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Literature supports that buyers can influence suppliers to adopt sustainable practices. Much of this literature, however, is descriptive and takes only the perspective of a buyer trying to diffuse sustainability into its supply base. Alternatively, this study augments the literature through the development of a prescriptive mathematical model that maximizes a supplier's expected revenue from making a bid to a large buyer, inclusive of a sustainability criterion. Specifically, the model uses decision theory to determine an optimal level of sustainability to integrate into a bid to balance economic vs. sustainable trade‐offs based on perceived buyer preference. To illustrate the model's utility, it is then applied to a rich scenario, using data from an industrial supplier bidding for a contract to distribute a fuel additive in Brazil by balancing the trade‐off between decreased carbon emissions and increased distribution cost. A sensitivity analysis is then performed to illustrate how different forms of the buyer's objective function would influence the propagation of sustainability into optimal supplier bids. The research thereby adds to our understanding of sustainable sourcing by prescriptively modeling both buyer and supplier perspectives, when analyzing how buyer preferences can drive supplier behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: Franchising is one of the fastest-growing operating modes in Brazil. In 2014, the Brazilian Franchising Association reported 2,492 active brands in the country. Some theories with an economic point of view, such as the agency theory, plural forms theory, or scarcity principle, explain why companies choose franchising. However, did the decision makers and founders of these franchises decide on this strategy taking only economic reasons into consideration? The purpose of this study is to understand the a priori criteria (prior to the decision) that executives took into account when adopting this strategy and the key motivations for this decision. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: The literature emphasizes the economic reasons for the success of the franchise model, but it does not focus on the founders' motivations when they choose this strategy. This is the gap that this study seeks to address. Dissonance could arise between economic reasons and entry motivations that could result in consequences for the management of new franchises. Key methodological aspects: Ten companies of different industries and different life cycle stages involved with the franchise model were scrutinized using a semi-structured questionnaire based on the literature on decision theory and franchising. Summary of key results: Behavioral factors significantly influence decision makers when choosing the franchise model. Key considerations/conclusions: This study distinguishes the economic reasons from the executives' motivations when choosing the franchise model and highlights the importance of non-economic factors in this decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This disguised case aims to describe a scenario planning project to improve decision making for a manufacturer operating in Brazil's confusing, unpredictable politico-economic environment. "BrasilAuto's" management team faced a range of complex choices related to capacity, vehicle mix, pricing, distribution, dealer relationships, exports, labor and government relations.Design/methodology/approach – The consultants used a combination of scenario planning and quantitative analysis to answer the company's two key questions: where is the country headed and how many vehicles can we expect to sell, looking across a range of business environments?Findings – As a result of the scenario exercise, company execs had a better idea of what to watch for in the political sphere and how to anticipate the actual market impact of changing economic policy options. Having looked at the range of plausible business environments hard and carefully, their uncertainty was significantly less unsettling or paralyzing than it had been.Practical implications – The consultants discuss the lessons learned – for the client and for improving the process.Originality/value – It's rare to have an insider's view of a scenario process that attempts to produce both quantitative and qualitative insights into a range of distinctly different political/economic futures and their impact on an industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an optimization model to reduce thegap between planning and scheduling activities in pipeline networksfor supply of petroleum derivatives, so as to effectively operatethe plans developed at higher decision levels. Most of the informationtaken in the petroleum supply chain is unidirectional, from the strategiclevel passing through the tactical level and finally reaching theoperational level. However, unviable schedules are often obtainedfrom an operational standpoint, since operational criteria are notconsidered when decisions are made at the strategic and tactical levels.In particular, in the supply chain of refined petroleum products,the production campaigns of the refineries are defined for differentregions based on the consumer market and no operational conditionsrelated to distribution are accounted at this stage. This fact thatmay lead to operational infeasibilities. To overcome this type ofproblem the present paper proposes a Mixed Integer Linear Programming(MILP) approach to validate the refineries’ production planswhere operational conditions are accounted for, and as a consequence,a decrease in the existent gap between the scheduled and executedoperations is obtained. The proposed methodology is applied to a realworld