Using history to help refine international business theory: ownership advantages and the eclectic paradigm

In John Dunning’s eclectic paradigm firms need to have ownership, location, and internalisation advantages in order to cross borders and engage in foreign direct investment. By drawing on historical evidence on the evolution of a group of leading marketing-based multinationals in consumer goods, this paper claims that, despite its richness, the eclectic paradigm, and in particular the concept of ‘ownership advantages’, needs to be revised and extended, to take into account different levels of institutional analysis. For the eclectic paradigm to give a rounded view of the internationalising firm it needs to acknowledge the critical importance of firm-specific ownership advantages such as the role of the entrepreneur.

Multiple Perpetrator Rape Committed by Female Offenders:A Comparison of Solo, Duo, and 3+ Group Offenders

Previous studies on multiple perpetrator rapes have shown that male sexual offenders who commit their offense alone differ on offender, offense, and victim characteristics from those who commit their offense in duos and 3+ groups. For the current study, 246 female sexual offenders have been studied regarding their co-offending pattern and the differences in offender, offense, and victim characteristics. Significant differences between solo (n = 73), duos (n = 146), and 3+ group offenders (n = 27) were found for the age at the first conviction, age at the time of the index offense, performed sexual acts, physical and verbal violence, victim gender, victim relationship, victim age, and location where the abuse took place. There were four indicators that could predict the assault type. Co-offenders were more likely than solo offenders to perform penetration on a female, intrafamilial victim who they assaulted indoors. These results have implications for interventions with offenders and criminal justice authorities

MinReMol, Mineroquímica do rénio na molibdenite : contribuição para a recuperação sustentável deste metal escasso a partir de resíduos mineiros : resultados e desenvolvimento futuro

Resumo de palestra inserida no Ciclo de Palestras 2014 do LNE

Shifting Patterns in Marks and Registration: France, the United States and United Kingdom, 1870-1970

This paper looks at trademarks and brands, beyond the conventional interests of marketing and law, as a way to explaining the evolution of international business and economies in general. It shows that the perspective defended by many scholars such as Chandler (1990), Wilkins (1991, 1994) and Koehn’ (2001), about the Anglo-Saxon countries, and in particular the United States, leading the transition to modern trade-marks is narrow in its focus. Instead of the United States standing out as historically on the leading edge of innovation in the law and practice of trade marking, it appears from several directions to have been on the trailing edge. France and Britain have a more enduring interest in trademarking. The paper also looks at one particular subset of trade mark registration data – non durable consumer goods. These, and in particular food, are the dominant sectors in the three countries in terms of trademarking, reflecting the character of the sectors where imagery associated with the products is so central in competition. The paper relies on original data from three countries, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, in particular trade mark registrations, and the analysis spans for a period of one hundred years period 1870-1970.trade marks, brands, international business history, intellectual property rights, trademark law

Cerberus is a feedback inhibitor of Nodal asymmetric signaling in the chick embryo

The TGF-beta-related molecule Nodal plays an essential and conserved role in left-right patterning of the vertebrate embryo. Previous reports have shown that the zebrafish and mouse Cerberus-related proteins Charon and Cerberus-like-2 (Cerl-2), respectively, act in the node region to prevent the Nodal signal from crossing to the right side, whereas chick Cerberus (cCer) has an unclear function in the left-side mesoderm. In this study, we investigate the transcriptional regulation and function of cCer in left-right development. By analyzing the enhancer activity of cCer 5' genomic sequences in electroporated chick embryos, we identified a cCer left-side enhancer that contains two FoxH1 and one SMAD binding site. We show that these Nodal-responsive elements are necessary and sufficient for the activation of transcription in the left-side mesoderm. In transgenic mouse embryos, cCer regulatory sequences behave as in chick embryos, suggesting that the cis-regulatory sequences of Cerberus-related genes have diverged during vertebrate evolution. Moreover, our findings from cCer overexpression and knockdown experiments indicate that cCer is a negative-feedback regulator of Nodal asymmetric signaling. We propose that cCer and mouse Cerl-2 have evolved distinct regulatory mechanisms but retained a conserved function in left-right development, which is to restrict Nodal activity to the left side of the embryo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The effect of quantitative easing programmes on long-term government bonds

