Sob as condições presentes de competitividade global, rápido avanço tecnológico e escassez de recursos, a inovação tornou-se uma das abordagens estratégicas mais importantes que uma organização pode explorar. Nesse contexto, a capacidade de inovação da empresa enquanto capacidade de engajar-se na introdução de novos processos, produtos ou ideias na empresa, é reconhecida como uma das principais fontes de crescimento sustentável, efetividade e até mesmo sobrevivência para as organizações. No entanto, apenas algumas empresas compreenderam na prática o que é necessário para inovar com sucesso e a maioria enxerga a inovação como um grande desafio. A realidade não é diferente no caso das empresas brasileiras e em particular das Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PMEs). Estudos indicam que o grupo das PMEs particularmente demonstra em geral um déficit ainda maior na capacidade de inovação. Em resposta ao desafio de inovar, uma ampla literatura emergiu sobre vários aspectos da inovação. Porém, ainda considere-se que há poucos resultados conclusivos ou modelos compreensíveis na pesquisa sobre inovação haja vista a complexidade do tema que trata de um fenômeno multifacetado impulsionado por inúmeros fatores. Além disso, identifica-se um hiato entre o que é conhecido pela literatura geral sobre inovação e a literatura sobre inovação nas PMEs. Tendo em vista a relevância da capacidade de inovação e o lento avanço do seu entendimento no contexto das empresas de pequeno e médio porte cujas dificuldades para inovar ainda podem ser observadas, o presente estudo se propôs identificar os determinantes da capacidade de inovação das PMEs a fim de construir um modelo de alta capacidade de inovação para esse grupo de empresas. O objetivo estabelecido foi abordado por meio de método quantitativo o qual envolveu a aplicação da análise de regressão logística binária para analisar, sob a perspectiva das PMEs, os 15 determinantes da capacidade de inovação identificados na revisão da literatura. Para adotar a técnica de análise de regressão logística, foi realizada a transformação da variável dependente categórica em binária, sendo grupo 0 denominado capacidade de inovação sem destaque e grupo 1 definido como capacidade de inovação alta. Em seguida procedeu-se com a divisão da amostra total em duas subamostras sendo uma para análise contendo 60% das empresas e a outra para validação (holdout) com os 40% dos casos restantes. A adequação geral do modelo foi avaliada por meio das medidas pseudo R2 (McFadden), chi-quadrado (Hosmer e Lemeshow) e da taxa de sucesso (matriz de classificação). Feita essa avaliação e confirmada a adequação do fit geral do modelo, foram analisados os coeficientes das variáveis incluídas no modelo final quanto ao nível de significância, direção e magnitude. Por fim, prosseguiu-se com a validação do modelo logístico final por meio da análise da taxa de sucesso da amostra de validação. Por meio da técnica de análise de regressão logística, verificou-se que 4 variáveis apresentaram correlação positiva e significativa com a capacidade de inovação das PMEs e que, portanto diferenciam as empresas com capacidade de inovação alta das empresas com capacidade de inovação sem destaque. Com base nessa descoberta, foi criado o modelo final de alta capacidade de inovação para as PMEs composto pelos 4 determinantes: base de conhecimento externo (externo), capacidade de gestão de projetos (interno), base de conhecimento interno (interno) e estratégia (interno). / Under the current circumstances of global competition, fast technological improvement and scarcity of resources, innovation became one of the most important approaches that an organization can explore. In this context, the company\'s innovation capability, meaning its capacity to introduce new processes, products or ideas in the company, is recognized as one of the main sources of sustainable growth, effectiveness and survival for organizations. However, just a few companies understood in a practical manner what is required to successfully innovate and most of them see innovation as a big challenge. This reality is not different in the case of Brazilian companies and Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) in particular. Studies show that the group of SMEs particularly demonstrates in general a deficit even bigger in terms of innovation capacity. In response to the challenge to innovate, a broad literature arose about many aspects of innovation. Although it is considered that only a few results are conclusive or presented comprehensive models in the research about innovation due to the complexity of the theme that deals with a multidimensional phenomenon boosted by several factors. Besides that, there is