Internationalization process: GuestCentric Systems Embracing People‟s Republic of China

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThe way the independent hotel industry makes business has recently changed. Startup venture capitalist GuestCentric Systemsi henceforth called GC, is a small sized IT company that is tackling an unmet opportunity, they are revolutionizing the online presence of the independent hotel industry by offering a fully integrated e-commerce management solution that allows hotels to create an outstanding online presence, resulting in an increase of their online bookings, through equipping hoteliers with innovative e-commerce optimization features, in a fast and affordable way. Up until now this was only within reach of big hotel chains, thus GC is leveling the playing field, as well as empowering hoteliers to bypass intermediaries, reducing costs while increasing sales growth. Notwithstanding, CG has massive costs that are impacting seriously the company and causing a huge negative EBIT of €1.100.000, meaning that their revenues of €300.000 are not able to cover minimally their costs of €1.400.000 estimated for 2010. Thereby, GC has an innovative business model that is sustainable, if and only if, the company is able to capture a great market share. GC was demanded to internationalize and will have to proceed on doing it to obtain the required customer base and overcome the delicate financial situation. Being a web based company, GC has perceived that it not enough to have a website to attract clients, it is required highly countries‟ adaptations to boost sales. That is the reason why this project has as its cornerstone the internationalization process of GC to China, therefore, the purpose of this work and its major added value is not only to build up and streamlining a step-by-step internationalization business plan with accurate solutions to enter and succeed in this market, but also, recommend GC the right momentum to enter in it, having in mind the tradeoff between the consolidation of their financial position and the vitality of the Chinese market

Men who suffered intimate partner violence: Impressions about existing public campaigns and recommendations for new ones

Over the last decades, the negative effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) directed at men in abusive different-sex and same-sex relationships have been increasingly investigated. Men who are the targets of IPV face many barriers to help-seeking, and to overcome them, public awareness campaigns have been developed. Women who experienced IPV have found campaigns targeting them to be harmful and misleading, and previous research suggests that following the principles of formative evaluation research may improve campaigns’ effectiveness and reduce unwanted negative effects. This article documents the theory-based formative evaluation research conducted with 14 men abused in different-sex and same-sex relationships for the creation of targeted campaigns. Through semi-structured interviews, men were asked about their overall knowledge of campaigns, their thoughts about specific pictorial IPV campaigns, and their suggestions for the development of new campaigns. Thematic analysis and a theoretically grounded coding scheme were used to analyze the content of the interviews with high inter-rater reliability. Overall, our results indicate that most men were not aware of campaigns in Portugal, and their impressions about the ones they recalled were mixed. Most men praised clear messages informing forms of violence, while some responded negatively to the inclusion of words such as “shame” and “victim”, and the depiction of bruises. They also considered that future campaigns targeting men should portray “real people” like them and provide information on self-efficacy, the efficacy of recommended responses, and threat susceptibility. Our findings are consistent with previous evidence with women who experienced IPV but also provide theoretically grounded novel contributions and highlight the importance of considering the population of interest’s insights when developing and testing new campaigns.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Consulting to social entrepreneurship initiatives - using business skills to help solve social problems: ERG: a sustainable approach

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsEscolinha de Rugby da Galiza is a Social Entrepreneurship project from Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Cascais that uses an innovative approach to social integrate children from the community of Fim do Mundo. Through the study and analysis of this project, it was identified the need to improve the sustainability approach currently used. A set of proposals were developed to diversify its sources of donations and generate its own revenues in order to guarantee its longterm sustainability

Anticorrelation between Ion Acceleration and Nonlinear Coherent Structures from Laser-Underdense Plasma Interaction

In laser-plasma experiments, we observed that ion acceleration from the Coulomb explosion of the plasma channel bored by the laser, is prevented when multiple plasma instabilities such as filamentation and hosing, and nonlinear coherent structures (vortices/post-solitons) appear in the wake of an ultrashort laser pulse. The tailoring of the longitudinal plasma density ramp allows us to control the onset of these insabilities. We deduced that the laser pulse is depleted into these structures in our conditions, when a plasma at about 10% of the critical density exhibits a gradient on the order of 250 {\mu}m (gaussian fit), thus hindering the acceleration. A promising experimental setup with a long pulse is demonstrated enabling the excitation of an isolated coherent structure for polarimetric measurements and, in further perspectives, parametric studies of ion plasma acceleration efficiency.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Cumulative prospect theory : a parametric analysis of the functional forms and applications

