Organizational and accounting change within the context of the environmental agenda: evidence from Portugal

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of organizational change undergone by a large Portuguese business group within the context of the environmental agenda and the role of accounting as a mechanism for change. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports the results of a case study conducted between 2006 and 2009. Information was obtained from semi-structured interviews and secondary sources. Organizational changes were analyzed using Laughlin’s model in order to identify which category reflected most of the changes introduced to address environmental matters. Findings – This paper offers evidence that change is not a homogeneous phenomenon. Additionally, it confirms previous studies’ findings which found that accounting did not play a significant role in the process of organizational change within the context of the environmental agenda. Originality/value – This paper seeks to complement the research in this area by integrating observations from a case study into an existing model of levels of organizational change according to how a Portuguese business group incorporated environmental issues into its processes, policies and corporate culture.

Planning Considerations for Tourism in the Minho-Lima Region (Northwest Portugal)

In administering their territories, most local municipalities aim to preserve their natural, historical and ethnographical resources while simultaneously using them to increase revenue and employment. In order to efficiently promote the products and services available and attract tourists, decision makers, private and public, need to know and incorporate tourists’ preferences in their marketing strategies. In this chapter we illustrate the use of stated preferences as an instrument to identify national and foreign tourists’ preferences regarding the products and services that the touristic destination of the Minho-Lima region (Northwest Portugal) should offer. As a starting point, we have taken the three general groups of touristic resources mentioned above as attributes. We take Ponte de Lima, a municipality in this region that has a strong cultural tourism potential as an example to identify possible future tourism scenarios for this territory. We believe the previously identified methodology can be a valuable instrument in the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the selected territory and, thus, support the decision making process behind its future tourist development and marketing strategies.

The strategic management of creation process and of change: a theoretical contribute from the perspective of tourism

The entrepreneurship and innovation have been gradually gaining ground in the academic community as a field of study. However, the interpretations surrounding fragmented, without a univocal definition. In last decades, tourism has received greater attention from researchers in various sciences, varying only by the different emphases considered: economic, social, cultural and environmental. As other emerging sectors in a modern economy, tourism is a dynamic and ever-changing industry. The study has as purpose to provide a better understanding regarding the essence of entrepreneurship: theoretical and practical implications from the perspective of tourism. Regarding the methodology used here, this is a conceptual paper with a literature review that brings together the major components of entrepreneurship and its implications tourist perspective and conceptual model of the dynamic nature of the Triggering Process and innovation (e.g. iTravey, Interactive Stores, Tourist Transportable Tower).

Linking customer satisfaction, quality, and strategic planning

By acknowledging and dissecting the interconnected roles of customer satisfaction, quality, and strategic planning, this paper provides an analytical framework for creating a customer-driven organization and culture. It shows how quality starts and ends with the customer. Companies that are achieving long-term continuous improvement in quality tailored to customer satisfaction possess lasting characteristics such as customer orientation, customer consciousness, and customer responsiveness. In doing so, they liberate the quality concept from the narrow product or service focus to encompass total conformance to customer requirements in spite of the existing functionalization and departmentalization of modern complex structures. In addition to these key components, a customer-driven organization demands building and nurturing a customer satisfaction culture and value system that makes quality improvement and heightened concern for customer satisfaction a permanent aspect of organizational life.

MICROFINANCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS: THE CASE OF AGROAMIGO IN BRAZIL

ABSTRACTThis paper reports an empirical case study on the interface between microfinance and climate change actions. Climate change, which until recently seemed a luxury for the microfinance sector, now appears to be crucial for its future. For their low adaptive capacity, the millions of microfinance clients worldwide happen to be the most vulnerable to a changing climate. However, such an arena is still blurred from an academic viewpoint, and inexistent among Brazilian academia. Therefore, by investigating Brazil’s largest rural MFI, Agroamigo, we aim at providing an empirical contribution to green microfinance. The main conclusion is that, albeit Agroamigo offers important links to climate change initiatives, it will need to take better account of specific vulnerabilities and risks to protect its portfolio and clients better from climate change impacts.