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This paper examines the impact of extreme rainfall shocks on the performance in test scores of students living near at-risk urban areas in Brazil.

To identify the causal effect, we consider the exogenous variation of rainfall at the municipal level conditioned on the distance from the school to risk areas and the rainfall intensity in the school months.

The results suggest that extreme precipitation shocks, defined as a shock of at least three months of high-intensity rainfall, have an adverse impact on both math and language performance. Through a heterogeneous effects analysis, we find that the impact varies by student gender, with girls being more affected. In addition, among students who study near at-risk areas, those with better previous school performance and higher socioeconomic status are more negatively affected.

Our results suggest that extreme weather events can increase the differences in human capital accumulation between the population living near risk areas and those living more distant from these areas.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the Brazilian literature about national and organizational culture.

A postmodern epistemological perspective is taken to discuss culture, focusing first on its contribution to the analysis of culture within organizations. Then the central ideas in the articles published in Brazilian periodicals and congresses, between 1991 and 2000, which talked about Brazilian organizational culture, are presented and an attempt is made to outline their fundamental characteristics.

The majority of studies which deal with Brazilian culture, and which have been developed within the context of management, analyze the theme in a homogeneous manner and do not take into account the plurality and heterogeneity within the country and organizations.

Postmodern approaches to discussion of culture seem to be important in dealing with cultural contexts (national and organizational) where nuances and variations cannot be ignored without serious political and social implications.

Consumer perception of corporate brand equity has primarily focused on product brand dimensions, neglecting considerations at the firm analysis level. Assessing corporate brands requires different criteria relevant to the competitiveness of companies, such as their prominence, management and meeting society’s demands. In this sense, this study aims to develop and validate a scale of corporate brand equity founded on consumer perceptions, transcending industry boundaries and comparing its relationship with companies' market share.

The authors used an integrative approach to clarify the construct’s domain, building on previous measures. They took several steps to select appropriate items, refine the measure, validate it through reliability tests and convergent and discriminant analyses, test the validity of the second-order formative structure of corporate brand equity and assess associations between first-order factors, the second-order factor and market share.

The model identifies three first-order dimensions of corporate brands (presence, outstanding management and responsible) that shape the second-order factor (corporate brand equity). They are directly related, but not proportionally, to market share, contributing to the general and joint assessment of the company’s competitive performance considering the consumer.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to develop a comprehensive measurement model of corporate brand equity that considers the firm level of analysis, combines metrics from previous research on corporate brand evaluation criteria and includes consumer perceptions of the company’s competitiveness, unifying branding theory with the theory of the marketing firm.

The native species from western Mato Grosso do Sul provide fruits with unique sensory characteristics and high nutrient concentrations. Tropical fruit consumption is increasing due to the growing recognition of the nutritional value. These fruits play important roles through the marketing of their products and nutritionally through their consumption. All fruits are edible and are used in the food industry and well sensory accepted. The purpose of this paper is to verify the physicochemical characteristics, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity in fruits collected in the Cerrado and Pantanal biomes from western Mato Grosso do Sul.

The fruits of baru, bocaiuva, jatobá, jenipapo and pequi were collected. To characterize them, longitudinal diameter, transverse diameter, total soluble solids, acidity, pH, ascorbic acid, total phenolics, antioxidant capacity, total sugar, glucose and macro and micronutrient contents analysis were performed in triplicate.

Jatobá presented the highest values of vitamin C. For phenolics, baru and jatobá stood out; bocaiuva presented the highest results for sugars, while jatobá was superior for glucose. The fruits with the highest antioxidant capacity, DPPH, were pequi and baru, while via ABTS the jatobá was the highest. Baru presented higher levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, zinc and iron. The bocaiuva presented the highest results for potassium and sulfur, the jatobá calcium and manganese. Jenipapo stood out with its boron content. Magnesium presented superior results in the baru, jenipapo and bocaiuva. The results reinforce the diversity of physicochemical characteristics.

The increase of the flow of available information, together with the growth of multicultural influences, the search for wholesome diet and the diversity of flavors and colors make these fruits important regional development tools. Their characteristics encompass national and international exploration potential that arouse consumer interest and contribute to the pursuit of innovations. In addition, the native species mentioned above provide fruits with unique sensory characteristics. Their consumption is increasing in the markets due to the growing recognition of their nutritional value. Therefore, these fruits play important roles, economically, through the marketing of their products and nutritionally through their consumption.