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This paper aims to investigate not only the performance of Portuguese mutual funds investing in domestic and international equities but also which fund characteristics, such as age, size, family size, expense ratios and flows, influence future performance.

Fund performance is evaluated over the 2005–2022 period by a robust six-factor model, while the impact of fund characteristics on performance is assessed by a set of fixed-effects panel data regressions with two-way cluster-robust standard errors.

The results show that, while funds investing in domestic equities predominantly exhibit neutral performance, most international equity funds have significantly negative alphas. The authors document a negative and statistically significant relationship between fund age and performance for all fund categories. Total expense ratios have an inverse relationship with domestic equity fund performance but do not impact the performance of international equity funds significantly. Though fund flows have a neutral effect on performance across the overall period, they are important determinants of both domestic and international funds’ performance in more recent years.

The authors contribute to the literature by carrying out a comprehensive analysis, based on recent and robust methodologies, of the impact of mutual fund characteristics on the future performance of Portuguese equity funds. The research findings serve as a premise for advising investors on how to choose the top-performing funds.

This study aims to identify residents’ perceptions of the impacts of Airbnb through an exploratory study that accounts for 94 residents in Lisbon, Portugal, in neighbourhoods with a high number of accommodations listed on the Airbnb platform.

A quantitative research was conducted. A questionnaire was designed and administered within the selected neighbourhoods. Factor analysis using the principal component methods is used to reduce the items evaluated.

The study reveals that residents have perceptions of both agreement and disagreement towards the impacts of the sharing economy in economic, environmental and sociocultural aspects. Positively perceived impacts refer to interactions with tourists, natural preservation and increase in business and job opportunities. Conversely, the growth of rent prices, the increase in noise issues, the change in the local culture and the threat of losing authenticity and traditions are the dimensions that may lead to negatively perceived impacts towards Airbnb.

In spite of being the largest network for sharing accommodation, Airbnb is not the only one. Research on individual perceptions analyses the understandings of each person, which can be built and shaped by the context. In spite of the potential of the Likert scale, qualitative research should be added to enrich future studies.

This study identified several challenges for Airbnb and other sharing platforms, including residents’ concerns over noise, the threat of losing identity, changes in the local culture and rise in rent prices.

The study is dedicated to analyzing the host community residents and identifying their perceptions of impacts of the sharing economy. The use of residents’ perceptions provides useful insights that may be considered when planning, developing and implementing local policies.

Human actions on natural ecosystems have not only jeopardized human well-being but also threatened the existence of other species. On the other hand, the benefits resulting from a greater integration between the logic of nature and human occupations have been seen as motivating factors for the prevention and mitigation of environmental impacts in landscape planning, since it provides human well-being through the grant of resources, regulation of the environment and socio-cultural services called ecosystem services. This article highlights the relevance of using ecosystem integrity indicators related to the functioning of ecological support processes for landscape planning.

The research used the photosynthetic performance of vegetation through carbon fluxes in the landscape, defining areas where different approaches to green infrastructure can be applied, gaining over the majority of work in this area, in which low degrees of objectivity on measurement and consequent ecological recovery still prevail. Thus, using the conceptual support of restoration ecology and remote sensing, the work identified different vegetation performances in relation to the supporting ecological processes using the multispectral CO₂flux index, linked to the carbon flux to identify the photosynthetic effectiveness of the vegetation and the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI).

With a study in the Distrito Federal (DF), the results of the different performances of vegetation for ecological support, through electromagnetic signatures and associated vegetation formations, allowed for the identification of hotspots of greater integrity that indicate multifunctional areas to be preserved and critical areas that deserve planning actions using green infrastructure techniques for their restoration and integration into the landscape.

This approach could be the initial step towards establishing clear and assertive criteria for selecting areas with greater potential for the development of supporting ecological processes in the territorial mosaic.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of the front of a package label and the nutritional claims linked to it over consumers’ expectations as to acceptance, purchase attitude and perception of quality characteristics of a new functional beverage made from cashew nut milk and added with mango juice and prebiotic substances.

Three versions of the front label were developed, which differed just by the type of nutritional claim presented (“0 per cent lactose and 0 per cent cholesterol; 0 per cent lactose, 0 per cent cholesterol and source of fibers, 0 per cent lactose, 0 per cent cholesterol and antioxidants”) and were evaluated in two phases, expectation and informed. For the evaluation, consumers used a multi-attribute scale, the nine-point hedonic scale and a nine-point semi-structured buying attitude scale.

The labels created a positive expectation on the consumers regarding the quality attributes, overall impression (mean = 6.0 “Like slightly”) and buying attitude (mean = 6.0 “Would probably buy”). After tasting the beverage associated with labels (informed phase), consumers kept a positive evaluation. The t-test performed between the pair of means of both phases showed that there has not been a significant difference regarding the quality attributes (p > 0.05), special, attractive, nutritive, healthy and buying attitude (Label 1, p = 0.26; Label 2, p = 0.18; Label 3, p = 0.26) in all labels.

The authors evaluated how the influence of label and nutritional claims in regards to a new product, a beverage made from cashew nut, affects its acceptance, buying attitude and characteristics of quality. Until this moment, there are no studies that evaluate how external attributes affect the acceptance of this beverage totally unique in the Brazilian market.

