Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2023-01-25"
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- The impact of brand reputation on financial performancePublication . Tavares, Tomás de Barros e Carvalhosa; Rajsingh, Peter V.As the business world moves towards the digital era, conversations about brands are being held around the world, which can affect the perception that people have about companies. Consequently, it has become imperative to address the topic of brand reputation management so that companies have control over the information being shared about them to protect, preserve and enhance their brands and businesses. Following this reasoning, this thesis investigated the impact of brand reputation in the financial performance of companies in Portugal, particularly, in the banking sector. It analysed how brand reputation performs as a differentiating factor for businesses and may represent a source of competitive advantage that allows companies to outperform their competitors and survive. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through experts’ interviews and surveys to consumers, investors, journalists and C-level/board directors. The aim of this exercise was to analyse how people develop perceptions of brands and how different brand attributes affect the reputation of a brand reputation and financial performance of companies across different sectors of the Portuguese economy. Furthermore, this dissertation compared the performance of strongly perceived brands with its competitors and investigated how a reputational crisis affects the financial performance of companies through the analysis of Banco Espírito Santo’s governance scandal case study.
- Changing market environment in private banking : a quantitative study of the DACH Private Banking market investigating customer behaviour with a focus on personality traitsPublication . Grüterich, Maria Elisabeth; Fernandes, DanielThe Private Banking segment faces several dynamics in the market environment, pressuring its profitability and threatening its longterm existence. Based on an extensive literature review and quantitative data collection, this thesis aims at clarifying incumbent banks’ action fields and their challenges to counteract. Survey results about customers’ behaviour, needs and expectations in Private Banking identify broad consent in digital infrastructure endorsement, cost awareness and little significance of human advisors. However, varying opinions are found on unrelated banking approaches. Propensities in this context are statistically significantly influenced by (a) Age, (b) Time spent with financial concerns and (c) Personality Traits. The author concludes the need for digital upgrades. Additionally, Private Banking institutions should consider a differentiated customer approach for new controversial business forms to retain and acquire classic Private Banking customers as well as attract potential future targ et groups.
- The Galton correction in China : when forecasting learns from the OOSPublication . Roque, Maria Lourenço de Sampaio Cristino; Barroso, PedroIn the present dissertation, I apply the Barroso and Saxena (2022) shrinkage methodology – also known as the Galton – to portfolio optimization’s inputs in the Chinese market (for the OOS period from January of 2011 until December of 2021). Each portfolio is a selection of the 50 biggest stocks in terms of market capitalization, and weights are rebalanced monthly. The Galton is based on the incorporation of OOS errors into input estimation to overcome the incapability of historical data to reflect the tendency of mean regression that mean returns, variances, correlations and covariances have. I show that the Galton correction’s superiority in risk prediction holds for China, even though the baseline method achieves an average negative Sharpe ratio. Nonetheless, when microcaps are excluded, the method produces significantly high Sharpe ratios, being this method the best among all the analyzed optimized strategies in a MV scenario. When the number of portfolio constituents is decreased, however, results for the regular form of the Galton seem to become positive; the changes in estimation windows, in their turn, have a favorable effect on the version where microcaps are excluded, making the Sharpe ratio rise above one.
- The influence of enjoyment on remembering : an analysis of memory in decision-makingPublication . Nguyen, Thu Quynh; Fernandes, DanielForgetting is a constant companion in people’s lives. Throughout the day, people face multiple situations in which they need to evaluate whether they will remember to do an activity or not and decide on the usage of memory aids. However, people err in making predictions about their memory which leads to forgetting. To gain a deeper understanding of people’s failure to remember, this work examines influences on an individual’s memory performance with the purpose of understanding how accurately people predict their memory performance. Thus, a study on judgements of learning is conducted with common activities as toberemembered items, and it reveals that people overestimate their memory, believing they would remember more than they do. This overconfidence is even more apparent when people are tasked to remember items for five days. Further, influences of enjoyability and indication of external memory aid usage on actual and predicted memory performance is explored, however, no statistical evidence is found. The data suggests that people do not accurately predict their memory, indicating a need for improvements of the evaluation processes people use or higher usage of memory aids. Especially, if items need to be remembered for longer periods, it is recommendable to make use of memory aids to prevent needless forgetting.
