Challenges faced by SMEs in the internationalization process to emerging markets and ways to overcome them : the case study of SANITOP in Mozambique

In today‘s globalization era, an increasing number of SMEs is expanding its international presence. At the same time, emerging markets present themselves as attractive and growing areas filled with opportunities. However, they also present challenges due to the contrast with mature markets. Therefore, the objective of the current thesis is to study the challenges faced by SMEs in the internationalization process to emerging markets, as well as the ways used to deal with them. The company chosen is a Portuguese SME, SANITOP – Material Sanitário, Lda., which is internationally present in Maputo, Mozambique. The research is conducted using a qualitative method, more specifically a case study essentially based on five interviews with employees of the company. The case study shows evidence of numerous challenges faced by SANITOP in the Mozambican emerging market, some of which match the literature on SME internationalization: shortage of working capital; inadequate quantity of and/or untrained personnel for internationalization; difficulty in matching competitors‘ prices; and excessive transportation costs. Furthermore, additional major challenges were found in the context of the Mozambican market, especially the devaluation of national currency and the lack of foreign currency, which further extends the current literature on the subject. As for ways of overcoming internationalization barriers, although the literature is fairly matched with three options (networks, external support and technologies), there are numerous other options found in the case study which remain unmentioned in the literature and that are particularly useful for SMEs present in emerging markets.Na era de globalização actual, um número crescente de PMEs está a expandir a sua presença internacional. Ao mesmo tempo, os mercados emergentes apresentam-se como áreas atractivas e em crescimento repletas de oportunidades. Contudo, também apresentam desafios devido ao contraste com mercados desenvolvidos. Assim, o objectivo desta tese é estudar os desafios enfrentados por PMEs no processo de internacionalização para mercados emergentes, assim como as formas de lidar com os mesmos. A empresa escolhida é uma PME Portuguesa, a SANITOP – Material Sanitário, Lda., que está presente internacionalmente em Maputo, Moçambique. A investigação é conduzida utilizando um método qualitativo, mais especificamente um caso de estudo essencialmente baseado em cinco entrevistas a funcionários da empresa. O caso de estudo revela evidências de inúmeros desafios enfrentados pela SANITOP no mercado emergente Moçambicano, alguns dos quais correspondem à literatura sobre internacionalização de PMEs: falta de capital circulante; quantidade inadequada de e/ou pessoal inexperiente para internacionalização; dificuldade em igualar os preços da concorrência; e custos excessivos de transporte. Além disso, desafios adicionais foram encontrados no contexto do mercado Moçambicano, especialmente a desvalorização da moeda nacional e a falta de moeda estrangeira, o que amplia ainda mais a literatura atual sobre o assunto. Quanto a formas de ultrapassar as barreiras de internacionalização, embora a literatura tenha sido bastante correspondida com três opções (redes de contactos, suporte externo e tecnologias), há inúmeras outras opções encontradas no caso de estudo que permanecem ausentes da literatura e que são particularmente úteis para as PMEs presentes em mercados emergentes

Conflictos geopolíticos por el agua en las cuencas mineras del Departamento de Oruro, Bolivia

Dans cet article, nous analyserons les conflits géopolitiques entre les acteurs reliés à la pollution minière des sous-bassins du lac Poopo dans le département de Oruro dans le sud-ouest de la Bolivie. À cette occasion, nous procéderons à la caractérisation sociale et hydrologique des bassins et de ses acteurs et de l’interaction entre les acteurs sur une analyse de la territorialisation des espaces des sous-bassins.In this paper, it is analyzed geopolitical water conflicts between involved actors in mining pollution of sub basins of Poopó Lake in Oruro, in the southwestern zone of Bolivia. For that purpose, it is described social and hydrological aspects, moreover, interaction between actors from an analysis of the social building of territory.En el presente trabajo se analizan los conflictos geopolíticos por el agua entre los diversos actores involucrados en la contaminación minera del agua de las sub cuencas del Lago Poopó en el Departamento de Oruro ubicado en el sudoeste de Bolivia ; para tal efecto, se efectúa la caracterización social e hidrológica de las cuencas estudiadas y sus actores, así como el escrutinio de la interacción entre éstos, a partir de un análisis de la territorialización de los espacios de las mencionadas sub cuencas

