Vila Galé: International expansion to Mozambique

The purpose of this project is to understand the outcomes of the implementation of 4 star city hotel from the Vila Galé brand in Maputo, Mozambique, and the conditions under which such project would be financially worthy. Both the tourism market in Mozambique and the Vila Galé Hotels company were studied, aligned with a projection of the operational results. The conclusions allow to infer that this is a project aligned with the overall company strategy and that the sector’s growth prospects in Mozambique would allow to achieve positive results that encourage Vila Galé to invest.

Correlates of intergenerational mobility and political violence

This work project aims at exploring the role of intergenerational immobility in political violence. A cross-country macro-level analysis is done where no significant results are found. Additionally, an individual micro-level analysis is done where intergenerational mobility (measured through a proxy variable) has a negative significant effect in political violence

International market selection of Carrefour

Carrefour has been internationalizing into many countries and would like to continue growing. This study focuses on the potential future international market selection of Car-refour, comparing countries from the EU and South America, in a quantitative and qual-itative analysis. The purpose of the project is to help Carrefour to find the right market and the right mode to entry. Through semi-structured interviews and a literature research we found out that Sweden has the highest potential to entry with a Venture (Marketing), followed by Austria

Competition effects from patient mobility in the European Union

This paper studies the effects of reimbursement for medical tourism within the European Union. We use a spatial competition framework to study the effects on prices, qualities and patient flows between two countries. Patient mobility increases with the implementation of reimbursement mechanisms. The resulting equilibria in prices and qualities depend on the rule of reimbursements and possible differences in country specific parameters. Soft budget constraints that public providers may have, pose a competitive advantage over private providers and divert demand toward the former. Supranational coordination concerning soft budgets constraints is needed to address the potentially detrimental effects on aggregate welfar

Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a tool for analysis of the effect of physical therapy on spasticity in HAM/TSP patients

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to evaluate spasticity in human T-lymphotropic virus type 1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) patients before and after physical therapy using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). METHODS: Nine subjects underwent physical therapy. Spasticity was evaluated using the Modified Ashworth Scale. The obtained scores were converted into ICF body functions scores. RESULTS: The majority of subjects had a high degree of spasticity in the quadriceps muscles. According to the ICF codes, the spasticity decreased after 20 sessions of physical therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The ICF was effective in evaluating spasticity in HAM/TSP patients.

Lisbon Street Art & Urban Creativity. 2014 International Conference

Disponível para consulta - índice e introdução.

O espaço das informações no combate ao terrorismo

The management of terrorism presents an added importance because of the ignorance and uncertainty that this threat to peace launches in societies. From the globalization process has resulted a capacity of mobility and communication which allowed the spread of terrorism globally and hence the ability to be in the international agenda. Thus it became necessary a synergy between the main international organizations and states, in the common interest of managing terrorism to acceptable levels. This thesis aims to assess how much space is reserved for intelligence on combating terrorism. To this end, it carried out a literature review related to intelligence, security and terrorism, such as legislation and official documents, national and international. These allowed realize the strategies for combating terrorism of major international organizations and the Portuguese, the institutions that are in charge of fighting terrorism and related crimes, highlighting the intelligence institutions within the European Union and Portugal. Intelligence should enter on this panel by the need to meet the threat and its contours. On the one hand lies to understand the framework which establishes terrorism, tracing relevant scenarios to reduce uncertainty in decision-making and, on the other hand, also be responsible for disseminating information to other stakeholders on security, allowing its commands to use the means efficiently.

Historic and potential technology transition paths of grid battery storage: Co-evolution of energy grid, electric mobility and batteries

Scarcity of fuels, changes in environmental policy and in society increased the interest in generating electric energy from renewable energy sources (RES) for a sustainable energy supply in the future. The main problem of RES as solar and wind energy, which represent a main pillar of this transition, is that they cannot supply constant power output. This results inter alia in an increased demand of backup technologies as batteries to assure electricity system safety. The diffusion of energy storage technologies is highly dependent on the energy system and transport transition pathways which might lead to a replacement or reconfiguration of embedded socio-technical practices and regimes (by creating new standards or dominant designs, changing regulations, infrastructure and user patterns). The success of this technology is dependent on hardly predictable future technical advances, actor preferences, development of competing technologies and designs, diverging interests of actors, future cost efficiencies, environmental performance, the evolution of market demand and design and evolution of our society.

