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The purpose of this paper is to examine, from the venture capital (VC) managers’ perspective, the impact of the international financial and sovereign debt crises on the VC industry in Portugal, and the changes and adjustments VC managers were forced to adopt to their procedures and current practices to cope with these challenges.

A two-step research design was adopted to best capture the dynamics of the crisis. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and content analysed. The initial set of interviews with ten VC managers was conducted in 2011, immediately before the country bailout; and the second set in 2013, when the full impact of the debt crisis was being felt.

The study shows that the crises had a significant impact on the VC industry producing a complex and dynamic environment with high levels of uncertainty. The VC managers’ contradictory perceptions reflect their own struggle to figure out the best way to deal with the pressures in such a volatile environment where new opportunities may also arise. In general, VC firms became more selective adopting a more prudential attitude and tighter control mechanisms.

This study contributes to the field by analysing, from the VC managers’ perspective, the cumulative impact of the international financial and sovereign debt crisis on a European VC market with specific features: small dimension of the industry operating in a bank-centred capital market and where family-owned SMEs predominate.

Scholars have increasingly researched on how the uprise of Technologies 4.0 will alter the way in which the tourism destinations, the hospitality and tourism sector will operate. Research points out to the fact that the massive digital transformation can lead to a human-centric experience design perspective which is against the principles of tourism sustainable development. In fact, one of today's challenges is predicting how destinations can use immersive digital experiences like metaverse to instill sustainable behaviours. Bearing that in mind, in this chapter, one first explores the concept of metaverse in general and after in the context of tourism destinations management organisations, showing that metaverse that seeks to turn imagination into reality using a panoply of technologies should be seen as the perfect mean for sustainable tourism.

The study proposes a conceptual framework to create an understanding of metaverse experiences envisioning sustainable practices.

Finally, one identifies research gaps and proposes an agenda with the potential of benefiting destination's management organisations. Furthermore, it was our intent to identify opportunities and challenges involving the use of metaverse with sustainable ends by tourism destination management organisations.

This study assumes that metaverse can be used by destination management organisations to educate potential ‘tourists’ by providing to them innovative educational environments where they can ‘live’ all sorts of non-human-centric sustainable experiences. With that intent, a model for the implementation of metaverse was created with its foundations on current experiments happening worldwide.

In today's world, events are used as a mean to achieve an array of objectives including changing behaviours. This chapter asserts the importance of marketing in encouraging sustainable behaviours by children through events. Thus, it examines the most effective way of marketing to contribute to shift behaviours in a young age having events as an ally. The question that poses is how marketing and more specifically social marketing can help to plan, create, design and promote sustainable events for children. Bearing that in mind, and based on a semi-systematic literature review, one developed a comprehensive conceptual framework intending to show how it is possible to encourage sustainable children's behaviour through events. Results suggest that social marketing can play a significant role in changing children's behaviour towards sustainability. It is argued that there is a creation of ‘value’ even that behaviour change is only temporary. Furthermore, it is suggested that social marketing represents a viable approach when seeking to educate children and change their behaviours towards the adoption of more sustainable practices. This chapter advances theoretical knowledge by offering a conceptual framework and by suggesting a way forward in marketing sustainable events for children.

Recent developments in Portuguese libraries are described with special attention to the application of new information technologies. The obvious modernisation largely described in the LIB‐2 update study has been mainly due to the automation of the National Library and the creation of the Online Union Catalogue. Main aspects and stages of this process which revolutionised Portuguese libraries are therefore emphasised.

The purpose of this paper is to study the portrayal of early accountants in the unfamiliar site of Portugal by examining Portuguese-language realist literature from the second half of the nineteenth century.

Two popular literary works – Uma Família Inglesa (An English Family), written by Júlio Dinis and published in 1867, and Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura (The Idiosyncrasies of a Young Blonde Woman), written by Eça de Queirós and published in 1873 – were examined through a qualitative content analysis.

The dimensions of the accounting stereotype discerned for the two early accounting practitioners featured in these works are portrayed as: modest; on-the-job trained practitioner; uncreative, conservative and unenergetic; honest financial manager; servant of the capitalist (i.e. merchant), and warm and sentimental. The accountant stereotype depicted from 1860s to 1870s period is similar to the conventional accountant stereotype, identified as the “traditional accountant” stereotype. Variations from this stereotype, however, are identified in the local, time-specific settings of Lisbon and Oporto.

