Competitiveness and Public-Private Partnerships: Towards a More Decentralised Policy

Public-private partnerships are a recent instrument for social and economic development policies. A more decentralised policy is supposed to increase focus and effectiveness and to involve agencies that are closer to firms and that have a more narrow range of objectives. In this contribution, we analyse the pattern of the so-called PIP (Partnerships and Public Initiatives) projects, approved between 2000 and the 30th June of 2003 in the framework of the Portuguese Operational Program for the Economy. By using HOMALS and K-means cluster analysis, we were able to characterise the decentralisation pattern and to identify typical clusters for the PIP projects. The results show clearly that a greater decentralisation is linked to partnerships while public initiatives are closer to the conventional pattern of public intervention. The results also show that partnerships are mainly focused in specific sectors and / or in specific regions, being conducted by private agencies that have chiefly a sectoral or regional nature. However, we have observed a trade-off between policy decentralization and structural change goals because decentralization has originated a bias towards the present more representative sectors. Also, decentralization has generated an extremely unequal access of local economies to the PIP instrument, favoring the more developed areas of the country.Public-private partnerships; Competitiveness policy; Decentralization

Competitiveness and Public-Private Partnerships: Towards a More Decentralised Policy

In this contribution, we analyse the pattern of the so-called PIP (Partnerships and Public Initiatives) that have been approved between 2000 and mid-2003 in the POE1 framework. In particular, we will evaluate the extent of decentralisation that this new instrument has generated in competitiveness policy. Partnership approaches are a relatively recent phenomenon, but partnerships have received widespread attention and support from economic and political agents, including policy makers at national, regional and local levels. In fact, the term “public-private partnership” covers a wide range of concepts and practices. In our contribution, we will focus on partnerships in a competitiveness policy framework. In a first section, we discuss briefly the meaning and the extent of what we call competitiveness policy. Then, in a second section, we focus our attention in public-private partnerships as a specific instrument for policy. In particular, we make a first assessment on the distinctive principles that differentiate public-private partnerships from more traditional instruments such as direct investment in public agencies or direct subventions to firms. We follow the perspective that these principles, mainly decentralization of policy, may contribute to a greater effectiveness of policy, because a more decentralised policy is supposed to increase focus and accountability and to involve agencies with specialized skills and a more narrow range of objectives. But, also, we will refer that some inefficiencies and some lack of equity may arise from the use of private-public partnerships instrument. Finally, in the main section of this contribution, we will analyse the above-mentioned questions considering the case of the 131 PIP projects approved and financed by the POE between 2000 and mid-2003. As the major part of the variables used are nominal, and in order to define the decentralization pattern induced by this new instrument, we will use multivariate data analysis techniques in order to establish associations between several variables linked to decentralisation criteria and, also, to identify clusters of projects.

Public-Private Partnerships and the Promotion of Collective Entrepreneurship

Public-private partnerships (PPP) are a recent instrument for social and economic development policies. Within the framework of competitiveness policy, PPP are an adequate instrument to promote collective entrepreneurship. Through this instrument, some market failures can be overcome and a better provision of strategic services can be afforded to firms. Also, PPP can be able to promote co-ordination between public and private partners and lead to specific innovative networks. PPP correspond to a more decentralised policy and they are supposed to increase focus and effectiveness and to involve agencies that are closer to firms and that have a more narrow range of objectives. In this contribution, we analyse the pattern of the so-called partnerships projects, approved between 2000 and the 30th june of 2003 in the framework of the Portuguese Operational Program for the Economy. By using HOMALS and K-means cluster analysis, we were able to characterise PPP and to identify typical clusters for the PPP projects. On one hand, the results show that policy decentralization brought by partnerships has promoted or reinforced a more specialized institutional framework (mainly national, sectoral or regional entrepreneurial associations). But, on the other hand, PPP had a small impact in the promotion of specific networks and/or in innovation. Collective entrepreneurship induced by PPP instrument has presented a clear bias toward the provision of services that have a public or semi-public nature, by the fact that firms that can use these services are in a large number (all the firms of a sub sector or even larger universes). But technological projects and/or projects addressed to specific networks of firms were very few. In particular, the impact of PPP on structural change seems to have been short.Public-private partnerships; Competitiveness policy; Entrepreneurship; Collective entrepreneurship

