ABSTRACT. The purpose of this article is to conduct a systematic literature review(SLR)to present a conceptual approach to the strategic importance of communication in the thermalism sector.Through an in-depth analysis of scientific publications, it is intended to provide an understanding of the definition of thermalism and to understand the relationship between communication, tourism destination brand, experience brand and thermalism. To achieve the objectives,an SLR was carried out, through the PRISMA method, performed in May2021using the WebofScience and Scopus databases.A total of 133articles were found, of which only 31were used for the qualitative analysis. EndNote and Nvivo software was used to identify the articles for the study, their analysis and systematization of the collected information. The results,among others, identified the existence of an ambiguity of terms related to thermalism.Articles on branding and destination positioning with an impact on thermalism are scarce.Through an in-depth analysis of scientific publications,this study provides relevant results for better understanding of the destination's perspective in the international thermalism context for future research and a destination’s tourism communication strategy practices.For better understanding and disambiguation of the concepts, this study proposes a new definition of thermalism.It provides a framework of destination attributes in the international thermalism context for future research and practice in a destination’s tourism communication strategy.By elaborating a conceptual model,it also contributes to identifying themes, strategies and guidelines operationalized with an impact concerning publications for the creation of a thermalism destination brand.The analysis highlights the need to continue to develop knowledge in a sector with great growth potential,i.e.,thermalism.

ABSTRACT. Different approaches to accounting for the life cycle costs of a product make it difficult to achieve further development of the concept, to integrate it with the life cycle environmental analysis (LCA), and, consequently, to include sustainability criteria in business decision making, hindering the attainment of more respectful and circular practices in the industry. This study aims at establishing a comprehensive method that allows, regardless of the cost methodology applied, the scope of the study, or the sensitivity analysis that accompanies it, to carry out a cost assessment that is compatible and integrable with a standardized LCA. The proposed methodology is proved efficient in contributing to decision making, enabling the industry to move towards more sustainable and circular practices.

ABSTRACT. Digital entrepreneurship is defined as an activity in which some or all practices of pursuing new venture opportunities are presented, or take place, in a digital form. The always-new information and communication technologies (ICT) emerge as a mediator for innovation and new business perspectives. The disruptive process caused by the digitalisation process affects business competitive and involves the decision-making process to start a new venture. This study explores the strategies applied to the digital entrepreneurship and how it affects the competitiveness of new digital business in the market, through a systematic literature review, investigating how it affects entrepreneurial thinking, business competitiveness and the models adopted by these ventures. The literature suggests five clusters of which digital entrepreneurship strategies can be traced: a company digitalisation degree, the digital business model perspectives, perceived uncertainty, social digital-mediated interactions and the new digital entrepreneur profile. Through the analysis of these clusters, research themes are suggested, and a research agenda to study the strategies toward digital entrepreneurship can be outlined in the strategic management research field.

ABSTRACT. Logistics is the process of planning, executing and controlling the flow and storage of articles effectively and efficiently in terms of time, quality and costs of raw materials, finished products and services, covering from the point of origin to the point of consumption, in order to meet consumer requirements. In turn, supply chain management consists of “managing relationships, upstream and downstream, with suppliers and customers to deliver superior value to the end customer, at a lower cost for the entire supply chain” (Guedes et al., 2010). In the literature, logistics and the supply chain are often treated as synonyms, however, in practice, the supply chain has a more strategic nature, deals more with links in the chain, with contracts, with the selection of suppliers, information and financial flows, with material flows, creating new facilities, such as factories, warehouses and distribution centers as well as in broader issues such as economy, society, government and the environment, while logistics is more oriented to operations and the limited work of transporting and storing goods. However, it can be seen that logistics is the core of the supply chain; if logistics fails the entire chain is at stake. This article focuses on the study of an approach to the logistics and supply chain of a large retail unit, with a special impact on the main functions of storage, order processing and transportation of goods, and of the entire environment of this process, whether the upstream or downstream.