a gap between what is known by the literature in general about innovation and the literature about innovation at SMEs. The relevance of the innovation capacity and the slow progress of its knowledge base in the context of small and medium size companies which the difficulties to innovate can still be observed, the present study proposed to identify the determinants innovation capacity for SMEs in order to build a high innovation capacity framework for this group of enterprises. The approach for the established goal was through a quantitative method which involved the application of a binary logistic regression to analyze, under the SME perspective, the 15 determinants of innovation capacity identified in the literature review. A transformation of the categorical dependent variable into binary, being group 0 named innovation capacity without highlight and group 1 called high innovation capacity, was done to allow adopting the logistic regression analysis technique. Following this, a procedure was conducted to divide the sample in two subgroups, being one for the analysis containing 60% of the companies and the other for validation (holdout) with the remaining 40% of the cases. The general model fit was assessed by the measures pseudo R2 (McFadden), chi-squared (Hosmer e Lemeshow) and the hit ratio (classification matrix). After this evaluation that confirmed the general model fit, the coefficients of the variables included in the final model were analyzed in terms of its significance level, direction and magnitude. By the end, the final logistic model was validated through the hit ratio of the holdout sample. With the logistic regression analysis, it was able to verify that 4 variables presented positive and significant correlation with the SMEs innovation capacity and, therefore distinguished the high innovation capacity companies from those with innovation capacity without highlight. Based on this discovery, a final high innovation capacity model was built for the SMEs composed by the 4 determinants: external knowledge base (external), project management capacity (internal), internal knowledge base (internal) and strategy (internal).

Os trabalhos relacionados à estrutura de capital dos bancos consideram os requerimentos de capital mínimo regulatório, estabelecidos pelos acordos da Basiléia, como sendo seu principal determinante. Entretanto, estudos recentes realizados em países desenvolvidos - Estados Unidos e Europa - e em desenvolvimento - Ásia, América Latina e Oceania - sugerem que determinantes padrões das instituições não financeiras, também, possuem o poder de explicação do nível de alavancagem financeira a valor contábil e de mercado dos bancos. Assim sendo, este trabalho busca verificar se, para aqueles bancos que possuem um capital próprio acima do mínimo regulatório, a capacidade preditiva dos determinantes padrões - tamanho, lucratividade, oportunidade de crescimento, ativos tangíveis e pagamento de dividendos - igualmente, se aplica aos bancos brasileiros e norte-americanos que possuem carteira comercial, além de identificar possíveis diferenças entre os resultados desses dois países. Como contribuição original deste trabalho, avalia-se o papel do programa de compensação de executivos - baseado em ações e opções - na determinação da estrutura de capital dos bancos, sob a hipótese de que tal programa exerce uma opção por decisões de maior risco, por parte dos gestores, o que pode afetar a sua estrutura de capital. Outro destaque refere-se ao período de análise, o qual compreende os anos da crise sistêmica internacional (2007 a 2010) que provocou a falência de instituições financeiras. A amostra inicial é composta pelos 200 maiores bancos, identificados pelo critério de total de ativos, sendo 100 de cada país. Entretanto, considerando a disponibilidade de informações, a amostra final é composta por 15 bancos brasileiros e 24 norte-americanos, totalizando 156 observações. A metodologia adotada envolve testes de estatística descritiva, análise de correlação e regressão múltipla linear (pooled). Como resultado, verificou-se que, além do risco dos ativos e seguros de depósitos, as variáveis relacionadas à teoria tradicional de estrutura de capital, tais como tamanho, oportunidade de crescimento e pagamento de dividendos, além disso, contribuem para a determinação do nível de alavancagem dos bancos. Por sua vez, o relacionamento negativo da variável de controle macroeconômica crescimento do produto interno bruto, em relação à alavancagem dos bancos, indica a assertividade das mudanças introduzidas pelos legisladores no acordo da Basiléia III ao capturar os efeitos contra-cíclicos do mercado. Por fim, a variável programa de compensação de executivos mostrou-se significativa