Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2021-01-28"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 30
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- From competition to coopetition : LET’s strategy to survive the pandemic crisisPublication . Laschke, Lisa Ramona; Salvado, João CotterThe Case Study details the growth of Live Electric Tours (LET) – a Portuguese provider of innovative and differentiated solutions for electric mobility for tourism – that has been confronted with a strategic challenge. Having won several prices and attracted multiple investments, LET was able to expand its business in terms of location and operation. As LET envisioned itself on the fast track, the plans to grow on a European and international level considered different market entry strategies: partnerships, franchising, acquisition or opening own stores. However, everything turned out differently than expected. COVID-19 has disrupted LET’s growth plans, ending in a pure fight for survival. Operation bans and limited travel ability have created a tremendous burden on LET’s stable sales pipeline, with revenues dropping to zero. As a short-term solution, LET engaged into strategic alliances with its competitors in order to withstand the crisis. However, once the crisis is over, LET planned to revive its growth plans. The Dissertation includes a Literature Review of relevant topics for the Case subject, such as strategic alliances and franchising. It also offers an analysis of the key issues of the Case in the Teaching Note section. Ultimately, the objective is to advise LET on its most suitable growth strategy, considering its competitive partnerships as well as LET’s and the industry’s prevailing critical condition. The challenge remained if cooperating or competing was more suitable and if a shift from a coopetition to a franchise model seems feasible.
- The internationalization of film industries through SVOD platforms : the case of NollywoodPublication . Nunes, Tomás Watts Rodrigues Sarmento; Reis, Ricardo César Ribeiro Ventura FerreiraNollywood is the second largest film industry in the world in terms of films produced per year. This industry has been experiencing a huge growth in the last decade, becoming quite popular among African countries and the African diaspora. However, Nollywood still remains quite unfamiliar for global audiences. In recent years SVOD platforms have been disseminating international content online. This trend resulted in the popularization and internationalization of emerging film industries. Thus, we have been witnessing the creating of global phenomena such as the Spanish language series Money Heist and Narcos by Netflix. The aim of this research is to examine how SVOD platforms are influencing and shaping the internationalization process of Nollywood. The internationalization process in this study will be focused on the African continent and the African communities in diaspora. However, part of this research will study the possibility of Nollywood gaining a global reputation. In addition to SVOD platforms, other media channels will also be addressed.
- The effect of positive CSR engagement on firm’s financial distress risk in EuropePublication . Castenholz, Anna Maria; Reis, Ricardo César Ribeiro Ventura FerreiraThis study examines the influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on the financial distress risk of a company. The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors are employed as a proxy for CSR, while three different measures are applied to assess financial distress levels, namely Altman‘s Z-Score, Ohlson’s O-Score and Shumway’s Hazard Model. After analyzing a European dataset of 1097 publicly listed firms covering the period from 2002-2018, the results suggest that positive CSR engagement reduces the likelihood of falling into costly financial distress, whilst the findings are even more profess for non-crisis periods as well as environmentally sensitive industries. The results are robust to differences in reporting dates, prior levels of financial distress and reverse causality. Collectively, the findings are in line with the stakeholder view of CSR, suggesting that improving firm-stakeholder relationships decreases a firm’s financial distress risk.
- The challenges of e-commerce in developing countries : the NCR Angola case studyPublication . Ferreira, Laura Sofia da Silva; Lakishyk, KyrylElectronic commerce allows a business to develop, reaching broader markets and consumers,enabling profits to be made from the benefits of the Internet. Developing countries have taken heed of this opportunity and decided to increase their integration into the international markets.However, the challenges faced by these countries in achieving these benefits are enormous. For this reason, many authors have already studied the barriers faced, but there is a lack of practical examples of how businesses in these countries can overcome these challenges.The purpose of this case is to analyze the issues faced by one of these companies, NCR Angola,a provider of electronic products and services. The lack of consumer confidence towards ecommerce, as well as internal struggles for its acceptance, were some of the challenges faced by these e-commerce pioneers since 2015. The case proposes success factors, considered to be the source of the competitive advantage through which these challenges were overcome.Among the various challenges faced by this company, this case takes a particular approach to the effect of Covid-19 during the year 2020 at NCR Angola.The case ends with a look at the company's plans, as well as a possible challenge linked to one of its competitive resources.
