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Articles successfully submitted to and presented at IMC 2015: The International Management Conference

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Os casos de estudo sobre organizações e empresas são um veículo de comunicação de excelência na área da gestão. Este livro reúne uma série de casos de estudo que abordam a inovação e a diferenciação, a internacionalização, o marketing, a evolução estratégica, os modelos de negócio (e como são afetados pela tecnologia), as aquisições de empresas, e tem ainda um caso de estudo sobre a responsabilidade social (área de crescente importância para todo o tipo de organizações). A estratégia e o marketing são áreas de saber muito próximas, sendo dadas em conjunto em várias escolas de negócio no mundo inteiro. (...)

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The application of big data analytics in all fields of research is a critical driver for the competitiveness of all countries in the modern world. Currently, governments and industry generate large amounts of data driven by record keeping, compliance, regulations, data privacy, and dynamic requirements, and thus there is a need to create better mechanisms to analyse data, and hence support organizational development, as well as providing aid to policymakers’ decision-making processes. In this context, there are emerging disruptive opportunities because of Big Data: new business models, and vertical industry segments will emerge through shared relationships with all the stakeholders, and big data analytics is a major asset to support these dynamic relationships. This book was developed with the objective of analysing some of those challenges while at the same time providing a perspective of the potential of big data analytics, and the importance that analytics have for managers and for policymakers, to help define new strategies and new public policies, respectively. The book is focused on different sectors of activity (i.e. the Health sector, Public Administration, the Education sector, among others), and on different economic dimensions (i.e. Entrepreneurship, and Innovation) and links big data analytics to different fields of research, such as artificial intelligence and other emergent technologies; which are challenging organisations, governments, and societies, with the need to face the new imperative of being prepared for the very uncertain and tremendously complex future - in which big data analytics will play a very decisive and active role.

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The purpose of this study is to ascertain the hierarchical importance of a patent's characteristics to licensing. This research has a causal-exploratory purpose, in that it sought to establish relationships between variables. This research aims to identify which characteristics are influential in the licensing of Brazilian academic patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical technology fields, based on the mining of data contained in licensed and unlicensed patent documents. Which characteristics of Brazilian academic patents are most influential in their licensing potential? An analysis through Random Forest was performed. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies in Brazil using machine learning to identify which characteristics are influential in licensing a particular academic patent, especially given the difficulty of gathering this information. We found that regardless of the measure used, the three most critical licensing characteristics for the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical patents analysed are Patent Scope, Life Cycle, and Claims. At the same time, the least important is the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The relevance of this research is based on the fact that after identifying which intrinsic characteristics influence the final value and licensing probabilities of a given patent, it will be possible to develop mathematical models that provide accurate information for establishing technology transfer agreements. In practical terms, the results suggest that greater patent versatility, combined with lifecycle management and a technical effort to build strong claims, increases the licensing potential of academic biopharmaceutical patents.

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The growing use of technology and social media has resulted in the emergence of digital influencers, a new profession capable of changing the mentalities and behaviours of those who follow them. This study arises to better understand the potential impact digital influencers might have on the Portuguese population’s purchase behaviour and patterns, and for this purpose, seven hypotheses were formulated. An online questionnaire was conducted to respond to these theoretical assumptions and collected data from 175 respondents. A total of 129 valid answers were considered. It was possible to conclude that purchase intention does not necessarily translate into a purchase action. It was also concluded that the relationship between social network use and the purchase of products/services recommended by influencers is only significant for Instagram. Furthermore, individuals’ Generation is not significantly linked with purchasing a product/service recommended by influencers. Furthermore, a small percentage of respondents have also identified themselves as impulsive shoppers and perceived Instagram as their favourite social network. With the results of this study, it is also possible to state that the influencer’s opinion was classified as the last factor considered in the purchase decision process. Additionally, there is a weak negative association between purchasing a product/service recommended by influencers with sponsorship disclosure and remunerated partnership, which decreases credibility and discourages purchasing.

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The thermal SPA sector is currently experiencing a stable growth trend, which according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO) is expected to continue over the upcoming years. In Portugal, the sector has a very significant profile, with the existence of almost a hundred SPAs and thermal SPAs that generate a business volume (direct and indirect) of over 30 M€ per year. Although the beginning of the process of digital transformation of the sector is already visible, there is no holistic view of the sector which means that the currently existing information systems (IS) do not present a useful response to the needs faced by the sector. Therefore, an architecture proposal was conceived and described for an IS that provides a useful, efficient, and agile response to the needs of the entire thermalism sector and its stakeholders. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.