Sustainable entrepreneurship: Comparing the determinants of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial self-efficacy

Sustainable entrepreneurship creates value beyond profit. Its role is increasingly important in addressing issues related to environmental challenges. Sustainable entrepreneurs represent a tool to attain the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations that address climate change, social inequality, human rights, and economic development. To solve these challenges, there is a need for high-performing sustainable entrepreneurs. The roles of innovativeness, organizational capabilities, and philanthropic corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the performance of sustainable entrepreneurs are still underexplored. Hence, this study proposes an analysis of the indirect and direct effects of innovativeness on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and social entrepreneurial self-efficacy (SESE) and of the mediating role of organizational capabilities and philanthropic CSR. Based on structural equation modeling and importance-performance matrix analysis, the findings from a survey of 116 sustainable entrepreneurs identified a positive relationship between innovativeness and ESE, organizational capabilities, and philanthropic CSR. The indirect relationship mediated by organizational capabilities was found to be positive, while for philanthropic CSR, it was positive for SESE but negative for ESE. Interestingly, it was found that SESE is only positively influenced in indirect relations. This study contributes to the literature on how innovativeness can promote ESE and SESE and the role of organizational capabilities and philanthropic CSR in enhancing performance among sustainable entrepreneurs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effective lagrangian for a mass dimension one fermionic field in curved spacetime

In this work we use momentum-space techniques to evaluate the propagator $G(x,x^{\prime})$ for a spin $1/2$ mass dimension one spinor field on a curved Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime. As a consequence, we built the one-loop correction to the effective lagrangian in the coincidence limit. Going further we compute the effective lagrangian in the finite temperature regime. We arrive at interesting cosmological consequences, as time-dependent cosmological `constant', fully explaining the functional form of previous cosmological models.Comment: 9 pages, 0 figure

Simulation of a milk run material transportation system in the semiconductors industry

This paper deals with a project that consisted in the implementation of a Milk Run Lot Transportation System in Qimonda Porto Test Area, done by a multidisciplinary team formed by Qimonda Porto's workers, and the development of the corresponding simulation model. The first part of the study concerns an industrial engineering assessment of the test area, which identified sources of waste and improvement possibilities, and the implementation process of a Milk Run system in this area. Secondly, the results of the system implementation are discussed, and the construction of a simulation model in Arena® is presented. The purpose of the simulation exercise is to test different system configurations that may allow the improvement of the real-world system. Finally, some information about the simulation results and further steps to be taken regarding the improvement of the system is presented. The target of the project, framed in a Lean approach, was to reduce waste, namely transportation waste, thus optimizing the utilization of the test area human resources.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The outcomes of entrepreneurship, relational capital and innovativeness on tourist satisfaction

Addressing the needs of customers is fundamental to the success of companies, particularly in the long-term. In fact, most companies use customer satisfaction as a method to determine and evaluate their performance and outline their strategies for the future. Therefore, the main objective is to better understand entrepreneurship and new product development antecedents and implications on customer satisfaction, a key element for sustainable development. A model is proposed to assess the relationship between two antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and new product development (NPD) and a measure of performance. Based on a survey sample of 137 tourism SMEs, the model was tested using Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results show that both the relational capital and innovativeness positively influence entrepreneurship and NPD. They also suggest a positive relationship between entrepreneurship and customer satisfaction. Although there is a positive impact of NPD on customer satisfaction, this relationship was not significant. In addition, the results indicate that relational capital and innovativeness positively influence customer satisfaction through entrepreneurship and NPD. Consequently, to improve the sustainable performance of tourism firms and to increase customer satisfaction, managers must invest in the development of entrepreneurship as well as in the development of new products and their antecedents.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Integrated design of production systems in a lighting manufacturer using CAD and simulation in layout and process optimization

This paper discusses production systems design issues, applied to the production system layout of a manufacturer of lighting fittings and components. In this paper, production systems design software tools – Information Systems, Simulation and Computer Aided Design are integrated, exploring ways of dealing with data diversity and assuring valid and efficient production system layouts, taking advantage of the mentioned data integration. This integration is implemented on Microsoft Access (databases with system knowledge repository), AutoCAD (layout design) and WITNESS (simulation). The software package developed was called IDS (Integrated Design of Systems). This approach can help on global system optimization that considers all important system resources and system performance measures. Solutions are expected to be faster to achieve and better than solutions obtained with non-integrated approaches. IDS approach is open and accessible, thus enabling different companies to use this advanced production systems design tool, taking advantage of simulation and CAD systems and their integration. This application intends to validate the concept and functionalities of the proposed tool, on a real industrial case study.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (algoritmi

The effect of individual tree shelters in growth and morphology of cork oak seedlings

The need of reforestation in cork oak areas has faced important difficulties. Among those is the destruction of young plants by herbivores coupled with slow growth of seedlings during the early years after plantation. This work is part of a project designed to study the effects of shelters in growth and physiology of Quercus suber L. seedlings under conditions of mediterranean climate

Avaliação do efeito do corte horizontal da copa, com máquina de podar de discos, em pomares de pera “Rocha

Current pear pruning making use of pneumatic shears still is a very labour intensive operation. The Proder project “Avaliação da poda mecânica em pomares de pera” was designed to contribute to solutions that would reduce the present dependence in labour and therefore to promote a reduction in pruning costs. This paper shows the results of a trial made to evaluate the influence of mechanical topping in manual pruning complement field work and pear yield. Topping was performed using a Reynolds 6DT 3.0m cutting bar with six hydraulic-driven circular disc-saws mounted in the three point tractor linkage system. The field trial was performed in a commercial orchard with 20 years, planted in an array of 4m x 2m with tree lines oriented in North-South direction. Trees were trained as the central leader system. In this trial, in a randomised complete block design with four replications, two treatments are being compared leading to 8 plots with one line of 14 trees per plot. The treatments tests were: T1 - manual pruning performed by workers using pneumatic shears, in each year; T2 - Topping the canopy parallel to the ground, using a discs-saw pruning machine mounted in a front loader of an agricultural tractor, followed by manual pruning complement performed by workers with pneumatic shears. Tree height and width was measured, before and after pruning. Work was timed and pear yields evaluated. Mechanical topping seems to be effective in the control of tree height, which can contribute to increase 14% of work rates on manual pruning complement. No significant differences in pear yield were found between treatments