Technology Perspectives and Innovative Scenarios Applied in the Amazon Region

This paper aims to summarize the technology perspectives and innovative scenarios applied in the Amazon region. A call for papers for the Special Issue yielded four accepted articles that serve as the source for the summary. All these articles focus on specific cases in the Legal Amazon region and provide empirical evidence supported by theories and relevant literature. All the articles emphasized the need for investment in the form of networks for development and innovation. A descriptive, qualitative approach using the bibliometric software WordStat 8® identified the words most frequently used in the four papers included this special issue. The most relevant terms identified were: network, innovation, firms, production, research and development. In total, these articles point to varied partners and institutions necessary for building networks to further development and innovation. This Special Issue is a first step to building a knowledge base focused on the Amazon region that is missing in the academic literature. Future contributions must build and expand the discussion of empirical cases and reflect different disciplines that contribute to industries, policies, society and networks. This is necessary to improve innovation and economic development of this important region

Comportamento dos consumidores e as suas decisões de compra perante os produtos sustentáveis: Estudo de caso da gama join life do grupo Inditex

A indústria da moda tem mudado ao longo dos anos, e as marcas têm tentado acompanhar essa evolução, durante o seu processo de negócio com os consumidores, uma vez que estes, cada vez mais, procuram produtos diferentes e dentro dos seus padrões. A evolução levou a que fossem criados os produtos Join Life. Neste caso, como em quase todos, as opiniões dividem-se, visto que existem muitos consumidores a favor, outros contra e existem ainda aqueles que desconhecem o conceito. No entanto, atualmente, o número de compras online tem vindo a aumentar, por se interligarem ao conforto e comodidade, e por esse motivo, torna-se mais complexo, facultar aos consumidores a qualidade dos produtos que, normalmente, é sentida com o toque. É notório que essa diferença de ideias ou opiniões é visível também pelas diferenças de gerações e por esse motivo, as marcas devem saber qual o seu público alvo e como o atingir. Dessa forma, marcas deverão perceber como inovar, conseguindo assim transformar a compra online, numa experiência o mais real e agradável possível, explicando ainda de que forma são fabricados os produtos Join Life e evidenciando de que em nada altera a sua qualidade. Esta investigação tem o objetivo de estudar o comportamento do consumidor no processo de compra, relativamente aos produtos Join Life e perceber o que o faz optar por esse produto em detrimento de outro produto considerado “normal”, ou vice-versa. É ainda analisado o conhecimento dos consumidores sobre este conceito. Para tal, recorreu-se a uma abordagem quantitativa em que, a recolha de dados foi realizada através de um questionário online

Inovação e consumo como drivers para o desenvolvimento sustentável

Diante da necessidade prática por uma sociedade ambientalmente sustentável e de mecanismos que guiem essa transição, observa-se que práticas de redução de poluição ou consumo utilizadas de forma isoladas não são mecanismos suficientes para o atingimento da sustentabilidade ambiental almejada. Dessa forma, esta dissertação tem como principal objetivo explorar a inovação e o consumo sustentáveis como drivers necessários para o desenvolvimento sustentável. Especificamente, primeiramente, buscou-se mapear as melhores práticas de inovação sustentável conduzidas por empresas multinacionais que operam no Brasil, haja vista que essas empresas contam com recursos e competências que impulsionam esse tipo de inovação. Os achados da análise de conteúdo de relatórios de sustentabilidade apontam que as principais inovações de produto das empresas multinacionais focam no desenvolvimento de produtos mais eficientes, enquanto as inovações de processo focam na economia de materiais. Inovações organizacionais, por sua vez, concentram-se na aprendizagem orientada à inovação, enquanto as inovações de marketing buscam desenvolver novos ou melhores processos de distribuição. Ainda, com base na análise executada e nos resultados, uma matriz que demonstra a transição entre os tipos de inovações conduzidas pelas multinacionais é apresentada. Em relação ao consumo sustentável, realizou-se uma revisão sistemática de literatura a fim de identificar atributos de produtos ambientalmente sustentáveis reportados na literatura. Nesse sentido, propõe-se um framework que aborda as três orientações dos atributos verdes de produtos identificados: orientação à produção, orientação ao uso, e orientação ao fim da vida do produto, as quais abarcam atributos individuais que podem ser inseridos em produtos de forma a torná-los sustentáveis, seja pela redução do impacto no meio ambiente seja pela geração de impacto positivo.In light of the practical need for an environmentally sustainable society and for mechanisms that guide such transition, pollution reduction practices used in isolate, or together with consumption reduction are not sufficient mechanisms to attain the desired environmental sustainability. Thus, this dissertation’s main objective is to explore how environmentally sustainable innovation and consumption serve as drivers for the sustainable development. Specifically, initially, we mapped the best sustainable innovation practices developed by multinational companies that operate in Brazil, based on their access to resources and competences that boost the development of this kind of innovation. The findings from the content analysis of sustainability reports point that the main product innovations developed focus on the development of more efficient products, while process innovations target material savings. In turn, organizational innovations address innovation-oriented learning, while marketing innovations aim to develop new or improved distribution processes. Moreover, based on the analysis conducted and the results, we propose a matrix to demonstrate the transition between the types of innovation developed by the multinationals. Regarding sustainable consumption, we conducted a systematic literature review with the aim to identify environmentally sustainable product attributes from studies. We propose a framework that encompasses the three orientations of the green product attributes identified: production, use, and end-of-life orientations. These orientations encompass individual attributes that can be added to products with the aim to make them sustainable, either by the reduction of the environmental impact, or by exerting a positive impact on the environment

