Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2020-07-03"
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- When the snow stops : how climate change impacts alpine competitive advantage and innovationPublication . Michel, Felix; Rajsingh, PeterEvery year, over 130 million people go on ski vacations worldwide. Half of them visit the biggest skiing hotspot in the world – the Alps. However, climate change now poses a significant threat to prosperity and income there, as winters are becoming shorter, infrequent and less reliable. By the end of this century, 70% less snow is projected for altitudes below 1500 m. This thesis discusses how executives assess exogenous threats, particularly the risks from climate change, and provides action plans for high and low altitude resorts to remain profitable. A quantitative survey across potential tourists and eleven semi-structured interviews with industry experts and resort executives served as primary research to enrich current knowledge. Interviews revealed that when executives have high conviction about climate change, their product offering becomes more diversified making the resort more resilient to threats. Yet, destinations universally invest in snow production equipment. Alpine tourists, including current non-skiers, show ongoing interest in skiing activities, so this is an expedient investment. Nevertheless, climate change creates a disparate impact for ski resorts. Low altitude resorts will struggle to remain profitable as costs for technical snow production rise with every increase in temperature. Thus, they should maintain some ski alpine offerings at higher elevations and invest in novel markets with additional attractive activities for resorts at lower elevations. High altitude resorts will profit from climate change, as tourists will retreat to snow reliable resorts. Hence, these resorts should maintain sustainable competitive advantages by investing in snow reliability, accommodation capacities and infrastructure.
- What´s the extra mile for consumers´ adoption of electric vehicles? : a netnographic study on electric vehicles online communitiesPublication . Pereira, Filipa Guerreiro; Oliveira, PedroThe progress of the global agenda for sustainable development, as well as increased concerns over climate change and global resource storage, are in the centre of this century discussions and concerns. Such concerns foster the demand for electric vehicles as these contribute to a more sustainable transportation system by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The present dissertation aims to study online communities of electric vehicles enthusiasts, understanding their attitudes, behaviours and opinions towards electric vehicles purchase intentions. Hence, netnography is considered the most appropriate qualitative research method to conduct this research. Results demonstrate that electric vehicles purchase intentions are affected by the consumers weighting of drivers, barriers, and mostly, perceived self-image. Further, this research shows that purchase intentions of electric vehicles are highly motivated by social influence. This study contributes to current academic discussion on the influential factors of this technology diffusion, unveiling interesting findings regarding the pre-eminence of perceived self-image and vehicle performance over environmental concerns, on purchase intentions. The desired change of behaviours and attitudes towards a more sustainable lifestyle, should be enticed at a societal level through Social Marketing. Governments should promote a more sustainable behaviour on the transportation paradigm by investing in the development of charging infrastructures and promoting the adoption of electric vehicles through stricter policies and incentives. Conspicuously, companies should leverage on governments actions and policies by advocating the futuristic and innovative technology, enhancing consumers perceived self-image to hasten electric vehicles diffusion
- Dress with less : consumers’ engagement in Slow FashionPublication . Rodrigues, Catarina do Deserto Dias; Oliveira, PedroThe Fast Fashion phenomenon has become one of the biggest threats to the environment in current times, consuming abnormal amounts of water and energy, as well as producing tons of greenhouse gases and waste. Slow Fashion has then emerged as the responsible alternative to consumers who started to demand change and raising awareness to Fast Fashion’s harmful impact. This paper studies the online community behind Slow Fashion, looking at its behaviors and attitudes, as well as the main advantages, challenges and complaints consumers have when adopting this lifestyle. Netnography has been chosen to conduct this research, as it is the fittest method. Results show there is high willingness to change habits among consumers and they are starting to adopt strategies to reduce their environmental footprint. As to maintain a positive brand image, companies should focus on tailoring their operational strategies so that they enable might eco-friendly material sourcing and mitigate landfilling and unsold product incineration, therefore appeasing the increasingly demanding consumers. The desired movement requires, however, a structural change in today’s society and Social Marketing and governments are the cornerstones to achieve this circular economy.
