Highlights Series Articles
This series of Highlights illustrates several examples of impact on society of our research. Bridging expertise across disciplines, promoting integration beyond the university level, and engaging academic into practical problem-solving are some ways in which academics can better reach and influence society.
Most taxes have distortionary impacts, creating deadweight losses in several markets. However, taxes are necessary in most economies to support public spending, leaving policy-makers with a conundrum. Environmental taxes are an exception to the rule, since their aim is to correct pre-existing externalities; thus replacing other taxes with environmental taxes could maintain overall tax revenues while improving environmental and economic outcomes, a possibility known as the “double dividend”. Catarina Roseta-Palma has developed work on environmental and resource costs in several markets, such as water and energy, and in 2014 participated in the Portuguese Commission for Green Tax Reform, promoting a wide-ranging review of environmental taxes in the country.
Sandra Loureiro and colleagues (Francisco Miranda and Elisabeth Kastenholz) have examined the perceived service quality in rural tourism context and the overall experience, as well as the emotional interrelationship between rural owners and customers that lead to intention to return and/or recommend to others. The research shows that a pleasant surprise together with a participative and immersive experience inside and outside the rural lodging enhance the attraction to the destination and the behavioral intentions. The work has influenced managers of rural lodgings and regions in Portugal and Spain.
The increase in the penetration rates of mobile phones along with the increase in the percentage of mobile-phone-only households is influencing survey companies to include mobile phone numbers in supplement to the traditional fixed phone surveys, or even change to mobile phone surveys. The research by Paula Vicente shows that mobile phones-based research poses a set of methodological issues that are distinct from those associated with fixed phone surveys, and this impacts the way market survey companies work.
The financial information disclosed by a firm is critical in supporting investment decisions, as it provides information that is useful to estimate future expected performance. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) earnings are included in the European firms’ financial statements and are subject to auditing and other controls. Non-GAAP earnings refer to alternative measures of financial performance, created entirely voluntarily by managers, disclosed in annual announcements, and are not audited nor regulated in Europe.
The research shows that managers of European firms disclose non-GAAP measures to positively influence investors’ perceptions about the firm performance and to meet earnings targets such as analysts’ forecasts of earnings. The study also shows that managers’ behaviour regarding disclosure of non-GAAP measures varies across countries. The results of the study inform investors, analysts, regulators and the general public that managers may use voluntary disclosure to strategically inflate the firm performance. Investors and regulators should be aware that strategic use of non-GAAP reporting increases in countries where laws and regulations are less protective of investors’ rights and there are less sophisticated investors. The results were particularly important for the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) who is currently issuing guidelines to discipline managers’ non-GAAP disclosure. Academic evidence about non-GAAP reporting is considered by the ESMA when issuing these guidelines. In light of these research results ESMA can consider whether to adopt or not more stringent guidelines, and whether the guidelines should vary across countries.
5. Patricia Costa_ Organizational and interpersonal determinants of team effectiveness and wellbeing
Patricia Costa has been working on the determinants of team effectiveness and well-being in the last years, and focuses particularly in the health sector. The research, published in top journals, shows that interpersonal processes are fundamental for the emergence of shared motivational states that impact on the effectiveness of the teams and on the well-being of team members. This work has been developed in connection to health services, and it has been translated in specific diagnostics and interventions, therefore impacting on workplace practices and practitioner debate.
Sandro Mendonça has examined the potential role of new indicators of innovation, in a paper published in 2004 Research Policy, the leading journal on science and technology studies. Mendonça and colleagues argued that trademarks were an underappreciated source for understanding change in the economy and that this indicator could uncover innovation in sectors like services or traditional industries. This paper has been used by public policy institutions and has remained the leading methodological reference in this area. It has been used to justify the opening up of the innovation indicator portfolio so as to highlight developments that are not captured with standard science and technology statistics like R&D spending or patents. Today the trademark indicator features regularly in reports by institutions such as the OECD or the National Science foundation in the US.
Case Study
Personal Activities not Related to Work and Presenteeism
Presenteeism is the behavior of going to work despite having a physical or a psychological problem and appears as relatively new concept in the management literature; even among professionals this concept is somewhat unknown. Since 2006, Aristides Ferreira has been studying and developing the concept through different research projects in diverse economic sectors. Specifically, most of the studies have been conducted with samples of nurses and teachers. These studies have been published in important Impact Factor journals and have brought important practical implications for managers and academicians. Even more importantly was the capacity to introduce this (apparently) new concept in the Portuguese-speaking countries, namely in Brazil and Portugal, which has brought interesting international collaborations that helped to extend the findings beyond the Portuguese boundaries.
