CLSBE - Dissertações de Mestrado / Master Dissertations
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- Consumer interpretations of Kia’s 2021 rebranding rmong baby boomers and millennialsPublication . Belényi, Tímea; Romeiro, PauloThis dissertation explores how consumers interpret Kia’s 2021 logo redesign and wider brand relaunch, and whether these interpretations differ between Baby Boomers and Millennials. The study focuses on how the way they make meaning around the new visual identity connects to key customer-based brand equity dimensions, using generational cohort theory as a comparative basis. An exploratory interpretivist qualitative design was chosen, combining two focus groups (one with each generation; 6 participants each), complemented with semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed through thematic analysis. Three cross-cohort themes emerged. First, nostalgia for Kia is weak in both cohorts, and the brand is considered to have limited visual heritage to protect, however, Baby Boomers define tradition mainly as reliability and integrity. Millennials describe heritage as something earned through current performance and compare Kia’s practical heritage to prestige brands. Second, the redesign is considered a credible sign of innovation, but acceptance is. Baby Boomers stress about readability and inclusiveness, and Millennials are more excited about tech improvements. Third, trust and loyalty are conditional for both cohorts: Baby Boomers require long-term proof of reliability and service behavior and Millennials’ loyalty is more driven by value and ecosystem. Overall, the logo redesign can support repositioning, but only when the new look is matched consistently with product quality, service, and ecosystem performance, and when communication matches the cohorts’ expectations.
- Restaurant success factors : a case study of “Mesa,” a lebanese restaurant in CascaisPublication . Bekdash, Lea; Rajsingh, PeterThis dissertation investigates the factors contributing to restaurant success through a single case study of Mesa by The Bey Cook, a Lebanese restaurant in Cascais, Portugal. The research addresses the central question: How do internal capabilities and external conditions interact to shape the success of a small ethnic restaurant? A mixed-method design was adopted, combining ten semi-structured interviews with internal and external stakeholders, a customer survey with 117 valid responses, and analysis of over 200 online reviews and social media content. Findings show that Mesa’s success stems primarily from food quality, authenticity, service culture, and the creation of strong emotional bonds with customers. Adaptability, community engagement, and digital presence further reinforced resilience and growth. While literature often emphasizes macroeconomic factors such as GDP trends, regulation, or labor shortages, Mesa’s case demonstrates that micro-level drivers particularly authenticity, attentiveness, and team cohesion may be more decisive for small founder-led establishments. This study contributes to the literature on restaurant management and ethnic cuisine by highlighting the importance of cultural authenticity and community building as critical success factors.
- Market power in the Portuguese non-financial corporate sector : evidence from firm-level markupsPublication . Picciochi, Inês Milagre Martins Cortes; Teles, PedroThis thesis analyses changes in market power within the Portuguese non-financial corporate sector from 2007 to 2023 using firm-level data. Market power is assessed through production based markups, defined as the ratio of output prices to marginal costs, estimated using a flexible cost-share approach that infers markups from observed cost information without requiring data on physical output quantities. The analysis outlines how markups change throughout the business cycle, emphasising strong cyclical trends linked to major macroeconomic events. Markups tend to shrink during economic recessions, as shown during the Global Financial Crisis, the sovereign debt crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic, and then recover in subsequent phases of economic growth. The aftermath of the pandemic period is characterised by a notableincrease in markups during 2021–2022, followed by a partial normalisation in 2023. The analysis shows substantial heterogeneity among sectors and firms, with recent overall trends largely influenced by firms in the upper tail of the markup distribution. Overall, the results show that recent movements in market power are mainly driven by cyclical forces rather than a persistent secular trend.
