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Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2019-07-05"

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  • The effect of Japan´s revitalisation strategy on the quality of corporate governance and firm performance
    Publication . Werner, Jasmin; Conti, Raffaele
    Japan introduced its corporate governance code in 2015. This paper discusses the code’s effect on firm performance and quality of corporate governance. It examines 170 listed TSE companies in a two-time period panel data setup. In the first part, this paper provides a comprehensive overview on existing literature on corporate governance and firm performance and illustrates Japan’s unique corporate governance system. Then, the compliance with the code’s principles is analysed. In the regression framework the study uses three dependent variables to comprehensively evaluate firm performance represented by return on equity and the quality of corporate governances measured in the management’s quality and independent board member representation. It first employs a simple fixed-effects model to assess if a significant change in the dependent variables can be observed over time. The results suggest an increase in return on equity and independent board member representation. In addition, this study confirms that the size of the board is negatively related with the effectiveness of the board. In the second analysis, the data is split into a control and a treatment group. Companies adapting the principles of the corporate governance code serve as treatment group, non-compliant companies represent the control group. The difference in difference approach does not reveal any additional significant results. This leads to the conclusion that the regulatory change to improve corporate governance and firm performance is not effective. This is a crucial finding for policy-makers in Japan to search for alternative approaches to reinvent the Japanese economy and the social traditions.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Restricted access Show more
  • Empirical analysis of user innovations in the healthcare industry
    Publication . Gerlach, Lilly-Sophie Erzsebet; Oliveira, Pedro Manuel Sousa Mendes
    Innovating in the healthcare industry is difficult since it is regulated by public reforms but at the same time occupied with private players. Thus, the private players, influenced by regula-tions, mostly focus on economically viable markets leaving underserved markets aside. This results into a discrepancy between being profitable and being socially responsible towards every single patient. Out of their needs, to identify a suitable treatment or product for their disease, some patients start to innovate, and thus develop solutions themselves. This can be observed by the steady increase of user innovations on the open innovation platform called Patient Innovation. To identify the reasoning behind creating a solution themselves, 727 solu-tions from a Patient Innovation have been analysed. The results suggest that patients are moti-vated to create innovations for various reasons, one being the lack of treatments in under-served markets. Further, benefits for established companies were recognized, one fact being that user innovators have a different kind of knowledge than healthcare company employees.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Restricted access Show more
  • Impacto do programa de clemência nas multas aplicadas a cartéis detetados na União Europeia
    Publication . Silva, Catarina Andreia Ferreira Ribeiro da; Cunha, Mariana Alves da
    O presente trabalho final de mestrado tem como objetivo responder às seguintes questões de investigação: “A introdução do Programa de Clemência na União Europeia tem alguma relação com o valor médio da multa e a duração do cartel?” e “A introdução do Programa de Clemência na União Europeia influencia o número de casos detetados?”. Para responder às questões de investigação, foram analisados os casos de cartéis detetados e julgados pela Comissão Europeia, entre 1971 e 2012. De modo a desenvolver a pesquisa realizamos, numa fase inicial, uma revisão de literatura com base em autores como Spagnolo (2000), Brenner (2005) e Levenstein e Suslow (2012). Com base nos dados disponibilizados pela Comissão Europeia sobre 110 casos de cartéis detetados, no período de 1971 a 2012, construímos uma base de dados de raiz com dados relevantes sobre cada caso, desde a duração do cartel, o tipo de cartel e a indústria, o número de empresas envolvidas, entre outros. Esta base de dados permitiu-nos obter dados suficientes para estimar, por mínimos quadrados, os modelos definidos para responder às questões de investigação, com recurso ao software STATA. A primeira questão “A introdução do Programa de Clemência na União Europeia tem alguma relação com o valor médio da multa e a duração do cartel?” é respondida através da estimação de três modelos. Dividimos a questão em dois modelos com base em dois períodos do tempo: os momentos pré e pós introdução do programa de clemência. O segundo modelo é mais completo, na medida em que esta inclui a multa praticada pelas autoridades com possibilidade de esta ter sofrido uma redução por ter existido cooperação por parte das empresas envolvidas no cartel. O último modelo diz respeito à duração do cartel e se esta é realmente influenciada pela introdução do programa de clemência na União Europeia, ou não. Com base nos resultados obtidos para o primeiro modelo, concluímos que apenas o programa de clemência é significativo para explicar o valor da multa média. Esta variável aumenta na presença do programa. Relativamente ao segundo modelo, apenas a variável “programa de clemência” é significativa, tal como o primeiro modelo. Contudo, estes modelos apresentam problemas de heteroscedasticidade e após a sua correção, as variáveis “número de empresas envolvidas” e “tipo de indústria”, mais especificamente, a indústria G, são significativas. Os resultados obtidos para o terceiro modelo, permitiram-nos observar que o número de empresas envolvidas no cartel tem uma relação positiva com a duração do cartel. Este modelo também apresentou problemas de heteroscedasticidade. Após a sua correção, as variáveis “número de empresas envolvidas” e “tipo de indústria”, mais especificamente, as indústrias C, H e R, são significativas. Para além dos modelos acima mencionados, após analisarmos as estatísticas descritivas das variáveis, decidimos estabelecer uma última hipótese que tem como objetivo analisar se a introdução da política influenciou de certa forma o número de casos detetados ou não. Relativamente a esta ultima hipótese, os resultados obtidos descreveram que a introdução do programa e o número de casos detetados têm de facto uma relaçao positiva, o que significa que a partir do momento em que a política de clemência começou a ser aplicada na União Europeia, o número de casos detetados e processados pelas autoridades aumentou.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Open access Show more
