Papers by Galvão Meirinhos
Scientific Reports, Jul 14, 2023
E-commerce is a field that changed how consumers purchase and interact with products. Although, i... more E-commerce is a field that changed how consumers purchase and interact with products. Although, inherent limitations such as the difficulty of testing the products "first-hand" before a purchase can compromise consumers' trust in online purchases. Virtual Reality (VR) has been investigated as a tool to solve limitations in several fields and how we can harness its potential to improve the overall user experience. This study analysed how immersive VR (IVR) could solve these limitations by allowing consumers to test products beforehand. We have studied how the Novelty Factor (evaluated by the users' past VR experience) and Immersive Tendencies correlate with the users' Purchase Intention and Memory (how well they remember the product's characteristics). We have analysed a sample of 38 participants (21 males) from 18 to 28 years old. Participants experienced a refrigerator with an interactive touchscreen in an IVR setup and were guided through its functionalities. Results indicated that memory of the product's characteristics was positively correlated with how recently they experienced VR. No correlations were found in the female sample. A negative correlation between Purchase Intention and Memory of the product's characteristics was found in the male sample. We concluded that IVR applications could become helpful for both consumers and online shops in an e-commerce context regardless of the Novelty Factor and Immersive Tendencies of consumers. However, differences between genders should be further investigated. Virtual Reality (VR) potential has been explored in several fields (e.g. rescuers 1 , medical 2 , educational 3 , marketing 4) due to its capabilities to create virtual experiences where users behave similarly to real analogous situations. VR, more specifically, immersive VR (IVR), VR using immersive technologies such as head-mounted displays (HMD), can isolate users entirely from real-world stimuli 5-7. Therefore, users experimenting with IVR can lose awareness of their surroundings and become focused and immersed in the virtual world as if it was their "new reality". Technology has evolved so that society went from expensive and bulky VR equipment 8 to accessible high-quality HMDs with great support from the community and developers worldwide. Developing VR applications is becoming easier and more profitable as research keeps increasing on VR and authoring tools 9,10 together with increasing adoption of VR 11. Lightweight IVR applications can even be run in smartphones equipped with adaptors such as a VR cardboard viewer and in standalone solutions such as Oculus Quest (recently named Meta Quest). Using such devices increases mobility and reduces the logistics behind setting up desktop computerbased HMD at the potential cost of quality. E-commerce drastically changed how consumers purchase products. There are multiple marketplaces where consumers can search for all products and investigate their characteristics and reviews from other buyers while getting products delivered to their homes. However, online shopping for physical products has the disadvantage that users can only try products firsthand when they arrive after the purchase is made. Such a disadvantage can negatively influence the consumers' trust in buying certain types of products online, either by being expensive or because the online description is not enough for the consumer to make a fully informed purchase. Kim et al. 12 concluded that online shoppers with a higher degree of product-level uncertainty are more unlikely to
IEEE Access, 2022
Virtual reality (VR) potential to isolate users from the real world while producing a rich virtua... more Virtual reality (VR) potential to isolate users from the real world while producing a rich virtual environment where users act similarly to how they would, in reality, is still being investigated in several fields. In this work, we investigated the effects of product contextualisation and gender under an immersive VR application where users can explore in-depth a commercial product with a ''hands-on'' experience. An experimental between-subjects study was performed with 38 participants between 18 and 28 years. The product tested consisted of a double-door refrigerator equipped with a touchscreen. Two independent variables were studied: Context (the refrigerator was filled with food products and placed in a kitchen), Neutral Context (empty refrigerator displayed in an empty white room), and Gender (Female and Male). As for the dependent variables, we considered how clarified users felt about the product functionalities, its size, the extent users remember details and characteristics of the refrigerator, and the user's subjective workload. The evidence shows that contextualisation and gender have no impact on any dependent variables. Therefore, we concluded that presenting a product in its context does not benefit significantly benefit it. Thus, opting for a neutral context would be preferable to save computational costs and human resources necessary to build and run the higher complexity environments required to contextualise the product.
Scientific Reports
E-commerce is a field that changed how consumers purchase and interact with products. Although, i... more E-commerce is a field that changed how consumers purchase and interact with products. Although, inherent limitations such as the difficulty of testing the products “first-hand” before a purchase can compromise consumers’ trust in online purchases. Virtual Reality (VR) has been investigated as a tool to solve limitations in several fields and how we can harness its potential to improve the overall user experience. This study analysed how immersive VR (IVR) could solve these limitations by allowing consumers to test products beforehand. We have studied how the Novelty Factor (evaluated by the users’ past VR experience) and Immersive Tendencies correlate with the users’ Purchase Intention and Memory (how well they remember the product’s characteristics). We have analysed a sample of 38 participants (21 males) from 18 to 28 years old. Participants experienced a refrigerator with an interactive touchscreen in an IVR setup and were guided through its functionalities. Results indicated tha...