- Impact measurement in social projects in Brazilian communities : bridging everyday evidence and funder expectationsPublication . Margulis, Sarah; Stocker, FabricioSmall community-based social projects in Rocinha and Vidigal (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) must evidence impact to meet funder expectations embedded in calls for proposals (CFPs). This thesis examines how these projects define impact, document change, and navigate funder requirements. Using a proportionality perspective, it develops a triangle lens, purpose (whether evidence is decision-useful), feasibility (sustainable for low resource teams) and legibility (credible to external actors). The study uses a multiple-case design combining 13 interviews with project leaders, three specialist interviews, participant-shared routine artefacts, and documentary analysis of ten anonymized CFP packages. Findings show that projects rarely start from predefined indicators; they rely on embedded routines,such as attendance tracking and conversations with families. These indicators support coordination and learning but translate poorly into standardized tables. CFPs, by contrast, emphasize target-driven indicators and extensive documentation to support comparability. This often shifts compliance work onto already thin teams, which can lead to more reliance on intermediaries, selective compliance, or withdrawal from opportunities altogether. The study points to more proportionate funding and reporting requirement, including mixed-format proof of impact combining simple indicator sets with brief narratives of change. These adjustments can widen access to resources for social community projects. The thesis contributes with empirical insight into everyday evidence practices and introduces a purpose–feasibility–legibility lens to diagnose and improve fit between project routines and funder requirement.
- Advancing the european clean energy transition : a firm-level rating system approach to green bondsPublication . Simon, Nicolas Jean Marie; Venter, ZoëFor the last two decades, Europe has been facing significant climate change challenges that require governments, and public and private companies to adopt sustainable actions. To solve this situation, the European Commission focuses on green bonds as the light bearer to support the EU taxonomy. Green bonds are debt instruments mobilizing capital to finance positive environmental projects and facilitate the clean energy transition. In our work, we want to investigate the ability of green bond issuances by European companies to reduce the global carbon emissions from 1998 to 2003. Using four models and six regressions for each of them based on firm characteristics, this study assesses whether or not green bond issuances advance the European clean energy transition. Our results show that green bond issuances by European firms lead to a 1.438% increase in global carbon emissions, which is statistically significant at the 10% level. While green bonds help reduce overall carbon emissions by 1.40%, they make no positive contribution when considering scope emissions, which increase by 2.38%. These results suggest that corporates are not effective enough to contribute to the European clean energy transition, thereby failing to align with the EU taxonomy purposes.
- Sporting Clube de Portugal : equity valuationPublication . Oliveira, Miguel Dourado Gomes de; Reis, RicardoSporting Clube de Portugal is one of the most prominent sports clubs in Portugal, holding a considerable position in Portuguese and European football due to its consistent domestic success and its contribution to the development of elite player talent. The following dissertation contains an equity valuation for the club, with the intention of providing an accurate value for Sporting Clube de Portugal's share price. To do so, two valuation techniques were performed (Discounted Cash Flow and Multiple Valuation). The DCF analysis served as the primary valuation approach, given its forward-looking nature and robust theoretical foundation. To arrive at the final target price, a weighted average was applied, assigning a weight of 80% to the DCF valuation and 20% to the Multiple valuation. Thus, a target price of €1.36 per share for Sporting Clube de Portugal was achieved, on the 30th of June 2024. Consequently, a “Buy” recommendation is proposed for the shares of the club.
- From stability to uncertainty : a GARCH approach to understand volatility during COVID-19Publication . Espinosa, Ivan Martinez; Schliephake, EvaThe COVID-19 pandemic unleashed an unprecedented economic upheaval, challenging financial markets globally. This study delves into the intricacies of market volatility and its repercussions on a diverse portfolio of 18 financial assets across three distinct phases: pre-crisis, crisis duration, and the entire pandemic period. Analyzing daily closing prices from November 12, 2018, to June 15, 2021, we employ a suite of GARCH models to unveil profound insights. Prior to the crisis, the GARCH (1, 1) model emerged as the optimal choice for modeling Gold and Silver. In contrast, Crude Oil and S&P 500 found resonance with the GJR-GARCH (1, 1) model, while BTC and EUR leaned toward the EGARCH (1, 1) model. Throughout the crisis, all financial markets exhibited sustained high volatility. BTC and EUR stood out, displaying extraordinary persistence, likely a consequence of the crisis's unique dynamics. Remarkably, Gold remained notably stable, exhibiting neither significant volatility nor conspicuous asymmetric patterns. In essence, this research harnesses GARCH models to navigate the shift from market stability to uncertainty during a momentous crisis, offering invaluable insights into its impact on global financial markets.
