Sharing economy: Crafting temporal identity and legitimacy claims as an emergent category

Typically involving the use of information technologies to link different stakeholders with the goal of using surplus resources in the creation of valuable products and services, the sharing economy (SE) is growing at an impressive rate across the globe (Cohen & Kietzmann, 2014). However, in general there is a lack of common understanding of SE and its underlying mechanisms (Knote & Blohm, 2016). Despite this ambiguity, SE represents a clear change in how businesses are organized, and many established companies are looking at SE businesses as sources of inspiration to undertake improvements in their own business models. In this context, SE is raising a number of questions related to conventional management theories. As an emergent category, SE should be an important resource for the establishment of organizational identity and legitimacy, especially in new business. As innovative organizations, SE entities are coming up with divergent business models whose characteristics are only partially described. In this research, we address these by studying how has the category of SE evolved, that is the processes by which external audiences are giving identity legitimacy to SE as a category. To answer this research question, were conducted two studies: 1) a literature review on how new categories emerge and legitimacy is construed; and 2) an historical analysis of the expression SE or its equivalents, which implicated the collection of secondary data. More precisely, content analysis was conducted to identify the mechanisms used by different actors to establish SE as a legitimate category. This paper presents a more robust framework and detailed understanding of the sharing economy field in its nascent dimension.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Individualism vs. collectivism in a sharing economy context: A study on what determines Portuguese consumers’ participation

Consumers rely on warmth and competence, two fundamental dimensions that drive social judgments of people, to form perceptions of companies and, ultimately, make their market consumption decisions. In a Sharing Economy (SE) context, however, are there more profound and hidden motives for consumer behavior, namely the orientation–individualistic/idiocentric or collectivist/allocentric (Triandis & Gelfand, 1998) –of individuals of a given culture, for example? Meaning: does an individualistic/idiocentric orientation (in a “selfish” and “opportunistic” perspective without any kind of collectivist concerns that they are participating in something that is for the good of society and community as a whole) and/or a collectivist/allocentric orientation (in an “altruist” perspective, towards a collectivist/communal orientation) play a central role in determining consumers’ willingness to participate in sharing-based programs (SBP) of the SE? Furthermore, what drives such relationship? Meaning: what mediates such two variables (independent variable: individualism/collectivism; and dependent variable: willingness to participate)? In searching for an answer, this research conducted two studies: 1) Correlation –with the aim to find out whether these two variables are associated or related in some way, in other words, whether Individualism and/or Collectivism have a positive, a negative or no effect whatsoever on the willingness to participate in SBP of the SE; 2) Mediation analysis –with the aim to find out what explains (what mediates) the relationship between the two variables. Having Portuguese consumers as our targeted population, our tentative findings are expected to reveal that (i) individualism is the dominant dimension that plays a determinant role in influencing Portuguese consumer’s participation in the SE and (ii) such relationship is driven by the transformation expectations that such participation may in stil in their lives –at the level of emotions and experiential benefits. We present an innovative research, as, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first in investigating the relationship between individualistic/idiocentric or/and collectivist/allocentric orientation and consumers’ participation in SBP of the SE.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Sharing economy: the establishment of organizational identity overtime, considering identify claims and legitimacy granting

