Is the International Business Environment the actual context for international business research?

The International Business Environment (IBE) has been argued to be the essential context for international business (IB) studies and the distinguishing factor from other management studies and studies of large enterprises. Two content analysis show that many papers published in top tier IB journals either lack reference to any dimension of the IBE or tend to be uni-or bi-dimensional when addressing the IBE; it is not a surprise that the cultural dimension is the most often used. We suggest that: (a) there is need to developed more uni-and multi-dimensional environmental constructs; (b) a more holistic view of the IBE provides richer insights on the actual complexity underlying IB research. Future studies that provide more comprehensive models of the IBE that overcome the usual broad classifications of the international environment as undefined and uncontrollable factors are warranted to advance conceptual and empirical research.

Knowledge cities: a taxonomy for analyzing software and information service clusters

Software and information services (SIS) have become a field of increasing opportunities for international trade due to the worldwide diffusion of a combination of technological and organizational innovations. In several regions, the software industry is organized in clusters, usually referred to as "knowledge cities" because of the growing importance of knowledge-intensive services in their economy. This paper has two primary objectives. First, it raises three major questions related to the attractiveness of different cities in Argentina and Brazil for hosting software companies and to their impact on local development. Second, a new taxonomy is proposed for grouping clusters according to their dominant business segment, ownership pattern and scope of operations. The purpose of this taxonomy is to encourage further studies and provide an exploratory analytical tool for analyzing software clusters.

SOCIAL BUSINESS DILEMMAS IN BRAZIL: REDE ASTACASE

ABSTRACTSocial businesses seek financial, social and even environmental results. Academic knowledge on how such organizations operate, however, has emerged more recently. This article sought to investigate qualitatively the main tensions and dilemmas occurring throughout the history of Rede Asta, a pioneer social business in direct catalog sales of artisanal products in Brazil. Results indicate the Rede Asta managers have experienced tensions and dilemmas in three of the four categories identified by Smith, Gonin, and Besharov (2013): social and financial performance, organizational aspects and learning. One of the dilemmas involves organizational aspects and learning, since Asta achieves feasibility with two organizations: a nonprofit association and a for-profit corporation. On perceptions of belonging, stakeholders declared they felt they were a part of the organization’s social and environmental goals; some even as activists.

THE INTERNATIONAL GROWTH OF A SOCIAL BUSINESS: A CASE STUDY

ABSTRACTIn developing countries, initiatives have often been undertaken in order to fight social and environmental problems. Since the 1990s, an increase can be seen in corporate social responsibility actions, as well as increasingly strong activities by civil society organizations. Tweenty years ago, companies and civil society organizations stood wide apart from each other, with often conflicting agendas and resistance to mutual collaboration. This reality has changed significantly. Besides the phenomenon of cross-sector partnerships, we can also observe the expansion of a particular organization type, i.e., the social business, which combines two objectives that were previously seen as incompatible: financial sustainability and the generation of social value. This article aims to discuss the factors that influence the results of a social business operating in three countries: Botswana, Brazil and Jordan. The results allow understanding the challenges involved in constructing social businesses in developing countries as well as a better understanding of the very nature of those businesses, considering the social realities where they operate.

A comunicação de informações nas instituições públicas e privadas: o caso XBRL - eXtensible Business Reporting Language no Brasil

O XBRL - eXtensible Business Report Language - é uma linguagem que está sendo implementada em vários países para divulgação das informações contábil-financeiras pela internet. Este artigo mostra o estado-da-arte do XBRL e como se deu sua evolução, bem como avalia o estágio atual do Brasil na divulgação de informações contábil-financeiras pela internet. Foi realizada uma pesquisa do tipo survey com empresas de capital aberto no Brasil. A pesquisa revelou uma forte aceitação do meio eletrônico para divulgação de informações financeiras e também que ainda é muito pequeno o conhecimento da linguagem XBRL no país e, conseqüentemente, menor ainda o número de entidades que já iniciaram formalmente os estudos para sua implementação. Mostrou ainda a inexistência de um padrão de divulgação de informações eletrônicas, tendo predominado os formatos PDF, HTML e DOC, o que dificulta a análise e comparação de informações entre órgãos reguladores e com o público em geral.

Drug abuse among workers in Brazilian regions

OBJECTIVE: Many business organizations in Brazil have adopted drug testing programs in the workplace since 1992. Rehabilitation, rather than layoff and disciplinary measures, has been offered as part of the Brazilian employee assistance programs. The purpose study is to profile drug abuse among company workers of different Brazilian geographical regions. METHODS: Urine samples of 12,700 workers from five geographical regions were tested for the most common illicit drugs of abuse in the country: marijuana, cocaine, and amphetamine. Enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique (EMIT) and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were the techniques utilized for urine testing. The distribution of collected urine samples according to geographical regions was: 72.0% southeast, 13.8% northeast, 7.9% south, 5.7% central west and 0.6% north. RESULTS: Of all samples analyzed, 1.8% was found to be positive for drugs: 0.5% from the south region, 1.1% from northeast, 1.2% from central west, 1.3% from north, and 2.2% from southeast. Of these, 59.9% was marijuana, 17.7% cocaine, 14.6% amphetamine, and 7.7% associated drugs. CONCLUSIONS: The distribution of drugs found in the samples shows a regional variation. Marijuana, however, was found in all regions. Cocaine was seen only in central west and southeast regions. Amphetamine was found in northeast, central west, and southeast regions.

Knowledge, attitude and practice of mammography among women users of public health services

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice related to mammography among women users of local health services, identifying barriers to its performance. METHODS: A total of 663 women were interviewed at 13 local health centers in a city of Southeastern Brazil, in 2001. Interviewees were randomly selected at each center and they were representative from different socioeconomic conditions. The number of interviewees at each center was proportional to monthly mean appointments. For data analysis, answers were described as knowledge, attitude, practice and their respective adequacies and then they were correlated with control variables through the chi-square test. RESULTS: Only 7.4% of the interviewees had adequate knowledge on mammography, while 97.1% of women had an adequate attitude. The same was seen for the practice of mammography that was adequate in 35.7% of the cases. The main barrier to mammography was lack of referral by physicians working at the health center (81.8%). There was an association between adequacy of attitude and five years or more of education and being married. There was also an association between adequacy of mammography practice and being employed and family income up to four minimum wages. CONCLUSIONS: Women users of local health services had no adequate knowledge and practice related to mammography despite having an adequate attitude about this exam.

Direct medical costs associated with schizophrenia relapses in health care services in the city of São Paulo

OBJECTIVE: To assess direct medical costs associated with schizophrenia relapses in mental health services. METHODS: The study was conducted in three health facilities in the city of São Paulo: a public state hospital; a Brazilian National Health System (SUS)-contracted hospital; and a community mental health center. Medical records of 90 patients with schizophrenia who received care in 2006 were reviewed. Information on inpatient expenditures was collected and used for cost estimates. RESULTS: Mean direct medical cost of schizophrenia relapses per patient was US$ 4,083.50 (R$ 8,167.58) in the public state hospital; US$ 2,302.76 (R$ 4,605.46) in the community mental health center; and US$ 1,198.50 (R$ 2,397.74) in the SUS-affiliated hospital. The main component was daily inpatient room rates (87% - 98%). Medication costs varied depending on the use of typical or atypical antipsychotic drugs. Atypical antipsychotic drugs were more often used in the community mental health center. CONCLUSIONS: Costs associated with schizophrenia relapses support investments in antipsychotic drugs and strategies to reduce disease relapse and the need for mental health inpatient services. Treating patients in a community mental health center was associated with medium costs and added the benefit of not depriving these patients from family life.

