Revista de Administração da UFSM

Sustainability practices adopted by industrial companies

2021-11-03T14:37:11-03:00

Objective: This study aims to examine the efficiency of sustainability practices in industries in the region of Chapecó-Santa Catarina.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is descriptive, conducted through a survey with 63 companies. The questionnaires administered shows the perception of top managers with respect to the economic-financial, social and environmental dimensions. For treatment of data, a quantitative approach and information entropy analysis were used with ranking by TOPSIS.

Results: The results show that the companies have different practices and concerns about corporate social responsibility. The companies are drawn up in a rank, allowing to observe and compare that the sustainability actions and practices are weak in 20 companies, which exhibit a performance below 0.50; 24 companies are ranked between 0.51 and 0.70; 14 companies have practices between 0.71 and 0.89, and only 5 companies are ranked above 0.90. In general, the results indicate that some companies have been using sustainable practices, but an alignment of the business strategies with the sustainability dimensions is still lacking. Also, the analysis shows that companies have not yet realized that natural resources are scarce, their leaders are not committed with sustainable management, which would provide an evidence of the efficiency of business practices with sustainable development.

Originality/value: The study shows comparatively distinct positionings of the companies studied, indicating that 70% of the companies still have weak or rare initiatives in regard to sustainable management. The study indicates the need for actions and initiatives to improve the managers’ knowledge through training, qualification and awareness-raising toward sustainable development.

Sustainability in public organizations: a study in the Sustenta Paraná Network

2021-11-03T14:45:22-03:00

Purpose - Evaluate the actions aimed at sustainability in the public sector from their stages of maturity in the context of institutions participating in the Sustenta Paraná Network.

Methodology – We analyzed data collected through semi-structured interviews with managers responsible for creating and implementing sustainability projects in three public agencies participating in the Sustenta Paraná Network. Analyses also included information available on the official websites of the organizations, as well as documents from alignment meetings between institutions participating in the Rede Sustenta Paraná. The content analysis technique employed the software ATLAS.ti.

Findings - The organizations demonstrated similarities, such as that internal motivation comes from management and those responsible for sustainability. All the organizations presented the need for extensive work to raise employee awareness. Besides that, were confirmed that the changes of public sector makes suppliers need to adapt, demonstrating their influence on their chain and market. However, they also presented significant differences, and each organization is at a distinct stage in the model studied.

Originality - The contribution of this study is to expand and allow a better understanding of public organizations. Furthermore, two theoretical frameworks, typically used in the analysis of private organizations, were employed simultaneously. We suggest that public organizations systematize their sustainability information to make it available both to the internal and external public, such as an annual sustainability report with results achieved and ambitions.

The congruence of SDG communication in formal and informal channels performed by self-titled sustainable companies

2021-11-03T14:47:43-03:00

Objective – Identify whether companies with substantial aspects related to sustainability and corporate social Responsibility (CSR) with high market values are consistent with what is presented in sustainability reports with posts on social media.

Methodology – The virtual communities investigated were based on Interbrand rankings, the most valuable brands, and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Twitter was the social network chosen and elements of the netnography approach were used together with content and document analysis, in addition to network analysis exploration, with support of UCINET.

Results – The hashtags most adopted by companies were #ClimateChange, #CleanEnergy, #climate, #climateaction, which are directly related to the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs. The results showed that companies had communicated their actions related to the SDGs through the social network Twitter. However, some of them still do not adequately explore this tool.

Limitations/Research implications - As a limitation of the research, it was not easy to locate some communities in which companies publish their hashtags referring to the SDGs. In addition, some companies do not present the actions related to the SDGs in their sustainability reports.

Originality - The use of network analysis and content and document analysis proved to be effective in obtaining the results. This element is understood as an essential methodological contribution due to its originality in the communication of sustainable actions.

Public policy selectivity in solid waste in the covid-19 pandemic: exponentiating the vulnerability of the waste pickers' cooperatives in Londrina- PR

2021-11-03T14:51:58-03:00

Purpose: This article aimed to understand how the actions of the local state, given the pandemic scenario, produce structural selectivity in the sector of Waste Cooperatives in the face of coping with COVID-19 in the municipality of Londrina, State of Paraná.

Design/methodology/approach: The study stands out as exploratory-descriptive and qualitative, using primary and secondary data extracted mainly from questionnaires registered with representatives of recycling cooperatives and official documents. We conducted structured interviews with leaders/representatives of 6 of the 7 cooperatives that have a service contract with the City of Londrina, between May 28 and June 9, 2020.

Findings: Data analysis showed combined mechanisms of state selectivity (structure, ideology, processes, and coercion) that favor some actors and hinder access to others. The selectivity promoted by the State during the pandemic aggravated the crisis that was already developing locally in the sector. Although cooperatives have been affected in different ways, selectivity contributes in general to the greater dismantling of the sector and may even imply the unfeasibility of some of these social organizations.

Originality/value: The study made it possible to analyze the existence of the concept of selectivity of the State, from a set of interests and actors involved in the state apparatus at a time of major health crisis. The study aims to contribute to the debate of public policies and actions to confront the COVID-19 in a sector considered essential to the well-being of society, by exposing the sectoral needs and actions or inactions of the federal government in structural selectivity.