na definição da alavancagem dos bancos, porém com sinal contrário ao esperado pela teoria de finanças. Entre os motivos identificados para esse comportamento, destacam-se os baixos salários e o comportamento aleatório do preço das ações durante o período de análise que impactaram, de forma inadequada, na política de compensação dos bancos. / The studies related to bank\'s capital structure consider the minimum regulatory capital requirements, established by the Basel Accords, as its main determinant. However, recent works conducted in developed countries - United States of America and Europe - as well as in developing countries - Asia, Latin America and Oceania - suggest that standard determinants of non-financial institutions also explains the book and market leverage for banks. Therefore, this paper seeks to verify if, for those banks that have excess capital (equity) above the regulatory minimum, the predictive ability of standard determinants - size, profitability, growth opportunity, tangible assets and dividend payments - also applies to Brazilian and North American banks who own commercial portfolio and to identify possible differences between the results of these two countries. As an original contribution, this work evaluate the role of the executive compensation program - based on shares and options - in determining the capital structure of the banks, under the assumption that such a program has an option for higher-risk decisions, by managers, which can affect their capital structure. Another highlight is related to the period of analysis, which encompasses the years of international systemic crisis (2007-2010) that caused the bankruptcy of financial institutions. The initial sample comprises the 200 largest banks, identified by the criterion of total assets, with 100 of each country. However, considering the availability of information, the final sample consists of 15 Brazilian banks and 24 U.S. banks, totaling 156 observations. The methodology involves tests of descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression (pooled). As a result, it was found that besides the risk of assets and deposit insurance, the variables related to the traditional theory of capital structure, such as size, growth opportunities and dividend payments also contribute in determining the bank\'s level of leverage. In turn, the negative relationship, between the macroeconomic control variable growth of gross domestic product and bank\'s leverage, indicates the assertiveness of the changes introduced by legislators in the agreement of the Basel III to capture the effects of counter-cyclical market. Finally, the variable compensation program for executives was significant in setting the leverage of bank; however, it has an opposite sign to that expected by the theory of finance. Among the reasons identified for this behavior, it is highlighted the low wages and random behavior of stock price during the period of analysis, inappropriately impacting the compensation policy of the banks.

[pt] A presente dissertação tem como propósito analisar o comportamento do investimento fixo seja ele proveniente das Contas Nacionais seja das Empresas abertas com ações negociadas na Bolsa de Valores no período entre 1987 e 2002. Para tanto, este estudo utilizará ferramentas analíticas e estatísticas. As Demonstrações de Origens e Aplicações de Recursos serão o instrumento utilizado para a compilação dos dados e, principalmente para mostrar a importância do investimento na Economia. O estudo mostra o crescimento do investimento do ativo imobilizado ao longo desses 16 anos, assim como a elevação da representatividade das companhias abertas na Formação Bruta de Capital Fixo. O resultado do estudo evidência a importância do investimento dentre as Aplicações de Recursos das Empresas assim como a crescente importância das companhias de capital aberto como investidoras. / [en] This essay focuses on the behavior of fixed investment, the investment of National Accounts as well as the investment of Companies with papers traded in the Brazilian Stock Exchange during the period of time between 1987 and 2002. This study will use analytical and statistical tolls to conquer its objectives. The instrument to analyze the evaluation along the years and to show the financial position of the entities will be the Statement of Sources and Application of Resources. This essay will show the growth of investment of the entities during the time period and also the increasing importance of the entities in the investment of the National Accounts. The results will emphasize the importance of the investment in the Application of Resources and the importance of the companies with open capital as investors in the economy.