The glycatome

Funding Information: This study was supported by iNOVA4Health UID/Multi/04462/2013 – UIDB/04462/2020 and UIDP/04462/2020 , a program financially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) / Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, through national funds; and by Sociedade Portuguesa de Diabetologia . AC was supported by PD/BD/136863/2018 , FCT.We are witnessing a considerable increase in the incidence of Parkinson's disease (PD), which may be due to the general ageing of the population. While there is a plethora of therapeutic strategies for this disease, they still fail to arrest disease progression as they do not target and prevent the neurodegenerative process. The identification of disease-causing mutations allowed researchers to better dissect the underlying causes of this disease, highlighting, for example, the pathogenic role of alpha-synuclein. However, most PD cases are sporadic, which is making it hard to unveil the major causative mechanisms of this disease. In the recent years, epidemiological evidence suggest that type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) individuals have higher risk and worst outcomes of PD, allowing to raise the hypothesis that some dysregulated processes in T2DM may contribute or even trigger the neurodegenerative process in PD. One major consequence of T2DM is the unprogrammed reaction between sugars, increased in T2DM, and proteins, a reaction named glycation. Pre-clinical reports show that alpha-synuclein is a target of glycation, and glycation potentiates its pathogenicity which contributes for the neurodegenerative process. Moreover, it triggers, anticipates, or aggravates several PD-like motor and non-motor complications. A given profile of proteins are differently glycated in diseased conditions, altering the brain proteome and leading to brain dysfunction and neurodegeneration. Herein we coin the term Glycatome as the profile of glycated proteins. In this review we report on the mechanisms underlying the association between T2DM and PD, with particular focus on the impact of protein glycation.publishersversionpublishe

Broadcast cancellation in search mechanisms

Searching for resources over unstructured networks is usually supported by broadcast communication primitives. Ideally, the broadcast process should be cancelled as soon as possible after a successful discovery, to avoid ooding the entire network. However, cancelling an ongoing broadcast is challenging and may increase the number of exchanged messages. In this paper, we compare the cancellation mechanisms used by BERS and BERS? With new proposed cancellation approaches BCIR and BCIR? The formulation of a simplified analytical model and the simulation results show that:i)it is possible to reduce the number of retransmitted messages, without increasing the latency observed in BERS?; and ii) BCIR is more energy eficient, which can contribute to extend the availability of mobile battery powered devices.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal (PEst- OE/EME/UI4005/2011) and carried out within the research Centro Lusíada de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial (CLEGI

Stopping ongoing broadcasts in large MANETs

Broadcast is a communication primitive building block widely used in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) for the exchange of control packets and resource location for upper level services such as routing and management protocols. Flooding is the most simple broadcast algorithm, but it wastes a lot of energy and bandwidth, as flooding leads to many redundant radio transmissions. An optimization to flooding is to contain it, once the resource has been found. In this paper, we compare the impact on the latency and power consumption of four competing approaches for flooding containment. The results show that stopping ongoing broadcasts can achieve promising performance increases over other flooding base techniques, when applied in large scale MANETs with scarce power resources. In addition, results show that both network topology and the number of copies of the resource influence differently the performance of each searching approach.(undefined

Leadership and Organization Innovation Adoption

Innovation is a tool to ensure competitiveness. Firm survival is inexorably linked to its ability to reinvent itself, obviously apart from other circumstances. Organizational innovation and its adoption are key concepts that are rarely studied. Little is known about factors related to decisions to adopt innovations and how the likelihood of adoption of innovations can be increased. This chapter aims to answer the question: what are the determinants of the adoption of organizational innovation? In this sense, this chapter aims to identify some of the organizational factors which have the capacity to influence organizational innovation in a specific case study, an innovative Portuguese company. This chapter addresses the personal dimension of the leader as a driver of organizational innovation processes. This chapter finds that, in the case study, the culture of the company which itself is driven by the CEO is fundamental for innovation and the adoption of organizational innovations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

La motivación laboral y el comportamiento organizacional de la empresa Energía y Organización de Sistemas S.A. - Piura, año 2021

