Editorial

ID: 6854

Authors: Nicolau Reinhard.

Source: RAUSP Management Journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 6-6, January-March, 2011. 1 page(s).

Document type: Editorial (Portuguese)

Governance of Information Technology: an overview of the adoption of best practice models by Brazilian user companies

ID: 4454

Authors: Hiury Hakim Tarouco, Alexandre Reis Graeml.

Source: RAUSP Management Journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 7-18, January-March, 2011. 12 page(s).

Keyword: best practices , Cobit , IT governance , ITIL

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The objective of the research project whose results are reported in this paper was to help the researchers to better understand the adoption of IT governance best practice models among Brazilian organizations that make use of IT in their daily activities, based on the perceptions of IT executives. An electronic survey was used in this exploratory-descriptive study; it was sent to executives from 100 companies that are heavy users of IT. The results concern a sample of 51 companies that agreed to take part in the survey and show that these tend to associate adopting IT best practices with an enhancement of the visibility, as seen by executives, of returns on investment and with an increase of the control and quality of the services provided by the IT function. The interviewees also felt that the determinants for the adoption of IT governance of best practices are a rising demand for organizational control and monitoring; shareholders' pressure for transparency; growing technological complexity; and the fact that business areas are becoming increasingly dependent on IT. The IT governance best practices models identified as the most frequently used ones were ITIL, Cobit, PMBok and the codes for information safety management BS 7799, ISO/IEC 17799 and ISO/ IEC 27001. Results also show that the concept of IT governance is strongly associated with initiatives to increase the control and quality of the IT services provided to the organization.

Strategic personnel management, commitment and psychological contracts: the Vale case

ID: 4455

Authors: Nildes R. Pitombo Leite, Lindolfo Galvão de Albuquerque.

Source: RAUSP Management Journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 19-31, January-March, 2011. 13 page(s).

Keyword: organizational commitment , psychological contract , strategic personnel management

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the features of psychological contracts, in connection with the strategic management of people in four Vale units with organizational structures that are far removed from major urban centers. It is a qualitative and exploratory study analyzed at the organizational level, based on a single case study. A field survey involving directors, managers, HR professionals, supervisors and coordinators was implemented to collect data, through interviews and observations, in the operating areas of the company's units in Paragominas, Itabira, Serra dos Carajás and Canaã dos Carajás. Data were analyzed using content analysis and, secondarily, through document analysis. Results show that the organizational structure of these units helps to maintain a cooperative and interpersonal psychological contract, aimed at developing solidarity and underpinned by values that foster the creation of organizational identity and tending to bring people together under all circumstances.

The attitude toward environmentally correct features of products as the basis for segmenting consumer markets

ID: 4456

Authors: Sérgio Luís Stirbolov Motta, Fauze Najib Mattar.

Source: RAUSP Management Journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 32-44, January-March, 2011. 13 page(s).

Keyword: attitude , green products , market segmentation , multivariate data analysis

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

In this study, the authors verified the use of the 'attitude' variable concerning the environmentally correct attributes of consumer goods as the basis for market segmentation. A quantitative and descriptive research study was conducted based on a field study that relied on a non-probabilistic sample of students and professors selected on the basis of convenience at a university in São Paulo city (SP). These interviewees expressed their opinions by filling out a data collection questionnaire that was structured and disguised. The data analysis was based on the application of two multivariate techniques: Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis. The first enabled reducing the set of variables to two factors: Life Cycle and Economicity; the scores of these factors were used as Cluster Analysis input. This technique engendered clusters that led to a favorable conclusion concerning the researched issue. The results corroborated the initial expectations as to the possibility of obtaining clusters using the attitude toward products that have environmentally correct features.

Proposing a sustainable consumption scale

ID: 4457

Authors: Juliane de Almeida Ribeiro, Ricardo Teixeira Veiga.

Source: RAUSP Management Journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 45-60, January-March, 2011. 16 page(s).

