Financial constraint and foreign direct investment of SMEs: evidence from Portugal

This work aims to explore the financing constraints perceived by Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) carrying out productive foreign direct investment (FDI). It relies on primary data, presenting an explorative empirical analysis. The results evidence a strong dependence on internal funds and give little support to market failures in financing FDI, as no remarkable differences were found in financing constraints between domestic and foreign investments, but this reluctance of Portuguese SMEs towards external financing does not match with a willingness to open the social capital to new shareholders. Portuguese entrepreneurs lack knowledge of alternative financing sources to relieve dependence on domestic funds to FDI. Banks and government could relevantly contribute in this field, we also recommend further financial literacy in Portguese SMEs. This work is limited by its sample and qualitative nature. Although there is abundant literature on the access to economic agents' financing, to this day this work is the first to focus on Portuguese SMEs analysing primary data, hence its originality. Reporting SMEs’ reluctance towards external financing, it can enhance external financers to best capture such clients.Restricción financiera e inversión extranjera directa de las PYME: evidencia de PortugalEste trabajo intenta explorar las limitaciones de financiación percibidas por las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMES) portuguesas que realizan inversiones directas extranjeras (IED) productivas. Se basa en datos primarios y presenta un análisis empírico exploratorio. Los resultados demuestran una fuerte dependencia de los fondos internos y ligero énfasis en las deficiencias del mercado en la financiación de la IED, no reportando diferencias notables en las limitaciones de financiación entre las inversiones nacionales y extranjeras, pero esta renuencia de las PYMES portuguesas a la financiación externa no se corresponde con la voluntad de abrir el capital social a nuevos accionistas. Los empresarios portugueses no conocen alternativas para aliviar la dependencia de los fondos nacionales a la IED. Los bancos y el gobierno podrían contribuir en este campo, también recomendamos una mayor alfabetización financiera en las PYMES portuguesas. Este trabajo está limitado por su muestra y su naturaleza cualitativa. Aunque existe abundante literatura sobre el acceso a la financiación de los agentes económicos, hasta el día de hoy este trabajo es el primero que se centra en las PYMES portuguesas a través de datos primarios, de ahí su originalidad. Al informar sobre la reticencia de las PYMES a la financiación externa, puede mejorar la capacidad de los financiadores externos en captar esos clientes.

Construção e validação de toolbox para o desenvolvimento curricular no ensino superior

Este artigo visa partilhar resultados de experiências realizadas no âmbito do desenvolvimento curricular no ensino superior, cujo objetivo consiste em construir e validar uma toolbox aplicável em diferentes áreas do conhecimento e em diferentes contextos. As experiências foram realizadas no contexto no ensino de Engenharia em articulação com a área da Educação, com base num modelo de desenvolvimento curricular que engloba três dimensões: perfil profissional, elementos nucleares do currículo e referencial de competências. A aplicação deste modelo num curso de Engenharia revelou a sua pertinência para a revisão e inovação do currículo no ensino superior, sendo possível aplicar e alargar a sua utilização a outros contextos e áreas disciplinares, em virtude da sua flexibilidade, abrangência e consistência.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT); Fundos Nacionais através da FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) e cofinanciado pelo Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) através do COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) com a referência POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Making PBL teams more effective with Scrum

Scrum is a project management methodology very popular in the software industry with good results in terms of team work effectiveness. Scrum is based on important team work values such as commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect and can be described in three different dimensions: Scrum team; Scrum Events; and Scrum artefacts. This paper aims to analyse the implementation of scrum approach in a project based learning context in higher education. The scrum approach was applied in the fourth year of the Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) degree program, where teams of students developed a PBL project in an industrial context during the first semester. The research methodology focused on a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to the Scrum Team (scrum master, product owner and the student team). Scrum Events were analysed through direct observation and Scrum Artefacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Increment) were analysed based on a document analysis. The results of this study contribute to understand the effectiveness of the application of Scrum to complex PBL learning environments. The results presented in the study provided important inputs to improve the way PBL student teams manage themselves as well as their projects.This work has been partially supported by projects COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013, from Portugal

IEM@ProjectNetworking: bringing first year students closer to professional practice

First year Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) students have difficulties in establishing a clear picture of their future job as industrial engineers. Moreover, these students usually show a lack of proactivity and entrepreneurship attitude, as well as other transversal competences. To promote these competences among students, a team of teachers created a challenge for them which consisted in identifying and contacting two companies and interviewing one of their IEM professionals. This challenge was named IEM@ProjectNetworking. The main objectives of the IEM@ProjectNetworking were, amongst others, to bring students closer to their future professional practice. This paper aims to describe and evaluate the first edition of this challenge that took place in the first semester of the first year, during the 2012/2013 academic year. The evaluation was based on student’s perceptions collected from individual reflections about the experience and data from a workshop held at the end of the semester. The main findings are also presented based on the more than 100 interviews made by the students in 78 companies visited