ABSTRACT. Research in creative industries is mostly focused on urban and metropolitan areas. However, various authors have approached the creative industries from a regional, rural or remote point of view. The objectives of this article are to make a literature review about creative industries in low-density areas, to provide a global perspective on the subject, identify the main theories and suggest future lines of research. This article combines the systematic and bibliometric me- thods of literature review. We conclude that research on creative industries in low-density areas is growing and shows potential for- development of these territories, however, it is a subject in need of consolidation. This is the first systematic literature review about creative industries and low-density or sparsely populated areas.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this article is to review and analyse the existing and available literature on Artisan Entrepreneurship, identifying the evolution of the articles published and their citations over the years, the geographical areas and methodologies applied in these publications, as well as to identify, through bibliometric and lexical analyses, the most cited authors, articles, cited journals and magazines, but also the most frequent terms and branches of the thematic areas portrayed in the abstracts. This article also intends to present a new agenda that will lead to future research based on the trends, themes and identified opportunities. The systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted by searching Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS databases. Assertive bibliometric and lexical analyses was performed through the use of VosViewer and TreeCloud software, identifying a set of relevant information about the research field under study. This SLR concludes that the research conducted on artisan entrepreneurship contributes to a better understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour, context, motivation, development, resources, diversity and coopetition between artisans. Also of note is the relationship between geography and entrepreneurship in craft, artisan and community, coexistence of social and economic objectives in a concept of Symbolic Capital. This study also revealed and identified the importance and development of artisan entrepreneurship, highlighting trends and suggestions for future research through the definition of a new agenda.

ABSTRACT. Entrepreneurship has been a source of an increasing number of studies in recent decades. The reasoning beyond this increasement in published research is related with the role entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship play in generating wealth. Furthermore, previous studies shown that immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial individuals than native ones and that gender and marital status are strong factors in determining self-employment. Therefore, this study uses a hybrid methodology, including bibliometric methods, topic models and a case study approach to offer a better ability to interpret and understand the roots and development of the phenomenon associated with Minorities Groups in Entrepreneurship.

ABSTRACT. The constant changes in sociocultural conditions in the global market and the tremendous growth in the number of women's companies culminates in the growing interest in research on female entrepreneurship (Brush, 1992; Moreira et al., 2019). The main objective of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of how the economies of Europe and Central Asia group in terms of female entrepreneurship. The research was based on a quantitative analysis of data from companies belonging to 35 countries in Europe and Central Asia, using a multivariate technique, namely Cluster Analysis. This study has as an implication a better understanding of how the economies of Europe and Central Asia are distributed in terms of female entrepreneurship. The results of the study suggest that the economies of Europe and Central Asia can be divided into two groups and the difference between the two clusters can be justified by the role of women in the countries concerned.

ABSTRACT. Investors are increasingly aware of the desirability of a sustainable and responsible valuation of financial assets. The socially responsible investment (SRI) market has been growing in recent years both in the US and in Europe. This new study will focus on the performance evaluation of three different types of portfolios, the green mutual funds, the SRI funds, and the conventional mutual funds, by taking into account some classical purely financial indicators: beta, standard deviation, alpha, and return. The purpose is to understand whether the new investment trend, when compared with conventional mutual funds considering only financial factors are equally attractive since, these funds promise a financial return and allow investors to create positive externalities for society and the environment. Our database consists of 30 mutual funds in which the first 10 are labeled green mutual funds, the next 10 are SRI, and the last 10 are the conventional mutual funds. The Value-Based Data Envelopment Analysis method combines Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Multi-Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA). The Value-Based DEA method proves to be particularly useful in this type of work once it converts inputs and outputs into value scales. In this case, we have used non-linear value functions for all the factors in evaluation, in particular, we have assumed that the value function for the output factors is inspired the one of Tversky and Kahneman, i.e., normally concave for gains (implying aversion to risk), and convex with a steeper slope for losses (search for risk and aversion to loss).

