Religion and gender: The Hindu diaspora in Portugal

As perpetuators of what is considered traditional knowledge, Hindu women in Portugal are assigned a new status through religion, thus replacing the male pujari. This article focuses on the Hindu diaspora in Portugal, and specifically on the role played by women in the construction of gender and religious identities, who, entrusted with new social and ritual responsibilities, contribute towards the cultural replication of their traditional community. As anthropological studies on gender in diaspora show us, the assignment of religious roles are used to recreate women’s social status in the ‘host’ country.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Determinants of earnings management in the hotel industry: an international perspective

This paper analyzes the determinants of the level of earnings management in a wide sample of listed firms from the hotel industry in 15 countries. The empirical study relies on the discretionary accruals, as an indication of earnings management, and examines the firm and country characteristics that are potentially associated with those discretionary accruals. The results suggest that firm characteristics, including the leverage ratio, cash flow from operations, investment opportunities and the frequency of losses, are the major determinant of earnings management in the hotel industry around the world. Our results also show that firms with five star hotels have different incentives to manipulate earnings, when compared to firms holding lower quality hotels. The hotels’ star rating also seems to play a different role in explaining the level of earnings management in common-law countries, when compared to code-law countries. This paper contributes to the accounting literature by examining the determinants of earnings management of a large panel of firms from the hotel industry and by focusing on the characteristics of the firm and its institutional environment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The effect of firm and country characteristics on earnings management: Evidence from the hotel industry

This paper explores the determinants of firm and country characteristics in explaining the earnings management in a wide sample of listed firms from the tourism industry in 15 countries over 2007 – 2013. We focus on the level of discretionary accruals as a dimension of earnings management that is particularly responsive to firms’ financial statement incentives and examine the variables that are potentially associated with the earnings management in hotel firms. The results suggest that firm characteristics are the major determinant of earnings management in the hotel industry around the world. Additionally, our results demonstrated that star rating classification is the determinant of earnings management in high development countries. This paper aims to contribute to knowledge about the tourism industry by examining the determinants of earnings management across a large panel of firms and countries and by focusing on both the characteristics of the firm and its institutional environment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The role of Diu in the Hindu-Gujarati diaspora in Portugal

This article introduces the Diu transnational population with ties to Mozambique, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, with the aim of portraying these ties historically, socially, and culturally. Both authors have engaged in long-term ethnographic fieldwork, mostly working together to generate advantages for the study of transnationality and diaspora. Therefore, this article details our view after more than a decade of fieldwork while also conveying the voices of our interlocutors, who better illustrate Diu and its plural dimensions. The article describes the Diu Hindu representations of late Portuguese colonialism in India (until 1961) and explains the plural dimensions of transnationality. On the one hand, we focus on the cultural practices associated with transnationality, paying special attention both to the return to India and to marriages. On the other hand, the article explores the types of migration from Diu to other countries.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Main consequences of IFRS adoption: analysis of existing literature and suggestions for further research

This study characterizes the results of scientific research on the effect of adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) that have been published in the most prestigious scientific journals in the field of accounting at the international level and it identifies avenues for further research. Based on the analysis of a set of 67 articles published by the accounting journals that make up the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), published between 2000 and 2013, it is concluded that, as a general rule, IFRS adoption has a positive effect on information quality, the capital market, analysts' ability to predict, comparability, and information use. Nevertheless, this effect depends on some factors, such as country's characteristics (namely, the enforcement level) and companies' characteristics. Sharing rules is not, by itself, enough to create a common business language, and management incentives and institutional factors play a major role in framing the characteristics of financial reporting. Finally, some gaps are identified in the literature and avenues for further research are introduced.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Determinants of complicance with mandatory disclosure: research evidence

This study analyses research evidence on the determinants of compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements, classified in four main areas: business characteristics, country characteristics, enforcement and corporate governance. The literature concerning the compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements is a relatively recent field of research, when compared to the literature on voluntary disclosure. Given the well-known economic benefits of disclosure, it is of great interest to academics and practitioners to understand the incentives that explain the behaviour of firms in terms of compliance with disclosure requirements. This review provides several insights. First, although the business characteristics found in different studies as explanatory factors for the level of compliance are not always the same, there are four business characteristics that predominate as explanatory factors of the level of compliance with disclosure requirements: the firm’s size, the firm’s profitability, the type of auditor, and the level of internationalization. Second, the country characteristics and the enforcement have always proved to be relevant when analysing the level of compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements, independently of the approach used. Third, some corporate governance characteristics (including the nature of the board members and the type of ownership/control) begin to emerge as determinants of the level of compliance with mandatory disclosure. Overall, whereas research on the determinants of compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements provides relevant insights, it does not yet provide a sufficient accumulation of empirical evidence. Based on this, we develop suggestions for future research, highlighting the importance of analysing the role of corporate governance on the level of compliance with mandatory disclosure requirementsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mother Mary in the Hindu pantheon among Portuguese Gujarati families

The South Asian diaspora in Portugal is diverse in nationalities and religious practices. The most prominent population is the Hindu-Gujarati, living in Portugal since the late 1970s. This migration was boosted by the decolonization of a former Portuguese colony, Mozambique, to where Indians had migrated from India. Anchored in long-term fieldwork, this chapter concentrates on Hindu practices that incorporate elements of Portuguese Catholicism, specifically a representation of Mother Mary, Our Lady of Fatima. These practices point to hybridization processes among transnational communities and, in that sense, to challenge dominant visions about Hindu diaspora. To illustrate our argument, we will present this population and its cultural practices, to better understand this interest on Our Lady of Fatima, a Portuguese title for the Virgin Mary. We will specifically make an account of the forms this worship takes.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Debating teaching attitudes for a successful learning approach

This paper discusses the needs that should be fulfilled by both the teachers and the students for a successful learning process approach. It is based on the experience of teaching civil engineering students, both from the last years and also from 1st year, during the most recent years. Although the problems faced at teaching each student age are very different, the essence remains similar, and that is motivation for hard work. University students seem quite lost in the way to achieve their goals of success. It is one of the teacher’s aims to give them back the joy of learning. Two learning/teaching experiences are presented and discussed in what concerns course planning, implementation, monitoring and assessment of pedagogic experiments. This paper describes all these problems and proposes possible solutions based on empirical evidence of teaching classes with team work in the course with more students in the University of Minho