Publicações

   This paper contributes to the development of project management in companies that integrate biotechnology in their processes, given the increasing importance of this sector under the current context. The main goal is to assess project management maturity in a sample of companies that involve biotechnology processes, identifying their main weaknesses and strengths in project management. A quantitative approach was applied by analyzing the data collected through a questionnaire structured with the K-PMMM Level 2. This work allowed to diagnose 96 companies of this emerging sector, still scarcely studied as concerns project management. All participating companies recognized the importance of project management, however there are still several steps to consolidate the evaluated project management practices, once only about 12,5% reached the whole five life cycle phases of project management maturity. The originality of this work relies on the structure of the data analysis that allowed to highlight the multidimensional and simultaneous perspective of the project management maturity process. That is, a process that recognizing the need and added value of project management, implementing methodologies and tools, and having the executive and line management support. These factors must be taken care of in parallel to evolve the organization´s capacities to manage its projects consistently and long term. The study revealed that part of the participating companies meets this simultaneous multidimensional approach, although still very incompletely.

Organizations must focus on increasingly complex and customized products and production processes integrated into technological and digital evolution. Thus, shop floor operators have a more significant number of complex tasks with responsibility for their quality control, looking for high productivity levels. However, there are human limitations to deal with the increased amount of information/data resulting from the integration of new technologies. As such, the main research objective is to answer the following research question “How can the combination of recent smart technologies with the human factor contribute to employees’ involvement at the shop floor level and thus improve quality control?”. This study follows a qualitative research approach by developing a singular case study in  CPMG PSA Group – Peugeot Citroën, where two innovative Information Technology (IT) projects were implemented following the continuous improvement methodology PDCA cycle. This work contributes to highlighting the human-centered approach in the discussion of Quality 4.0 development. The main theoretical contribution of this research is the identification of a set of key elements that should be present in the integration of the information technologies in quality control, namely: Prioritizing the quality problems supported by the fundamentals knowledge and tools of traditional Quality Management (QM); building multidisciplinary teams at different organization levels; following approaches that promote continuous improvement; developing the human-centered and user-friendly perspective; implementing solutions as directly as possible in the workstation; and finally, enabling an effective communication and motivation strategies. The projects presented may inspire other organizations to integrate information technologies solutions in quality control, following the implementation process and the essential elements described in these examples. Thus, this research stresses that one should customize these projects with the involvement of shop floor operators in a human-centered and user-friendly perspective, both at the preliminary and succeeding stages. This research presents two original and customized projects, bridging the technological perspective with the human factor in the digital transformation era, supporting the worker, not replacing it. 

Using information on mutual fund trades executed from 1998 to 2017 by 31,513 individual investor clients of a major Portuguese financial institution, we study the relationship between the disposition effect, financial literacy and trading experience. We find that mutual fund investors exhibit strong disposition effect. The tendency to hold losers is partially offset with literacy: not only holding a university degree reduces the propensity to hold on to loser funds but also higher financial knowledge and stronger math skills reduce the disposition effect. Literacy also plays a role in shaping the way experience affects this bias. Evidence of the disposition effect persists after accounting for redemption fees, bad emotions, irrational beliefs, market sentiment and the existence of someone to blame.

Research on climate-driven variability in the water and energy sectors is required to drive adaptative policies to climate change and boost cross-sectorial synergies. This study addresses the role of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and East Atlantic pattern (EA) on the water-energy nexus in southern Portugal (Algarve region) from the point of view of water demand, instead of the usual point of view of hydropower production. Water at surface reservoirs and aquifers and solar and wind energy potentials (SP and WP, respectively) do not share the same dominant variability scales, but their interrelationships have implications for leveraging the use of renewable energy in the water sector, particularly through water pumping efficiency gains. Water availability is dominated by interannual fluctuations (70% of the total variance) whereas SP and WP are characterized by seasonal variability scales (98% and 41% of the total variance, respectively).

At interannual scales NAO is the main driver of low-frequency variability governing cycles in the 6-8 -year band whereas fluctuations in the 2-4 -year band are mainly associated with EA. Coupling or synchronizations between opposite phases of NAO and EA correspond to extremes in water availability. Minimum water levels in the summer and during droughts, corresponding to maximum energy demand in the water sector, are clearly connected to synchronized positive NAO and negative EA phases in the preceding winter. Recent advances in the seasonal and long-term predictability of NAO and EA climate patterns can help to improve drought resilience and groundwater sustainability and have huge potential benefits in the water-energy nexus in the Algarve region. Finally, to decarbonize freshwater supply in the Algarve, policy instruments will need to account for unregulated pumping which enable conditions for groundwater depletion, energy and water management integration and the exploration of innovative energy investments.