e-issn 2177-8736 p-issn 1809-2276 27 number 2 2020 volume

e-ISSN 2177-8736 p-ISSN 1809-2276 Volume 27 Number 2 2020

Revista de Gestão (REGE) published by the Business Administration Department of the School of Economics, Business and Accounting - Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, is an academic-scientifi c quarterly publication dedicated to the dissemination of research and ideas that add value to the work of scholars and practitioners in the fi eld of Management. The journal aims to publish papers of diverse subjects and geographical origins, trying to show a comprehensive picture of the relevant scientifi c production in the fi eld of management, both nationally and internationally. Articles accepted for publication are selected on the basis of originality, quality and creativity.

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ASSOCIATE EDITORSAngela Cristina LucasCentro Universitário da FEI, São Paulo, SP, BrazilFabio Viard de Campos da Silva TescariFundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo, SP, BrazilSofi a Batista FerrazSuperior School of Advertising and Marketing,São Paulo, BrazilLuis Hernan Contreras PinochetUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, BrazilRosana TavaresFaculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade,Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Sergio BulgacovFundaç~ao Getulio Vargas, S~ao Paulo, SP, Brazil

Giuseppe Giulio CalabreseCeris – Institute for Economic Research on Firmsand Growth, Turin, Italy

Jonathan Hermosilla CortesPontificia Universidad Cat�olica, Valpara�ıso, Chile

Maria Alexandra Viegas Cortez CunhaFundaç~ao Getulio Vargas, S~ao Paulo, SP, Brazil

Salom~ao Alencar de FariasUniversidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife,PE, Brazil

S�ergio Ben�ıcio de MeloUniversidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife,PE, Brazil

Jorge Carrillo NurseryDepartment of Social Studies, The College of theNorthern Border, Tijuana, Mexic

Antonio Artur de SouzaUniversidadeFederaldeMinasGerais, BeloHorizonte,MG, Brazil

Jaime Ruiz GutierrezUniversidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia

Amarolinda Zanela KleinUniversidade doValedoRio dosSinos, S~aoLeopoldo,RS, Brazil

Konstantin KorotovEuropean School of Management and Technology,Berlin, Germany

F�abio Pitombo LeiteThe Ohio State University, Ohio, USA

D�ecio ZylbersztajnFaculdade de Economia, Administraç~ao eContabilidade, Universidade de S~ao Paulo,S~ao Paulo, SP, Brazil

BOARD OF EDITORIAL POLICY

Adalberto Am�erico FischmannFaculdade de Economia, Administraç~ao eContabilidade, Universidade de S~ao Paulo,S~ao Paulo, SP, Brazil

Moacir Miranda Oliveira JuniorFaculdade de Economia, Administraç~ao eContabilidade, Universidade de S~ao Paulo,S~ao Paulo, SP, Brazil

Roberto SbragiaFaculdade de Economia, Administraç~ao eContabilidade, Universidade de S~ao Paulo,S~ao Paulo, SP, Brazil

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Revista de Gest~aoVol. 27 No. 2, 2020

p. 117Emerald Publishing Limited

e-ISSN: 2177-8736p-ISSN: 1809-2276

Quarto trim size: 174mm x 240mm

Film analysis in management:a journey through the metaphors

of the concept of leadershipVanessa Cristina Grabowski Aoki

Doutoranda em Administraç~ao, Universidade do Oeste de Santa Catarina,Campus Chapec�o, Brazil, and

Silvia Spagnol Simi dos SantosUniversidade do Oeste de Santa Catarina, Joaçaba, Brazil

Abstract

Purpose – The use of film language in management is an interesting method to understand the concept ofleadership in the internal and external contexts of organizations, bymeans ofmetaphors. Thus, the objective ofthis study was to analyze the metaphors of leadership in a movie.Design/methodology/approach – This was a qualitative research, which used the strategy of film analysisand content analysis (Bardin, 2016). Data were collected by scene decoupage, registered in an observationprotocol. In the field of management, there is a growing interest in film analysis for understandingorganizations, from inside and outside, by using dynamic methodologies.Findings – The use of metaphors in film analysis made it possible to interpret concepts, for a betterunderstanding of organizations. The identified leaders, despite adopting different attitudes at work, reach acommon goal, with gains for the community.Originality/value – This article also contributes to reflect on the teaching–learning process of managementresearch through different methodological dimensions.

Keywords Film analysis, Management, Metaphors, Leadership

Paper type Literature review

ResumoO uso da linguagem f�ılmica na administraç~ao se apresenta como um m�etodo interessante para entender oconceito de liderança nos contextos interno e externo das organizaç~oes, por meio das met�aforas. Assim, oobjetivo deste estudo foi analisar as met�aforas de liderança existentes em um filme. Trata-se de uma pesquisaqualitativa, com uso da estrat�egia de an�alise f�ılmica e an�alise de conte�udo (Bardin, 2006). Os dados foramcoletados por meio da decupagem das cenas, registradas em protocolo de observaç~ao. No campo daadministraç~ao, percebe-se que existe um crescente interesse na an�alise f�ılmica para compreender asorganizaç~oes, de maneira interna e externa, com metodologias dinamicas. O uso de met�aforas na an�alise dofilme possibilitou interpretar conceitos para melhor compreender as organizaç~oes. As lideranças identificadas,apesar de adotarem posturas diferentes no processo de trabalho, chegam a um objetivo comum, com ganhospara a coletividade. Esse artigo tamb�em contribui para pensar em processo de ensino-aprendizagem dapesquisa na administraç~ao em diferentes dimens~oes metodol�ogicas.

Palabras clave An�alise F�ılmica, Administraç~ao, Met�aforas, Liderança

Tipo de papel Trabajo de investigaci�on

IntroductionManagement is a mix of science and art; the field is open to innovations by developing newpractices and skills, with new dimensions that significantly change the art of learning and

Film analysisin management

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©Vanessa Cristina Grabowski Aoki and Silvia Spagnol Simi dos Santos. Published inRevista de Gest~ao.Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative CommonsAttribution (CCBY4.0) license. Anyonemay reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivativeworksof this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to theoriginal publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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Received 13 August 2018Revised 18 March 2019

7 September 201925 October 2019

Accepted 18 November 2019


pp. 119-134Emerald Publishing Limited

e-ISSN: 2177-8736p-ISSN: 1809-2276

DOI 10.1108/REGE-08-2018-0086

teaching (Davel, Vergara, & Ghadiri, 2007). A film can be used as a tool for the understanding oforganizations, and this didactic resource brings new forms of management education that adddeep knowledge to organizational concepts (Barros, Miranda, &Rodr�ıguez, 2017). A film is not aneutral instrument of communication, and film language is an event that takes part in theconstruction of subjectswithmanagement topics,where images facilitate the reflection of playfulprocesses for new discoveries and problem-solving toward self-transformation (Ipiranga, 2005).

Maurice Merleau Ponty, in the 1940s, considered movies a phenomenological art, and filmmetaphors allow us to broaden concepts and deepen debates that complement an apprentice’slearning and teaching (Fleury & Sarsur, 2007). Metaphor is a figure of speech that aims tobuild other concepts, in a symbolic approach for an abstract comparison in terms of ideas(Vergara, 2015). Metaphor is a possibility of knowledge building that facilitates projectdevelopment, by guiding interpretation and action (Davel, Calasans, & Moura, 2015).

Leite, Nishimura and Silva (2016) state that observational studies allow the advancementof knowledge on issues related to learningmethodologies, and films allow us to extract verbaland nonverbal data from the behavior of characters; the scientific spirit creates the meaningof the problem, and answers result from the dialectically built knowledge that questions,constructs, deconstructs and reconstructs. Concept transfer and the search for analogies andmetaphors facilitate the understanding of the teaching and learning elements. The use ofartistic and cultural resources enables the exploration, inaccessible through emotions, intoconcepts, with great learning (Cunha, 2007).

Wood (2007) observes that the practical experience of using films to discuss the concept ofleadership, in the discipline Post-industrial Organizations, in graduate courses, was fruitfuland stimulating, and students considered positive the use of visual resources, which allowedthem to reflect on their ontological and epistemological perspectives, thus enriching thelearning process. To the author, this experiment has brought a change to class dynamics, withgreater interactions and discussions and a critical content, serving as a resource for watchingfilms with “other eyes,” by recognizing signs and meanings previously unconscious.

In order to deepen research on film analysis in the field of management, our researchquestion was “How does the film portray leadership concepts through metaphors?” Hence,the main objective was to analyze the metaphors about leadership present in a film.We chosethe movie Chicken Run (Park and Lord, 2000), an animated film, which is full of metaphors,with important concepts in the field of management about leadership and teamwork, makingit easier to understand internal and external behaviors of organizations. The film wasreleased in Brazil in 2000, inspired by a fable from the 1950s.

We chose a qualitative methodology, the content analysis (Bardin, 2016), divided intothree stages: (1) preanalysis, (2) material exploration and (3) treatment of results, inferenceand interpretation. We determined the selection criteria for using this film by theoreticalpropositions involving the construct “leadership,” as well as film analysis as the locus of thelearning process.

We consider that film language represents the context of organizations through themetaphors embedded in the film’s speeches and experiences. With the scenes decoupagedand recorded in protocol, it was possible to describe, discuss and understand the phenomenonof leadership in organizations. Therefore, the metaphors present in the film facilitate theunderstanding of internal and external dynamics of organizations, proving to be aninteresting and creative way for the teaching–learning process in management.

Theoretical frameworkFilm analysis and the use of metaphor in management studiesAccording to Wood (2008), the use of films has aroused the interest of teachers andresearchers, and they have become a tool to think about the management of companies.

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Management teaching allows communication to provide an internal and external visibility ofthe firm (Alves & Blikstein, 2010). In this sense, we carried out a search in the SPELLdatabase, between 1998 and 2017, in order to know the field. We found 37 articles on filmanalysis in management.

Leite and Leite (2007, 2010) published six of the 37 articles found on film analysis. Theirarticles have in common the film analysis method guiding several areas of the managementfield, such as dynamic capabilities, communication and people management. Leite and Leite(2007, 2010) are partners in three of the studies, as well as Freitas and Leite (2015) havecontributed to two papers in partnership with Leite (2015, 2017).

Addressing film analysis, Ipiranga (2005) and Bizarria et al. (2014); Bizarria et al. (2017)contributed to two papers. Paiva et al. (2008), in partnership, also have contributed to twoarticles. Finally, Bizarria et al. (2014) also published twice in partnership. The otherresearchers have contributed to only one paper.

We found that in the field of management, there are a stable number of publications onfilm analysis, with 2013 and 2014 being the years of the highest volume, which rose againfrom 2015 to 2017. Journals in the database that most published papers on film analysiswere Revista Interdisciplinar de Gest~ao Social, with five articles, Revista de Administraç~aoda UFSM (3 articles), Revista de Administraç~ao de Empresas (3), Revista de Gest~ao (3),Cadernos EBAPE.BR (2), Organizaç~oes & Sociedade (2), REUNA (2), Revista deAdministraç~ao Mackenzie (2), Revista Pensamento Contemporaneo em Administraç~ao(2) and Rosa dos Ventos –Turismo e Hospitalidade (2). Other magazines published only onearticle.

After reading and analyzing the articles, we conclude that the discussion of film languagein the context of organizations is appropriate. Freitas and Leite (2015) state that the differentsituations present in a film can also be observed and experienced at the organizationalsetting, where actors are the professionals who interact daily, by communicating, producingand reproducing speeches.

Inserting the metaphor into the discussion of film language, we highlight Morgan’sstudies (2007, 2011). The author (2011) defines it as a device to embellish the speech since itimplies a sensitive and materialistic way of thinking and looking at the world. The use ofmetaphor considers organizations as units of analysis, by observing them and their memberswith different sets of “needs” arising from relationship patterns that allow them to adapt tothe environment.

Every belief, from classical to modern management theory, suggests that organizationscan or should be rational systems that operate as efficiently as possible; over time, changes inthe structure of organizations have always aimed to attain an operation as accurate aspossible within authority standards (Morgan, 2011).

Leadership and metaphorCampos and Davel (2017) observe that through arts, the process of assimilation and learningtakes place in a creative way, with the social engagement of the produced knowledge.Appreciation of artistic and literary work allows a new look and arouses senses, thusdeveloping the creativity of students in the area of management (Baeta, 2007). In herexperience of using a dynamic resource, based on the book “The traveler’s luggage,” publishedby Caminhos editor, she managed to evoke childhood’s stored issues and her own concerns,seeking to understand what disturbed her and identifying situations revealed betweenthe lines.

According to Botelho (2004), experiencing and overcoming conflicts allows tosymbolically rebuild memories at the level of consciousness, and the memory is activatedby flashes. In the book “The cherries,” the metaphor used was that of a scorpion trapped in acircle of fire. For the author, this metaphor represents the steps the girl has to take to reach


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maturity, related to the tests she has to undergo, and the symbolic death represents ametaphor for the core of the initiation process.

Rosa (2007) says that the cartoon metaphor came to be part of the whole, of the cycle ofdeath and rebirth, where characters change but the soul and spirit remain enchanted by fairygodmothers. Silva and Gomes (2009) report that animated films use metaphors to conveysubjectivities, where the drawings bring information and old sensations that are forgottenwhen we become adults.

Davel et al. (2015) used the metaphor to investigate leadership in the field of management,focusing on a gardener. In this approach, the authors describe leadership metaphors aboutthe gardener’s practices. Self-development and self-knowledge are critical in leadership andrequire interpretation and human understanding. The human being is unique, but the storytakes place in the collective sphere, where interpretation precedes comprehension, andcomprehension is the ability to put oneself in the place of the other (Minayo, 2012).

The gardener metaphor on leadership comprises six steps, where the leader (1) seeks self-knowledge and internal harmonization; (2) prepares the ground for projects in which peopledevelop themselves; (3) avoids sloppy pruning at the wrong time, measure and place anddirects them to reach the goal; (4) provides training and creates forms of interaction andknowledge exchange by awakening entrepreneurial engagement; (5) handles the collectivesituations where people are invited to perform activities in the organization and makes thedecision in a mature and constructive way and (6) reaps the result of the work developedcollectively during the trajectory; if not, he/she analyzes the problem cause, in order to learnfrom it (Davel et al., 2015).

Reviews of research on leadership (Avolio, Walumbwa, &Weber, 2009; Bergamini, 1994a,1994b; Hernandez, Eberly, Avolio, & Johnson, 2011; Kilburg&Donohue 2011; Uhl-Bien, 2006)show how complex this concept is. Kilburg and Donohue (2011) developed a table with themain approaches to leadership theory: ethics and morality theory, effectiveness and resulttheory, network theory, situation theory, competence theory, style theory, ecological systemstheory and personality traits theory. Avolio et al. (2009) examined the theoretical andempirical developments in leadership literature and highlighted the authentic,transformational, cognitive, transactional, shared, comparative, transcultural, global andservant leadership.

According to the APS Leadership Development Strategy (2011), transformational leadersseek to increase followers’ awareness on issues of consequence and then turn followers intoleaders of themselves. The leader changes and inspires followers to go beyond expectations,while exceeding their own interest for the sake of the organization (Avolio et al., 2009).

On the other hand, bureaucratic leadership proposes a monocratically organizedcategorization of functions, where leadership is purely a technical superiority above anyother form of organization. The impersonal character of bureaucratic work, with theseparation between the private sphere and the official sphere of the position, promotes theintegration of the employee into the objective functional conditions, always given by theorder-based mechanism (Weber, 1982).

Therefore, leadership is a relevant topic inmanagement. The use ofmetaphors to interpretmanagement concepts creatively can arouse interest and produce insights in order to betterunderstand organizations. Films have an interesting methodology for the comprehension ofthe meanings and signs in qualitative analyses because they are not neutral instruments andcan bring significant results.

MethodsTo examine leadership throughmetaphors, by using themovieChickenRun (Park et al., 2000),we chose content analysis. Given the terminological diversification, we decided to use the

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three stages of the technique recommended by Bardin (2006): (1) preanalysis, (2) materialexploration and (3) treatment of results, inference and interpretation.

In phase 1, the preanalysis, we began bywatching themovie, which is 1-h and 24-min long,thoroughly, asmany times as necessary, to look for scenes that represented leadership and, atthe same time, were pertinent to the content and purpose of the investigation, in order toclassify each scene as unique in each of the categories. We divided the time used in thesesessions into three steps: first, for the general understanding of the narrative, when wewatched the film without interruption; second, to find out leading personalities, in order todecide if they really fitted into the theoretical expectation that we were seeking; and third,which fits into Bardin’s second phase, for material exploration, regarding the scenes’decoupage. This required about 25 hours of work.

We selected registration units in phase 2 (material exploration), when we cut, counted,listed and chose categories for classification and aggregation of each type of leader. Thus, wewatched the movie several times and created tables to encode the manifest content of thecharacters’ speeches and tables to identify figures of speech in the signs’ messages andbetween the lines.

At last, phase 3 comprised treatment of results, inference and interpretation.Minayo (2008) observes that there is no opposition between quantitative and qualitative

data and that they can complement each other to allow for a better understanding of theempirical reality. Metaphors are used as a figure of speech, and content analysis is atechnique for data processing that aims to identify what is being said about a given topic(Vergara, 2015).

The researcher must analyze both manifest and latent content (Trivi~nos, 2011). GomesCampos (2004) state that content analysis studies both manifest and objective contents, aswell as figures of speech, such as suspension points, messages between the lines andsubjective contents; thus, it emphasizes the importance of semantics for the content of acommunication on what is not apparent in the message. Minayo, Deslandes, Cruz Neto andGomes (1994) observe that the path of thought and the practice should walk together.

Hence, we proceeded with the analysis and interpretation of the scenes, in order to attainBardin’s (2006) stages 2 and 3, which defined the workflows.

Presentation and analysis of resultsThe movie Chicken Run was released in 2000, based on a fable from the 1950s, and was alsoinspired by the movie Escaping fromHell,with Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen, set in aconcentration camp forwar prisoners. Directed by Peter Lord andNick Park and produced byNick Park, Peter Lord and David Sproxton, Chicken Run was produced and distributed byAardman Animations and DreamWorks Pictures Path�e (Park et al., 2000).

The film tells the characters’ quest for freedom by means of metaphors. Resilience wasidentified in the character Ginger, who faced difficulties to “escape the siege.” Gingermanages to get out of the siege on her own but goes back to help the others and then istrapped in confinement several times. Ginger leaves the confinement and, together with theothers, plans and executes the exit of all. At the end of the film, through teamworkcoordinated by several leadership styles, the characters find freedom, their sanctuary awayfrom the farm, and follow their journey.

Table I describes the film characters according to the analysis category of the leader’sstyle, his/hers attributes and metaphors.

The phrases of the film that were used for content analysis, with the meaning units for thetransformational leadership styles, are given in the following section of the article.

The following are the film sentences by the character Ginger with styles’meaning unit ofthe category “transformational leadership.”


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I was not on vacation, I was in solitary confinement

Flower returns to her place

And the eggs counting

Bunty, why didn’t you give her one of yours?

We have to get out of here

Of course we will get out of here

Meeting tonight at cabin 17

It is for our plan, we want these things, can you get them?

Eggs? Eggs are very valuable

I’m asking for order, please, please

Thanks

I Know that our last attempt was a failure, but Mac and I came up with a brand new plan show itMac, Mac

All of you think, think, what haven’t we tried yet?

How many empty nests will still have to wait?

So, to lay eggs your whole life, and then be grabbed, beheaded and baked, is it good for you?

The fences do not only surround the farms, they are here in your heads

There is a better place outside, a place beyond the hill, open spaces, trees, grass, can youimagine that?

Characters Categories Attributes Metaphor

Ginger Transformationalleadership

Trapped in the siege since childhood, manages toescape the siege, but returns to take them alltogether, ends up trapped several times and staysin confinement

Resiliencegardener

Mac Transformationalleadership

Rational, redoes all statistical calculations tocheck the problems, and finds out the lack ofimpulse

Gardener

Bunty Transformationalleadership

High egg production, tests the exercises, takesinto account personal and collective goals, activerole in transformation

Gardener

Rocky Transformationalleadership

Uses reason and emotion to help characters toescape the siege, takes into account individualand collective goals

Gardener

Fowler Bureaucratic leadership Follows the orders, does not question right orwrong, and does not like innovation

Trapped inthe siege

Babs Follower Does not know she is imprisoned, follows orderswithout questioning

Trapped inthe siege

Mrs.Tweedy

Authoritarianism inorganizations

Management by coercion and fear Trapped inthe siege

Mr. Tweedy Authoritarianism inorganizations

Obeys orders for fear of questioning, imposesfear on others

Trapped inthe siege

Table I.Characters, styles,attributes andmetaphors

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There is no farm, there is no farmer... He is nowhere, don’t you understand? There is no egg count,there are no dogs or chicken houses, or locks, and there are no fences hence, there is a chance

what am I doing, I can’t release this. . .may heaven help us. . .

That’s how we are going to get out of here, what’s in the poster, let’s fly

I Knew it was possible, I knew the answer would come, we are all going to fly over that fence you canteach us

it’s not difficult to take one or even two chickens out of here, mas this involves all of us I think wherethere’s a will there’s a way

Then teach us

that’s what we want, freedom

Teach us how to fly

I feel that we’re spinning in circles

You can...yes, yes, yes

there’s something wrong, they will kill us all

Because here the rule is ‘speak always the truth’

I worry about them

Concern that I don’t expect a free adventurer to have

I Owe you excuses, I thought that you didn’t care about us, but after all of this, it seems that I waswrong we would be able to build this, let’s fly out of here

Fowler gave us the solution

let’s build a plane

We all got it

The following are the film sentences by the character Mac with styles’ meaning unit of thecategory “transformational leadership.”

Welcome

Got a new plan?

Let’s try under?

It is above. Right

Ginger? Are we still escaping?

We tried to go under the fence and it didn’t work, thus the plan is to go over

We sit here, wind, and there we go

Scotland

I Hate to be pessimistic, but I did and redid all calculations and saw that we were not made to fly yes,yes, I believe you, but if we could see with our own eyes we would have some answers impulse,according to the calculations, I just finished doing and redoing, and we lack impulse they take offbecause they’ve got impulse


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The following are the film sentences by the character Bunty with styles’meaning unit of thecategory “transformational leadership.”

Calm down, you silly old man, they just want to tell us

I laid 5 eggs this morning, I am happy with that

I would give, but she didn’t tell me

She didn’t tell anyone

The farmer is coming

We did not try, not try to escape

Maybe it wouldn’t be empty if she spentmore time laying than escaping in all my life I’ve never heardsomething so fantastic and so liar face the facts, the chances of leaving here are one in a million

It’s evident, it’s a professional flying rooster, if flies from farm to farm making demonstrationsfor sure

Yes, it is pulsing, that’s cool

I’m already in the mood

Shut up and dance

No panic

Pedal with all your strength

The following are the film sentences by the character Rocky with styles’meaning unit of thecategory “transformational leadership.”

Freedom

Thanks, ladies and gentlemen, it is a wonderful audience

Rocky the flying rooster

Who are you, where am I, what happened to my wing?

Calm, grandpa, cockfight is illegal in my land

Land of freedom and home of the brave

America

what animal bit grandpa?

My name is Rocky, a Rhode Island Red, or just Rhodes

You know, I am a traveler by nature, I have already lived in a backyard for some time, but I couldn’tget used to it

The road is more my kind, just put a backpack on and head to where the wind blows they call me inmy land the free and lonely adventurer

It’s the road callingmy name, I was born to answer this call, bye it’s a cruel world, you should alreadybe used to it

I Already have my problems to worry about, and it should not be so difficult to escape, look at me allof you?

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listen, my little sister, I won’t go back to that life

I Am a free adventurer, with emphasis on free

don’t worry, I will teach you all that I know

So, you want to fly, isn’t it? This will not be easy, and won’t happen overnight flying requires 3things: Hard work, perseverance and hard work

The most important thing is that we have to work as a team

Attention, everyone to work

Relax, we are making progress

And now, girls, let’s flap wings

Go, go, go, go

Good work, girls, feeling pain is a good sign, pain is your friend, OK, it is positive keep confidence,you’ll get there

This is part of the process, girls, don’t worry

Continue with flight thoughts

Everything OK, dear? Good, this is a little help to push you. Impulse exercises

Don’t exaggerate, she didn’t talk seriously

Listen, I have seen hard eggs in my life, but you boiled them for more than 20 minutes

Take it easy, know that in America we have a rule, if you want to motivate someone, don’t talk aboutdeath hey, we worked too much, time to relax

This is rhythm, little sister, feel it pulsing inside your body feel the rhythm, follow the crowd

The following are the film sentences with styles’meaning unit of the category “Bureaucraticmanager.”

Call time, come closer, don’t be late for the search

Accelerating, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2. . . let’s go. . .faster... Discipline, order. . . In my time. . .

when a superior called for a combat we jumped and went fighting, this is the example

In my time. . .