Revisiting Automatic Goal Pursuit: Exploring the Value of Goals in Cue-Based Behavior

Human beings perform actions for desirable outcomes to satisfy needs and experience pleasure. Such behavior can be cued by the environment. The goal-directed account for such cue-based behavior has been well-accepted in more recent studies, especially in the field of automatic goal pursuit. However, the understanding and examination of the direct control of goal-directed behavior by the environment are plagued by the absence of clear methods or tests. More specifically, while studies hint at the involvement of goal representations, they need to properly distinguish between behavior activated directly by the cues and behavior mediated by representations of desired outcomes. That is, the cues used in these studies are usually associated with both the goal and the instrumental actions causing them in daily life. Therefore, it is impossible to distinguish between the direct and indirect effects of cues on behavior. To address this issue, in the present thesis, a Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm was used to systematically investigate cue-based goal-directed behavior by comparing cued behavior toward high vs. low-value outcomes. This paradigm allows researchers to separate action-outcome learning from stimulus-outcome learning, meaning that the cue is only indirectly associated with actions that lead to the same outcomes. Hence, any facilitating effect from cue can only be attributed to the indirect effect of outcome representations. More importantly, we investigated such effects on goals with social meaningfulness (e.g., pro-social goals) and what stage of behavior (i.e., action initiation and action persistence) can be influenced by such processes. Results indicate that cues predictive of low or high-valued outcomes prompt instrumental responses when the cue and response share the same outcome. Moreover, the effects are more pronounced for high-value outcomes, indicating a value-based specific PIT effect. For the high-level goal pursuit, we found that a cue predictive of pro-self outcomes facilitates instrumental responses, whereas the specific PIT effect for pro-social outcomes only emerges when participants have the freedom to donate the money. Additionally, we examined the influence of multi-functional outcomes on the PIT effect. Results reveal that cues associated with multi-functional snacks facilitate the corresponding actions, whereas cues associated with single-functional snacks do not. Furthermore, we explored the motivational control effect of cues on goal-directed behavior. The findings demonstrate that participants responded faster to the high-value cue. However, this effect was only found in action initiation and did not translate into action persistence over time. Overall, this research sheds light on the environmental cues that influence human behavior, highlighting the mediating role of outcome value and providing insights into high-level goal pursuit cued by the environment, at least in action initiation. We believe that the PIT paradigm is a valuable tool for investigating the motivational underpinnings of cue-driven goal-directed behavior and, thus, how automatic goal pursuit may emerge

Influencing attitudes, changing behaviours and embedding a pro-sustainability mindset in the workplace: An innovation diffusion approach to persuasive communications.

Although several sustainability implementation frameworks have been proposed, researchers have not yet proposed theories or models to help organisations speed up the rate of sustainability diffusion and narrow the gap between what is known and what is put into use. This study sought to fill this gap by proposing a sustainability diffusion model. The model was developed from an exhaustive review of the corresponding literature. It uses Rogers' (1962) diffusion of innovations theory and Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical foundation. The model was tested and its structural architecture was validated in three different sustainability contexts; namely, duplex printing in UK universities; sustainable computing in service-based businesses; and sustainability culture in UK universities. The primary data was analysed statistically using SPSS, and structural equation modelling (SEM) in particular was used to validate the structural architecture of the proposed model. The SEM results indicate that the structural architecture of the theory of planned behaviour is well-founded. All the hypotheses that underline the theory's paths were supported. In contrast, the structural architecture of the diffusion of innovations theory was weakly supported. Some of the paths were rejected in at least two occasions. For example, the relationship between pro-sustainability knowledge and attitude was neither statistically significant nor directional. Moreover, several components of the 'verified' model turned out to be statistically insignificant or were rejected altogether. These were knowledge, perceived self interest, perceived persuader legitimacy, perceived consequences, perceived argument quality, trialability and perceived source credibility. Accordingly, once these constructs were removed and the model was restructured in accordance with the results of SEM analysis, an entirely new version of the 'sustainability diffusion model' emerged (See Figure IX-2). The architecture of the new model suggests that in order to speed up the rate of sustainability diffusion, change agents must emphasise the relative advantage, compatibility, subjective norm and the urgency of the pro-sustainability initiative under implementation and de-emphasise any complexities or risks associated with its operationalisation. Unexpectedly, the new version of the proposed model relies more on Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical foundation than on Rogers' (1983) innovation-decision process model. In other words, the new model maintained almost all the features of the theory of planned behaviour, but it only absorbed some, but not all, of the components of Rogers' innovation-decision process model. Nevertheless, the new model maintained its holistic nature. It still takes into account both the person-specific and innovation-specific factors that influence the diffusion, adoption and actualisation of pro-sustainability behaviours/initiatives