La presente investigación tuvo como propósito determinar la relación entre la motivación laboral y el comportamiento organizacional de la Empresa Energía y Organización de Sistemas S.A. - Piura, año 2021, se hizo uso de la metodología de tipo correlacional, de corte transeccional y sin realizar experimentaciones con el comportamiento de las variables de estudio, se contó con una población de 105 trabajadores de la empresa, aplicando como instrumentos dos cuestionarios de preguntas estructuradas y para contrastar la hipótesis planteada se utilizó la prueba de Spearman. Los principales resultados indican el ambiente laboral no los motiva para seguir realizar sus labores, los puestos de mayor jerarquía son difíciles de optar, los grupos conformados por amigos no siempre dan buenos resultados, los programas de inducción no son los adecuados debido a que lo operarios lo ven como una obligación que deben cumplir y como un factor para mejorar sus habilidades profesionales, por lo tanto, se cumple el objetivo planteado. Se concluyó que la Motivación Laboral y el Comportamiento Organizacional de la Empresa Energía y Organización de Sistemas S.A. - Piura, se relacionan con una significancia muy alta por lo tanto se prueba la hipótesis planteada y se cumple con el objetivo planteado. De los resultados obtenidos se observó que la motivación siempre es el impulso para que los trabajadores mejoren la aplicación de sus habilidades, la empatía, la asertividad y la comunicación en el ambiente de trabajo, como sustento se cuenta con los trabajos citados en el presente estudio.The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between work motivation and organizational behavior of Empresa Energía y Organización de Sistemas S.A. - Piura, year 2021, the cross-sectional, correlational type methodology was used and without conducting experiments with the behavior of the study variables, there was a population of 105 company workers, applying two questionnaires as instruments. Structured questions and the Spearman test was used to test the hypothesis. The main results indicate the work environment does not motivate them to continue carrying out their work, positions of higher hierarchy are difficult to choose, groups made up of friends do not always give good results, induction programs are not adequate because of the operators They see it as an obligation that they must fulfill and as a factor to improve their professional skills, therefore, the objective is fulfilled. It was concluded that the Labor Motivation and Organizational Behavior of the Empresa Energía y Organización de Sistemas S.A. - Piura, are related to a very high significance, therefore the proposed hypothesis is tested and the objective set is met. From the results obtained, it was observed that motivation is always the impulse for workers to improve the application of their skills, empathy, assertiveness and communication in the work environment.Tesi

When networks speak volumes: Variation in the size of broader acquaintanceship networks

Personal network researchers have extensively studied the characteristics and effects of individuals' closest relationships, but they have paid much less attention to broader acquaintanceship networks, despite evidence that weak ties can also provide social support. In this paper we focus on one aspect of these networks: acquaintanceship volume. We estimate its distributional parameters for a large, representative sample of the general population of Spain, explore its variation across social groups as well as its implications for social support availability. We designed a survey instrument based on the Network Scale-Up Method and implemented it in a national survey in Spain. Our results suggest that Spaniards have approximately 536 acquaintances, with a large inter-individual variation, comparable to the estimates reported for the American population. Acquaintanceship volume varies with gender, age, education, and income. These differences are partially related to the unequal participation of social groups in voluntary associations, confirming the civic value of such associations, and in employment. Even with similar core network size, acquaintanceship volume increases the likelihood of having adequate social support available, suggesting that broader acquaintanceship networks also structure individual outcomes

Adaptive broadcast cancellation query mechanism for unstructured networks

The availability of cheap wireless sensors boosted the emergence of unstructured networks using wireless technologies with decentralised administration. However, a simple task such as learning the temperature needs a discovery service to find a thermometer among all the sensors. In general, resource discovery relies on flooding mechanisms that waste energy and compromises system availability. Energy efficient strategies limit the exploration area, but with a significant impact on latency. The paper proposes ABC (Adaptive Broadcast Cancellation), a new algorithm that uses the knowledge acquired in previous discoveries to accelerate queries towards the resource. Knowledge is stored in a variation of Bloom filters, thus contributing for an efficient utilization of the sensors limited memory.This work is financed by the FCT − Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project UID/EEA/50014/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio