Browsing by Author "Fernandes, Joana"
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- An alternative to the ACE model to determine higher education institution’s economic impact the case of the Polytechnic Institute of BragançaPublication . Fernandes, Joana; Cunha, Jorge; Oliveira, Pedro Nuno Ferreira Pinto deThis paper discusses Higher Education Institutions’(HEIs) impact on regional economy. The case study was built over a Portuguese Higher Education Institution - the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB). That study intended to estimate the total impact of IPB and the approach followed was initially based on the demand-side approach (Caffrey & Isaacs, 1971). However, during the study it was necessary to develop a simpler model to estimate the economic impact of HEIs. The simplified model aimed to be a more direct and easier alternative to estimate HEI’s impact, also allowing comparisons between different HEI’s results.
- An approach to the determination of the total economic impact of a HEI in a deprived region of Northern PortugalPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Nuno Ferreira Pinto de; Cunha, Jorge; Fernandes, JoanaThe purpose of the paper is to describe the study that is being conducted in the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB). The main objective of this study is to determine the total economic impact of the institution in the hosting regions. To achieve that, we used the traditional or economic-base approach and the skill-base approach. From the traditional approach, based in the Caffrey and Isaacs’s impact model, we obtained the direct economic impact of the IPB. From the skill-base approach we are currently estimating the human capital that is directly linked to the IPB. We expect to determine the total economic impact of the IPB and how a change in its local demand will affect the economy of the surrounding regions, and also what is the higher education institutions’ impact on the individuals and how it will affect their lifelong earnings.
- Analysis of the economic impact of Torre de Moncorvo’s medieval fair for local developmentPublication . Carvalho, Aida; Fernandes, Joana; Moreira, VictorAn event is an occasion, planned and organized with a specific goal, which occurs at a particular time and place, for a target audience. The multitude of factors inherent to its creation and organization lead to endless classifications, dividing them into categories, interest area, audience types, periodicity, program, objectives, and so on. Due to an event’s ability to generate new flows of people, they can economically boost a city, a neighbourhood or a street, making it an excellent opportunity for local development and promotion. Many events do create a large influx of people over their lifetime, but their effects can be much broader by the ability to stimulate information through the media by putting the promoter's name and location in the public mind and giving a positive image about the promoter and/or the destination where the event takes place. This motivates the influx of new people to the destination in order to attend the event. However, many are also attracted by the destination itself, influenced by the increase of information in the media, thus intensifying future visits. The case presented here concerns the municipality of Torre de Moncorvo that has been focusing on the Medieval Fair, a large annual event. The objective of this study is to estimate the economic impact of the Medieval Fair, using secondary data, through the consultation of specialized bibliography and through information available from different entities involved, and using primary data, in a quantitative approach, with surveys to exhibitors and visitors during the Medieval Fair. With this study and the results achieved, the promoter will be able to devise strategies for the enhancement of the event, seeking to attract more visitors, increasing the average length of stay of tourists, their loyalty to the destination, and boosting local economy and job creation.
- Analysis of the economic impact of Torre de Moncorvo’s medieval fair for local developmentPublication . Carvalho, Aida; Fernandes, Joana; Moreira, VictorAn event is an occasion, planned and organized with a specific goal, which occurs at a particular time and place, for a target audience. The multitude of factors inherent to its creation and organization lead to endless classifications, dividing them into categories, interest area, audience types, periodicity, program, objectives, and so on. Due to an event’s ability to generate new flows of people, they can economically boost a city, a neighbourhood or a street, making it an excellent opportunity for local development and promotion. Many events do create a large influx of people over their lifetime, but their effects can be much broader by the ability to stimulate information through the media by putting the promoter's name and location in the public mind and giving a positive image about the promoter and/or the destination where the event takes place. This motivates the influx of new people to the destination in order to attend the event. However, many are also attracted by the destination itself, influenced by the increase of information in the media, thus intensifying future visits. The case presented here concerns the municipality of Torre de Moncorvo that has been focusing on the Medieval Fair, a large annual event. The objective of this study is to estimate the economic impact of the Medieval Fair, using secondary data, through the consultation of specialized bibliography and through information available from different entities involved, and using primary data, in a quantitative approach, with surveys to exhibitors and visitors during the Medieval Fair. With this study and the results achieved, the promoter will be able to devise strategies for the enhancement of the event, seeking to attract more visitors, increasing the average length of stay of tourists, their loyalty to the destination, and boosting local economy and job creation.