Keyword: factor analysis , scale development , structural equation modeling , sustainable consumption

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The article reports the construction and empirical assessment of a sustainable consumption scale, based on a survey carried out in 2009 with 512 undergraduate students from a major Brazilian federal university. Starting with the review of scales concerning environmentally friendly consumption, found in marketing and consumption behavior literature, a construct of sustainable consumption was worked out, which guided the proposition of a scale to render it operational. The methodological procedures adopted in the development of the scale followed the recommendations of experts such as Netemeyer, Bearden and Sharma (2003), Hair et al. (2005) and Harrington (2009). In the analysis of the empirical data, the sample was randomly split in two subsamples, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Sustainable consumption, conceptually defined as environmental awareness in the purchase of goods and services, the avoidance of wasted resources, the effort to recycle materials and products, and the propensity toward a more frugal lifestyle can be rendered operational using a 13-item scale with four dimensions: environmental awareness, economy of resources, recycling and frugality. Replications of the final scale are suggested, to improve its psychometrics properties. Despite its limitations, it is believed that the proposed instrument is useful for researching the relation between sustainable consumption and other complex constructs.

The convergence challenge: an analysis of the ecosystem of free-to-air TV in Brazil

ID: 16406

Authors: Marco Aurelio de Souza Rodrigues, Paula Castro de Souza Chimenti, Antonio Roberto Ramos Nogueira.

Source: RAUSP Management Journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 61-72, January-March, 2011. 12 page(s).

Keyword: ecosystems , metrics , strategy , technology , TV

Document type: Article (English) Show Abstract

The rising pace of innovation that is typical of current business reality and the convergence of a series of industries mean that the structure of strategies must increasingly rely on tools that are capable of monitoring information exchange and resources within and among industries, identifying eventual adversaries and possible allies clearly and in advance.  Given this context, in this study the authors present tools to analyze an overview of the TV networks in Brazil, in a  broad and critical manner, using Ecosystem Analysis to compare the reactions of these fi rms and of adjacent industries to technological progress over two different time frames: the 1980s and the present. Thus, using metrics drawn from the concepts of Iyer, Lee and Venkatraman (2006) and the complementary metrics that they proposed (Relative Density, the Number of Pathways between Content and Consumer, and Distance between Content Distributor and Consumer), the authors outline and analyze the ecosystem to which the Brazilian open-signal TV networks belong. This survey shows that the Brazilian TV networks have been losing infl uence not only in their own industry, but also in related sectors. This might jeopardize their competitiveness and their capacity to react to a constantly changing world in a relatively near future.

Learning as an explanation of export development

ID: 4458

Authors: Ângela França Versiani, Sérgio Fernando Loureiro Rezende.

Source: RAUSP Management Journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 73-86, January-March, 2011. 14 page(s).

Keyword: export , export development , international trajectories , learning

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This article aims to analyze the mechanisms that trigger and maintain durable exporting pathways. By using the pathway notion, its major contribution lies in discussing how learning can be viewed as an explanatory factor of the development of exporting. Empirically supported by a qualitative, longitudinal case study, the authors analyze the permanence-continuity of the exports of two footwear manufacturers from 1970 to 2005. The results show that the permanence-continuity of exporting is related to a confluence of causes, which express a cycle of events-reflections that provide feedback to each other, thereby triggering the permanence-continuity of the pathway. From a theoretical standpoint, these results suggest that the development of exports is a complex, non-linear phenomenon, a conclusion that runs contrary to the mainstream literature on exporting.

Airline alliances: permanent advantages?

ID: 4459

Authors: Pericles da Silva Pereira Neto, Ernesto Cordeiro Marujo.

Source: RAUSP Management Journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 87-100, January-March, 2011. 14 page(s).

Keyword: air carrier alliances , airline alliances , airlines , air transport , deregulation , hub-and-spoke mode , revenue management , strategic alliances

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of passenger airline alliances. The following tend to be included in the list of benefits of such alliances: the possibility of allocating the best aircraft for each flight segment with cost savings, network expansion, a greater offering of services, and a larger number of city pairs serviced with the same total pax. km flown. All else being equal, these benefits seem clear in analytical terms. However, the expected benefits did not materialize as anticipated. The reason for this is that even though all firms in the alliance flew longer stretches, carrying a larger number of passengers, these carriers were affected by the drop in fare prices, driven by industry-related issues, such as the sector's heavy competition, caused by deregulation, and the emergence of low cost airlines. All of this resulted in alliance member carriers achieving only modest earnings.