Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2025-07-08"
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- Recruitment of portuguese nurses : a strategic Communication plan for a German clinicPublication . Ellerman, Julius Wilhelm; Campos, Ioli RibeiroThe global shortage of nurses, exacerbated by aging populations and increasing healthcare demands, presents critical challenges for healthcare organisations worldwide. The aim of this project was to develop a strategic communication plan for recruiting Portuguese nurses to a German clinic, ARCUS, a leader in orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine. The plan leverages the strengths of Portuguese nursing education, the socio-economic dynamics and working conditions in Portugal's healthcare sector, and the high employer standards of the ARCUS Clinic in Pforzheim, Germany. Based on a thorough literature review in combination with a quantitative survey, the investigation for effective strategies and tactics for crossnational recruitment was realised as part of the strategic communication plan. First hand empirical data of Portuguese nursing students regarding academic motivation and labour migration preferences allowed the creation of specific Vision, Mission, and Values statements, employer branding and the dissemination of personalised employee value propositions. The resulting messages promote opportunities for education and professional development for young Portuguese nurses and nursing students in Germany. This project provides a framework for European nurse recruitment initiatives and contributes to the research in the broader field of healthcare communication and sustainable recruitment. Furthermore, the project serves as an example for healthcare organisations to enhance employer branding and develop innovative employee value propositions.
- Characterization of oral health literacy and strategies for development in the futurePublication . Hashemi, Seyedfarzad Fazaeli; Veiga, Nélio Jorge; Lopes, Pedro André Ferreira CamposBackground: Oral health literacy is a critical determinant of health outcomes, influencing personal behaviors, decision-making, and access to dental care. In many countries, including Portugal, insufficient oral health literacy is associated with preventable oral diseases and increasing health inequalities. Methods: This study conducted a systematic review based on PRISMA guidelines, using multiple databases (PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane) to identify empirical studies from the past ten years that implemented interventions aimed at improving oral health literacy. The quality of the eligible studies was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute criteria. Results: Eighteen studies were identified and analyzed. The strategies found included school-based interventions (such as the Childsmile program and Social Cognitive Theory-based programs), mobile health applications, educational initiatives targeted at caregivers, national policy frameworks, and training programs for dental health professionals. Most of these interventions demonstrated positive impacts on knowledge, behavior, and preventive oral health practices. Conclusion: Global interventions to improve oral health literacy offer promising models for adaptation in Portugal. Key strategies such as the development of a national oral health literacy policy, integration into school curricula, professional training, and the use of digital tools can be tailored to the Portuguese context to reduce oral health inequalities, and promote better population health.
- The role of CFO influence in mitigating financial distress : evidence from U.S. public firmsPublication . Greis, Tim; Pape, UlrichThis study examines whether CFO influence reduces the likelihood of corporate financial distress, contributing to the literature on Upper Echelons Theory. While CFOs are increasingly recognized as strategic actors in corporate finance, their role in financial distress contexts remains underexplored. Building on a CFO Influence Index inspired by Ferris and Sainani (2021), this thesis uses both additive and PCA-based metrics to quantify influence across a panel of large U.S.-listed firms between 2019 and 2024. Financial distress is measured using both the original and adjusted Altman Z-Score. While no consistent association is found across the entire sample, CFOs in the top 80th percentile of influence are significantly less likely to be linked with distress, especially under adjusted specifications. These findings extend the scope of Upper Echelons Theory to adverse financial environments and emphasize the strategic relevance of CFOs in enhancing firm resilience.
- Evaluating climate-risk language in 10-K filings : a ClimateBERT-driven study of firm valuationPublication . Weghorst, Anais; Fouquau, JulienThis thesis presents a transformer-based approach to quantify and price corporate climate-risk disclosures. By utilizing ClimateBERT, I classify Item 1A risk-factor text in S&P 500 10-K filings (200532024) to generate annual transition, physical, and general climate-risk scores for 8,001 firm-year observations. Fixed-effects regressions link these lagged scores to Tobin’s Q, revealing a significant negative valuation effect for transition-risk language, especially in high-exposure sectors (Utilities; Transportation & Warehousing), while physical-risk impacts primarily arise within the same industries. By combining advanced NLP with rigorous panel econometrics, this study provides detailed, sector-sensitive metrics that illuminate how investors value different aspects of corporate climate-risk disclosure.
