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- Using metaheuristics-based methods to provide sustainable market solutions, suitable to consumer needsPublication . Santos, Ricardo; Abreu, António; Monteiro, JoaquimNowadays the buildings sector is one of the key sectors to achieve sustainability, with the correspondent consumers, in particular, the household consumers, having the need to perform sustainable choices every day, regarding the appliances to be acquired from the market. This is not only due to government’s growing concerns about sustainability but also with the consumers on having sustainable solutions, given the different economic, social (including their comfort) and environmental needs. However, the existence of several electrical appliances on market, with all their different issues, brands and models, together with the several tradeoffs referred before, difficult the consumer’s choices, on having sustainable solutions in the market. Therefore, this work, presents an approach, by using Multi-Attribute Value Theory (MAVT), integrated with metaheuristics, which uses Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) to provide suitable and sustainable market solutions to a consumer, according to its own needs. Based on the achieved solutions and considering the relative importance, given to each consumer, and regarding each dimension of sustainability, it’s possible to achieve several savings, namely electrical and water consumption, CO2 emissions, among others. A case study shall be shown, to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.
- Applying social network analysis to identify project critical success factorsPublication . Nunes, Marco; Abreu, AntónioA key challenge in project management is to understand to which extent the dynamic interactions between the different project people—through formal and informal networks of collaboration that temporarily emerge across a project´s lifecycle—throughout all the phases of a project lifecycle, influence a project’s outcome. This challenge has been a growing concern to organizations that deliver projects, due their huge impact in economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Inthiswork,aheuristictwo-partmodel,supportedwiththreescientificfields—project management, risk management, and social network analysis—is proposed, to uncover and measure the extent to which the dynamic interactions of project people—as they work through networks of collaboration—across all the phases of a project lifecycle, influence a project‘s outcome, by first identifying critical success factos regarding five general project collaboration types ((1) communication and insight, (2) internal and cross collaboration, (3) know-how and power sharing, (4) clustering, and (5) team work efficiency) by analyzing delivered projects, and second, using those identified critical success factos to provide guidance in upcoming projects regarding the five project collaboration types.
- Identifying project corporate behavioral risks to support long-term sustainable cooperative partnershipsPublication . Nunes, Marco; Abreu, António; Saraiva, CéliaProjects are considered crucial building blocks whereby organizations execute and implement their short-, mid-, and long-term strategic visions. Projects are thought, developed, and implemented to solve problems, drive change, satisfy unique needs, add value, and exploit opportunities, just to name a few objectives. Although existing project management tools and techniques aim to deliver projects with success, according to the latest reviewed literature, projects still keep failing at an impressive pace. Among the extensive list of factors that may threaten project success, several articles from the research literature place particular importance on a still underexplored factor that may strongly lead to unsuccessful project delivery. This factor—usually known as corporate behavioral risks—usually emerges and evolves as organizations work together to deliver projects across a bounded period of time, and is characterized by the mix of formal and informal dynamic interactions between the different stakeholders that constitute the different organizations. Furthermore, several articles from the research literature also point out the lack of proper models to efficiently manage corporate behavioral risks as one of the major factors that may lead to projects failing. To efficiently identify and measure how such corporate behaviors may contribute to a project’s outcomes (success or failure), a heuristic model is proposed in this work, developed based on four fundamental fields ((1) project management, (2) risk management, (3) corporate behavior, and (4) social network analysis), to quantitatively analyze four critical project social networks ((1) communication, (2) problem-solving, (3) advice, and (4) trust), by applying the theory of social network analysis (SNA). The proposed model in this work is supported with a case study to illustrate its implementation and application across a project lifecycle, and how organizations can benefit from its application.
- A model to manage cooperative project risks to create knowledge and drive sustainable businessPublication . Nunes, Marco; Abreu, António; Saraiva, CéliaEfficient cooperation between organizations across all the phases of a project lifecycle is a critical factor to increase the chances of project success and drive sustainable business. However, and according to research, despite the large benefits that efficient organizational cooperation provides to organizations, they are still often reluctant to engage in cooperative partnerships. The reviewed literature argues that the major reason for such a trend is due to the lack of efficient and actionable supportive models to manage organizational cooperative risks. In this work we propose a model to efficiently support the management of organizational cooperative risks in project environments. The model, MCPx (management of cooperative projects), was developed based on four critical scientific pillars, (1) project risk management, (2) cooperative networks, (3) social network analysis, and (4) business intelligence architecture, and will analyze in a quantitative way how project cooperative behaviors evolve across a bounded time period, and to which extent they can turn into a cooperative project risk (essentially potential threats). For this matter, the MCPx model will quantitatively analyze five key project cooperative behavioral dimensions, (1) communication, (2) information sharing, (3) trust, (4) problem solving and (5) decision making, which show how dynamic interactions between project stakeholders evolve across time. The implementation and functioning principles of the MCPx model are illustrated with a case study.