- Caraterização dos utentes da consulta multidisciplinar de pediatria/diabetes do Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro – CHTMAD, EPEPublication . Mota, Daniela Monteiro Ferraz; Pinto, Elisabete Cristina Bastos; Matos, Clara Regina Duarte Simões deA diabetes mellitus tipo 1 (DM1), é uma doença crónica, e a mais frequente em crianças e adolescentes. Esta condição carateriza-se pela destruição autoimune das células b pancreáticas, que deixam de produzir insulina. O tratamento da DM1 envolve a gestão diária de três eixos fundamentais: a administração de insulina, a alimentação e a atividade física. Para que a criança/jovem se sinta bem e segura é fundamental que siga a terapêutica instituída. O tratamento da diabetes tem sofrido grandes avanços ao longo do tempo, permitindo novas formas de tratamento, que perpetuam a otimização do controlo metabólico. No entanto, outros são os fatores associados que podem interferir na gestão e qualidade de vida da criança/adolescente diabética, como é o caso da comunidade escolar, família e fatores psicossociais. O atual projeto de investigação, teve como objetivo geral caraterizar os doentes com DM1 da Consulta Multidisciplinar de Pediatria/Diabetes do Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro – CHTMAD, EPE. Pretendeu-se descrever os doentes desta consulta relativamente à história da doença e controlo da mesma, incluindo a descrição sociodemográfica, estilos de vida e literacia em saúde, na tentativa de identificar fatores facilitadores de um melhor controlo da doença, além dos clínicos. Um dos aspetos que se tentou explorar foi a integração dos doentes na escola, tendo em vista a identificação de eventuais necessidades de formação dos profissionais das escolas onde estas crianças/adolescentes estão inseridas. As crianças/adolescentes do presente estudo demonstraram ter hábitos salutogénicos, novas formas de tratamentos instituídas e, apesar de grande parte se sentir bem e segura relativamente à DM1, a verdade é que existem ainda situações de tristeza, revolta e insegurança. Verificou-se ainda que, a comunidade escolar onde estas crianças/adolescentes estão inseridas, não se encontra devidamente informada sobre a doença, não existindo também um total conhecimento, deste público, face aos aparelhos de controlo e terapêutica da DM1, como o método da contagem de hidratos de carbono. É urgente reforçar a formação à comunidade escolar, aumentando a literacia nesta doença, para que a criança/adolescente se possa sentir integrada e segura. É também importante a realização de mais estudos em outras zonas geográficas, de forma a se perceber de forma mais holística a realidade vivida em diferentes instituições.
- How Black Swan events reveal known and unknown unknowns : the case of COVID-19Publication . Beßlich, Sina; Rajsingh, PeterThe unknown offers a great puzzle to strategists. Black Swan events, characterized by rare occurrence and retrospective predictability, have extreme impacts on economies and societies (Taleb, 2007). The primary research purpose of this study is to examine whether Black Swan events increase awareness of known and unknown unknowns by discovering perceptions of existing and novel uncertainties. Precisely, we analyze how unexpected tail events enhance consciousness of unknown unknows and alter mental models of known uncertainties. To discover a recent Black Swan phenomenon, we chose the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) as empirical context. Qualitative examination of 36 semi-structured interviews implies that the Coronavirus crisis considerably changes the range of uncertainties, which can shape future management research and practice. Although the majority of discovered uncertainty areas (72.5%) were recognized ex ante COVID-19, our findings show that the current pandemic also reveals strategically relevant unknown unknowns. Based on the framework of environmental uncertainty developed by Jauch and Kraft (1986), we develop a novel model that illustrates strategic decision-making in the context of Black Swan uncertainties. 2020’s Black Swan, COVID-19, triggers strategic decision-makers to reconsider current interdependencies to reduce the potential harm of future uncertainty shocks. Since our results disclose that uncertainty related to Black Swan events essentially creates novel uncertainties, executives are required to acknowledge that they cannot ignore or eliminate uncertainty. Instead, managers are advised to embrace the occurrence of Black Swans and the existence of known and unknown unknowns for (anti)knowledge exploration.
- Avaliação biomecânica do movimento humano : estágio curricular realizado no laboratório de biomecânica da Universidade do PortoPublication . Sousa, Inês da Costa Martins de; Campos, João Paulo Vilas-Boas Soares; Fonseca, Pedro FilipeEste documento tem como objetivo apresentar o relatório concernente ao estágio curricular do 2º semestre do 2º ano em Engenharia Biomédica, realizado no Laboratório de Biomecânica da Universidade do Porto - LABIOMEP, localizado na Faculdade de Desporto da Universidade do Porto – FADEUP. Ao longo deste relatório serão descritos os trabalhos executados no âmbito do estágio, assim como o seu enquadramento, objetivos e respetiva explicação. O desejo de estagiar no laboratório surgiu no decorrer do meu percurso académico, na disciplina de biomecânica. Durante a lecionação da disciplina são dados diversos exemplos de projetos que são desenvolvidos no laboratório, o que me suscitou curiosidade e vontade de aprender sobre uma temática que possui uma potencialidade imensa. Como tal, o meu objetivo de estagiar no LABIOMEP não era apenas de aprender a trabalhar com os equipamentos de forma isolada, mas sim intervir e auxiliar no máximo de projetos em curso, de modo a rentabilizar a aquisição de novos conhecimentos. Efetivamente, este estágio permitiu-me obter uma elevada autonomia na maioria dos equipamentos, softwares de recolha e tratamento de dados biomecânicos. O estágio assinala uma etapa fulcral no reconhecimento do percurso académico uma vez que, quando aliado com os conhecimentos da área de formação, permite o desenvolvimento de competências que mais tarde serão aplicadas no mercado de trabalho.