How do you dare to speak like this with a superior officer. . . In my time. . .

Will be scolded for this, will be punished

Attention

Silence, let’s put some discipline in the troop, in my time we didn’t waste time with unnecessarychatter I don’t like his appearance, the eyes are too close, and he is a Yankee

Big deal, pretentious Yankees always arriving late at all wars, overpaid, super-males and super-boring absolutely outrageous, a superior having to share his lodging, and with a not commissionedYankee, in my time. . .

Your side of the bunk, the bunk is all mine, it’s my side of the bunk absolutely outrageous

How silly, arrogant Yankees think they know everything


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That Yankee is not reliable

But what is this, I don’t remember having authorized any ball but what are you waiting, boy, flythere, save her

The speeches of the characters, who are in amanagement position, with the units of meaning,are given in the following section. These characters do not have a legitimate leadership; theyhave the style of authoritarianism in organizations by coercion.

The following are the film sentences by the character Mrs. Tweedy with styles’ meaningunit of the category “Authoritarianism in organizations.”

Mr Tweedy, what is the chicken doing outside the fence?

what the hell, stupid and worthless animals, I’m tired of getting minuscule profits quiet, I’m seeingsomething

I Said quiet

what are you thinking of, a ridiculous idea of chicken escape it’s only on your head Mr. Tweedy,repeat it

Now, continue to repeat this... Because I don’t want to hear any word on the subject wasI clear?

They are stupid chickens, except for you. They are the dumbest creatures on the planet they don’tthink, don’t plot, and are not organized read the manual

The following are the film sentences by the character Mr. Tweedy with styles’meaning unitof the category “Authoritarianism in organizations.”

I’ll teach you to not make a fool of me

And should this be a lesson for all of you. . . No chicken escapes from the Tweedy’s farm

These chickens are plotting

They are organized, I know that

Only in your head, only in your head, only in your head, only in your head

In Table II, we did a decoupage of the scenes and read between the lines of the symbolicmessages in the scenes, colors, songs and metaphors used in the film.Wemade a description,along with the time of the scenes in the movie.

In the “transformational leadership” category (Avolio et al., 2009; Bergamini, 1994a, 1994b;Sant’Anna, Campos, & Lotfi, 2012), the leader and the follower play an active role inorganizational transformation, where gains are collective. We notice these attributes in thecharacters Ginger, Mac, Bunty and Rocky, who, as leaders, exemplified with their actions themotivational model of interpersonal relationships (Table I), know the needs of their followersto infer, propose inference in two directions and establish a climate of respect for him/her andfor the other.

The transformational leader takes into account individual and organizational goals, byencouraging his followers and peers to develop themselves and exceed expectations(Bergamini, 1994a, 1994b). Transformational leadership is based on sensitivity to one’s ownneeds and expectations of others, where there is an exchange between leader and follower(Sant’Anna et al., 2012).

According to Davel et al. (2015), the experience of a leader occurs as a process offacilitating the development of projects, organizations and people, of himself/herself and of

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Scenes/music Time Symbolic metaphors

The moon, the fence, the night 0:50 The sieges, the fences, the cold, the darkCheck if the lock is securely attached 1:14 Slavery/prisonersGinger put the foot outside 1:29 Concern about the unknownGinger escapes from under the fence,through the ground

2:06 The quest for freedom

Ginger calls her friends 2:12 CollaborationCharacters are afraid of leaving the siege 2:25 Excitement but fearBunty is stuck between the fence and theground, Ginger comes back to helpBunty. . . the friends help

2:34 Collaboration of all, freedom as a collective goal

Ginger defends herself with the “breaking ofone of the 7 dwarfs”

3:08 The defense for escaping, the breaking as aprocess

Mrs. Tweedy threatens with arched hands 3:33 Management through coercion and fearMr. Tweedy gets his voice stuck 3:35 The fearMr. Tweedy bent with fear of Mrs. Tweedy 3:38 Obeys the orders and arrests GingerMrTweedy

gets angry and discounts on Ginger, imposingfear on her

Mr. Tweedy gets his voice stuck 3:35 The fearChickens in siege observe 3:37 CoercionMr. Tweedy throws Ginger in thesolitary cell

3:52, 5:48,6:32, 7:03,7:06

Ginger’s resilience

Mr. Tweedy cries and points the finger tothe other characters, and threatens “let thisbe a lesson”

4:00 Punishment by example, builds fear

Chickens “sleep” and get up 4:29 Mr. Tweedy collects all the eggsGinger was bent and Mr. Tweedy kicksGinger into the fence

5:03 Ginger lifts her head and goes to cabin 17

In cabin 17 they make a plan 5:07, 6:36 Planning for freedom, teamworkGinger escapes from the fence and herfriends fumble to get out

5:46 Ginger returns to the solitary cell

Mrs. Tweedy takes note on the graph of thedrop in eggs collection

5:55 Productivity drop

Ginger presents a new planning 6:02 Freedom as a collective goal, teamworkGinger tries to escape underground 6:12 Night, dogs find GingerCharacters try to escape as scarecrows 6:51 Return to the fencewhen discovered, andGinger

goes to confinementCharacters that were discovered trying toescape were afraid

6:57 Returned to the siege

Petz keeps knitting, doesn’t bother to be inthe siege and doesn’t understand that she istrapped

7:22 Unconsciousness

Roost fowler threatens the chickens 8:15 Bureaucracy, does not accept innovation, leavesall characters dizzy by his running

Funeral music and heavy steps 8:23, 9:26 Coercion, to build fearMr. Tweedy stretches his gloves and releasethem to make a big noise

8:37 Coercion, to build fear

The chickens widen her eyes and go inside 8:40 Fear was builtMrs. Tweedy checks the board “eggproduction record”

9:09 Unsatisfied with the collection

Petz understands nothing and thinks thatEdwina is leaving on vacation

9:39 Unconsciousness

The axe’s sound, Edwina’s death 10:11 The sigh and sadness of the characters thatleave bent

(continued )

Table II.Decoupage of scenes ofthe category symbolic

metaphors


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others involved. The leader as a facilitator, through the gardening metaphor, createsconditions for planting ideas, drives project development, sows by believing in potentials,handles the process, finds solutions and celebrates results as a harvest. This was identified inthe transformational leadership of Ginger, Mac, Bunty and Rocky.

On the other hand, the category of “bureaucratic leader” has “accuracy, speed, clarity,knowledge of archives, continuity, discretion, unity, strict subordination, reduction of frictionand of material and personal costs” (Weber, 1982, p. 230). However, this older leadershipfollows orders, does not question right or wrong and does not like innovation. The characterFowler was identified as bureaucratic, follows orders, does not question, does not like

Scenes/music Time Symbolic metaphors

Sound of birds flying 10:27 The sound of freedomBirds flying 10:28 The hope of freedomBirds flying as a V 10:29 Freedom as a collective goal, teamwork eAt the sound of a music Mrs. Tweedycalculates the production of eggs, the owlattached to the table

12:49 Unsatisfied with minuscule profits

Mrs. Tweedy hits the table and saysscreaming

13:47 Built fear in Mr. Tweedy

New planning 14:27 Planning and teamworkMr. Tweedy checks if the chickens are atplace

16:00 Characters pretend to be sleeping

Ginger points to their heads 17:06 The mind fencesGinger describes the paradise to her friendsandshows a picture

17:43 They get stunned with the place but then do notbelieve

Ginger weeps and becomes furious 18:26 Sadness for being trapped and unable to takethe others

Rocky’s flight 19:21 The hope to escape flyingRocky’s speech thatwins through his charm 21:46 Characters are enchanted with RockyRocky wants to teach Ginger to escape, butshe wants to take everyone

23:28 Freedom as a collective goal

In cabin 17 Rocky gives instructions on howto fly

27:20 Rocky defines goals and teaches them to workas a team

Characters do exercises 28:15 Hard work, effortRocky wasn’t even paying attention to hisinstructions

28:53 They spin but don’t move

Characters are exhausted from so manyexercises

31:25 Rocky encourages them to not give up, says thatthis is part of the process

Mac redid all the calculations and finds outthat they are not meant to fly

34:22 Only believes seeing

Rocky made a fuss, told jokes and amusedthe characters

35:23 They had fun and became motivated again

Mrs. Tweedy walks with heavy steps andstretches the rope with a loud noise to causefear

40:45 Coercion, to build fear

The melancholic music, characters are sadand curved

43:23 Lack of hope

Rocky turns on music and dances to cheerthem up

44:40 Time to relax, characters cheer up

Chickens come in, pies come out 50:10 “They come out bent”Suspense music, passage through “fire” 52:27 Passage through “fire”Airplane building 1:03 TeamworkCelebrate teamwork 1:11 Collective freedom achievedTable II.

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innovation; he is trapped in the siege by his unconsciousness, lack of knowledge of himselfand his potentialities.

Babswas identified in the category “follower,” also trapped in the siege by unconsciousness,and follows orders without questioning.

Mrs. Tweedy and Mr. Tweedy were identified in the category “authoritarianism inorganizations,” where they manage by coercion and fear. The difference between leadershipand management was explicit in the movie, distinguishing the one that only occupies atemporarymanagement position from the leader who, even without the hierarchical function,is a catalyst that favors his own development and that of groups and projects.

Creative metaphors cross the whole film, such as the breaking of the “dwarves” to defendoneself, used in the process. Morgan (2011) revealed the logic of change in organizations asinstruments of domination, making us look at the companywhere wework in a different way,leading to a reflection on the goals and objectives of the organization and noting that workmay not be routine and repetitive. The metaphor used for “chickens come in” and “pies comeout” demonstrates the form of coercion and fear of “bending,” much used by ancient powerinstitutions to keep control, “don’t think” and “don’t question.”

The image of the organization as flow and transformation. Certainly, the closestrepresentation of the current organizational scene, this image is focused on interactions,circles, contradiction and crisis (Morgan, 2011). The old schools of scientific managementemerged from models that emphasized coercive control systems. Today, the hierarchicalposition of authoritarianism in organizations in a coercive way no longer works and does notguarantee permanence.

Final remarksThis study aimed to analyze themetaphors about leadership in a film. In recent years, there isa growing interest in film analyses in the field of management. These dynamicmethodologieshelp to understand organizations in their internal and external environments; therefore,leadership is a relevant topic in management, and the use of metaphors in film analysis madeit possible to interpret concepts in order to better understand organizations.

The film is not a neutral instrument, sounds are the results of vibrations, such as colorsand some frequencies, the capacity of vibrations depends on the sensitive apparatus andsynesthesia changes the ability of perceptions (Monteiro, 1985). Management shows adynamics in the metaphors and analogies used in film language, awakening reflections andnew dynamics.

The concepts of freedom, teamwork, resilience and leadership styles arepresented in the film ina creative way, through the “sieges” metaphors. The signs, the signals, the meanings throughcommunication, the choice of songs, gestures, attitudes, colors, numbers andverbal andnonverbalexpressions of the characters are identified between the lines, giving meaning to metaphors.

Leadership reflects different concepts for different people. The term leadership has beenstudied in the last centuries, but the concern with leadership comes from ancient times, andthe metaphors that can be used to define leadership are several. The leaders identified in thefilm, despite adopting different attitudes in the work process, achieve the final goal, whichwas the exit from the siege toward freedom, which provided collective gains.

The leader who uses themetaphor of gardening practices favors his development and thatof groups and projects. The leader, as a facilitator of development, makes way for the groupthrough his own movement. The dimensions of time and space, with possibilities ofmetaphors, explore different paths by innovating in knowledge building in the field ofleadership (Davel et al., 2015).

As a contribution, this study presents the film as an instrument for the teaching andlearning process and expands the field of management studies with methodologicalcreativity, which can touch individuals and arouse engagement fromknowledge acquired in a


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transformational way. In addition, this article also contributes to address the teaching–learning process in management research, through different methodological dimensions, andcan help to identify and analyze the internal and external contexts of organizations. Futurestudies can broaden film analysis, by approaching other types of leaders, as well as othermanagement concepts. We also suggest searching empirical evidence with students anduniversities that use this method.

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Further reading

Almeida, S.L., Paiva, F.G., J�unior, & Guerra, J.R.F. (2013). Representaç~ao da produç~ao e consumo doqueijo coalho artesanal. Revista Interdisciplinar de Gest~ao Social, 2(2), 37–58.

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Isboli, G.H.P., P�epece, O.M.C., & Gaiotto, S.A.V. (2017). Films as object of studies for research inapplied social sciences. Reuna, 22(3), 60–73.

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Lopes, R.F., Nogueira, W.S., & Baptista, M.L.C. (2017). Imagin�ario, cinema e turismo: uma viagem porcliches culturais associados ao Brasil, no filme rio 2. Rosa dos Ventos – Turismo e Hospitalidade,9(3), 377–388.

Machado, D.Q., Ipiranga, A.S.R., & Matos, F.R.N. (2013). “Quero matar meu chefe”: retaliaç~ao e aç~oesde ass�edio moral. Revista Pretexto, 14(1), 52–70.

Medeiros, C.R.O., Valad~ao J�unior, V.M., & Possas, M.C. (2015). “Quem mais veste Prada?” Psicopatascorporativos e ass�edio moral no trabalho. Revista ADM.MADE, 19(1), 102–122.

Mills (5a ed.,) (W. Dutra, Trad.). Recuperado de Available from: https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/3952424/mod_resource/content/1/Max%20Web er%20-%20Ensaios%20de%20Sociologia%20-%20Gerth%20%20Mills.pdf.

Corresponding authorVanessa Cristina Grabowski Aoki can be contacted at: [email protected]

Associate Editor: Angela Lucas

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htmOr contact us for further details: [email protected]

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Lean product development andagile project management in the

construction industryFelipe Albuquerque

Production Engineering Department,Polytechnic School University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Alvair Silveira TorresSchool of Economics, Business and Accounting,University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, and

Fernando Tobal BerssanetiProduction Engineering Department,

Polytechnic School University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Purpose – In recent years, innovative methodologies of product development such as lean productdevelopment (LPD) and agile project management (APM) have emerged. Even though previous research studiesfocused on these subjects, only few of them were focused on traditional industries, as civil construction. Thepurpose of this paper is to cover a part of this gap by estimating the potential of the application of these two newapproaches (LPD and APM) in the construction industry, more specifically on the design stage.Design/methodology/approach – For this, a case study has been conducted in order to understand if someof LPD and APM tools and practices had already been used, and also to evaluate the potential application ofthese new methodologies. Three Brazilian companies have been evaluated, all of them were exclusiveexecutors of the design stage and presented distinct characteristics (size, structure, business model, etc.).Findings – The results show that there is currently little adherence to LPD and APM practices within thecompanies studied. In terms of potential application of these new methodologies, the study has identifiedevidence regarding technical similarities between the reported cases and others mentioned in literature.However, the interviewees’ reception of these concepts was mostly pessimistic, showing considerableresistance to changes in the current process.Originality/value –According to the analysis, the study identified that the main challenge/hampering to theimplementation of these tools in the cases studied herein are the functional organizational structures, thecustomer–supplier relationships and the internal cultural resistance to change.

Keywords Construction industry, Design management, Agile project management,Lean product development

Paper type Case study

IntroductionThe organizations are constantly under pressure to increase agility and efficiency in productdevelopment. Facing this scenario, researchers and professionals started to reinvent thecurrent methods, arguing that existing methodologies were not always aligned with newchallenges (Serrador & Pinto, 2015). In this context, several techniques, methodologies andalternative philosophies appeared, two of the most famous are lean product development (LPD)and agile project management (APM) (Salgado & Dekkers, 2018; Serrador & Pinto, 2015).

Received 30 January 2019Revised 6 March 2019

4 May 201925 June 2019

Accepted 5 August 2019

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:https://www.emerald.com/insight/2177-8736.htm

© Felipe Albuquerque, Alvair Silveira Torres and Fernando Tobal Berssaneti. Published in Revista deGestão. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the CreativeCommons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and createderivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to fullattribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

LPD and APMin the

constructionindustry

Revista de GestãoVol. 27 No. 2, 2020


e-ISSN 2177-8736p-ISSN 1809-2276

DOI 10.1108/REGE-01-2019-0021

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These methodologies originally came from companies connected to Information andCommunication Technology and the automotive industry (Salgado & Dekkers, 2018).Despite new features regarding the subject, is it possible to question if these new methods ofproduct development could be applied in traditional industries, such as civil construction,especially during its design stage.

Several studies analyzed the applications of both methodologies (LPD and APM) indifferent industries and segments, such as automotive, software development, and even intraditional industries of mass production (Serrador & Pinto, 2015). However, few of theseanalyses were specifically focused on the construction industry (El. Reifi & Emmitt, 2013;Owen, Koskela, Henrich, & Codinhoto, 2006). Furthermore, these studies were held indifferent countries and may carry the singularities of these markets.

The aim of this research is to study the potential application of the LPD and APMapproaches in the product development of the construction industry. The potentialapplication of LPD and APM concepts was investigated not only in the technical dimensionbut also in the social dimension of the studied phenomenon. The technical dimension isdiscussed in the research based on the similarity presented by some situations found in thecompanies investigated, comparing them with situations and cases in literature alreadysolved with the proposed approach. The social dimension is approached in the identificationof the context in which similar problems are found, promoting interviews with managers inorder to investigate the current problem solving strategies, degree of knowledge, the agents’perception on the alternative approach and interaction with internal (other employees) andexternal agents (customers and suppliers).

Therefore, this paper focuses on the design stage of the construction project, because it isthe most similar one to product development process (Owen et al., 2006). The results willenable the establishment of a clearer scenario of some Brazilian companies, and will aim toidentify the main factors that influence the potential application of LPD and APM tools andtechniques in the current design processes in the civil construction industry.

Bibliographic reviewLean product development (LPD)The lean concept emerged in manufacture as a multidimensional approach that comprised avariety of management practices, such as just in time, quality systems, production cell, etc.(Shah & Ward, 2003). Although lean is a wide concept, it is based on five principles: value,value stream, flow, pull and perfection (Womack & Jones, 1997).

After the success of lean’s application in themanufacture stage, companies started to realizethat the new productive obstacle became the development of new products (Marodin, Frank,Tortorella, & Netland, 2018). At that moment, there were many attempts to apply the same leanprinciples to these development stages, the result was the LPD (Salgado & Dekkers, 2018).

In the same way lean concept reached a huge range of practices, LPD also became vague attimes, with many practices and principles associated with it (Wang, Conboy, & Cawley, 2012).Thus, many previous studies spent considerable effort in trying to consolidate a list for theLPD description. The Lermen, Echeyeste, Peralta, Sonego, & Marcon (2018) study compiled alist of more than 40 practices and tools that literature associates to LPD. Dal Forno andForcellini (2012) pointed out, after a bibliometric analysis over the theme, 15 practices andprinciples also associated to LPD, while Salgado and Dekkers (2018) consolidated a list withmore than 18 LPD principles, after a systematic review of literature. In face of several options,mainly for simplification, LPD principles will be considered herein as:

• Value stream mapping: mapping of the main interactions (internal and external)involved inside a process, seeking to separate value-adding activities, requirednon-value-adding activities, and non-value-adding activities (the latter must be fully

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eliminated) (Hines & Rich, 1997). This principle, in which the goal is the elimination ofwaste, is in the lean’s foundation, according to the original model proposed byWomack and Jones (1997).

• Set-based concurrent engineering (SBCE): it is a concept originated from manufacturethat was highlighted in literature mainly after the publication of Ward, Liker,Cristiano, and Sobek’s (1995) article, in which the model of Toyota’s SBCE (Salgado &Dekkers, 2018) was presented. SBCE consists of the intentional effect of defining,discussing and exploring a series of possible sub-optimal solutions, instead of tryingto modify and adapt one single solution (Ward, Liker, Cristiano, and Sobek, 1995).It is in this vision that multiple tests are encouraged, through creation anddevelopment of various prototypes (Ward, Oosterwal, & Sobek, 2018). It is vital thatthese alternative solutions converge and be tested with the final product, seeking tominimize errors in the production stage (Schäfer & Sorensen, 2010). Still, as focalpoint of this technique, there is a head engineer (called shusa, inspired by Toyota’shead engineers who are responsible for the whole project including during its use),who is responsible for the general technical validations and correct allocation ofresources and people within the project (Ward et al., 1995). Finally, to ensure a betteruse at this stage, it is important that records of lessons learned are checked andupdated. These records are essential to reuse the knowledge already developed inother projects, besides limiting the creativity within practical periods (Takeuchi &Nonaka, 2009; Ward et al., 1995).

• Visual management: it is the concept of using visual tools to facilitate the team’scommunication on topics such as project scope, visible problems, quality, time and costindicators (Pinheiro & Toledo, 2016). These visual tools have many goals, such asrepresenting data and assumptions (always updated), communicating the limits for thecreativity of those involved, facilitating the development of relationships amongseveral variables, etc. Visual management is a powerful technique that tends torationalize resources by reusing knowledge and preventing errors. In addition, anefficient visual management can speed up the development process throughoptimizations, elimination of “dead ends,” decrease of iterations and effectivecommunication between departments (Ward et al., 2018).

• Voice of the customer: the customer involvement, especially during the productdevelopment stage, is a key factor to assure the design quality (Kpamma, Adjei-Kumi,Ayarkwa, & Adinyira, 2018). This contribution becomes more valuable in the earlystages of development, when it is possible to influence variables such as cost and leadtime effectively (Cristiano, Liker, & White, 2000).

It is important to point out that this study did not seek a universal and absolute image ofthe main LPD practices. Its objective was only to investigate and present importantfoundations provided by literature, comparing them with the reality of the companiesstudied herein.

Agile project management (APM)Another applicable approach to the development of new products is the APM. Agilemethodologies are mostly based on the Manifesto for Agile Software Development(Beck et al., 2001) and underpin the belief that initial plans are not effective and that anevolutionary iterative process is more efficient (Dybå & Dingsøyr, 2008). APM differs fromtraditional projects and products management (known as waterfall model) by emphasizingcontinuous design, flexible scope, living with uncertainty, and the constant customerinteraction, as well as modifications in the project team’s structure (Serrador & Pinto, 2015).

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APM emerged in the software industry (MacCormack, Verganti, & Iansiti, 2001), however,its application might be extended to other industries in need of more flexible methodologies(Conforto, Salum, Amaral, Da Silva, & De Almeida, 2014). Serrador and Pinto (2015)empirically proved that APM application has significant influence on project success,concerning efficiency, stakeholder’s satisfaction, and the perception on the performance of theproject in general. Nevertheless, the same study shows that this correlation appeared only ininnovative industries. In more traditional sectors (construction, manufacturing and retail),it was not possible to find the same statistical correlation.

Similarly, LPD, APM is also a wide concept, with several associated practices (Wanget al., 2012). Below, we selected some APM principles found in literature on the subject:

• Flexible and constant planning: the struggle to keep the original course of a plan isperceived since the 1950s (Serrador & Pinto, 2015), especially in projects withuncertain goals, open scope, several alternative solutions and high stakeholderinvolvement (Carvalho & Rabechini, 2011). From this dynamic context, planningloses its rigidity and must be constantly reviewed as the project evolves (Shenhar &Dvir, 2007). APM proposes to face this challenge through constant redesign focusedon short-term and periodical reviews. This way, the plan becomes more mature as theobjectives are defined (Schwaber, 2004).

• Iterative development: while the traditional project management is based on clearscope definitions, APM develops the scope definition through iterative development(Fernandez & Fernandez, 2008). In general, these iterations occur through continuousand partial deliveries/validation (Schwaber, 2004) and also enable a cycle ofcontinuous growth and customer feedback (Dybå, Dingsøyr & Moe, 2014).

• Self-directed teams: self-directed teams are responsible for managing and monitoringtheir own process and tasks to be executed (Dybå et al., 2014). These groups need towork as independent cells, which demands that the members are multidisciplinary.In order to maximize results, these teams should be physically located in the sameplace (Chen, Damanpour & Reilly, 2010).

It is important to point out that this study did not seek a universal and absolute image of themain APM practices. Its objective was only to investigate and present importantfoundations provided by literature, comparing them with the reality of the companiesstudied herein.

Product development in construction: the design stageCivil construction is one of the most traditional sectors of the economy, mostly due to itslongevity, universality and management models focused on predictability and risk reduction.Also, its operations are highly project oriented (Cooke-Davies & Arzymanow, 2003), which aremostly complex and involve several stakeholders (Toor & Ogunlana, 2010). However, thissector rarely applies new technologies or develops innovative products, being most commonthe development of traditional and typical deliverables (Shenhar & Dvir, 2007).

Usually, a construction project is divided in three main stages: design, construction andoperation (Arditi & Gunaydin, 1997). However, it is possible to find more subdivisions on thedesign stage, as proposed by the Royal Institute of British Architects (2013). The designstage is divided as: strategic definition, preparation and briefing, concept design, developeddesign and technical design.

Design is a complex stage accomplished by several agents, who are often in more thanone organization or department (Tjell & Bosch-Sijtsema, 2015). It is at this stage thatseveral actors (multifunctional teams composed of architects and engineers from differentareas) are pushed to discuss and propose technical solutions for design and to describe

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the future enterprise to be defined (Chun & Cho, 2018). Due to this initial purpose,which defines the scope of future and more expensive stages (construction and operation),the design phase becomes one of the most important and impacting steps for thedevelopment of a construction project (Arditi & Gunaydin, 1997). The impact of this stageis not only due to the final costs of the project as a whole, but also to its final quality(Emmitt, 2006).

However, even with all the relevance, it is common to find problems and waste during thedesign stage. One of the greatest difficulties is that all this range of multidisciplinaryprofessionals involved in the process as a whole has a limited capacity for rational decisionmaking (Chun & Cho, 2018). This occurs for several reasons, from traditional conflictsbetween executors and designers (based on negative and strong stereotypes) (Loosemore &Tan, 2000) to several hidden agendas and power games involving many agents(Lohne, Svalestuen, Knotten, Drevland & Lædre, 2017).

Another common drawback is the poor communication and mismanagement of wantsand needs of clients and customers during this stage (El. Reifi, Emmitt & Ruikar, 2014).Not only costumers but also the designers have difficulty in designing, communicatingand agreeing to the desired and needed specifications within a new venture (Chun &Cho, 2018). It is quite common for the client to have many hopes and expectations in thebeginning of the construction project. This, combined with frequent haste to initiate theproject, leads to several changes in scope and rework during the entire project duration(El. Reifi & Emmitt, 2013). Moreover, only accomplishing the expected specifications doesnot guarantee clients’ satisfaction, which have a desire for the final project to exceed theirexpectations. These hopes can be hard to achieve since some of them might be implicitor were poorly communicated during the design stage (Wood, Wang, Abdul-Rahman,& Abdul-Nasir, 2016).

Furthermore, another difficulty mentioned is the mismanagement of the design stage.This downside might be connected to the common mistake of project managers in notconsidering the differentiation between design stage and construction, which leads to thereplication of the same traditional methods for both stages (Knotten, Svalestuen, Hansen& Lædre, 2015). This is inefficient since design stage has differential characteristics,mostly because the problems from design stage cannot be simply defined, and by that, donot provide one single simple solution (Lawson, 2006). During design (especially in theinitial stage of this phase) the processes are creative, iterative and innovative. Thischaracteristic adds complexity to the management activities, since it almost makes itimpossible to sequentially plan them, for not knowing exactly what the necessary tasksare and much less what is the sequential relation between them (Knotten et al., 2015). Thissingularity moves the design away from the hard paradigm (connected to severity, cleargoals and efficiency), which is a lot more applicable in the construction stage (andconsequently embedded in the mindset of the project’s participants), and brings it closer tothe soft paradigm, which favors knowledge, participation and facilitates the analysis ofprojects (Pollack, 2007). This paradigm differentiation must be reflected in the projectmanagement system applied (Pollack, 2007) since a more comprehensive and suitablemethodology to the reality of the projects is one of the key factors for the success of itsexecution ( Joslin & Müller, 2015).

However, despite the perspective presented, some studies have already shown atendency of the design management toward the soft paradigm. Owen et al. (2006) showedthat the design stage has a great receptivity to the principles of APM due to itscharacteristics of uncertainty and need for collaboration. El. Reifi and Emmitt (2013) alsodemonstrated, in a survey of British designers, that 15 percent of the interviewers statedusing lean approaches, such as initial agreement with all stakeholders, value mapping,progressive description and employee training in lean concepts.

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MethodologyAs the analysis of this phenomenon contains a strong influence of its context (participants,stakeholders, clients, etc.), many times it is hard (almost impossible) to separate thephenomenon from the context. Therefore, this paper opted to conduct a case study, assuggested by Yin (2014). Multiple case studies are used to avoid finding singularities insteadof real representatives of the majority of the organizations (Miguel & Sousa, 2018).

In order to choose the cases, we chose some examples that displayed certain characteristics,in order to increase the representativeness of the selected sample (Eisenhardt, 1989; Miguel& Sousa, 2018). Consequently, three companies from the field of civil engineering projects wereselected, with the following characteristics.

Case 1 (C1): small family business (under 20 employees), not located in an importanteconomic center, and specialized in structural design of reinforced concrete (a specific stageof the design process). This is a subcontracting company and develops only the structuraldesign, not being involved in the rest of the design process. Its clients are always othercompanies (often freelancer architects and small contractors) and its projects are lesscomplex (residential houses and small apartments).

Case 2 (C2): multinational public company, medium-sized (more than 200 employees inBrazil), located in the City of São Paulo and operates in the design of urban infrastructure.Most of its clients are government offices (concessionaires, city halls and state government)and all stages and design specializations (structural, hydraulic, geotechnical, etc.) are madeby its own employees, allocated in specialized departments. These specialized departmentswere, until a few years ago, independent companies, recently merged. Its projects presenthigh complexity characteristics, both technical and political (high involvement of internaland external stakeholders, direct impact on society, etc.).

Case 3 (C3): national private company, medium-sized (around 60 employees), located inthe City of São Paulo. It is involved with the development of great infrastructure projectsand its clients are, mostly, private companies. It is responsible for all stages and designspecialties. However, the company does not execute any of those disciplines. All of thesespecialties are subcontracted to specialized designers, which execute the design elaboration.Thus, the studied company only conducts the management of the subcontractors (deadlines,costs, contracts, etc.), technical validation of deliveries and compatibility of final products.Due to this operation typology, the teams are basically formed by highly specialized experts( for the designs validation) and project managers. Its projects also present high complexitycharacteristics, both technical and political (high involvement of internal and externalstakeholders, direct impact on society, etc.).

The cases were selected by heterogeneity parameters, such as size, source, location, finalproduct, type of customer, implementation methodology (in-house or outsourced). Thisselection was purposeful, because with a diffuse sample it is expected to find opposite results,and possibly, identify propositions for cause-effect relationships (Miguel & Sousa, 2018).

In order to standardize the data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted withemployees directly involved with designmanagement. In all three casesmore than one interviewwas held in order to achieve data triangulation, assuring a higher reliability (Yin, 2014). Thus,two people were interviewed in C1 (the owner and one of the engineers), four people in C2(a manager and three coordinators) and four people in C3 (a manager and three coordinators).The interviews were analyzed based on narrative patterns among the interviewees.

The themes of the interviews were approached in the following order:

(1) Understanding of the actual process for product development during the designstage. In this stage, we tackled a predefined series of questions, selected with theintention of understanding the current processes of the companies studied. Thisinitial comprehension sought to identify the problem in each organization and its

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similarity with the main elements for solution proposed by LPD and APM. Thesetopics related to the problems and their resulting practices are presented in Table I.

(2) After the full presentation of the current process (in other words, when all thequestions from Board 1 were answered), interviewees were asked about their currentknowledge over the LPD and APM topics and the main practices of thesemethodologies.

(3) Next, after the interviewees finished answering and presenting their previousknowledge about these methodologies, the features of LPD and APM were brieflyshown. This stage enabled a basic leveling of knowledge that enabled a better use ofthe following questions in the script.

(4) After the interviewees absorbed the definitions of these practices, we asked if any ofthese concepts would be applicable in the organizational context they were insertedto. Moreover, we asked the interviewees to list the expected challenges involved inthe implementation of these new practices.

Besides the conduction of interviews, observations of the execution processes werecollected, seeking examples of the studied subjects (both from APM and LPD). Theseobservations were also important as a source of complementary data to the interviews, inorder to increase the strength of the conclusions (Yin, 2014).

Potential limitations of this approach were some possible methodological bias and thesample size. In terms of methodological bias, it is possible that the interviewees were notcompletely honest in their statements, avoiding extreme answers or transmitting a negativecompany image (Sinkovics, Penz & Ghauri, 2008). In order to minimize this limitation, theobservations collected were important to check the affirmations made during the interviews,as suggested by Yin (2014). Considering the sample size (three cases), it is slightly below theamount of four to ten cases suggested by Eisenhardt (1989), which indicates a potentiallimiting factor of the generalization in the conclusions reached. However, a smaller sampleenabled a deeper analysis, achieving a better understanding of the organizational contextand development processes of each case (Miguel & Sousa, 2018).

ResultsAfter the interviews, the collected answers and observations were aggregated around theelaborated questions on Table I and analyzed seeking to find patterns (Yin, 2014). Thesummary of this consolidation can be found in Table AI.

Questions LPD/APD associate practices

How are the activities of the design stage planned andcontrolled?

Value stream mapping; visual management; voiceof customer; flexible and constant planning

How are definitions and technical decisions made duringthe design process?

Value stream mapping; SBCE; visualmanagement; iteration development

How is the client involved during the process? Voice of the customerHow does the development process flow between theteams and the employees? (Focus on authorities andresponsibilities)

Self-directed teams

How does the progress of the projects is reported to thein-house team and to the clients?

Visual management

Was the current process reviewed in the past? Is there aplan for any change in the future?

Value stream mapping

Table I.Questions for theinterviews and its

correspondentassociate practices of

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After data consolidation, it is possible to identify that C1 presented itself in a distinctive levelcomparing to other cases. The development process in C1 was rather rudimentary, lightlystructured and overly simple. This probably occurs because of the context of the organizationand the different markets if what should contribute to a more modest management,especially if compared to C2 and C3. In C2, we found a highly functional structure inside itssub-departments, which may be a result of the recent merger of this very company. Thismerger process ended up being carried in a sudden way and failed to create a spirit of unitinside the organization. This led to a visible fragmentation, many times giving the impressionthat it is not a unified company, but a series of companies coalesced in a forced manner. C3showed a softer structure, a lot due to its dynamic operation focused on subcontracts andcostumer pressure (such customers are, in general, large private companies).

The adhesion of each one of the cases to the elements of analysis is summarized in Table AII.In this board, it is possible to find a summary of what should be found in an adhering situation(according to literature) and what was seen in the interviews and in the observation field. In thisway, it is possible to conclude that the adherence of the studied cases, in both LPD and APM, isusually very low. However, the technical context found in the study did not present any barriersfor the implementation of both APM and LPD.

In fact, regarding the potential application of LPD elements, there was a technicalsimilarity among the studied situation, however, there was a low social adhesion in the casesstudied. Value stream mapping was subtly identified in C3, in which the developmentprocess was recently adjusted in order to include the clients and also the future executors.None of the interviewees had any kind of process mapping formalized, much less affirmed toget into a habit of rethinking the current development process, even though there is noobstacle to implement it. The barriers to its application, according to the interviewees, occurusually because the productive days end up being often filled with day-to-day questions andwith the preparation of meetings with clients. Besides, production is almost always“pushed” between departments/subcontractors with no proactivity, causing frequentwastage and waiting time in all three cases.

As for the voice of the customer, C1 has not demonstrated any type of interaction withthe customer, who only receives the final project. In this case, as it is about a technicaldeliverable (structural design), it is common for clients to evaluate the quality of the designsolely during its execution. It is only at this stage that problems are perceived, and thecorrection costs end up being enormous. C2 showed a constant interaction with client’s/costumer’s technical staff through frequent and lengthy validation meetings, whichindicates a costly and time-consuming process. This, according to the interviewees, happensbecause their clients are, in general, government agencies, and their “work pace is different.”Yet, the client sees these meetings as a necessity and as a good sign of quality management.It is important to point out that project executors do not participate in these meetings, andthe design is only validated by the agencies’ designers. While in C3, despite the client’stechnical staff validation, it was possible to observe that there was a unique involvement offuture executors. Even though they do not participate in all validation meetings, theexecutors were involved at the end of the final version of the project in order to evaluate it interms of feasibility and technical validation. That, according to the interviewees, occurreddue to the client’s request. Knowing that the executors were, in general, subcontractedcompanies that performed the validation process this way, the contractors became co-responsible (technically and legally) for the design. This leans on reducing contractualdisputes during the construction stage, according to the interviewees.

Slight traces of SBCE were found only in C3 because the subcontractors always report tothe subject specialist, who needs to approve all the solutions. This refers (in a way) to thespecialist seen as the shusa (title received by the head engineer in the LPD practice).However, the similarities are still very limited because the process continues to move at its

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own traditional pace from this moment on. No type of visual management was found in anyof the studied cases; communication was made mainly verbally or by unstructured e-mails.It is important to highlight that the differences or technical limitations that would suppressSBCE application were not found, mainly because C3 showed an embryonic application thatcan be enhanced. As for visual management, the observations found are not so differentfrom the reality of other companies that applied this practice. Thus, no technical hamperingwas found to suppress its application.

Regarding the application of APM practices, it was found little adherence. Activityplanning, when implemented (C1 did not show any kind of planning), is still made andcontrolled through traditional methodologies, with its schedules defined in the beginningof the project and controlled with defined frequency. Changes in these schedules are notwelcome either by members or subcontractors (in the case of C3) and there is littleflexibility to modifications. Constant delays, reported by all cases, might happen due tothis excessive rigidity.

In terms of product development, it is accomplished through big deliveries, specificallymade at the end of predetermined stages defined in the contract, rarely containingintermediate validations. All technical decisions made must be sized and designed,sometimes even quantified, before being submitted to a necessary validation. This, asidefrom showing little adherence to APM’s iteration development, also shows the lack of LPD’svalue stream mapping.

In terms of self-directed teams, C1 is the one that showed a higher adherence. In thisexample, the responsible engineer has total autonomy to make decisions, consulting withthe owner only about more complex questions. This does not seem to occur due to an agilemindset, but due to its organizational context, as a result of the lack of more availableresources. C2 showed a similar behavior, with every team having total autonomy withintheir own expertise. Even so, according to the collected observations in the interviews, thischaracteristic occurs more in function of the strong hierarchical segmentation found in thiscompany than due to a mindset oriented to agility. In case C3, as a result of outsourcingcharacteristics, subcontractors show little autonomy.

The problems faced after the deliveries were similar in the three cases. Especially inC2 and C3, in which the project execution is usually made by other companies (usuallymedium/large-sized) there are many contractual disputes motivated by alleged projecterrors. None of the interviewees considered that these disputes happened due to low qualityof the delivered product, affirming that these conflicts occur due to the bad faith of thecontractor who seeks to maximize the value of the contract through additional claims.

In addition to the low adherence in the cases found, it was possible to realize that neitherLPD nor APM were minimally known to the interviewees. Despite not knowing about LPD,many of them had had previous contact with lean manufacturing applied to construction(also known as lean construction). As for the APM, only C2 and C3 interviewees affirmedthat they had previous contact with it through lectures on the subject; however, they did notpossess considerable knowledge about the theme. Yet, some affirmed that it was presentedto them as if APM practices were applicable only to project management in other fields, suchas software development.

After a brief explanation of the foundations of LPD and APM, the perception about thepotential application of these tools diverged. In C1, interviewees affirmed that suchtechniques might be applicable, however, it is very unlikely that current processes willchange, because “it is working fine just the way it is.” Besides that, the intervieweesconsidered that the company was too small for any change to become significant. In C2, thereception was pretty cold, the interviewees presumed that the applicability would beimprobable, because it would bump into a cultural problem both internally and with clients(government agencies). Furthermore, the functional organization structure and the rigidity

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of public procurement precluded the execution of these LPD/APM practices. On the otherhand, C3 was more receptive; however, the interviewees seemed worried since it wouldrequire great efforts for implementation. According to them, the main challenges would beto change employee’s culture, especially regarding the senior staff, and the currentsubcontracting structure would reduce the impact of change in external partners.

Discussion of resultsAfter encounter data analysis, we realized that the potential application of newapproaches demonstrated technical similarity with cases in other companies registered inliterature, however, the social dimension showed very little adherence of the companiesstudied to the principles of LPD and APM. These findings are even worse than those of El.Reifi and Emmitt (2013), who looked at UK designers and found reduced but moresignificant adherence. This raises the possibility of having a certain connection betweenthe company’s nationality/market of operation and its maturity concerning LPD andAPM concepts.

One of the variables that delivered one of the biggest impacts was the extremelyfunctional organizational structure found in C2. This characteristic showed a huge impacton how the company’s strict behavior might be the main reason why C2 showed itself solittle supportive to new practices. These findings are in agreement with previous studies,which suggest that project-oriented structures facilitate the application of LPD (Ward et al.,1995) and APM (Conforto et al., 2014).

A contributing factor (within the social dimension) was the company’s relationship withits customers and suppliers. In both C2 and C3, we realized that there is a great difficultyconcerning the implementation of any non-traditional management measure if there is noconductive environment to receive these changes outside the organization. This factorshows that APM and LPD implementation is hampered when they are not in self-sufficient“islands,” being necessary a transformation in the entire value chain involved.

Regarding the influence of the company’s size in the studied phenomenon, differentbehaviors were found within the evaluated cases, with no noticeable type of pattern.The case that stood out in this point was C1, which presented quite different characteristics,due to its simple management system, which might even be considered rudimentary.This simplicity is probably a result of the company’s small size.

Another reason that may contribute for the low adherence of LPD and APM in thecompanies studied is little knowledge of the interviewees on these themes. None of theinterviewed had heard about LPD, despite being familiar with lean manufacturing appliedto civil construction. This supports Pinheiro and Toledo (2016), which affirmed that LPDdoes not receive as much attention as lean manufacturing. Regarding the APM, someinterviewees showed they had a basic knowledge over the subject through lectures. Despitethat, the information given to them is that APM is an exclusive methodology for softwaredevelopment and that it was not applicable to civil construction. This raises the concern thatsome APM promoters might have an erroneous vision of the methodologies that are beingspread to the public. Past studies showed that, although APM is more applicable and showsmore results in non-traditional industries such as in information technology(Serrador & Pinto, 2015), its execution is completely possible within more traditionalindustries (Conforto et al., 2014).

Last but not least, when questioned about the potential application of LPD and APM intheir organization context, all the interviewees pointed out strong cultural barriers as thebiggest obstacle for implementation. These obstacles are in several levels, both internal(in-house teams) and external to the organization (customers/suppliers). They configurethemselves as a huge resistance to change their ecosystem. This is in accordance with thestudy by Owen et al. (2006), which affirmed that in the construction sector, cultural

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transformation should be the first step toward a change in management paradigms. Thiscultural conversion is needed before the implementation of new methodologies inmanagement of construction projects.

Findings and suggestions for future researchIn the current market, increasingly demanding faster and integrated solutions, concepts likeLPD and APM could gain strength, since they pledge for a dynamic and robust projectdevelopment. This study aimed to investigate the potential application of its technical andsocial dimensions in one of the most traditional industries of the world: civil construction,more specifically in the design stage. The literature review around the subject indicated thatthese concepts would be applicable at this stage. Therefore, in order to study thisphenomenon, a multiple case study of three Brazilian companies in the sector was carried out.From this research, we concluded that, at the moment, the cases studied show little adherenceto LPD and APM concepts within their organizational context. When technical aspects of thislow adherence were analyzed, we did not find technical reasons that would hamper theadoption of LPD and APM. On the other hand, the social dimension (obstacles concerningorganizational culture and social relation established in the current organizational structures)stands out as the biggest barrier to LPD and APM’s non-adoption.

It was found that the context of the technical challenges faced by the studied companiesdid not differ from similar ones solved with the help of LPD and APM. Even though thecompanies studied herein present significant differences between product typology,organization’s size, business models and end customers, only a few examples of practicesconnected to LPD and APM were found. In addition, none of the interviewees affirmedhaving a satisfactory knowledge of LPD and APM. This demonstrates that any example ofapplication found would be more of an empiric attempt than a conscious application of LPDand APM.

Therefore, the elements that influence negatively in the application or adoption of thesemethodologies were identified in the social dimension as being the companies’ organizationalstructure, its relationship with suppliers/clients, and the culture and mindset of those involved.

In terms of organization structure, it was possible to observe that strongly functional andhierarchical organizations hamper the application of softer ways of product development,due to highly hierarchical social interactions and rigid and vertical decision making.

Regarding suppliers and customers impact, we realized that the applicability of LPD andAPM becomes much more difficult when only one link in supply chain is involved in thisevolution, while the rest retains their traditional methods. The companies studied tend toshape the needs of their client’s and the products of the suppliers, and any modification inthis stream would need not only an adjustment of the organization, but also of the entirevalue chain. Therefore, the greater the inertia of these external participants, the greater thedifficulty seems to appear in the potential application of these concepts.

Finally, the cultural factor was the most cited of all, concerning hampering and obstaclesin deployment of new practices and methodologies in construction. This resistance tochange occurs both in internal environment of an organization and in external ecosystem(mostly suppliers and customers). This cultural point might be reinforced by the country inwhich the companies where studied, because the findings exposed herein showed lessadherence than the ones found in similar research studies carried out in the UK (El. Reifi &Emmitt, 2013).

Although its aim was the systematic analysis of the phenomenon, utilizing techniquesalready established for data collection and analysis, this study is naturally subjected tolimitations. First, there are imposed restrictions by the qualitative nature of the study inquestion. This kind of study, as it was said previously, will exemplify, increase and evencreate new theories about the subject, but will not have strength enough to test any

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existent theory (Yin, 2014; Miguel & Sousa, 2018). Yet, as cited previously, the sizeof the studied sample makes it difficult to generalize the findings, according to Eisenhardt(1989) metrics.

Accordingly, there is still room for related future research studies. Qualitative researchstudies with other companies could broaden the empirical evidence of the propositionsherein submitted, regarding to social and technical dimensions, or in the identification ofadditional factors that influence the adoption of LPD and APM in the design stage of civilconstruction. Quantitative research studies based on surveys could deepen the factorsherein identified, exploring its occurrence on probability samples.

On the other hand, the literature collects success cases regarding the application of LPMand APM in other industries. Its adoption was considered significant for the survival anddevelopment of several companies (Conforto et al., 2014; Serrador & Pinto, 2015). Therefore,being able to identify the effective adoption of these practices in the design stage of civilconstruction, or even, produce such cases through action-research strategies. This wouldaim to quantify the application’s impact of these concepts, both in projects results and thecost-benefit of the developed products (e.g. shortening of development time, greaterefficiency during construction stage, etc.). This way, it is possible to pursue thequantification of the LPD and APM rate of return, which is significant factor aiming tobreak the obstacles here demonstrated. Together with these reinforcements suggested inliterature about the subject, it will be possible to have a better understanding of thisphenomenon, and, more importantly, raise the interest of more professionals and companiesfrom this industry to gather more information to try out the application of these methods intheir productive chains.

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Appendix 1

Question

Case1

Case2

Case3

How

theactivitiesof

thedesign

stageareplanned

andcontrolled?Shortmeetingbetweentheow

ner

and

theresponsibleengineer.Delaysare

common

Meetingbetweenteam

sleadersof

each

area.A

WBSandadetailedscheduleare

developed.Thescheduleiscontrolled

every15

days.Delaysarecommon

Meetinginvolvingin-house

and

subcontracteddesigners.A

WBSanda

simpleschedulearedeveloped.The

scheduleiscontrolledevery15

days.

Delaysarecommon

How

definitionsandtechnical

decisionsaremadeduringdesign

process?

Engineerdefines

everythingbyhim

self,

withtheow

ner

interveningonly

incomplexcases.Clients

arenot

involved

because

“they

arenot

technically

familiarizedwiththesubject”

Eachhas

totalautonom

yto

make

technical

decisionsaboutitsspecialty.

Errorsin

thisdefinitionprocess

are

sourceof

constantandcommon

reworks

Subcontracteddesignerssubmittheir

technical

decisionsforapproval

ofthe

specialtyexpert.Thereisno

subcontractedintegration.Erroneous

decisionsareonlyrealized

attheendand

reworksareconstantlyneeded

How

istheclientinvolved

during

theprocess?

Theclientisnot

involved.O

nly

receives

thefinal

design

Constantandlongvalidationmeetings

withtheclient’sdesignersto

approve

everydecisionpoint.Theprocess

isreportedto

belongandslow

paced

Clients

biweekly

validatetheprogress.

Future

executors

(contractors)arealso

invited

toevaluatethedesignat

theend

How

doesdevelopmentprocess

flow

betweentheteam

sandthe

employees?

(Focuson

authorities

andresponsibilities)

Responsibleengineerhandlesthewhole

developmentprocess,withthehelpof

interns

Itisafunctionalorganizationstructure.

Areas

havefullauthorityunder

its

specialty.Integration

betweenareasis

alwaysmadethroughform

alhierarchy

Subcontractedsrarely

speakam

ong

them

selves

directly.Allthe

communicationsaremadethroughthe

project

manager

(reportedto

beaslow

andbureaucraticprocess)

How

theprogress

oftheprojects

isreportedto

thein-house

team

andfortheclients?

