Innovation in tourism: the role of regional innovation systems

Esta tese tem como principal objetivo analisar as características, a importância e o papel da inovação territorial em turismo e o seu impacto no desenvolvimento dos destinos. Consiste num estudo multidisciplinar suportado numa exaustiva revisão da literatura sobre temas como desenvolvimento, inovação e modelos de inovação territorial. Com base nas principais conclusões de natureza conceptual, considerou-se o modelo dos sistemas regionais de inovação como o mais adequado para aplicação ao sistema turístico, e a constituição de redes como estruturas fundamentais para a sua operacionalização. A partir desta abordagem teórica, foi desenvolvido um quadro conceptual para a análise da inovação sistémica no sector do turismo. Esta abordagem permitiu a definição de um conjunto de hipóteses, as quais foram testadas através dos resultados da parte empírica da tese. Foram desenvolvidos dois estudos empíricos distintos, mas complementares nas regiões do Douro e de Aveiro. O primeiro teve como objetivo inquirir empresas turísticas, enquanto o segundo foi dirigido a instituições regionais com intervenção no sector do turismo ou na inovação. Os resultados obtidos conduziram a importantes conclusões sobre o desempenho das empresas e regiões em termos de inovação, os padrões de networking desenvolvidos no âmbito de processos de inovação, a importância do conhecimento existente nas regiões e os fatores específicos das mesmas para a inovação em turismo, a perceção das empresas turísticas sobre o ambiente de inovação e o seu contributo para a evolução e para o sucesso dos destinos turísticos. A tese recorre a uma abordagem quantitativa que inclui estatística descritiva e indutiva e ao método da análise de redes (sociometria). A combinação de métodos levou a importantes conclusões sobre a inovação em turismo, com uma focalização especial no que a relaciona com os sistemas regionais de inovação. As conclusões permitem avançar com um conjunto de implicações e sugestões para futuros projetos de investigação sobre o tema, bem como para a gestão dos destinos turísticos, uma vez que contribui para um maior e mais aprofundado conhecimento do fenómeno da inovação em turismo desenvolvida a nível regional. Os resultados demonstram que diferentes regiões apresentam sistemas regionais de inovação distintos. Assim, não existe um modelo único que possa ser aplicado indistintamente em todas as regiões. Contudo, as conclusões apontam para a existência de padrões e práticas que aperfeiçoam o seu funcionamento, aumentando o desempenho ao nível da inovação, bem como a competitividade global do destino.

U-TRACER® - the use of communication technology in higher education - an information visualization tool for the context of Portuguese public higher education

Information Visualization is gradually emerging to assist the representation and comprehension of large datasets about Higher Education Institutions, making the data more easily understood. The importance of gaining insights and knowledge regarding higher education institutions is little disputed. Within this knowledge, the emerging and urging area in need of a systematic understanding is the use of communication technologies, area that is having a transformative impact on educational practices worldwide. This study focused on the need to visually represent a dataset about how Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions are using Communication Technologies as a support to teaching and learning processes. Project TRACER identified this need, regarding the Portuguese public higher education context, and carried out a national data collection. This study was developed within project TRACER, and worked with the dataset collected in order to conceptualize an information visualization tool U-TRACER®. The main goals of this study related to: conceptualization of the information visualization tool U-TRACER®, to represent the data collected by project TRACER; understand higher education decision makers perception of usefulness regarding the tool. The goals allowed us to contextualize the phenomenon of information visualization tools regarding higher education data, realizing the existing trends. The research undertaken was of qualitative nature, and followed the method of case study with four moments of data collection.The first moment regarded the conceptualization of the U-TRACER®, with two focus group sessions with Higher Education professionals, with the aim of defining the interaction features the U-TRACER® should offer. The second data collection moment involved the proposal of the graphical displays that would represent the dataset, which reading effectiveness was tested by end-users. The third moment involved the development of a usability test to the UTRACER ® performed by higher education professionals and which resulted in the proposal of improvements to the final prototype of the tool. The fourth moment of data collection involved conducting exploratory, semi-structured interviews, to the institutional decision makers regarding their perceived usefulness of the U-TRACER®. We consider that the results of this study contribute towards two moments of reflection. The challenges of involving end-users in the conceptualization of an information visualization tool; the relevance of effective visual displays for an effective communication of the data and information. The second relates to the reflection about how the higher education decision makers, stakeholders of the U-TRACER® tool, perceive usefulness of the tool, both for communicating their institutions data and for benchmarking exercises, as well as a support for decision processes. Also to reflect on the main concerns about opening up data about higher education institutions in a global market.