- CSR authenticity and consumers´ attitudes in the context of food waste : the case study of Too Good To GoPublication . Silva, Beatriz Azevedo e; Moreira, Sérgio Paulo de JesusIn a society that is becoming increasingly demanding with the corporate world, it is important to discern which direction companies must take in order to generate more positive attitudes among consumers in what concerns CSR endeavours. Indeed, consumers’ perceptions towards CSR are showing more and more inconsistencies, but the concept of authenticity might help mitigating the contradictions. This study focuses on understanding if having CSR deeply embedded in the business affects consumers’ perceptions about the authenticity of companies’ CSR actions. This is achieved through individual interviews with consumers of a company that has its roots in socially responsible behaviour. Too Good To Go created a possible solution to fight food waste and turned it into its core business. This dissertation develops a case study based on how this company conducts its business and how this innovative approach affects authenticity perceptions and consumer behaviour, consequently. Results show that consumers tend to be more sceptical, instead of considering companies’ actions authentic. Even though companies that were born with socially responsible purposes have better chances of being perceived as authentic, the corporate world has lost consumers’ trust and it needs to redirect the way it conducts business in the long-run. Insights from consumers resulted in some implications regarding CSR and suggestions on how to improve CSR authenticity perceptions.
- The missing piece : a study of capital market underdevelopment in PolandPublication . Machado, Miguel Carduck Borba; Rajsingh, PeterThe Polish economy has been growing sharply since the collapse of communism in the country, in 1990. The steady inflow of foreign direct investment, along with Poland’s sizeable and skilled labor force, enabled the country to achieve this consistent output growth. The adoption of the free market and accession to the European Union enabled Poland to approach the level of the world’s most advanced economies. Despite this economic progress, the development of Polish capital markets has not been as successful. This study analyzes the financial markets in Poland and seeks to determine the main causes for their underdevelopment. Data was collected from literature on the topic and experts in different areas to identify which barriers should be prioritized by the Polish government. Lack of trust in the market by the Polish population, low levels of investable capital and insufficient attractiveness of the market to companies are shown to be the biggest problems needing to be addressed to advance towards fully efficient capital markets in the country.
- Purpose based strategies : fashion industry structures and consumer buying behaviour alterations induced by Covid-19Publication . Feremans, Vito Guido L.; Colaço, Vera Maria Portela Herédia Lancastre FreitasAs a consequence of the recent Covid-19 pandemic, consumer behaviour altered drastically, raising numerous questions and challenges for organisations and consumers alike. This dissertation sheds light on how the current Covid-19 pandemic has altered the fashion organisations’ structure and fashion consumers buying behaviour. This implies analysing the research in two separate parts. First, the author will be analysing the organisational sector, more specifically fashion-brands and -organisations. Secondly, an analysis will be performed on fashion consumers’ consumption habits and behaviours. Both quantitative as qualitative research was conducted to allow the researchers to have an extensive data set to draw conclusions upon. Overall, the findings demonstrate the fundamental importance of generation aspects for purpose-driven businesses. The data, furthermore allows for an understanding of the contributing elements to buying preferences and behaviour, again taking the age factor into account. Despite prior theoretical models, that predicted a strong consumer focus on ethical business, the found data does not support these predictions. While there is a small rise in ethical importance it is not substantial, and heavily focused on younger generations. Finally, focussing on the organisational aspect of this dissertation, is has become clear Page 4 of 47 that organisation’s are not shifting focus but instead are making their original focus more profound. Meaning that organisations focusing on CSR are developing into purpose-driven businesses, and organisations that are maximising profits will continue to do so. Finally we can see that the reported new road to market of organisations is more focuses on e-commerce, many of these organisations report that they will continue to do so out of fear for more lockdown measures.
