Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2022-10-19"
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- Firms’ financing behavior on the edge of credit rating categoriesPublication . Faist, Dominik; Meira, Mário Henrique MachadoTraditional capital structure theories are broadly known and there exists countless literature going back to the late 1950s. On the other hand, only about two decades ago, surveys pointed out the significance of credit ratings in capital structure decision making. Subsequent formal literature suggests that credit ratings bear certain costs and benefits, thus firms try to achieve or maintain certain ratings. This paper contributes to the current literature by testing firms’ financing behavior on the edge of credit rating categories on the most recent data. If higher credit ratings are somehow beneficial for firms, I expect that firms close to a change issue less net debt relative to net equity to increase (decrease) their chances for an upgrade (downgrade). I find that firms close to a change into a lower rating category, issue 0.51% less net debt relative to net equity as a percentage of total assets. Also, firms are more sensitive to a downgrade than to an upgrade into a new rating category. But, in general, it’s hard to find consistent evidence throughout all the samples. My results are driven by large equity offerings, and not by small to-medium-sized debt offerings as the hypothesis suggests, thus are dependent on the sample construction.
- H2020 twinning projects : impact on R&I in portuguese higher education institutions and research centresPublication . Campos, Manuel Pedro Marques; Mendes, Américo Manuel dos Santos CarvalhoThis thesis examines the impacts and results of Portuguese Twinning Projects funded by European Union H2020 Framework Programme for R&I. The thesis includes a descriptive analysis of the evolution of average R&I performance between 2014 and 2021, as well as of its between-country and within-country dispersion. Thus, the thesis analyses the relations between the participation in Twinning projects and the performance of Portuguese research institutions. To be more precise, two research questions are analysed. The first research question is to find out whether the participation in these projects have contributed or not to improve the average performance of Portuguese research institutions. The second one is to understand if that participation had or not the effect of increasing the disparities of performance among research institutions in Portugal. The results of this study aim to provide a positive answer both to the first question (improvement in the average performance) and the second one (increase in the performance disparities). These results point to the need of European and national policies that may diminish disparities, without compromising the promotion of research excellence.
- Métrica para a estimativa das quotas de mercado de um player do setor do retalhoPublication . Pinto, Gonçalo de Almeida Branco Monteiro; Costa, Leonardo Filipe Seixas BarretoO objetivo deste Trabalho Final de Mestrado (TFM) foi o da criação de uma métrica capaz de replicar o valor real da quota de mercado, através de dados transacionais extraídos do cartão cliente de um retalhista. O método utilizado fez uso de algoritmos de machine learning na identificação das top 15 categorias de loja, da análise de cluster na agregação dessas mesmas categorias e da análise de regressão na identificação dos fatores que afetam a quota de mercado de um determinado cluster. A partir deste último passo foi possível construir a métrica pretendida com base nos coeficientes das variáveis identificadas como significativas para o referido cluster: vendas brutas, número de transações, número de artigos disponíveis e percentagem de desconto. Amétrica resulta da soma ponderada pelos coeficientes destas variáveis transacionais. Os resultados mostram que com a métrica é possível monitorizar a quota de mercado por via da sua estimação interna, sem ter de depender de dados de quotas de mercado fornecidos por fonte externa.
- Internationalization of portuguese SMEs to Brazil : main barriers and motivationsPublication . Bicho, Sofia Margarida Martins Jones; Xavier, RuteDue to the growing presence and development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in foreign markets over the past years, the internationalization process especially its main drivers and barriers, have been extensively studied and discussed among scholars. This dissertation explores the process of Portuguese SMEs entering the Brazilian market, with a focus on the motivations and barriers that these companies experienced. The methodological approach used for this study was a qualitative analysis of a questionnaire that was developed, distributed, and a shared with Portuguese companies that have internationalize to Brazil. The framework of this study is the Brazilian market, one of the most populated in the world and a developing economy that represents a big market with great untapped potential. Doing business in Brazil is difficult due to numerous trade restrictions, unclear and dispersed legislation among states, and bureaucratic red tape. However, because of the close cultural links, common language, and shared history between the two nations, Portuguese businesses benefit from a shorter psychological barrier. The findings of this study allow us to draw the conclusion that the key factors leading Portuguese SMEs to internationalize to Brazil were increasing sales, international management/administration, and reducing dependency on the domestic market. The complexity of the bureaucratic processes, the market's regulations and legislation, the political and economic climate in Brazil, and the fluctuating currency rates were the most significant obstacles to entering the Brazilian market. The goal is to provide context and guidance for other companies to consider when undergoing the same experience.
