Impact of Supplier Management Strategies on the Organizational Performance of ISO 9001 Certified Organizations

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss the impact of Supplier orientation and the resulting Supply Chain Management (SCM) approach, on the organizational performance of ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems certified organizations. Methodology/Approach: Following a literature review, a full structural conceptual model was proposed. An online survey was administered to managers of Portuguese organizations with certified ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems. Descriptive Statistics and Structural Model Equations were used to validate the proposed conceptual model. Findings: There are positive relationships between Organization Strategy and Supplier Orientation, between Supplier Orientation and Stakeholders Satisfaction, and between Stakeholders Satisfaction and Organizational Performance Orientation, supporting ISO 9001:2015. These findings provide insights that supplier orientation, mediated by stakeholder satisfaction, is an essential tool for organizational competitive sustainable advantage. Research Limitation/implication: The analysis was based on managers of ISO 9001 certified organizations perceptions, so additional studies with actual data and longitudinal studies should be useful for further validation. Originality/Value of paper: The importance of the overall organizational ecosystem is highlighted with potential impact on the more than 1 Million ISO 9001 organizations certified worldwide and in their suppliers.

Reactive power management strategies in future smart grids

The reactive power management in distribution network with large penetration of distributed energy resources is an important task in future power systems. The control of reactive power allows the inclusion of more distributed recourses and a more efficient operation of distributed network. Currently, the reactive power is only controlled in large power plants and in high and very high voltage substations. In this paper, several reactive power control strategies considering a smart grids paradigm are proposed. In this context, the management of distributed energy resources and of the distribution network by an aggregator, namely Virtual Power Player (VPP), is proposed and implemented in a MAS simulation tool. The proposed methods have been computationally implemented and tested using a 32-bus distribution network with intensive use of distributed resources, mainly the distributed generation based on renewable resources. Results concerning the evaluation of the reactive power management algorithms are also presented and compared.

Mergers and acquisitions as strategies of business expansion in the pharmaceutical industry

Introduction: The present paper deals with the issue of the increasing usage of corporation mergers and acquisitions strategies within pharmaceutical industry environment. The aim is to identify the triggers of such business phenomenon and the immediate impact on the financial outcome of two powerful biopharmaceutical corporations: Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, which have been sampled due to their successful approach of the tactics in question. Materials and Methods: In order to create an overview of the development steps through mergers and acquisitions, the historical data of the two corporations has been consulted, from their official websites. The most relevant events were then associated with adequate information from the financial reports and statements of the two corporations indulged by web-based financial data providers. Results and Discussions: In the past few decades Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have purchased or merged with various companies in order to monopolize new markets, diversify products and services portfolios, survive and surpass competitors. The consequences proved to be positive although this approach implies certain capital availability. Conclusions: Results reveal the fact that, as far as the two sampled companies are concerned, acquisitions and mergers are reactions at the pressure of the highly competitive environment. Moreover, the continuous diversification of the market’s needs is also a consistent motive. However, the prevalence and the eminence of mergers and acquisition strategies are conditioned by the tender offer, the announcer’s caliber, research and development status and further other factors determined by the internal and external actors of the market.

Motivations and management factors of volunteer work in nonprofit organisations: a literature review

The objective of this paper is to review and discuss the literature about volunteers’ motivations to donate their time to NPOs and the management factors that can influence volunteer work. Firstly, the paper illustrates and compares the different types of motivation followed by a presentation of a typology that organises the volunteers’ motivations into four types: (i) altruism, (ii) belonging, (iii) ego and social recognition and (iv) development and learning. Secondly we discuss the key management factors in volunteering: recruitment, training and rewarding. Finally, we present four gaps in the literature that justify the scope for further research: (i) omission of differences between motivations related to volunteers’ "Attraction" versus "Retention"; (ii) focus of the research on the USA, UK and Australia context; (iii) absence of comparative analyses that relate motivations by NPO types and (iv) comprehension of how management factors (recruitment, training and rewarding) influence volunteers’ satisfaction and retention.