- Financial distress determinants of portuguese firmsPublication . Falcato, Inês Fazeres Marques; Reis, Ricardo César Ribeiro Ventura FerreiraThis dissertation aims to: (1) investigate the most determinant factors responsible for the financial distress of Portuguese firms, (2) identify the most common causes for the rejection of firms’ restructuring plans and (3) understand if the state and condition of the company both when it asks for help and when it initiates its restructuring plan affect their survival in the future. Financial distress determinants are identified by analysing the companies that applied for Processo Especial de Revitalização (PER) and by comparing them to analogous healthy firms. The impact of these factors on companies’ likelihood of distress and survival is acknowledged through logistic regressions. The variables included in the models considered the context of Portuguese companies and aimed to account simultaneously for endogenous and exogenous distress factors. The findings suggest that both endogenous and exogeneous factors impact the likelihood of firms’ financial distress. Endogenous factors, such as companies’ corporate governance and capital structures, asset efficiency and profitability levels influence both their likelihood of distress and survival in the long term. Exogenous factors such as the business cycle proved to be relevant as well to explain these two events. Results also verified that restructuring measures focusing on the reorganisation of firms’ assets, restructuration of debt, recovery of profitability and liquidity have a significant impact on their likelihood of survival in the future.
- Ensayo de teología sobre política y la autocomprensión cristianaPublication . Angélico, José PedroEl 27 de enero de 2020, se cumplieron 75 años desde la liberación de los campos de muerte de Auschwitz-Birkenau. La segunda mitad del pasado siglo quedó profundamente marcada por lo que allí se pasó, desplegando toda una reflexión cultural, filosófica, política y también teológica que potenció algunos cambios de paradigma, pero fundamentalmente una reflexión sobre la autocomprensión de esos registros del pensamiento. Tres cuartos de siglo pasados, nos encontramos ante una situación de crisis global producida por la pandemia del Covid-19. Pero desde hace algunas décadas se viene cocinando la reencarnación del fascismo, a veces tímida y otras despudoramente, desde el fascismo eterno, o Ur-Fascism, como le llamó Umberto Eco. Algunos sectores tradicionalistas (y otros más ingenuos) de las iglesias suelen sentirse atraídos por él. No siendo el cristianismo apolítico, a pesar de su distancia crítica con respecto al poder, se reclama de él el ejercicio de su vocación profética, de anuncio del Reino de Dios y denuncia de sus opositores, que se presentan a menudo disfrazados de ovejas piadosas, pero no son más que lobos rapaces (cf. Mt 7, 15).
- Lufthansa Group : dealing with strategy in times of COVID-19Publication . Rinser, Maximilian Lorenz; Cardeal, Nuno César de Jesus GuerraThe following thesis, presented in form of a case study, is about the Lufthansa Group, a successful German airline group, and its strategic decisions to face one of the biggest crisis in history, the COVID-19 crisis. This case study is a suitable analysis tool for strategic development on the topics of strategic alignment, competitive advantage and positioning. Following the COVID-19 crisis, the Lufthansa Group had to implement important adjustments and make quick decisions. Rapid changes in the environment, specifically in competition, demand and consumer behavior, led to the need of fast repositioning to sustain competitive. Several influencing factors had to be considered in each business unit. After the case, further theoretical concepts are presented. These concepts allow a better understanding of how to address the case from a pedagogical perspective and illustrate the typology of the analysis that can be performed. The work also contains a chapter reserved for resolution notes, which constitute the author´s analysis, being also an additional support to instructors. The personal opinion and the limits of the case study are given at the end of the paper.
- «
- 1 (current)
- 2
- 3
- »