Journal of risk and financial management, Jan 25, 2023
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
TEM Journal, Nov 25, 2022
This work presents a study on how an immersive virtual environment's level of interaction... more This work presents a study on how an immersive virtual environment's level of interaction and fidelity can affect the quality of experience (QOE) in a real estate context. Four versions of the virtual space were created with the level of interaction and the level of fidelity varying between them. The QoE dimensions considered in this work are user satisfaction, lighting quality, interior space quality, and interaction features. The sample comprises 28 participants, of which 21 are men and 7 are women, aged between 18 and 29 years. Results show that, overall, the level of fidelity is more relevant when the level of interaction is low, assuming the movement around the apartment is statistically higher in high-fidelity experiences.
Administração: Gestão, liderança e inovação 3, Nov 16, 2022
Editora Direitos para esta edição cedidos à Atena Editora pelos autores. Open access publication ... more Editora Direitos para esta edição cedidos à Atena Editora pelos autores. Open access publication by Atena Editora Todo o conteúdo deste livro está licenciado sob uma Licença de Atribuição Creative Commons. Atribuição-Não-Comercial-NãoDerivativos 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Sustainability
Bearing the growing competition between organisations in mind, managers are focused on keeping on... more Bearing the growing competition between organisations in mind, managers are focused on keeping on with the search for strategic alignment and performance monitoring. The literature has shed much light into the field of Management but a guide to monitor the defined strategy via Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is still lacking. Few studies have made their focus the question of which perspectives are the most relevant; it is therefore likely that there are different importance rankings between organisations with and without BSC. Highlighting the need to bring insight into this research field concerning the organizational performance measurement of the BSC, quantitative research was performed, to analyse the different rankings of the four perspectives, comparing organisations with and without BSC. The sample was composed of 107 out of the 250 major export organisations of Portugal. The outcomes confirm that the most relevant perspective is indeed the financial perspective, followed by the cust...
Economies
University-industry cooperation is associated with the transfer of knowledge and technology. This... more University-industry cooperation is associated with the transfer of knowledge and technology. This collaboration is an extremely important field of study for the world’s economies, helping companies to become more competitive. The present research aims to explore and analyze the literature related to university-industry cooperation, using a bibliometric analysis as a methodology. This study intends to use an unlike approach to conduct the literature review and map the most relevant research studies, using a rigorous research protocol based on scientific documents published in the Web of Science database, using the keyword “University-Industry Cooperation”. The 256 articles collected are situated in a time base between 1970 and 2020 and were submitted to content analysis in R Bibliometrix. This systematic literature review revealed that companies are increasingly focusing on cooperation with universities. The research of these publications points to a growing trend in publications of ...
Administrative Sciences
This paper explores the relationships among variables and determines the influences of dimensions... more This paper explores the relationships among variables and determines the influences of dimensions (i.e., municipal satisfaction, organizational performance, perceived quality, contestations and complaints of the municipal executive) on the notoriety, image, and reputation (NIR) of municipal executives. We attempted to understand if citizens’ opinions influenced the evaluations, recommendations, and contestations based on NIR. Parishes in the municipality of Valongo were selected and analysed, namely Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde; a total of 998 questionnaires were collected. It was concluded that all of the studied dimensions were statistically significant in the final structural estimated model. The structural results point to municipal satisfaction and contestations and complaints of municipal executives as having directly positive and statistically significant influences on NIR. Organizational performance and perceived quality have directly positive but not stat...
Social Sciences
This research project aims to analyze the importance of internal communication in organizations i... more This research project aims to analyze the importance of internal communication in organizations in Benguela (Angola) and to determine its impact on employee engagement and commitment to the organization. To this end, an exploratory study was conducted using a quantitative methodology. In this scope, a questionnaire was applied to 250 employees of the organizations, seeking to evaluate employees as internal consumers; internal communication in terms of tools, means and communicative effectiveness, as well as internal communication management and employee satisfaction. The results demonstrate the need for internal communication to engage and commit the company’s employees, where organizations are increasingly concerned with the management of their human resources.