The Sharing Economy (SE) has been growing at an impressive rate across the globe (Cohen & Kietzmann, 2014) and emerging as an innovative and rapidly growing sector of the economy (Hira & Reilly, 2017), which attracted the attention of the scientific community. An increasing number of studies have been brought to light helping to document and analyze how SE manifests and evolves across economic systems, thus, contributing to refine and recast existing management theory (Mair & Reischauer, 2017). Nevertheless, there still is a lack of a common understanding of SE and its underlying mechanisms (Knote & Blohm, 2016). As an emergent category, SE has been contoured by being a mutant process, as it has been crafted by multiple and distinct temporal identity and legitimacy events, mechanisms and claims. Showing signs of being an on-going process of evolution, there is a constant need for further research to identify developments in the evolution of SE considering both identify claims (self-referential) and legitimacy (granted by stakeholders), which would offer additional comprehension about the SE phenomenon. The research addresses it by studying what is the role of SE in establishing the identity of organizations belonging to the field, considering both identify claims (self-referential) and legitimacy (granted by stakeholders)? To answer the research question, the research was designed involving two components inspired on category creation studies (Durand & Paolella, 2013; Glynn & Navis, 2013; Navis & Glynn, 2010; Kennedy & Fiss, 2013; Kennedy et al., 2010; Lounsbury & Rao, 2004; and Wry et al., 2014): 1) four prototypical SE organizations were selected, each of them belonging to Schor’s (2014) four SE archetypes of activities: (i) Airbnb – peer-to-peer, for-profit activity –, (ii) Zipcar – business-to-peer, for-profit activity –, (iii) TimeBanks – peer-to-peer, non-profit – and (iv) Make: makerspaces – business-to-peer, non-profit. The content of the evolution of their identity claims was analyzed, using data from their public available reports, as well as, other secondary data available on-line; and 2) considering the same set of SE organizations, legitimacy evolution was analyzed considering how scientific community, investors, customers, media, other analysts and other interested audiences have been constructing category meaning to them, conferring the formation of SE categorical and organizational identities, and perceptions about the viability of their business models (Tripsas, 2009, as cited in Navis & Glynn, 2010). In short, it was analyzed how stakeholders assess the viability of SE categories and organizations and can grant or withhold legitimacy to SE organizations (Zuckerman, 1999, as cited in Navis & Glynn, 2010). This research presents a new layer on framing a detailed understanding of the SE field in its maturing dimension, thus, meeting Mair’s and Reischauer’s (2017) call for studying the SE, unpack and make sense of an inspiring and complex phenomenon and thereby advancing and sophisticate the existing theory.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sharing economy: The establishment of organizational identity overtime, considering identify claims and legitimacy granting

The Sharing Economy (SE) has been growing at an impressive rate across the globe (Cohen & Kietzmann, 2014) and emerging as a new and rapidly growing sector of the economy (Hira & Reilly, 2017), which has the effect of attracting the attention of the scientific community over the last few years. An increasing number of studies on the topic have been brought to light helping to document and analyse how SE manifests and evolves across various economic systems, thus, contributing to refine and recast existing management theory (Mair & Reischauer, 2017). Nonetheless, there still is a lack of common understanding of SE and its underlying mechanisms (Knote & Blohm, 2016). As an emergent category, SE has been contoured by being a mutant process, as it has been crafted by multiple and distinct temporal identity and legitimacy events, mechanisms and claims. Showing signs of being an on-going process of evolution, there is a constant need for further research on identifying new developments in the evolution of SE considering both identify claims (self-referential) and legitimacy (granted by stakeholders), which would offer additional comprehension about the SE phenomenon. In this research, we address these by studying what is the role of SE in establishing the identity of organizations belonging to the field, considering both identify claims (self-referential) and legitimacy (granted by stakeholders)? To answer this research question, we designed a research involving two components inspired on category creation studies (Durand & Paolella, 2013; Glynn & Navis, 2013; Navis & Glynn, 2010; Kennedy & Fiss, 2013; Kennedy et al., 2010; Lounsbury & Rao, 2004; and Wry et al., 2014): 1) four prototypical SE organizations were selected, each of them belonging to Schor’s (2014) four SE archetypes of activities. Respectively: (i) Airbnb – peer-to-peer, for-profit activity –, (ii) Zipcar – business-to-peer, for-profit activity –, (iii) TimeBanks – peer-to-peer, non-profit – and (iv) Make: makerspaces – business-to-peer, non-profit. The evolution of their identity claims were content analysed, using data from their publically available reports, as well as, other secondary data available on-line; and 2) considering the same set of SE organizations, legitimacy evolution was analysed considering how scientific community, investors, customers, media, other analysts and other interested audiences have been constructing category meaning to them, conferring the formation of SE categorical and organizational identities, and perceptions about the viability of their business models (Tripsas, 2009, as cited in Navis & Glynn, 2010). In short, it was analysed how audiences assess the viability of SE categories and organizations and can grant or withhold legitimacy to SE organizations (Zuckerman, 1999, as cited in Navis & Glynn, 2010). This paper presents a new layer on framing a detailed understanding of the SE field in its maturing dimension, thus, meeting Mair and Reischauer’s (2017) call for studying the SE, unpack and make sense of an inspiring and complex phenomenon and thereby to advance and refine existing theory.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Making sense of the sharing economy: a category formation approach

