Study of the means of online payment in the Portuguese population

Nowadays it is possible to verify that there is a change in the way of buying, that is, the traditional means of shopping is increasingly giving way to the electronic medium and, consequently, electronic payment means. The Internet, by making it possible to purchase and pay online, through means such as PayPal, Credit Cards, PaySafeCard, among others, has contributed to greater convenience, speed and efficiency, making the daily life of the population easier. This phenomenon gives rise to a new generation of consumers, the online consumers [1]. Therefore, the objective of this research was to understand which means of online payments are most used by consumers. As a way of responding to this objective, a quantitative methodology was used, in which an online questionnaire was created to collect data Some results corroborate with the literature, but others contradict it, especially regarding the age range of online consumers.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Determinants of higher education students’ willingness to pay for violent crime reduction: a contingent valuation study

By eliciting an individual’s Willingness to Pay (WTP) for a reduction in crime risks, the contingent valuation method is one of the most solid methodologies in use to estimate the intangible costs of crime. However, very few studies have applied contingent valuation methods to random samples of the population located in high crime rate areas. This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first attempt to apply the contingent valuation method to estimate how much a specific group of society, which is relatively prone to falling victim to (violent) crime, i.e., students, is willing to pay to reduce the likelihood of being the victim of violent crime. In contrast to the existing literature, our study focuses on a rather unexplored context, Portugal, where criminality and violent crime rates are relatively low by international standards, even though they have been on the rise. Based on responses from 1122 higher education students in a broad range of degrees (from Economics to Psychology and the Humanities), we found that 33% of our respondents have been victims of crime in the past, although in general they did not result in physical or psychological injuries. A reasonable percentage of the students (almost 40%) is very worried about falling victim to a crime and 52.8% worries moderately. Over 40% of our respondents were willing to pay a certain amount but less than 50€, whereas 20.8% were willing to pay between 50€ and 250€. On average, all other determinants constant, younger and female students revealed that they were more inclined to pay so as to avoid violent crime than their older and male counterparts. Low and high income Portuguese students do not differ in their willingness to pay more to avoid being victims of violent crime. Cautious behaviour, such as locking doors at home, and a strong opinion about policies and payment vehicles with potential to reduce the risk of crime is positively associated with the WTP. Finally, the students’ field of study surfaced as a key determinant of WTP – students enrolled in Economics and Management revealed a higher WTP. Such findings are likely to have a critical impact on crime and insurance policies.Contingent Valuation Method; Intangible costs; Crime costs

Higher education institutions and international students’ hindrances: a case of students from the African Portuguese-speaking countries at two European Portuguese universities

We present a study to comprehend if the support given by higher education institution (HEI) to international students coming from the PortugueseSpeaking African Countries meets their academic and social hindrances. Our starting point was a set of semi-structured interviews focused on the perspectives of these students, their Professors and Course Directors as well as on the perspectives of HEI’ staff. Despite findings indicate a positive institutional support, it seems there is still much to do in order to do it properly with these students. These different perspectives will allow us to reflect on the impact that those actions/resources have on the path of students from Portuguese-Speaking African Countries and to systematize suggestions to enhance their experiences in HE.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Awareness of new payment technologies in the digital banking transformation - Accelerated by the COVID 19 pandemia

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Risk Analysis and ManagementThis dissertation intends to determine and identify the consumer’s level of awareness and acceptance of payment methods and digital transformation in the Banking Sector. Consumers demand new tools to face the new challenges in the market as fast adapting competition and new players arise. Banks provide to consumers, products and means to access accounts and cash that follow the need for a growing internet-based economy cross-borders, demonetization of the currencies, and fast pacing need for more direct access between supply and demand. Financial and credit institutions play a critical role in the economy within the multiple Line of business (further called LoB) and provide services, being payment methods the scope of our study. The world economy, companies, and corporations have pursued the e-commerce trend, as technology has become a standard tool in the everyday living of world societies. The competition was a driving force compelling banks to move forward to improve their offer in payment products and resort to new technology. Consumers are also the driver of these breakthroughs and have a faster adhesion for cheaper payment solutions, creating the need for different solutions incorporating technological development

National survey of the Portuguese elderly nutritional status : study protocol

Acknowledgements We acknowledge the IAN-AF team (in particular to Duarte Torres, Milton Severo and Andreia Oliveira) for the community sampling and their support on dietary assessment methodology and critical discussion along the elaboration of the present protocol. Funding This project (136SI5) was granted by the Public Health Initiatives Programme (PT06), financed by EEA Grants Financial Mechanism 2009-2014.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Reform of Unemployment Protection Insurance, 1993-2007: the Erosion of Legislated Rights in France, Germany, Portugal and Spain