Combating shoulder-surfing: a hidden button gesture based scheme

This project describes an authentication technique that is shoulder-surfing resistant. Shoulder surfing is an attack in which an attacker can get access to private information by observing the user’s interaction with a terminal, or by using recording tools to record the user interaction and study the obtained data, with the objective of obtaining unauthorized access to a target user’s personal information. The technique described here relies on gestural analysis coupled with a secondary channel of authentication that uses button pressing. The thesis presents and evaluates multiple alternative algorithms for gesture analysis, and furthermore assesses the effectiveness of the technique.Universidade da Madeir

A comparative analysis of financing decisions in export and non-export sectors : the case of Spanish non-listed firms

Esta tese tem como objetivo estudar as diferenças nas decisões de financiamento entre as empresas exportadoras e não-exportadoras não cotadas em Espanha e, também, examinar qual é o impacto da intensidade de exportação no nível de endividamento das mesmas empresas. Para isso, usamos uma amostra composta por 45 147 empresas, durante o período de 2012 a 2017. Após uma revisão detalhada da literatura, foi feita uma análise usando diferentes determinantes que, de acordo com a literatura existente, têm impacto na estrutura de capital das empresas (e consequentemente nas suas decisões de financiamento): Impostos, Tangibilidade, Rentabilidade, Dimensão da Empresa, Outros Benefícios Fiscais para além da Dívida, Condições da Indústria, Risco de Negócio, Oportunidades de Crescimento, Taxa de Inflação e Intensidade de Exportação. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que, embora alguns fatores estejam de acordo com a literatura existente, tal como o impacto dos Impostos, da Tangibilidade, da Rentabilidade, das Condições de Indústria, do Risco de Negócio e da Taxa de Inflação; a Dimensão da Empresa e os Outros Benefícios Fiscais para além da Dívida apresentam impactos no nível da dívida diferentes dos esperados. Para além disso, o único fator cujos resultados diferem das empresas exportadoras para as empresas não exportadoras são os Impostos, que apresenta um impacto negativo na alavancagem para empresas exportadoras e positivo para com as não exportadoras. Finalmente, verifica-se que a Intensidade de Exportação tem uma relação positiva com o nível de endividamento.The purpose of this thesis is to study the differences in the financing decisions between non-listed Spanish export and non-export firms, as well as to examine what is the impact of export intensity in firm’s leverage. To do so, we use a sample of 45,147 Spanish unlisted firms during the 2012-2017 period. After a detailed literature review, an analysis was made using different determinants that, according to the extant literature, impact the capital structure (and consequently, the financing decisions): Taxes, Tangibility, Profitability, Firm Size, Non-Debt Tax Shields, Industry Conditions, Business Risk, Growth Opportunities, Inflation Rate and Export Intensity. The results obtained suggest that while the impact of some factors are in line with the extant literature, namely Taxes, Tangibility, Profitability, Industry Conditions, Business Risk and Inflation Rate; the impact of Firm Size and Non-Debt Tax Shields is different from what we expected. Furthermore, the only factor that affects differently both export and non-export firms is Taxes, which presents a negative correlation with export firms’ leverage and positive with non-export firms’ leverage. Finally, the variable Export Intensity shows a positive relationship with Leverage

Building on eWOM to Understand Service Quality in Hotel Services

In recent years the volume and the reach of available online content in the form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has grown at an unprecedented pace. eWOM exerts an important influence for consumption decisions of consumers, and is acknowledged to be more accessible and trustworthy than other commercial information provided by companies by means of advertising and sales. The sophistication and widespread of communication technologies is making the volume of information released online by customers to become overwhelming. For consumers and for business managers alike, making sense of the available information is a challenge that needs to be met urgently in order to keep the pace with the expectations of consumers whom, as engaged providers of feedback require their observations to be taken into account. This advances with a contribution to support the development of methods for the analysis and visualization information from online sources, by adapting an importance-performance analysis for identifying salient quality attributes from eWOM, offering an efficient approach for extracting information and identifying priorities for service improvement