IEEE Access
Virtual reality (VR) potential to isolate users from the real world while producing a rich virtua... more Virtual reality (VR) potential to isolate users from the real world while producing a rich virtual environment where users act similarly to how they would in reality is still being investigated in several fields. In this work, we investigated the effects of product contextualisation and gender under an immersive VR application where users can explore in-depth a commercial product with a "hands-on" experience. An experimental between-subjects study was performed with 38 participants between 18 and 28 years. The product tested consisted of a double door refrigerator equipped with a touchscreen. Two independent variables were studied: Context (the refrigerator was filled with food products and placed in a kitchen), Neutral Context (empty refrigerator displayed in an empty white room), and Gender (Female and Male). As for the dependent variables, we considered how clarified users felt about the product functionalities, its size, the extent users remember details and characteristics of the refrigerator, and the user's subjective workload. The evidence shows that contextualisation and gender have no impact on any dependent variables. Therefore, we concluded that presenting a product in its context does not benefit significantly benefit it. Thus, opting for a neutral context would be preferable to save computational costs and human resources necessary to build and run the higher complexity environments required to contextualise the product.
Administrative Sciences
This paper explores which variables are more significant in municipal executive recommendation by... more This paper explores which variables are more significant in municipal executive recommendation by citizens. We estimated the influence of public dimensions, such as municipe loyalty, municipe satisfaction, and municipe perceived value in municipal executive recommendation by citizens. Then, we tried to understand if the citizen’s opinions influenced the evaluation of the municipal executive recommendation. The parishes of the municipality of Valongo were selected and analyzed, namely the parishes of Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde, and a total of 998 questionnaires were collected. Data were collected in November 2020 in the different parishes under study. It was concluded that all studied dimensions were statistically significant in the final structural estimated model. The structural results point to municipe loyalty and municipe satisfaction dimensions having a direct, positive, and statistically significant influence on municipal executive recommendation. On the o...
TEM Journal, 2022
This work presents a study on how an immersive virtual environment's level of interaction and fid... more This work presents a study on how an immersive virtual environment's level of interaction and fidelity can affect the quality of experience (QOE) in a real estate context. Four versions of the virtual space were created with the level of interaction and the level of fidelity varying between them. The QoE dimensions considered in this work are user satisfaction, lighting quality, interior space quality, and interaction features. The sample comprises 28 participants, of which 21 are men and 7 are women, aged between 18 and 29 years. Results show that, overall, the level of fidelity is more relevant when the level of interaction is low, assuming the movement around the apartment is statistically higher in highfidelity experiences.
Sustainability, 2022
Bearing the growing competition between organisations in mind, managers are focused on keeping on... more Bearing the growing competition between organisations in mind, managers are focused on keeping on with the search for strategic alignment and performance monitoring. The literature has shed much light into the field of Management but a guide to monitor the defined strategy via Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is still lacking. Few studies have made their focus the question of which perspectives are the most relevant; it is therefore likely that there are different importance rankings between organisations with and without BSC. Highlighting the need to bring insight into this research field concerning the organizational performance measurement of the BSC, quantitative research was performed, to analyse the different rankings of the four perspectives, comparing organisations with and without BSC. The sample was composed of 107 out of the 250 major export organisations of Portugal. The outcomes confirm that the most relevant perspective is indeed the financial perspective, followed by the customer perspective, a finding unanimous in both types of organization (with and without BSC). For organizations without BSC, in third place stands the internal perspective, but, contrastingly, it comes after learning and growth perspective for organisations with BSC. The perspective of learning and growth differs in its rankings between organisations with and without BSC, as it shows up at third position for organizations with BSC, and at the fourth (last) position in organizations without BSC. This research has relevant outcomes for both managers and academia, as it is still a fertile ground, as it guides managers to identify the importance assigned by major exporters to different perspectives, in order to link its indicators. Despite having different levels of importance assigned to the third and fourth perspective, BSC is known and regarded as a meaningful management tool, even by managers who do not have BSC implemented. It conceivably still has growing possibilities in several activity areas.
Economies, 2022
University-industry cooperation is associated with the transfer of knowledge and technology. This... more University-industry cooperation is associated with the transfer of knowledge and technology. This collaboration is an extremely important field of study for the world’s economies, helping companies to become more competitive. The present research aims to explore and analyze the literature related to university-industry cooperation, using a bibliometric analysis as a methodology. This study intends to use an unlike approach to conduct the literature review and map the most relevant research studies, using a rigorous research protocol based on scientific documents published in the Web of Science database, using the keyword “University-Industry Cooperation”. The 256 articles collected are situated in a time base between 1970 and 2020 and were submitted to content analysis in R Bibliometrix. This systematic literature review revealed that companies are increasingly focusing on cooperation with universities. The research of these publications points to a growing trend in publications of articles with the topic “University-Industry Cooperation”. From the bibliometric analysis of the global research results, we highlight the most cited authors and the authors’ publications over time, and we also highlight the main research topics and countries where studies were conducted. On the other hand, we also highlight the collaboration network between institutions, authors, and countries over time. The University-Industry cooperation is explored here as an added value for advancing scientific knowledge on the relationship between these two important stakeholders, opening the way for future research in this area. With this article, we hope to contribute to the evolution of scientific knowledge in this area, providing future researchers with a detailed radiography overview of the literature related to University-Industry cooperation, contributing to filling an existing gap related to the scarcity of SLR studies that focus on this scientific theme.
