The Knowledge and Use of the Balanced Scorecard in Portugal: Empirical Evidence of the 250 Largest Companies

Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is recognized, both in the academic and business world, as one of the most powerful strategic management accounting tools. Thus, we launched in October 2004 a questionnaire survey applied to the 250 largest Portuguese companies aiming at observing the knowledge, use, and companies’ characteristics which are adopting this management instrument. Despite the majority of the companies inquired recognize BSC more as a strategic management tool than a performance valuation system, the results show that there is still a reduced and recent utilization of BSC in Portugal. Similarly to other countries Portugal is still in the initial state of BSC utilization. Our work has shown that the companies that use more BSC belong mainly to the secondary sector of industry. Nevertheless, unlike other studies, we did not get empirical evidence on the influence of variables such as geographical localization, dimension and internationalization, in the use and knowledge of BSC in Portugal.

Perceptions of residents of hosting the “Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture”: An ex-ante approach

The European Capital of Culture is an annual mega-event, which can provide a good forum though which to challenge and engage local citizens, thus generating feelings of common citizenship. In addition, it presents an ideal opportunity to promote the restructuring of the hosting urban space. However, the success of both the organization and the city that hosts the cultural event depends on the residents’ commitment towards it, the consistency of the tourism attractions and activities supplied, and the capacity of anticipating and monitoring the evolution of tourists’ preferences. The present study aims to assess the intention to participate and the impacts perceived by residents of Guimarães from hosting one of the 2012 European Capitals of Culture (2012 ECOC) in the ex-ante period (2011). Through a convenience sample of 471 usable surveys applied to the local population, conducted between October and December 2011, we tried to identify some of these potential impacts. According to the results received, 40% of residents had a low or very low knowledge of the cultural program, although only 11% demonstrated no intention of attending any activity during the event. The comparison of the mean scores of the expected 2012 ECOC impacts by gender reveals that the most valued and least valued factors are common to female and male respondents. With regard to the differences between those that intended to attend the event and the ones that did not, expected participants rated positive and negative impact factors more than did the ones that did not intend to attend.

Perceptions of residents of hosting the “Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture”: an ex-ante approach

The European Capital of Culture is an annual mega-event, which can provide a good forum though which to challenge and engage local citizens, thus generating feelings of common citizenship. In addition, it presents an ideal opportunity to promote the restructuring of the hosting urban space. However, the success of both the organization and the city that hosts the cultural event depends on the residents’ commitment towards it, the consistency of the tourism attractions and activities supplied, and the capacity of anticipating and monitoring the evolution of tourists’ preferences. The present study aims to assess the intention to participate and the impacts perceived by residents of Guimarães from hosting one of the 2012 European Capitals of Culture (2012 ECOC) in the ex-ante period (2011). Through a convenience sample of 471 usable surveys applied to the local population, conducted between October and December 2011, we tried to identify some of these potential impacts. According to the results received, 40% of residents had a low or very low knowledge of the cultural program, although only 11% demonstrated no intention of attending any activity during the event. The comparison of the mean scores of the expected 2012 ECOC impacts by gender reveals that the most valued and least valued factors are common to female and male respondents. With regard to the differences between those that intended to attend the event and the ones that did not, expected participants rated positive and negative impact factors more than did the ones that did not intend to attend.