Genetic and biochemical characterization of hemicellulose polysaccharides utilization in Bacillus subtilis

Plant biomass is the major source of available carbohydrates in Nature. The walls of plant cells are mainly composed by homo- and heteropolysaccharides, usually found intertwined with each other and making a highly complex and heterogeneous structure, which displays a strong resistance to biological degradation. Still, many microorganisms are able to breakdown this complex structure and use the available sugars as carbon and energy source. Several saprophytic bacteria, including Bacillus subtilis, release a high number of saccharolytic enzymes capable of cleaving most polysaccharides in plant cell walls, and are then able to transport and metabolize the resulting mono- and oligosaccharides. Thus, transport is a key step in sugar utilization. Here, we characterize four ABC-type transporters involved in the uptake of arabino- and galactooligosaccharides, and galacturonic acid oligomers and/or rhamnose-galacturonic acid disaccharides. We show that MsmX is the sole ATPase responsible for energizing these four ABC importers, thus playing a key role in pectin mobilization by B. subtilis. AraN, the solute-binding protein (SBP) from the ABC importer, AraNPQ, is shown by in vivo and in vitro analyses to bind arabinooligosaccharides. However, AraN displays a significantly lower affinity than that previously reported for other SBPs. In addition, AraN also binds cello-, xylo- and maltooligosaccharides with similar affinity but is shown to be non-essential for growth in the presence of these oligosaccharides. We speculate that binding of these sugars may prevent arabinooligosaccharides uptake when more favorable carbon sources, such as glucose-rich cello- and maltodextrins, are available. The mechanisms of expression of abn2, a gene encoding an endo-arabinanase, were investigated and we provide evidence that this AraR-independent gene is temporally regulated. The transition state regulator AbrB and the master sporulation regulator Spo0A are implicated in the regulation of abn2. Finally, we demonstrate that a metallic cluster close to the catalytic site of Abn2 is essential for its arabinanase activity

Experimental evaluation of big data querying tools

Nos últimos anos, o termo Big Data tornou-se um tópico bastanta debatido em várias áreas de negócio. Um dos principais desafios relacionados com este conceito é como lidar com o enorme volume e variedade de dados de forma eficiente. Devido à notória complexidade e volume de dados associados ao conceito de Big Data, são necessários mecanismos de consulta eficientes para fins de análise de dados. Motivado pelo rápido desenvolvimento de ferramentas e frameworks para Big Data, há muita discussão sobre ferramentas de consulta e, mais especificamente, quais são as mais apropriadas para necessidades analíticas específica. Esta dissertação descreve e compara as principais características e arquiteturas das seguintes conhecidas ferramentas analíticas para Big Data: Drill, HAWQ, Hive, Impala, Presto e Spark. Para testar o desempenho dessas ferramentas analíticas para Big Data, descrevemos também o processo de preparação, configuração e administração de um Cluster Hadoop para que possamos instalar e utilizar essas ferramentas, tendo um ambiente capaz de avaliar seu desempenho e identificar quais cenários mais adequados à sua utilização. Para realizar esta avaliação, utilizamos os benchmarks TPC-H e TPC-DS, onde os resultados mostraram que as ferramentas de processamento em memória como HAWQ, Impala e Presto apresentam melhores resultados e desempenho em datasets de dimensão baixa e média. No entanto, as ferramentas que apresentaram tempos de execuções mais lentas, especialmente o Hive, parecem apanhar as ferramentas de melhor desempenho quando aumentamos os datasets de referência

Critical behavior in lattice models with two symmetric absorbing state

We analyze nonequilibrium lattice models with up-down symmetry and two absorbing states by mean-field approximations and numerical simulations in two and three dimensions. The phase diagram displays three phases: paramagnetic, ferromagnetic and absorbing. The transition line between the first two phases belongs to the Ising universality class and between the last two, to the direct percolation universality class. The two lines meet at the point describing the voter model and the size $\ell$ of the ferromagnetic phase vanishes with the distance $\varepsilon$ to the voter point as $\ell\sim\varepsilon$, with possible logarithm corrections in two dimensions