DEMAND FOR LOCALLY PROVIDED PUBLIC SERVICES WITHIN THE MEDIAN VOTER'S FRAMEWORK: THE CASE OF THE BRAZILIAN MUNICIPALITIES

In this paper we estimated the demand for local public spending for the Brazilian municipalities within a median voter's framework. Results obtained are consistent with the theoretical background thus suggesting that this hypothesis might be useful to describe the demand for local public goods in Brazil. In particular, the use of quantile regression permitted to investigate the impacts of the conditioning variables on local public expenses across different expenditures classes thus allowing for heterogeneity across municipalities. Our results also suggest that the impact of the city size on the quality of club goods shows crowding effects as g is between zero and one. However, in the estimated models, marginal congestion slightly decreases with expenditure. This is a rather surprising result as one is tempted to conclude that the congestion effect should be higher on big cities. Yet, a more careful look shows the drawbacks of such interpretation. The indivisibilities that preclude the provision of certain services in small towns, concentrate their provision on larger cities. Hence, the higher expenditures of those big cities reflect not only a crowding cost but also the fact that these towns offer a wide range of services when compared to the small ones. So, in Brazil, contrary to the traditional results, the reduced congestion effect along the spending classes reflect the predominance of the scale elements measured by the population elasticities over the price effects.

Building an agile culture of excellence to address the unstable business environments of the XXI century

The pursuit of quality and excellence drives the efforts of companies wishing to improve and gain competitive advantage. Operational excellence programs are thus used as one of the most common approaches to promote structured change, with organizations implementing them in search for consistent strategies that match their customers' requirements. However, while being undeniably successful approaches in achieving organizational improvement, truth is that engaging in operational excellence programs has also proven to not be enough to ensure the long-term success, and companies do not develop the ability to quickly adapt to the demands of quickly changing markets. Economic, social and political transformations are hitting the world, adding to a fast-technological evolution and creating deeply unstable business environments. The development of agile capabilities becomes essential for organizations to stay competitive and address the changing demands of its stakeholders. Accordingly, we believe that developing an enduring capacity to change must be considered as one of the desired outputs of the implementation of any quality and operational excellence programs. However, being agile demands transversal support from the entire organization, under the risk of finding resistance to its implementation. It is necessary to work and transform the culture of organization to allow a closer fit to the strategic choices made to face the marketplace. Our proposal is to bring together organizational culture, operational excellence and organizational agility, structuring the pursuit of adaptability in a strong social and technical framework. We present a conceptual model interrelating the three concepts and the methodology in use for identifying the elements and enablers that help acquire the necessary capabilities for an organization to become adaptable.- (undefined

ISO 9001 and organizational excellence models in small and medium sized enterprises: current state and comparative analysis

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to understand the current state of quality management practices in Small and Medium Enterprises. The main concepts of Quality Management and its practices in Small and Medium Enterprises were reviewed from the literature in order to understand the key practices in these organizations, and a data analysis on their use was performed. Design/methodology/approach - Analysis was performed by consulting and understanding the evolution of Organizational Excellence Models and Quality Management Systems. This research incorporates data since the beginning of the 90's from the last century and allows us to comprehend how these models and management systems have evolved and if there is any correlation between the adoption of each one of them- evaluation of interdependencies. Findings - The findings suggest that while the number of ISO 9001 certified companies has increased over the years, the number of organizations accessing Business Excellence frameworks have been decreasing. The available data suggests that Small and Medium Enterprises seem to follow these trends. It is particularly noticed that there is a considerable gap between Small and Medium Enterprises and Large Enterprises in the usage of Business Excellence frameworks. Originality/value - This article offers a global perspective of the current state in the use of ISO 9001 and Organizational Excellence Models by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME's).INCT-EN - Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia para Excitotoxicidade e NeuroproteçãoThis work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019

Real-Time Quantitative PCR as a Tool for Monitoring Microbiological Quality of Food

Microbiological parameters of food provide quality information regarding the processing, storage, and distribution conditions, shelf life, as well as whether the food poses a health risk to the population. In this context, the concern with food safety is a competitive advantage, as the pressure of consumers, who are increasingly interested and concerned about what they are consuming, directs the trade to reach the quality of products and services offered. With regard to microbiological analyses, researchers have been developing sensitive techniques to produce rapid results, since traditional methods of microbiological culture are time-consuming and very laborious. Thus, the real-time quantitative PCR technique (qPCR) offers the possibility of quantifying the total bacterial DNA in a food sample without the need of the microbial growth step. That is, the result can be expressed on the same day, and it is possible to perform a simultaneous quantification of more than one pathogen in a single assay. Therefore, it can be a useful tool for monitoring microbiological quality in food industries. In this chapter, we will present the advantages and disadvantages of this methodology for food microbiology emphasizing the challenge of differentiating viable cells from nonviable cells

Business Excellence Models: supporting the cultural perspective to operationalize excellence sustainability in manufacturing organizations

Over the past 25 years, Business Excellence Models - such as the one supporting the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award or the Excellence Model and corresponding Awards given by the European Foundation for Quality Management - have been used in the scope of helping organizations attain performance excellence and sustain that organizational level. In the last few years, however, the engagement of manufacturing and operations firms has been declining consistently. Based on the available evidence from literature and on official figures of the engagement with Business Excellence Models, we analyze some of the possible reasons for that decline and review the main organizational challenges in sustaining excellence over time. The contribution of this paper is to raise the discussion over the role and current challenges of these Models in promoting and sustaining Excellence, and draw some conclusions on the key importance of people (both the leadership and the workforce) in making Business Excellence initiatives sustainable. With this work, we hope to clarify perspectives around these initiatives and to reinforce the importance for an excellence-oriented culture in sustaining excellence in manufacturing organizations.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013. Furthrmore, the first author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT – “Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia”) to this project through the scholarship PD/BD/114149/2016, as well as all the support of the MIT Portugal Program and the ALGORITMI Research Centre at the University of Minho

Findings from the First Global Assessment on the current state of organizational excellence

Over 20 years, global research has validated the positive relationship between implementing the best management practices found in Excellence models and improving organizational performance. However, the global panorama of the engagement of organizations with excellence at a global scale lacked a definite analysis and comprehension. At the same time, much of the research on the field of excellence has focused on the organizations that have applied to the major excellence awards such as the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award (US) or the European Excellence Award promoted by the European Foundation for Quality Management. In face of a growing number of excellence models and awards, the objective of this research is also to gather data from a more varied population. In order to do this, the Organizational Excellence Technical Committee (QMD, ASQ) launched in 2015 the 'First Global Assessment on the Current State of Organizational Excellence'. This research intendeds to provide data on the extent to which organizations have a culture committed to excellence and have deployed best management practices common to high performing organizations. Findings provide a snapshot of the current state of excellence around the world, and allow a more comprehensive view of the strengths and opportunities for improvement by organization size, industry sector and geographical region.- (undefined