Brazilian Administration Review

Artificial Intelligence and Academic Journals: For Better and for Worse

Ivan Lapuente Garrido — 2023-11-16

This editorial summarizes a talk presented during the 47th EnANPAD Annual Meeting in São Paulo, Brazil, exploring the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic journals. It highlights the impact perspectives of AI, recognizing its effects in various social and academic areas. Although the effects are extensive and their full ramifications are unknown and uncertain, the editorial highlights elements of opportunities and threats of this impact, as well as some ways to mitigate the impact. Journals could become smarter and more accessible with AI, providing a personalized experience for researchers and readers. However, significant challenges, such as the risk of inequality between journals with and without AI capabilities, are also highlighted. To seize opportunities and mitigate challenges, the author advocates for investment in AI, the creation of clear editorial guidelines, and an institutional commitment to responsibility and ethics.

Determining Priority and Sustainable Strategies in Agribusiness Management using an Analytic Hierarchy Process model

Najara Escarião Agripino — 2023-10-18

The aim of this study was to analyze which business sustainability factors are adopted in the strategic process of the agricultural sector using the model named Strategic Planning for Business Sustainability (PEPSE). To achieve the proposed aim, the PEPSE model was applied to the Analytic Hierarchy Process multicriteria decision tool. During the research, the farm adopted sanitary measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which compromised access to managers and, consequently, data collection. Based on the application of a model developed especially for the identification and formulation of sustainable strategies, the study identified how sustainability is considered in the strategic planning of an agricultural unit in Brazil and the strategies adopted to deal with environmental variables. It was possible to understand how the stakeholders influence the planning of the farm and the variables and priority strategies for the environmental positioning of the farm. Thus, the main limitation of the research was the time and the collection of information, therefore, only an analysis of the external scenario of the farm was carried out.

The Effect of the Positioning Strategy on the Firms' Performance Moderated by the Product Market Competition

Guilherme Lecco Tessarolo — 2023-10-31

This research aims to investigate the effect of generic positioning strategies (cost leadership and product differentiation), adopted in pure or hybrid form, on firms’ performance and to verify the moderating effect of product market competition in this relationship. A sample with 11,322 firm-year (2008-2019) observations, including data from firms in the G20 countries, was analyzed through logistic regression models. The competition level in the product market is measured using the Herfindahl-Hirshman index. The results indicate that firms adopting a hybrid strategy are more likely to achieve good performances than the others. The relationship between strategic positioning and operational performance is moderated by product market competitiveness level. In a low competition market, the adoption of a strategy is unnecessary. For low to medium levels of competition, pure strategy appears superior. In highly competitive environments, the hybrid strategy is more advantageous. This study brings a new discussion about choosing a more advantageous positioning strategy, in which the main issue is not which positioning strategy is superior, but under what conditions of the market environment the adoption of the hybrid strategy is related to superior performance. Contributing to advance in this research field, our outputs suggest that the effect of the positioning strategy on performance is moderated by the product market competition. The effort to establish a hybrid strategy is advantageous in highly competitive environments.

Career, Class, and Social Reproduction in the Life Stories of Outsourced Cleaners

Felipe Silveira de Souza — 2023-10-30

In this paper, we employ the life story method to investigate the multiple boundaries that, visible or invisibly, have influenced the trajectories of outsourced cleaners working in organizations, delimiting their career opportunities. Based on the Bourdieusian framework, we aim to contribute to the expansion of the debate in the field of career studies by emphasizing the influence of the contextual dimension of analysis in the career construction process. Above all, we privilege a social class perspective, scarcely present in career studies, in which the dominance of constructs such as boundaryless and protean careers reflects the typical emphasis attributed to individual agency. Access to the life stories of the respondents enabled us to unveil multiple boundaries interposed throughout their trajectories, associated with family (family disorganization and early transitions: maternity, conjugality, and insertion into domestic work), educational (early school dropout), neighborhood (local ties associated with low career returns), and professional (intersubjective relationships associated with experiences of pleasure and social humiliation) contexts. Taken together, these boundaries ended up circumscribing the topography of their careers by largely limiting them to providing care and cleaning services.

Seasoned Sailors: Can MNEs Learn with Troubled Institutional Environments?

Gabriela Schneider Darolt — 2023-11-03

In the present study, we examine the manner in which firms’ experiential learning in challenging institutional environments shapes their entry strategies in subsequent international acquisitions targeting comparable contexts. Specifically, our research delineates the nexus between the institutional expertise firms garner from operations in countries characterized by deficient institutional frameworks and the level of ownership they subsequently elect in acquisitions within similarly constituted environments. Utilizing a dataset comprised of 3,577 cross-border acquisitions aimed at emerging markets, spanning the period from 2010 to 2019, we find that institutional experience serves as a moderating variable. This moderation influences the impact of corruption, economic freedom, and political stability on the proportion of ownership stakes acquired during the transaction. While firms are generally inclined to augment their ownership levels in acquisitions where the institutional environment is more favorable, our findings paradoxically reveal that institutional experience amplifies, rather than mitigates, the relationship between extant institutional conditions and the chosen level of ownership, contrary to our initial hypotheses.

Technology and Innovation: A Systematic Literature Review on Sustainability Research in the Amazon

Ticiana Braga de Vincenzi — 2023-11-13

Society relies on technology and innovation (T&I) to tackle some of its great challenges, and it has been given even more importance since the increasing concern over sustainability issues. A particular concern is the Amazon rainforest’s impact on sustainability and what this means for the planet. The paper analyzes how research on technology and innovation in the Amazon region is addressing sustainability issues.
This wide-ranging intentional approach has led to an integrative picture, providing the first systematic literature review that connects these themes within a specific region, resulting in 222 academic publications from 1992 to 2020. The main findings indicate that: (1) 40.1% of the studies relate to the management field, which percentage increased significantly after 2015; (2) the dispersion of the studied themes confirms the plurality of Amazonian environmental wealth, but their lack of integration represents a constraint to the development of public policies; (3) market and public policies are both powerful but conflicting innovation drivers; (4) although studies on innovations address greenhouse gas emissions, innovation also includes forest degradation activities; and (5) there are different drivers and applications behind initiatives in technology and innovation, which depend on the local context.

Global Growth, Green Goals: Shaping Sustainable Futures in International Business Education and Research

Jeremy Lawrence Clegg — 2023-11-21

In the ever-evolving landscape of international business, pioneers and thought leaders continually redefine its boundaries, prodding at its concepts and frameworks to ensure they remain relevant and reflective of the world’s dynamic tapestry. In this sincere conversation, Dr. Cyntia Calixto, a lecturer in international business from the University of Leeds, engages with the eminent Professor Jeremy Clegg, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration and International Business Management, also from the University of Leeds. Together, they embark on a deep dive into the currents shaping the future of research in international business, the implications of the sustainability movement, and
along the way include some invaluable guidance for budding scholars looking to make their mark in this expansive discipline