Mestrado em Economia Monetária e FinanceiraO objectivo desta dissertação é apresentar os programas de Quantitative Easing levados a cabo nos Estados Unidos da América, Reino Unido, Zona Euro e no Japão durante a Crise Financeira de 2007-2009 e avaliar o seu impacto na variação das taxas de juro de longo prazo para títulos do Governo, usando dados mensais e trimestrais. A analise empírica consiste em quatro equações para cada frequência temporal usando um estimador OLS. No caso dos USA, foi encontrado suporte de que as politicas de QE diminuem a taxa de juro de longo prazo para títulos do Governo. A mesma relação foi encontrada para o Reino Unido, no entanto com menos assertividade. Os resultados para a Zona Euro e para o Japão foram ambíguos, não foi possível determinar o impacto das medidas de QE para estes países.The aim of this dissertation is to clarify the Quantitative Easing programmes employed by the United States of America, United Kingdom, Euro Area and Japan during the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and assess its impact into the variation of the long-term Government bond yield, using monthly and quarterly based data. The empirical analysis consisted in four equations for each timeframe using an OLS estimator. It was found evidence supporting that QE diminishes the variation of the long-term Government bond yield in the US. On the UK case, it was found evidence that QE measures reduces the explained variable but with modest strength. In the EA and in Japan the results were ambiguous and one cannot be assertive about the impact of QE policies for both economies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sustainable practices impacting employee engagement and well-being

As sustainability grows in importance, it becomes relevant to understand how the implementation of sustainable practices across organizations impacts the employee-organization relationship. This study aims to explore the effects of Perceived Organizational Support Toward the Environment on the Employee Engagement and Subjective Well-being and to assess to which extent Employee Engagement impacts Subjective Well-being. The data was collected through a questionnaire resulting in a cross-national sample of 230 individuals. The data was analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling, allowing the identification of relationships among the constructs. The results allowed to conclude that Perceived Organizational Support Toward the Environment has a positive significant effect on Employee Engagement as well as there is no direct significant positive effect from Perceived Organizational Support Toward the Environment on employees’ Subjective Well-being. Lastly, the results allowed to conclude that Employee Engagement had a significantly strong positive effect on Subjective Well-being.Dada a crescente importância da sustentabilidade torna-se relevante perceber como é que a implementação de práticas sustentáveis nas organizações impacta a relação colaborador-organização. O objetivo deste estudo é explorar o efeito do Apoio Organizacional Percebido em Relação ao Meio Ambiente nos níveis de "Engagement" e Bem-estar Subjetivo dos Colaborares, bem como avaliar o impacto do "Engagement" sobre o Bem-estar Subjetivo. Foi realizado um questionário que resultou numa amostra de 230 indivíduos de diferentes países. Os dados foram analisados através de um Modelo de Equações Estruturais que permitiu identificar das relações entre os construtos. Os resultados permitiram concluir que o Apoio Organizacional Percebido em Relação ao Meio Ambiente tem um efeito positivo significativo nos níveis de "Engagement" dos Colaborares, bem como mostraram que não há um efeito positivo significativo direto do Apoio Organizacional Percebido em Relação ao Meio Ambiente sobre o Bem-estar Subjetivo. Finalmente, os resultados permitiram concluir que o "Engagement" teve um efeito significativamente positivo forte no Bem-estar Subjetivo

Relationships between the perceived quality of life and the personality styles measured with the The Millon Index of Personality Styles Revised (MIPS-R)

This exploratory study aims to determine whether the personality styles measured with the Portuguese adaptation of Millon Index of Personality Styles Revised, MIPS-R affect the perceived quality of life. The MIPS-R is a theory-based inventory that measures 24 personality styles in normally functioning adults. Life satisfaction was measured with the Portuguese version of the Quality of Life Inventory, QOLI (Fagulha, Duarte & Miranda, 2000). It refers to a person’s subjective evaluation of the degree to which his/her most important needs, goals and wishes have been fulfilled. This study was carried out with a sample of 43 college students, 36 females (age mean = 19,7; SD = 3,1) and 7 males (age mean = 27,4; SD = 11,4). Based on the participants’ overall life satisfaction score three groups were defined: (1) Low/Very Low quality of life, (2) Average quality of life, (3) High quality of life. Discriminant Factor Analysis (DFA) and the Kruskal-Wallis Test were used to identify the styles that most differentiate these groups and to compare each style in the groups. The Other-Nurturing style is the one that best differentiates the groups. DFA results will be further exploited. Considering the Kruskal-Wallis Test, differences are observed in the Pleasure-Enhancing (p=.006), the Actively Modifying (p=.002), the Gregarious/Outgoing (p=.012), the Passively Accommodating (p=.027), the Asocial/Withdrawing (p=.036), the Unconventional/Dissenting (p=.041) and in the Dissatisfied/Complaining (p=.019) styles. Multiple comparisons were used to compare these styles in the groups. The authors believe that the discussion of these results will provide a better understanding of the MIPS-R.Instituto de Psicologia das Relações Humana