Corporate brand identity management – proposal of a new framework

The term “corporate brand” has been widely used in literature since the eighties. According to Balmer (1998) this concept tends to be used as an alternative to the concept of corporate identity. The author argues that the use of branding principles to discuss corporate identity has tended to align the area more closely with marketing. However, the literature on brand management (Aaker, 1991; Kapferer, 1991 and de Chernatony and McDonald, 1992), gives little attention to the corporate brand” (p. 985). Based on the concepts of corporate brand, brand identity and B2B relationship, the authors are interested in eliminating this gap in literature by designing a framework of corporate brand identity management. The aim of this investigation is to investigate the impact of B2B relationships in corporate brand identity management. The methodology used is quantitative analysis of surveys and scale development. The originality of this paper is to investigate the influence of the relationship between brands in corporate brand identity. This investigation is very important to help the decisions of the corporate brand managers and academics. According to literature, namely on corporate brands (Balmer 2002b, Hatch and Schultz, 2001, 2003) and on brand identity (Kapferer, 1991, 2008, Aaker, 1996, de Chernatony, 1999) the authors developed a corporate brand identity management framework considering relationships between brands a context variable with definite impact on identity management as stated by Hakansson and Snehota (1989, 1995). These authors consider that organisations´ identity management is pursued under a relational perspective with impact on identity management. Most researchers on identity and corporate brand emphasise the importance of external influences (Kennedy, 1977; King, 1991; de Chernatony, 1999; Balmer and Gray, 2000; Balmer, 2002a). Those influences concern legislation, concurrence, political issues... and stakeholders’ perceptions and reputations (due to the holistic approach demanded by corporate brands). In this context the authors claim the importance of another influence: B2B relationships. This decision is inspired in sociological studies (Mannheim, 1950; and Tajfel and Turner, 1979) regarding individual identity. These authors claim that individuals form their personality by interacting in the social field. The authors argue that corporate brand identity also develops itself under a relational approach. The relationships selected to pursue this investigation are the ones that are developed by Portuguese universities and investigation centres that cooperate by developing investigation. Those centres are administrative and financially autonomous

Stochasticity favoring the effects of the R&D strategies of the firms

We present stochastic dynamics on the production costs of Cournot competitions, based on perfect Nash equilibria of nonlinear R&D investment strategies to reduce the production costs of the firms at every period of the game. We analyse the effects that the R&D investment strategies can have in the profits of the firms along the time. We observe that, in certain cases, the uncertainty can improve the effects of the R&D strategies in the profits of the firms due to the non-linearity of the profit functions and also of the R&D parameters.

Energy resource management in smart grids considering an Intensive use of electric vehicles

The introduction of electricity markets and integration of Distributed Generation (DG) have been influencing the power system’s structure change. Recently, the smart grid concept has been introduced, to guarantee a more efficient operation of the power system using the advantages of this new paradigm. Basically, a smart grid is a structure that integrates different players, considering constant communication between them to improve power system operation and management. One of the players revealing a big importance in this context is the Virtual Power Player (VPP). In the transportation sector the Electric Vehicle (EV) is arising as an alternative to conventional vehicles propel by fossil fuels. The power system can benefit from this massive introduction of EVs, taking advantage on EVs’ ability to connect to the electric network to charge, and on the future expectation of EVs ability to discharge to the network using the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) capacity. This thesis proposes alternative strategies to control these two EV modes with the objective of enhancing the management of the power system. Moreover, power system must ensure the trips of EVs that will be connected to the electric network. The EV user specifies a certain amount of energy that will be necessary to charge, in order to ensure the distance to travel. The introduction of EVs in the power system turns the Energy Resource Management (ERM) under a smart grid environment, into a complex problem that can take several minutes or hours to reach the optimal solution. Adequate optimization techniques are required to accommodate this kind of complexity while solving the ERM problem in a reasonable execution time. This thesis presents a tool that solves the ERM considering the intensive use of EVs in the smart grid context. The objective is to obtain the minimum cost of ERM considering: the operation cost of DG, the cost of the energy acquired to external suppliers, the EV users payments and remuneration and penalty costs. This tool is directed to VPPs that manage specific network areas, where a high penetration level of EVs is expected to be connected in these areas. The ERM is solved using two methodologies: the adaptation of a deterministic technique proposed in a previous work, and the adaptation of the Simulated Annealing (SA) technique. With the purpose of improving the SA performance for this case, three heuristics are additionally proposed, taking advantage on the particularities and specificities of an ERM with these characteristics. A set of case studies are presented in this thesis, considering a 32 bus distribution network and up to 3000 EVs. The first case study solves the scheduling without considering EVs, to be used as a reference case for comparisons with the proposed approaches. The second case study evaluates the complexity of the ERM with the integration of EVs. The third case study evaluates the performance of scheduling with different control modes for EVs. These control modes, combined with the proposed SA approach and with the developed heuristics, aim at improving the quality of the ERM, while reducing drastically its execution time. The proposed control modes are: uncoordinated charging, smart charging and V2G capability. The fourth and final case study presents the ERM approach applied to consecutive days.

