Browsing by Author "Castanho, Rui Alexandre"
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- Brand and Competitiveness in Health and Wellness TourismPublication . Santos, Eleonora; Crespo, Cátia; Moreira, Jacinta; Castanho, Rui AlexandreHealth and wellness tourism is growing worldwide, triggering a resurgence of competition in this segment and a clear need for the supply to develop new products and services, increasingly creative and exclusive, capable of attracting tourists. Thermal waters in Portugal are considered very rich in terms of chemical composition, which makes their use highly important in various wellness and rejuvenating therapies like balneotherapy, thermalism, etc. This enables the country to pursue a differentiated wellness-related experience product, which is a key determinant of customer loyalty and can play an important role in regional development. Natural resources contribute to the strengths of territories and can be leveraged by marketing tools such as brands. This article intends to draw inferences about the effect of the brand on the competitiveness of the wellness tourism supply, across NUTS II regions of the continent, during the period of ten years, with a special focus on the recent period of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a sample of 10 spas in Portugal, retrieved from SABI database, we analyze the evolution of four competitiveness indicators: market share, productivity, return on investment and talent retention, for 2010–2020, by clusters of firms with and without brand. The correlation analysis between brand and competitiveness indicators suggests a strong positive and significant relationship between brand and market share, in the Centro and Lisbon regions, starting in 2017 and increasing over time. Finally, some recommendations on tourism management are made to improve the competitiveness of the supply.
- Business Plan Globetrot Plus Blockchain B2C Artificial Intelligence Solution for Tourism IndustryPublication . Syed, Hassan; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Santos, Eleonora; García, Pablo Juan Cárdenas; Franco, MaraTravel is the ideal outcome for online diffusion. Unlike buying in most industries, the travel trade implicates the exchange, not physical inventory; however, it demands information. The tourist must select from many imaginable products, services, and fees that may differ with the minor adjustment of any parameters. Suppose, for example, a one-way airplane ticket. That ticket, for the same seat on an equivalent airplane, could be significantly more or less costly should the consumer decide to take delivery of the product (i.e., departure date or time) only a few hours earlier or later. The price for the same effect could likewise vary if the tourist was to complete the acquisition a day before or later. The special dynamics of travel shopping and buying are ideally fitted to the Internet, and the result of this creative medium has been nothing less than stunning. In this regard, the article is based on direct and indirect methods—being the literature review the most used technique. Contextually, in this study, it is possible to verify that the AI-combined Blockchain solution may seem a bit advanced at this stage; however, with further innovations, entering the applied field will certainty make this concept a reality.
- Business Strategies and University-Pharmaceutical Industry CollaborationPublication . Santos, Eleonora; Moreira, Jacinta; Castanho, Rui AlexandreThe literature provides plenty of evidence that innovation is a key driver of corporate competitiveness. However, R&D involves many financial resources. Thus, a way to overcome firms’ financial constraints is to form partnerships and collaborations with universities, usually funded by public capital, to achieve strategic corporate objectives. Therefore, and considering that the pharmaceutical industry is the one that most depends on the results of R&D, this article is a case study of how a pharmaceutical company in the Centro region of Portugal, where there is already a health cluster, incorporated the collaboration with the university in its long-term business strategy. We employ a narrative analysis of the media news, to show the management capacity in dealing with numerous and continuous challenges of the present context to continue pursuing the company’s long-term goals. The results show that the corporate strategy is based on two main aspects, on the one hand, collaboration with the university aiming at technological differentiation and, on the other, on the flexibility of production to achieve long term growth. Our contribution to the literature on the subject is twofold. First, we introduce the specific case of the pharmaceutical industry and argue that geographical distance is important to establish collaborations with academia due to the nature of the research (human health) that relies greatly in labs with human experiments. Second, we identify and highlight the role of Innovation prizes and publishing agreements as part of a strategy to attract talents and gain access to innovation, and to retain and increase the number of customers, as well as to improve the company's notoriety and reputation.