In the extensive literature that has been dedicated during the past fifteen years to the analysis of the reform of the welfare states, a significant number of studies have focused on the characterisation of the nature and direction of the changes in the main social programmes. This article seeks to contribute to this debate by analysing the reform of unemployment insurance schemes between 1993 and 2007 in France, Germany, Portugal and Spain, as representative of the conservative regime. A comparative analysis is carried out by examining the major legislative amendments concerning eligibility criteria and entitlement conditions, as they are expressed by legislation in the four countries. The findings of the study indicate that the four countries have adopted different instruments at different moments in time, while no significant differences were detected between them, and that the legislative changes introduced in the four insurance schemes may be seen to constitute a real erosion of social rights.Welfare state reform; Retrenchment; Unemployment insurance schemes; Social rights.

Public Libraries: techno trends and collective memory

By public library I mean here a library providing some kind of universal access to its assets, one whose readership isn’t exclusively tied and restricted to a particular organization – including the generally called public libraries, but also many specialized libraries, such as the academic of the open kind. Despite all efforts, public libraries continue to face strong barriers to their participation in the information society. Participants of the World Meeting on the Future of the ISIS Software recognized that “the ISIS Software Family has a unique technological concept and developmental mission to cope with Information Storage and Retrieval Systems (ISRS), particularly for developing countries where the technology is widely known and used; that the ISIS Software Family has now fully embraced the Free and Open Source Software approach and the support of UNICODE structures to be fully open and multilingual” (Rio Declaration 2008), restating thus the persistent relevance of this software family. OSS (Coar 2006) is defined as software whose source code is freely available, therefore allowing for free inspection and/or utilization, i.e., it is available for study and use by everyone without any payment or any other barrier to access. the lack of technical skill in libraries, a situation that libraries share with much of the public and cultural sectors. The study of OSS ILS, and of the their adaptation to the needs of specific public libraries may be the solution to this. Library Management Systems) that enhances digital archive interoperability between a diverse range of libraries

The reform of the NHS in Portugal

The objective of this article is to describe the Portuguese National Healthcare Service, giving a special emphasis to the recent reforms that have been introduced since the beginning of 2002. Its main argument is that there are two different (but connected) rationales that underpin the orientation of the current reforms. One the one hand, the explicit rationale that refers mainly to the ‘visible’ and stated causes and motivations of the reforms. On the other hand, the implicit rationale, whose influence over the government’s actions is not expressed as such, either because it is not perceived, or because it is not assumed. For this purpose, it is essential to start by giving an historical account of how the NHS started in Portugal and in which direction it has been evolving in the last four decades. This section has particular interest considering that it gives meaning, together with other arguments, to the implicit rationale, to the extent that the current reforms are product of the historical context in which the NHS was created and its subsequent developments. In the second part, the focus is on the reformation period, that started in 2002 and that is still going on at the moment. The main reforms that are being conducted are analysed, being this section mainly of a descriptive nature. What is considered to be important in this section is to give the government’s account of the reforms, in order to make clear what are its motivations and its goals. Furthermore, by doing this analysis it makes it possible to put forward what is meant by explicit rationale and identify its features. In section three, the reforms described in section two are analysed individually in a critical way. The objective of this section is to ‘make sense’ of the reforms being undertaken by the government and consider some aspects that are still unclear and that need further reflection. It is throughout this section that the main argument of this article is explored, by discussing, when applicable, what is the rationale underpinning the different reforms

Emma colchão: how to grow in the Portuguese market?

Emma is a German mattress startup that is already present in 13 European countries, including Portugal since November 2017. This thesis is the result of a Directed Research Internship at Emma for five months. Currently, Emma Colchão sells online and the Emma mattress is a winning-award product in Portugal. The main purpose of this internship was to understand the profile of the Portuguese customer regarding the online purchase of a mattress and identify some strategic actions to boost Emma’s growth in Portugal. Analysis of secondary data helped to identify CONFIO as the best trust logo for the Portuguese ecommerce page and to conclude that Emma should not make a partnership with magazine X. Finally, primary data collected through a survey to the Portuguese community, with 116 valid responses, helped to derive useful insights about the Portuguese customer behavior in ecommerce. The general findings show that Emma should also “go offline” by partnering with reputable retailers to increase the customer’s reach. Moreover, it should take advantage of the winning-award to overcome the competition, increase sales and grow in Portugal