In Canada, falls are one of the leading causes of injury and deaths for seniors. These types of injuries can typically be avoided through falls prevention programs, and past studies suggest that these health services have significantly reduced seniors’ falls risk and rates in Canada. Despite the abundance of falls prevention research, practices and programs available in the country, Aboriginal Elders remain overrepresented in fall-related injury and fatality rates. The elevated rates of falls for Aboriginal Elders indicate that current falls prevention programs and standards may not be reaching those most vulnerable to fall hazards and injuries. My thesis is written in the publishable paper format and is comprised of two papers. Using an exploratory case study methodology in paper one, I investigated the social determinants of health that Inuvialuit Elders and LFPPs identify as factors that increase, decrease, or have no effect on the likelihood of an Inuvialuit Elder experiencing a fall. Together, we found that personal health status and conditions, personal health practices and coping skills, physical environments, social support networks, and access to health services increase Inuvialuit Elders likelihood of experiencing a fall, health practices and coping skills and access to health services decrease Inuvialuit Elders likelihood of experiencing a fall, and culture has no affect on the likelihood of Inuvialuit Elders experiencing a fall. In paper two, I used a participatory action research approach informed by postcolonial theory to examine what current falls prevention recommendations are offered by local falls prevention programmers (LFPPs) in order to reduce fall rates among Inuvialuit Elders in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada; and to understand how falls prevention programs for Inuvialuit Elders can be co-created with participants to be culturally safe. In it, I provide the recommended strategies of developing and implementing a culturally safe falls prevention program for Inuvialuit Elders, as suggested by the LFPPs and Inuvialuit Elders who participated in the research. Taken together, the papers in this thesis make it apparent that research concerning falls prevention for Aboriginal Elders and falls prevention programs continues to be influenced by colonial practices. As a result, there is a demonstrated need for program development and research in this area to work towards reducing health disparities and challenging colonial practices.

In this paper we put forward a Bayesian Model Averaging method aimed at performing inference under model uncertainty in the presence of potential spatial autocorrelation. The method uses spatial filtering in order to account for uncertainty in spatial linkages. Our procedure is applied to a dataset of income per capita growth and 50 potential determinants for 255 NUTS-2 European regions. We show that ignoring uncertainty in the type of spatial weight matrix can have an important effect on the estimates of the parameters attached to the model covariates. After integrating out the uncertainty implied by the choice of regressors and spatial links, human capital investments and transitional dynamics related to income convergence appear as the most robust determinants of growth at the regional level in Europe. Our results imply that a quantitatively important part of the income convergence process in Europe is influenced by spatially correlated growth spillovers.

The characteristics of Mexico are different to the characteristics of countries where the mainstream theories on social movements were developed — which are countries with consolidated democracies. Hence, to study the Mexican case, one must be aware of this difference, as one of the fundamental aims of this thesis is to evaluate the pertinence of these theories in a young democracy with an authoritarian heritage that experiences conditions of social inequality, insecurity and low levels of trust in public institutions. A question that must be asked first is whether the case of Mexico, following the mainstream theories, is going to produce similar outcomes to those that we can find in the literature, or due to the peculiarities of this country, the outcomes are going to be different. In this research work we take the individual as a unit of analysis. Thus, we analyze the variables that have an effect on the propensity of individuals to protest. Beyond the paths of pure micro, meso or macro level analyses, this thesis examines these three social levels in combination to explain the individuals' likelihood to participate in protest events. That is to say, we analyze the effects of the macro or meso level on the micro level. With this aim, we seek to determine whether the case of Mexico is going to produce similar outcomes to those that we can find in the literature or, whether due to the peculiarities of this country the outcomes are going to differ. Contrary to other studies which only analyze the characteristics of protesters, in this work we analyze the characteristics of both protesters and non-protesters. The latter is an important group of analysis, since with it we can make a real contrast to observe which variables are more likely to trigger protest participation in individuals. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