The study’s portrayal of early accounting practitioners occurs during a period of transformation marked by liberalism. It augments an understanding of the image of early accounting practitioners, reflecting their social positioning at a time of significant social, economic, political and cultural changes, thereby contributing to an appreciation of the historical legacy of the accountant stereotype in continental Europe. Importantly, a taxonomy is proposed for content analysis that can be used and developed by future researchers.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the effect of information disclosure on firm value for firms in the Integrated Latin American Market (MILA) over the period 2011–2017.

The study uses structural equation modeling (SEM), where the latent variable “Disclosure Quality” is measured using five textual analysis variables as indicators. The final sample is composed of 1,412 observations representing 198 firms from which we were able to collect annual reports and financial information required.

The authors find a positive and statistically significant effect of “Disclosure Quality” on firm value. The indirect effect of language on firm value is also captured. Text similarity, negative tone, readability and text length in corporate disclosure are negatively related to firm value while using positive tone is positively related. In the exploratory analysis, the authors have significant effects of textual measures on disclosure quality.

The research is original and unique as it approaches the relation between disclosure quality and market valuation of the firm using SEM for firms participating in the MILA.

El propósito es estimar el efecto de la calidad en la revelación de información sobre el valor de la firma para empresas que hacen parte del mercado integrado Latinoamericano (MILA) durante el periodo 2011–2017.

El estudio utiliza un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM), donde la variable latente “Calidad de la información” es medida usando cinco variables de análisis textual como indicadores. La muestra final está conpuesta de 1,412 observaciones que representan 198 empresas para las cuales se pudo recolectar los reportes anuales y la información financiera requerida

Nosotros encontramos una relación positiva y estadísticamente significativa entre la variable “Calidad de la información” y valor de la firma. El efecto indirecto del lenguaje en el valor de la firma es igualmente observado. La similaridad en el texto, el tono negativo, la legibilidad y el largo del texto en la revelación corporativa están relacionados de manera negativa con el valor de la firma mientras que el tono positivo está relacionado de manera positiva. En el análisis exploratorio, nosotros encontramos un efecto estadísticamente significativo entre las medidas de texto y la calidad de la revelación.

La investigación es original y única en cuanto aproxima la relación entre calidad de la revelación y desempeño de la firma usando un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para las firmas participantes del mercado integrado Latinoamericano (MILA).

The purpose of this paper is to see if edutainment containing only healthy food can change children’s preferences and food choices toward healthy eating, especially in overweight or obese children, and if the children’s self-regulation, emotional overeating and parents that use food as a reward would influence those changes. This is important because childhood obesity is one of the biggest public health problems of the 21st century.

The authors conducted a study in two public schools (total 189 children) with a between-subjects experimental design (control vs experimental group), where children in experimental group watched an episode of Nutri Ventures series without unhealthy foods.

The results showed no differences in both children’s preferences and children’s food choices between the control and experimental group, with exception of older children, and contrary to our expectations. Older children in the experimental group chose more unhealthy food than children in the control group. The authors also saw differences in food choices between “emotional overeating” groups, where the children in “high” group tended to choose less healthy food items, especially in the experimental group of children. This leads the authors to believe that isolated edutainment may not be enough to change preferences and food choices; instead it might even have an opposite effect.

This study aimed to identify if edutainment containing only healthy food could be more effective in childhood obesity prevention but instead it showed how complex the whole topic can be.

In this paper, the aim is to discuss and analyze seasonality of demand within the rural tourist market of North Portugal and corresponding destination marketing implications.

The data (n=2280) were collected through a large‐scale survey in the context of a study of the rural tourist market in North Portugal, from 1998 to 1999.

Results reveal statistically significant differences between those coming in the high versus low season, concerning tourist profile, travel behavior, motivations and perceptions of the destination.

The study results may only be valid for the specific rural region studied, which would make replication studies in other rural destinations desirable to take more generalizable conclusions.

Understanding seasonal market differences and confronting them with the destination's resources may contribute to the development of more attractive products and correspondingly to the destination's ability to attract and satisfy different types of tourists in different seasons of the year. The capacity to thereby improve the destination experience in the eyes of its tourists and to also manage demand, avoiding excessive crowding in the high season and eventually sub‐optimal use of resources in the low, may be an important step for maintaining a sustainable tourism business in rural areas.

The paper aims at contributing to the discussion of how to cope with seasonality of tourist demand, considering particularly the specificity of rural destinations and the global aim of sustainable destination development.