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to study the impact of investments in the performance of 457 Portuguese energy companies, in the period between 2011 and 2018. We have used the panel data methodology, specifically, the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM)system estimation method developed by Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998). The results point out that the investment variables, namely intangible assets, have an impact on the performance of companies, probably because these assets are currently the most relevant for public opinion and for managers who work above all for a market image. In the case of shareholders, they show greater interest in ROE by admitting that available money can bring more profitability and more potential for individual growth, while managers take into account weighted management of the company's liquidity, through the Ebitda margin.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to understand what a Regional Innovation System (RIS) consists of and how the interactions among the actors that compose it take place and what results they produce. From this, analyses will be carried out on the results obtained through studies about the area, with the objective of forming new analyses about the analyzed RIS. Thus, the work first presents a brief discussion about what can be considered a Regional Innovation System and what defines a cluster. For the confection of this work, it was opted to use the methodology of meta-synthesis, with the objective of analyzing in a broader way the results obtained in specialized articles in the area whose at least one of the methodological approaches applied is the case study. It is concluded that even though there are several discrepancies among the studied geographical areas, it was possible to find similarities, such as the presence of local governments in stimulating the formation of the RIS and the need for interaction among the players so that the regions prosper.

ABSTRACT. In the complex context of the current social and economic challenges, worsened by the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the discussion on “a future for all places” has gained momentum among scholars and policymakers. Nonetheless, the excessive spotlight on urban areas of Covid-19 analyses does not fully capture the different territorial realities and the specific challenges of places less populated, peripheral and lagging economically and socially. Using evidence from ESPON and Portuguese case studies, this work identifies key dimensions for the sustainable development of Low-Density Territories, understands the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and pinpoints development opportunities created or accelerated by the pandemic in those territories. This work provides important implications for researchers and policymakers by providing an in-depth understanding of LDTs reality and allowing other researchers and local/regional policymakers to get in touch with ESPON evidence and field case studies and adapt some recommendations and policy answers to their local ecosystems in a post-pandemic reality.

ABSTRACT. The 2015-2030 agenda framed Sustainable Development as a Universal venture. This decision has a great historic significance as it encompasses building a better future for the whole humanity, enrolling the millions who have been denied the chance to live a decent, dignified and fulfilling life and to achieve their potential. For the first time, an entire generation will have the chance to succeed in ending poverty while being the last to have a chance of saving the planet. The world will be a better place in 2030 humanity succeeds in this journey. The article aims to empirically test the incompatibilities among these objectives demonstrating that unless solid bridges are built promoting innovative networks at a transnational level, these targets will compromise welfare and prosperity among those ecosystems. Results evidence that the SDG pillars have heterogeneous determinants, being in some dimensions incompatible. Moreover, policy makers need to further reinforce multi-country compensations if the environment is to be preserved.

ABSTRACT. Social Sustainable Business Models (SSBMs) are a strategy, based on a set of transformations made to traditional business models, in order to improve the organizations sustainability at a social level. This level covers areas like human stakeholders, its well-being, and workers rights (payment and work conditions or parity between genders). However, there are several ways to ensure these social conditions along with economic growth. This requires companies to structure and implement business models that are not only focused on economic sustainability but also on environmental and social sustainability. As a way to study which models should be implemented and what kind of indicators can be monitored in this area, we elaborate a comparative study between Sweden and China at economic growth and business sophistication levels with the intent of defining the complexity of innovation in every country, making it possible to outline the best way to implement these social measures in portuguese companies. It was possible to observe that between China and Sweden the regulatory pressure exerted by states induces different approaches to sustainable management. Although they are two countries with high economic growth, the legislation applied in both diverges, triggering the divergence of social sophistication in business. At this level, Sweden seems to stand out in terms of knowledge workers and innovation linkages, however china shows greater absorption of knowledge by companies.

ABSTRACT. Innovation is a concern for companies to achieve competitive advantages and their development. The cooperation that companies can establish with universities is to allow the acquisition of complementary knowledge or capabilities. The cooperation between industry and university is in the interest of governments as it allows for their development. Therefore, the governments must make efforts to encourage such collaboration. The indicator that examines the relationships of cooperation between university-industry-government is called Triple Helix (TH). This study analyzes local and regional, national, and European government support on companies' cooperation with TH agents - from the same country and other EU country. This article uses the Community Innovation Survey database. The data included in the present study are from CIS 2014, and they have 98809 observations. The method uses logistic regression. The results show that the role played by the government, namely through its public funds, is essential for the companies' process cooperation. It was possible to conclude that all public funds positively and statistically significantly influence the cooperation process with TH agents of the same country or another EU country. The central government fund is the one that most influences companies' cooperation with TH agents from the same country and for the cooperation carried out with other companies from another EU country. When cooperation is established with universities or governments in another EU country, the public fund that exerts the most influence is the European fund.