- Chatbots’ extroverted or introverted personality’s influence on consumers’ purchase intention depending on consumers’ extroversion extentPublication . Kalem, Lea; Mendonça, CristinaThe purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of chatbot personality on consumer purchase intention, depending on the consumer's level of extroversion. Through an experiment, this study will analyze the effects of extroverted and introverted chatbot personalities on consumers with different levels of extroversion. The findings will provide valuable insights into the impact of chatbot personality on consumers’ purchase intention and the potential for personalized communication strategies in e-commerce. Results indicate that chatbot perception significantly influences purchase intention and that a match in personality between the chatbot and the consumer leads to higher purchase intention. Additionally, extroverted chatbots are found to lead to higher purchase intention than introverted ones. Finally, perceived ease of chatbot use is shown to increase purchase intention. These findings suggest that providing chatbots with a personality can effectively enhance purchase intention, particularly if matching the consumer’s personality
- Conservação de uma escultura de São Francisco de Assis e estudo da imagem através de reconstrução 3DPublication . Sousa, Cláudia Sofia Camacho; Aguiar, Maria Cunha Matos Lopes Pinto Leão; Mendes, Nuno Filipe CamarneiroO estágio centrou-se no estudo e tratamento de conservação e restauro de uma escultura em madeira policromada de São Francisco de Assis, atribuída ao século XVII e pertencente à Venerável Ordem Terceira de São Francisco, de Guimarães. A intervenção decorreu nas oficinas da Universidade Católica Portuguesa - Escola das Artes. A escultura de São Francisco de Assis tem como dimensões: 155 cm de altura, 63 cm de largura e 31 cm de profundidade. A madeira utilizada na produção desta escultura foi madeira de castanho. Ainda sobre a produção, sabemos que a obra é composta por um único bloco de madeira, vazado na parte de trás, com goivas e enxó, embora a terceira parte inferior do cordão e os dedos tenham sido feitos à parte. Os braços também fazem parte do mesmo bloco, apesar de deturpados, apresentam os mesmos veios que a madeira do bloco principal. Os braços foram desbastados de forma que ocorreu uma deformação irreversível, deste modo a figura perdeu volumetria e acurácia anatómica. Os principais problemas da escultura foram, a deturpação da anatomia dos braços, os desbastes anatómicos, a falta de um dedo e o grave destacamento que ocorria na policromia, especialmente nas carnações. A recuperação da legibilidade da figura foi um dos principais focos neste tratamento. Segundo os cortes estratigráficos, observámos que a obra passou por diversos repintes e determinamos que ocorreram, pelo menos, três campanhas de restauro. O hábito passou por uma completa alteração, apresentando uma camada cinzenta que foi aplicada posteriormente à camada original e foi determinado que, como a folha de ouro se encontrava por cima desta camada cinzenta, esta também terá sido um procedimento posterior ao original. Foi realizado o levantamento histórico e iconográfico da obra, o estudo analítico e posterior intervenção de conservação e restauro. Foram realizados estudos que permitiram a compreensão dos materiais, tendo sido realizados os seguintes exames: registos fotográficos gerais e de pormenor com máquina fotográfica Canon EOS750D, observação e registo fotográfico de cortes estratigráficos através de microscópio ótico e digital. O bem cultural foi intervencionado tendo em consideração a estabilização física e uma nova assemblagem dos braços com madeira de castanho e devolução da leitura tanto das carnações como do hábito. Para a reconstituição volumétrica do dedo em falta, utilizamos a tecnologia 3D. O programa utilizado para o scan e modelação do dedo e de uma miniatura da figura completa antes do procedimento, foi a aplicação Polycam-LiDAR para o iPhone 12. A miniatura tem como finalidade ser um meio de comunicação visual e tátil para visitantes cegos e com outras incapacidades de modo a poderem vivenciar a exposição de uma nova forma, interagindo com a peça de uma maneira mais íntima. As impressões foram realizadas com um polímero de ácido polilático derivado de fontes renováveis, como amido de milho, numa impressora ultimaker 2+.