Withclients:e-mails/calls(not

ina

structuredway)

Internal:verbally

Withclients:technical

meetingsand

monthly

boardswithmangersfrom

bothsides

Internal:p

eriodicmeetingsinvolving

departm

entleadersonly

Withclients:technical

meetingsand

semi-monthly

boardswithmanagers

from

bothsides

Clients:verbally

(littleintegration

reported)

Was

thecurrentprocess

reviewed

inthepast?Is

therea

planforanychangeinthefuture?

Italwaysworked

thisway

andthereare

noplansforchange

Theprocess

was

defined

afterthemerge

process.P

olitical

barriersprevent

revisions

Dueto

constantreworksin

thepast,the

clientwas

moreinvolved.Theintendto

further

improvetheprocess,althoughit

willbenoradical

change

Thereareproblemswithyour

productsafteryourdeliver

it?

Som

eproblemsin

theexecution

phase.

Clients

sometim

escomplain

ofhigh

costsdueto

allegedly

over-design.

Executors

oftenaskforcontract

amendmentsdueto

design’serrors.T

he

Executors

oftenaskforcontract

amendments

dueto

design’serrors.T

he

(con

tinued)

Table AI.Summary of collected

answers

LPD and APMin the


149

Question

Case1

Case2

Case3

How

ever,thesecomplaints

are

“unsupported”

companyclaimsitoccurs

only

dueto

bad

faithof

thecontractor

companyclaimsitoccurs

only

dueto

bad

faithof

thecontractor

Are

you

familiarwiththe

concepts

oflean

product

development?

Has

never

heard

ofHas

never

heard

ofLPD,how

ever,has

heard

aboutlean

construction

Has

never

heard

ofLPD,how

ever,has

heard

aboutlean

construction

Are

you

familiarwiththe

concepts

ofagileproject

managem

ent?

Has

never

heard

ofHas

heard

aboutitin

lectures,how

ever,

theknow

ledgeisreportedas

“shallow”

Has

heard

aboutitin

lectures,how

ever,

theknow

ledgeisalmostnull

Are

thesemethodologies

applicableto

yourreality?

Possibly,h

owever,theim

plementation

seem

sim

probable

Improbable

Veryapplicable,how

ever,difficultyin

implementation

would

besignificant

Whicharethemainchallenges

(orroadblocks)forthe

implementation

ofthe

methodologies,consideringyour

companiescontext?

Cultural.“T

hecurrentway

isworking

well”

Cultural,functional

organization

structure,clients’responsiveness,

contractual

structure

(defined

costs,

deadlines

andspecifications)

Cultural,contractual

structure

withthe

subcontracteddesignersandthe

impossibilityof

imposingmethodologies

inthesuppliers

Table AI.

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Appendix 2

Corresponding authorFelipe Albuquerque can be contacted at: [email protected]

Table AII.Summary of the

adhesion of each oneof the cases to the

elements of analysisfrom LPD and APM


LPD and APMin the


151


How to increase engagement onsocial media using thehoneycomb model

A case study in a Portuguese HR company

Susana C. SilvaUniversidade Cat�olica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal

Wilian FeitosaIFSP, Instituto Federal de Educacao Ciencia e Tecnologia de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Paulo DuarteDepartamento de Gestao e Economia, Universidade da Beira Interior,

Covilha, Portugal, and

Marta VasconcelosUniversidade Cat�olica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how a company could improve public engagement onsocial media (SM) analysing the case of Alento, which is a human resources and consulting company located inPortugal. The company’s presence on Facebook was analysed by using the honeycomb model for SMfunctionality, by Kietzmann et al. (2011), as a theoretical framework.Design/methodology/approach – The authors implemented some actions to change procedures on SMmanagement. Monitoring five months of data, the authors could compare the SM engagement before and afterchanges on SM management. Then, a convenience sample of 205 useable questionnaires was collected. Thepopulation of the study comprised Portuguese Facebook users who liked the Alento Facebook Fan Page. Ananalysis of honeycomb dimensions was performed.Findings –The engagement level on Alento’s SMwas increased by changing procedures identified on survey.In five months, Alento’s number of followers was increased by just 4.5 per cent, interactions were increased by35 per cent, viewsweremore than twice (þ122 per cent) and fanswho clicked onAlento’s Facebook page’s linkswere increased by 146 per cent.Research limitations/implications – There were also some limitations related to the sample, since theauthors only obtained 205 responses. Therefore, the second suggestion for future investigations would be toconduct the survey on a larger number of people. This study just considers five months after changingprocedures. A longer range of time could produce different results.Practical implications – The most relevant contribution of the current study is the offer of some insightsinto the use of a simple tool such as the honeycombmodel of Kietzmann et al. (2011) for the analysis of the socialengagement from a firm’s perspective, regardless of their nature.Social implications –The importance of SM to spread good content and to reducemedia costs is reinforced inthis study.Originality/value – This study is innovative, as it identifies a need of change on SM management, proposesand implements new procedures, checking its results. SMmarketing is a newwagon of study, and the problemof how to increase engagement on professional SM is on top priorities of the field.

Keywords Engagement, Digital marketing, Social media management

Paper type Technical paper

Engagementon social media

153

© Susana C. Silva, Wilian Feitosa, Paulo Duarte and Marta Vasconcelos. Published in Revista de Gest~ao.Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution(CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyonemay reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (forboth commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication andauthors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode



Received 1 February 2019Revised 17 August 2019

Accepted 4 September 2019



e-ISSN: 2177-8736p-ISSN: 1809-2276

DOI 10.1108/REGE-02-2019-0030

IntroductionDigitalisation has become a part of our daily life. As a result, digitalisation and particularlysocial media (SM) have been claimed to transform consumer behaviour (Kaplan & Haenlein,2010), with important consequences for companies, products and brands (Mutinga,Moorman, & Smit, 2011). Nowadays, consumers spend much of their time on the internet.They are much more proactive in establishing channels with companies. However,companies use these channels more and more to promote their brands and to engagecustomers, especially by sharing informational brand content with links for informationsearches (Swani, Milne, Brown, Assaf, &Donthu, 2017). Social networks are used by people ofdifferent ages, education levels, genders, social statuses, people who speak differentlanguages and who come from different cultures, all of whom participate and incorporatesocial networks into their daily lives (Mazman & Usluel, 2010). Previous studies have shownthe differences between adolescents and older adults (over 60s) in the use of different SNSfeatures and content (Pfeil, Arjan, & Zaphiris, 2009). Muscanell and Guadagno (2012) foundthat young SNS users aremuchmore active, have a larger number of Facebook friends, spendmore time online and participate in the different activities available on Facebook. However, incomparison, older users prefer to engage in family activities on Facebook (Dhir & Torsheim,2016). Users can spend their time on Facebook, doing many different activities such asplaying video games, joining groups, getting up-to-date information from friends and familyor having fun (S�anchez, Cortijo, & Javed, 2014). Previous literature has observed genderdifferences in SNS use. Gender differences were observed in the use of different SNS features,for example females tend to comment on friends’ posts (Yuan, 2011) and they also post morephotos and videos (Hargittai, 2007; Madden, Lenhart, & Duggan, 2013; Muscanell &Guadagno, 2012). In comparison, males tend to play games on SNS (Joiner et al., 2012;Muscanell & Guadagno, 2012) and seek entertainment related to social networking activities(Joiner et al., 2012; Weiser, 2000). The profile differences are relevant, and this way it isimportant to understand well who the company’s clients are, in order to better adapt the pagecontents to their preferences and chances of engagement. Although this is severely eroded(Mangold & Faulds, 2009), marketing managers would still desire to control over the content,timing and frequency of information provided within the page. “In the new communicationsparadigm, marketing managers should recognize the power and critical nature of thediscussions being carried on by consumers using social media” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009, p.360). Therefore, it is very important for firms to understand how to provide and organise theinformation they want their customers to consume through the SNS provided.

However, with the evolution of communication, it is gradually becoming more and moredifficult to build customer loyalty (Buhalis & Law, 2008), which means that having amarketing strategy for the effective use of SM is crucial for companies to stay competitive andgrow (Parsons, 2013). Understanding SM users’ habits is therefore crucial for marketers whoneed to discover how to attract customers and maintain customer relationships through SMplatforms (Cheung & Leung, 2016). According to Erragcha and Romdhane (2014), there is noglobal definition of Digital Social Networks. However, in marketing literature, the mostsuitable definition is that they areweb services that “allow individuals to construct a public orsemi-public profile within a system, to maintain a list of users with whom they share a bond,to view and navigate their list of connections and those established by others within thesystem” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007, p. 2). Social networking sites allow for interaction betweenconsumers and the community and facilitate the “asynchronous, immediate, interactive, low-cost communications” (Miller, Fabian, & Lin, 2009). “Social network sites can be seen asalternative communication tools which support existing relationships and activities in a funand colourful way that can enrich the users’ experiences” (Ofcom, 2008).

This paper aims to investigate the applicability of SNS in a service company. Our goal is tounderstand how digital marketing strategies can be used in order to improve firm’s digital

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marketing plan. We will focus on Facebook, as it is the largest social networking website inthe world and, as a consequence, the most representative.

Literature reviewDigital marketing, social media and customer engagementDigitalmarketing can be seen as a tool to promote the companymore efficiently, and it should beunderstood effectively by companies so that they are better able to select efficient marketingtactics and strategies (Taiminen & Karjaluoto, 2015). Within digital marketing, we can isolateSM as “a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technologicalfoundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content”(Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). Social networking tools (e.g. Twitter and Facebook),professional networking sites (e.g. LinkedIn), media sharing sites (e.g. Instagram andYouTube),commerce communities (e.g. Amazon and eBay), blogs (e.g. Blogger and Bloglines) anddiscussion forums are examples of SM platforms. SM has changed the way companies havedone business over the years (Ramsaran-Fowdar & Fowdar, 2013), and as a result, in recentyears, SM sites have become essential for users and companies (Maecker, Barrot, & Becker,2016). Although the internet has created huge new opportunities for companies over the years, ithas also generated new challenges (Strand, 2011). However, there is a lack of understanding ofhow and why organisations are actually using these platforms (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014).

SM is a way to generate companies and brands engagement in several actors andstakeholders, such as customers, suppliers and employees (Hollebeek et al., 2018). Customerengagement is a concept in evolution (Hollebeek, 2011) about how an actor can be profoundlyinterested and bounded in a company, in terms of trust, loyalty, commitment and confidence(Moriuchi, 2019), which include the B2B (Silva, Bradley, & Sousa, 2012; Diba, Vella, & Abratt,2019) and the B2C contexts (Kesgin & Murthy, 2019). Online engagement can include howsomeone sees, follows and resends content on SM for his/her audience, helping a company toearn media, instead of buying it. Based on how trustable someone is (Oeldorf-Hirsch &DeVoss, 2019) and the content, for instance, positive or negative (Spottswood &Wohn, 2019)and based on technology issues (Zhu, 2019), it can be moderated.

Facebook as a digital marketing toolSocial networking sites allow for interaction between consumers and the community andfacilitate the “asynchronous, immediate, interactive, low-cost communications” (Miller et al.,2009). According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), SM, Facebook in particular, represent a vastarea of opportunities for firms. Facebook has many types of pages and other ways that allowpeople to connect, but there are, according to Strand (2011), four main types of Facebookpages: personal pages, fan pages, official pages and community pages.

Facebook has become a significant tool in engaging with consumers and creating brandawareness (Malhotra, Kubowicz Malhotra, & See, 2013). Approximately 2.2bn peoplecurrently have a Facebook profile according to data from 2017. According to a studyconducted byNielsen in 2012, around 53 per cent of Facebookmembers follow brands at leastonce per month, learn more about brands (65 per cent) or hear of others’ experiences withbrands (70 per cent) (The Nielsen Company, 2012).

Facebook (2019), with more than 2.2bn users, is the largest form of SM worldwide. Itgenerated more than $55bn of revenue in 2018, it is the sixth company in the world in marketvalue, with $22bn net income, it is a huge company and an important media to worldwideadvertisement, and around 50 per cent of its revenue comes outside USA. Companies need tohave a Facebook fan page, which must be well configured and customised (Valos, Habibi,Casidy, Driesener, & Maplestone, 2006; Mangold & Faulds, 2009). In 2019, in Portugal,Facebook’s relevance has been seen to be high: about 6.5m of people are its users (65 per centof the total population) and 90 per cent of all internet users are on Facebook, the first website


155

in the country. Portuguese people, in an international ranking, have taken the first place inlooking for information online and 15 per cent have the habit of checking Facebook as long asthey are awake (Hootsuite, 2019).

Consequently, companies invest a lot in SM platforms by creating brand fan pages onwhich companies publish brand posts that users can like, comment on or share, andwhere thecompany can reply to comments (De Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2012; Labrecque, 2004).

Through Facebook, companies can connect with many more people, more than throughphone calls, e-mails or meetings (Luke, 2009). Moreover, costs of communication have fallendrastically with this SM, generating opportunities for companies to communicate quickly,directly and consistentlywithmillions of customers (Mize, 2009; Palmer&Koenig-Lewis, 2009).

For several applications, Facebook has contributed to generate more sales andopportunities, for instance on destination tourism marketing (Villamediana, K€uster, & Vila,2019), B2B context (Zhang & Li, 2019) and cultural experiences (Vredeveld & Coulter, 2019).

However, researchers have highlighted risks of overuse of SM, including anxiety andFOMO (Larkin & Fink, 2016), and even risk of socialisation and formation of social bubbles(Cardenal, Aguilar-Paredes, Galais, & P�erez-Montoro, 2019). People are deciding to give upSM (Burt�averde, Avram, & Vl�asceanu, 2019), and what motivates someone to engage onFacebook (Machado, Azar, Vacas de Carvalho, &Mender, 2016) and even socialising negativecontent have become a topic of discussion. These criticisms include privacy issues aboutconsumers and companies’ data.

The seven functional blocks of social mediaKietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, and Silvestre (2011) developed a honeycomb frameworkthat identifies seven functional building blocks of SM: identity, conversations, sharing,presence, relationships, reputation and groups. According to them, each block allows us tounpack and examine a specific facet of SM user experience and its consequences forcompanies. It is not necessary to include all of the building blocks in any given SM action.They are constructs that allow us to understand the different levels of SM functionality.

Identity. For Kietzmann et al. (2011), identity represents the extent to which users revealtheir identities in an SM setting. On Facebook, users can define the information they shareand with whom they share that information. For example, information such as name, age,gender, profession, location and also information that exposes Facebook users in certainways. For instance, the authors explain that thoughts, feelings, likes and dislikes of users canalso be shared, both consciously and unconsciously. One major implication of “identity” isprivacy. Users share their identities on SM sites; however, this does notmean they do not carewhat happens to this information (Kietzmann et al., 2011).

Moreover, Machado et al. (2016) stated that on Facebook, trust in brands and in other userswho like the same brand can influence consumers’ decisions to engage online with brands.They also mentioned that according to Swani, Milne, and Brown (2013), positive word ofmouth (WOM) can be comparable to “liking”. When a user likes certain content, it appears ontheir Facebook news feed as well as on their friends’ newsfeeds.

Conversations. The “conversations” block of the framework represents a level ofcommunication on an SM platform with other users, which could be the number of regularityof postings (Kietzmann et al., 2011). According to Machado et al. (2016), on SM platforms,consumers can find outmore about a certain company through the knowledge and know-howof other users. Through comments, consumers can also contribute to brand-related content(Shu & Chuang, 2011). One major implication of the “conversations” block is “conversationvelocity and the risks of starting and joining” (Kietzmann et al., 2011, p. 243).

Sharing. “Sharing” refers to the sending and receiving of content between users on the sameSMplatform, such as photos, comments andvideos (Kietzmann et al., 2011).Machado et al. (2016)

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mentioned that besides “likes” and “comments”, SM metrics should comprise the number of“shares” (Hoffman & Fodor, 2010). By interacting with a brand on SM, consumers can feel aninterpersonal social interaction (Hudson, Huang, Roth, & Madden, 2016).

According to Kietzmann et al. (2011), the “sharing” block of the honeycomb has twoimplications for companies with ambition to engage in SM. First, companies need tounderstand “what objects of sociality their users have in common, or to identify new objectsthat can mediate their shared interests”. Second, companies need to evaluate “the degree towhich the object can or should be shared” (p. 245).

Presence. Presence refers to the ability of one user to know if other users are available.This includes knowing where other SM users are in virtual and in real life. In the virtualworld, we can control this “through status lines like available or hidden” (p. 245). For example,on Facebook, users can click on a chat button to indicate if they are online and available, or donot wish to connect with other users (Kietzmann et al., 2011).

Kietzmann et al. (2011) stated that an implication of the framework building block“presence” is that “firms need to pay attention to the relative importance of user availabilityand user location. A firm might also want to investigate if users have a desire for selectivepresences, where one can be visible to some people while staying hidden to others” (p. 246).Another implication of “presence” is that it is related to other functional blocks in thehoneycomb framework, such as “conversations” and “relationships”. For instance,companies should recognise that “social media presence is influenced by the intimacyand immediacy of the relationship medium, and that higher levels of social presence arelikely to make conversations more influential” (p. 246).

Relationships. “Relationships” refer to how people are connected on an SM platform.Machado et al. (2016) stated that in social networking sites, consumers use brands in orderto create a self-identity (Schau & Gilly, 2003), and when they “like” a brand via Facebook,they create an impression on others (Hollenbeck & Kaikati, 2012; Wallace, Buil, &Chernatony, 2012) and increment their social involvement (Shu & Chuang, 2011). Facebookusers can identify family members and make notes of mutual friends between users. Whenusers are “relating” to each other on SM platforms, it means that they have a form ofconnection that leads them to “converse, share objects of sociality, meet up, or simply justlist each other as a friend or fan”. When a certain SM site or company desires to engage withits fans, it should find out how it can maintain and/or build relationships (Kietzmann et al.,2011, p. 246).

According to Hudson et al. (2016), when a company interacts with its fans by replying tocomments, solving problems and inviting them to participate, fans feel a higher level ofrelationship quality and create a feeling of connection.

Reputation. “Reputation” refers to the ability of users to identify the standing of others(including themselves) within an SMplatform. For example, Facebook users can “like” certaincontent and comment on it. According to Kudeshia, Sikdar and Mittal (2015), onlinereputation is an important element for the success of a company. An online presence allowscompanies to understand their customer’s feelings about the brand and it could also be anopportunity to avoid any negative thoughts.

Online reputation management is very important for online community marketers(Kietzmann et al., 2011). According to Baxi, Panda, and Karani (2016), one negativecomment on company SM platforms can create a negative impact on the minds of othercommunity members. To restrict the negative impact, quick responses to every negativecomment are required. Negative WOM publicity has a higher impact than positive WOMpublicity.

According to Kudeshia et al. (2015), online reputation is an important element for thesuccess of a company. An online presence allows companies to understand their customer’sfeelings about the brand and it could also be an opportunity to avoid any negative thoughts.


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Groups. “Groups” refer to the capacity of users to “form communities and sub-communities”.When SMusers “like” the same brand, they form a community (Kietzmann et al., 2011, p. 247).On Facebook, users can also form communities by organising their friends into differentgroups (Parsons, 2013). According toMachado et al. (2016) andDaugherty, Eastin, and Bright(2008), social interaction is very important for the creation of user-generated content, “as bycreating content consumers can connect with others, experience a sense of community andfeel important” (p. 171). Moreover, by interacting with a brand through SM platforms,consumers can feel an interpersonal interaction and an intimacy feeling (Hudson et al., 2016).

A fan page’s success on any SM depends on consumer engagement with the brand orcompany. To achieve this, it is important to have good planning in the networks and the webas a whole, which should be carried out proficiently (Trainini & Torres, 2015).

MethodologyThis study is based on a qualitative and interpretative method – action research (Taba &Noel, 1957; Thiollent, 1997; Tripp, 2005; Machin-Mastromatteo & Tarango, 2019). Thismethod proposes an analysis based on a cycle in which “one improves practice bysystematically oscillating between taking action in the field of practice, and inquiring into it”(Tripp, 2005).

We consider the action inquiry cycle (Machin-Mastromatteo & Tarango, 2019) in fivephases. The first phase is the diagnostic phase, when the phenomena are described in thefield. The second phase is the planning phase, when an intervention is created and planned.The third one is the intervention phase, when actions are made. The fourth is the observationphase, where data are collected to analyse actions’ effects. The fifth is the evaluation andreflection phase, when, based on data analysis, best practices are elected.

Phase 1 – diagnosisAlento is a Portuguese human resources (HR) services provider company. Created in 2012, itis based on the cities of Braga and Porto. Its focus relies on consulting services to companies(recruiting, selecting, training and planning services) and people looking for a job (coaching,outplacement and training services). Among its clients, youngsters and people looking fortheir first jobs form important segments, and B2B and B2C services are among its services(Alento, 2019).

HR companies have important relationships with both companies and candidates, in B2Band B2C contexts. Therefore, engagement can vary depending on the kind of publicconsidered. Considering the aim of this study, we analyse the company’s presence onFacebook and its publications.

Phase 2 – planningBased on Alento’s publications and their results on Facebook between January andSeptember 2017, the changes that Alento’s SMmanagement could implement were identified.Facebook’s profile was focussed on identity and profile blocks of honeycomb. To have adeeper engagement, all the seven blocks must be reflected in this activity.

So, we have come up with a list of practices to complete what is needed. Thus, this firstaction plan aims to define strategies that allow for correcting, improving and implementingother aspects that can help the organisation to fulfil the objectives of this study. In Table I, wecan see the strategies that were implemented before and during the intervention (betweenSeptember 2016 and January 2017), allocated to each building block.

Then, we proposed to create a survey to be taken by Alento Facebook fans to determinethe extent to which a company should focus on some or all of the building blocks of Facebookengagement with fans previously described. At last, considering the results obtained in the

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quantitative study and strategies developed during this period, we will propose somestrategies that the company must implement on its Facebook page.

Phase 3 – interventionAlento started and followed the new protocol of SMmanagement during the given period.Weproposed a greater incidence in strategies allocated to the “presence”, “identity” and“reputation” building blocks to Alento. Therefore, it is recommended that a company shoulddedicate its time to post frequently, analysing the number of likes (to see if likes haveincreased or decreased) and the reviews of fans. It is also necessary to create posts containingannouncements about special offers, product information, news, daily tips and fun facts.

Phase 4 – observationTo analyse the impact of actions proposed in Phase 2 and implemented in Phase 3, it wasneeded to consider the “statistics” available on Facebook, such as the number of “followers”,“interactions”, “reach of publications” and “clicks on publications by type”. Results can befound in Table II. By analysing these data, it is observed that Alento has increased its numberof followers, interactions, views and fans who clicked on Alento’s Facebook page’s content.Clicks and number of fans have increased by more than 100 per cent.

Then, a survey was conducted to analyse the profile of followers and their perceptionabout those implemented actions. Data were collected during February 2017, by accessingdirectly consumers on the Facebook page.

Sample.A convenience sample of 205 usable questionnaires was collected. The populationof the study comprised Portuguese Facebook users who liked the Alento’s Facebook FanPage. In all, 119 of the respondents were female (58 per cent) and 86 were male (42 per cent).Characterising the respondents by age group, the majority of participants were concentratedin the age group “15 to 24 years” (72.7 per cent). The 25–34-age group also stood out,

Before After

Identity Tabs for homepage, publications, videos,photos, information about Alento (whereAlento is, general information, history), likes,online store, contact us

Exclude online store tab, maintain theothers and add tabs for events, careers andjob offers

Few posts about product information,acknowledgements, events, informationabout changes to website, photos and videos

Posts containing announcements aboutspecial offers, news, daily tips and fun facts

Conversations Tabs for discussions, quizzes and FAQsPromote calls for involvement, customercomments, polls/poll questions, and productreviews/tips/uses/recipes

Sharing Tabs for discussions and reviewsPosts about job offers, links, photos,product reviews/tips/uses/recipes,promotions, and Video/You Tube links

Presence Tabs for contact us Create tabs for FAQsDedication to posting frequently

Relationships Tabs for discussions and reviewsPost sharing Holiday greetings, polls/pollquestions, and calls for involvement

Reputation Tabs for photos, videos, events, informationabout Alento (where Alento is, generalinformation, history)

Groups Analyse the number of likes

Table I.Strategies

implemented beforeand during the period

of our study


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representing 17.1 per cent of the respondents. Regarding residence, the majority ofrespondents were from Porto, Braga and Lisboa, representing 47.3, 33.7 and 9.8 per cent,respectively. The majority of the respondents had a university degree (51.7 per cent),29.3 per cent had a postgraduate or master’s degree and 17.1 per cent had completedsecondary education. Regarding the professions of the respondents, there was apredominance of students (57.1 per cent), followed by managers/businessman (8.8 percent) and marketing, communication and sales professionals (6.8 per cent). Concerning thetime spent on Facebook, 31.7 per cent of the respondents spent between 1 h and 2 h per dayon Facebook, 30.7 per cent of them spent between 30min and 1 h, 22 per cent spent morethan 2 hon it and only 15.6 per cent used it for less than 30min per day.