Administrative Sciences, 2022
This paper explores the relationships among variables and determines the influences of dimensions... more This paper explores the relationships among variables and determines the influences of dimensions (i.e., municipal satisfaction, organizational performance, perceived quality, contestations and complaints of the municipal executive) on the notoriety, image, and reputation (NIR) of municipal executives. We attempted to understand if citizens’ opinions influenced the evaluations, recommendations, and contestations based on NIR. Parishes in the municipality of Valongo were selected and analysed, namely Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde; a total of 998 questionnaires were collected. It was concluded that all of the studied dimensions were statistically significant in the final structural estimated model. The structural results point to municipal satisfaction and contestations and complaints of municipal executives as having directly positive and statistically significant influences on NIR. Organizational performance and perceived quality have directly positive but not statistically significant influences on NIR. The results of this research suggest that obtaining the personal opinions of citizens (e.g., regarding the work performances of their mayors) allows citizens to feel heard and active in their municipalities. From the point of view of public executives, the results of this type of study could provide valid information that allows stakeholders to make political decisions that are appropriate for the interests of their communities (e.g., by listening to their citizens).
Social Sciences, 2022
This research project aims to analyze the importance of internal communication in organizations i... more This research project aims to analyze the importance of internal communication in organizations in Benguela (Angola) and to determine its impact on employee engagement and commitment to the organization. To this end, an exploratory study was conducted using a quantitative methodology. In this scope, a questionnaire was applied to 250 employees of the organizations, seeking to evaluate employees as internal consumers; internal communication in terms of tools, means and communicative effectiveness, as well as internal communication management and employee satisfaction. The results demonstrate the need for internal communication to engage and commit the company’s employees, where organizations are increasingly concerned with the management of their human resources.
Energies, 2022
The objective of this research project is to study the economic development model of the Angolan ... more The objective of this research project is to study the economic development model of the Angolan economy in order to analyze the adoption of an alternative strategy capable of leveraging the economy, based essentially on alternative energies, and therefore, to demonstrate and prove the need to diversify Angola’s economic model, highlighting the benefits of a diversified versus a non-diversified economy with respect to sustainability. The first stage of the design of this empirical study involved establishing a focus group in order to construct and adjust a data collection instrument in the form of a questionnaire to be applied to a broader set of managers and informed professionals with a critical view of the country’s future and the models and alternatives to economic development and diversification of the economy on a sustainable basis. Energy plays a fundamental role in Angola’s economic and social development. Excessive dependency on the oil sector and inefficient production due to high costs, combined with changes in global environmental and energy policies, make it essential to reflect on the evolution of the country’s energy sector, equating a different economic development model, the diversification of the economy, and the exploration of other sources of energy, such as biofuels. Renewable energies emerge as a safe, healthy, environmentally friendly and economically viable energy alternative that could bring the Angolan economy closer to that of developed countries. Biofuels have become popular and have begun to be seen as a valid alternative to fossil fuels because they have lower production costs and they cause less impact on nature. Furthermore, since they are biodegradable, they can be commercialized at a lower cost from renewable sources. According to the respondents, the research results show that the best energy alternatives to reduce oil dependency are solar energy, biodiesel, hydraulic energy, and bioethanol. An assessment of the attractiveness and potential of biofuels show that the best alternative is bioethanol, followed by biodiesel.
Social Sciences, 2022
This research project aims to analyze the importance of internal communication in organizations i... more This research project aims to analyze the importance of internal communication in organizations in Benguela (Angola) and to determine its impact on employee engagement and commitment to the organization. To this end, an exploratory study was conducted using a quantitative methodology. In this scope, a questionnaire was applied to 250 employees of the organizations, seeking to evaluate employees as internal consumers; internal communication in terms of tools, means and communicative effectiveness, as well as internal communication management and employee satisfaction. The results demonstrate the need for internal communication to engage and commit the company’s employees, where organizations are increasingly concerned with the management of their human resources.
Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 2022
As retail management has become increasingly demanding, it is imperative that retailers use marke... more As retail management has become increasingly demanding, it is imperative that retailers use market orientation to promote and increase loyalty to their private labels. This can be important in efforts to differentiate themselves from their competition. The focus of this study is to understand how these factors impact the loyalty of customer purchase decisions, through the link between the potential for brand risk and brand commitment, in order to facilitate customer orientation and brand loyalty. An online survey was conducted with a sample of 2900 consumers in Portugal and Spain. This study analyzed two distinct and high involvement product categories: Denomination of Origin (DOC) wine and anti-wrinkle cream. Structural equation modeling methodology was used to analyze the relationship between different constructs. It was found that there is no direct correlation between customer orientation and brand loyalty. However, this connection is critical when the two mediating variables of...
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Papers by Galvão Meirinhos
estejam orientadas para a comunidade onde as empresas se encontram, de uma forma voluntária. Esta melhoria deve-se à Comissão das Comunidades Europeias, que desenvolve o conceito de Responsabilidade Social das Empresas. Este conceito, conforme Correia (2013), é um desafio que as empresas têm, independentemente a sua dimensão. O presente trabalho académico pretende investigar o conhecimento sobre o conceito de RSE e como a amostra usada para o estudo aplica as práticas de RSE, como estão presentes na estratégia empresarial e a praticam da RSE de forma voluntária. Para esta análise, recorreu-se a um inquérito, tendo este sido aplicado a clientes de uma empresa que presta serviços de contabilidade e administração.
• Sistematiza e controla a execução dos eixos de intervenção política apresentados no programa eleitoral;
• Integra o valor percebido do cidadão, a satisfação do munícipe e a lealdade do eleitor como objetivo na gestão dos municípios, facultando-lhes instrumentos de gestão e intervenção pública;
• Fornece aos municípios um quadro de informação e comunicação entre o poder público e o cidadão, através da avaliação dos níveis de informação e conhecimento públicos sobre o desempenho municipal;
• Constrói uma plataforma de produtividade pública, tanto para o autarca como para o cidadão, por forma a comparar os níveis de expetativas e satisfação do cidadão em relação aos vetores de intervenção política;
• Contribui para a competitividade e o desenvolvimento económico do município, bem como para o incremento da noção de cidadania e transparência pública.
Tanto o índice de desempenho autárquico (IDA) como o índice geral de satisfação (IGS) são obtidos através da abordagem estrutural, possuidora de um conjunto de propriedades como:
• Capacidade de diagnóstico, isto é, a capacidade do modelo explicar e quantificar as causas dos valores dos diferentes índices e, em particular, dos índices de satisfação dos munícipes;
• Capacidade de comprovação, ou seja, a capacidade dos índices em discriminar os resultados da gestão autárquica;
• Capacidade de comparação, ou seja, a possibilidade de comparar índices dos diferentes agregados/variáveis por freguesia ou concelho, por forma a determinar as zonas ou variáveis onde devemos continuar a investir em termos de realizações autárquicas.
A metodologia de investigação é explicativa no sentido de granjear um conhecimento profundo da realidade. A amostra utilizada no SRM é uma amostra probabilística estratificada por critérios demográficos e geográficos, por forma a que resultados possam ser extrapoláveis e representativos da população do concelho. Desde que seja possível, e dependendo do nível de cultura digital do concelho, pretende-se que os estudos sejam do tipo painel (estudos longitudinais), situação ideal para analisar as variações de uma mesma amostra ao longo do tempo. Em muitos países, o painel de eleitores funciona como um termómetro eleitoral sobre as prestações de políticos e organismos. A compreensão das mudanças entre momentos permitem compreender a percepção pública das intervenções e realizações dos eleitos.
Within the websites at the service of parties political communication, we found a widespread ignorance on the part of the users about design serving an optimal decoding of messages published these types of communicational devices. In Portugal, the lack of literature on the subject is a valid argument justifying the need for scientific studies to overcome public ignorance of both the academic scholars and information architects and hypermedia systems. On this basis, the main goal of this research is to determine the potential of design as a vehicle for organizing the process of interaction between the user and the product. In this sense, we want, at first, to observe the pathways and the visual fixations of users in the set of websites of Portuguese political parties present in the Portuguese parliament, in order to determine the patterns of attention, visual appropriation and information processing of users. And, secondly, we want to carry out an experimental investigation with the aim of checking if the strategies of organization of the graphic elements in the space of observation present different levels of attention and information processing.