Spatial hearing and sound perception in musical composition

This thesis explores the possibilities of spatial hearing in relation to sound perception, and presents three acousmatic compositions based on a musical aesthetic that emphasizes this relation in musical discourse. The first important characteristic of these compositions is the exclusive use of sine waves and other time invariant sound signals. Even though these types of sound signals present no variations in time, it is possible to perceive pitch, loudness, and tone color variations as soon as they move in space due to acoustic processes involved in spatial hearing. To emphasize the perception of such variations, this thesis proposes to divide a tone in multiple sound units and spread them in space using several loudspeakers arranged around the listener. In addition to the perception of sound attribute variations, it is also possible to create rhythm and texture variations that depend on how sound units are arranged in space. This strategy permits to overcome the so called "sound surrogacy" implicit in acousmatic music, as it is possible to establish cause-effect relations between sound movement and the perception of sound attribute, rhythm, and texture variations. Another important consequence of using sound fragmentation together with sound spatialization is the possibility to produce diffuse sound fields independently from the levels of reverberation of the room, and to create sound spaces with a certain spatial depth without using any kind of artificial sound delay or reverberation.

Perception and software architecture for mobile robotics

When developing software for autonomous mobile robots, one has to inevitably tackle some kind of perception. Moreover, when dealing with agents that possess some level of reasoning for executing their actions, there is the need to model the environment and the robot internal state in a way that it represents the scenario in which the robot operates. Inserted in the ATRI group, part of the IEETA research unit at Aveiro University, this work uses two of the projects of the group as test bed, particularly in the scenario of robotic soccer with real robots. With the main objective of developing algorithms for sensor and information fusion that could be used e ectively on these teams, several state of the art approaches were studied, implemented and adapted to each of the robot types. Within the MSL RoboCup team CAMBADA, the main focus was the perception of ball and obstacles, with the creation of models capable of providing extended information so that the reasoning of the robot can be ever more e ective. To achieve it, several methodologies were analyzed, implemented, compared and improved. Concerning the ball, an analysis of ltering methodologies for stabilization of its position and estimation of its velocity was performed. Also, with the goal keeper in mind, work has been done to provide it with information of aerial balls. As for obstacles, a new de nition of the way they are perceived by the vision and the type of information provided was created, as well as a methodology for identifying which of the obstacles are team mates. Also, a tracking algorithm was developed, which ultimately assigned each of the obstacles a unique identi er. Associated with the improvement of the obstacles perception, a new algorithm of estimating reactive obstacle avoidance was created. In the context of the SPL RoboCup team Portuguese Team, besides the inevitable adaptation of many of the algorithms already developed for sensor and information fusion and considering that it was recently created, the objective was to create a sustainable software architecture that could be the base for future modular development. The software architecture created is based on a series of di erent processes and the means of communication among them. All processes were created or adapted for the new architecture and a base set of roles and behaviors was de ned during this work to achieve a base functional framework. In terms of perception, the main focus was to de ne a projection model and camera pose extraction that could provide information in metric coordinates. The second main objective was to adapt the CAMBADA localization algorithm to work on the NAO robots, considering all the limitations it presents when comparing to the MSL team, especially in terms of computational resources. A set of support tools were developed or improved in order to support the test and development in both teams. In general, the work developed during this thesis improved the performance of the teams during play and also the e ectiveness of the developers team when in development and test phases.

Exploring Consumer Opportunism Conundrum in the Insurance Industry: The Role of Marketing

Drawing from the extant literature, this paper explores the prevalent consumer opportunism in the insurance transactions, its links to consumers’ perception, and the relevance of marketing strategies in curbing the menace. It shows that insurance opportunism could be perpetrated by any party in the insurance transaction system and at any stage of the process involved. Among factors identified as prompting this conundrum are economic motive, resentment towards the insurance companies, laxity in the application processing/asymmetric information, and insiders’ collaborations. Nonetheless, the paper suggests that strong commitment of insurance marketers to creating and delivering value to the customers more robustly through a proactive and all-embracing implementation of marketing strategies vis-àvis relationship marketing could significantly enhance consumers’ positive perception of insurance business and consequently result in a healthier insurance industry.