- Are enterprises from lagging regions digitally connected?Publication . Fernandes, Joana; Pires, Luís; Nogueira, Sónia P.This study focuses on how enterprises located on lagging regions are using online resources and how can they enhance their usage. Most companies have transitioned to the “online world”, however, in rural and more deprived regions, it is perceived that companies still have difficulties accessing some online resources or accessing qualified workers in ICT areas. As such, this paper focus on 29 enterprises from the northeast of Portugal, a recognized lagging region. In the context of an international project, CRECEER creation of business cooperation networks in rural cross-border regions between companies in the gourmet agri-food and tourism sectors, the use of ICT was analysed, what online tools were used and what could be done to improve their ICT use in their business.As a result, it was found that the majority of the companies only had a minimal investment in business online tools, they are not aware of the majority of cloud computing software, and they do not use it in their business. Even though the studied companies were willing to evolve digitally, they recognized the severe restrictions they had, namely the requirement of specific currently unavailable knowledge, the necessity of qualified workers that they couldn’t afford, and even the hardware necessity they couldn’t supress.It is clear that for these companies had it not been the CRECEER project, even the smallest changes and improvements, would not be achieved in a short period. It is rather crucial to have European funds dedicated to enhance the ICT competencies of these businesses.
- Are online classes the future in higher education?Publication . Fernandes, Joana; Esteves, SaleteCurrently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the world has shut down and higher education institutions (HEI) were among the institutions that had to change their traditional way of lecturing classes. Traditional classes, lectured in a classroom where the teacher and the students were together and face-to-face face were no longer an option, due to effective lockdown. Portugal was one of the countries that had to pursue solutions to maintain educational institutions functioning, in order to maintain students studying and learning and to be able to minimize the effects of the pandemic. In this context, this study describes a particular case in the north of Portugal, in a school of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), a higher education institution that had to close the facilities during the second semester of the academic year of 2019/2020. During this semester the classes were all online, using the zoom platform. The importance of this study, was not only to understand the impact of online classes in the students, in terms of availability of resources to follow classes, motivation, knowledge acquisition, and evaluation, but also to present measures to the school management so they could prepare and prevent problems with a possible 2nd lockdown. This 2nd lockdown did happen during the second semester of the academic year of 2020/2021. From the study, we concluded that not all the students had the basic conditions to attend online classes, either they did not have a personal computer or they had internet limitations. Also, they reported that, being at home, was harder to follow the classes and to study since their families required much more of their time to make other chores. The major findings were that not all the students understood online classes the same way, in fact, older students from advanced years preferred online classes and had no restrictions on their relationships with their colleagues. However, the younger students, enrolled in the first year, and this was transversal to all courses, felt that they did not acquire the needed knowledge, found online classes harder, and, since they were freshmen, a considerable percentage reported that they could not establish social connections with their colleagues and felt demotivated and alone. Also, the majority of the students reported that the evaluation was harder, since the teachers, to prevent fraud and make cheating more difficult, reduced the evaluation time and blocked the possibility to see the entire exam, only allowing one question at a time. This was a complain from the students and a valid one, since it only negatively impacted the engaged students, it had no evidence of reducing fraudulent behaviours. With these findings it was possible for the HEI’s management to implement some measures. The HEI had to be closed for the first half of the second semester of 2020/2021. Still, as soon as it was possible to return to face-to-face classes it was established that some years could be in hybrid mode (online and onsite), however not for freshmen years. This measure would enable them to form social connections and to properly follow the classes with a closer support by the teacher. The other measure implemented was that all evaluation was onsite, hence the good students were not affected and it could also efficiently prevent fraud, when compared to online evaluations.
- Are rural accommodation enterprises efficiently present online?Publication . Fernandes, Joana; Nogueira, Sónia P.; Pires, LuísThis study regards rural accommodation enterprises (RAE) and how much of their business is made online and what can be done to improve it. This work focus on 10 enterprises from the northeast of Portugal, since it is a more deprived and isolated region and far from the touristic centres. As such, these companies need to attract the visitors through their online presence. We analysed their use of ICT, if they had a digital marketing strategy and what could be done to improve their presence and their results through online marketing tools. It was possible to understand that the majority of the companies only have a minimal investment in online presence through the Booking platform and with their website. They do not work efficiently the social networks and they do not use, or know, most of the marketing online tools. As a result, even though the studied companies are willing to evolve digitally and to enhance their presence in a more efficient way, this is limited to the investment that is required since they all feel they cannot invest at the time. It is clear that for these companies and specially in these regions it is vital to bring European funds to help them evolve to the digital market in a knowledgeable and efficient way.
