Search results

Most studies investigating the adoption of lean startup (LS) practices by technology new ventures focus on software startups in mature entrepreneurial ecosystems and disregard their applicability for opportunity exploitation in other technological backgrounds. This study contributes to this research stream by exploring how Brazilian technology new ventures (in different technological fields) tentatively adopt LS to exploit opportunities and whether LS is suitable to their emerging economy context.

The authors adopt an exploratory multiple-case study based on qualitative data collection and analysis of nine Brazilian biotechnology, engineering and software startups.

The study shows how technology new ventures tackle the activities of opportunity exploitation – namely, developing a product or service, acquiring human resources, gathering financial resources and setting up the organization – by leveraging LS tools and practices for business model validation; also, it identifies six contextual constraints hindering the systematic adoption of LS and reveals how technology new ventures cope with such constraints in their early stages by integrating LS with complementary strategies and practices. Furthermore, the study reveals that the systematic and comprehensive adoption of LS nurtures the development of an entrepreneurial experimental capability to explore opportunities in a quasi-scientific and hypothesis-driven fashion.

The study investigates how Brazilian engineering, biotechnology and software startups exploit opportunities and overcome constraints to business model validation through the combined adoption of LS and complementary strategies and practices and provides a set of propositions to guide future research.

Startups have attracted increased attention over the past years. While entrepreneurs develop startups to capture new business opportunities, also large companies are turning to these fast-growing organizations in efforts to become more agile. However, managing business model innovation and validation is challenging. A number of methodologies, like the Lean Startup (LS), emerged to reduce uncertainties concerning innovation-based projects, and to contribute to business model validation. Despite its popularity, the literature on the LS and its key underpinnings (Agile Methodologies and Customer Development) is sparse, lacking an integrated and structured analysis of their impacts and potentialities. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors conducted a comprehensive systematic literature review on the topic fully analyzing a final set of 71 papers.

There is a turning point in the research stream’s maturity with publications in conferences and major journals, with the predominance of empirical investigations in the European region. Articles on the topic are on the rise in several technology fields. However, the literature on the subject falls short on providing guidance to assist practitioners and scholars on the adoption and investigation of these methodologies.

The paper provides guidance for practice by presenting a staircase roadmap for the LS implementation drawing from the final set of papers reviewed.

The study categorizes the current literature through a concept map, and offers a structured research agenda beyond the categories from the thematic analysis.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a shiitake mushroom extract as a potential natural taste enhancer in low-sodium beef burgers by means of sensorial and physico-chemical assays because nowadays there is a trend in the market for the development of clean-label products.

Ten formulations of beef burgers were developed, varying in the percentage reduction in NaCl (0-75 per cent) and mushroom water extracts (obtained from a 5, 12.5, or 20 per cent mushroom homogenate). Sensory characterisation was performed by time-intensity (TI) and acceptance tests. In addition, physico-chemical analyses (pH, yield, shrinkage, shear force, and colour) were conducted.

Extracts obtained from 5, 12.5, or 20 per cent mushroom homogenate (E1, E2, and E3, respectively) did not enhance the salty taste in formulations with a 0 or 75 per cent reduction in NaCl. In formulations with a 50 per cent reduction in NaCl, all the extracts enhanced salinity perception, with E3 being the most effective. E3 also increased acceptance of colour, aroma, texture, flavour, and overall perception, although it caused changes in some physico-chemical characteristics (pH, yield, shrinkage, shear force, and colour).

The shiitake mushroom extract is a natural ingredient with a potential to serve as a taste enhancer in meat and other food products, for the purpose of reducing sodium content without compromising sensory acceptability. Therefore, this extract will enable the development of healthier products (owing to a reduction in sodium) with preserved sensory quality and will meet consumers’ requirements for the minimal use of chemical additives in food.

This paper attempts to examine new technologies, typologies, FATF recommendations and the last Spanish penal reform on money laundering.

The paper describes the potential provided via internet and electronic transfers, prepaid cards and payment services with mobile phones for executing money laundering, and comments on the Spanish penal reform on this crime.

The study finds that the new payment systems facilitate money launderers’ criminal activity. However, the development of technologies, including the internet, has unquestionable advantages involved, and even provides verification of identity or other duty of surveillance for the prevention of money laundering. Also, this paper analyzes the amendments made recently in the Spanish Criminal Code regarding money laundering.

This paper would be beneficial to the legislature. Future development of measures for the prevention of money laundering should take into account all potential threats that arise from the use of new technologies. Moreover, the long list of modifications on laundering undermines the legal certainty and the consideration of criminal law as ultima ratio, within the framework of a globalized crime policy.