Beyond "Witnessing": Childrens Experiences of Coercive Control in Domestic Violence and Abuse

Children’s experiences and voices are underrepresented in academic literature and professional practice around domestic violence and abuse. The project “Understanding Agency and Resistance Strategies” (UNARS) addresses this absence, through direct engagement with children. We present an analysis from interviews with 21 children in the United Kingdom (12 girls and 9 boys, aged 8-18 years), about their experiences of domestic violence and abuse, and their responses to this violence. These interviews were analyzed using interpretive interactionism. Three themes from this analysis are presented: (a) “Children’s experiences of abusive control,” which explores children’s awareness of controlling behavior by the adult perpetrator, their experience of that control, and its impact on them; (b) “Constraint,” which explores how children experience the constraint associated with coercive control in situations of domestic violence; and (c) “Children as agents,” which explores children’s strategies for managing controlling behavior in their home and in family relationships. The article argues that, in situations where violence and abuse occur between adult intimate partners, children are significantly affected, and can be reasonably described as victims of abusive control. Recognizing children as direct victims of domestic violence and abuse would produce significant changes in the way professionals respond to them, by (a) recognizing children’s experience of the impact of domestic violence and abuse; (b) recognizing children’s agency, undermining the perception of them as passive “witnesses” or “collateral damage” in adult abusive encounters; and (c) strengthening professional responses to them as direct victims, not as passive witnesses to violence.

The Influence of Causal Explanations and Diagnostic Labeling on Psychology Students’ Beliefs About Treatments, Prognosis, Dangerousness and Unpredictability in Schizophrenia

This study explored views of 566 Italian psychology students about schizophrenia. The most frequently cited causes were psychological traumas (68%) and heredity (54%). Thirty-three percent of students firmly believed that people with the condition could recover. Reporting heredity among the causes, and identifying schizophrenia were both associated with prognostic pessimism, greater confidence in pharmacological treatments and lower confidence in psychological treatments. Schizophrenia labeling was also associated with higher perception of unpredictability and dangerousness. Compared to first year students, fourth/fifth year students more frequently reported heredity among the causes, and were more pessimistic about schizophrenia recovery. Stigma topics should be included in future psychologists’ education.

Conversations with remarkable teachers an exploration of teaching as healing

Through analysis and interpretation of transcribed taped conversations with two remarkable University teachers, Joel Shack and Harry Whittier, an articulation of perception and metaphor that exists in effective teaching, emerges as life giving or transformational. Creative insight and interpretation connect teaching to life. This work demonstrates how insightful conversations about teaching relate to poetic essence (Joel), energy (Harry), and healing (Ray), all aspects of a similar perceptual, creative and transformative process. Teachers shape education and excellent teaching inspires insofar as it is inspirited. Effective teaching is highly conscious and intentional. So much depends on how aware the teacher is, how the teacher sees what s/he is doing and how this doing/teaching is received. The effective teacher, attentive to how this energy works, can provoke positive change in consciousness both in the student, in education and in society. My study draws attention to the healing power of the teacher as he/she teaches and to the process of dialogue as teachers talk about what they do and don't do. For inherent in conversation and dialogue is the desire to affirm whole perceptions of existence. Dialogue and conversation is necessary to creating the kind of consciousness that will aid the reflective and conscientious teacher. The effective teacher attempts to effect change, to make things better. I call this transforming process, healing. And what creates this healing is the life, the attitude and approach of the teacher. The teacher's energy and consciousness, the teacher's perception of meaning, is the active but implicit ingredient in this transformative and healing process. These conversations are creative, theoretical, illuminating and even practical. It is my hope that the contents of these conversations will inspire potential teachers who can consider the vocation of teaching as a healing process that promises to generate positive growth in mind, body and spirit.

Reinventing America on the battlefields of Spain or following the party line: conflicting perceptions of the Spanish Civil War in the present and in the past

Isolationism and neutrality are two of the recurrent themes in the study of the history of the U.S. foreign policy in the interwar years. The trauma of the Great War, which had swept away 130.000 U.S. lives and had cost $30 billion, had led public opinion to strongly oppose any involvement with European affairs. Besides, the urgent need for economic recovery during the dismal years of the Great Depression did not leave Roosevelt much room for manoeuvre to influence international events. His positions regarding the intentions of the Fascist states remained, at best, ambivalent. These facts notwithstanding, about 2800 U.S. citizens crossed the Atlantic and rushed in to help democratic Spain, which was on the verge of becoming one more hostage in the hands of the Fascism. They joined the other British, Irish and Canadian volunteers and formed the XV International Brigade. 900 Americans never returned home. This alone should challenge the commonly held assumption that the American people were indifferent to the rise of the Fascist threat in Europe. But it also begs other questions. Considering the prevailing isolationist mood, what really motivated them? With what discursive elements did these men construct their anti Fascist representations? How far did their understanding of the Spanish democracy correspond to their own American democratic ideal? In what way did their war experience across the Atlantic mould their perception of U.S. politics (both domestic and foreign)? How far did the Spanish Civil War constitute one first step towards the realization that the U.S. might actually be drawn into another international conflict of unpredictable consequences? Last but not the least, what ideological, political and cultural complicity existed between the men from the English-speaking battalions? In order to unearth some of the answers, I intend to examine their letters and see how these men recorded the historical events in which they took part. Their correspondence emerged from the desire to prove their commitment to a common cause and spoke of a common war experience, but each letter, in its uniqueness, ends up mirroring not only the social and political background of each individual fighter, but also his own particular perspective of the war, of world politics and of the Spanish people. We shall see how these letters differ and converge and how these particular accounts weave, as in an epistolary novel, a larger-than-life narrative of outrage and solidarity, despair and hope.

