“A long-term mortality analysis of subsidized firms in rural areas: an empirical study in the Portuguese Alentejo region”

Studies have demonstrated that public policies to support private firms’ investment have the ability to promote entrepreneurship, but the sustainability of subsidized firms has not often been analysed. This paper aims to examine this dimension specifically through evaluating the mortality of subsidized firms in the long-term. The analysis focuses on a case study of the LEADER+ Programme in the Alentejo region of Portugal. With this purpose, the paper examines the activity status (active or not active) of 154 private, rural, for-profit firms in Alentejo that had received a subsidy to support investment between 2002 and 2008 under the LEADER+ Programme. The methodology is based on binary choice models in order to study the probability of these firms still being active. The explanatory variables used are the following: (1) the characteristics of entrepreneurs and managers’ strategic decisions, (2) firm profile and characteristics, (3) regional economic environment. Data assessment showed that the cumulative mortality rate of firms on 31st December 2013 is over 20 %. Interpretation of the regression model revealed that he probability of firms’ survival increases with higher investment, firm age and regional business concentration, whereas the number of applications made by firms has a negative impact on their survival. So it seems that for subsidized firms the amount of investment is as important as its frequency.

The Influence of Age and Size on Family-Owned Firms’ Financing Decisions: Empirical Evidence Using Panel Data

Based on four samples of Portuguese family-owned firmsdi) 185 young, low-sized family-owned firms; ii) 167 young, high-sized familyowned firms; iii) 301 old, low-sized family-owned firms; and iv) 353 old, high-sized family-owned firms d we show that age and size are fundamental characteristics in family-owned firms’ financing decisions. The multiple empirical evidence obtained allows us to conclude that the financing decisions of young, low-sized family-owned firms are quite close to the assumptions of Pecking Order Theory, whereas those of old, high-sized family-owned firms are quite close to what is forecast by Trade-Off Theory. The lesser information asymmetry associated with greater age, the lesser likelihood of bankruptcy associated with greater size, as well as the lesser concentration of ownership and management consequence of greater age and size, may be especially important in the financing decisions of family-owned firms. In addition, we find that GDP, interest rate and periods of crisis have a greater effect on the debt of young, low-sized family-owned firms than on that of family-owned firms of the remainder research samples.

Expenditure pattern analysis of cultural tourists at World Heritage Sites: an empirical evidence based on CHAID analysis

Nowadays, World Heritage Sites (WHS) have been facing new challenges, partially due to a different tourism consumption patterns. As it is highlighted in a considerable amount of studies, visits to these sites are almost justified by this prestigious classification and motivations are closely associated with their cultural aspects and quality of the overall environment (among others, Marujo et al, 2012). However, a diversity of tourists’ profiles have been underlined in the literature. Starting from the results obtained in a previous study about cultural tourists’ profile, conducted during the year 2009 in the city of Évora, Portugal, it is our intend to compare the results with a recent survey applied to the visitors of the same city. Recognition of Évora by UNESCO in 1986 as “World Heritage” has fostered not only the preservation of heritage but also the tourist promotion of the town. This study compares and examined tourists’ profile, regarding from the tourists’ expenditure patterns in Évora. A total of 450 surveys were distributed in 2009, and recently, in 2015, the same numbers of surveys were collected. Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) was applied to model consumer patterns of domestic and international visitors, based on socio demographic, trip characteristics, length of stay and the degree of satisfaction of pull factors. CHAID allowed find a population classification in groups that able to describe the dependent variable, average daily tourist expenditure. Results revealed different patterns of daily average expenditure amongst the years, 2009 and 2015, even if primarily results not revealed significant variations in socio-demographic and trip characteristics among the visitors’ core profile. Local authorities should be aware of this changing expensive behavior of cultural visitors and should formulate strategies accordingly. Policy and managerial recommendations are discussed.

Crossing frontiers between tourism and demography. An empirical analysis based on European travellers’ behaviour

This paper aims to establish possible tourism demand scenarios of European travellers to Portugal based on the relationship with changing population structures. A combination of the EUROBAROMETER report 370 (“Attitudes of Europeans towards Tourism in 2013”) and the cohort-component method for population projections will allow the development of different possible tourism demand scenarios. Following the European report, individuals who travelled in 2013 were most likely to live in a household with two or more individuals. Thus, if elderly couples are together till later in their life and in better physiological shape, it is possible that the number of elderly individuals travelling for tourism purposes will increase in the near future. If we can expect tourists from developing countries to be younger due to their demographic dynamics than those from developed countries, where the ageing population is growing fast, we can expect that the percentage of the elderly among tourists will increase. Furthermore, the 2013 European report found that the combination of socio-demographic variables, such as, age, population, gender, household dimension, country of residence and trip purpose explained tourism demand scenarios for Portugal, confirming that seniors and families evidence a paramount sense of importance for the destination. In the literature there is a lack of discussion about the effects of demography in the future and the role of an ageing population in tourism demand choice patterns. We aim to contribute to filling this gap. Consequently, we strongly believe that this paper contributes to the literature by introducing a new field of discussion about the importance of demographic changes in shaping travel trends.

Cognitive Assessment System (CAS): Psychometric studies with Portuguese children from 7 to 15 years.

The Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) is a new measure of cognitive abilities based on the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive (PASS) Theory. This theory is derived from research in neuropsychological and cognitive Psychology with particular emphasis on the work of Luria (1973). According to Naglieri (1999) and Naglieri and Das (1997), the PASS cognitive processes are the basic building blocks of human intellectual functioning. Planning processes provide cognitive control, utilization of processes and knowledge, intentionality, and self-regulation to achieve a desired goal; Attention processes provide focused, selective cognitive activity and resistance to distraction; and, Simultaneous and Successive processes are the two forms of operating on information. The PASS theory has had a strong empirical base prior to the publication of the CAS (see Das, Naglieri & Kirby, 1994), and its research foundation remains strong (see Naglieri, 1999; Naglieri & Das, 1997). The four basic psychological processes can be used to (1) gain an understanding of how well a child thinks; (2) discover the child’s strengths and needs, which can then be used for effective differential diagnosis; (3) conduct fair assessment; and (4) select or design appropriate interventions. Compared to the traditional intelligence tests, including IQ tests, the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) has the great advantage of relying on a modern theory of cognitive functioning, linking theory with practice.