International placement analysis of the German business market for a Nova Achool of Business and Economics graduate student

Changes in today’s society led to the evolution of professional migrations and individual searches for more suitable professional opportunities and careers outside one’s countries. International Placement is nowadays one of the world’s biggest trends in higher education for the future ahead and an appealing demand of the Millennium generations. The following work project aims to study the German business market identifying the most attractive German companies and respective graduate programs for a Nova School of Business and Economics graduate student. The study’s conclusion relies on concrete strategic suggestions regarding the implementation of the results and practical use of the outcome provided.

A proactive approach o XY international expansion

This work project was conducted under a Direct Research internship (DRI) that consists on an individual dissertation established on a given organization. DRI has a problem solving format to an empirical question to be addressed, «Which country has the highest potential for the next step of XY internationalization process? ». In order to achieve the project’s purpose, it was conducted a scanning process using a top-down approach over an initial list of nine countries given by XY. To do so it was developed an international scanning framework based on different domains and weights that allowed to achieve the top two countries with highest potential. After an in depth analysis over the final set, it was recommended Switzerland as the best country to make the next step of XY internationalization in Europe.

International partner selection Indian technical textile market

Due to a combination of a vast agricultural industry and a tremendously growing technical textile industry, Ludvig Svensson identified India as target market for possible expansion through domestic production and supply. However, Svensson needed additional information about the industry structure and key players. Therefore, this project focused on a detailed analysis of the technical textile market and its players by following the international partner selection process. Thereby, five key players were identified as potential partners, as well as the need for additional research to determine alternative entry modes, as the market does not currently seem to be receptive for Svensson products.

How do global born companies ignite their internationalization and survive in international markets?

Over the last decades, the born global firms or the international new ventures (“INVs”) have assumed a growing role in international business, including in Portugal. The rise of this new type of multinational has challenged several theories concerning the development of multinational companies and the origin of companies’ competitive advantage. This qualitative, case-based research explores the most relevant traits shown by some Portuguese born-global firms. More concretely, the aim of this work is to compare some Portuguese international new ventures in order to understand the role of leadership, culture and strategy in their rapid internationalization and the source of their lasting competitive advantage. It was noticed that these firms’ lasting competitive advantage results from a singular combination of resources and dynamic capabilities that evolves over time. Moreover, it was found that these firms’ foreign subsidiaries and local networks may be essential to enhance the firms competitive advantage as it provides each firm a distinctive source of knowledge and capabilities. As a consequence, the effective assimilation of such resources and capabilities in these firms’ may become crucial for their lasting success. In addition, the leadership, strategy and culture in these firms seem to be quite aligned and form a quite virtuous cycle that contributed to the firms rapid internationalization and for the way the firms developed their own resources and dynamic capabilities and adapted to external environment.

How to improve urban mobility in Lisbon: intermodality and information and ticketing systems

Urban mobility is one of the main challenges facing urban areas due to the growing population and to traffic congestion, resulting in environmental pressures. The pathway to urban sustainable mobility involves strengthening of intermodal mobility. The integrated use of different transport modes is getting more and more important and intermodality has been mentioned as a way for public transport compete with private cars. The aim of the current dissertation is to define a set of strategies to improve urban mobility in Lisbon and by consequence reduce the environmental impacts of transports. In order to do that several intermodal practices over Europe were analysed and the transport systems of Brussels and Lisbon were studied and compared, giving special attention to intermodal systems. In the case study was gathered data from both cities in the field, by using and observing the different transport modes, and two surveys were done to the cities users. As concluded by the study, Brussels and Lisbon present significant differences. In Brussels the measures to promote intermodality are evident, while in Lisbon a lot still needs to be done. It also made clear the necessity for improvements in Lisbon’s public transports to a more intermodal passenger transport system, through integration of different transport modes and better information and ticketing system. Some of the points requiring developments are: interchanges’ waiting areas; integration of bicycle in public transport; information about correspondences with other transport modes; real-time information to passengers pre-trip and on-trip, especially in buses and trams. After the identification of the best practices in Brussels and the weaknesses in Lisbon the possibility of applying some of the practices in Brussels to Lisbon was evaluated. Brussels demonstrated to be a good example of intermodality and for that reason some of the recommendations to improve intermodal mobility in Lisbon can follow the practices in place in Brussels.

WOS 8th international conference - Book of Abstracts

Proceedings book of the WOS 8th international conference - Book of Abstracts Edited by WOS2015 - University of Minho Includes biographical references and index.