Abstract
This paper seeks to give a general idea of the universe of project portfolio management, from its multidisciplinary nature, to the many challenges it raises, passing through the different techniques, models and tools used to solve the multiple problems known. It is intended to contribute to the clarification, with great depth, of the impacts and relationships involved in managing the projects' portfolio. It aims at proposing a technique for the project alignment with the organisational strategy, in order to select projects that later on will be considered in the analysis and selection of the portfolio. We consider the development of a methodology for assessing the project alignment index very relevant in the global market scenario. It can help organisations to gain a greater awareness of market dynamics, speed up the decision process and increase its consistency, thus enabling the strategic alignment and the improvement of the organisational performance.

Abstract

Abstract
There is an increasing recognition that the competitive advantage of firms depends on their ability to create, transfer, utilize, develop and protect the Organisational knowledge assets, so it is logical to expect that more effective management of the creation and use of knowledge would accelerate a company's natural rate of learning, allow it to outpace competitors and create value for both customers and shareholders. The organisational learning can be seen as a combination of two phases, extraction and dissemination of management lessons, as we go from one project to another. The managers, executives and researchers in project management have to "learn how to learn", and maintain a consistent rate of improvement in learning processes. In a second phase of the organisational learning, it is necessary to learn how to code and disseminate knowledge for additional improvement of the organisation management. The research here reported is the first phase of a twofold objective it intends to identify the key elements that contribute to a learning environment and methodologies, processes and technologies that enhance the Organisational knowledge; and it intends to develop a corporative IT-tool, based on the conclusions and remarks obtained. It is our belief that the opinions gathered from people sensible to this topic, will allow us, among other things, to conclude some important aspects that will defiantly contribute for increasing the awareness given to knowledge acquisition and learning by the different team members.

Abstract
Today, organisations suffer a tremendous pressure to become more agile, efficient, profitable and dynamic. The market presents itself as an area of severe competition, where the margin between success and failure is becoming tenuous. Some authors have noticed the importance of meaningful and reliable information as a prerequisite of successful management and high-quality decision-making. Multiple factors, in the business environment were shown to cause impact in the organisational performance, such as the market attractiveness, the resources availability, clockspeed-industry, the environmental predictability, decision velocity and market opportunity discovery. The purpose of developing this research work was essentially to respond the following questions: Can the organisation improve performance by monitoring the market dynamics, by compiling information for the strategic positioning identification and market opportunities discovery? Can the information gathered agile the decision-making and the strategic alignment with the market? The market attractiveness index calculation phase intends to quantify the data collected from the multiple indicators, and then determine an index, for each market in the evaluation process. This technique is divided in three main steps, which consist of: (1) Calculating the mass density by category (Macro-Environment, Micro-Environment and Organisation), followed by (2) the product calculation of each category by the main market and, finally, (3) the prioritization of the different markets in study. The development of a methodology for assessing the market attractiveness is considered to be very relevant in the global market scenario. It can help organisations to gain a greater awareness of market dynamics, speed up the decision process and increase its consistency, thus enabling the strategic alignment and the improvement of the organisational performance.

Abstract
The current financial crisis highlights real problems profoundly related to the level of financial knowledge. Some studies suggest that many individuals, including small business owners, do not have adequate financial skills to be able to handle their finances. The term "financial literacy" summarizes the set of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to enable recognition and understanding of the foundations of personal finance. Informed and literate individuals are able to make responsible decisions. Our paper presents the preliminary results obtained with the Portuguese StudentFinance2012 survey. A total of 612 university students from seven different institutions agreed to participate and complete the survey. The sample has an average age of 23.67 years and is gender balanced. Students were classified in three course areas such as engineering, business and management, or design and tourism. Most respondents frequent a degree course, being the university mostly a public institution. A majority of our students has solely funded by their parents or family. By analyzing the total amount of financial products, we obtained an average of 2.57 financial products by student. To analyze financial literacy, our study developed measures such students' financial involvement, financial knowledge and parents influence and explore it as a function to issues such as age, gender, course area, course type, type of university and parental funding. The results suggest that the financial involvement of students evolves over time (as age increases, the financial involvement also increases) and confirm significant dependence with demographic variables such as gender, age, or course, among others. For the financial knowledge the results are encouraging, with students to show interesting levels of knowledge. We also identified relations of dependence with age, gender and course, among many others. Parental influence was analyzed by the level of agreement with statements related to the perceptions of the influence and behavior of parents about money, budgeting, saving and paying bills. The main results indicate that parents are a positive influence and that studentsare experiencing a financial behaviour that integrates the family.

Abstract
This paper aims to point up the critical topics that need to be addressed towards a fully implementation of lean management as well as the adoption of learning mechanisms and information and communication systems in order to attain organisational differentiation through performance enhancement and integration of management practices that favour business sustainability. Firstly, we will try to explain the complexity of a construction project and how lean principles can be adapted to the construction industry, as well as some practical examples of the adoption of new technologies. Then, it will be explained how knowledge management and learning mechanisms can be critical in attaining a competitive advantage in this sector. Finally, a conceptual model will be presented based on the literature studies and the main results obtained from the focus group conducted with project managers from the construction area.