Variables and measures. The seven independent constructs (identity, conversations,sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and groups) and the dependent variable(Facebook engagement) were all measured by multiple item scales using a five-point Likertscale, with “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” being the endpoints. The control variables(age group, residence, time spent on Facebook per day and gender) were all measured bymultiple choice.

To study the “identity” building block, we adapted the scales used by Cheung and Leung(2016) and Machado et al. (2016). Regarding the “conversations” building block, we adjustedthe scales used by Machado et al. (2016). To study the “sharing” building block, we adjustedthe scales used byMachado et al. (2016) and Hudson et al. (2016) in their study. To analyse the“presence” building block, we created a scale on the basis of the “presence” functionalbuilding block of SM of Kietzmann et al. (2011). To investigate the “relationships” buildingblock, we adapted the scales used by Machado et al. (2016) and Hudson et al. (2016). For the“reputation” building block, we created a scale on the basis of the “reputation” functionalbuilding block of SM of Kietzmann et al. (2011). Finally, to study the “groups” building block,we adapted the scales used byMachado et al. (2016) and Hudson et al. (2016) in their research.

Statistical procedures. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). We wished to discover ifthe age group of participants affected the seven different building blocks of SM (identity,conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and groups). One-way ANOVAcan be usedwhen there is a quantitative outcomewith a categorical explanatory variable thathas two or more levels.

In analysing the results, we verified that there is a statistically significant effect of theparticipants’ age on the level of perception of importance of the block F(4, 200)50.614, p>0.05),and there is a statistically significant effect of the participants’ age on the conversations block(F(4, 200)53.28, p<0.05), the block “sharing” (F(4, 200)53.17, p<0.05) and the “presence” block(F(4, 200)53.75, p<0.05). However, there is no statistically significant effect of age on identity,relationships, reputation or the “groups” block. The Bonferroni correction post hoc testsrevealed that participants aged 25–34 have a higher perception of the importance of theconversations and sharing blocks compared to participants aged 15–24 (p<0.05).

Total followers ofAlento’s Facebook

Fan Page

Total number of fans whointeracted with Alento’sFacebook Fan Page

Total number of fans whosaw any of Alento’s

Facebook Page’s contentLinkclicks

September 3,616 596 21,869 138October 3,630 696 32,959 285November 3,720 911 44,704 263December 3,728 785 45,714 313January 3,781 805 48,526 340Evolution(%)

4.56 35.07 121.89 146.38

Table II.Evolution onengagement after fivemonths

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We wished to analyse whether the place of residence of the participants has an effect on theseven different building blocks of SM (identity, conversations, sharing, presence,relationships, reputation and groups). The exploratory data analysis (AED) revealed thatthe assumption of normality (Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Shapiro–Wilk), as well ashomogeneity (Levene Statistic), is guaranteed. The results of ANOVA confirm that there isa statistically significant effect of the residence of participants on the perceptions ofimportance of the relationships block (F(8, 196)52.09, p<0.05) and of the reputation block(F(8, 196)53.11, p<0.05). However, there is no statistically significant effect on the identity,conversations, sharing, presence and groups blocks. Post hoc tests with Bonferroni correctionreveal that participants from Braga have a greater perception of the importance of the“relationships” block compared to participants living in Lisboa, and participants from Portoalso have a higher perception of the importance of the “reputation” block compared toparticipants living in Lisboa.

We analysed whether the time participants spent on Facebook per day had an effect on theseven different buildingblocks of SM (identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships,reputation and groups).The exploratory data analysis (AED) revealed that the assumption ofnormality (Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Shapiro–Wilk), as well as homogeneity (LeveneStatistic), is guaranteed. The ANOVA results confirm that there is a statistically significanteffect of the time participants spend per day on Facebook on their perceptions of theimportance of the “presence” block (F(3, 201)5139.29, p<0.05). Post hoc tests with Bonferronirevealed that participants who spend more than 2 h a day on Facebook have a greaterperception of the importance of the “presence” block compared to thosewho spend between 1 hand 2 h and between 30min and 1 h. However, there is no statistically significant effect of theidentity, conversations, sharing, relationships, reputation and groups blocks.

We analysedwhether the participants’ gender has an effect on the seven different buildingblocks of SM (identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation andgroups). The exploratory data analysis (AED) revealed that the assumption of normality(Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Shapiro–Wilk), as well as homogeneity (Levene Statistic), isguaranteed. The ANOVA results indicate that there is a statistically significant effect of thegender of the participants on the level of perception for “conversations” (F(1, 203)55.64,p<0.05) and “relationships” (F(1, 203)57, 87, p<0.05), and men have a higher average thanwomen. However, there is no statistically significant effect on identity, sharing, presence,reputation and groups.

We summarised these results in Table III.

Phase 5 – reflectionsThrough our empirical study, we emphasise the importance of some demographic and socialaspects. For example, regarding age groups, we concluded that participants aged between 25and 34 years have a greater perception of the importance of the “conversations” block

Age City GenderUsers that spent morethan 2 h on SM per day

IdentityConversations 25–34>15–24 Men>WomenSharing 25–34>15–24Presence Heavy users>OthersRelationships Braga>Lisboa Men>WomenReputation Porto>LisboaGroups

Table III.Summary of user’simportance results


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compared to participants aged between 15 and 24, and in perceptions regarding the “sharing”block, participants who are 25–34-year old give more importance to this componentcompared to those who are 15–24-year old. Thus, when developing Facebook strategies,Alento must consider these age groups. Place of residence is another demographic factor thatAlento should contemplate. Participants from Braga have a greater perception of theimportance of the “relationships” block when compared to participants living in Lisboa. Also,participants from Porto have a higher perception of the importance of the “reputation” blockcompared to participants who live in Lisboa.

Furthermore, participants who spend more than 2 h a day on Facebook have a higherperception of the importance of the “presence” block compared to those who spend less timeper day on Facebook. Therefore, Alento should consider this when managing its Facebookpage. Finally, the company should also consider the gender of respondents when developingFacebook strategies for the “relationships” and “conversations” blocks.

Final thoughtsThe main objective of this research was to provide a solution for a problem raised by Alento,which was to understand how the company should engage with its official Facebook page.

This investigation explored the seven functional building blocks of SM engagementproposed by Kietzmann et al. (2011): identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships,reputation and groups. We tried to find out which of the functional blocks of SM engagementwere more important for Alento’s Facebook Fan Page to understand how the companyshould engagewith it. Other variables were also studied, such as age, residence, time spent onFacebook per day and gender of Alento Facebook fans, to understand their perception of theimportance of functional building blocks of Alento’s Facebook engagement.

Consequently, we surveyed among 205 Alento Facebook fans, to explore Alento’sFacebook fans’ habitswhen using Facebook, to understand the extent towhichAlento shouldfocus on some or all of the functional building blocks of Facebook engagement. Resultsindicated that, contrary to what was expected, the most important functional building blocksfor Alento’s Facebook Fan Page’s engagement were “presence”, “identity” and “reputation”.Furthermore, there are some factors that Alento should consider when engaging with itsFacebook page, such as the 25–34-age group when developing strategies to increaseconversations and sharing. Regarding place of residence, Alento must consider participantsfrom Braga and Porto when developing strategies for relationships and reputation,respectively. Concerning time spent on Facebook per day, participants who spent more than2 h a day on Facebook had a greater perception of the importance of the presence blockcompared to those who spent less time on Facebook. Finally, the company should alsoconsider gender when developing strategies for the relationships and conversationsfunctional building blocks of Alento’s Facebook engagement.

In parallel, we analysed some Alento Facebook strategies developed during the period offivemonths, through statistics available on Facebook. Our results indicated that there was anincrease inAlento’s number of followers, interactions, views and fanswho clicked onAlento’sFacebook page’s content. Considering the results obtained in our empirical study, weconcluded that Alento should focus on the presence, identity and reputation functionalbuilding blocks of Facebook engagement. Additionally, Alento must implement Facebookstrategies developed between September and January that focussed on these blocks,considering some demographic and social factors.

This study is based on a case study, and its relevance consists of a special case of differentkinds of engagement (B2B and B2C, simultaneous), a longer observation based on real datagathered by different means and the direct intervention on the field. This can be relevant toother service companies to get similar results on their own SM.

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Facebook is a huge media company and can bring opportunities in terms of earned mediaand engagement to companies, including the small ones. In Portugal, there is still a totaldominance of Facebook, but in the future, other SM, such as Instagram, can capture theaudience and be a threat to Facebook or an opportunity to earn more media.

Limitations and suggestions for further researchThere were also some limitations related to the sample, since we only obtained 205 responses.Therefore, the second suggestion for future investigations would be to conduct surveyamong a larger number of people. This study just considered five months after changingprocedures. A longer range of time could produce different results. Other studies can focus onother SM, such as Instagram or LinkedIn, including how integrated these platforms are tocompanies’ website. Moreover, criticisms about SM such as privacy and data security issuescould be studied as moderators of engagement.

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Corresponding authorWilian Feitosa can be contacted at: [email protected]



167


The development of innovativecapacity as a strategic resource in

technology-basedincubation activities

Clarice Vepo do Nascimento Welter and Jorge Oneide SausenDACEC, Universidade Regional do Noroeste do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul,

Ijui, Brazil, and

Carlos Ricardo RossettoUniversidade do Vale do Itajai, Balne�ario Cambori�u, Brazil

Abstract

Purpose – To identify the instruments and organizational mechanisms that provide the development of theinnovative capacities of companies that (i) no longer work with technology-based incubators, and (ii) areassociated with the community universities of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.Design/methodology/approach – Empirical research, qualitative approach and descriptive nature, conductedthroughmultiple case studies in 21 companies from IEBTs in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Data were organizedand analyzed through content analysis.Findings – Results show that the development of IC occurred through behaviors and skills, routines andprocesses and mechanisms of learning and knowledge governance that support the development of product,process and behavioral dimensions. It became evident that the companies that are emerging from IEBTs needinnovation capacity to survive in the market. These innovations are related to product, process and behavioralinnovations.Research limitations/implications – The study cannot be generalized to other segments, since it wasrestricted to a set of IEBT egress companies, with specific realities and based on the perception of themanagersof these companies.Practical implications –Themechanisms and instruments for thedevelopment of innovative capacity canbeused by companies from different sectors to make themmore competitive before the current economic scenario.Originality/value – It is justified by the scarcity of studies related to the dynamic capacity component (DC)elements, constituting a theoretical gap regarding the innovative capacity.

Keywords Innovative capacity, Technology-based companies, Emerging economies

Paper type Case study

1. IntroductionAlthough the importance of innovation has a consensus in the scientific community, it tookyears to stand out in the studies of economic growth of countries. It was only withSchumpeter (1934) that the themewas considered as a driving factor for the economy, havinga determining influence on theories of innovation. For the author, economic development wasdetermined by innovation, which is a dynamic process in which new technologies replacedthe previous ones, in a process of creative destruction.

The first studies on dynamic capacity (DC) were introduced by Winter (1964), and sincethen multiple efforts have been made to develop this concept (Teece, 2009; Wang & Ahmed,

Innovativecapacity as a

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© Clarice Vepo do Nascimento Welter, Jorge Oneide Sausen and Carlos Ricardo Rossetto. Published inRevista de Gest~ao. Published byEmerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the CreativeCommons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and createderivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to fullattribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode



Received 8 February 2019Revised 24 April 2019

23 July 20194 September 201922 October 2019

19 December 2019Accepted 16 January 2020



e-ISSN: 2177-8736p-ISSN: 1809-2276

DOI 10.1108/REGE-02-2019-0034

2007; Zollo & Winter, 2002). However, this theme became more prominent from the 1990sonwards, with the studies of Teece and Pisano (1994); Teece, Pisano and Shuen (1997) andlater Eisenhardt and Martin (2000).

The concept of DC represents an evolution of the resource-based view–RBV (Barney,1991), answering the gaps left by it, such as the fact that this strategy is not sufficient toguarantee a sustainable competitive advantage (Teece & Pisano, 1994), and not enough toexplain how some companies respond quickly to changes in the external environment.

Wang and Ahmed (2007) proclaim that DC is the behavior oriented towards integrating,reconfiguring, renewing and recreating resources and capabilities and, most importantly,upgrading and rebuilding key capabilities in response to changing environments, to achieveand sustain competitive advantage. The authors identified in their studies that DC arecomposed of three elements: adaptive capacity, absorptive capacity and innovative capacity.This study focuses only on innovative capacity (IC), that consists of the company’s ability todevelop new products and markets by guiding the strategic alignment towards innovationbehaviors and processes.

Given that the economic success of organizations is largely due to their ability to innovate(Tidd, Bessant, & Pavitt, 2008), this study aimed to identify the organizational tools andmechanisms that provide the development of innovative capacities of companies that havebeen technology-based incubators, linked to community universities in the state of RioGrande do Sul.

The study adheres to the international research agenda, referring to nascent innovationsin organizations located in dynamic environments, where the IEBTs are inserted, and withina context of large institutional voids. Brazil is characterized by a dynamic and complexcontext with institutional gaps. These occur when institutional arrangements do not allowthe full functioning of the market leading to innumerable social inequalities, either due to theabsence, weakness or non-fulfillment of the role expected of the institutions that constitutethe social fabric (Agostini, 2017).

Disarticulation between innovation systems combined with resource constraintseventually impel companies to seek local cost reduction solutions enhanced by responsivelearning with the native market. These situations stem from several institutionalshortcomings, including a lack of adequate public policies and political and economiccontexts. These voids can be filled by different factors: companies; NGOs; community andtechnology-based businesses, among others (Agostini, 2017).

The accomplishment of our study is justified by the scarcity of studies related to thecomponent elements of the DC (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000; Meirelles & Camargo, 2014),constituting a theoretical gap regarding the innovative capacity. The work also seeks tocontribute to the discussion of how IC is developed in organizations. By identifying whichinstruments and mechanisms are conducive to the development of IC, the researchcontributes to the understanding of how the innovation process occurs in companies, sincethe development of innovation may assist companies in the elaboration or review of theirstrategies and innovation management policies.

2. Theoretical framework2.1 Dynamic capabilitiesDC theory is a relatively recent topic in academia, and it is a theme of great interest toresearchers in the area of Administration in various fields of knowledge, such as strategicmanagement, entrepreneurship, marketing, among others (Meirelles & Camargo, 2014).

The original proposal was the one byWinter (1964). Since then, several authors have beentrying to develop the concept of DC (Teece, 2009; Wang & Ahmed, 2007; Zollo & Winter,2002). Teece, Pisano and Shuen (1990) began this attempt by noting that within a company it

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is not just a set of resources that matters, as the RBV (Barney, 1991) had predicted, but alsothe mechanisms by which companies learn to accumulate new skills and capabilities.

Subsequently Teece and Pisano (1994) continued the above mentioned study and statedthat DCs were sufficient to explain why some successful companies were able to presentpossibility of reaction at the right time by innovating products faster andmore flexibly usingtheir managerial capabilities to coordinate and redistribute internal and externalcompetencies.

Moving forward in trying to develop a concept Teece, Pisano and Shuen (1997, p. 516)defined DCs as “the firm’s ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and externalresources/competences to address and shape rapidly changing business environments”.

Refining the aforementioned studies, Eisenhardt andMartin (2000, p. 1107) conceptualizedDC as resource-using business processes, defined as “the organizational and strategic routinesby which firms achieve new resources configurations as market emerge, collide, split, evolveand die”.

There are several DC definitions made by the researchers and although there is a linkbetween them, eachauthorhighlights someparticular aspect. Thus, it is possible to identify twolines of approach: (1) set of organizational skills, behaviors and capabilities (Andreeva &Chaika, 2006; Collis, 1994; Helfat et al., 2007, Mckelvie & Davidson, 2009–1689); Wang andAhmed, 2007, and (2) set of routines andprocesses (Dosi, Faillo,&Marengo, 2008, Eisenhardt&Martin, 2000; Teece, 2009; Winter, 2003; Zollo & Winter, 2002).

Wang and Ahmed (2007) were the authors who developed a DC research model,considering the integration of three capacities: absorptive capacity, as the company’s abilityto acquire external knowledge, assimilate it with internal knowledge, creatingmechanisms toexplore this new knowledge; adaptive capacity, which involves a company’s ability toidentify and capitalize on emerging market opportunities and adapt in time to changingenvironment. Finally, the ability to innovate, which reflects the company’s ability to developnew products and markets by guiding strategic alignment to innovation behaviors andprocesses.

In this study, the option was to focus on innovative capacity, among dynamic capabilities,as a strategic resource in technology-based incubator organizations, whichwill be explored inthe subsequent section.

2.2 Innovative capacityThe ability to innovate is the ability to transform knowledge and ideas into new products,processes and systems to benefit both the company and its stakeholders (Lawson & Samson,2001). Innovative capacity is considered a key element that drives companies to success (Hult,Hurley, & Knight, 2004), so as much as company growth and profitability, innovativecapacity is a key element in determining the performance of a company (Mitrega, Forkmann,Zaefarian, & Henneberg, 2017; Zaefarian, Forkmann, Mitrega, & Henneberg, 2017). It can beinferred that the ability to innovate implies that, on the one hand, efforts to innovate areinternal to the company and, on the other, they require information from external sources.

The study byMitrega, Forkmann, Zaefarian and Henneberg (2017), whose purpose was toanalyze how companies use Networking Capability (NC) to manage relationships in order toimprove performance in product innovation, indicates that only companies with certaininternal capabilities can achieve superior performance. From this perspective, the authorsrecognize the ability to innovate as one of the most important internal resources, withoutwhich the acquisition of knowledge through collaborative innovation networks would be oflittle value, as the company would be unable to use this resource efficiently.

Under the same theoretical lens, but seeking to understand the effect of the ability to endcollaborative relationships on innovation capacity as well as on company performance, the


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results presented by Zaefarian, Forkmann, Mitrega and Henneberg (2017) point to thepotential impact of relational capacity on product innovation.

Cassol, Zapalai and Cintra (2017) show that it is possible to observe a trend of globalcompetition, in which companies seeking to innovate tend to achieve better results. It isbelieved that the contribution of these studies is based, firstly, on analyzing the antecedentsof IC, respectively, network capacity for relationship management and ability to terminatecollaborative relationships, as well as suggesting that resources need to be managedeffectively to achieve its value creation potential.

In the present study, innovative capacity will be based on the theoretical model of Wangand Ahmed (2004) that considers five dimensions: product innovation, process innovation,market innovation, behavioral innovation and strategic innovation.

Table 1 presents the definition of these typologies.

2.3 Development of innovative capacity mechanisms and instrumentsFor Meirelles and Camargo (2014), DC are developed through three elements: behaviors andskills for change and innovation; routines and processes of search and innovation; andlearningmechanisms and knowledge governance. As this studywill deal onlywith innovativecapabilities (Wang & Ahmed, 2007), these mechanisms will be considered to identify howinnovation capacity is developed in the set of companies considered as the object of this study.A brief characterization of these mechanisms and instruments is presented below.

2.3.1 Change and innovation behaviors and skills. In terms of behavior, it is possible tohighlight the company’s loyalty and the commitment to change. Andreeva and Chaika (2006)understand that people’s loyalty to change is related to the normality by which changes areviewed by company employees considering factors such as open communication betweenmanagers and employees, allowing dialogue, feedback, andpositive attitudes towards change.

Ability refers to the ability to have a regular sequence of coordinated behavior, whichmust be efficient in relation to its objectives, given the context in which this sequence occurs.The main characteristics of the abilities involve the combination of: (1) pragmatism, withskills involving sequence of steps in which each successively is triggered; (2) tacit knowledge,

Typology Definition

Product New discovery and significance of new products to serve the consumer, introduced to themarketin a timely manner, and may consist of minor changes in the attributes of products alreadymarketed by the company

Process Introduction of new production methods, new management approaches and new technologiesthat could be used to improve production processes. It could be the introduction of new feedstock,or new equipment, or an improvement in procedures

Market Refers to innovation consistent with market research, advertising, identification of new marketsand entry into newmarkets. These are the approaches that companies adopt to enter and explorethe market, identifying new niches to act

Behavioral It can be observed at three levels: Individual, team and management level. It reflects sustainedbehavioral change facing innovation. It can be attributed to individuals who are able to changeaccording to their personality. At the team level it is the team’s adaptability to change, and at themanagement level it reflectsmanagement’s willingness to change and the encouragement of newways of doing things and willingness to create ideas

Strategic Defined as the development of new competitive strategies that create value for the company byidentifying new external opportunities in order to identify an existing gap between internalresources and the external environment. And the ability of the organization to rethink andstrategically change its business

Source(s): Wang and Ahmed (2004)Table 1.Innovation typologies

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where the actor performing a certain skill is not aware of the details of his/her performance,and knowledge of skills is largely tacit; and (3) choices, mostly automatically selected(Nelson & Winter, 2005).

Andreeva and Chaika (2006) state that the development of nonspecific skills enablesemployees to act on any kind of organizational change, not necessarily linked to day-to-day operational activities, but also professional skills in communication, negotiation,conflict resolution, leadership, economic analysis, project and people management,organizational knowledge and learning, which may involve: (1) identification andcapitalization of market opportunities; (2) development of new strategies, and the abilityof how to learn; (3) non-specific skills (Meireles & Camargo, 2014).

2.3.2 Routines and processes of search or innovation. Routines are learned, patterned, andrepetitive behaviors, originated in part from tacit knowledge to achieve a goal. If the companydoes not use routines to adapt to changes in the environment, they do not have DC, but onlyad hoc problem solutions (Winter, 2003).

According to Nelson and Winter (2005), there are three types of routines: (1) operationalroutines: necessary to perform basic activities, such as the production of goods andservices, that guide the organization’s behavior in the short term; (2) investment routines:related to the allocation of capital in the organization and directly impact profitability;and (3) search routines, which refer to evaluations performed in current routines,seeking to modify their aspects and characteristics over time in order to find solutions toproblems.

Gerard (2011), in turn, argues that routines are defined as patterns of behavior that repeatthemselves and that connect actors in a given context. The author further emphasizes thatroutines are learned behaviors that can be designed with the work process or can emergeindependently as individuals find more effective ways to perform their activities.

Organizational and managerial processes refer to the ways in which things are done inthe company, involving the routines or patterns of current practices and learning (Teece,Pisano, & Shuen, 1997).

Processes have all the capabilities needed to turn inputs into desired outcomes, includingspecifications, technology, tools, procedures, policies, practices and methods. Therefore,business processes play a central role in the permanent renewal of company resources aimingat their success and high performance (Gerard, 2009).

From the perspective of DC studies, both routines and processes support the generation ofnew ideas, new products and services, as well as the selection and implementation of change(Meirelles & Camargo, 2014).

2.3.3 Learning mechanisms and knowledge governance. Learning mechanisms arearrangements and procedures used by organizations in order to collect, analyze, store,disseminate and use information and knowledge necessary for their performance and of theirmembers. The mechanisms allow the continuous renewal of individual and organizationalpractices that affect results at different levels of the organization (Popper & Lipshitz, 2000).

L�opez, Pe�on and Ord�as (2005) define learning mechanisms and knowledge governance inorganizations as a set of procedures for the acquisition, distribution and interpretation ofknowledge and the registration of organizational memory.

The creation of organizational mechanisms is part of management tools that contribute tothe capacity for organizational change. These mechanisms are: multidisciplinary workinggroups, committees, delegation of responsibilities and intensified inter-departmentalinformation exchange, and alignment of the compensation system with the capacity-building tasks of change (Andreeva & Chaika, 2006).

From this set of mechanisms and instruments, companies develop innovative capabilitiesto ensure value creation and competitive advantages for their market positioning, in responseto the constant changes that occur in the dynamic environment.


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3. MethodologyThis study was characterized as an empirical research, with qualitative approach anddescriptive nature (Trivinos, 1987 & Flick, 2004). It was performed through multiple casestudies (Yin, 2010). It investigated 21 IEBTs exiting organizations, identifying evidences ofproduct, process and behavioral innovation typologies (Wang & Ahmed, 2004) and theorganizational mechanisms and instruments (Meirelles & Camargo, 2014) that underpin thedevelopment of such typologies.

The selection of companies was based on the following criteria: (1) companies that areemerging from IEBTs, linked to the Community Universities of Rio Grande do Sul; (2) thatpresented some kind of innovation; (3) that were inserted in a dynamic environment; and(4) who agreed to participate in the research. The acronym INC is used to identify theincubators. The INC 1 is linked to the Northwest Regional University of Rio Grande doSul–UNIJU�I; the INC 2, to the University of Vale do Taquari–UNIVATES; the INC 3, to theUniversity of Passo Fundo–UPF; and the INC4, to theUniversity of SantaCruz do Sul–UNISC.