There is limited knowledge on the sexual health behaviors of young adults with physical disabilities, as people with disabilities have traditionally been treated homogenously without acknowledgement of the potential differences between disability types. The objective of this study was twofold. The first goal was to take a novel approach by guidance of the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) framework to compare how young adults with physical disabilities compare against those without physical disabilities in: 1) vaginal sexual activity, 2) condom usage, and 3) the effect of SDOH factors as potential mediators in predicting unprotected vaginal sex. Relatedly, the second goal was to investigate whether there was a difference in condom usage based on disability type criteria, specifically examining membership into the following impairment groups: physical disability, chronic health conditions, vision impairments, hearing impairments, and stuttering/stammering problems. This study employed secondary data analysis based on data from the National Longitudinal Adolescent to Adult Health Survey (ADD Health) – Wave III, in-home interview, public-use dataset. The variables used for the SDOH proxies were job status, student status, housing type, level of education, mentor status, cohabitation status, and health insurance status. Additionally, other social and demographic factors were also accounted in the model: age, race/ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. Results from bivariate regression suggest that only those young adults with visual impairments and those with stuttering/stammering issues are less likely to engage in sexual activity when compared to their healthy counterparts. Regarding condom usage among sexually active individuals, those with physical disabilities, chronic health conditions, and hearing impairments may be less likely to use protection than their counterparts. However, further investigation revealed that the associations between condom usage and those disability type groups are mediated by 1 of the 7 measures of SDOH (cohabitation status) and three demographic factors – gender, race, and age. Hence, it is not the disability type that reduces safe sex practices compliance, but rather that those disability groups are associated to social and demographic factors that are, in turn, linked to unsafe sex practices. Furthermore, it appears that irrespective of disability membership, gender, age, race, and cohabitation status are all associated with condom use compliance. Findings advocate for a supplementary investigation of the relative contributions of the particular social factors that mediate the effect between disability status and condom usage.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Heavy alcohol drinking is a serious health concern in many African countries such as Namibia and South Africa. The heavy use of alcohol is mainly due to avoid coping with the realities of life. There is however, a paucity of research on heavy alcohol use amongst women, particularly in Oshana region of Namibia, where problem drinking is threatening the well-being of women and society. This study explored the psycho-social determinants of women who are heavy alcohol users in the Oshana region. The study design was explorative and descriptive within a qualitative approach. The social constructionist theory underpinned this study. Four participants were randomly selected from the Developmental Social Services caseload which led the researcher to snowball the other four participants for a total of eight participants in the study. Data was collected by means of semi-structured face-to-face interview with the aid of an interview guide. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and field notes were taken. Thematic analysis was used to analyse and interpret the data. The participants identified with coping with realities among women heavy drinking. They reported psychological and social factors affected the well- being of women drinking. These factors included poverty, unemployment, family pressure or influence, availability and accessibility of alcohol, expression, stress, low self-esteem, fear of loneliness and many others. Based on these results, some of the suggestions put forward by all the participants and the researcher concluded the study with a recommendation that an awareness can be created by service providers such as social workers working with women who are heavy drinkers to establish and improve alcohol programmes in Oshana Region and Namibia as a whole.

The disparity in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, including within high-income countries, is driven by a heightened risk of cardio-metabolic diseases. The current study recruited independent panels of experts in Indigenous cardio-metabolic health from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, in order to establish local consensus opinion and initiate dialogue on appropriate prevention strategies. Therefore, a three-round Delphi process was used to consolidate and compare the opinions of 60 experts, 20 from each country. Round one, the experts were asked twelve open-ended questions across six domains: (i) prevention; (ii) consultation; (iii) educational resources; (iv) societal issues; (v) workforce issues; (vi) culture and family. Round two, the experts completed a structured questionnaire based on results from the first round, in which they ranked items according to their importance. Final round, the experts were asked to re-rank the same items after receiving summary feedback about the rank ordering from the previous round. Several themes emerged common to all three countries: (i) socio-economic and education inequalities should be addressed; (ii) educational, behaviour change and prevention strategies should address physical environmental determinants and be responsive to the local context, including being culturally appropriate; and (iii) cultural appropriateness can be achieved through consultation with Indigenous communities, cultural competency training, use of Indigenous health workers, and use of appropriate role models. These findings highlight several key priorities that can be used to initiate dialogue on appropriate prevention strategies. Such strategies should be contextualized to the local Indigenous populations.

We propose the use of Latent Class Analysis methods to analyze the covariate inclusion patterns across specifications resulting from Bayesian model averaging exercises. Using Dirichlet Process clustering, we are able to identify and describe dependency structures among variables in terms of inclusion in the specifications that compose the model space. We apply the method to two datasets of potential determinants of economic growth. Clustering the posterior covariate inclusion structure of the model space formed by linear regression models reveals interesting patterns of complementarity and substitutability across economic growth determinants.