- Competitiveness of the Medical Tourism Supply in PortugalPublication . Santos, Eleonora; Moreira, Jacinta; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Carvalho, Milena; Martins, SusanaSince 2008, government and private hospitals, recognizing the growth potential of specialization in certain medical procedures, started to promote Portugal as a medical tourism destination. As a result, the country is internationally recognized in areas such as oncology, neuroscience, immunology, nanomedicine, and regenerative medicine, and as having an internationally accredited modern healthcare network based on innovation in therapeutic processes and products, qualified professionals, and state-of-the-art equipment. However, previous literature suggests that the lack of cooperation between the stakeholders is major obstacle to international performance. Moreover, the pandemic has caused restrictions to international travels, contributing to the decrease of demand for medical tourism. Thus, this paper analyzes the evolution of the competitiveness of the medical tourism supply during the pandemic. Using an unbalanced panel of 157 private hospitals, collected from SABI for 2011 to 2020, we calculated four performance indicators: market share, return on investment, productivity and talent retention. Results point to the possession of key factors to ensure the success and development of a consolidated supply of medical tourism. The paper makes recommendations on the strategies to increase competitiveness of medical tourism supply
- Is Investment Contributing to Competitiveness in Nautical Tourism in the Atlantic Area?Publication . Santos, Eleonora; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Meyer, DanielThe blue economy contributes significantly to the creation of the Atlantic Area’s identity. In addition, the search for outdoor experiences after the COVID-19 lockdown suspensions has renewed the popularity of nautical tourism in this area and in the world. Despite the negative effects of the economic crisis on tourism, evidence suggests that some tourist destinations in the Atlantic area are resilient. Thus, whereas some branches of the blue economy face considerable challenges to increasing competitiveness, others offer opportunities for economic growth and employment. In this context, investment is necessary to lay the foundations for the sustainable development of nautical tourism. However, regarding the role of investment in productivity and competitiveness in the context of crisis, there is no consensus among academics. Thus, we investigate whether the investment contributed to competitiveness in nautical tourism in the Atlantic Area in 2016–2020. We collected data from ORBIS for 29 nautical-tourism companies and performed a quantitative and qualitative narrative analysis of competitiveness indicators, enabling comparisons pre and during crisis. The results highlight the multiplicity of ways in which crisis impacts nautical-tourism firms. The research fills a gap in the literature by investigating the dynamic capabilities of nautical-tourism SMEs in periods of recession, with a special focus on restructuring and competitiveness strategies. Some recommendations are outlined to promote the efficiency of resources and stimulate the competitiveness of companies to allow the regional development of nautical tourism in the territory of the Atlantic area.
- Manufacturing Productivity and FDI Externalities: is Small Beautiful?Publication . Santos, Eleonora; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Couto, GualterThe role of FDI as a vehicle for economic growth is debatable in practice. On the other hand, the size of the company and the technological groups can influence the occurrence and magnitude of FDI externalities. Thus, this article investigates the impact of firm size on the occurrence of foreign direct investment externalities in the Portuguese industry from 1995 to 2007, by technology groups, using panel data at the firm level. To this end, we estimate the TFP and regress it on a set of variables, including the foreign presence in the same sector, upstream and downstream. The results show that only (small and large) companies in scale-intensive industries; and small firms in science-based industries benefit from the positive externalities of FDI. This suggests that firm size can influence the occurrence of FDI externalities in the manufacturing sector, but only in some technology groups. Based on the results, investment policy recommendations are made.
- Promoting Social Innovation Projects with an Online Course: Creating Global Solutions for SustainabilityPublication . Calvo, Sara; Morales, Andrés; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Santos, EleonoraSocial innovation is the process by which new ways of doing things are created to respond to the needs of society. This can be technological, for example embracing online or open-source technology, or it can be social, fostering local entrepreneurship. The objective of this chapter is to explore social innovation initiatives that have been carried out because of an online course created in FutureLearn. This study aims to provide the reader with an idea of the relevance of social innovation to create global solutions. This study included a mixed methods approach; a FutureLearn dataset, a feedback questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews with learners. The MOOC was reported to provide confidence for those starting Social Innovation related initiatives. The findings confirmed that some learners have used the course to grow or scale their existing projects. It also confirmed that learners had been sharing the learning with a wide range of other projects and individuals. This demonstrates a way of scaling up social innovation knowledge, ideas and projects that would never be possible with other face to face or online conventional courses. This research offers insight into the development of sustainable social innovation initiatives and how educational technology facilitates and enhance these processes. This study will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of social innovation, education, and sustainability.
- The Impact of Size on the Performance of Transnational Corporations Operating in the Textile Industry in Portugal during the COVID-19 PandemicPublication . Santos, Eleonora; Castanho, Rui AlexandreThe aim of this work is to understand the impact of size on the performance of transnational corporations (TNCs) operating in the textile and clothing industry in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, we used ORBIS data for the period 2019–2020 and narrative, financial and correlation analyses to assess the performance of five companies. Thus far, the impact of company size on the competitiveness of Portuguese textile affiliates during the pandemic has remained unexplored. The results show that smaller firms performed better than larger ones, likely due to the higher fixed costs of the latter at times when orders declined worldwide. Our analysis suggests that there are some characteristics of TNCs that matter in explaining company-level performance during crises, such as management experience and flexibility. Furthermore, as Portugal is a major European textile exporter, it is useful for the host country to assess the economic sustainability of its foreign investors. The results provide some policy recommendations regarding the promotion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Portugal.