Golf destinations' brand personality: the case of the Algarve

The purpose of this research is to develop and validate a measurement scale to assess golf destinations’ brand personality and therefore to perceive the destination personality of the Algarve as a golf destination. Based on literature review on human personality, brand personality, destination brand image and marketing scales validation procedures, an initial 36 unrepeated items were the base for a survey instrument. Those items were generated from the literature, from the results of individual interviews with experts in tourism and golf in the Algarve and from promotional texts in golf- related websites. After content validation, the items were allocated into categories of attributes by a panel of expert judges. A survey was then applied to a convenient sample of 600 golf players in the Algarve, and 545 (valid) questionnaires were analysed to refine the scale. Golf players assessed the components of the relational brand personality (functional, symbolic and experiential) as well as the Algarve as a golf destination. A taxonomy of brand personality was developed and tested in the Algarve as it is recognized as one of the world best golf destination. The developed taxonomy of brand personality was assessed in two ways: 1) through the overall perception of the Algarve as a golf destination and 2) through the perception of specific attributes of the destination grouped into three main categories (functional, symbolic and experiential). Therefore, two multi-dimensional brand personality models were estimated by using structural equation modelling. Findings of this study indicate that golf players ascribe personality characteristics to destinations. The brand personality of the Algarve is translated into three main dimensions enjoyableness, distinctiveness and friendliness when tourists/golf players reveal their overall perception of the destination. The brand personality of golf destination Algarve is reflected in the dimensions reliability, hospitality, uniqueness and attractiveness when tourists assess the components of the relational brand personality. Refined scales consisting of 10 and 12 items were finally derived meeting both reliability and validity requirements. This study does not replicate Aaker’s (1997) personality dimensions and very little parallelism can be drawn with Aaker’s (1997) brand personality scale since only three items from her scale were validated in both models: friendly and cheerful, (sincerity), reliable (competence). The same is verified concerning the ‘Big-five’. The human personality traits (HPT) validated to describe golf destinations personality are only four helpful, pleasant (agreeableness), relaxed (emotional stability), and innovative (intellect or openness). As far as destination image descriptors (DID) are concerned, the items appealing, relaxed and safe were validated, while traits suggested by the interviews and website promotional texts such as calm, natural, spectacular, unique, welcoming, and the best (destination-specific traits) appear to be appropriate to describe the personality of a golf destination. The results suggest that the overall perception of the Algarve´s brand personality is described by the dimensions enjoyableness, distinctiveness and friendliness. Moreover, the relational perspective revealed that the functional attributes of the destination are described by the dimension reliablility, while the symbolic attributes are described by the dimensions hospitablility and uniqueness and finally its experiential attributes are described by the dimension attractiveness. These results show that a golf destination´s brand personality should not just be based on good golf practices. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the context of destination brand personality.

The influence of authentic leadership on employees analyzed through self-determination theory

Dissertação de Mestrado, Gestão de Recursos Humanos, Escola Superior de Gestão, Hotelaria e Turismo, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2015

O bairro teatral: recreio da vida portuense

Tese de doutoramento, Estudos Artísticos (Estudos de Teatro), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2014

Development of a Parent Version of the Manchester-Minneapolis Quality of Life Survey for use by Parents and Crers of UK Children: MMQL-UK (PF).