The companies that came from these four technology-based incubators were chosenbecause they all have to leverage entrepreneurship and innovation in the regions where theyoperate, playing a relevant role in the local/regional development process.

The study population was represented by a group of 81 companies housed by theincubators described above (incubated and graduated). However, the samplewas representedby 47 companies already graduated. In other words, only graduates were chosen becausethey are already consolidated in the market, as they have already passed through theincubation phase, a period that guaranteed greater maturity and expertise.

Email addresses and telephone numbers of the 47 graduated companies were obtainedfrom the incubators, and after contacting them, were excluded the ones that were in theprocess of closure and those who declined to participate for reasons not given to us. After thecontacts ended, 21 companies remained.

In the first phase of the research, the documentary research technique was used tounderstand the companies’ trajectory, carried out by consulting the websites of theorganizations, searches on social networks, magazines and news websites. In the secondphase, in-depth interviews were conducted based on a structured script, according to Table 2,configuring as themain data collection technique. It was built from the categories identified inthe theoretical foundation called innovation typologies and mechanisms and instruments ofdevelopment of the IC.

The interviews, previously scheduled, were applied to the 21 entrepreneurs and wereconductedwithin the companies’ facilities. Theywere recordedwith the prior authorization ofthe interviewees in order to ensure the authenticity of the statements, facilitating thetranscription and the correct analysis of the data.

For data analysis, we chose the content analysis technique, following the three phasesproposed by Bardin (2011): (1) pre-analysis, (2) material exploration and (3) treatment ofresults, inference and interpretation.

The first phase consisted of transcribing the interviews with the 21 entrepreneurs, thesetranscripts were made freely, without the aid of any software, which ensured a wealth ofdetails at the time of the analysis. Subsequently, the transcripts and documentswere read andduring the reading, what was considered important by the researchers for the analysis stagewas highlighted. After reading and systematizing all interviews, the frequency andrepetitions of words or phrases were verified, and a table was built systematizing all theinterviews. Criteria were not established for the selections, theyweremade in order to identifyin the interviewees’ statements what types of innovations were developed by the companies,as well as which were the instruments and mechanisms that enabled the IC development.

In the exploration phase of the material, categories were established a priori. First, toidentify the evidence of innovation typologies and, later, to identify the mechanisms and

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Category

Subcategory

Questions

Innovationtypologies

Product

(1)

Intheintroducingof

new

productsandservices,isthecompanyoftenfirstin

themarket?

(2)

How

docustom

ersperceivetheproductslaunched

bythecompany?Dothey

seethem

asa

major

innovationcompared

tothoseon

themarket?

(3)

Com

pared

tocompetitors,has

thecompanyintroducedmoreinnovativeproductsand

services

inthelastfiveyears?

(4)

How

doyou

consider

thesuccessrateof

productsandservices

launched

bythecompany

compared

tocompetitors?

Process

(1)

Are

weconstantlyim

provingourbusinessprocesses?

(2)

Are

theproductionmethodsadoptedflexibleenoughto

allowfastchanges

inlayoutand

system

scompared

tocompetitors?

(3)

Has

thecompanydeveloped

new

managem

entapproaches

andmodelsduringthelast

years?

(4)

When

thecompanycannotsolveaproblemusingconventionalmethods,doesitim

provise

usingnew

methods?

Behavioral

(1)

Domanagerssupportwhen

employeeswantto

trynew

waysof

doingthings?

(2)

Isthecompanywillingto

trynew

waysof

doingthings,thusseekingnew

andunusual

solutions?

(3)

Areem

ployeesandmanagersencouraged

tothinkandbehaveinan

originalandinnovative

way?Explain

how

(continued

)

Table 2.Questions to identifyanalysis categories


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Category

Subcategory

Questions

Innovativecapacitydevelopment

mechanismsandinstruments

Behaviorsandskills

(1)

Isthereanycommitmenttostaffchangingstandardssetintheorganization?Whataspects

deserveto

behighlightedregardingthiscommitment?

(2)

What

kindof

behaviors

andskillsguaranteeresults-based

managem

entin

this

organization?

(3)

Are

thereanyinstitutionalized

proceduresforproblem

solvingpractices?Whichone(s)?

(4)

How

doesthecompanyidentify

marketopportunitiesin

introducinginnovations?

(5)

Istheorganizationproactiveagainstcompetitorsin


What

behaviors

andskillscharacterize

thisproactivity?

(6)

What

types

ofskillscanbehighlightedin

thecompanyin


(7)

Whattypes

ofbehaviorscanbehighlightedinthecompanywhen


(8)

What

behaviors

should

behighlightedin

thecompanythat

favorstheinnovative

environmentin

thiscompany?

(9)

Doestheorganizationalstructure

favor

orhinder

thedevelopmentof

innovationsin

the

organization?Helpor

hinder

inwhat

sense?

Routines

andprocesses

(1)

What

arethecriticalprocesses

that

arecrucialformaintainingan

innovativeenvironment

intheorganization?

(2)

Whatarethemainroutines

you

wouldhighlightthatensuretheintroductionofinnovations

intheorganization?

(3)

What

aretheinstitutionalized

normsandtechniques

that

you

would

highlightthat

ensure

theinnovativeenvironmentof

thisorganization?

(4)

What

would

you

highlightas

thequalitycontrolinstrumentsthat

guaranteeoperational

stabilityin

thedeliveryof

thefinalproduct/service?

(5)

What

arethemainstrategiesthat

haveensuredtheintroductionof

innovationsin

the

organization?

Learningmechanismsand

know

ledge

governance

(1)

How

doesthecompanyabsorb

inform

ationthat

iscrucialforthebusinessmanagem

entof

theorganization?

(2)

Whatkindofactionsarepromoted

toqualifythesearch

forknow

ledgeintheorganization?

(3)

Isthereanykindof

know

ledgemem

oryrecord

intheorganization?Whichone(s)?

(4)

Isanyresearch

doneintheorganizationthatenablesthedevelopmentofinnovations?How

arethey

developed?

(5)

Are

theremechanismsforthedisseminationandexchangeof

internalinform

ation?Which

one(s)?

(6)

How

doesthecompanyencouragetheinternalinnovationprocess?

Source(s):Developed

bytheauthors(2017)

Table 2.

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instruments of development of innovation typologies. In the last phase, the data were treatedfrom interpretations and inferences according to the defined categories and pre-categories, inthe light of the theoretical framework that guided the present study. The triangulation of datatechnique was used, aiming to analyze a theme based on different points of view in order toachieve more consistent theoretical and empirical contributions.

Next, we present the theoretical model of the analysis (see Figure 1).

4. Presentation and analysis of results4.1 Product innovationsWe present in Table 3 a systematization of the product innovation typology, based on theevidence found, as well as the mechanisms and instruments that support the development ofthis typology.

It can be inferred that most of the investigated companies present significant innovationsthat allow them to reach prominent positions, ranking the first places in the marketconsidering the introduction of innovations. These product innovations took place at both theradical and incremental levels. Most companies have product innovations at the incrementallevel, as excerpted from the interview below:

The collagen, it had already appeared in candies, in a cereal bar, but with low grammage. Within afunctional gluten-free line there wasn’t one with two grams of collagen, it was a newproduct (EBTG9).

However, some companies have radical innovations, bringing totally innovative products tothe market, most of them based on market demand:

In the case of home automation, we were the first, today there are other companies that work with ittoo, but we were pioneers (EBTG5).

Wang and Ahmed (2004) assert that product innovation is more frequent with regard toperceived novelties. In this sense, it was found that consumers notice the products launched

Source(s): Developed by the authors based on Wang and Ahmed (2004), Wang and

Ahmed (2007), Meirelles and Camargo (2014)

Theoretical basis:Wang and Ahmed (2007)

INNOVATIVE CAPACITY

Preceding ConstructsProduct Innovation

Market innovation

Process innovation

Behavior innovation

Strategic innovation

Theoretical basis:Wang and Ahmed (2004)

Mechanisms and Instruments of the Development of Innovative

Capacity- Behaviors and skills of change

and innovation;

- Processes and routines of

innovation search;

- Learning mechanisms and

knowledge governance.

Theoretical basis:Meirelles and Camargo (2014)

Figure 1.Theoretical model for

the analysis ofinnovative capabilities

in IEBT


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177

Typology

Evidences

Mechanismsandinstrumentsof

thedevelopmentof

innovativeproductcapacity

Behaviors

andskills

Routines

andprocesses

Learningmechanismsand

know

ledgegovernance

Product

(1)

Developmenttripletransom

cart

(2)

Developmentof

forunit,chairbarrelandwallbar-

creation

ofsystem

forfiltration

andregistrationof

resumes

(3)

Developmentof

theappforfairexpoijui/Fenadi

(4)

Developmentof

hom

eautomationsystem

(5)

Developmentoftheprojectfacilitatedtrade,creative

barrelandpethom

e(6)

Developmentof

eggdisinfectionsystem

byozone

technology

(7)

Developmentofconcealed

custom

erwithcompetitive

benchmarking

(8)

Developmentof

collagen

bar

andmugcakewithout

glutenandlactose

(9)

Developmentof

webserviceclim

ate;developmentof

splitlifter

andam

arok

step

protector;development

ofthebrazilian

Industry

4.0model

(10)

Developmentof

spores

andlacticacid

bacteriafor

dairy

products

(11)

Developmentoflevelindicationdevice,seed

sensors

/grain

counting,plantingmonitor

andplanter

controller

(12)

Developmentof

data

replication

software

forform

automationandtheappmyresidue

(13)

Developmentof

thetenniscompetitionmanagem

ent

system

(1)

Creativeability

(2)

Pro

activityin

innovating

(3)

Agilityto

innovate

(4)

Marketorientation

(5)

Abilityto

leverage

feedbacksfrom

custom

ers/

employees

(6)

Abilityto

identify

market

opportunities

(7)

Flexibility

(1)

Routineof

observing

themarket

(2)

Routineof

seeking

new

technologies

(3)

Routines

ofresearch

(4)

Product

differentiation

process

(5)

Inform

ationSearch

routine

(1)

Participationat

fairs

(2)

Investm

entin

courses

andtraining

(3)

Com

petitor

monitoring

(4)

Monitoringof

market

trends

(5)

Technicalvisitsto

suppliersand

competitors

Source(s):Researchdata(2017)

Table 3.Product innovationsand the mechanismsand instruments thatunderpin theirdevelopment

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by companies as something that adds value to them and solves their problems. Below, weshow an excerpt from the interview that confirms customers’ perceptions of productslaunched by companies:

Do they see us as a company that is always generating something different, or do they come to us tosaywhat we think about it, because they know that we are always trying to create a differentiation insome product or solution (EBTG18).

Product innovation can also be characterized by the ability of companies to introduceproducts or services faster than their competitors, enabling the company to stay ahead in themarket (Wang and Ahmed, 2004). When asked if in the last five years the company hasintroduced more innovative products or services than its competitors, some companies saidyes, as evidenced by the following report:

Yes, our metallurgical company is focused on that. Even the most traditional service has processesthat are differentiated, are improved. We always try to do differently (EBTG11).

Therefore, in accordance with the product innovation capacity of the investigated companies,it can be inferred that they present radical and incremental innovations regarding theirproducts or services. Customers notice them as innovative companies that solve theirdemands and add value to their company through their innovative solutions, which results ingreater assertiveness of the products launched, as they are based on their customers’ needsand market demand.

From the perspective of the mechanisms and instruments of development of the productinnovation capacity of the companies, the most impacting behaviors and skills were: thecreative ability, which helps companies to develop innovations, and considers as theorganization’s ability to create new products and the team expertise to act creatively(Camargo, 2012).

Thus, it was identified that the companies studied have creative skills that help them inthe development of product innovation.

Themain ability is creativity.We reach the clients, get what theywant and go back inside the agencyto perform a brainstorm session to find out the clients’ needs (EBTG6).

The market orientation skill assists companies in the process of introducing productsdeveloped according to customer needs, ensuring greater assertiveness of launched products.The market orientation ability was a very evident mechanism in the set of companiesinvestigated, as reported below:

Through our customers’ needs, most of our products are designed and developed on demand,according to their needs (EBTG21).

The ability to take advantage of customer and employee feedbacks was highlighted in allcompanies. They use this tool with the intention of improving their products or services,according to the opinion and ideas of their customers and employees. The companiesinvestigated have this ability, as can be ratified in the following statement:

Many of our clients talk about the problem and don’t know how to solve it, and from therewe have aninsight to generate something new. We hear a lot from people, customers, the team, because that’swhere we get a lot of ideas (EBTG4).

Also noteworthy is the flexibility, considered a key element in the companies studied, as itprovides conditions for organizations to respond to the incessant changes that occur in theorganizational environment (Piore & Sabel, 1984). Flexibility in the face of change is animportant factor for companies’ ability to change and adapt, according to the testimonyobtained:


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If the direction has changed, we change, we go on. Flexibility ends up being our differential, wechange very fast, if it doesn’t work out, we adapt quickly (EBTG4).

In the field of routines and processes, the highlights are the research routines, very present inthe dynamics of these companies. The constant practice of research activities has allowedthese organizations to discover new possibilities of materials and trends in the field.

I think it’s referential research. Before starting any project, we do some research, not just based onwhat we have already done. The first thing is to research new things (EBTG12).

The product differentiation process enables companies to stay alive as they seek to marketproducts or services with some differentiation from existing ones, ensuring a uniquepositioning.

Our customers realize that we are an innovative company in the market that can bring differentsolutions from our competitors’. This makes us win the preference of our customers. Being differentand being recognized as a different company that will possibly bring an innovation to the process orproduct (EBTG13).

Also noteworthy is the information search routine. This search is operationalized throughconversations with businessmen, customers and sales representatives, as well as connectionswith incubators, participation in fairs and industry events.

We are always meeting new people, expanding our network of contacts. These relationships are animportant source of information for the development of new products, in addition to monitoringconsumer trends. Participation in fairs and events and constant contact with partners (EBTG9).

Also, the routine of observing the market is of great relevance for maintaining thecompetitiveness of the investigated organizations. Companies can target their actions in amore assertive way, reducing uncertainties and qualifying the decision-making process.

We are always connected to the market, watching what is happening and based on customer needs.This need comes into the company and here in the engineering and P&D group, we talk a lot,exchange ideas and from that comes some solution for the customer (EBTG13).

With regard to learning mechanisms and knowledge governance, we highlight theparticipation in fairs as a strategy for absorbing market information, competitors, suppliersand new technologies that are useful for the development of new products or services.

Within our ability we participated in fairs, evidenced many things out there and brought into thecompany, what we observed, what we understand as an opportunity, together with theteam (EBTG9).

The investments in training, that contribute to the qualification of technical teams, helpcompanies to achieve better performance in the market. Winter (2003) is one of the advocatesof the need for investment in learning to ensure that the organization owns DC.

We have invested good value in courses, lectures, postgraduate studies, visits to other companiesthat are suppliers, and others that are our competitors for learning (EBTG13).

The competitive monitoring also appears as another widely used mechanism by companies.According to Mar�ostica, Mar�ostica and Branco (2014), the use of a competitive monitoringsystem allows executives to analyze and evaluate information, being a critical success factor.

Yes, we alwayswatchwhat they are doing, how andwhy they are doing it, andwhat we can do betteror different (EBTG3).

The technical visits to competitors and suppliers assist companies in their search for newtechnologies being developed and news that suppliers have to offer. This mechanism favors

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the process of acquiring external knowledge in the investigated companies and promotes thedevelopment of product innovations.

We visited other companies that are our suppliers, and others that are our competitors for learning(EBTG13).

4.2 Process innovationsThe companies presented a series of process innovations described in Table 4, as well as themechanisms and instruments that support the development of this typology.

With regard to constant process improvements, companies point out that they areconstantly improving their processes, making use of consultancies and courses that helpthem in the management and standardization of processes. Belowwe present a comment thathighlights this concern:

Yes, we constantly seek to verify what is working andwhat is not, especially what is showing resultsin terms of sales, how we are working, we are always adapting (EBTG14).

Typology Evidences

Mechanisms and instruments of the development of innovativeprocess capacity

Behaviors andskills

Routines andprocesses

Learningmechanisms andknowledgegovernance

Process (1) Use of technicalsupport

(2) Commercial sectoroutsourcing

(3) Institutionalizationof horizontalmanagement

(4) Entrepreneurtraining regardingmanagement

(5) Innovation asdistribution andpresentation of theproduct

(6) Use of projectmanagement tools

(7) Adoption of CAD3D digitalprototyping tools

(8) Adoption ofsoftware formanagement andmapping processes

(9) Partnerships withspecializedcompanies

(10) Hiring skilledpeople

(1) Flexibility inproductionmethods

(2) Ability tocreate newapproachesandmanagementmodels

(3) Ability tointroduce newmethods

(4) Technologicalcapacity

(1) Continuousimprovementprocess

(2) Projectpresentation inAutoCAD 3D

(3) Informalgroups forproblem-solving

(4) Quality controlroutines

(5) Horizontalorganizationalstructureroutine

(1) Documentationand knowledgestorage

(2) Knowledgemanagementpractices

(3) Informationexchangebetweendepartments

(4) Assistance oftechnicalsupport

Source(s): Research data (2017)

Table 4.Product innovationsand the mechanismsand instruments that

underpin theirdevelopment


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With respect to the befitting aspect of using new technologies, companies use internet tools,CAD 3D digital prototyping tools and software for enterprise management and processmapping.

We work a lot with processes, we have many tools on the internet that help us to organize. Trello isone of the programs we use that allows us to organize processes, Runrun.it is one of the activities weuse,Google Docs andCalendar, the tools of Google are very good, because you can update in real time,we create the processes and try to execute them (EBTG3).

As for production methods, companies claim to be flexible, enabling rapid change to reducecosts, increase productivity and meet customer demands:

Yes, we are flexible because it is a lean structure, not plastered or very standardized (EBTG1).

Regarding the new approaches and management models, companies have outsourced thesales and prospecting sector, have horizontal management, managers seek improvement andinnovate in the distribution and presentation of the product:

Outsourcing to the commercial sector was a new approach taken by the company. We decided tooutsource, let’s try what it is like to have a call center and have the resellers there selling it for you.Today the call center that makes the contact, is the responsible to increase the number of customers(EBTG10).

Regarding the use of new problem-solving methods, managers responded that they usepartnerships with other companies to produce something that the company cannot with itsown production abilities, the use of new technology, research and even the search forqualified people to train staff or bring them into the company are identified problem solvingmethods, ratified in the comment below:

Usually we seek qualified people in the market that we do not have inside the company, we take thisprofessional into our company to train and train our team or we use it as a partner (BTG13).

It can be inferred that the companies investigated have a process innovation capacitywith regard to the use of new technologies and development of new managementapproaches. Its production methods are flexible which ensures a dynamic process can bechanged whenever necessary, improvising new methods for problem solving when theyappear.

With respect to change and innovation behaviors and skills, flexibility appears inproductionmethods, which enables companies to adapt their processes in order to suit them totheir customers’ demands. Your products or services can be customized and changedaccording to the request of customers.

Yes, we are flexible, we just need to want to change and that will be a big advantage of ours. Evenbecause we are small, this flexibility in the process, the way we work is our strong point (EBTG4).

The ability to introduce newmethods is operationalized by hiring skilled people or partneringwith other companies. Organizations introduce new methods to improve production andmanagement processes. This ability is essential to the organization’s global innovationcapacity (Wang & Ahmed, 2004):

Yes, we have partner companies, some processes we cannot do internally, so we outsource, if thereare any items that we cannot attend, we forward to these partners (Excerpt from the interviewof EBTG1).

The technological capability is operationalized through the internal effort of these companiesto master or adapt existing technologies in order to meet market demands. From theperspective of De Mori, Batalha and Alfranca (2014), technological capacity is an important

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factor in determining the efficiency and effectiveness of production processes and theinnovativeness of companies:

Our products, some are innovative, perhaps much more nationally. You can say that we createsolutions that are certainly out there, but at a national level it is an innovation (Excerpt from theEBTG10 interview).

From the perspective of the search and innovation routines and processes, the continuousimprovement process was highlighted, being a constant concern in all companies. Costreduction strategies, customer satisfaction and production process optimization are actionspresent in the operational dynamics of these organizations.

It has to be part of the routine too, ask yourself what you are doing, what if I did it differently?Permanent question and constant search for improvement in anything we are doing (EBTG4).

For problem solving, companies make use of the practice of informal groups. Pre-definedmeetings are used to anticipate potential issues, improve the work environment, and discussideas for improving company products or processes.

To ensure stability in delivering the final product to the customer, companies practicequality control routines ensuring that the product is delivered to the customer in perfectcondition. Companies use testing and checklists procedures, creating templates forproduction processes andwaiting for customer approval to begin themanufacturing process.

We make work memorials, every work has a memorial, which is like a checklist to be followed andwhich at the end of the work we check. The supervisor works together with someone responsible forthe contracting company (EBTG5).

The lean and horizontal organizational structure routine favors the development ofinnovations, providing an innovative environment that encourages the emergence of newideas while favoring the development of process innovations.

It has no structure, there are only four people. So, it makes it easier, so big companies are looking to belike small ones to be flexible. Everyone interacts together, and that is a strong point (EBTG2).

Regarding learning mechanisms and knowledge governance, the knowledge managementpractices are highlighted. The fundamental role of knowledge management is to transformindividual knowledge into collective knowledge. Such practices are consistent with thedissemination of knowledge, which ensures the incorporation of internal knowledge(Correia & Sarmento, 2003).

When a designer takes a course outside, after he comes back, he presents it to all colleagues, we do apresentation morning, then it is saved for future researchers (EBTG16).

To ensure the memory of organizational knowledge, the investigated companies use themechanism of knowledge documentation and storage. All acquired knowledge is stored on thecompany’s servers, in softwares available to record the knowledge, and the daily activities arerecorded by the team.

Activities are logged in amodule calledWiki. A simpleHTML editorwherewe record our knowledge.Employees can store knowledge of all internal processes within the Redmine software, minimizingnegative impacts with one employee leaving and facilitating the reception of new ones (EBTG19).

The technical support aid mechanism is used by companies to absorb information from theexternal environment that is critical to business management. By hiring consultants,companies seek to improve their processes or implement new ones.

I always have consultations with Sebrae, Peiex, when one ends, then I start another, most of the timethey are free. Since joining I have always had consultancy (EBTG7).


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4.3 Behavioral innovationsBehavioral innovation is related to the adaptability of the company to change, forming asynergy based fundamentally on a dynamic interaction relationship of the working groups(Wang&Ahmed, 2007). The evidences of this typology and themechanisms and instrumentsthat support its development are described in Table 5.

The analysis of of behavioral innovation typology indicates that most of the companiesinvestigated have an innovative culture, openness to new ideas and new ways of doingthings, which fosters the development of innovations and provides greater efficiency andproductivity, as well as reduced operating costs. The comment below ratifies such statement:

Yes, of course, we guide themwhen they have an idea, think about what benefit it will bring, either tothe user or to the company. Think about howwewill perform and what it will benefit. We try to urgethem to go further, not just to bring up the idea. (EBTG18).

In this typology of innovation, the behaviors and skills of change and innovation thatstood out were the commitment to change. This behavior reflects the teams and managerswho are always engaged and imbued in the search for improvement in daily tasks and inthe qualification processes of products and services. This can be confirmed in thereport below:

I can’t resist change, because if I do, I don’t make the business work. There has to be this questionthat today is good, but tomorrow may not be (EBTG3).

Also noteworthy is the organizational culture for innovation, which consists of a verypresent skill in companies, operationalized through the incentive that managers provide toteams, in order to stimulate creativity and the emergence of new ideas, favoring thedevelopment of innovations. Wang & Ahmed (2004) have stated that the innovation-oriented organizational culture acts as a catalyst for innovations, a fact evidenced in thefollowing statement:

Typology Evidences

Mechanisms and instruments of the development of innovativebehavioral capacity

Behaviors and skillsRoutines andprocesses

Learningmechanisms andknowledgegovernance

Behavioral (1) Innovationoriented culture

(2) Openness tonew ideas andways of doingthings

(3) Encouragingstaff to come upwith ideas andproposesolutions

(4) Horizontalstructure forintegration andproblemsolving

(1) Attitudetowards doingthingsdifferently

(2) Commitment tochange

(3) Organizationalculture forinnovation

(4) Freedom andopennessprovided to theemployees

(5) Ability to solveproblems

(1) Opencommunicationprocess betweenmanagers andemployees

(2) Pleasant workenvironment orinnovativeenvironment

(1) Rewardssystem tomotivate newideas

(2) Exchange ofexperiencesbetweenentrepreneurs

Source(s): Research data (2017)

Table 5.Behavioral innovationand mechanisms andinstruments thatunderpin itsdevelopment

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The company has a collaborator, and is encouraged by us to come upwith ideas and create new things.And if he innovates, is rewarded, has complete freedom to do things. Innovation is part of ourculture (EBTG2).

