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Publicações

Publicações por CESE

2015

The trust-commitment challenge in service quality-loyalty relationships

Autores
Moreira, AC; Silva, PM;

Publicação
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH CARE QUALITY ASSURANCE

Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a model to examine service quality, satisfaction, trust and commitment as loyalty antecedents in a private healthcare service. Design/methodology/approach - The approach was tested using structural equation modelling, involving 175 patients from a private Portuguese healthcare unit, using a revised Service Quality Assessment Scale (SQAS) scale for service quality evaluation. Findings - The scale used to evaluate service quality is valid and meaningful. Service quality proved to be a multidimensional construct and relevant to build satisfaction. The path satisfaction -> trust -> loyalty was validated, whereas the path satisfaction -> commitment -> loyalty was not statistically supported. Research limitations/implications - The revised SQAS scale showed good internal consistency in healthcare context. Further trust-commitment antecedents must be examined in a private healthcare landscape to generalise the findings. Practical implications - Healthcare quality managers must explore the service quality dimensions to generate satisfaction among their patients. Developing trust generates positive patient attitudes and loyalty. Originality/value - This study explores using the SQAS scale in a private healthcare context. The authors provide further evidence that service quality is an antecedent and different from satisfaction. All the measures used proved to be valid and reliable. Trust and commitment play different roles in their relationship with loyalty.

2015

An empirical examination of performance in the clothing retailing industry: A case study

Autores
Xavier, JM; Moutinho, VF; Moreira, AC;

Publicação
JOURNAL OF RETAILING AND CONSUMER SERVICES

Abstract
This article estimates the efficiency of the 40 retail stores of a prestigious clothing company that operates in the Portuguese fast-fashion retailing market. The study compares the performance among the stores and provides insights into ways of improving performance in the retail clothing industry. A two-stage approach is used in this article. In a first stage, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques are used to evaluate the performance of each store and to rank the stores. The input-oriented model was used to assess the summer and winter collections between 2010 and 2013. The results show that the total technical efficiency of the company decreases over time Except for the year 2013, over 90% of the stores show increasing returns to scale during 88% of the period analyzed. The company faces a clear problem of productivity in its retailing operations. This deficiency seems to be intrinsic to the firm as it involves more than 60% of the stores. In a second stage, a quantile regression technique was used. This showed primarily that for the lowest quantiles of the efficiency score conditional distribution the coefficients on experience are very low, even close to zero, which suggests that the efforts taken by the stores in terms of experience are barely recognized by consumers in this fast-fashion retailing chain.

2015

Behavioural factors in the financial decisions of young Mozambicans

Autores
Mota, JH; Moreira, AC; Cossa, AJ;

Publicação
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Abstract
This paper seeks to analyse how behavioural factors influence the financial decisions of young Mozambican investors. The standard theory of finance assumes investors make rational financial decisions, seeking to minimise risk and maximise their expected utility. However, several studies have been conducted criticizing the assumption that investors are rational, opening the way to behavioural finance theory. According to the behavioural finance approach, financial decisions made by individuals are not based on rational thinking and their risk taking behaviour depends on their beliefs or feelings. Our analysis reveals that young Mozambicans are risk averse towards certain gains and risk lovers when faced with certain losses; they are excessively optimistic about the future; they use the information available as an anchor for their estimates; and they are so overconfident that they believe estimates in uncertain situations to be more accurate than they really are.

2015

Efficiency and convergence analysis in a women's clothing retail store chain Evidence from Portugal

Autores
Xavier, JM; Moutinho, VM; Moreira, AC;

Publicação
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to estimate retailing efficiency in a 26-store women clothing retail chain and to decompose it in several measures in order to contribute to the performance improvement of this retail service firm, as well as to compare the efficiency of the different decision making units. Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses the following measures to estimate efficiency: sigma convergence analysis; efficiency analysis; technical efficiency (TE) analysis; pure technical efficiency (PTE) analysis and scale efficiency (SE) analysis for a set of 26 stores of a women retail service brand operating in Portugal. A cross-section input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to analyse quarterly data sets from 2010 to 2013. Findings - The results show that costs with personnel are slightly increasing when analysed using the sigma convergence method, although there are some geographical differences. Moreover, it is possible to witness that the retail store chain's TE diminishes as the operations outputs do not grow as fast as input savings. On the other hand, there are no SE problems as the levels of SE are larger than pure efficiency levels. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation of the study stems from the fact that the analysis is based on a simple retail chain, which makes it a single case study. Therefore, the generalisation of the conclusions for other firms or for other periods of analysis should be made cautiously. Practical implications - It is shown that some stores have a good TE and other stores have some SE advantage. As such, it is possible to select some stores as benchmarks to deploy internal efficiency throughout the retail chain. Originality/value - The contribution of this paper is based on the application of the sigma conversion and DEA techniques to evaluate efficiency in retail service store.

2015

Entrepreneurship and national culture: How cultural differences among countries explain entrepreneurial activity

Autores
Dantas, JGL; Moreira, AC; Valente, FM;

Publicação
Handbook of Research on Internationalization of Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Global Economy

Abstract
The direct relationship between national cultural practice and entrepreneurship activities is analyzed in this chapter, based on the analysis of 44 countries. Datasets from 2012 and 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report are used to characterize three types of entrepreneurship: Early-Stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA); Necessity-Driven entrepreneurship (NDE) and Opportunity-Driven (ODE) entrepreneurship. Data sets on national cultural values are used to analyze five dimensions of Hofstede's work on cultural values (power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long/short term orientation, and uncertainty avoidance). For that, the authors use the Values Survey Module 2013, which has been adapted from Hofstede's previous work from 2010 and 2008. The main conclusion is that the three types of entrepreneurship analyzed in this chapter are differently explained by the cultural and expanded models. If the country of origin and the type of economy are useful to explain TEA, they are of no added value to explain Necessity-Driven or opportunity-driven entrepreneurship.

2015

Evaluating the strategic supply per power plant: Evidence from the Spanish wholesale electricity market

Autores
Moutinho, VMF; Moreira, AC; Mota, JH;

Publicação
International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy

Abstract
This paper analyses the relationship among marginal costs per power plant, fossil fuel prices and electricity bidding quantities in the Spanish electricity market. The results of the panel cointegration and Granger causality methods clearly indicate a differential impact of fossil fuel prices on power plants marginal costs, with a positive effect for gas power plants. The biggest negative impact on marginal costs is seen for coal technology. As a consequence of the characteristics of different production technologies, the set of marginal costs across the sample is based on coal power plants, although Endesa and Iberdrola's marginal costs are predominantly based on gas power plants. Operating costs for hydroelectric power plants are very low when compared to the thermal power plants, which is the base technology used by Endesa, since this technology is strongly dependent on the volatility of commodity markets and on the supply chain and production costs management. Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

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