Mestrado em FinançasEste trabalho apresenta um estudo empírico sobre cumulative prospect theory através do estudo da função de utilidade e a função de probabilidade distorcida. Os resultados obtidos estão de acordo com a literatura, que mostra que a função da utilidade é côncava no domínio dos ganhos, e quase linear no domínio das perdas. Não só mostra que a função da probabilidade distorcida tem a forma de um "S" inverso tanto no domínio dos ganhos como no domínio das perdas. Também aborda o estudo de variáveis demográficas relacionando-as com os coeficientes das funções mencionadas anteriormente, concluindo assim que os homens estão mais dispostos a correr riscos do que as mulheres. Por fim, através dos coeficientes calculados, foi possível aplicar os resultados ao mercado financeiro. Primeiro criando uma ponte entre o coeficiente de loss aversion e a escala de DOSPERT, o que irá facilitar a determinação do carteira mais adequado para cada individuo. Segundo, aplicando a cumulative prospect theory à modern portfolio theory para o mercado Português. Isto irá permitir que as instituições financeiras consigam determinar a carteira óptima do mercado, tendo em conta as probabilidades distorcidas.This work presents an empirical study of the cumulative prospect theory using a Portuguese sample. We estimate the value function and the probability weighting function with positive and negative outcomes. The results confirm previous works that the value function is concave in the gain domain and almost linear in the loss domain. Our results also show an inverse S-shape for the probability weighting function in both loss and gain domain. We also look into the relation of the coefficient from the already mentioned functions with some demographic variables. It was possible to conclude that males are more willing to take risks than females. Finally, using the calculated coefficients we discuss the applicability of the results in the context of financial markets. First we establish a bridge between the loss aversion coefficient and the DOSPERT-scale, which will provide an easier way for financial institutions to present the correct efficient portfolio for each individual. Second we apply the cumulative prospect theory to the modern portfolio theory, for the Portuguese market. This will allow the financial institutions to create an efficient portfolio of the market, taking into account the probabilities distortion

Pictorial campaigns on intimate partner violence focusing on victimized men: a systematic content analysis

Men who are victimized in their intimate different-sex (DS) and same-sex (SS) relationships often report not having information to help them escape their abusive situations. To overcome this lack of information, public awareness campaigns have been created. But thus far, there is no clear understanding of how these campaigns reflect theoretical principles central to improve message effectiveness and avoid undesired negative effects. This study aims to review the content of intimate partner violence (IPV) pictorial campaigns focusing on victimized men in DS and SS relationships. Specifically, it aims to understand the campaigns’ global characteristics and if their content represents constructs from different theoretical models. Online search engines were used to extract pictorial campaigns in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, released up until 2019. They must have had to be promoted by a formal organization, and were coded according to a theoretically grounded taxonomy, using thematic analysis. Our results indicate that out of the 57 campaigns collected, most were aimed at men without specifying the relationship they were in (i.e., DS or SS) (n = 22, 39%) and intended to change attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors about IPV (in line with the Theory of Planned Behavior) (n = 47, 82%). Additionally, four campaigns adequately integrated fear appeal constructs of the Extended Parallel Processing Model (n = 4, 7%), while 41 campaigns highlighted dissonant states in line with the Elaboration Likelihood Model (n = 41, 72%). Following the Transtheoretical Model, most campaigns targeted victims in the Maintenance stage (n = 52, 92%). The campaigns under analysis may prove useful for some victimized men, mostly presenting messages designed to elicit a beneficial attitude and behavior change. Our analysis highlights different limitations as well, such as the lack of information on susceptibility to IPV (n = 13, 23%) and the effectiveness of the recommended responses that the campaigns provide (n = 20, 38%), which may interfere with adequate fear appeal processing. Additionally, presenting more diverse victims may be beneficial, along with social norms change information regarding gender roles, violence, and help-seeking. This may guide the development of improved and tailored campaigns to better facilitate help-seeking in victimized men that mostly avoid undesired negative effects on the viewer.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Searching, navigating, and recommending movies through emotions: A scoping review

Movies offer viewers a broad range of emotional experiences, providing entertainment, and meaning. Following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we reviewed the literature on digital systems designed to help users search and browse movie libraries and offer recommendations based on emotional content. Our search yielded 83 eligible documents (published between 2000 and 2021). We identified 22 case studies, 34 empirical studies, 26 proof of concept, and one theoretical paper. User transactions (e.g., ratings, tags) were the preferred source of information. The documents examined approached emotions from both categorical (n=35) and dimensional (n=18) perspectives, and nine documents offer a combination of both approaches. Although there are several authors mentioned, the references used are frequently dated, and 12 documents do not mention the author or the model used. We identified 61 words related to emotion or affect. Documents presented on average 1.36 positive terms and 2.64 negative terms. Sentiment analysis () is frequently used for emotion identification, followed by subjective evaluations (n= 15), movie low-level audio and visual features (n = 11), and face recognition technologies (n = 8). We discuss limitations and offer a brief review of current emotion models and research.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio