SMEs innovation capabilities and export performance: an entrepreneurial orientation view

Although there are several studies analysing how innovation capabilities influence export performance, this study aims to present the impact of a set of internal innovation capabilities on export performance of small and medium-sized firms (smes), with the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation contingent upon the proactive or reactive behaviour of the firms to external stimuli. The study involves the analysis of 147 questionnaire‐based survey of managers from plastic manufacturing smes operating in Portugal that were subjected to a Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. The results show that proactive firms to external stimuli are not only better at innovating but also their entrepreneurial orientation capabilities underpin a better performance in international markets when compared with firms that react to external stimuli. This study has implications for smes aiming at increasing their export performance and innovativeness. For practitioners the findings of this study should enable smes owner/managers to better understand the possible impacts of innovation capabilities and entrepreneurial orientation on export performance, and thus lead to more effective smes management

Economic performance of portuguese companies 1989-1999 : a DEA study

The magazine Exame 500 publishes each year a listing of the top 500 companies by sales volume, along with accompanying financial indicators. This rich data set is underutilized in the analysis performed by Exame 500, rankings and relative performance being assessed in a naïve fashion. This study seeks to provide an enhanced view of the sectoral performance of the Portuguese economy in the period 1989- 1999 using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEAl technique. Additionally, the relative performance of national to foreign-owned companies and public to private companies is assessed. An analysis of the results seeks to understand why certain sectors perform better than others, and how national/ foreign ownership and public/ private objectives matter. The results are interpreted with particular reference to the economic background of the period. Some final comments are presented discussing the usefulness of DEA and possible revisions of the technique as well as other limitations of the study

WinCE-based embedded system for control of an industrial screw machine

Nowadays, industrial systems frequently require the control of some industrial process and monitoring of relevant data about the process, using a friendly visual environment. Normally, is used a PLC (Programmable Logical Controller) to control the process and assure that the timing requirements (deadlines) are satisfied and a PC to monitor the data. However, the implementation of such solution presents the following drawbacks to the system programmer: (1) he or she needs to know the communication protocol between the two platforms - PLC and the PC; (2) he or she needs to learn two different programming languages - the low level PLC language and a high level PC language. On the other hand, in some cases, the reserved space to control the systems is reduced, making the implementation of such solution very hard. This paper presents an approach based on an embedded PC with real-time processing capability and data monitoring facility. The proposed system runs the Windows CE operating system and allows all software development in C/C++, using the Microsoft Visual Studio environment. The system was tested on an industrial screw machine for PCBs

Abandono en servicios - Una revisión bibliométrica

[EN] The purpose of this article is to identify the most impactful research on customer churn and to map the conceptual and intellectual structure of its field of study. Data were collected from the WoS database, comprising 338 articles published between 1995 and 2020. Several bibliometric techniques were applied, including analysis of co-words, co-citation, bibliographic coupling, and co-authorship networks. R software and the Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny package were used to perform the analyses. The results identify the most active and influential authors, articles, and journals on the topic. More specifically, through co-citations and bibliographic coupling, it was possible to map the oldest articles (retrospective analysis) and the current research front (prospective analysis). The retrospective analysis, based on co-citations, revealed that the foundations of this research field are constructs such as quality of service, satisfaction, loyalty, and changing behaviors. The prospective analysis, performed through bibliographic coupling, revealed that current research is embedded in predictive analysis, clusters, data mining, and algorithms. The results provide robust guidance for further investigation in this field.[ES] El objetivo de este artículo es identificar las investigaciones más impactantes sobre la pérdida de clientes y trazar la estructura conceptual e intelectual de su campo de estudio. Los datos han sido recogidos de la base de datos WoS, que comprenden 338 artículos publicados entre 1995 y 2020. Varias técnicas bibliométricas fueron aplicadas, incluyendo el análisis de co-palabras, cocitaciones, acoplamiento bibliográfico y redes de coautoría. Para realizar los análisis se utilizaron el software R y el Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny. Los resultados identifican los autores, artículos y revistas más influyentes y activos sobre el tema. Más específicamente, a través de las cocitaciones y el acoplamiento bibliográfico, fue posible mapear los artículos más antiguos (análisis retrospectivo) y la investigación más actual (análisis prospectivo). El análisis retrospectivo, basado en las cocitaciones, reveló que los fundamentos de este campo de investigación son constructos como la calidad del servicio, la satisfacción, la lealtad y el cambio de comportamientos. El análisis prospectivo, realizado a través del acoplamiento bibliográfico, reveló que la investigación actual está inmersa en el análisis predictivo, los conglomerados, la minería de datos y los algoritmos. Los resultados proporcionan una sólida orientación para seguir investigando en este campo