- Strategic responses to mandatory sustainability disclosure : adoption drivers and strategic impacts of the CSRD in the EU materials sectorPublication . Backström, Cecilia Ida; Lancastre, FilipaThe EU has responded decisively to sustainability challenges, recently launching the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This thesis examines the impact of such regulations on corporations, focusing on the materials sector, as it is particularly exposed to sustainability issues. The research has three main objectives: (1) to identify internal and external drivers influencing how EU-listed materials companies adopt the CSRD, (2) to analyze challenges and strategic benefits associated with its implementation, and (3) to assess how mandatory sustainability disclosure affects corporate strategy and decision-making within the broader sustainability context. The analysis is based on institutional theory and the resource-based view, which provide a theoretical foundation for understanding external and internal influences, respectively. In addition, it is informed by recent academic literature on the effects of sustainability reporting. Empirical findings are obtained by a qualitative analysis of first-wave companies subject to CSRD requirements. The interviews reveal the central role of institutional pressure, with regulation, investor expectations, and customer demands identified as the primary drivers. The results also point to implementation challenges, the role of geopolitical factors as influencing drivers, and perceived strategic benefits from a business perspective. While the regulation encourages deeper sustainability integration, its impact on corporate strategy remains limited. Overall, this work reveals both the opportunities and tensions associated with CSRD implementation, which companies must strategically navigate. The research contributes to ongoing debates on mandatory sustainability reporting and provides early-stage practical and theoretical implications. Additionally, it outlines avenues for future research in the evolving field of sustainability disclosure.
- AI in digital news media : the impact of AI authorship and transparency on trust in news content and brandsPublication . Westerheide, Philine; Lancastre, FilipaIn response to growing economic pressures, news organizations have increasingly integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the news production process to increase efficiency. Particularly in content creation, the core of journalism, this development raises the question of how readers perceive AI-generated content and whether it affects their trust in digital news amid rising media skepticism. Despite the increasing relevance, there is still no common academic understanding of how audiences interpret AI authorship. As a result, news organizations lack clear, evidence-based advice on how to effectively disclose AI involvement. By combining insights from technology acceptance, media research and trust theory, this study investigates how AI authorship disclosure and transparency statements influence readers' trust in news articles and brands in the context of digital journalism. The research is based on a quantitative experimental study with a 2 × 2 between-subjects design. The results show that hybrid authorship significantly increases trust in the news brand compared to AI-only authorship. No significant difference was found for news credibility. Transparency statements directly improved both brand trust and news credibility, but perceived transparency did not moderate the relationship between authorship type and news credibility as expected. Overall, the findings reveal the importance of demonstrating human involvement in AI- augmented journalism to maintain readers' trust. By analyzing readers' perceptions of hybrid journalism, an increasingly relevant practice, this study addresses a research gap and provides guidance for news organizations on how AI disclosure and transparency strategies can influence audience trust.
- Accounting for intangibles : the role of capitalized R&D in explaining market valuePublication . Mühlhäuser, Louis Otto Hanskarl; Pape, UlrichThis study investigates whether capitalizing research and development (R&D) expenditures enhances the value relevance of financial information in U.S. capital markets. While R&D is a key driver of firm innovation and long-term value, it is typically expensed under U.S. GAAP, limiting its visibility in financial statements. A standardized capitalization and amortization approach is applied to firm-level R&D data to assess its impact on the explanatory power of earnings–price regressions. Based on a panel of U.S. firms from 1994 to 2023, the analysis shows that capitalizing R&D consistently increases the informativeness of reported earnings, particularly in more recent years. The findings indicate that markets increasingly price R&D as an unrecognized asset and that failing to account for it distorts valuation signals. These findings contribute to ongoing debates in financial reporting and intangible valuation by providing long-run empirical evidence on the effects of R&D capitalization on the capital market. The results have implications for analysts, investors, and accounting standard setters, highlighting the need for more transparent treatment of intangible-related expenditures in financial reporting.
- Do investors pay for impact? : an empirical analysis of valuations in private equity and venture capitalPublication . Bauck, Thomas David; Buchner, AxelIn a capital market that is increasingly shaped by concerns around sustainability, impact investing promises to deliver measurable social or environmental benefits alongside a financial return. But do investors in private equity and venture capital actually pay for impact, or is it just a branding tool? This study provides the first large-scale, valuation-based evidence that investors are willing to pay a premium for impact in private markets. Using a unique dataset of 160 “impact” deals matched to a control group of 3,500+ private transactions, I employ propensity score matching and doubly robust regression to isolate the 8impact premium9. Results reveal that impact firms are valued 90-99% higher than comparable non-impact firms, even after controlling for industry, geography, and deal characteristics. This premium is higher for social impact over environmental impact, larger in emerging markets than developed markets and disappears in cross-border deals, suggesting that investor preferences are highly context-dependent. The results challenge the view that impact is a non-financial phenomenon and show that, in practice, social and environmental value is priced into private equity. For fund managers, institutional investors and policymakers, this work offers granular insights and guidance into impact investing in private markets.