  • Environmental concerns and consumer behavior : a netnographic study on the Zero Waste online community
    Publication . Seabra, Filipa Matilde Marinho de; Oliveira, Pedro Luís Lopes de
    Waste generation has become one of the most severe environmental problems of the century. Vast majority of waste produced worldwide ends up in landfills, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and health problems. A growing number of consumers is joining the Zero Waste lifestyle and minimizing their consumption levels to reduce waste and plastic pollution. This thesis therefore aims to study the online community of Zero Wasters, understanding their behaviors and motivations, as well as challenges and advantages experienced by this consumer segment. Netnography was considered the most appropriate method to conduct the research. Results show that consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to reduce their environmental footprint by adopting a series of waste-reduction strategies. There is limited academic research addressing Zero Waste as a lifestyle and therefore the study fills a gap in existing literature. Moreover, it contributes to current academic debate by exploring other waste strategies that go beyond recycling. Despite recognizing the positive impact of their actions, Zero Wasters express frustration towards the lack of accountability and action by governments and manufacturers. The desired movement towards a circular economy requires behavioral change at a societal level, which can be fostered by Social Marketing. To maintain a positive reputation, companies must focus on redesigning the packaging of their products using more eco-friendly materials. Furthermore, measures must be applied to discourage landfilling, to limit the production of virgin plastics and to encourage a circular economy focused on reusing resources and minimizing waste.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Restricted access Show more
  • The market’s reaction to corporate stands on LGBTQ : related issues
    Publication . Krowinnus, Stefanie; Aranda Gutierrez, Ana Milena
    In recent years, it has become common for firms to get politically engaged in topics that appear marginal or distinct to the general business. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)- related issues currently receive high levels of interest in the political and corporate setting. And with corporations being publicly evaluated for their (non)engagement, this research aims to understand how the market reacts to corporate stances on LGBTQ-related issues. An event study is conducted over the years 2008 to 2018 to investigate the effect of corporate LGBTQ-related stances which are reported in newspaper articles on the respective corporate share prices. Further, this research analyzes the impact of individual as compared to cooperative stances, headquarter location, and respective predominant political orientation, and CEO activism on abnormal returns throughout the event window. The study returns insignificant abnormal returns which indicate that the market does not react to corporate stands on LGBTQ-related issues. There is also no statistical significance for the moderating variables. Despite the insignificant results, this study suggests that the market undervalues the potential long-term benefits of LGBTQ-related supportive corporate political action.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Restricted access Show more
  • The drivers and challenges within an online fitness and health community : a netnography study on the BBG online community
    Publication . Ferreira, Bárbara Freitas; Oliveira, Pedro Luís Lopes de
    The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the drivers for people joining fitness and health online communities and the main adversities faced by its members. In specific, it explores the “Bikini Body Guide”, a fitness and health online community, and uses Netnography as a qualitative research method to gather insights on online consumer behaviors. The results of the research reveal accountability to be the main driver for members joining the community. However, it also shows that its meaning differs from the social sciences when applied to the fitness and health context. While some members participate searching to create connections, others are looking for motivation and to sharing information. On the other hand, results show that the main challenge faced by members is in terms of frustrations, which can arise from two different sources. The first one is due to members’ ability to meeting their expectations, while the second derives from some struggles that appear along the journey such as lack of confidence, commitment or procrastination. Furthermore, this dissertation explains the implications and limitations of this study, and based on the insights collected suggests managerial recommendations, useful from a marketing viewpoint, that lies in helping marketers in the retention and increase of traffic of the community.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Open access Show more
  • Culture of innovation at Banco Montepio
    Publication . Callebaut, Sébastien Amaury N.; Lino, Rute Sofia Barbosa Xavier
