Maria Clara Vaz

Abstract
The European Union (EU) has been promoting diverse initiatives towards sustainable development and environment protection. One of these initiatives is the reduction of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 60% below their 1990 level, by 2050. As the transport sector is responsible for more than 22% of those emissions some strategies need to be taken towards a more sustainable mobility, as the ones proposed in 2011 White Paper on transport. Under this context, this study aims to evaluate the environmental performance of the transport sector in the 28 EU countries towards these goals, from 2015 to 2017. The transport environmental performance is measured through the composite indicator derived from the Benefit of the Doubt (BoD) model. The country transport environmental performance is assessed through the aggregation of multiple sub-indicators using the composite indicator derived from the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. The results indicate that the EU countries slightly improved their transport environmental performance, on average 2.8%. The areas where the inefficient countries need more improvement were also identified: reducing the GHG emissions from fossil fuels, increasing the share of transport energy from renewable sources and improving the public transport share of the total passenger transport. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

Abstract
The Hospitality industry is one of the main sectors of tourism activity, being important to assess the performance of the hotel companies. The aim of the present paper is to study the financial performance of 570 companies operating hotel units in Portugal, in 2017, allowing for comparison among companies with similar stars rating and market orientation to explore the question of branded and non-branded affiliation. This issue is studied using a methodology based on Data Envelopment Analysis to assess the overall performance for each company. The hotel company performance is assessed through the aggregation of multiple financial indicators using the composite indicator derived from the DEA model. The empirical results show that the hotel branded companies have, on average, significantly, higher overall financial performance than hotel non-branded companies. Although, the best practices are observed in hotel branded and non-branded companies. This analysis can support the strategic decision process of the hotel companies in choosing to operate independently or selecting a brand affiliation.

Abstract
The European Union (EU) has been promoting an integrated approach to climate protection and energy policy, through a set of key objectives for 2020, 2030 and 2050, linking Europe’s green agenda with its need for energy security and competitiveness. This paper aims to evaluate the environmental efficiency of European Countries from 2010 to 2015 towards 2020 targets, through a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. The DEA model assesses the ability of each country in minimizing current resources while maximizing the gross domestic product (GDP) and minimizing undesirable outputs, such as GhG emissions. The DEA model is based on Directional Distance Function (DDF), imposing weak disposability for the undesirable output (UO). Results obtained show that globally, in the period under analysis, the EU has increased its environmental efficiency which is consistent with the analysis of the indicators of the 2020 climate and energy package. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Abstract
This study aims to evaluate the economic efficiency of Nursing Homes owned by 96 Santas Casas da Misericórdia (SCM) and the determinants that influenced their efficiency in 2012 and 2013. The SCM are the oldest non-profit entities, which belong to Third Sector in Portugal, provide this social response and receive significant financial contributions annually from the state. The study is developed in two stages. In the first stage, the efficiency scores were calculated through the non-parametric DEA technique. In the second stage, Tobit regression is used to verify the effect of certain organizational variables on efficiency, namely the number of users and existence of Nursing Home chains. The results of the DEA model show that the efficiency average is 81.9%, and only 10 out of 96 Nursing Homes are efficient. Tobit regression shows that the number of users has a positive effect on the efficiency of Nursing Homes, whereas the existence of Nursing Home chains affects their efficiency negatively. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.

Abstract
This paper aims to analyse the bi-directional relationship between technical efficiency, as a measure of companies’ performance, and capital structure, under the agency cost theory as well as the pecking order and trade-off theory, to explain the capital structure decisions. The technical efficiency was estimated by the DEA method and corrected by using a suitable bootstrap to obtain statistical inferences. To test the agency cost hypothesis, asymmetric information hypothesis, risk-efficiency hypothesis and franchise value hypothesis (under pecking order and trade off theories framework), two models were applied using some determinants of capital structure such as size, profitability, tangibility, liquidity as control and explanatory variables through a truncated regression with bootstrapping. From an initial sample of 1024 small and medium sized companies from the interior of Portugal, for the period 2006–2009, a subsample of 210 SMEs from secondary and tertiary sectors was selected. The results suggest that medium sized companies have higher average bias-corrected efficiency than small companies; that short-term leverage is positively related to efficiency and that the companies in the sample follow pecking order theory. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.