The sharing economy (SE) has drawn significant attention from several society stakeholders in the last five years. While business actors are interested in financial opportunities to meet consumer needs, new business models, academia and governmental organisations are concerned with potential unintended effects on society and the environment. Despite its notable global growth, there is still a lack of more solid ground in understanding its origins and respective mechanisms through which it has been evolving as a category. This research addresses the problematics of the origins and ascendency of the SE by examining the process by which it is arising as a new category, searching for conceptual clarification, and pinpointing the legitimacy granted by stakeholders. Our guiding research questions are: how the SE was formed and evolved as a category, and as a category, is the SE legitimate? Additionally, we attempt to identify the nature of the SE as a category. Making a historical analysis of the expression SE and its equivalents, this paper deepens the discussion about the SE’s nature by providing evidence that it has predominantly been formed by emergence processes, comprising social movement, similarity clustering, and truce components, which render the SE a particular case of category formation and allow communication, entrepreneurship, regulation, and research about what it is. Moreover, the findings reveal a generalised legitimacy granted to the SE by a vast number of stakeholders, although still lacking the consolidation of socio-political legitimation. The SE’s nature seems to fall into a metaphorical approach, notably, the notion of radial categories.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Clinical significance of intraventricular gradient during effort in an adolescent karate player

The authors report the case of a 16-year-old boy who practices karate, who underwent medical evaluation because of atypical chest discomfort, related to strenuous effort. The ECG and echocardiogram findings were normal. The young boy did a treadmill stress test which was positive for myocardial ischemia. Late during the investigation, he underwent treadmill stress echocardiography, during which he developed intraventricular gradient of over 130 mmHg with end-systolic peak and systolic anterior movement (SAM) of the mitral valve. These echocardiographic findings were not present at rest and disappeared shortly after termination of exercise. The authors discuss the significance of this event. This leads us to advise withdrawal from participation in competitive sport according to the recomendations of the European Society of Cardiology. A possible role of exercise stress echo for intraventricular pressure gradient assessment in symptomatic athletes with structurally normal hearts is suggested

Exercise-induced intra-ventricular gradients as a frequent potential cause of myocardial ischemia in cardiac syndrome X patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The development of intra-ventricular gradients (IVG) during dobutamine or exercise stress is not infrequent, and can be associated to symptoms during stress.</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to assess the occurrence of IVG during exercise stress echocardiography in cardiac syndrome X patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We prospectively evaluated 91 patients (pts) mean aged 51 ± 12 years (age ranged 20 to 75 years old), 44 of whom were women. All pts had angina, positive exercise ECG treadmill testing, normal rest echocardiogram and no coronary artery disease on coronary angiogram (cardiac X syndrome). After complete Doppler echocardiographic evaluation with determination of left ventricular outflow tract index (LVOTi), relative left ventricular wall thickness (RLVWT) and left ventricular end-diastolic volume index (LVDVi), all patients underwent stress echocardiography with two-dimensional and Doppler echographic evaluation during and after treadmill exercise.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For analysis purpose patients were divided in 2 groups, according to the development of IVG. Doppler evidence of IVG was found in 33 (36%) of the patients (Group A), with mean age 47 ± 14 years old (age ranged 20 to 72 years) and with a mean end-systolic peak gradient of 86 ± 34 mmHg (ranging from 30 to 165 mmHg). The IVG development was accompanied by SAM of the mitral valve in 23 pts. Three of these pts experienced symptomatic hypotension. Ten were women (30% pts). 58 pts in group B, 34 of whom were women (59%) (p = 0,01 vs group A), mean aged 53,5 ± 10,9 years old (age ranged 34 to 75 years) (p = 0,03 vs group A), did not develop IVG. LVOTi was 10,29 ± 0,9 mm/m²in group A and 11,4 ± 1 mm/m²in group B (p < 0,000); RLVWT was 0,36 ± 0,068 in group A and 0,33 ± 0,046 in group B (p < 0,01); LVDVi was 44,8 ± 10 ml/m²in group A and 56 ± 11,6 ml/m²in group B (p = 0,000).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>1. A significant number of patients with cardiac X syndrome developed IVG during upright exercise in treadmill. These pts (group A) are mainly males and younger than those who did not develop IVG.</p> <p>2. The development of IVG and mitral valve SAM on exertion seems to be associated with ST segment downsloping during stress testing in patients without epicardial coronary disease.</p> <p>3. The development of IVG and mitral valve SAM seems to be associated with lower LVOTi, lower LVDVi and higher RLVWT.</p

