Eliane Pereira Zamith Brito

Inovação e o desempenho empresarial: lucro ou crescimento?

Innovation is considered to be a fundamental factor when it comes to company performance. However, empirical evidence does not consistently support this relationship at the company level. In this work, secondary data, which was taken from the IBGEs Pintec database and which follows the OECDs definition of innovation, was used. This measure considers a broad spectrum of aspects of the innovation process. A sample of companies operating in the Brazilian chemical sector was analyzed using the multiple linear regression technique. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between innovation indicators and profitability measures. On the other hand a positive and statistically significant relationship was found with growth in net revenues. The conclusion is that the innovation effort tends to affect growth more than it affects profitability. The discoveries both corroborate previous studies and contradict others.Innovation is considered to be a fundamental factor when it comes to company performance. However, empirical evidence does not consistently support this relationship at the company level. In this work, secondary data, which was taken from the IBGEs Pintec database and which follows the OECDs definition of innovation, was used. This measure considers a broad spectrum of aspects of the innovation process. A sample of companies operating in the Brazilian chemical sector was analyzed using the multiple linear regression technique. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between innovation indicators and profitability measures. On the other hand a positive and statistically significant relationship was found with growth in net revenues. The conclusion is that the innovation effort tends to affect growth more than it affects profitability. The discoveries both corroborate previous studies and contradict others.

A relação entre aglomeração produtiva e crescimento: a aplicação de um modelo multinível ao setor industrial paulista

This study identified the agglomeration effect of firms classified in the same economic activity on the rate of growth of local employment. Data on all industrial firms located in State of Sao Paulo and included in the Governments Annual List of Social Information over a ten-year period (1996-2005) were collected. Some 263,020 observations on the number of jobs corresponding to 26,231 combinations of municipalities and 296 economic activities were analyzed. To identify the local economic agglomerations, two sets of criteria (Puga, 2003; Suzigan, Furtado, Garcia, & Sampaio, 2003) were used. A growth curve model, using a multilevel model was developed with the Hierarchical Linear Models [HLM] software. The results showed a positive relationship between agglomeration of firms in the same economic activity and employment growth. Considering the expected positive externalities due to agglomeration of similar firms in the same municipality, the results suggest that firms located in an agglomeration can have higher growth rates than their counterparts located outside the agglomeration. The results are interesting and relevant to the individual firm but also to the support of public policy regarding regional development at the municipal level. The findings support previous case studies, giving robustness to theory.

Innovation and corporate performance: profit or growth?

Innovation is considered to be a fundamental factor when it comes to company performance. However, empirical evidence does not consistently support this relationship at the company level. In this work, secondary data, which was taken from the IBGEs Pintec database and which follows the OECDs definition of innovation, was used. This measure considers a broad spectrum of aspects of the innovation process. A sample of companies operating in the Brazilian chemical sector was analyzed using the multiple linear regression technique. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between innovation indicators and profitability measures. On the other hand a positive and statistically significant relationship was found with growth in net revenues. The conclusion is that the innovation effort tends to affect growth more than it affects profitability. The discoveries both corroborate previous studies and contradict others.Innovation is considered to be a fundamental factor when it comes to company performance. However, empirical evidence does not consistently support this relationship at the company level. In this work, secondary data, which was taken from the IBGEs Pintec database and which follows the OECDs definition of innovation, was used. This measure considers a broad spectrum of aspects of the innovation process. A sample of companies operating in the Brazilian chemical sector was analyzed using the multiple linear regression technique. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between innovation indicators and profitability measures. On the other hand a positive and statistically significant relationship was found with growth in net revenues. The conclusion is that the innovation effort tends to affect growth more than it affects profitability. The discoveries both corroborate previous studies and contradict others.

Custos de mudança em serviços logísticos

Switching costs are related to difficulties which emerge when suppliers are changed to new ones, and they exist in all supply chain relationships. Despite the subject importance to the buying decision process, there is not much evidence about how buyers in the business-to-business setting consider them in their working routine. The main proposal here is to present an exploratory discussion on how buyers deal with switching costs and how switching costs affect buying decision. In depth interviews with buyers of logistics services of chemistry and petrol firms located in the Sao Paulo State - Brazil were conducted. The results show that many types of switching costs can occur simultaneously when considering changing a supplier, and each type affects differently the decision. The respondents affirmed that it is hard to objectively calculate the total cost of ownership because many of its components can be assessed only qualitatively by members of the buying department. As those people have different perceptions about each cost, that is, each person perceives differently the cost and benefits linked with a supplier substitution, a compounded evaluation is costly. The situation leads to a very stressful condition which was appointed as one of the most relevant switching costs. The higher is the satisfaction with the current supplier, the lower is the predisposition to change, and the higher is the switching costs and on the contrary, the higher is the dissatisfaction with supplier, and the higher is the intention to assume the switching costs. The complexity and specificity of the service provided increase the switching costs since it increases the perceived uncertainty.