ABSTRACT. Business competition is increasingly based on innovation (Freeman & Soete, 2007) and the literature on innovation suggests that technological and organizational innovation individually boosts the company's performance (Damanpour & Aravind, 2012), including international performance (Donbesuur et al., 2020). In this sense, this study aims to analyze how companies in Europe and Central Asia group in clusters according to the relationship between Innovation & Technology and the Internationalization of companies. To achieve the proposed objective, the statistical cluster analysis technique was applied, using SPSS, to a sample of 30 economies in Europe and Central Asia extracted from The World Bank – Enterprise Surveys database. The results of the study suggest that the economies with the greatest Innovation & Technology are also the economies with the greatest Internationalization. This study presents as an implication a better understanding of the relationship between Innovation & Technology and Internationalization in terms of clusters.

ABSTRACT. The internationalization of companies represents a path of expansion and sometimes of technologies, in the context of a global reference. This study investigates how a company in the automative sector faces market expansion stimuli, given the contingencies felt in the impact of covid-19 and framed in the particular challenges of internationalization. In this study, the authors used a qualitative methodology, based on an interview conducted with a leading company in its sector of activity. The article aims to contribute to the literature on the internationalization strategy of companies, focusing as an opportunity for expansion and / or retraction in international markets. It also analyzes the framing of sanitary barriers associated with Covid-19, which enhance the impact on the business fabric, which may culminate in their de-internationalization.

ABSTRACT. Surging climate awareness is leading to changes in costumers needs and behaviors. Society is increasingly pressurizing firms and governments with ecological concerns, as businesses themselves play a role in pollution emissions. Innovation, thought in a sustainable perspective, helps to deliver the needed eco-goals while contributing to a positive market orientation and increased market performance. Firms have been acknowledging the markets’ new needs, thus investing in sustainable innovation research. However, for firms to implement the new sustainable practices, policy makers need to ease bureaucracies and technology must be available to guarantee a faster and efficient transition to sustainable methods. With recent rising literature in eco-innovation (EI), there is a justified need for a systematic literature review. The present article seeks to analyze, at a broad level, the scientific contributions related to eco-innovation in businesses.

ABSTRACT. Universities are increasingly being pressured to perform their third mission, playing as a catalyst of technological change, innovation, and societal and economic development. To respond to the emerging challenges, universities have to balance multiple missions and combining their traditional roles with an entrepreneurial agenda. This entrepreneurial academic spirit allows a collaboration, as equal partners, with government and industry, creating the conditions for innovation and the emergence of the Entrepreneurial University (EU). This scenario is crucial to address how universities’ dynamics and initiatives are related to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE). Despite being widely explored concepts, the EU and EE are still considered fragmented and muddled in the literature, holding a wide margin of theorization development. This study aims to fill this this gap by systematizing the most relevant literature, trends, and dynamics of EU on EE. The bibliographic coupling of document references, performed in Bibliometrix, an R-Tool software, analyzed 116 articles identified in Web of Science and Scopus databases. The analysis made it possible to group the existing literature in six main clusters: (1) University Entrepreneurial Anatomy and EE, (2) Universities Third Mission Performance and Impacts, (3) Balance EU Different Roles, (4) Entrepreneurial Education and EU Support, (5) University Entrepreneurial Mindset and (6) Entrepreneurial Orientation and Knowledge Capitalization. To better understanding the dynamic of EU and EU concepts, we developed a conceptual framework to identify the thematic interdependence between literature clusters. We also offer a future research agenda, recommending research paths that could deepen the scientific knowledge on entrepreneurial settings.

