(R)evolution of the E-grocery Industry: Strategic Implications

The use of the Internet in grocery retailing created the need for new business models, but it did not bring radical changes to consumer behaviour. Despite adopting revolutionary business models in their early days, online grocery firms did not manage to survive or reach profitability without using existing supermarket infrastructure and knowledge. Today, with most online grocers supplying small market niches, it is important to understand the reasons that made online grocers adopt a hybrid click and mortar strategy. Historical evidence from online grocery in the UK and the US suggests that firms had to adopt contingent strategies to face the difficulty of attracting consumers, sectorial entry barriers and financial targets.e-grocery, contingency, mismatch, revolution and evolution

Herding and feedback trading: Evidence on their relationship at the macro level

The behavioural expressions of herding and feedback trading maintain properties that render their coexistence a possibility. Although their joint presence has been largely confirmed by empirical work in the Finance literature at the micro level (i.e. using micro data), the pursuit of this issue at the macro level (i.e. the level of the aggregate market) has remained largely unexplored. To that end, we jointly test for herding and feedback trading at the market level using data from the Portuguese market for the 1993-2005 period. Our results indicate the combined significant presence of herding and positive feedback trading for that period, with this significance exhibiting signs of clustering during the second half of the 1990s, which accommodated a series of boom-bust episodes for that market

(R)evolution of the e-grocery industry: Strategic implications

The use of the Internet in grocery retailing created the need for new business models, but it did not bring radical changes to consumer behaviour. Nevertheless, in the early days of egrocery, most managers overestimated the power of technology and adopted revolutionary solutions. Today, after 15 years, that approach proved to be misleading, as online grocery firms are supplying small market niches with the use of traditional infrastructures and knowledge. Historical evidence from the UK and the US suggests that in an environment of high uncertainty and complexity determined by product nature, consumer switching costs, entry barriers, market mismatch and low profit margins, contingent evolutionary approaches are more appropriat

Domestic Impact of Internationalisation: The case of JM

The influence of internationalisation processes in the domestic activities of firms’ has not been considered as an important issue in existing models, because they tend to focus on a partial and restricted view of the firm. The purpose of this paper is to challenge that view by attempting a dynamic view of the firm is which primal importance is given to the relationship between international and domestic activities. The main research question is whether domestic activities can be significantly affected by international activities, namely knowledge transfer. Results confirm the dynamic approach adopted by firms however there are no definitive answers in terms of the domestic impact of internationalisation. Despite clear hints of evidence for the internationaldomestic relationship, there was no confirmation of this relationship at the financial level.

Researching on international alliances – the problem of lack of sources

The low level of formality and the diversity of international alliances create an important challenge for researchers. Unlike mergers and acquisitions, alliances include various types of cooperation agreements between organizations and do not require formal registration. Therefore, in this field, secondary data is scarce and the few available international databases present several disadvantages. This manuscript attempts to discuss and assess options available to circumvent difficulties in database choice and usage for primary data collection. Results from an alliance survey show that the use of national databases and informal solutions, such as local knowledge and local networking can be valid options

Domestic Impact of Internationalisation the case of JM

The influence of internationalisation processes in the domestic activities of firms’ has not been considered as an important issue in existing models, because they tend to focus on a partial and restricted view of the firm. The purpose of this paper is to challenge that view by attempting a dynamic view of the firm is which primal importance is given to the relationship between international and domestic activities. The main research question is whether domestic activities can be significantly affected by international activities, namely knowledge transfer. Results confirm the dynamic approach adopted by firms however there are no definitive answers in terms of the domestic impact of internationalisation. Despite clear hints of evidence for the internationaldomestic relationship, there was no confirmation of this relationship at the financial level

Databases in the research of international alliances

The low level of formality and the diversity of international alliances create an important challenge for researchers. Unlike mergers and acquisitions, alliances include various types of cooperation agreements between organizations and do not require formal registration. Therefore, in this field, secondary data is scarce and the few available international databases present several disadvantages. This manuscript attempts to discuss and assess options available to circumvent difficulties in database choice and usage for primary data collection. Results from an alliance survey show that the use of national databases and informal solutions, such as local knowledge and local networking can be valid options

Optimização de um método de avaliação simultânea da dissolução e permeabilidade de fármacos

Englobado na temática do desenvolvimento de métodos in vitro para avaliação da biodisponibilidade de fármacos, este trabalho de investigação teve como objectivo a optimização de um método para avaliar em simultâneo a dissolução e permeabilidade de fármacos usando uma célula de fluxo bilateral com membranas de Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF). Através de uma avaliação inicial, na qual se testou o efeito de diversas variáveis na permeabilidade da cafeína e do ácido acetilsalicílico, obtiveram-se resultados que permitiram concluir que os ensaios realizados são mais reprodutíveis, quando a célula de fluxo é utilizada em circulação unilateral no lado dador e com agitação do lado aceitador. Observou-se ainda que o método permite detectar a influência do pH (Papp da cafeína a pH 7,4 e 4,5: 4,84±1,57x105cm.s-1 e 6,00±0,70x105cm.s app do ácido acetilsalicílico a pH 7,4 e 4,5: 3,85±0,38x10-5cm.s-1 e 5,1 1±0,65x105cm.s-1) e dos excipientes (Papp da cafeína isoladamente e em presença de excipientes: 6,76±1,22 x 10-5cm.s1 e 5,84±0,43x10-5cm.s-1 app do ácido acetilsalicílico isoladamente e em presença de excipientes: 7,07±1,56x105 cm.s e 5,19±0,23x10-5cm.s1) na permeabilidade dos compostos. Na avaliação da dissolução testou-se um método descrito na United States Pharmacopeia (USP) com meio de dissolução a pH 4,5 e um método com meio de dissolução a pH 7,4 pois na perspectiva de no futuro se realizarem ensaios com membranas celulares Caco-2, foi necessário testar um meio compatível com estas. As percentagens de dissolução dos ensaios a pH 7,4 foram de 96,3% para a cafeína e de 87,1% para o ácido acetilsalicílico, o que permitiu a utilização deste meio, visto ter sido superior ao limite mínimo de 80% estabelecido pela USP. Após estabelecimento das metodologias de dissolução e permeabilidade individuais, passou-se ao acoplamento das duas técnicas, tendo sido realizados ensaios de dissolução/permeabilidade com uma forma farmacêutica contendo os dois compostos em estudo (Melhoral®), nos quais se obtiveram permeabilidades aparentes de 3,97±0,37x105cm.s1 e 3,69±0,29 x105cm.s para a cafeína e ácido acetilsalicílico a pH 4,5 e de 3,77±0,40x105cm.s e 4,08± 0,04x1 05cm.s1 para a cafeína e ácido acetilsalicílico a pH 7,4, resultados estes que foram reprodutíveis e descriminativos e que perspectivam a possibilidade da utilização do sistema para futuros trabalhos envolvendo membranas de culturas celulares (Caco-2) ou tecidos (pele ou intestino)