Stressful working conditions and poor self-rated health among financial services employees

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between exposure to adverse psychosocial working conditions and poor self-rated health among bank employees. METHODS: A cross-sectional study including a sample of 2,054 employees of a government bank was conducted in 2008. Self-rated health was assessed by a single question: "In general, would you say your health is (...)." Exposure to adverse psychosocial working conditions was evaluated by the effort-reward imbalance model and the demand-control model. Information on other independent variables was obtained through a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed and odds ratio calculated to assess independent associations between adverse psychosocial working conditions and poor self-rated health. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of poor self-rated health was 9%, with no significant gender difference. Exposure to high demand and low control environment at work was associated with poor self-rated health. Employees with high effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment also reported poor self-rated health, with a dose-response relationship. Social support at work was inversely related to poor self-rated health, with a dose-response relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to adverse psychosocial work factors assessed based on the effort-reward imbalance model and the demand-control model is independently associated with poor self-rated health among the workers studied.

Model for the evaluation of drug-dispensing services in primary health care

OBJECTIVE To develop a model for evaluating the efficacy of drug-dispensing service in primary health care. METHODS An efficacy criterion was adopted to determine the level of achievement of the service objectives. The evaluation model was developed on the basis of a literature search and discussions with experts. The applicability test of the model was conducted in 15 primary health care units in the city of Florianópolis, state of Santa Catarina, in 2010, and data were recorded in structured and pretested questionnaires. RESULTS The model developed was evaluated using five dimensions of analysis for analysis. The model was suitable for evaluating service efficacy and helped to identify the critical points of each service dimension. CONCLUSIONS Adaptations to the data collection technique may be required to adjust for the reality and needs of each situation. The evaluation of the drug-dispensing service should promote adequate access to medications supplied through the public health system.

Socioeconomic inequalities in the access to and quality of health care services

OBJECTIVE To assess the inequalities in access, utilization, and quality of health care services according to the socioeconomic status. METHODS This population-based cross-sectional study evaluated 2,927 individuals aged ≥ 20 years living in Pelotas, RS, Southern Brazil, in 2012. The associations between socioeconomic indicators and the following outcomes were evaluated: lack of access to health services, utilization of services, waiting period (in days) for assistance, and waiting time (in hours) in lines. We used Poisson regression for the crude and adjusted analyses. RESULTS The lack of access to health services was reported by 6.5% of the individuals who sought health care. The prevalence of use of health care services in the 30 days prior to the interview was 29.3%. Of these, 26.4% waited five days or more to receive care and 32.1% waited at least an hour in lines. Approximately 50.0% of the health care services were funded through the Unified Health System. The use of health care services was similar across socioeconomic groups. The lack of access to health care services and waiting time in lines were higher among individuals of lower economic status, even after adjusting for health care needs. The waiting period to receive care was higher among those with higher socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS Although no differences were observed in the use of health care services across socioeconomic groups, inequalities were evident in the access to and quality of these services.

Determinants of the use of health care services: multilevel analysis in the Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the individual and contextual determinants of the use of health care services in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo.METHODS Data from the Sao Paulo Megacity study – the Brazilian version of the World Mental Health Survey multicenter study – were used. A total of 3,588 adults living in 69 neighborhoods in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, SP, Southeastern Brazil, including 38 municipalities and 31 neighboring districts, were selected using multistratified sampling of the non-institutionalized population. Multilevel Bayesian logistic models were adjusted to identify the individual and contextual determinants of the use of health care services in the past 12 months and presence of a regular physician for routine care.RESULTS The contextual characteristics of the place of residence (income inequality, violence, and median income) showed no significant correlation (p > 0.05) with the use of health care services or with the presence of a regular physician for routine care. The only exception was the negative correlation between living in areas with high income inequality and presence of a regular physician (OR: 0.77; 95%CI 0.60;0.99) after controlling for individual characteristics. The study revealed a strong and consistent correlation between individual characteristics (mainly education and possession of health insurance), use of health care services, and presence of a regular physician. Presence of chronic and mental illnesses was strongly correlated with the use of health care services in the past year (regardless of the individual characteristics) but not with the presence of a regular physician.CONCLUSIONS Individual characteristics including higher education and possession of health insurance were important determinants of the use of health care services in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo. A better understanding of these determinants is essential for the development of public policies that promote equitable use of health care services.