- The effect of COVID-19 on European firms’ leverage decisionsPublication . Salvato, Alessandro; Meira, Mário Henrique MachadoThe ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the global system and caused great turmoil heavily impairing cashflows in many industries, with possible adverse implications for corporate solvency and capital structure. In this thesis, I analyze the impact of COVID-19 on European corporate balance sheets and the composition of their liabilities with a dataset made up of 1,384 firms analyzed between 2018 and 2021. I implement a set of OLS regression controlling for a well-established control set and I use a difference-in-differences approach to capture the cross-sectional difference based on the business risk prior to COVID-19. I find that firms increase leverage and the portion of long-term debt over total debt. The increase in leverage is particularly significant for firm more exposed to the business risk prior to COVID 19. Instead, firms more exposed to the business risk prior to COVID-19 do not significantly increase the portion of long-term debt in respect to firm less exposed. The results are robust to changes in the definition of leverage and business risk.
- Strengthening business competence through educational travelPublication . Pešic, Tonci; Xavier, RuteThis dissertation was composed to create a business plan from a business idea and to discover a successful path to a sustainable startup business. The theoretical framework consists of a review of the literature. The literature review discussed the collaboration and networking between educational and sharing tourism because these two economic platforms represent the stronghold for the development of my business idea. This dissertation aims to explore if educational business trips strengthen business competence and in what way. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews from twenty participants who took part in study tours, organized by an atypical travel agency and fifteen employees who have not participated in educational trips. The results showed what they value the most and that is strengthening business competence through educational travel. That findings support my business idea, and my business idea was to create a sharing Talent Swap platform, the service that provides companies an opportunity to improve their business by offering temporary job shadowing positions to receive external participants and offering employees to join other opening job shadowing positions in different companies/different countries. Based on information from the literature review and case study research, through the Business plan, my business idea was turned into a product – service.
- O impacto da COVID-19 no comportamento dos investidoresPublication . Pinho, Carolina Aguiar Pinto Marques; Pinto, João Filipe Monteiro; Abreu, Margarida Paula Calado Neca Vieira deA presente dissertação pretende investigar as alterações do comportamento dos investidores individuais num período de crise. Para tal, será analisado o período de crise gerado pela COVID-19. Em particular, pretende-se analisar as alterações nas posições patrimoniais das carteiras de investimento dos investidores individuais de dois instrumentos financeiros diferentes associados a diferentes tipos de risco, ações e obrigações, através do estudo das alterações na tomada de decisão de compra e de venda dos instrumentos, em diferentes períodos de tempo. Serão ainda analisadas as diferenças da atividade de negociação dos investidores tendo em conta as suas caraterísticas sociodemográficas. Para efetuar esta análise, foi utilizada uma base de dados que inclui 211.272 transações de 19.602 investidores individuais no mercado de capitais português. Foi feita uma análise preliminar através de testes ANOVA, em que os resultados sugerem que a atividade de negociação dos investidores se alterou com o surgimento da COVID-19, apresentando, um aumento do buy-sell amount spread de ações e, de uma forma geral, uma diminuição do buy-sell amount spread de obrigações. Posteriormente, foram realizadas regressões lineares para analisar o impacto dos períodos para cada instrumento, controlando pelas caraterísticas sociodemográficas, estimadas através do Método Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), onde se verificou que, efetivamente, os resultados sugerem que houve um impacto positivo da COVID-19 no buy-sell amount spread de ações mas um impacto negativo no buy-sell amount spread de obrigações.