The institutional voids, sanitation and water deficits and the first covid-19 numbers in Brazil

2021-11-03T14:55:38-03:00

Purpose: The problem of this research was: What correlation between the deficit of basic sanitation and treated water in Brazil with the incidence and number of deaths caused by covid-19 disease? The aim of this article was to analyze the correlation between the number of cases in COVID-19 with the statistics of basic sanitation and treated water supply and institutional voids. Methodology: The research is descriptive and uses techniques of correlation statistical analysis of secondary data. Findings: Statistical calculations show a strong correlation of the variables. The incidence of the disease caused by the new Coronavirus SARS-CoV2, COVID-19 is associated with a lower percentage of the population served by sewage network and water network. It was also demonstrated that the mortality of the disease is strongly associated with a lower percentage of the population served by sewage and water networks, thus indicating a relationship with the theory of Institutional Voids (North, 1990; Douglass & North, 1991; Khanna, Palepu, & Sinha, 2005; Khanna & Palepu, 2010; Rodrigues, 2013). Originality: It was observed that, in general, the highest number of deaths due to the disease related to the states of the federation/macro-regions with the lowest percentages of care to the aforementioned networks, with some exceptions. Soon it was possible to use the theory of Institutional Voids in the analysis of Brazil in the face of basic sanitation indicators, thus indicating the absence of a social public policy appropriate to the well-being of the population.

Early identification of alcohol use in workers and applying brief interventions

2021-11-03T15:02:33-03:00

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the pattern of alcohol consumption in workers and then apply a brief intervention (BI) in those who presented a pattern of excessive drinking in order to achieve withdrawal or at least decrease consumption.

Design/methodology/approach: This was an exploratory, descriptive, and quasi-experimental study carried out in four stages: initial screening, interview, BI, and follow-up sessions. Two hundred and thirty workers participated in the first stage, and sociodemographic and alcohol use disorders identification (AUDIT) data were collected, and thirty-four percent of workers were classified as positive (at risk, under harmful use, or alcohol dependent). Afterward, the drinking pattern was investigated by applying the modified brief drinker profile and alcohol dependence scale (ADS). The positive participants in the AUDIT and ADS were divided into the experimental and control groups. In the third stage, the BI was performed in the experimental group. In the follow-up sessions (the fourth stage), the AUDIT was applied three months and six months after the BI to the experimental and control groups for comparison purposes.

Findings: The results showed that the BI was effective. In all follow-up sessions, the data revealed that the experimental group had lower amounts of drinking. The control group also reduced drinking, albeit not in the same proportion as the experimental group. We believe that these results can contribute to implementing programs aimed at employee health.

Originality: Applying the BI on workers with excessive drinking patterns.

The effect of innovation on the financial performance and export intensity of firms in emerging countries

2021-11-03T15:56:49-03:00

Purpose – What impact does innovation have on the financial performance and export intensity of firms in emerging countries?
Design/methodology/approach – This contribution is the result of an analysis of five years’ data (2008-2012) from a multinational survey conducted with 140 predominantly manufacturing firms from Brazil, Russia, India, China.
Findings – In contrast with the prevailing literature, the results reveal strong positive correlations between the principal study variables.
Originality/value – Studies of this subject have found contradictory results with regard to the effect of innovation on firm performance. Only a minority of these studies have operationalized their investigations using historical data from a range of different countries and fewer still have focused on emerging countries.This article contributes to the debate by reporting the effects of innovation activity by firms from emerging countries on their financial performance and export intensity.

Offensiveness of controversial products for students of three different fields of study in Brazil

2021-11-19T15:40:28-03:00

Purpose: investigate the offensiveness of controversial products in Brazil, especially the influence of the field of study.

Design/methodology/approach: a questionnaire with 11 controversial products was conventionally answered by a sample of 368 college students from the three most popular fields of study in Brazil (i.e. Human Sciences, Biological and Health Sciences, and Exact and Technological Sciences). The offensiveness of each controversial product was measured and compared across those fields of study through t-tests.

Findings: Controversial products did not easily offend respondents being guns, weight-loss medicine, and female underwear the most offensive ones. In general, students of Human Sciences are the most easily offended and those of Exact and Technological Sciences the least offended. In addition, results showed differences and similarities between people from each field of study.

Originality/value: Improvement of our knowledge about controversial products in Brazil, especially about the influence of the field of study in the offensiveness of controversial products.

KTT strategies for scientific institutions: understanding the past to help build the future

2021-11-19T16:03:10-03:00

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the current situation of the research that analyzes KTT strategies in scientific institutions.

Design/methodology/approach – To systematize the empirical evidence that emerged from academic debates in the field, the study breaks down, through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), 42 papers from the Web of Science database. The author divides the sample into three clusters: environmental impact, institutional effectiveness, and individual strategies, according to its unit of analysis.

Findings – The findings indicate that the alignment of KTT activities with the strategic objectives of the institutions is fundamental for positive outcomes. In addition to that, the resources for obtaining relevant results are the quality and the availability of human capital in scientific institutions, public companies, and support organizations. Finally, there is a stream of research that criticizes the exclusively commercial approach of the phenomenon.

Research limitations – The Web of Science database relies on being the manly coverage for scientific publications in general. So, due to the choice for composing this sample with papers written only in English, untranslated studies were excluded from this analysis.

Originality/value – The contribution for Literature relies on proposing a future research agenda based on identified gaps and current topics, discussing the results of previous studies that can support the decision-making of these organizations at developing efficient KTT strategies for themselves.