Connoisseurship Taste Ritual

Originality/value This research paper extends the notion of consumption ritual introducing the connoisseurship taste ritual and also extends the theories of taste by explaining how, regarding a specific aesthetic category of product, people develop different tastes through ritualistic consumption.

Consumers and Companies on Facebook Fan Pages: An Analysis of Online Communication Strategies for Small Companies

Online social media has created new opportunities for communication strategies (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). In virtual community environments, consumers express themselves and interact, both with each other and with companies (Fuller, Jawecki and Muhllbacher 2007; Kozinets, De Valck, Wojnicki and Wilner 2010; Schau, Muniz and Arnould 2009). The collaborative environment of online social networks (Kozinets, Hemetsberger and Schau 2008) has led companies to invest in online brand communities (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001). Facebook, particularly, is serving as a fruitful place for the emergence of brand-related spaces, despite the different degrees of communal characteristics on many fan pages. However, many companies have failed the task of engaging consumers in these online spaces (Fournier and Lee, 2009).

O peso do varejo, o peso no varejo e a identidade: uma análise de consumidoras plus size

This paper examines the concept of identity from the perspective of plus size women ́s consumption of fashion. 14 phenomenological interviews were conducted and analyzed from a hermeneutical perspective. Three thematic categories emerged from the data analysis: the construction of identity through fashion, elements of plus size identity and creative strategies to deal with the lack of products for plus size women in retail. Among the main results, the way the term plus size acts as stigma, influencing consumer ́s identity projects, the role of retail in the stigmatization process and the shopping epic saga, which involves a “black market” with the participation of sellers.This paper examines the concept of identity from the perspective of plus size women´s consumption of fashion. 14 phenomenological interviews were conducted and analyzed from a hermeneutical perspective. Three thematic categories emerged from the data analysis: the construction of identity through fashion, elements of plus size identity and creative strategies to deal with the lack of products for plus size women in retail. Among the main results, the way the term plus size acts as stigma, influencing consumer´s identity projects, the role of retail in the stigmatization process and the shopping epic saga, which involves a “black market” with the participation of sellers.

Congresso latino-americano de varejo: retrospectiva de cinco anos

Thoughts about the evolution of the Latin American Retail Conference (CLAV) and the perspectives for Brazil in the next few years. Following this, an introduction of the CLAV/RAE Forum and a presentation of the seven articles selected for this edition.

Task environment and strategy: a classification proposal based on munificence, dynamism and complexity

The relationships between organizations and their respective task environments are an extremely relevant issue for the strategic management field. Given the diversity of both organizations and environments, moving toward a better understanding of such relationships has become a challenge not only to the management practice but also to scholars. In special, the identification of homogeneous environmental groups allows controlling the conditions that subordinate the actions of firms and widens the possibilities of design and generalization of researches in the strategy area. Besides, it permits identifying not apparent similarities among different industries. Along these lines, the research presented here identified industry groups sharing similar environmental conditions. The research begun with the replication of the work of Dess and Beard (1984), identifying the dimensions which characterize task environments – munificence, dynamism and complexity – for 466 manufacturing industries in USA from 1997 to 2002. Following to this, a cluster analysis was performed in order to group industries with similar task environments. Five different clusters were found. Subsequently, 1,870 American firms from Compustat data base were distributed by the groups created, which were statistically compared regarding the structure and performance features of their firms. This procedure indicated that the environmental groups can explain significant differences among the firms regarding mainly growth, profitability and size. Key words: task environment, environmental dimensions, manufacturing industries, strategic management.

O dilema dos veículos de comunicação

Ficar ou sair das redes sociais? Permanecer significa ter maior difusao do conteudo; sair, por outro lado, diminui o risco de que as noticias sejam usadas de forma a prejudicar a reputacao.