- The impact of credit and liquidity risk on the likelihood of a bank default : a study on European commercial banks during the 2012-2021 periodPublication . Signoriello, Stefano; Bhimjee, Diptes Chandrakante PrabhudasThe present Dissertation investigates the impact of credit and liquidity risk on European commercial banks' default probability in the period 2012 to 2021 during which the European Central Bank implemented its asset purchase program (APP) and other unconventional monetary policy tools. The likelihood of bank default is here measured by the z-score, while credit risk is proxied by the Loan Loss Provision ratio and the liquidity risk by three different measures: (i) Net Loans to Total Asset ratio,(ii) Interbank Ratio and (iii) Liquid Assets to Total Assets ratio. Moreover, a robustness test on credit risk is performed. The results reveal that credit risk significantly affects the likelihood of bank default while liquidity risk does not. In particular, the higher the credit risk a bank supports, the higher the bank's default probability. One explanation of the liquidity risk's results might be related to the impact of the ECB (through Zero Lower Bound, some distinctive unconventional monetary policies, and/or provisions of Basel III). Furthermore, the present Dissertation provides a thorough discussion of how unconventional monetary policies (i.e., OMT and QE programs) and the Basel III provisions could have affected banks' default probability. In particular, a dummy variable is also added to the main model in order to address the role of the Quantitative Easing policy. The results show that Quantitative Easing is not the main driver of the non-impact of the liquidity risk measure and hence bank risk-taking has also been influenced by other macroeconomic variables.
- A systematic consulting approach to knowledge managementPublication . Silva, Pedro Paulo Maciel; Xavier, RuteKnowledge management is believed to be a fundamental practice to modern corporations, being a source of innovation, operational efficiency, and the foundation for creating and sustaining competitive advantages. Nevertheless, the right approach to managing knowledge is not obvious and it demands the correct definition of “knowledge” to be aligned with a company’s culture, practices, goals, and strategy. This research was conducted inside Unicre, a traditional Portuguese company in the financial industry. Having a consulting bias, the main goal was to solve the client’s pain, caused by knowledge vacuums or gaps, created when a key employee leaves the company taking with him years of experience that were not yet crystallized into the firm’s know-how. Qualitative data was collected from a series of interviews, field visits, and internal documents and analyzed with the use of coding methods to test the two hypotheses elaborated to explain the causes of the problem. The study argued that the knowledge gaps were created fundamentally because knowledge was ill-defined in the company, leading to systems that are not designed to effectively retain it. The data showed that the hypotheses partially explained the problem, as it was possible to identify other points of improvements key for Unicre’s success in managing knowledge. The author concludes with a series of recommendations aiming at impacting the company’s culture, initiatives, and infrastructure for knowledge management.
- Repair (in)justice or distance yourself from it? : examining the impact of observed incivility on target support and organizational commitment via perceptions of interpersonal justice and trait mindfulnessPublication . Jüntgen, Max Peter; Marques, TatianaBesides targets and instigators, third-party observers are also commonly involved in uncivil coworker interactions. Though, to date, observers’ reactions to such events have not been as thoroughly examined by researchers as those of the former two parties. The current thesis seeks to expand knowledge in this regard, by drawing on organizational justice theories in order to investigate third-parties’ affective organizational commitment, as well as target directed supportive behavior, upon observing incivility at work. Furthermore, it intends to shed light on mindfulness as a potential dispositional factor responsible for heightening observers’ sensitivity towards (in)justice and propensity to engage in supportive behavior. Two studies were conducted in order to examine observers’ reactions based on controlled, hypothetical coworker interactions (Study 1, N = 245), as well as based on genuine interactions that participants had personally observed in their working lives (Study 2, N = 155). As expected, observed incivility predicted observers’ perceptions of low interpersonal justice across the two studies. In terms of outcomes, the studies yielded mixed results. The proposed indirect, negative effect of observed incivility on affective commitment via perceptions of low interpersonal justice was supported in Study 1, while it was not supported in Study 2. Conversely, the proposed indirect, positive effect of observed incivility on supportive behavior was supported in Study 2, while it was not supported in Study 1. Furthermore, unexpectedly, trait mindfulness did not increase observers’ sensitivity towards justice, and low—instead of high—trait mindfulness showed stronger propensity to engage in supportive behavior upon perceiving low justice.
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