- Linking entrepreneurial orientation with innovation performance in SMEs; the role of organizational commitment and transformational leadership using smart PLS-SEMPublication . Iqbal, Shuja; Moleiro Martins, José; Mata, Mário Nuno; Naz, Shumaila; Akhtar, Shamim; Abreu, AntónioEntrepreneurial orientation has become an enormously significant construct in the innovation studies literature. Predominantly for SMEs, its role has been widely recognized in almost all regional contexts across the globe. The present study is aimed at investigating the effects of entrepreneurial orientation, transformational leadership and organizational commitment on innovation performance. The data for the present study were collected from 1095 employees working at various levels in SMEs. The present study used partial least square structural equation modeling to examine the constructed hypotheses. The findings suggested the significantly positive direct relationships among entrepreneurial orientations, organizational commitment and innovation performance. Besides, organizational commitment positively mediated the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and innovation performance. Additionally, this study also found the significant moderation of transformational leadership among entrepreneurship orientation and organizational commitment. Leaders of small and medium-sized enterprises should practice entrepreneurial orientation (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking) and transformation leadership (articulating a compelling vision, focus on goal achievement, and creative problem solving) to enhance the innovation performance of their firms. Moreover, this study provides a robust mechanism for leaders at SMEs to develop strategies for enhancing the willingness of the firms to bring innovation and offer new products and services. The policymakers should enhance the emotional attachment of employees with their firms, sense of moral obligation to remain with the firm which will, in turn, increase the organizational commitment of employees for innovation performance. The study provides empirical evidence to the resource-based view in the context of SMEs. The study delivers solid theoretical and practical implications to experts, leaders and policymakers.
- Exploring the relationship between communication and success of construction projects: the mediating role of conflictPublication . Malik, Summaira; Taqi, Muhammad; Moleiro Martins, José; Mata, Mário Nuno; Pereira, J.M; Abreu, AntónioThe success of a construction project is a widely discussed topic, even today, and there exists a difference of opinion. The impact of communication and conflict on project success is an important, but least addressed, issue in literature, especially in the case of underdeveloped countries. Miscommunication and conflict not only hinder the success of a project but also may lead to conflicts. The focus of this paper was to examine the impact of communication on project success with the mediating role of conflict. By using SPSS, demographics, descriptive statistics and correlation were determined. Smart PLS version 3.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal accuracy and validity estimates, hypothesis checking and mediation testing. The results showed that formal communication has a negative impact on the success of a construction project, resulting in conflicts among project team members, whereas informal communication and communication willingness have a positive impact on project success because people tend to know each other, and trust is developed. Task, process and relationship conflicts were used as mediating variables. It was found that task conflict effects the relations positively because project team members suggest different ways to do a certain task, and, hence, project success is achieved. On the contrary, process conflict and relationship conflict have a negative impact on communication and project success. Both of these conflicts lead to miscommunication, and project success is compromised. Hence, it is the responsibility of the project manager to enhance communication among project team members and to reduce the detrimental effects of process and relationship conflict on project success.
- A new approach for agile teams' allocation in open innovation projectsPublication . Anes, Vitor; Abreu, António; Dias, Ana; Calado, João Manuel FerreiraDue to constant change in the marketplace, it can be difficult for companies to secure the material, human, and technological resources necessary for competitive innovation activities. In this sense, and to overcome these constraints, the open innovation model is a quite successful approach, where the sharing of resources among companies allows the formation of an innovation ecosystem. However, the execution time of these projects can be negatively affected if the performance of each work team is not taken into account. In this work, the application of the agile approach in open innovation projects is proposed as a way to reduce the uncertainty both in the execution time of the projects and in the respective implementation costs. In this sense, a methodology for optimal team assignment for agile teams in open innovation projects according to their performance on each project task is developed to determine the optimal team assignment that leads to the shortest project execution time. This methodology will support decision making in the project management of open innovation projects, especially in the selection of the internal and external work teams that will participate in a given innovation project. The application of the proposed methodology is illustrated with an example describing and analyzing the different steps of its application. The results show that with the proposed methodology it is possible to take into account the performance of each team when calculating the project execution time and that the project execution time varies depending on the assignment of the agile teams to the project tasks. It is also shown that it is possible to determine the optimal assignment with the shortest project execution time.
