Online strategies for offline business the case of Millennials and shopping centrs (Sonae Sierra)

The project, conducted within a direct research internship at Sonae Sierra, aims to propose innovative digital approaches for Shopping Centres (SC) to deal successfully with millennial consumer behavior concerning digital devices and online content in relation to shopping. An online survey followed by a focus group were conducted for this purpose. Results show a demand for specific digital services created by a SC and that their perception depends highly on gender of millennials. Moreover it´s a cohort seeking for personalized content, providing emotional or functional benefit. Consequently a SC must deliver services, as presented in this work satisfying those needs.

The Portuguese offline consumer behaviour

Even though much attention has been paid to online consumer behavior, academic studies are deficient in comprehending offline consumer behavior. This study offers a survey of reflections concerning the Portuguese offline consumer behavior by observing how Portuguese adult consumers engage, embrace and act throughout the offline world, i.e., the offline media channels and the customer decision-making process at a store in regard of digital nativity, education and gender. Drawing on an online questionnaire and using a convenience sample of 471 respondents, data was analyzed using descriptive analysis and independent sample t-test analysis. The results observed indicate Portuguese consumers prefer calling or going to a store when they have an operational problem, value the credit card security at a store and that Portuguese females highly value touching and feeling the product at a store. Finally, implications for academics and marketeers are discussed.

Marcas, literacia mediática e expressões de identidade dos pré-adolescentes

Tese apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Ciências da Comunicação - Estudos dos Media e Jornalismo

Crimes contra a Honra na Internet

No meio jornalístico, a Internet veio estabelecer uma nova plataforma de informação, que atingiu os meios de comunicação e proliferou a forma como o cidadão comum pode obter informação. Através da Internet, podemos exercer o nosso direito de liberdade de expressão e informação (artigo 37.º da Constituição da República Portuguesa) em toda a sua plenitude. No entanto, este advento trouxe com ele novos meios para praticar crimes. A pessoa que escreve, publica ou vê algo através da Internet pode cometer um crime contra a honra, punido pelo Código Penal. Destes crimes fazem parte a difamação, o crime mais importante na Comunicação Social, a injúria ou a calúnia: a Internet é uma ferramenta facilitadora de atentar contra a honra da pessoa humana, um direito inerente à nossa simples existência. Na Internet o crime é muitas vezes motivado pela ideia de que o dispositivo informático permite esconder o autor, o que não acontece nos meios de comunicação dito tradicionais. Não obstante, a Internet é um meio de conservação de identidades muito poderoso. A pegada informática nunca é definitivamente apagada e, ainda que tendo a necessidade de ultrapassar alguns constrangimentos jurídicos, existe sempre a possibilidade de identificar os autores dos crimes. Os crimes praticados no mundo online já são, em Portugal, legislados offline. Esta mesma legislação pode ser aplicada a estes “novos” crimes, não sendo necessário uma regulação urgente para que este tipo de crimes seja punido. O que tem que existir é uma permanente observação, na medida em que os crimes contra a honra praticados online atingem um número inqualificável de pessoas e propagam-se a um ritmo avassalador.

Use of multi-sensory marketing techniques and its influence on brand experience in retail and HORECA sector

Double degree. A Work Project presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA- School of Business and Economics and Warsaw School of Economics

Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates from oil-containing substrates

Different oil-containing substrates, namely, used cooking oil (UCO), fatty acids-byproduct from biodiesel production (FAB) and olive oil deodorizer distillate (OODD) were tested as inexpensive carbon sources for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) using twelve bacterial strains, in batch experiments. The OODD and FAB were exploited for the first time as alternative substrates for PHA production. Among the tested bacterial strains, Cupriavidus necator and Pseudomonas resinovorans exhibited the most promising results, producing poly-3-hydroxybutyrate, P(3HB), form UCO and OODD and mcl-PHA mainly composed of 3-hydroxyoctanoate (3HO) and 3-hydroxydecanoate (3HD) monomers from OODD, respectively. Afterwards, these bacterial strains were cultivated in bioreactor. C. necator were cultivated in bioreactor using UCO as carbon source. Different feeding strategies were tested for the bioreactor cultivation of C. necator, namely, batch, exponential feeding and DO-stat mode. The highest overall PHA productivity (12.6±0.78 g L-1 day-1) was obtained using DO-stat mode. Apparently, the different feeding regimes had no impact on polymer thermal properties. However, differences in polymer‟s molecular mass distribution were observed. C. necator was also tested in batch and fed-batch modes using a different type of oil-containing substrate, extracted from spent coffee grounds (SCG) by super critical carbon dioxide (sc-CO2). Under fed-batch mode (DO-stat), the overall PHA productivity were 4.7 g L-1 day-1 with a storage yield of 0.77 g g-1. Results showed that SCG can be a bioresource for production of PHA with interesting properties. Furthermore, P. resinovorans was cultivated using OODD as substrate in bioreactor under fed-batch mode (pulse feeding regime). The polymer was highly amorphous, as shown by its low crystallinity of 6±0.2%, with low melting and glass transition temperatures of 36±1.2 and -16±0.8 ºC, respectively. Due to its sticky behavior at room temperature, adhesiveness and mechanical properties were also studied. Its shear bond strength for wood (67±9.4 kPa) and glass (65±7.3 kPa) suggests it may be used for the development of biobased glues. Bioreactor operation and monitoring with oil-containing substrates is very challenging, since this substrate is water immiscible. Thus, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) was implemented for online monitoring of the C. necator cultivation with UCO, using a transflectance probe. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was applied to relate NIR spectra with biomass, UCO and PHA concentrations in the broth. The NIR predictions were compared with values obtained by offline reference methods. Prediction errors to these parameters were 1.18 g L-1, 2.37 g L-1 and 1.58 g L-1 for biomass, UCO and PHA, respectively, which indicates the suitability of the NIR spectroscopy method for online monitoring and as a method to assist bioreactor control. UCO and OODD are low cost substrates with potential to be used in PHA batch and fed-batch production. The use of NIR in this bioprocess also opened an opportunity for optimization and control of PHA production process.