INTERNATIONALIZATION OF BRAZILIAN FRANCHISE CHAINS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

The primary goal of this paper is to comprehend the fundamental organizational differences between Brazilian franchise chains that only operate in the home market and Brazilian franchise chains that operate internationally. The sample chosen for this study comprehends 96 Brazilian franchises operating in the home market and 67 franchises with international operations; logistic regression was used to analyze data obtained from these sources. Our findings suggest that the development of a brand in international operations can be strategic for certain Brazilian franchise chains; this seems to be, however, a scarce resource for many franchises and it could be developed through international operations. With regard to the fees charged, the outcomes demonstrate that Brazilian franchises with international operations tend to charge lower fees from its franchisees to install new units. Regarding the monitoring and control of franchises, there is evidence that the monitoring capability is one of the determining factors in the development of Brazilian franchises international operations.

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.

International Summer School of Museology

Cadernos de Sociomuseologia Centro de Estudos de Sociomuseologia

Climate strategies of firms in the automotive and pulp & paper industries in Brazil: insights from an international perspective

This article focuses on the results of the final stage of research into the climate strategies of firms in the automotive and pulp-and-paper industries in Brazil, a country that is becoming increasingly important also in terms of climate change issues. In the first stage, the Climate Strategy Model (CSM) was developed to assess whether firms were adopting the necessary practices to assure the successful implementation of climate strategies. In the second, the CSM was applied to firms in the above mentioned industries that were chosen because of their important role in the domestic economy. In the final stage, interviews with executives of these firms were conducted to identify root causes of climate strategy implementation deficiencies and obtain new insights from an international perspective.

The convergence of the Central American countries to International Accounting Standards

Abstract: In the last few decades, Central American countries are making a significant effort in order to modernize their governments' legislation both on financial management and systems of financial information. In this sense, these countries aim to enhance the quality of public financial information in order to improve decision-making processes, decrease the level of corruption, and keep citizens informed. In this context, the purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to assess the degree of similarity of the financial information that is being developed by Central American governments with regard to the recommendations set up by Ipsas, and secondly, to analyse the efforts and the strategies that those countries are carrying out in the process of implementing those standards. To determine the differences in the information containing the annual financial statements issued by national public authorities and the recommendations set up by Ipsas we conducted a deductive content analysis. In view of the results we can say that the quality of annual financial statements presented by the countries in Central America, in comparison to the recommendations by the Ipsas concerning Ifac information, is not enough. Hence, in order to operate significant changes, it is still necessary to create new strategies for the implementation of the Ipsas.

The portuguese insurance industry: basis for strategic process decision

Nowadays, the Portuguese insurance industry operates in a market with a much more aggressive structure than a few decades ago. Markets and the economy have become globalised since the last decade of the 20th century. Market forces have gradually shifted – power is now mainly on the demand side. In order to meet the new requirements, the insurance industry must develop a strong strategic ability to respond to constant changes of the new international economic order.One of the basic aspects of this strategic development will focus on the ability to predict the future. We introduce the subject by briefly describing the sector, its organisational structure in the Portuguese market, and challenges arising from the development of the European Union. We then analyse the economic and financial structure of the sector. From this point of view, we aim at the possibility of designing models that could explain the demand for insurance, claims and technical reserves evolution. Such models, (even if based on the past), would resolve, at least partly, one of the greatest difficulties experienced by insurance companies when estimating the budget. Thus, we examine the existence of variables that explain the previous points, which are capable of forming a basis for designing models that are simple but efficient, and can be used for strategic planning.

(Virtual) Agents for running electricity markets

This paper describes a multi-agent based simulation (MABS) framework to construct an artificial electric power market populated with learning agents. The artificial market, named TEMMAS (The Electricity Market Multi-Agent Simulator), explores the integration of two design constructs: (i) the specification of the environmental physical market properties and (ii) the specification of the decision-making (deliberative) and reactive agents. TEMMAS is materialized in an experimental setup involving distinct power generator companies that operate in the market and search for the trading strategies that best exploit their generating units' resources. The experimental results show a coherent market behavior that emerges from the overall simulated environment.

Microscopic analysis of "prato", "mussarela" and "mineiro" cheese sold in street markets of the City of S. Paulo, Southeastern Brazil

INTRODUCTION: Cheese should be produced from ingredients of good quality and processed under hygienic conditions. Further, cheese should be transported, stored and sold in an appropriate manner in order to avoid, among other things, the incorporation of extraneous materials (filth) of biological origin or otherwise, in contravention of the relevant food legislation. The aim of the study was to evaluate the hygienic conditions of "prato", "mussarela", and "mineiro" cheeses sold at the street food markets in the city of S. Paulo, Brazil. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Forty-seven samples of each of the three types of cheese were collected during the period from March, 1993 to February, 1994. The Latin square was used as a statistical model for sampling and random selection of the street markets from which to collect the cheese samples. The samples were analysed for the presence of extraneous matters outside for which purpose the samples were washed and filtered and inside, for which the methodology of enzymathic digestion of the sample with pancreatine, followed by filtering,was used. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Of the 141 samples analysed, 75.9% exhibited at least one sort of extraneous matters. For the "prato" and "mussarela" cheeses, the high number of contaminated samples was due mainly to extraneous matters present inside the cheese, whereas in the "mineiro" cheese, besides the internal filth, 100% of the samples had external filth.

Good deals in markets with frictions

This paper studies a portfolio choice problem such that the pricing rule may incorporate transaction costs and the risk measure is coherent and expectation bounded. We will prove the necessity of dealing with pricing rules such that there exists an essentially bounded stochastic discount factor, which must be also bounded from below by a strictly positive value. Otherwise good deals will be available to traders, i.e., depending on the selected risk measure, investors can build portfolios whose (risk, return) will be as close as desired to (−infinity, infinity) or (0, infinity). This pathologic property still holds for vector risk measures (i.e., if we minimize a vector valued function whose components are risk measures). It is worthwhile to point out that essentially bounded stochastic discount factors are not usual in financial literature. In particular, the most famous frictionless, complete and arbitrage free pricing models imply the existence of good deals for every coherent and expectation bounded (scalar or vector) measure of risk, and the incorporation of transaction costs will not guarantee the solution of this caveat.

Pricing intraday dynamics across EUAS and CERS markets

The relative contribution of European Union Allowances (EUAs) and Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) to the price discovery of their common true value has been empirically studied using daily data with inconclusive results. In this paper, we study the short-run and long-run price dynamics between EUAs and CERs future contracts using intraday data. We report a bidirectional feedback causality relationship both in the short-run and in the long-run, with the EUA's market being the leader.

Estratégia de internacionalização das empresas competências na exportação e enquadramento no direito aduaneiro

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Empreendedorismo e Internacionalização

Internacionalização do vinho do Porto – estudo de caso Grupo Sogevinus

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Empreendedorismo e Internacionalização Orientada por Professor Doutor José Freitas Santos

NCRF 9 – locações: implicações fiscais e de auditoria

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Auditoria ORIENTAÇÃO: DR. JOÃO COSTA

Construção de vantagens competitivas nas estratégias de internacionalização: estudo do caso da EFACEC

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Politécnico do Porto para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Gestão das Organizações, Ramo de Gestão de Empresas Orientador: Professor Doutor Orlando Manuel Martins Marques de Lima Rua