processos criativos na execução da imagem publicitária” – “Penso Rápido para a Crise”, onde os alunos tiveram oportunidade de utilizar diferentes materiais desde, lápis de cor, marcadores, papel transparente, de cor e autocolante, participando em todo o processo desde a criação, empacotamento e apresentação do resultado final. No fim da atividade, os alunos conseguiram atingir a principal meta que estava definida, interpretar a importância da imagem publicitária no quotidiano (a publicidade condiciona as escolhas, convence usando princípios éticos), demonstrando que é possível estimular a criatividade, sendo este modelo uma possível abordagem com resultados positivos.
- Towards a framework to predict start-up's business model success potentialPublication . Barros, Salvador Burnay; Bohnsack, RenéThe present master thesis regards the development a theoretical framework which is an algorithm with the goal of predicting start-ups business model’s success potential. It was designed to support entrepreneurs understanding better what venture capitalists and business angels (VC/BA) take into consideration for predicting start-ups’ success. ISC stands for Idea, Story and Context which are considered the main drivers towards start-ups’ business model success prediction by the model. This study has tested this framework on three real case-study start-ups to compare how the framework rates the three start-ups in comparison with business savvy people, such as VC/BA investors and management students. For doing this study, the framework leveraged an online platform named Business Model Composer®, an online platform for communicating business models using state-of-the-art research on business models’ topics. Finally, it is suggested how such algorithm could be integrated into an online tool to support entrepreneurs swiftly.
- Can we feel prettier? : makeup usage among portuguese women and Its potential extracted benefits : self-esteem, physical attractiveness, social confidence, social interactions, and satisfaction with lifePublication . Guimarães, Ana Luís Conduto de Castro; Vale, Rita Miguel Ramos Dias Coelho doTo the best of our knowledge, the existent studies in Portugal about makeup never focused on the benefits that women can extract from its usage. Moreover, the penetration of this category is much lower than the European average and has then room for growth. Therefore, the aim of the present thesis is to characterize the usage of makeup among Portuguese women, as well as to explore what are the relationship between the usage of makeup and different possible psychosocial benefits. To investigate this topic, first a literature review was done in order to understand what were the benefits that one could have from using makeup. The result was a set of five benefits: selfesteem, self-perceived attractiveness, social confidence, social interactions, and satisfaction with life. Based on the frequency of use and quantity of use, three segments of makeup users were created and the statistical analyses were performed. Makeup usage was found to positively impact four out of the five psychological dimensions. The higher the usage, in terms of quantity and frequency, the higher the levels of one’s self-esteem, self-perceived physical attractiveness, social confidence as well as social interactions. Regardless of the limitations and necessary future researches, the present thesis gives a primary contribution with regard the benefits that the usage of makeup can have on women’s lives. These insights enable beauty brands to better understand their consumers and the differences in usage among different segments, as well as the benefits that each one can extract.
- Improving the performance of social media campaigns with the internet of thingsPublication . Rivera Ospino, Miguel Jose; Costa, Ana Isabel AlmeidaThis dissertation describes the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in a social networked media campaign for a digital marketing agency. An electronic object platform a van, the interior of which changed color as a function of Twitter user interactions, was developed to simultaneously motivate and assess engagement with the campaign. The campaign’s dissemination was furthermore supported by Facebook posts and prior IoT based research measuring the popularity of different keywords in Twitter conversations, which were subsequently used as Hashtags in the campaign. Using a quasi-experimental methodology, it was created two campaigns. The results obtained a preview campaign (Without IoT) was compare with the results of the IoT campaign. Under the data analysis the IoT generate positive results as a tool for the Propagation of information.