    One of the greatest development of the recent years has been the advent of technological solutions aiming to transform the way individuals transfer money, use banking services and even buy stocks. However, this has shaken up the financial world and requires banks and financial intermediaries to design and offer new solutions to their clients. This dissertation aims to understand the elements that make a firm innovative and what prevents it from being innovative. This thesis further aims to determine the 5 most innovative firms and assess the gaps between Banco Montepio’s innovation processes and the innovation process of leading innovators. In order to do so, we conducted a review of articles and books focused on innovation. We then built a ranking by relying on rankings from BCG, PwC, Fast Company and Forbes. This ranking aimed to give a top spot to firms that were present in most rankings while being present for a large number of years. Finally, we conducted a survey at Banco Montepio that aimed to identify the gaps between their organizational culture and the culture of innovative leaders. Our results showed that innovative leaders tend to work in a focused way, relied heavily on experimentation and collaboration while holding their employees accountable for their actions. The 5 most innovative firms we found were Apple, Google, Amazon, Tesla and Samsung. Finally, our analysis showed that Banco Montepio had a relatively rigid hierarchy, didn’t enable its employees to experiment and didn’t rely on external sources of innovation.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Restricted access Show more
  • Consulting project for DHL Express Portugal : WCC channel improvement strategy
    Publication . Esipova, Anna; Lino, Rute Sofia Barbosa Xavier
    Summary: The thesis is written in order to provide hands-on advice for DHL Express Portugal on how to increase sales on their three channels (Walk, Click and Call). In order to do that firstly, the industry context overview is provided. After that customer journey is built based on Call Center and Service Point interviews, supported by survey findings. Next, customer segments are identified based on survey findings and with the help of hypotheses testing. Finally, regression with and without mediation is built in order to understand customer retention antecedents. At the end of the thesis, hands-on recommendations for DHL are provided. Findings: Author finds insights on how Walk, Click and Call channels are currently functioning and what can be done to improve the customer journey. Customer segments identification helps to understand what type of customers are currently using DHL Express and who are their potential customers. Customer retention analysis reveals customer value, service, brand trust as the most significant customer retention antecedents. Customer loyalty acts as a partial mediator in the model. Generally, the author finds that Click channel should be more emphasized as opposed to the other two channels.
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  • Voice search technology : a netnographic exploration of the behaviour of Amazon Alexa users in online communities
    Publication . Kroll, Franziska; Oliveira, Pedro Luís Lopes de
    Since this decade, voice search technology is spreading in today’s households. Experts predict that smart speaker manufacturers will sell approximately 94 million devices in 2019 accumulating the installed base to 207.9 million by the end of the year. In 2014, Amazon introduced the first cloud-enabled wireless speaker embedded with a conversational user interface, Alexa, and is dominating the market ever since. Plenty of opportunities to exploit this hype arise for companies offering voice search devices, for third-party suppliers selling compatible technologies and for companies aiming to promote their products through these search systems. By applying the qualitative research method “netnography”, this research analysed virtual conversations in Facebook online communities with the purpose of extracting insights about consumer attitudes towards voice search, Alexa, member engagement, motivations and barriers to future adoption. Firstly, negative media coverage regarding privacy concern issues has an impact on how Alexa is perceived online and also increases the controversial discussion in the communities. Additionally, findings are aligned with previous research regarding users personifying with the device. Thus, valuable insights are generated for an effective communication strategy including a successful collaboration with third-party suppliers and integration into smart-homes. Furthermore, both barriers for adoption and reasons for frustration were identified and recommendations were extracted to enhance the spreading of voice search technologies.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Restricted access Show more
  • Food tourism : a netnographic study about online engagement on food tourism communities and what to look for as a business owner
    Publication . Lobato, Luís Maria Fernandes Guimarães; Oliveira, Pedro Luís Lopes de
    Food tourism is becoming a relevant and developing trend in the industry of tourism. Consumers nowadays travel in order to explore and to get acquainted with cultures and realities they haven’t experienced. A substantial part of this discovery is played by food. This cultural feature is one of the strongest and most representative, it has been passed on from generation to generation to, ultimately, culminate on what it is today. Considering this trend, existing academic research about food tourism with the target of understanding consumers’ engagement has been conceived but is limited. Therefore, by using a qualitative method of netnography, the present thesis aims to understand users’ engagement in the online food tourism community. Results show the emergence of three themes that can be related to online food tourism communities. The most evident is online leadership demonstrated by the tight relationship between the leader and followers of the community. Secondly, knowledge is a theme due to the continuous exchange of food tourism expertise within the communities. Lastly, food tourism comes hand in hand with the development of emotions and the influence of behaviours, and thus the last theme to be considered is consequences. To conclude, implications include how food tourism business owners should advertise their food experiences, how they could collect valuable insights about their target audience and why opinion leaders shouldn’t be ignored.
    2019-07-05Master thesis Open access Show more