- The impact of social media fitness influencer attractiveness on purchase intention of fitness items and self-esteem as a moderatorPublication . Madeira, Francisco de Oliveira; Mendonça, CristinaThe purpose of this thesis is to understand how social media fitness influencers’ attractiveness affects customers’ purchase intention for fitness items and if this effect differs considering customers self-esteem. This thesis aims to explore how attractiveness, as one dimension of influencers’ credibility, might lead customers to purchase an endorsed item. Self-esteem was included in this thesis as studies reveal that body image and exposition to attractiveness-related content might influence self-esteem and consequently decrease the persuasion effect. To better analyze the attractiveness of influencers and purchase intention, source-credibility scale, purchase intention and Rosenberg self-esteem scales were adapted and used. The data was collected through an online survey with 144 valid responses collected. The results of the present study did not find significant effects of social media fitness influencers’ attractiveness on consumers’ purchase intention for fitness items. Furthermore, results have revealed that consumer’s self-esteem also does not moderate the effect of attractiveness on purchase intention. This thesis contributes to the academic community by providing a starting point for further research on the physical attributes of social media influencers that might have an impact on purchase intention in the emerging fitness market.
- Capital structure in the context of M&A : target everage and the post-acquisition speed of adjustmentPublication . Marquordt, Lisa Sophie; Bonfim, DianaMergers and acquisitions (M&As) often significantly alter a company's capital structure, leading to changes in the optimal leverage ratio for each firm. Previous research has shown that firms generally have leverage targets and attempt to return to their optimal capital structure following an acquisition. However, there is still debate over the speed at which this adjustment occurs. This paper aims to examine the impact of both the acquiring and target firms on the post-acquisition speed of adjustment (SOA) toward the optimal leverage ratio. The study calculates the target leverage for a sample of majority acquisitions in the US between 1994 and 2014 and divides the sample into four subsamples based on the leverage deviation of the acquiring and target firms. The results show that the SOA varies among the subsamples, with faster adjustment for overleveraged acquirers and slower adjustment for underleveraged acquirers. The study also finds that the SOA is higher for overleveraged firms acquiring underleveraged target firms and lower for underleveraged firms acquiring underleveraged targets. The findings suggest that underleveraged firms that are acquired by overleveraged firms may benefit from improved access to capital markets, while underleveraged firms acquired by underleveraged firms may not experience a substantial decrease in the cost of debt and therefore have a lower SOA. Overall, the results indicate that firms manage their capital structure differently depending on their own and their target's leverage deviation and highlight the importance of considering both firms in capital structure analysis in the context of mergers and acquisitions.
- Asset management industry adapting to climate change : a case study on Nordea AMPublication . Sorrentino, Giovanni; Reis, Ricardo FerreiraThis case study examines the strategies and adaptive measures taken by Nordea Asset Management (NAM) in response to the increasing demand for sustainable investments amid the ongoing climate change crisis. The case delves into how NAM has adjusted its resources, products, and strategies to adapt to rapid shifts and enhance its competitiveness in the asset management industry. The study aims to determine whether NAM should continue focusing on sustainable investing and positioning itself as a leader in the ESG asset management sector. This case follows a pedagogical structure and provides an analysis of the European Asset Management firm and its strategic adaptation, with a particular focus on ESG and the efforts of financial services and regulators to bring about change in the industry. Theoretical concepts and frameworks are used for analysis, and teaching notes are included as a guide for solutions. The study concludes with the recommendation that NAM should continue to differentiate its products and diversify its distribution channels. This recommendation is based on a key element: NAM's resources and dynamic capabilities provide a competitive advantage that have contributed to its status as a ESG leader in the industry, enabling the company to achieve higher rewards; the ongoing Russian invasion makes it difficult to predict how the global situation will evolve and could potentially affect the findings in the teaching notes.
- The impact of immigration on the Portuguese labour marketPublication . Santos, Mariana Cardoso dos; Reis, HugoThis dissertation examines the impact of immigration on the Portuguese labour market. Namely, on the average wage and wage distribution of natives, and on the employment rate, unemployment rate, and labour force participation rate of natives. Studies on the effects of immigrants on the labour market in Portugal are still scarce. The subject has become growingly important with the increase in immigration over the past two decades. The analysis is framed into a pure spatial theoretical model, without preallocation of workers into skill groups, and uses a dataset from a quarterly sample survey that characterizes the labour market in Portugal between 2003 and 2019. The impact of immigrants on natives is estimated through an instrumental variable approach using a differenceindifference strategy. The analysis shows that immigration does not have a significant impact on natives’ wages, but tends more towards a negative impact, especially in the lowest percentiles. In addition, immigrants negatively impact the labour force participation rate of natives, which is mainly driven by the negative impact on the employment rate of natives. In terms of heterogeneity, men are more negatively affected by immigrants than women, and natives with low education are also more harmed when compared to natives with higher levels of education.