The freedom and openness afforded to the employee is a behavior that encourages the processof internal innovation, favoring an innovative environment in these companies. Managersgive staff freedom to decide how to perform their tasks, flexible hours if necessary, internetaccess for research, and openness to contribute ideas. This behavior is evidenced in thefollowing comment:

We give them the freedom to decide how to do it as long as the result is achieved. I show how I can doit, but if youwant to do it differently, that’s up to you, you have all the freedom, but the end result hasto be this (EBTG11).

In the field of search and innovation routines and processes, we highlight the opencommunication process between managers and employees, which generates greatercommitment to the team and stimulates the exchange of information; and the pleasantwork environment or innovative climate, which guarantees a welcoming environment andstimulates the innovation development process. It is possible to verify that there is interactionbetween managers and their team, seeking opinions and feedbacks.

I think it’s friendship, this cozy atmosphere we have inside makes us able to innovate and makeanythingwork, and if you don’t have thatwell-being among people, you can’t do anything (EBTG16).

Finally, the most prominent learning mechanisms and knowledge governance concern thereward system for motivating new ideas, which awards employees with financial bonusesand tourism travel.

We have an internal award that every month we give a prize for the best work, the best innovation.This is the system we use so that we always have new things (EBTG16).

Another important mechanism in this process is the exchange of information amongentrepreneurs, which appears as a practice used by companies to improve existingknowledge as well as acquire new ones. This engine is a powerful source of knowledgeacquisition that assists companies in developing innovations.

We have a group, the entrepreneur, a group of various architects, we meet every 20 days, we havemeetings to see what we need, like a chat (EBTG12).

5. Concluding remarksInnovation development is a determining factor for companies that want to remaincompetitive in dynamic and turbulent environments. In this sense, investigating howcompanies develop and sustain their innovative capabilities is a relevant task in the academicand professional world.

Given the results presented herein, it was possible to understand the process of developingthe innovative capacity of the companies studied, and this development occurred throughbehaviors and skills, routines and processes and mechanisms of learning and knowledgegovernance that underpin the development of the product, process and behavioraldimensions.

This research has shown that companies that are emerging from technology incubatorsneed innovation capacity to survive in the market. These innovations are fundamentallyrelated to product, process and behavioral innovations, typical of these types of companies.Certainly, by size, small businesses, and the type of products they develop, the typologies ofmarket and strategic innovation have not been identified.


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If, on the one hand, the absence of evidence of these two other typologies presents itself asa limitation of the study, on the other hand, it leaves a gap for the continuity of the studies, i.e.to investigate why in this type of segment these other innovation typologies are not present.

This study brings an important academic contribution, cooperating with the theoreticalfield by bringing the DC under the focus of one of its component elements, the innovativecapacity. It also contributes to expose how companies that are emerging from IEBTs developtheir IC. With respect to managerial contributions, this research shows that studying thedevelopment of IC is important for the organizational success of EBT, as well as anyorganization that wants to remain competitive in the market. By knowing the mechanismsand instruments for the development of IC, managers and other organizational actors canapply them to their organizations in order to make them more competitive.

Considering the limitations of the study, we point out the fact that it cannot be generalizedto other segments, since it was restricted to a set of companies that are emerging from IEBTs,with specific realities and based on the perception of the managers of these companies.Therefore, the conclusions are restricted to the perceptions of these managers only.

As a suggestion for future studies, it is recommended to consider the other components ofDC, such as: absorptive and adaptive capacity. Other studies could include other audiences,such as customers, employees, suppliers, incubator coordinators, which could contribute toenrich and expand the study results.

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Wang, C.L., & Ahmed. P.K. (2004). The development and validation of the organizationalinnovativeness construct using confirmatory factor analysis. European Journal of InnovationManagement, 7(4), 303–313.

Winter, S.G. (2003). Understanding dynamic capabilities. Strategic Management Journal, 24, 991–995.

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Zaefarian, G., Forkmann, S., Mitrega, M., & Henneberg, C.S. (2017). A capability perspective onrelationship ending and its impact on product innovation success and firm performance. LongRange Planning, 50(2), 184–199.

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Further Reading

Teece, D.J. (2007). Explicating dynamic capabilities: The nature and microfoundations of (sustainable)enterprise performance. Strategic Management Journal, 28(13), 1319–1350.

Corresponding authorClarice Vepo do Nascimento Welter can be contacted at: [email protected]

Associate Editor: Angela Lucas


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Gender diversity, governance anddividend policy in Brazil

Tatiana Aquino AlmeidaDepartment of Programa de P�os-Graduaç~ao em Administraç~ao e Controladoria -

PPAC, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil

Cinthya Rachel Firmino de MoraisCentro Universit�ario Unifanor Wyden, Fortaleza, Brazil, and

Antonio Carlos CoelhoDepartment of Programa de P�os-Graduaç~ao em Administraç~ao e Controladoria -

PPAC, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil

Abstract

Purpose – Considering that the heterogeneity in the composition of deliberation and management bodies canpromote a differentiated impact on earnings distribution policies of companies, the purpose of this paper is toexamine themarginal influence of female participation on the board of directors and executive board regardingdecisions associated with dividend policy in companies operating in Brazil.Design/methodology/approach – The sample is composed of non-financial companies listed on the B3Stock Exchange between 2010 and 2015, which encompasses 261 companies (1,084 observations per year). Thetests aim at explaining the probability of earnings distribution and the payout level of companies throughvariables that measure the female presence – considering that the explanatory economic attributes of decisionsover dividends are kept under control. The econometric analysis was carried out through the descriptiveanalysis of the variables and LOGIT and TOBIT tests of inference estimated with fixed effects and meeting alleconometric requirements.Findings – The proportion of women in both deliberative and executive bodies affects marginally thedividend policy of Brazilian companies. The female presence in management bodies contributes to a higherprobability of earnings distribution and increase in the payout level; such tendency is moderated whenwomen are in the board of directors; so, we do not reject the hypothesis of female influence on dividend policydecisions in Brazil.Originality/value – One can find such investigations in foreign environments, but such tests had not beenaccomplished in Brazil so far.We discuss, therefore, in an unprecedentedway, the heterogeneity in deliberative(governance) and executive (management) bodies and its outcomes in strategic decisions made in Braziliancompanies, focusing on the female insertion and on fundamental decisions that are related to the relationshipamong stakeholders, which is the dividend policy per se.

Keywords Heterogeneity and gender, Governance and management, Dividend policy

Paper type Research paper

1. IntroductionThe growth of the presence of women in the management of organizations, which makes thecomposition of deliberative bodiesmore heterogenous –most importantly regarding gender –indicates notorious sources of different perspectives and solutions for strategic decisions incompanies. Thim�oteo, Zampier & Stefano (2015) affirm that, despite the patriarchal culturethat exists in Brazil, the market has acknowledged the strength of the female presence in

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©Tatiana Aquino Almeida, Cinthya Rachel Firmino deMorais and Antonio Carlos Coelho. Published inRevista de Gest~ao. Published byEmerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the CreativeCommons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and createderivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to fullattribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode



Received 22 March 2019Revised 9 July 201916 December 2019

Accepted 21 January 2020



e-ISSN: 2177-8736p-ISSN: 1809-2276

DOI 10.1108/REGE-03-2019-0041

strategic positions and identified that the characteristics of female leadership can beresponsible for reshaping the method and content of entrepreneurial decision-making.

Before such complex organizational environments marked by constant changes, oneunderstands that such diversity can alter the content and the quality of decision-making incompanies due to the female presence in management as an absent variable in previousscenarios; moreover, evidences have pointed out that heterogenous groups affect the qualityof perspectives and judgment in the decision-making process, which shows superior resultswhen compared to decisions made by less diverse groups (Francoeur, Labelle, & Sinclair-Desgagn�e, 2008).

Byoun, Chang & Kim (2016) affirm that the heterogeneity in the composition ofmanagement bodies of a company can promote a positive impact on the mitigation of agencyconflicts and gender diversity – more specifically – can work as an arbitrage of conflictinginterests, favoring a higher identification among the agents of the organization. Besides, theauthors conclude that gender diversity has promoted a greatermonitoring of contracts with aconsequent effectiveness in the resolution of conflicts between stockholders and managers.

As the heterogeneity of the company’s upper management team brings a greater varietyof perspectives for entrepreneurial decisions (Byoun et al., 2016), it is possible to noticeaccording toMart�ınez&Oms (2016) a differentiation in decisions regarding capital allocationin companies due to the female presence. According to these authors, women operating instrategic decisions can still incorporate strong control mechanisms in management. Suchstatement has also been made by Carter, Simkins & Simpson (2003) when affirming that thefemale participation in management raised important issues that did not come from directorswith a homogenous cultural background, stereotyped by the male gender.

This way, we intend to find out if the female participation in deliberative bodies can reflectaspects of the decision-making process in management, reaching elements explicitly relatedto dividend policy, which is a theme strongly associated with capital structure and costregarding potential conflicts between managers, stockholders, debt investors and minorityshareholders.

The dividend policy is to be found as one of the main research elements on finances moredue to its governance characteristic than to the simple generation of earnings and operationalcash flows. When being outlined through managerial issues according to the performance ofthe company, the dividend policy can also be aligned with personal interests (or behavioralattributes) of managers (Mart�ınez & Oms, 2016); therefore, it can also be influenced bydistinct female abilities considering the evidences of marginal influence of heterogeneity inthe design of such policies, especially regarding decisions that involve behavioral items.

We argue, therefore, that the female presence can incorporate stronger monitoringmechanisms, which could lead to a break (or modification) of the modus operandi of adetermined group, in this case, management and deliberation bodies, on behalf of stakeholders’interests. In this study, we understand that the differentiationwould occur through greater andmore frequent levels of earnings distribution; such levelswould be controlled by the company’seconomic and financial conditions that are restricted to its liquidity.

The scope of the research focuses on the detection of signals that identify the marginalinfluence of the female participation, in the board of directors (BD) and in positions of theexecutive board (EB) in Brazilian companies, on dividend policy-related decisions; we intend toanalyze if the increase of female participation per se – apart from any cognitive, institutional orindividual attributes – can affect the decision-making in terms of dividend policy.

This way, we intend to investigate and to deepen the analysis on heterogeneity in thecomposition of management bodies of companies regarding the level and nature of theirdecisions, represented by deliberations referring to the distribution of dividends, while alsocomparing such decisions to the ones taken by more homogenous bodies in terms of socialand demographic characteristics.

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It is worth emphasizing that interactions between female participation in uppermanagement bodies and dividend policy are still in its early stage of discussion in theinternational scientific scenario (Byoun et al., 2016;Mcguinness, Lam&Vieito, 2015;Mart�ınez& Oms, 2016; Van Pelt, 2013). Furthermore, the justification of this research is related to theprovision of contributions to the literature by adding evidences on the consequences ofgender diversity in management regarding strategic decisions, which involve contractsbetween the company and important stakeholders in a developing economic environmentand aggregates behavioral and human variables not represented by purely economic models.In the managerial sphere, the results can raise discussions on the use of monitoringmechanisms, helping the decision to implement policies that favor more heterogenous groupswithin the composition of company bodies.

Besides, we also justify this research by the lack of explanations on dividend policy,taking into account the inconclusiveness of previous research studies; models that try toexplain such phenomenon still lacks amore rigorous formalization.We provide, therefore, theacademia with knowledge on the theme, and investors with evidences of impactsdifferentiated by the female presence in the decisions that can affect the return of capital,especially regarding the reception of cash flows in Brazilian companies.

2. Literature review and hypothesis2.1 Heterogeneity and female participation in entrepreneurial managementThehomogeneity of characteristics of individuals in uppermanagement (such aswhite,middle-class andmiddle-agedmen) indicates a group ofworkerswith similar educational backgroundsand market experiences (Singh, Vinnicombe & Johnson, 2001). This sort of corporate boardscomposition implies a limited perspective of managers especially in terms of contractualrelationships – which ultimately arises from diverse perspectives on social and politicalinterpersonal relationships – while the diversity of such managerial team could entail a widerspectrum regarding contractual situations and economic agreements (Carter et al., 2003).

Diversity in upper management, according to Byoun et al. (2016), promotes a betterunderstanding of the environmental complexity, reducing risks stemming from a unique wayof thinking of a determinedgroup; thisway, diversitywould be contributing to amore effectivedecision-making. This has also been perceived by Perryman, Fernando & Tripathy (2016)whenmentioning the characteristic value of diverse groups inmaking decisions in innovation-related situations.

According to Robinson & Dechant (1997) and Byoun et al. (2016), team heterogeneity inmanagement has produced creative and innovative solutions for entrepreneurial problems.This way, it is possible to emphasize that the heterogeneity (or diversity) of the staff thatcomposes the upper management can bring a greater variety of perspectives inentrepreneurial decisions (Byoun et al., 2016; Perryman et al., 2016), which turns problem-solving more effective from a contractual point of view (Robinson & Dechant, 1997).

On the other hand, despite recognizing that a greater diversity among members of the BDcan promote creative and innovative ideas, Carter, D’Souza, Simkins & Simpson (2010)indicated that such heterogeneity can also indicate a slower and more conflicting decision-making process.

Thus, the incorporation of heterogenous groups in company management, especially interms of deliberative aspects, could influence directly strategies established in the decision-making process of the company – considering particular impressions and perceptions of anindividual with low participation in the decision-making team of the company. Thecomposition of bodies of strategic decisions regarding gender, race and culture is consideredtherefore an important issue to be faced by managers, directors and company’s shareholders(Carter et al., 2003).

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As pointed out by Thim�oteo et al. (2015), women have been performing social rolesconsidered predominantly masculine, such as corporate positions and functions. However,the authors highlight that the head of the company and positions of higher social prestige andpower – i.e. activities involved with leadership – are activities predominantly linked to themale figure. Such reality is also acknowledged by Gomes (2005) when affirming thatorganizations were designed based on male values and, therefore, the male presence ispredominant and by Gonçalves, Espejo, Alto�e and Voese. (2016) when addressing theentrepreneurial universe. According to these researchers, there is a growth in the number ofwomen in companies, but only a few are chosen for deliberative and strategic positions. It isworth mentioning some exceptions stemming from succession processes, most importantlyregarding the family control over companies.

A study conducted with 176 companies (Spencer Stuart, 2017) indicates a low femaleparticipation in BD; women represented 8.2 percent of the members. According to this report,there was a little representative evolution of gender diversity in the country – Brazil is,therefore, among the countries that present the lowest representativeness of women in thissort of board. Besides, the research still indicates that in only three companies of the samplethe CEO is a woman, which represents 1.7 percent of the companies analyzed.

The low female participation in deliberative positions can be explained by the late womenentry in the labor market. Gomes (2005) presents the historical evolution of such panorama,according to which in ancient times domestic activities were acknowledged as a prominentlyfemale duty. With the emergence of industrial revolution, women started being accepted inthe labor market as long as they performed the least important activities with the lowestwages. In the 20th century, the SecondWorldWar ended up mobilizing the female workforcein the countries that were directly involved with the war.

Data obtained through the International Labor Organization indicate that in Brazil theactive female workforce, as percent of the active population, was 53 percent in 1995 and60 percent in 2015; the male workforce was represented by 86.6 percent in 1995 and 81.3percent in 2013. These data show the effects of the late entry of women into the labor market.

The management accomplished by women, on the other hand, can be seen as adifferentiated managerial resource, considering that the particular characteristics of thefemale personality can be better exposed (Thim�oteo et al., 2015), such as flexibility, ability towork in a team and tomanage diversity, according toGomes (2005). Moreover, the presence ofwomen in managerial bodies can provide unique resources and relationships, which canbecome relevant assets to the company (Terjesen, Couto, & Francisco, 2016).

Perspectives on risks and opportunity in organizations can also be realized in differentways in heterogenous groups. With regard to the gender, the literature reveals that commonsense assigns the search for risk to the male gender, while the female gender is moreassociated with higher risk aversion levels and, consequently, a more uncompromisingattitude toward new opportunities (Grant Thornton, 2017).

The literature recognizes consequently that gender diversity has been translated intodifferent types of behavior regarding leadership styles (Post, 2015), higher conservatism(Francis, Hasan, Park & Wu, 2015; Garc�ıa-S�anchez, Mart�ınez-Ferrero & Garc�ıa-Meca, 2017)and higher risk aversion (Grant Thornton, 2017; Perryman et al., 2016).

There are some specific studies that focus on different effects stemming from femaleparticipation in the deliberative organizational spheres regarding the performance ofcompanies (Adams & Ferreira, 2009; Carter et al., 2010; Perryman et al., 2016; Terjesen et al.,2016); impacts on company’s value (Campbell & Vera, 2008, 2010; Carter et al., 2003) andattributes of corporate governance (Adams & Ferreira, 2009; Francoeur et al., 2008).

This way, the female growth has been seen as a factor that can provide a strategic basis forcorporate decision-making (Mcguinness et al., 2015), considering the possibility of the creationof unique information that stem from the heterogeneity of the team that composes the upper

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management (Carter et al., 2010). The possible impact of the female presence in the governanceof companies is also acknowledged by Adams & Ferreira (2009) and Singh et al. (2001).

There are more specific consequences related to the female presence in management, suchas the adoption of a more conservative attitude regarding the measurement and projection ofrevenues and a greater impact on corporate governance (Mcguinness et al., 2015);contribution to the mitigation of agency problems (Mart�ınez & Oms, 2016) and increase inthe monitoring of administrators (Adams & Ferreira, 2009).

2.2 Dividend policyThe dividend policy is considered a prominent financial and economic decision for managers,investors and other stakeholders (Mart�ınez & Oms, 2016) considering that the earningsdistribution is understood as a relevantmechanism to reduce ormitigate agency costs (Byounet al., 2016; Van Pelt, 2013). This occurs due to the role played by dividend policy in themodification of investors’ expectation because decisions associated with earningsdistribution can transmit more accurate information on the expectations of the firm’smanagement regarding the economic situation of the company (Gupta &Aggarwal, 2018); inthis case, the behavior toward dividends is seen as an instrument that signals the economicsituation and the perspective of the firm in terms of investments.

Understood as the decision of how much and when to pay shareholders, the dividendpolicy involves deciding if the earningswill be retained by the firm for reinvestment purposes(Gupta & Aggarwal, 2018) or future earnings generation. The dividend policy, therefore, isestablished by the priority defined temporally by the management team regarding theallocation of earnings generated according to the decisions of strategic allocation ofinvestment (Mart�ınez&Oms, 2016). The essential cost for the definition of the dividend policywill be related to liquidity – both operational and investment –which tends to decrease whenthe number of paid dividends increases. It indicates that the firm may appeal to third-partycapital, which tends to be more expensive (Van Pelt, 2013). The dividend policy can be seen,from this perspective, as a way to a align incentives between managers and shareholders(Mart�ınez & Oms, 2016).

By analyzing strictly costs and benefits, the variables commonly known as determinantfactors related to dividend decisions are related to the leverage, growth opportunity and sizeof the firm.

Gonzaga and Costa (2009) indicate that leverage is a primary indicator of dividend policyand emphasize – in addition to the influence on the levels of future liquidity – the strongrelation to agency conflicts. According to Van Pelt (2013), the costs of debt are used byfinancial institutions as a monitoring mechanism of their relationships because creditorsdemand cash flows generated by the operations to reimburse the debts and their accessories(Ye, Deng, Liu, Szewczyk & Chen, 2019). Accordingly, greater obligations jeopardize thefuture cash flow performance, what compromises dividend disbursement (Gonzaga & Costa,2009); current evidences have indicated a negative relationship between the debt and level ofdividend (Rizqia, Aisjah & Sumiati, 2013; Van Pelt, 2013).

Growth opportunities are also mentioned as moderators of dividend policy. Jurkus,Park & Woodard (2011) highlight that agency conflicts related to free cash flows tend to bemore present in companies with lower growth possibility because the ones with high growthopportunity justify the low levels of dividends since they use discretionarily free cash flows tofund new investments. This way, it is possible to expect that growth opportunities indicate atendency toward lower levels of dividends to be paid (Van Pelt, 2013).

Another aspect that can influence the dividend policy is the firm size. Rizqia et al. (2013)state that large companies are more likely to pay dividends; such affirmation is based on theidea that larger companies tend to present lower transaction costs, better access to the capitalmarket and economic stability, which enables them to offer higher dividends when compared

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to smaller companies. Besides, large companies aremorewilling to reduce agency conflicts byadopting dividend payment as a way to mitigate them (Ye et al., 2019). There are evidencesthat indicate a positive relationship between firm size and dividend payment (Rizqia et al.,2013; Mart�ınez & Oms, 2016; Ye et al., 2019).

Other aspects related to institutional or shareholder characteristics were analyzed asfactors that can influence the dividend policy, such as the type of shareholder of the company.The dividend policy can be influenced by, for instance, state (Saeed & Sameer, 2017; Ye et al.,2019), institutional (Van Pelt, 2013) or family ownership (Ye et al., 2019). Another aspectrelated to the ownership structure was also analyzed and showed a significant impact on thedecisions regarding earnings distribution.

Ye et al. (2019) indicate that, when there are restrictions to the sale of shares, payingdividends could provide an opportunity for managers to obtain additional paybacks only dueto such policy. Otherwise, Rizqia et al. (2013) affirm thatmanagerial ownership can reduce thechanges of an opportunistic behavior, which is negatively related to dividend policy. Thereare, therefore, relevant evidences that establish a relationship between dividend policy andownership structure.

2.3 Evidences on gender diversity and dividend policyWhen considering that dividend distribution in large proportion restricts the performanceof managers, taking into account that the smaller portion of the earnings will be availablefor investment in projects that may not interest the shareholder, the heterogeneity of thebodies in the company’s management team may contribute to a higher independency ofmanagement.

The existence of heterogeneous bodies enables a breakdown in the way that they operate,which can also decrease agency costs considering that the members of such bodies can workas controlling agents when using mechanisms – in this case, higher distribution ofdividends – to reduce agency conflicts. From this perspective, Mart�ınez and Oms (2016) andByoun et al. (2016) affirm that the female presence in the decision-making process of the firmcan have a positive impact on the dividend policy, since women’s choices tend to limit theopportunism of managers to the detriment of shareholders’ rights.

Mart�ınez and Oms (2016), when analyzing the impact of gender diversity on the BDregarding dividend policy in companies of the Spanish stock market between 2004 and 2012,observed that companieswith positive results aremore prone to distribute dividends as far asthe proportion of women in the BD increases.

Byoun et al. (2016) investigated some characteristics of boardmembers on dividend policyby analyzing the database of COMPUSTAT between 1997 and 2008. The results of theresearch indicate that gender diversity in firm’s BD, which is measured by the proportion ofwomen and by the presence of more than one woman in the management team, leads tosignificant changes in the dividend policy. Such argument is supported by the idea that thefemale presence in the composition of the management team contributes to a more effectivemonitoring of actions accomplished by the BD; consequently, more benefits are conceded toshareholders, considering the greater propensity to pay dividends and higher payout.

However, Van Pelt (2013), when investigating the effect of characteristics of directors onthe dividend policy in companies traded in the North American market from 2008 to 2011,rejected the hypothesis that the proportion of women in board positions influences thedividend-related decisions.

Complementarily, Chen, Leung & Goergen (2017) investigating the North Americanscenario between 1997 to 2011 affirm that gender diversity in the BD increases significantlythe payment of dividends only in companieswithweak governance. The authors suggest thatfemale directors use the payment of dividends as a governance mechanism.

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On the other hand, the results of Mcguinness et al. (2015) and Saeed and Sameer (2017)indicate that there are other aspects inherent to the firm that contribute to dividend-relateddecisions, not necessarily related to the gender of the governance members of the company.

Mcguinness et al. (2015) investigated the female presence in boards of firms asserting thatwomen are more risk averse and, this way, are more prone to accumulate liquidity andworking capital. When examining the association between characteristics of the members ofthe BD and the dividend policy in the Chinese financial market between 2000 and 2008, theauthors suggest that men and women show similar levels of risk aversion in situations offinancial decision-making. The authors highlight that other characteristics, such as firms’ownership and firm size, may have masked the influence played by gender on dividend-related decisions.

Saeed and Sameer (2017) when investigating the impact of the female presence in the BDregarding the dividend policy in companies operating in India, China and Russia between2007 to 2014, affirm that a growing number of women in the board of the firms has a negativeimpact on the payment of dividends in the companies of the sample. The authors indicate thatthis phenomenon occurs because these companies are subject to an inefficient regulatoryenvironment, which demands more conservative funding policies.

2.4 Hypothesis developmentBased on the conception that gender diversity enables the emergence of differences inmanagerial performance, one can state that the female presence in management can lead topayment of dividends in a superior level (Byoun et al., 2016; Mcguinness et al., 2015; Mart�ınez&Oms, 2016; Van Pelt, 2013).