Background Although it is now widely endorsed that children should as far as possible rate their own health related quality of life (HRQL), there are situations where proxy information on child HRQL may be useful, especially where a child is too ill or young to provide their own HRQL assessment. There is limited availability of generic HRQL scales that have a parallel child and parent version and that are reliable, valid, brief, comprehensible and suitable for use in UK populations. The aims of this study were therefore to develop and validate a parent version of the anglicised Manchester-Minneapolis Quality of Life child form (MMQL-UK (CF)) and to determine the level of association between the child and parent versions of this form. Methods This study was undertaken concurrently with the anglicisation and validation of the MMQL, a measure of HRQL developed for use with children in North America. At that time, no parent version existed, so the MMQL form for children (MMQL-UK (CF)) was used as the basis for the development of the MMQL-UK parent form (PF). The sample included a control group of healthy children and their parents and five exemplar groups; children diagnosed with asthma, diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease and their parents, children in remission from cancer and their parents and children in public care and their carers. Consistency of the MMQL-UK (PF) components were assessed by calculating Cronbach's alpha. Validation of the parent questionnaire was undertaken by comparing MMQL-UK (PF) component scores with comparable components on the proxy PedsQL™ quality of life scales, comparing MMQL-UK (PF) component scores between parents of healthy and chronic disease children and by comparison of component scores from children and their parents or carers. Reproducibility and responsiveness were assessed by retesting parents by follow-up questionnaires. Results A total of 874 children (completing MMQL-UK (CF)) and 572 parents or carers (completing MMQL-UK (PF)) took part in the study. The internal consistency of all the MMQL-UK (PF) components exceeding the accepted criterion of 0.70 and the construct validity was good with moderate correlations being evident between comparable components of the MMQL-UK (PF) and the proxy PedsQL™. Discriminant validity was demonstrated with significant differences being identified between parents of healthy children and those with chronic conditions. Intra-class correlations exceeded 0.65 for all MMQL-UK (PF) components demonstrating good reproducibility. Weak to moderate levels of responsiveness were demonstrated for all but social functioning. The MMQL-UK (PF) showed moderate parent-child correlation with the MMQL-UK (CF) for all components. The best correlations were seen for those components measuring the same construct (Pearson's r ranged from 0.31 to 0.61, p < 0.01 for equivalent components). Conclusion The MMQL-UK (PF) showed moderate to good correlations with the MMQL-UK (CF) component scores. The MMQL-UK (PF) will be of use when comparing child and parent/carer perception of the impact of a child's condition on their HRQL or where the child is too ill or young to provide their own report.

Risk Perception Influences Athletic Pacing Strategy.

PURPOSE: To examine risk-taking and risk-perception associations with perceived exertion, pacing and performance in athletes. METHODS: Two experiments were conducted in which risk-perception was assessed using the domain-specific risk-taking (DOSPERT) scale in 20 novice cyclists (Experiment 1) and 32 experienced ultra-marathon runners (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, participants predicted their pace and then performed a 5 km maximum effort cycling time-trial on a calibrated KingCycle mounted bicycle. Split-times and perceived exertion were recorded every kilometer. In experiment 2, each participant predicted their split times before running a 100 km ultra-marathon. Split-times and perceived exertion were recorded at 7 check-points. In both experiments, higher and lower risk-perception groups were created using median split of DOSPERT scores. RESULTS: In experiment 1, pace during the first km was faster among lower compared to higher risk-perceivers, t(18)=2.0 P=0.03, and faster among higher compared lower risk-takers, t(18)=2.2 P=0.02. Actual pace was slower than predicted pace during the first km in both the higher risk perceivers, t(9)=-4.2 P=0.001, and lower risk-perceivers, t(9)=-1.8 P=0.049. In experiment 2, pace during the first 36 km was faster among lower compared to higher risk-perceivers, t(16)=2.0 P=0.03. Irrespective of risk-perception group, actual pace was slower than predicted pace during the first 18 km, t(16)=8.9 P<0.001, and from 18 to 36 km, t(16)=4.0 P<0.001. In both experiments there was no difference in performance between higher and lower risk-perception groups. CONCLUSIONS: Initial pace is associated with an individual's perception of risk, with low perceptions of risk being associated with a faster starting pace. Large differences between predicted and actual pace suggests the performance template lacks accuracy, perhaps indicating greater reliance on momentary pacing decisions rather than pre-planned strategy.

Internationalization’s Effect on Marketing Learning: A Study of Syrian Firms

The aim of the present study is to understand the effects of international expansion on firms’ acquisition of marketing learning. This study’s focus on marketing learning complements previous research on the impact of internationalization on the development of foreign-market and technological knowledge. The research finds that the scope of a firm’s international activities, perception of gaps in marketing knowledge, and external social capital positively influence firms’ acquisition of marketing learning. However, firm’s age at initial international market entry appears not to be a significant factor. The study adds to the very limited body of research on the marketing learning outcomes of international expansion, while also offering rare empirical insights from the Middle East on this important subject matter. The paper discusses implications for international managers, policy makers, and future researchers.