Distributed generation producers' reserve management

Sustainable development concerns are being addressed with increasing attention, in general, and in the scope of power industry, in particular. The use of distributed generation (DG), mainly based on renewable sources, has been seen as an interesting approach to this problem. However, the increasing of DG in power systems raises some complex technical and economic issues. This paper presents ViProd, a simulation tool that allows modeling and simulating DG operation and participation in electricity markets. This paper mainly focuses on the operation of Virtual Power Producers (VPP) which are producers’ aggregations, being these producers mainly of DG type. The paper presents several reserve management strategies implemented in the scope of ViProd and the results of a case study, based on real data.

Entrepreneurship Strategies in a Portuguese and in a Polish Region

In the present paper we will consider strategies of innovation, risk and proactivity as entre/ intrapreneurship strategies. This study was done in a Portuguese and in a Polish region. In Portugal the region was Vale do Sousa, located in the northern Portugal. The Polish region was Lublin Voivodeship and it is situated in the south-eastern part of the country. The study focused on Industrial and Construction sectors. In order to get a valid sample, a group of 251 firms were analysed in Portugal, and 215 in Poland. However, the minimum sample size in Poland should be 323. Since this is a work in progress, we are aiming for this number of questionnaires. Each strategy was analysed individually for both regions and the results pointed to a lack of culture of entrepreneurship in firms’ management. Only Proactivity presented a positive result in firms’ management. Polish firms tend to be more innovative and more risk takers, while in proactivity Portuguese ones present a slightly higher result. Combining the strategy results, it was possible to identify that 61.2% of Portuguese firms present a low level of entrepreneurship, while 60% of Polish firms present a moderate level. Considering intrapreneurship good levels, while Portugal account for 5.2% this figure is 19.1% in Poland.

Auto-regulação na gestão de conflitos em retalho

Mestrado em Engenharia Informática

Welcome to the new world disorder: conflict and transformation in Ian McEwan’s saturday

Ian McEwan‘s novel Saturday deals with the complex issues of conflict and transformation in the age of terrorism. The plot presents one internal dilemma and several interpersonal altercations that occur within a mere twenty-four hours: a) Perowne (the protagonist) vs. himself, in face of his ambivalent thoughts regarding British military participation in the war in the Middle East; b) The protagonist vs. Baxter, a ruffian from East End, in the context of a car accident; c) Perowne vs. a fellow anaesthetist, Jay Strauss, during a squash game; d) Perowne‘s daughter, Daisy vs. her grandfather, John Grammaticus, both poets and rivals; e) Perowne‘s family vs. Baxter, who intrudes the protagonist‘s house. In this paper, I exemplify, analyse and discuss how: a) Understanding the causes of what we call evil constitutes an important step towards mutual understanding; b) Both science and arts (which Perowne considers, at first, irrelevant) are important elements in the process of transformation; c) Both personal and interpersonal conflicts are intrinsic to human nature — but they also propitiate healthy changes in behaviour and opinion, through reflection. In order to do so, I resort to Saturday, and to the work of several specialists in the field of conflict management.