case study of a Brazilian Oil company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scientific paper discusses, starting from a literary context, the effects of the movement for uniformity of trial in the Brazilian legal system, attempting to show the need for a legal argument that is substantially democratic, conducted via an adversarial process, symmetric in terms of opportunities and that pushes to the background the fetish of legal certainty for the sake of the effectiveness and efficiency of decisions in the framework of the democratic rule of law and in the light of the fundamental rights and guarantees. For the development of this research project, the inductive method was used, including the techniques of operational concepts and literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this comparative survey of 126 Brazilian and U.S. business professionals, we explore the effect of national culture on ethical decision-making within the context of business. Using Reidenbach and Robin's (1988) multi-criteria ethics instrument, we examined how these two countries' differences on Hofstede's individualism/collectivism dimension are related to the manner in which business practitioners make ethical decisions. Our results indicate that Brazilians and Americans evaluate the ethical content of actions or decisions differently when applying utilitarian criteria. By contrast, business people from both countries do not differ significantly when they use egoistic criteria in evaluating the ethical nature of business decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflicts that arise between natural resources consumption and the desire to preserve them make the multicriteria decision theory necessary. Brazil, one of the 10 largest timber producers globally, uses optimization models that represent the growth of forests integrated with decision support systems. Brazilian forest plantation managers often face conflicts when continuously seeking efficiency gains (higher productivity at lower costs) and efficacy (higher profits with minimum social and environmental impacts). Managers of leading producing countries on timber, pulp, and fiberboard constantly interact to fine-tune industry processing demands vis-a-vis the demands of highly productive fast-growing forest plantations. The decision process in such cases seeks a compromise that accommodates short-term industry productivity optimization and long-term forestry production capacity. This paper aims to apply a forest management decision support system (FMDSS) to a case study that represents the challenges that industrial plantations in Brazil usually face. A vertically integrated pulp company situation was simulated to provide a real scenario. In this scenario, forest managers tend to shorten the rotations due to Brazil's usually high-interest rates; meanwhile, industrial managers tend to ask for longer ones due to the positive correlation between age and wood density. Romero®, a Forest Management Decision Support System, developed by following the multi-criteria decision theory, was used to process the case study. Expressly, the hypothesis that mill managers initially have, that older ages rotation could improve mill production, was not confirmed. Moreover, mill managers lean towards changes in the short term, while the case study shows that changes in rotation size and genetic material take time, and decisions have to be made involving both interests: forest and mill managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: The ability to predict reward and punishment is essential for decision-making and the ability to learn about an ever-changing environment. Therefore, efforts have been made in understanding the mechanisms underlying decision-making, especially regarding how affective and deliberative processes interact with risk behavior., Objective: To adapt to Brazilian Portuguese the Columbia Card Task (CCT) and investigate affective and deliberative processes involved in decision-making., Methods: This study had two main phases: (1) a transcultural adaptation and (2) a pilot study., Results: The feedback manipulation among the three conditions of CCT had an effect on the risk-taking level (p < .005, ES = .201). In addition, the feedback manipulation among the three conditions of CCT had an effect on the information use at both the individual and group levels. Further, a linear regression suggested that the use of information, indicated by the advantageous level of the scenarios, predict the number of cards chosen R 2 = .029, p < .001, accounting for 17% of the variance., Conclusions: The Brazilian CCT performs well and is a versatile method for the assessment of affective and deliberative decision-making under risk according to different feedback manipulation scenarios. This study goes further, comparing electrodermal activity during hot and warm conditions and addressing an advantageous level index analysis to asses deliberative processing.

The paper investigates the awareness of women who gave birth in a 'Friend of Children' Hospital (FCH) of the influence of this campaign on their decision to breast-feed. We conducted semi-structured interviews, focusing the maternal breast-feeding process, expectations, experiences, and the importance of the health staff. The data analysis was based on the "Ten Steps to Successful Maternal Breast-Feeding." We found out that in situations regarded by women as problematic and lacking in answers that could attenuate their discomfort and suffering in the face of their desire to breast-feed, they stopped breast-feeding. We believe that by maintaining the FCH support to women (so that they can face those difficulties), its influence can be decisive to the continuation of breast-feeding.