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Based on agency theory, we focused on the influence of corporate governance in the dividend policy of large listed firms with headquarters in continental Europe countries. Previous research focused on the influence of corporate governance on the performance and risk of listed firms, but the influence of corporate governance on the dividend policy has rarely been addressed despite the importance of dividends for shareholders and the implications on the free cash-flow, whose application may be a source of conflicts between managers and shareholders. In this paper, we study the influence of a set of governance mechanisms on the dividend policy over 12 years (2002 to 2013). The results, based on a panel data analysis, support the importance of governance mechanisms toward the protection of shareholders' interests, and reveal that the decisions on whether to pay dividends and how much to pay are grounded on different antecedents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing concern exists regarding the efficiency of public resources spent in transport infrastructures. In this paper, we measure the efficiency of seven highway projects in Portugal over the past decade by means of a data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity and efficiency indices. We distinguish between technical and technological efficiency and find that most highways face a reduction over time in both types of efficiency. This reduction is mainly due to an increase in operating and maintenance costs, follow-up investments, and a decline in traffic. Some highways only experience a reduction in technological efficiency after a decrease in traffic. They compensate with cost controls and stable investments. While controlling for scale efficiencies, we find a lack of pure technical efficiency in highways that are not subject to a competitive environment, which produces a lack of incentives for better management. Not only does evidence exist of poor management due to a lack of competition, but the increased use of outsourcing also increases inefficiencies. The introduction of tolls and the outburst of the economic crisis in Portugal have substantially reduced traffic that further contributes to inefficiency. The local context, such as highways in low-income areas and rural regions with a lower traffic density, also affects highway performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the determinants of Portuguese exports, applying data from 277 manufacturing firms for the period 2006–2010. In 2010, these firms accounted for about 47% of total Portugal’s exports. Both the static and dynamic results of the estimated models confirm the positive influence of productivity on variations in exports. The dynamic estimations also suggest that exports in the previous period hold a positive effect on contemporaneous exports, confirming the Roberts and Tybout (1997) sunk cost hypothesis for exports. In the dynamic analysis, the labour costs and the size of the firm do not have a statistically significant effect on Portuguese exports with the findings also pointing to increased expenditure on research and development (R&D) generating no statistically significant effect on exports. The lagged R&D expenditure was also insignificant in explaining the change of Portuguese exports. Thus, these results suggest that applying a product or process innovation measure returns better results than indirect measures such as R&D expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study of critical phenomena that originated in the natural sciences has been extended to the financial economics' field, giving researchers new approaches to risk management, forecasting, the study of bubbles and crashes, and many kinds of problems involving complex systems with self-organized criticality (SOC). This study uses the theory of self-similar oscillatory time singularities to analyze stock market crashes. We test the Log Periodic Power Law/Model (LPPM) to analyze the Portuguese stock market, in its crises in 1998, 2007, and 2015. Parameter values are in line with those observed in other markets. This is particularly interesting since if the model performs robustly for Portugal, which is a small market with liquidity issues and the index is only composed of 20 stocks, we provide consistent evidence in favor of the proposed LPPM methodology. The LPPM methodology proposed here would have allowed us to avoid big loses in the 1998 Portuguese crash, and would have permitted us to sell at points near the peak in the 2007 crash. In the case of the 2015 crisis, we would have obtained a good indication of the moment where the lowest data point was going to be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the BP4S (Business Plan for Sustainability), which builds on the literature about business models, as an innovation that considers sustainability as a characteristic of a business. Sustainability becomes the objective of business instead of being an attribute of business. This article also proposes the Global Sustainability Project Index (GSPI) as a metric to measure the effect of a business venture on sustainability to help with the decision-making on the viability of a project in supporting the pillars of sustainability. Additionally, a collection of indicators for the 3Ps of sustainability (planet, people, and profit) is also an asset of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed a notable increase in the implementation of social innovation strategies for creating products with major social impact. Despite the lack of conceptual clarity still surrounding the term, social innovation, as a participatory research method, is finding scope for growth in agricultural cooperatives, whether in the areas of R&D and knowledge transfer, or in the commercialization of innovative products. Society has underscored the need for change in the environment and the implementation of new projects that help improve socioeconomic living conditions, promoting territorial development through social transformation. In the case of cooperativism in the olive oil industry in southern Spain, cooperatives are responsible for 70% of the oil produced there. As such, the actions carried out under their influence have a huge impact on the population and serve as tools that anchor people to their municipalities. This article analyses a case study from an olive oil cooperative, exploring the development of a social innovation project involving knowledge transfer and public awareness-raising through the label of an early harvest olive oil called "Primer Día de Cosecha" (First Day of Harvest). It also assesses the impact of the project on the population of the Andalusian municipality of Bailén (Jaén). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses three coach behaviours’ effects (warmness behaviour (WB); stimulating action (SA) and planning and structuring activities (PSA)) in two dimensions of coaching outcomes (coachee’s performance (CP) and the quality of the coach–coachee relationship (QCCR)). The paper argues that coaching is a helpful tool to achieve greater performances in the long run when considering coaches who present higher levels of maturity. Results reveal the positive impact of SA and PSA over CP and QCCR. The adoption of WB has a negative impact on CP and a positive impact on the QCCR. Evidence also supports the relevancy of coaching experience over coaching training. Such results pose a paradox worth exploring in subsequent studies, for it challenges the usefulness of coaches’ training. Contributions are related to introducing the concept of WB within the organisational context and addressing two different time horizons regarding the coach behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]