The purpose of this paper is to, which involved 123 students in their last year of an administration course at a private university in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, evaluate the importance of analyzing the pressure from new technologies on the careers of young university students from a career theory perspective.

From the perspective of traditional theories, the authors used “career anchors,” and from the perspective of non-traditional theories, “intelligent careers,” in which people develop three competency groups that are transferable between organizations: knowing why; knowing how; and knowing whom. The hypotheses the authors raised were analyzed using statistical techniques and the following results were obtained: young people do not see new technologies as a threat to their current job; people who see the “Knowing How” competence as being more developed feel less pressure from new technologies; non-traditional theories show a greater potential to analyze technological pressure than traditional theories; and, finally, the nature of people’s jobs produces different impacts on the pressure of new technologies on their careers, since people who occupy positions involving more human interaction with internal or external clients feel less threatened.

It was found that the lowest mean among the constructs analyzed was the pressure from technology on career. The correlations between the competencies of intelligent careers and the perception of the pressure from technology on career were weak, but significant, whereas the “Knowing How” competency was negatively correlated with the pressure caused by technology. There was no significant influence of the anchors on the pressure from technology on career. However, incorporating the competencies of intelligent careers improved the statistical model’s fit. In associating job positions with the pressure from technology on career, administrative and operational positions showed higher averages than sales associate and management positions.

Broadly speaking, it can be noted that traditional career theories, especially the vocational counseling approach, are not sufficient to explain the impact of new technologies on careers. At the same time, one way of coping with the pressure brought about by technological advances may be in using technology itself to develop “useful professional skills,” in a manner consistent with “intelligent careers.”

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the chemical and functional composition of acerola, guava and cashew freeze-dried pomaces.

Fruit pomaces were obtained from the pulp juice industrial sector and submitted to freeze-drying. Samples were analysed for composition (macronutrients, micronutrients, moisture and ash), technological attributes (morphological, hygroscopicity, retention of oil and water and solubility), bioactive compounds (total phenolics, flavonoids, proanthocyanins, anthocyanins, carotenoids and ascorbic acid), antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Total phenolics, brown pigments and antioxidant activity of thermally treated samples were evaluated. Results were presented as mean and standard deviation, and submitted to Shapiro–Wilk normality test, and ANOVA statistical significance follows by Tukey’s post hoc test (p<0.05). Also, Pearson correlation coefficients were used to test the relationship between selected parameters.

Guava pomace had the highest insoluble fibre (40.6 per cent), protein (13.8 per cent) and lipid (9.3 per cent) contents and acerola higher soluble fibre (14.2 per cent) and water and oil holding capacity (12 and 5.4 g/g, respectively). Cashew pomace had higher solubility (45.3 per cent) and hygroscopicity (11.2 per cent). Acerola pomace had the highest phenolic content (5,331.7 mg AGE/100 g), DPPH and oxygen radical absorbance capacity antioxidant activity (63.3 and 756.6 µmol TE/g). Despite of that none of extracts showed antibacterial activity. All pomaces presented good antioxidant activity retention after thermal treatments (> 70 per cent), which might be correlated to thermally induced brown pigments.

This investigation was motivated by the large amounts of pomaces produced by the fruit pulp and juice processing industries, which represents a waste of residual phytochemicals and cause potential environmental problems. Overall, it was demonstrated that freeze-dried acerola, guava and cashew pomaces are promising ingredients for multiple food applications.

Despite the significance of knowledge sharing for competitive advantage in networked businesses like franchising systems, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding regarding the strategic value of knowledge sharing in the context of franchising. In particular, the specific contribution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in facilitating interorganizational knowledge exchange among franchising members remains inadequately understood, particularly in emerging economies. Therefore, this study aims to explore the mechanisms involved in the knowledge-sharing process facilitated by a virtual learning environment (VLE) within franchising networks and examine the role of VLEs in facilitating knowledge.

This study uses a multiple-case study approach involving 24 franchisees and the franchisor within a Brazilian franchising network operating in the furniture market to examine the role played by a VLE.

The results of the study reveal that the introduction of a VLE has played a significant role in fostering enhancements in the knowledge-sharing process among the franchisor and franchisees in the network. Moreover, the results indicate that VLEs play a significant role in overcoming geographical obstacles, thereby enabling efficient knowledge sharing between franchisees and franchisors operating in extensive territorial contexts. Finally, findings indicate that intracommercial competition acts as a prominent barrier, leading to low levels of cooperation and knowledge-sharing intent among franchisees within the network.

This study contributes to the existing knowledge by enhancing the understanding of how ICTs can facilitate knowledge sharing in organizations operating within franchising systems. Furthermore, this paper advances the comprehension of the role of networking franchising configuration and governance in supporting organizational improvements. Additional actionable insights are provided.