Saeed and Sameer (2017) affirm that the inclusion of individuals with differentcharacteristics, backgrounds and experiences in deliberative bodies can indicate that theirdecisions might be influenced by some factors, including decisions related to dividenddistribution. Gender diversity can align the economic incentives of managers and shareholdersbased on their effects on the dividend policy of companies.

The conception that there are differences between the behaviors related to the female andmale genders leads to the conclusion that the female presence in the uppermanagement tendsto lead to different courses of action in comparison to the ones accomplished by a homogenousmalemanagement. It is possible to argue, therefore, that a higher female participation can leadto an alteration of the modus operandi of the upper management, which could increase theindependence of the director council regarding investor groups andwould givemore room forthe incorporation of diverse behaviors not related to standard stereotyped male ones.

As far as research studies in foreign economic environments show evidences that genderdiversity contributes to the mitigation of agency costs (Jurkus et al., 2011); to the reduction ofmanagers’ opportunistic behavior (Campbell & Vera, 2008, 2010) and to the increase ofdividend payment (Mart�ınez & Oms, 2016), we propose the hypothesis that, in the Brazilianscenario, the propension to distribute dividends and the payout level of the earningsdistributed will be affected positively by the female participation in the deliberation ofstrategic managerial bodies.

When focusing on the female presence in corporate management (board of directors andexecutive board), we establish that there are differences among strategic decisions of thecompany because of such factor. Among the singularities that the female participation canbring to the entrepreneurial performance and positioning, we highlight – in addition toeconomic and financial drivers – aspects related to investors, mitigation of agency conflict,emphasizing the gender heterogeneity (i.e. gender diversity) as a mechanism used in order toreduce agency conflicts and informational asymmetries.

It is possible to observe, however, that the effects of female participation on the decisionson the dividend policy can be diverse, considering that the organizational context and the

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institutional environment can also influence such relationship. On the other hand,considering that the low protection level toward shareholders and investors can guidecorporate choices in issues related to dividend policy (Consoni, Colauto & Lima, 2017), andconsidering that the presence of women creates heterogeneity in the management teamaltering the decision-making, leads us to establish the hypothesis that the female presence inmanagement positions in Brazilian companies contributes to differentiate decisions ondividend policy in terms of payout levels and propensity to distribute earnings, according tothe evidences reported in different – and institutionally more advanced – scenarios.

3. Methodology3.1 Sample and data collectionThe research population is composed of non-financial companies listed on the Brazil, Bolsa,Balc~ao (B3) Stock with data available from 2010 to 2015. This way, the sample of theresearch presents a census characteristic regarding public-traded companies and wasshaped based on the exclusion of observations that provided no access to the datanecessary for estimation; loss in the period, which could invert the signal of the informationmaking no economic sense, and therefore, showed negative payout ratios, which is alsoundesired economically speaking.

After a few adjustments, the final sample was composed of 261 companies with 1,084observations per year; the data were collected from the database Econom�atica® and fromreference forms provided by the B3 website.

3.2 Model and variablesThe premise that the female participation in upper management bodies alters the dividendpolicy of firms is investigated through the following aspects: propension to distribute orretain earnings and, if they distribute, the payout level of dividends.

The probability of distributing or retaining earnings (P_DIV) is measured by the dummyvariable that takes the value 1 to indicate companies that distributed dividends and the value0 otherwise. The variable PAYOUT represents the level of earnings distribution across thecompany in each period of the analysis. Its calculation is shown by Eqn (1).

PAYOUT ¼ Dividends paid

Adjusted net income(1)

The investigation of the probability of the firm to distribute/retain earnings considering thefemale participation was tested by Eqn (2), as follows:

P DIVit ¼ β0 þ β1 BDit þ β2 EBit þ β3 CEOit þ β4 BD EBit þ β5 YEARit

þ β6 LEVit þ β7 GROWTHit þ β8 SIZEit þ ε(2)

The verification of the marginal impact of the female participation on the level of dividendswas carried out through the third Eqn (3), as follows:

PAYOUTit ¼ β0 þ β1 BDit þ β2 EBit þ β3 CEOit þ β4 BD EBit þ β5 YEARit

þ β6 LEVit þ β7 GROWTHit þ β8 SIZEit þ ε(3)

where, P_DIVit: probability of earnings distribution by the company (i) over the period (t); ittakes the value 1when there is a distribution and 0 otherwise; PAYOUTit: amount of declareddividends by the company (i) over the period (t), estimated by Eqn (1); BDit: proportion inpercent of women in the board of directors of the company (i) over the period (t); EBit:proportion in percent of women in the executive board of the company (i) over the period (t);

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CEOit: binary variable on the CEO of the company (i) over the period (t); it takes the value 1 ifthe gender is female and 0 otherwise; BD_EBit: binary variable of multiple female presence(board of directors or executive board) in the company (i) over the period (t); it takes the value1 for multiple presence and 0 otherwise; YEARit: binary variable that indicates theperformance of the company (i) over the period (t) LEVit: leverage of the company (i) overthe period (t); GROWTHit: growth opportunity of the company (i) over the period (t); SIZEit:size of the company (i) over the period (t); ε: error term of the econometric model.

The selection of control variables (LEV, GROWTH and SIZE) was accomplished in orderto list exclusively economic and financial attributes and characteristics since they alreadyprovide an explanatory power to guide or affect the dividend policy according to the literaturereview already exposed in Section 2.2, whose estimation was accomplished according toTable I.We bring forward that choosing such drivers is related to the acquisition of the effectsintended by the explanatory attributes listed exclusively regarding the economic andfinancial relationship already proved as influencers of the dividend policy. In the same line ofisolating the effect to be captured, we applied a temporal dummy variable to identify the fixedeffects related to each firm, which is the purpose of the study.

3.3 Econometric treatmentThe models were regressed considering the individualized effect of female participation; thecomplete model encompasses the inclusion of the set of variables named according to suchparticipation. In the models, the observation regards the behavior of each firm.

Model (2), which is related to the propension to earnings distribution, was estimated bylogistic regression (LOGIT) because, according to F�avero, Belfiore, Silva & Chan (2009), suchstatistical model investigates the relationship among phenomena whose dependent variableis categorical and binary, which represents the probability of the occurrence of thephenomenon studied according to the explanatory variables. This way, it is possible toidentify if the participation of women in management influences the distribution or retentionof earnings.

Model (3) was estimated through a regression model with limited dependent variable(TOBIT), defined by Gujarati & Porter (2011). According toWooldridge (2010), the PAYOUTvariable is the limited dependent variable because its interests are limited to the positivevalues that exhibit an effective declaration of dividends considering, nevertheless, the totalsample. The variable, indeed, is approximately distributed in a continuous way acrosspositive values, taking the value 0 to non-relevant part of the population.

The use of such econometric treatment established through the use of the censoredvariable occurs because there are no negative values for the dependent variable PAYOUT.The censoring occurs after identifying that the dependent variable used in the research onlytakes values above or equal to zero (Gujarati & Porter, 2011).

Variable Operationalization Theoretical foundation

Leverage LEVit

LiabilitiesitTotal Assetsit

Jurkus et al. (2011); Van Pelt (2013); Byoun et al. (2016);Mart�ınez and Oms (2016); Chen et al. (2017); Saeed &Sameer (2017)

Growthopportunity

GROWTHit

ΔRevenuet−1; tRevenuet−1

Mart�ınez and Oms (2016); Saeed and Sameer (2017)

Size SIZEit logðTotal AssetsitÞ Mcguinness et al. (2015); Byoun et al. (2016); Mart�ınezand Oms (2016); Chen et al. (2017); Saeed & Sameer(2017)

Source(s): Authors (2019)Table I.

Control variables

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Regarding the variable PAYOUT in terms of outliers, the treatment used was the oneproposed by Tukey (1977), which implies the construction of boxplots in order to identifyvalues located at a distance 50 percent superior to the interquartile range (i.e. the differencebetween the first and third quartiles). Based on such criterion, we identified 21 outliers, whichcorrespond to 1.93 percent of the final sample; these outliers were transformed according tothe winsorization technique.

The multicollinearity was examined through the calculation of the variance inflationfactor (VIF), whichmeasures the correlation among independent variables. The VIF indicatedan absence of multicollinearity among such variables, being in accordance with the basicrequirements to the LOGIT and TOBIT regression analysis. Moreover, the models presenteda quality ofmodel adjustment (pseudoR2) superior to 18 percent and reaching 31 percent witha 1 percent level of significance – such outcomes meet the econometric requirementsassociated with the method of estimation applied.

4. Analysis of results4.1 Female participation: descriptionThe greater expressiveness of female participation in boards of directors in comparison to theparticipation in EB can be observed in Panel 2 of Table II; it is possible to emphasize that, inboth cases, the mode of such participation is restricted to only one or two female members

Panel A: In collegiate bodies in the period

Frequency (quantity)In the board of directors In the executive board

Quantity % Quantity %

0 561 51.75 703 64.851 291 26.85 272 25.102 150 13.84 82 7.563 31 2.86 21 1.944 32 2.95 6 0.555 or more 19 1.75 0 0Total 1084 100 1084 100

Panel B: Proportion in collegiate bodies in the period

Frequency (%)In the board of directors In the executive board

Quantity % Quantity %

0 561 51.75 703 64.850–j 10% 114 10.52 24 2.2110–j 20% 258 23.80 187 17.2520–j 50% 134 12.36 164 15.1450–j 100% 17 1.57 6 0.55

Panel C: Annual evolution

Female participationPeriod

Total2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

In the board of directors Quantity 92 96 83 87 86 79 523% 47.42 51.34 47.70 46.28 47.78 49.07 48.25

In the executive board Quantity 63 63 65 66 63 61 381% 32.47 33.69 37.36 35.11 35.00 37.89 35.15

As CEOs Quantity 4 6 8 7 4 2 31% 2.06 3.21 4.60 3.72 2.22 1.24 2.86

Table II.Female participation inmanagement

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only in 40 percent and in 32 percent of the companies, respectively, regarding the board ofdirectors and executive board; a presence of 4/5 or more women is observed in only 5 percentof the BD and in six EB.

By analyzing the information exposed in Panel B, it is possible to notice that the majorityfemale position occurred only in 17 observations (approximately 1.5 percent) of the BD and insix observations (0.5 percent) of the EB. By analyzing the members of the EB, it is possible toperceive an oscillation regarding female CEOs; there was a variation of two to eight companieswith female CEOs, according to the information disposed in Panel C.

Among the firms in which women occupy job positions in collegiate bodies, it is possible todetermine a concentration of companies whose bodies are composed by up to 20 percent offemale members, which corresponds to 34 percent of the observations of the total sample in thecase of theBDand to 19 percent in the case of EB, according toPanel B.We emphasize, therefore,the low female participation in corporate collegiate bodies in theBrazilian business environment.

It is worthmentioning that the low proportion of female presence could bemore prominentif second generation family businesses had not been considered, since these companies,according to the succession proceedings, tend to place women in the BD as legal heirs. Suchfactor occurs to maintain the composition of deliberative bodies with the family as majorityshareholders.

In Panel C, it is possible to observe that the position of women in the bodies underdiscussion did not alter substantially over the period analyzed. The participation in boards ofdirectors and EB remained relatively stable, with the participation of approximately 48percent and 35 percent, respectively.

In the last year of the sample, it is possible to observe a smaller number of companies thathad women occupying BD, EB and CEO positions. However, one can verify that such numberis proportionally superior when compared to the first year of the analysis.

In Table III, the dividend policy is evidenced regarding the companies that have womenoccupying BD, EB and CEO positions. Panel A indicates that from the 523 observations withfemale presence in the BD, there was earnings distribution in 90 percent (472) of them; when

Panel A: Earnings distribution and retentionFemale participation Distribution Retention Total χ2 test

In the board of directors Yes 472 51 523 5.90**No 478 83 561

In the executive board Yes 350 31 381 9.09***No 600 103 703

As CEOs Yes 31 0 31 3.40*No 919 134 1053

Total 950 134 1084

Panel B: Payout

N Mean Median Minimum MaximumStandarddeviation t-test

Wilcoxontest

In the board ofdirectors

Yes 523 0.49 0.40 0.00 1.24 0.33 �3.58*** 124450***No 561 0.42 0.30 0.00 1.24 0.33

In theexecutiveboard

Yes 381 0.48 0.35 0.00 1.24 0.32 �2.07** 123590**No 703 0.44 0.33 0.00 1.24 0.33

As CEOs Yes 31 0.47 0.32 0.16 1.24 0.31 �0.34 14974No 1053 0.45 0.34 0.00 1.24 0.33

Note(s): Significance level of 1% (***), 5% (**) and 10% (*)

Table III.Dividend policy andfemale participation

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analyzing the 561 observations that had no women occupying such positions, the earningsdistribution was identified in 85 percent (478) of the observations. Such behavior is alsoverified in 381 observations, in which women occupied executive board positions; in thesecases, 92 percent of them (350) declared dividends; in the 703 observations with no femaleparticipation in the executive board, in 85 percent (600) of them there was earningsdistribution. In the cases in which women occupy CEO positions, all companies distributeddividends over the period; in the case ofmale CEOs, the earnings distributionwas observed in87 percent of the cases.

Wehighlight that the superior proportion of companies that declare dividends can occur dueto the regulation regarding minimum mandatory dividends. We observe that the presence ofwomen in strategic positions is associated with the distribution or retention of earnings –considering a univariate analysis with statistical significance – which indicates that suchcondition differentiates the behavior of such bodies regarding this dividend decision.

Data displayed in Panel B indicate that the payout distribution is presented in anasymmetrical way with only a few companies practicing high levels of dividend payments;most of them adopt policies of low dividend payout ratio. Considering that such behavioroccurs regardless of female participation, there are exogenous factors that lead a small groupof companies to the adoption of higher dividend payout ratio.

Panel B also indicates that the payout level is significantly higher when there is a womanin the composition of collegiate directive bodies of companies. On the other hand, there is nosuch differentiation when comparing companies in which women occupy a CEO position;considering that such case occurs in only 3 percent of the observations, they do not seem tointerfere with the evidences that payout decisions of a firm are differentiated by the femalepresence in managerial bodies. We will proceed with the analysis to examine the influence ofthe female gender inmultivariate tests indicating the impact of economic variables, which arethe primary sources of such behavior.

4.2 Female participation: explanatory evidencesIt is possible to verify, based on the information disposed by Table IV, that the probability ofearnings distribution is not affected singly by the proportion of women in the BD, in the EB orby women occupying CEO positions. However, the coexistence of more than one woman inwhichever deliberative bodies (BD_EB) contributes, with a 1 percent level of significance tothe propensity to declare dividends, which contradicts the earnings retention act. It is alsopossible to notice that a stronger female presence in the BD reveals a contrary effect: itreduces, at a 5 percent level of significance, the propensity to declare dividends, whichhighlights the strength of the operational level to make such decisions.

When all variables of interest are processed in the complete model (last formulation), it ispossible to identify that the probability of earnings distribution is positively affected by thefemale presence in deliberative bodies, which ismoderated by the female proportion in the BDconsidering the negative coefficient estimated.

It is worthmentioning that, from an economic and financial perspective, the variables thatguide the dividend policy behaved as expected (dividend theory); larger companies tending todistribute earnings (1 percent level of significance); leverage and growth opportunityinfluencing the earnings retention (1 percent and 5 percent levels of significance, respectively)due to the need for additional cash flows or investment intention. On the other hand, theanalysis corroborates the inference suggested by univariate association tests betweenearnings distribution and female presence in directive bodies (Table III, Panel A).

We determine, based on the information exposed in Table V, that the female presence in theBDor as CEOs does not affect singly the payout level in the companies investigated herein; it is,therefore, also possible to emphasize that the increase in the proportion of women in the EB(1 percent level of significance) influences the payout level of firms; one can notice

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the moderating power of the female presence in the BD considering that when the situation iscommon in the EB and in the BD (BD_EB), the level of dividend payment is affected with lowerintensity because the coefficient given by themodel is reduced and the variables are consideredjointly (completemodel), with the same level of significance.When comparing the isolated to thefemale presence in both bodies effect, the payout level is affected by half of the proportion.

The outcomes verified regarding economic variables, whose levels of significance wereinferior to 1 percent, are consistent with the literature inferences mentioned herein andbehave as expected according to economic and financial theories on the matter.

On the other part, the analysis also corroborates the inference suggested by univariatetests that associate the level of payout with female presence in directive bodies (Table III,Panel B), which refines the type of participation that effectively affects marginally therelationship studied.

4.3 Female participation and dividends: discussion of previous evidencesThe results obtained from the test on the influence of female participation regarding thepropensity to distribute earnings are not in accordance with Mart�ınez & Oms (2016), at least

AttributesType of presence

BD EB CEO BD_EB Complete

Board of directors 0.24 – – – �2.15**Executive board – 0.96 – – �0.43CEO – – 15.00 – 14.96BD_EB – – – 0.77*** 1.25***Leverage �5.38*** �5.38*** �5.42*** �5.28*** �5.36***Growth opportunity �0.43** �0.43** �0.42** �0.41** �0.41**Size 0.40*** 0.40*** 0.39*** 0.38*** 0.34***Year Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes(Intercept) �0.49 �0.48 �0.33 �0.45 0.25Pseudo R2 29.20% 29.39% 30.03% 30.41% 31.78%Log-likelihood ratio 173.44*** 174.67*** 178.86*** 181.34*** 190.25***N 1049 1049 1049 1049 1049

Note(s): (1) Significance level of 1% (***) and 5% (**); (2) the number of observations was reduced from 1,084to 1,049 in these tests due to the non-observance of control variables’ data in 35 companies

AttributesType of presence

BD EB CEO BD_EB Complete

Board of directors 0.13 – – – �0.16Executive board – 0.28*** – – 0.15*CEO – – �0.01 – �0.06BD_EB – – – 0.12*** 0.14***Leverage �0.55*** �0.55*** �0.56*** �0.54*** �0.55***Growth opportunity �0.08*** �0.08*** �0.08*** �0.08*** �0.08***Size 0.04*** 0.04*** 0.04*** 0.04*** 0.04***Year Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes(Intercept) 0.16 0.16 0.20** 0.16 0.18*Pseudo R2 18.74% 19.62% 18.52% 20.88% 21.49%Wald 118.31*** 128.12*** 112.84*** 139.44*** 145.19***N 1049 1049 1049 1049 1049

Note(s): (1) Significance level of 1% (***), 5% (**) and 10% (*); (2) the number of observations was reducedfrom 1,084 to 1,049 in these tests due to the non-observance of control variables’ data in 35 companies

Table IV.Female participation

and probability todistribute earnings

Table V.Female participation

and dividendpayout ratio

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in the Spanish scenario, through which the gender diversity in upper management bodiesleads companies to pay dividends. On the other hand, the outcomes indicate that the influenceof the female presence in both upper management bodies on the propensity to distributeearnings are in accordance with Byoun et al. (2016), who identified a positive relationshipbetween the presence of at least one woman in directive bodies and the propensity todistribute earnings in the North American environment.

Regarding the outcomes on the payment level of dividends and its relationship with theproportion of women in the executive board, there is a convergence with the findingsidentified by Mart�ınez and Oms (2016) and Chen et al. (2017). While Mart�ınez & Oms (2016)identified a positive impact of gender diversity on the dividend policy of companies, Chenet al. (2017) reached similar results in companies with weak governance in the NorthAmerican market.

The evidences that refer to the isolated effect of the proportion of the female gender on theBD or their presence as CEOs regarding the level of payment of dividends corroborate thefindings of Van Pelt (2013) and Mcguinness et al. (2015). Van Pelt (2013) shows some similarresults, not identifying the influence of the gender on the dividend levels in the NorthAmerican market. The same way, Mcguinness et al. (2015), when conducting an analysis inthe Chinese environment, observed that the dividend policy is not related to the gender of themembers of the governance of the companies analyzed.

Considering the presence of more than one woman in whichever directive body analyzedherein, the outcomes converge with Byoun et al. (2016), who identified a positive relationshipbetween the distribution level of dividends and the presence of at least onewoman in directivebodies of firms in the North American scenario.

By contrast, the negative relationship conducted by gender diversity on payout wasverified by Jurkus et al. (2011) and Saeed and Sameer (2017), who go against the findings ofthis study considering that they did not identify a significant negative relationship betweenthe variables that measure gender diversity and payout. The authors analyzed the NorthAmerican market and companies from India, China and Russia and concluded that genderdiversity –measured by the proportion of women in directive bodies – has a negative impacton the dividend policy of the companies.

5. ConclusionOur research investigated the female participation in executive and deliberative bodies ofBrazilian firms in terms of its influence on the dividend policy. Such research goal arises fromconcepts and evidences that suggest that the heterogeneity of governance and managementgroups may imply diverse entrepreneurial decisions, especially in the institutional sense ofmitigating conflicts among interest groups.

The earnings distribution of the firm lies in the center of possible governance conflicts;moreover, it is possible to state that the independence of deliberative bodies due to a greaterfemale participation could improve control mechanisms and the reduction of conflictsbetween managers and investors.

The research hypothesis, which was based on international evidences and on the growingconceptual background on institutional, behavioral and social motivation in economic andfinancial decision of firms, was not rejected. The hypothesis stated that a stronger femaleparticipation in executive and deliberative bodies could increase the probability of earningsdistribution and the level of payout. The female participation in management bodies is,therefore, emphasized; it is possible to identify a moderating factor in governance bodies dueto a stronger female presence.

Despite the low percent of female participation in the firms presented in our sample, theresearch findings, which were based on a strong econometric support, address public-traded

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companies, which could hinder the characterization of behavioral differences because of thissort of heterogeneity. Therefore, at the margin, the earnings distribution (retention) and thepayout level show a diverse behavior among the groups with female participation in bothgovernance and management, considering that the basic economic explanation was kept forsuch decisions (leverage, investment opportunities and size of the firm).

The outcomes brought by the research findings indicate that the plural female presence isimportant to differentiate decisions among collegiate bodies in Brazilian firms in terms ofdividend policy; women in the executive board contribute marginally to the increase ofearnings distribution and to the increase of the payout level. On the other hand, women in theBD are also important for such decisions, which indicate a more moderating impact on therates and levels of dividends; no conclusion could be drawn on the influence of women in suchpolicies when the CEO position is occupied by a woman.

Such context is in accordance with Van Pelt (2013), who claims that research studies thataddress economic effects of gender diversity in management are not conclusive; the authoremphasizes that divergent outcomes were noted in research studies conducted in moreintegrated and developed economic environments than the scenario of our research. Thediffuse explanatory determination of heterogeneity implies an association of such attributewith the difference of social, economic and institutional aspects of the Brazilian environment,in comparison to countries that are more developed in such issues. This affirmation stemsfrom previous research findings conducted in other environments – in Brazil, suchinvestigation seems to be unprecedented – in which the existence of the female presence canbe found in more integrated environments; however, the findings are also divergent amongthemselves, despite the econometric robustness.

If it is possible to insinuate that the greater presence – in quantity – of women in directivebodies can affect the economic decision of earnings distribution in Brazilian companies, thensuch affirmation can indicate that the female insertion in directive bodies can work as acontrol mechanism within companies, considering that once heterogeneity in groups ispromoted, such fact can alter the content of the decisions made.

The approach used in the research does not clarify issues related to motivations. Theanalysis of such issues is relevant to strengthen and to deepen the analysis of theme in theBrazilian academic environment and, for such reasons, we suggest the utilization of adifferent approach from the one applied herein. The phenomenological approach, forinstance, can examine the phenomenon in depthwhile trying to get the right answers for suchissues.

The unfolding of the investigation on the theme can occur through the inclusion of tests ofcorrelated attributes, such as variables with different measurements of female participation,including variables that represent the permanence time of women in management positions;non-economic control variables; participation of diverse racial or ethnic origins; governance-related attributes, i.e. legal form of the company (family, state-owned company), ownershipstructure and characteristics of investors; other management attributes: internal controlmechanisms, supervisory board and committees related to governance and management.

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Corresponding authorTatiana Aquino Almeida can be contacted at: [email protected]

Associate Editor: Luis Pinochet


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Volume 27 Number 2 2020

117 Editorial boards 119 Film analysis in management: a journey through the metaphors of the concept of leadership

Vanessa Cristina Grabowski Aoki and Silvia Spagnol Simi dos Santos

135 Lean product development and agile project management in the construction industryFelipe Albuquerque, Alvair Silveira Torres and Fernando Tobal Berssaneti

153 How to increase engagement on social media using the honeycomb model: a case study in a Portuguese HR companySusana C. Silva, Wilian Feitosa, Paulo Duarte and Marta Vasconcelos

169 The development of innovative capacity as a strategic resource in technology-based incubation activitiesClarice Vepo do Nascimento Welter, Jorge Oneide Sausen and Carlos Ricardo Rossetto

189 Gender diversity, governance and dividend policy in BrazilTatiana Aquino Almeida, Cinthya Rachel Firmino de Morais and Antonio Carlos Coelho

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