A first year and first semester project-led Engineering Education approach

This paper describes the organization model of a Project-Led Education (PLE) process carried out in the Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) programme at the University of Minho. It intends to analyse the PLE approach in the first year and first semester, according to the perceptions of the coordination team involved in the 2008/09 PLE edition. The emerging data from a group discussion with all coordination team members revealed a set of dimensions which allow a better understanding of the way the process is organized and how it could be improved. The constraints found were mainly three: first, teachers feel that in this process they have much more work than in traditional methodologies; second, some aspects of lack of suitable interdisciplinarity between subjects were identified; and finally some doubts in regard to learning outcomes were raised and some suggestions of individual activities were proposed. Therefore, a set of improvement changes will be presented in order to overcome some of the difficulties identified by faculty staff. These changes will be taken in account in the design of the next PLE edition (2009/10)

A 5G-based authentication framework for V2X communication

The integration of Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) promises to revolutionize smart mobility. However, this technological advancement also exposes V2X networks to cybersecurity threats. To address these challenges, this work explores the critical security requirements for V2X communications, including User Equipment (UE) authorization, data integrity protection, and privacy support

Metal oxide (Co3O4 and Mn3O4) impregnation into S, N-doped graphene for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)

To address aggravating environmental and energy problems, active, efficient, low-cost, and robust electrocatalysts (ECs) are actively pursued as substitutes for the current noble metal ECs. Therefore, in this study, we report the preparation of graphene flakes (GF) doped with S and N using 2-5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (S3N2) as precursor followed by the immobilization of cobalt spinel oxide (Co3O4) or manganese spinel oxide (Mn3O4) nanoparticles through a one-step co-precipitation procedure (Co/S3N2-GF and Mn/S3N2-GF). Characterization by different physicochemical techniques (Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) of both composites shows the preservation of the metal oxide spinel structure and further confirms the successful preparation of the envisaged electrocatalysts. Co/S3N2-GF composite exhibits the best ORR performance with an onset potential of 0.91 V vs. RHE, a diffusion-limiting current density of-4.50 mA cm-2 and selectivity for the direct four-electron pathway, matching the results obtained for commercial Pt/C. Moreover, both Co/S3N2-GF and Mn/S3N2-GF showed excellent tolerance to methanol poisoning and good stability

Post-Synthesis Strategies to Prepare Mesostructured and Hierarchical Silicates for Liquid Phase Catalytic Epoxidation

Olefin epoxidation is an important transformation for the chemical valorization of olefins, which may derive from renewable sources or domestic/industrial waste. Different post-synthesis strategies were employed to introduce molybdenum species into mesostructured and hierarchical micro-mesoporous catalysts of the type TUD-1 and BEA, respectively, to confer epoxidation activity for the conversion of relatively bulky olefins (e.g., biobased methyl oleate, DL-limonene) to epoxide products, using tert-butyl hydroperoxide as an oxidant. The influences of (i) the type of metal precursor, (ii) type of post-synthesis impregnation method, (iii) type of support and (iv) top-down versus bottom-up synthesis methodologies were studied to achieve superior catalytic performances. Higher epoxidation activity was achieved for a material prepared via (post-synthesis) incipient wetness impregnation of MoO2(acac)2 (acac = acetylacetonate) on (pre-treated) siliceous TUD-1 and calcination; for example, methyl oleate was converted to the corresponding epoxide with 100% selectivity at 89% conversion (70 °C). Catalytic and solid-state characterization studies were conducted to shed light on material stability phenomena.publishe

Psychometric study of the European Portuguese version of the PedsQL 3.0 Cancer Module

Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important outcome to assess the impact of cancer. This article examines the psychometric properties of the European Portuguese self-report version of the Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM Cancer Module (PedsQLTM 3.0 Cancer Module) in children and adolescents with cancer. Methods: The participants, 332 children/adolescents diagnosed with cancer (8–18 years old), completed measures to assess HRQoL (PedsQLTM 3.0 Cancer Module and DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Measure; DCGM-12) and anxiety (Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale - second edition; RCMAS-2). A subsample (n = 52) completed the PedsQLTM 3.0 Cancer Module a second time following one-week. The pediatric oncologists completed the Intensity of Treatment Rating Scale 3.0 (ITR 3.0). Results: For the whole sample, the PedsQLTM 3.0 Cancer Module demonstrated good item discrimination (rs = .30 to .54). The confirmatory factor analysis testing the presence of eight first-order factors loading significantly in a second-order factor revealed an acceptable fit (CFI = .91; RMSEA = .05). The correlation of PedsQLTM 3.0 Cancer Module with DCGM-12 (rs = .17 to .58), and with RCMAS-2 (rs = −.16 to–.51) attested convergent validity. This inventory demonstrated minimally acceptable to very good internal consistency (αs = .65 to .87) and temporal stability (ICCs = .61 to .81). Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that the European Portuguese self-report version of the PedsQLTM 3.0 Cancer Module is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing HRQoL in pediatric cancer. Keywords: European Portuguese version, PedsQLTM 3.0 Cancer Module, Health-related quality of life, Pediatric cancer, Psychometric propertie

Bologna process and its implications: what does the research literature tell us?

"Apresentação efetuada na 55ª Assembleia Mundial da International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET), em Glasgow, Scotland, 2011