The eager fight for supremacy in the online service industry: a comparative study of M&A activities: case studies of Apple, Google and Microsoft

A indústria de serviços online é caracterizada por um volume alto de Fusões e Aquisições no período de 2005 a 2015. As líderes de mercado, Apple, Google e Microsoft, incorporaram essa forma de crescimento inorgânico em suas estratégias corporativas. Essa tese examina as atividades de Fusões e Aquisições dessas três empresas. Consequentemente, ela tem foco em dois aspectos principais. Primeiro, existe o objetivo de saciar uma escassez na literatura acadêmica, no que se diz respeito ao estabelecimento de uma conexão entre a estratégia corporativa dessas empresas e as decisões tomadas de Fusões e Aquisições. Segundo, há também o objetivo de estimar possíveis futuros desenvolvimentos no setor. Através de uma análise de conteúdo qualitativa das publicações das empresas, relatórios de análise de mercado, e outros conteúdos de terceiros, estudos de caso foram desenvolvidos. Os resultados mostram o processo de posicionamento estratégico por parte da Apple, Google e Microsoft, dentro do mercado de serviços online, entre os anos de 2005 e 2015. As recorrentes fusões e aquisições são analisadas, no que se diz respeito as estratégias corporativas dessas empresas e a responsividade perante as atividades de seus competidores. Os resultados evidenciam atividades agressivas de Fusões e Aquisições em grupos estratégicos em comum entre as três empresas, especialmente no mercado de aparelhos de comunicação móvel e serviços de comunicação.

In cash we trust: cash holdings in the brazilian equity fund industry

We study cash allocation ability as a possible explanatory factor that allows equity fund managers to produce high levels of adjusted returns (not explained by the risk factors they are exposed to). In order to do so, we explore the non-indexed Brazilian equity fund industry during the period of January 2006 to February 2015, evaluating cash allocation ability by level and effectiveness of cash deployment using return-based and holding-based approaches to explore a database of monthly invested assets and returns. We found that even though market timing is a rare skill in the industry, the flexibility to hold high levels of cash played a significant role in the result of over performing managers.

Cyber-security, privacy and trust: trends in the Latin American and Caribbean region and the way forward

Este artigo é parte do relatório Cybersecurity Are We Ready in Latin America and the Caribbean?

An analysis of the perceived service quality of hospitality industry in Rio de Janeiro through the SERVQUAL model: a multiple case study

Brazil is under political and financial crises where the end seems far away. Because of that, researchers argue that the hotel rooms offered by Rio de Janeiro, built to host the Olympic Games 2016, will be difficult to occupy after the event. It is then necessary for the hotels to understand how guests perceive the service quality in order to adapt to this new era. If guests’ perceptions meet or exceed their expectations, they will be satisfied and will probably return. Thus based on the SERVQUAL approach, this paper aims to study the impact of the service dimensions on the guests’ overall satisfaction at hotels of Rio de Janeiro. Two hotels were considered representative of the city in terms of service quality and customers’ profile. Interviews to the hotel managers were performed, and questionnaires to the guests were administered. Among the five SERVQUAL dimensions – Reliability, Tangibles, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy – the Empathy dimension appears to be the only one that affects the guests’ overall satisfaction. The study could also identify that gender, country of residence, home country and family income have an impact on guests’ satisfaction. This study has no intention of generalization, but rather of refining the theory about services and the SERVQUAL model.