Knowledge management in multinational companies: the repatriates’ role in the competitive advantage in subsidiaries

This paper addresses the topic of knowledge management in multinational companies (MNCs). Its purpose is to examine the role of expatriates in knowledge acquisition and transfer within MNCs. Specifically it focuses on knowledge acquisition and transfer from one MNC head office located in Germany to two Portuguese subsidiaries as a basis for competitive advantage in their Portuguese subsidiaries. A qualitative research methodology is used, specifically through an exploratory case study approach, which examines how international assignments are important for the role of expatriates In knowledge acquisition and transfer between foreign head offices and their Portuguese subsidiaries. The data were collected through semi structured interviews to 10 Portuguese repatriates from two Portuguese subsidiaries of one foreign MNC. The findings suggest that the reasons that lead to expatriating employees from Portuguese subsidiaries to foreign head offices are connected to (1) knowledge management strategies to development the subsidiary’s performance; (2) new skills and knowledge acquisition by future team leaders and business/product managers in Portuguese subsidiaries; (3) procuring knowledge, from agents in head office, to be disseminated amongst co-workers in Portuguese subsidiaries; (4) acquiring global management skills, impossible to acquire locally and; (5) developing global projects within MNC. Also our results show that knowledge acquisition and transfer from foreign head office, through subsidiaries’ expatriates, contributes directly to the Portuguese subsidiaries’ innovation, improved performance, competitive advantage and growth in the economic sectors in which they operate. Moreover, evidence reveals that expatriation is seen as a strategy to fulfil some of the main organisational objectives through their expatriates (e.g., create new products and business markets, develop and incorporate new organisational techniques and processes, integrate global teams within multinational corporation with a responsibility on the definition of global objectives). The results obtained suggest that expatriates have a central role in acquiring and transferring strategic knowledge from MNC head office to their subsidiaries located in Portugal. Based on the findings, the paper discusses in detail the main theoretical and managerial implications. Suggestions for further research are also presented. The study’s main limitation is the small size of the sample, but its findings and methodology are quite original and significant.

Entre a oposição e a negociação : Um projeto de investigação-ação sobre o papel do adulto na prevenção e mediação de conflitos entre pares na infância

Esta investigação surgiu da identificação de dificuldades ao nível da interação e gestão de conflitos entre pares, que a investigadora teve a oportunidade de observar no grupo de crianças com quem desenvolvia a sua prática educativa. Este estudo tem como objetivo compreender de que forma a transformação da praxis do educador influencia os processos de prevenção e a mediação dos conflitos entre pares no jardim-de-infância. Tendo em conta as formas e as características das relações entre pares na infância bem como o desenvolvimento moral das crianças em idade préescolar, a investigadora levou a cabo um projeto de investigação-ação com um grupo de vinte e quatro crianças de cinco anos. Ao longo do projeto, a investigadora procurou conhecer e experimentar estratégias de prevenção e mediação de conflitos interpares, monitorizando esse processo através da reflexão sobre a ação, assim como compreender os efeitos dessa experimentação no desenvolvimento profissional e na aprendizagem das crianças. Os processos do projeto são apresentados através de uma descrição densa dos eixos centrais da ação: construção do quadro de regras, organização do tempo e do grupo, organização do espaço e dos materiais, experimentação de instrumentos de pilotagem, reunião de grande grupo e estratégias de resolução de conflitos. Os dados apresentados resultam da interpretação das categorias emergentes da análise das entrevistas e das notas de campo. Através dessa interpretação, foi possível constatar os efeitos positivos do projeto, não apenas ao nível das competências de escuta e de negociação das crianças, mas também para a prática profissional da investigadora, que desenvolveu competências de reflexão e de autossupervisão.