ABSTRACT. The promotion of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) has an important impact on innovation development and new venture creation, leading to job formation and the retention of talented human resources in a region. Despite the extensive literature about the importance of higher education institutions (HEIs) in promoting regional EEs, the role of student-led organisations as one of the stakeholders of the HEIs ecosystem is still an ill-studied topic. Through an exploratory analysis, it is discussed the role of junior enterprises (JEs) in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. A JE is a non-profit student-led organisation that provides professional consultancy services under teachers and other professionals' guidance, enabling the development of their members' knowledge, skills, and entrepreneurial behaviour. This study suggests that JEs are a relevant element of the regional entrepreneurship ecosystem, having a multidimensional (educational, economic and social) impact on the HEIs, business, and regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the relationship between research and innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS 3) on university-industry (U-I) collaboration, considering the role of investigation activities and incentives for interacting with industry. Primary data was collected from 861 Portuguese and Spanish researchers. The results reveal an unprecedented finding: the influence of RIS 3 on U-I collaboration is only mediated by investigation activities and incentives for interacting with industry. Therefore, this evidence suggests that the development of academic research and the incentives received by universities for interacting with industry convert the effect of RIS 3 on higher levels of U-I collaboration.

ABSTRACT. In this paper we study of the effect of entrepreneur's motivations and role models on the firms’ growth expectations in global uncertainty times as the caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. We built a logic model supported by a sample of more than 20.000 people per year provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of Spain for 2019 and 2020. The results show a change of entrepreneur’s motivations through the entrepreneurial process in 2020. Surprisely, neither social networks nor innovation or culture perceptions were relevant to explain the growth expectations of entrepreneurs in crisis time. There are also no differences between men and women in the effect of the relation motivations-role models and growth expectations for the early stage of the entrepreneurial process, which is a change of trend compared with the results of previous years.

ABSTRACT. The concept of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems (SEE) has recently drawn increasing attention in the literature. There are multiple calls for the development of more studies in this emerging field of research. SEE are driven by a sustainable essence and can play an important part in fostering sustainable development agendas. This study aims to map the research dynamics and systematize the literature in SEE, to develop an empirical framework that can assist researchers in grasping the state of the field, and finally to propose an agenda for future research accordingly. In a systematic review of 105 articles on SEE indexed in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases, this study maps the trends and systematizes the most relevant themes on SEE from a categorized bibliometric analysis.

ABSTRACT. Globalization, climate and demographic changes add extra strain to the challenging task of ensuring regional development. These changes are reflected and enhance the importance of contemporary debates regarding recent approaches to public policy in this context. From a policy perspective the implementation of the helix model and the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) represent different perspectives on how to develop a region. The first highlights the role of universities in the innovation system and the latter the role of the entrepreneur in the ecosystem. Regardless of this distinction, the two concepts share several relevant characteristics, the importance of knowledge transmission, networks, a multilevel structure, a dynamic evolution process and the pivotal importance of government. Governments frequently mobilize universities, as a source of entrepreneurial innovation, in their efforts to boost regional development. However, the interconnection between the helix model an EE has been insufficiently scrutinized by scholars, despite the growth of both literatures, the shared characteristics, and the relevance of their association in the regional development strategies of many governments. Our research explores the link between the EE and helix concepts from a public policy perspective. Two distinct types of configurations emerge from the systematic literature review, EEs embedded in a helix context and a helix as part of an EE. These provide the base for the development of a framework and the discussion of the factors that influence the best fit of each configuration and their significance regarding the formulation of public policies.

ABSTRACT. The definition of territorial intervention strategy comes essentially from a set of policies, resources, initiatives and other action measures allocated to improve or solve weaknesses identified in the respective territories. Through this article, it is intended to present a case study developed, based on an innovation and development Triple Helix model, in a low density territory. The Science and Technology Brigantia Eco-Park, located in the region of Bragança (Portugal) is the materialization of this territorial strategy. This research can be characterized as qualitative because of the analyse and interpretation of deeper aspects, describing the impact and results of this territorial intervention strategy, analysing entrepreneurship projects and behaviors, but also providing quantitative results about the evolution of the Science and Technology Brigantia Eco-Park. We also register and analyse through an empirical research by collecting data from direct sources, but also making some interviews about experiences and perspective lived by the entrepreneurs and the major stakeholder of the association (Bragança Municipality). Besides the evolution and information regarding the attraction of technology-based companies or startups located in Brigantia Eco-Park, we identified, in the same period, the creation and evolution of jobs associated with the park's ecosystem, as well as the existence of innovative projects whose entrepreneurs shared with us the importance of this infrastructure and associated services. We also present an interview with the association's major stakeholder, the Bragança Municipality, which reinforced the park's vision and strategy for the coming years and the importance of this territorial intervention strategy for low density territories.