Qualidade de fruto da cv. Terra Maranhão, submetida a diferentes regimes hídricos.

As bananas do subgrupo Terra são as maiores bananas conhecidas, possuem polpa bem consistente de cor rosada, textura macia e compacta, sendo mais rica em amido do que açúcar, o que a torna ideal para cozinhar, assar ou fritar. Este trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar os efeitos de diferentes lâminas de irrigação sobre características físicas e químicas dos frutos da cultivar de plátano Terra Maranhão

Ageing at work: capacity for the work of ESTeSC teachers

Introduction: Aging does not necessarily mean a decrease in "ability to work" and that the eventual decline of certain skills related to increasing age are not generalizable, striking, or uniform and can be accelerated or delayed depending on the conditions of work, individuals and, above all, the types of attrition to which the worker is subjected. Objective: To evaluate the work ability index (WAI) of the professors of the School of Technology and Health of Coimbra (ESTeSC). Material and Methods: This study was an analytical observational and prospective cohort study. The respondents answered a questionnaire that assessed the WAI and the quality of life index (QLI). The results were evaluated in the IBM SPSS Statistics program through descriptive character tests and inference tests. Results: It was verified that an average value of 33.63 (7-49 scale) was identified for the work ability in the studied group, being this value belonging to the Moderate category. When correlating the age of workers with WAI and QLI, it was verified that there was no correlation (p> 0.05) between these factors. On the other hand, WAI was related to QLI, in which a correlation was observed (p<0,05), that is, the more satisfied they are with quality of life, the better the capacity for work. Conclusion: It was found that in the present study, aging does not cause a loss of capacity for work, nor does it influence the quality of life of workers. Since teachers' scores for WAI are in the Moderate category, it is necessary to implement health promotion strategies, such as practicing physical exercise or performing work-related gymnastics in the workplace.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Power Saving MAC Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Performance Assessment Analysis

Wireless sensor networks are an emerging technology that is used to monitor points or objects of interest in an area. Despite its many applications, this kind of network is often limited by the fact that it is difficult to provide energy to the nodes continuously, forcing the use of batteries, which restricts its operations. Network density may also lead to other problems. Sparse networks require stronger transmissions and have little redundancy while dense networks increase the chances of overhearing and interference. To address these problems, many novel medium access control (MAC) protocols have been developed through the years. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the T-MAC, B-MAC, and RI-MAC protocols in a variable density network used to collect data inside freight trucks carrying fruits that perish quickly. This article is part of the PrunusPós project, which aims to increase the efficiency of peach and cherry farming in Portugal. The comparison was done using the OMNET++ simulation framework. Our analysis covers the behavior and energetic properties of these protocols as the density of the network increases and shows that RI-MAC is more adaptable and consumes less energy than the alternatives.This study is within the activities of project “PrunusPós - Optimization of processes for the storage, cold conservation, active and/or intelligent packaging and food quality traceability in post-harvested fruit products”, project n. º PDR2020-101-031695, Partnership n.º 87, initiative n.º 175, promoted by PDR 2020 and co-funded by FEADER within Portugal 2020. P.D.G. thanks the support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and C-MAST - Centre for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies, under project UIDB/00151/2020. V. N. G. J. S. and J. M. L. P. C. acknowledge that this work is funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds and when applicable co-funded EU funds under the project UIDB/50008/2020. The authors would also like to acknowledge the company InspiringSci, Lda for its interest and valuable contribution to the successful development of this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio