Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2020-04-23"
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- The role of PR in constructing trust in SMEs in PortugalPublication . Eiró-Gomes, Mafalda; Raposo, Ana Luísa Canelas RasquilhoA quarter of the portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises are managed by women and the portuguese agency for competitiveness and innovation has created a network of a hundred enterprises that beyond being leaders in their sectors have a woman as a leader. This was the universe chosen to study the importance and / or need of public relations strategies or at least tactics or actions. How do these enterprises see the PR function and how much importance do they consider PR functions have in constructing trustworthy relationships, were some of the research questions that have been addressed. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the engine of economy in Portugal and aren’t usually well known especially in the aspects that have to do with PR. Concerns with financial aspects, a certain mistrust in opening their doors to the public scrutinium, the small number of employees, are some of the aspects that tend to turn the PR function not only nonexistent, but so many times misunderstood. In general for many of these organizations ``to communicate” means exclusively “to advertise” a certain product or product line / brand. In the framework of a pragmatist worldview, a convergent parallel mixed methods approach was developed. To recollect the data an online survey was sent to all the universe (100) and interviews according to a script were conducted with the small and middle-sized enterprises CEO. Content analyses was the method chosen to organise and present the data. Main categories included aspects concerning the relevance of “public relations” strategies, tactics and actions to the overall achievements of the organization both in its institutional, political, and commercial endeavours. The research focused not only on the description of the existing elements but especially on the lack of strategies, tactics and(or) instruments and how this lack was perceived by the CEOs. Questions concerning the relevance of being seen as a trustworthy enterprise by the stakeholders were also addressed. This is a work in progress as not all the data has been already recollected and analysed. The preliminary results tend to stress the importance of some actions in what concerns PR internal functions as Christmas or team-building events, as well as a great concern in ways to promote a better use of the social, digital, networks. These are also seen as the area where to invest in what concerns the relationship with other stakeholders especially suppliers and clients. The “email” is, however, the only instrument that has been referred by all the respondents as being a useful one in their communicative endeavours. From a more critical paradigm of PR (L’Etang, 2016) to a a paradigm anchored in a systematic approach or what some have called an adaptive model of PR (Cutlip, Center and Broon, 1950; Grunig and Hunt, 1984) PR has been seen simultaneously as a persuasive managerial function or a more dialogical and co-operative one promoting certain organizational interests, in different contexts and arenas. From its american beginnings, in the first years of the twentieth century, centered in business and industries to new endeavours as those of the public and non for profit sectors in the beginning of our millennium (Wilcox, Cameron and Xifra, 2014), we found in the literature a growing preoccupation with new areas of intervention as those of public diplomacy, military public affairs or PR in healthcare (Broom and Sha, 2013) as well as challenging views that tend to equationate PR with the public interest (Johnston, 2017). Unfortunately, however, it seems that, at least in Portugal, the importance of PR for the achievement of organizational goals is still not only misunderstood, but really unrecognized..
- In-situ localized pH, pNa and dissolved O2 measurements during charge-discharge of mixed Ni–Co hydroxide electrodesPublication . Adán-Más, Alberto; Taryba, Maryna; Moura E Silva, Teresa; Guerlou-Demourgues, Liliane; Montemor, M.F.This work reports, for the first time, the use of ion-selective localized electrochemical techniques to elucidate the charge-discharge mechanism of nickel-cobalt hydroxide electrodes for electrochemical energy storage. The charge-discharge mechanism of electrodeposited nickel-cobalt hydroxide electrodes was studied in Na2SO4 0.05 M by localized in situ measurements of pH, pNa and dissolved O2 during cyclic voltammetry. Local pH and pNa distributions were recorded using micro-potentiometric sensors with liquid membrane, while dissolved O2 was monitored using a fiber-optic microsensor. These original results highlight how localized potentiometry can provide new insights to better understand the charge mechanism of metal (hydr)oxide electrodes by directly measuring the concentrations/activities of relevant species at the electrode-electrolyte interface during charge-discharge.
- Combined experimental and theoretical studies on electron transfer in potassium collisions with CCl4Publication . Regeta, K.; Kumar, S.; Cunha, T.; Mendes, Mónica; Lozano Martínez, Ana Isabel; Pereira, Pedro; Garcia, G.; Moutinho, A. M. C.; Bacchus-Montabonel, Marie-Christine; LIMAO-VIEIRA, PNegative ion formation in electron transfer experiments from fast neutral potassium (K) atom collisions with neutral tetrachloromethane (CCl4) molecules has been investigated in the laboratory frame range of 8-1000 eV. Comprehensive calculations on the electronic structure were performed for CCl4 in the presence of a potassium atom and used to help analyze the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals participating in the collision process. Additionally, K+ energy loss produced in the forward direction has served to further our knowledge on the electronic state spectroscopy of CCl4. A vertical electron affinity of -0.79 +/- 0.20 eV has been obtained and assigned to a purely repulsive transition from CCl4 ground state to the(2)T(2) state of the temporary negative ion yielding Cl- formation. Other features in the energy loss spectrum were observed for the first time and related to Cl-2(-), CCl2-, and CCl3- formation. Special attention is also given to the unresolved feature corresponding to a positive electron affinity of 0.24 +/- 0.2 eV, assigned to a vibrationally hot transition from CCl4 ground state into the triply degenerate T-2(2) excited state of the negative ion. The combined time-of-flight mass spectrometry together with K+ energy loss data represents the most comprehensive assignment of the tetrachloromethane anion yields and the role of CCl4 electronic states in collision induced dissociation to date.
- Proposal of a holistic framework to support sustainability of new product innovation processesPublication . Dias, Ana; Abreu, António; Navas, Helena V. G.; Santos, RicardoThe survival of companies in globalized and highly competitive markets, heavily depends on their ability to innovate through the creation of new products and/or services, supported by sustainable processes to prevent business failure. There are many factors regarding the interface company/stakeholders/market at all hierarchical levels, which have a major contribution to sustain innovation in processes regarding the creation of new products and services. A holistic approach of all these factors, as a whole, has not been a subject of scientific research conducting to the necessity of creating a proposal of a framework that can be integrated and systemic. Thus, this paper aims to propose a functional holistic model, which integrates the strategic, organizational and operational levels regarding market business and company interaction, as well as the set of factors to take into account to guarantee assurance that innovative processes are sustained, when new products and/or services are created or improved. Conducted through an investigation of the state of the art, by literature review, a comprehensive and integrated conceptual model was built in a deductive-inductive way. Then, the conceptual model was validated through four case studies. Finally, it was found that the conceptual framework became functional, because its applicability has beensuccessfullytestedinabusinessenvironment. Asaresult,thetooldevelopedhere,canbeuseful to measure and evaluate projects dedicated to companies that innovate in a sustainable way.