ABSTRACT. Tourism was strongly impacted by COVID-19 due to its evolving nature and reliance on human mobility. This impact is expected to be significant in urban centres. Therefore, any strategy that contributes to the tourism mobility in urban centres, would be of great value to re-establish tourism. The purpose of this research is to explore how urban tourism centres should adapt in terms of mobility in the post-COVID-19 period, to enhance tourism. Previous studies in this field, particularly motivated by the sustainable goals, brought significant contributions. However, a number of these projects failed during implementation, because they were not accepted by society, which points towards an existing gap between the sustainable mobility theory and its practical implementation. Part of these projects failed because they did not fully recognize the role of the stakeholder's behaviour. The goal of this research is to return a model that helps government and business decision-makers to identify and develop strategic solutions for urban tourism mobility that consider the post-COVID-19 effects and the global sustainability objectives. The development of this model will be based on the Multiple Helix approach, supported by a qualitative survey that will enable the characterization of the stakeholder’s behaviour. The objective is to identify relevant behaviour dimensions and criteria that affect the selection and definition of strategic solutions for tourism urban mobility. The main outcome will be a framework that will be a 'roadmap' for decision-makers.

ABSTRACT. Technology can be very useful for the challenges that tourism industry is facing during the past years. For that reason, tourism business models have included the use of diverse technologies in their development, as with the introduction of VR technology. This allows these sector organizations to promote new types of relationships between tourists and destinations and diversifying consumption patterns, which could be interesting to deal with seasonal destinations or activities, such as wine tourism. This article aims to propose a conceptual model to assess the determinants of wine tourists’ intention to revisit or recommend the VR experience out of the season, after they have used this technology. Methodological details are also proposed to empirically test the conceptual model. Theoretical and practical implications of this proposal are discussed.

ABSTRACT. In this exploratory research project, the use of micromobility vehicles to enhance and promote greener mobility solutions in urban areas will be explored and discussed. As a result, based on electric smart and sustainable micromobility alternatives to current fuel-based vehicles, more sustainable consumption and production patterns are envisaged, thus assuring the use of more affordable, sustainable and green mobility solutions for all. A dedicated in-field research on the micromobility patterns of selected urban areas will be the starting point for a co-creation process to allow the Gen Z representatives discussing the mobility issues that can be considered a key feature on approaching mobility and future trends of living. Thus, the proposed co-creation approach will result on a proposed mobility framework addressing the challenges and benefit of micromobility in urban areas.

ABSTRACT. The pandemic context caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus promote the access and use of online services. If technology was already present in a large part of the population daily routines, this became emphasized and identified as a possible tool to help living in COVID-19 circumstances. Mobile applications have been positioning themselves more sharply in the market and it require the user to share their personal geolocation data. This type of personal data is associated with benefits and risks, and the motivation to share them in different areas of activity is an innovative investigation. In this context, the need to evaluate the acceptance of sharing personal geolocation data was disclosed, according to benefits perceived by mobile application users. This brings up the objective of developing a qualitative study using multi-methods to perceive the way people know what they are giving and what they can gain with personal data sharing. An exploratory study was conducted, considering the possibility to analyse the responses of residents in Portugal. Through the results of this research, it was possible to conclude that the motivation to share personal geolocation data changed depending on the potential gains. It was possible to verify that, when a specific benefit is proposed to the user, there is an increase in the willingness to share their personal geolocation data. The context of Covid-19 impacted the willingness to share, given that a significant part of the sample claims to have more desire to increase geolocation data share in the current context.