This chapter examines women’s participation at the Portuguese punk scene, suggesting the use of fanzines as an alternative medium able to spread feminist narratives. Through the words and pictures of the Portuguese punk fanzines – X.cute, Modern Girl, Global Riot, Sisterly, Mulibu and Cuecas Quentes – we highlight the strength of the symbolic resistance of the Portuguese punk women. This approach allows us to show the existence of an imaginary structure of equality within an actual scenario of inequality and reproduction of society’s gendered structure. The theoretical discussion involves themes related to feminism, the punk movement (Guerra, 2013, 2017; Guerra & Silva, 2015; Guerra & Straw, 2017), the riot grrrl scene (McRobbie & Garber; 1987; McRobbie, 2000, 2009), and the universe of alternative media and fanzines (Guerra & Quintela, 2014, 2016; Triggs, 2006; Worley, 2015).

This study aims to assess the online presence of three Portuguese low-density territories and analyze the communication strategies employed by public and private entities within each municipality. The alignment between public and private entities within each municipality is also examined as a potential factor that could impact the effectiveness of digital communication strategies.

A qualitative methodology that employed content analysis and interviews to gather data from selected public and private entities in each of the municipalities under study was used.

Despite the widespread availability of digital communication tools, the municipalities under study are yet to fully exploit their potential to promote and publicize their offerings. This could be attributed to several factors such as a lack of knowledge and/or resources and a defective strategic approach to digital communication.

The major obstacle in maximizing the potential of digital communication tools in low-density destinations was not solely a result of restricted access. Rather, it was largely due to insufficient knowledge and resources required for their effective utilization, coupled with a lack of aligned vision among various stakeholders.

The competitive landscape in which tourist actors operate has transformed significantly because of the widespread adoption of digital communication led by social networks. However, studies exploring digital communication in low-density territories are still scarce. This study adds new insights into the main factors that hinder the efficient use of digital communication in these regions.

This paper explores how Airbnb hosts' experiences with and responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) health crisis may differ according to their motivations to host and to the type and spatial layout of their Airbnb accommodation. Based on these insights, the paper reflects on the lessons that are learned for the future of short-term rentals.

This is a qualitative multi-method small-scale case study, which relies on in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion carried out with a group of hosts affiliated to the Airbnb Host Community in Aarhus, Denmark. Informed by an interpretivist approach, the study aims to make sense of people's subjective experiences with hosting on the Airbnb platform, and how they have continued and adapted their hospitality practices during the pandemic.

Participants' adaptive practices vary according to their motivations to host and the type of accommodation that they rent out. Although all hosts in this study now implement more intensive cleaning practices, hosts who stay with their guests onsite tend to take stricter preventative measures to avoid contamination and transmission of the virus in their social interactions with guests. On the contrary, hosts who rent out their entire properties and have minimal contact with their guests found themselves less affected by the pandemic's impacts and have had a continued demand for their properties.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unevenly affected Airbnb hosts. Hosts who share their homes with guests require different adaptations to their daily behaviour and cleaning practices at home than hosts who do not stay with their guests and rent out entire properties. However, unlike professional hosts who largely or solely rely on Airbnb for their income, occasional home-sharing hosts tend to be more flexible in coping with cancelled or fewer bookings.

This study provides novel insights into the uneven impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on participants in the platform economies of tourism. It contributes to existing literature on the impacts of the pandemic on Airbnb's operations by showing how hosts' adaptive practices are informed by their subjective living conditions and the type of accommodation they can offer their guests.

Globally, consumer’s inclination towards functional foods had noticed due to their greater health consciousness coupled with enhanced health-care cost. The fact that probiotics could promote a healthier gut microbiome led projection of probiotic foods as functional foods and had emerged as an important dietary strategy for improved human health. It had established that ice cream was a better carrier for probiotics than fermented milked due to greater stability of probiotics in ice cream matrix. Global demand for ice cream boomed and probiotic ice cream could have been one of the most demanded functional foods. The purpose of this paper was to review the technological aspects and factors affecting probiotic viability and to standardize methodology to produce functional probiotic ice cream.

Attempt was made to search the literature (review and researched papers) to identify diverse factors affecting the probiotic viability and major technological challenge faced during formulation of probiotic ice cream. Keywords used for data searched included dairy-based functional foods, ice cream variants, probiotic ice cream, factors affecting probiotic viability and health benefits of probiotic ice cream.

Retention of probiotic viability at a level of >10⁶ cfu/ml is a prerequisite for functional probiotic ice creams. Functional probiotic ice cream could have been produced with the modification of basic mix and modulating technological parameters during processing and freezing. Functionality can be further enhanced with the inclusion of certain nutraceutical components such as prebiotics, antioxidant, phenolic compounds and dietary fibres. Based upon reviewed literature, suggested method for the manufacture of functional probiotic ice cream involved freezing of a probiotic ice cream mix obtained by blending 10% probiotic fermented milk with 90% non-fermented plain ice cream mix for higher probiotic viability. Probiotic ice cream with functional features, comparable with traditional ice cream in terms of technological and sensory properties could be produced and can crop up as a novel functional food.

Probiotic ice cream with functional features may attract food manufacturers to cater health-conscious consumers.