- Preparing minds for an automated future : how competence feedback shapes AI self-efficacy and acceptancePublication . Keck, Leonard Samuel; Mendonça, CristinaThis thesis explores how competence-oriented feedback can shape employees’ readiness to adopt generative AI by strengthening AI self-efficacy, addressing the research question: how does feedback influence AI self-efficacy, and how does AI self-efficacy in turn affect workplace AI acceptance? Using a sample of 208 participants divided into experimental and control groups, the study employed a survey-based online experimental design to assess whether task-related, competence-oriented feedback after an AI knowledge quiz increases AI self-efficacy and AI acceptance, using validated scales and bootstrapped mediation analysis (PROCESS Model 4). The results show that competence-oriented feedback significantly increases AI self-efficacy, that AI self-efficacy strongly predicts AI acceptance, and that AI self-efficacy significantly mediates the effect of feedback on AI acceptance, with effects robust to demographic and usage covariates. These findings suggest that competence beliefs are a causally relevant and adaptable driver of AI acceptance and can be strengthened through brief, scalable feedback interventions, even when objective task performance is not directly linked to acceptance-related attitudes. This study contributes causal evidence to the emerging literature on AI self-efficacy and AI acceptance and extends technology acceptance research by highlighting competence beliefs as an important psychological factor in AI adoption. Future research should examine the durability of feedback effects over time, compare human- versus AI-generated feedback sources and credibility perceptions, and incorporate behavioral adoption measures to test whether increases in self efficacy translate into sustained workplace AI use.
- Behavioral changes in the savings behavior of generation Z through social mediaPublication . Algac, Sükran; Fernandes, DanielThis research explores behavioural changes in Generation Z's saving behaviour through social media. It is based on theories about subjective financial knowledge, financial literacy, socialmedia usage intensity (SMU Intensity) and expected future financial security. Using a quantitative approach, data was collected through an online survey of Generation Z individuals. Contrary to assumptions that frequent social media use alone would significantly shape savings behaviour, the results reveal that there is no direct effect of social media usage intensity on savings behaviour. Instead, subjective knowledge of financial literacy emerged as the strongest indicator, suggesting that behavioural changes in saving are driven less by exposure to financial content itself and more by individuals' confidence in their own financial understanding. This indicates that social media may influence savings behaviour primarily by shaping perceptions of financial competence, rather than by increasing objective financial knowledge. In addition, expected future financial security was positively associated with savings behaviour, highlighting the role of future-oriented expectations as a motivational mechanism. Individuals who felt more secure about their future financial situation were more likely to adopt saving behaviour, suggesting that social media-related financial narratives may indirectly affect saving by influencing how Generation Z perceives their long-term financial prospects. Overall, the results suggest that behavioural changes in Generation Z's saving behaviour through social media are not driven solely by intensity of use, but rather by psychological mechanisms such as perceived financial competence and expectations of future financial security.
- Emotional intelligence as a moderator of narcissistic leadership : exploring the impact of personality traits on destructive strategic decision-makingPublication . Aslami, Veronika; Fernandes, DanielThe growing complexity of modern leadership requires not only analytical competence but also emotional and interpersonal awareness. At the same time, organizations continue to elevate individuals with charismatic and confident traits, qualities often associated with narcissism. While such leaders may appear visionary, their self-enhancing motives can foster destructive strategic decisions that prioritize personal image over organizational welfare. This thesis investigates whether emotional intelligence can mitigate the adverse effects of narcissistic traits on destructive decision-making. A quantitative, scenario-based study was conducted with 264 participants, comprising business students and professionals with varying leadership experience. Narcissistic traits were measured using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, emotional intelligence with the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, and decision tendencies through simulated CEO-level strategic dilemmas. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that narcissism positively predicted destructive strategic decision-making, whereas emotional intelligence was a strong negative predictor. However, the hypothesized moderating effect of EI on the relationship between narcissism and destructive decision-making was not statistically significant, though it trended in the expected negative direction.These findings confirm that emotional intelligence independently fosters more ethical and constructive leadership behavior, while narcissism remains a consistent risk factor for destructive strategic choices. The results contribute to leadership psychology by clarifying the limits of emotional intelligence as a corrective mechanism and underscore its importance as a core competency in responsible organizational decision-making.