Abstract
Governments all over the world have been promoting electric mobility as an effort to reduce the transport sector’s greenhouse emissions and fossil fuel dependency. This work analyses the deployment of electric vehicles in the European Union countries, between 2015 and 2019, and the variables that may influence it, using a panel data methodology. The present work focuses on the deployment of battery and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, individually and jointly. Nine explanatory variables were included in the model: density of recharging points, gross domestic product per capita, cumulative number of policies on electromobility, share of renewable energy in transport, total greenhouse gas emissions per capita, tertiary education attainment, electricity price, employment rate and new registrations of passenger cars per capita. The results showed that the indicators influence differently the deployment of the different types of electric vehicles. The most significant factor driving the battery electric vehicles deployment was the density of recharging points, while for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles was the share of renewable energy. Policy makers should focus on adjusting actions to the demand for the different types of electric vehicles.

Abstract

Abstract
The transport sector of the European Union is the only sector of the economy that has been increasing its emissions since 2014. To reduce the use of fossil fuels and achieve the greenhouse gas emissions mitigation target, many countries are focusing on the deployment of electric vehicles. This paper aims at analysing recent literature on the deployment of electric vehicles (EV) and typifying objectives, methods and indicators generally exploited, to better understand the state of the art on this topic. The Web of Science database was used and the results showed that the interest in the topic of electric vehicles has been increasing exponentially since 2010. The main significant indicators and the assessment methodologies were analysed. The indicators identified were aggregated in four main clusters: environmental, economic, social and technical indicators. Although the factors that contribute to EV deployment can vary depending on the regions specific characteristics, most of the research studies pointed out that the main contributors are the high density of recharging points, the existence of government monetary incentives and the lower operational cost of EV.

Abstract
Hospitality is one of the most important sectors in the tourist activity in Portugal. Knowing the characteristics and features of the hotel units operating in Portugal is important for all those who make decisions about investment in this sector. Knowing the reality of brand affiliation of Portuguese hotel establishments is also a matter of great interest for hoteliers in supporting strategic decision-making. Performing the analysis of the universe of hotel establishments in Portugal, their characterization is made concerning their features, facilities and equipment. In addition, the reality of brand affiliation of Portuguese hotel establishments is analyzed and discussed through a logistic regression model. The results allow us to conclude that just over a third of hotel establishments in Portugal are brand affiliated and they are mostly located in the more touristic regions. The results also show that brand affiliated hotel establishments have, on average, a greater number of stars, greater capacity and a greater number of facilities than non-brand affiliated hotel establishments.

Abstract
This study aims to find and develop an appropriate optimization approach to reduce the time and labor employed throughout a given chemical process and could be decisive for quality management. In this context, this work presents a comparative study of two optimization approaches using real experimental data from the chemical engineering area, reported in a previous study [4]. The first approach is based on the traditional response surface method and the second approach combines the response surface method with genetic algorithm and data mining. The main objective is to optimize the surface function based on three variables using hybrid genetic algorithms combined with cluster analysis to reduce the number of experiments and to find the closest value to the optimum within the established restrictions. The proposed strategy has proven to be promising since the optimal value was achieved without going through derivability unlike conventional methods, and fewer experiments were required to find the optimal solution in comparison to the previous work using the traditional response surface method.

Abstract
Purpose Portugal has been experiencing a continuous growth in tourism activity, with hospitality industry as one of the main tourism sectors. Therefore, the assessment of hotel companies' performance is very important to assist decision processes. The purpose of this paper is to assess the financial performance (FP) of 570 hotel companies operating hotel units in Portugal in 2017. To explore the question of brand affiliation, a comparison was made between hotel companies with similar stars rating and market orientation. In addition, this paper intends to fill a gap in literature studying the Portuguese reality on the subject of brand affiliation. Design/methodology/approach The present study uses a methodology based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the overall performance for each company, which further decomposed into the within-group performance and the technological gap. The performance of the hotel company is assessed through the aggregation of multiple financial indicators using the composite indicator (CI) derived from the DEA model. A bivariate analysis based on the Tobit regression to test the robustness of brand effect on FP of hotel companies (HC) was also included. Findings The empirical results show that branded companies, on average, have significantly better overall FP than non-branded companies. On the one hand, the brand effect tends to improve the within-group FP of HCs and the brand presents a statistically significant positive effect on the FP. On the other hand, the best practices are observed in both branded and non-branded companies. Practical implications The results of this study illustrate that, globally, the better FP of the branded companies is because of their individual relative companies' performance and a better model of operation given by the brand effect. Brand affiliation will generally allow for a better FP and essentially a better profitability for invested equity, a higher return on sales and a higher value added per employee. Originality/value The study provides important theoretical and practical contributions that can assist the strategic decision of the HCs in choosing to operate independently or to adopt brand affiliation. Also, it is innovative because the FP of branded and non-branded HCs is measured not using a set of individual financial ratios but through a single CI that aggregates those financial ratios, using a DEA model.