- The role of self-esteem, optimism, deliberative thinking and self-control in shaping the financial behavior and financial well-being of young adultsPublication . Hashmi, Fatima; Aftab, Hira; Moleiro Martins, José; Mata, Mário Nuno; Qureshi, Hamza Ahmad; Abreu, António; Mata, PedroThe sustainable financial behavior and financial well-being have been a key concern among the developing societies; thereby encompassing the various psychological factors which play a role in influencing individual’s positive financial behavior and financial well-being, this study is conducted. Research focusing on the psychological aspect of human financial behavior and well-being is scarce, focusing more on the cognitive side such as financial literacy and numeracy. The aim of this research study is to find the role played by the non-cognitive factors such as self-esteem, self-control, optimism and deliberative thinking, in forming the financial behavior and financial well-being of the young adults. A sample of 429 university students from public and private sector was collected via an online and field survey using purposive sampling technique. The survey contained measures for demographics, self-esteem, optimism, deliberative thinking, self-control, general financial behavior and financial well-being. SPSS and PLS-SEM tools were used for the exploration of the relationships among dependent and independent variables. The results of PLS path analysis demonstrate that among the non-cognitive factors, self-control and deliberative thinking show a significant association with both financial behavior, and financial security. Self-esteem plays no significant role in forming the financial behavior of the young adults when all the variables are taken together but it exhibits a significant association with financial well-being (financial security and financial anxiety). Optimism on the other hand exhibits no significant association with both financial behavior and financial well-being (financial security and financial anxiety). The results of this study complement the previous studies and also put forth new outcomes. This research is unique as it is the first of its kind conducted in a consumption-oriented economy like Pakistan. In addition to the previous studies which have often established the link of self-esteem with general well-being, this study goes further by analyzing the association between self-esteem and financial well-being and by the identification of the role played by non-cognitive factors like self-esteem, optimism, deliberative thinking and self-control together on the financial behavior and financial well-being of the individuals using PLS-SEM approach.
- A soft computing framework to support consumers in obtaining sustainable appliances from the marketPublication . Santos, Ricardo; Abreu, António; Soares, José; Mendes, Fernanda; Calado, João Manuel FerreiraCurrently, sustainability is considered a priority by society, with the household appliances being one of the economic sectors involved in achieving sustainability. However, the existence of several issues (e.g., energy and water consumption, reliability, initial cost, and illuminance, among others) together with the diversity of brands and models on the market, make the consumer’s decisions regarding sustainable options difficult, according to their concerns and related to each sustainability dimension (economic, environmental, and social). By combining evolutionary algorithms (EA) with multicriteria techniques, it is possible to achieve sustainable solutions for the consumer based on their requirements. In this paper, a method is presented to support the consumer by obtaining a set of sustainable household appliances on the market that suit their preferences, concerns, and needs. By using a case study to apply the approach developed here, a set of sustainable appliances from the market is obtained, where several benefits are achieved (e.g., energy and water consumption savings, avoidance of CO2 emissions) during the lifecycle of each appliance, chosen from the appliance’s industry.
- A framework based on fuzzy logic to manage risk in an open innovation contextPublication . Santos, Ricardo; Abreu, António; Calado, João Manuel Ferreira; Soares, José Miguel; Martins, José Duarte MoleiroVirtual enterprises (VE), is well-known to make use of open innovation to achieve competitiveness, through innovation on product development. However, its limited resources, combined with the innovation resulted from the diversity of partners involved, rises some challenges to its management, specifically regarded with risk management. To fulfill these requirements, risk management's models, have been conceived to assist managers, on preventing threats with such risks, although without adequately incorporate the influence of each process domain on product development, as well as the subjectivity regarding human perception. In order to consider these issues, this work presents an approach, supported by fuzzy logic, to assess the risk's level on product development in an open innovation context. The model robustness, will be assessed through a case study, where it will be also discussed the benefits and challenges found.
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