- Direito de saída dos acionistas minoritários em caso de perda da qualidade de sociedade aberta na sequência de OPAPublication . Régio, Inês de Abreu; Mendes, Evaristo Ferreira
- The Pay-TV Industry and the disruption by video-on-demand services : Germany vs. the USAPublication . Minder, Rolf-Moritz; Rajsingh, PeterCurrently, the US pay-TV industry is losing customers from a phenomenon called cord-cutting, whereas in Germany the market is stable and even increasing. Meanwhile, streaming services are generating high growth and putting pressure on the incumbents. This dissertation examines the reasons for opposite trends across the Atlantic. It explains incumbents’ strategies as a reaction to the disruption caused by video-on-demand services and the changing competitive environment. Qualitative and quantitative primary research, expert interviews and a German customer survey were conducted to complement the existing literature and data. The results showed differences in incumbent business models as US cable operators offer pay-TV, phone and internet services bundled together. Aside from that, free-TV dominates in Germany, resulting in a low willingness to pay for content. At the same time, US customers are accustomed to paying a premium for TV and, so, when faced with the choice between incumbents and new streaming services, are less likely to treat them as an add-on. To stay relevant and prevent missing out, incumbents must launch their own streaming services and increase the production of content, reacting to content creators entering the market. Sports content is difficult to replace and functions as a customer acquisition tool. Distinctions between the US and German VOD and pay-TV markets are useful for understanding business strategy and the multi-billion Euro entertainment market.
- Incumbent behaviour and disruptive innovation in the Norwegian Aquaculture IndustryPublication . Walker, Thomas Hilding Valstad; Rajsingh, PeterSince the early days of salmon farming, it has only been possible to cultivate Atlantic salmon at particular locations. Salmon farming requires certain specific ecological conditions such as water temperatures between 0-20 °C and the flow of currents to let the salmon roam freely. (MOWI, 2019).These conditions usually occur in waters with the protection of fjords and archipelagos and are generally found in parts of the northern or southern hemisphere (MOWI, 2019). The combined coastline of mainland Norway with its various islands stretches over 102 936 km across the northern hemisphere. Fulfilling necessary conditions, Norway has established itself as the biggest producer of salmon in the world (Kartverket [Norwegian Mapping Authority], 19; Hoel & IBM, 2018). Therefore, the Norwegian coastline possesses a significant competitive advantage. However, advances in landbased aquaculture technology could disrupt the industry and render this competitive advantage less relevant. This study investigates what strategic actions are being taken by the Norwegian Aquaculture Industry (NAI) with regards to Land-Based Salmon farming (LBSF) and seeks to understand how incumbents view LBSF. The working hypothesis posits that LBSF is a potentially disruptive technology and that the industry has fallen victim to The Innovator's Dilemma (TID). The findings in this dissertation demonstrate that risk averse behaviour as Christensen (1997) pointed out, can stymie corporate strategy and this appears to be true for decision makers in the NAI. The findings further indicate that the incumbents in the NAI will only make strategic moves when LSBSF have validated and scaled their methods of production. LSBSF may not need an urgent response in the short term, but it is a development that needs to be closely monitored by incumbent firms.
- The disruptive force of cannabis : impacts of recreational cannabis on the alcohol industryPublication . Agbovadan, Christopher; Rajsingh, PeterShifts in global cannabis legislation are having unprecedented effects on multiple industries. Cannabis is increasingly gaining traction in the consumer goods domain and carving out a place in the alcohol drinks industry. The latter is experiencing a secular decline while facing the game-changing trends of a more health-conscious consumer and the proliferating cannabis legalization. As cannabis and alcohol compete within the same need dimensions, the alcoholic drinks industry has valid reasons to be concerned about the potentially significant impact of recreational cannabis legalization. This dissertation explores how consumer preferences concerning alcoholic beverages and recreational cannabis are changing, and what strategies incumbent companies are adopting to respond to the disruptive phenomenon that cannabis represents. Academic literature about the impact of recreational cannabis legalization on the alcohol industry in a business context is marginally informative. This work aims to contribute to knowledge about business, cultural, social, and medicinal contexts complemented with theoretical knowledge. The approach relies on mixed exploratory research based on secondary and primary data using qualitative and quantitative data collection. Findings show that cannabis provides a massive opportunity and can potentially change the alcoholic drinks industry sustainably. Alcoholic drinks companies sense a multi-billion dollar opportunity and are getting involved in the cannabis through investments, M&A activities, and partnerships and joint ventures. Cannabis-infused beverages are likely to represent a new product category that co-exists alongside alcoholic drinks.