- Building smart rural regions: challenges and opportunitiesPublication . Cunha, Carlos R.; Gomes, João Pedro; Fernandes, Joana; Morais, Elisabete PauloRural regions are a typology of region rooted around the world. Itsidentity and matrix are differentiated from the most urbanized regions. Associatedwith rural areas is a strong negative feeling of depopulation, undevelopedbusiness fabric, less wealth and less ability to attract investment and wherepublic and private services from various sectors of activity are not concentrated.This reality cannot be socially accepted and must be fought for greater equitywithin countries. To leverage this change, rural regions will have to become cocompetitiveand attractive regions. In order for this transformation to take place,Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a major role. Thisarticle characterizes the rural regions in their demographic and economicdimensions, emphasizing the case of the Northeast region of Portugal. Analyseand review a set of fundamental vectors where ICT can be a key driver andenabler for smart rural regions to be created. Finally, it is presented a conceptualmodel of what can be a smart rural region.
- CAF’s implementation by Portuguese municipalitiesPublication . Negreiro, Carla; Costa, Cláudia S.; Fernandes, JoanaIn 1980´s, the theme of quality integrated the concerns of the public sector and Portugal didn’t remain alien, assuming a paradigm change: from bureaucratic and centralized administration to a service administration, decentralized and oriented to total quality. Among various approaches, the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) stood out. It is a European model that assesses organizational performance, with reference to the Principles of Excellence and focused on continuous improvement. In addition to being free, it is specific for the public sector and is implemented in Portuguese local authorities. It is important to reinstate CAF to analyse the results obtained by Portuguese municipalities CAF users and find out how these results and subsequent impacts interact and determine quality enhancement of organizations. Accordingly, the research question was: What is the impact of CAF implementation on the quality of public services provision by Portuguese municipalities? The main general objectives are based on the verification of the following: the effectiveness of CAF implementation; the level of integration of the CAF model (nine criteria of the model and eight Principles of Excellence); the results achieved and the perceived impacts through the implementation of the CAF; and the contribution of the CAF model in the perception of the overall quality improvement achieved. The research strategy underlies a naturalistic paradigm, adopting a qualitative approach through semi structured interviews with those in charge for quality in the Portuguese municipalities CAF users (in 2018), adequate to obtain data on the reality of municipal quality. In this context, and after assessing the impacts achieved by the Portuguese municipalities through CAF’s users, confirming the theoretical assumptions, it was possible to achieve the seven objectives previously formulated and to execute the initial research question. Actually, the implementation of the CAF has an impact on the quality of the public services provision by the Portuguese municipalities, highlighting the following evidences: CAF is mainly located throughout the municipal organization and in full; as results obtained via CAF stand out the actions and improvement plans, good practices, citizen/customer satisfaction and stakeholder satisfaction, continuous improvement and a quality assessment and measurement system; about the impacts achieved through CAF they emerge in the achieved results, in the improvement of the quality in the organizations, in the change of culture of the public sector centred on the citizen and towards the excellence, as TQM tool facilitator, in the practices of bench learning and benchmarking, however, the sustainable improvement of the organization and the CAF as a bridge between quality management models did not have the same unanimity; finally, the implementation of CAF model’s requirements contributed to the improvement of the overall quality achieved in a large majority of Portuguese municipalities. Despite the difficulties experienced, concerning the scarce existing research about CAF’s impacts and the compression of the number of municipalities under study, it has been shown that - for the first time and from the present perspective - CAF contributes to the set of results and impacts listed in the revisited theory and with this study they were validated.
- Cooperation as a key factor to increase local companies’ competitiveness: a descriptive analysisPublication . Fernandes, Joana; Nogueira, Sónia P.This study intends to present a characterization of the entrepreneurial group of a rural area of Portugal and focuses on the difficulties they face and expectations they have in current economy. We focus on one district that reunites nine municipalities. We aimed at understanding how in this small, isolated and deprived region a company can succeed competing in global markets. Such possibility as our object of analysis concerns companies of rural housing and production of endogenous products that have gourmet potential. Thus a study was conducted in the local enterprises. A qualitative approach followed and by means of in-depth interviews it was possible to understand the companies, their main difficulties, their current commercialization paths and the possibility of having both an online presence and a reality where they work together. It was possible to understand that the majority of the enterprises feel that it is very hard to work in the regions, that they face difficulties to increase their commercialization geographic and they all feel that a partnership, a cooperation between companies could help them reach further the public. The possibility was to create a common platform to commercialize both areas.