Resumo em Inglês:

Recent decades have been marked by a rising interaction between the State and nonprofits in order to address increasingly complex public issues. Government-nonprofit relations were guided by a complex and diverse legal framework, that transformed not only the implementation of public policies, but also the auditing practices and control of such relations. Previous studies have shown the influence of NPM reforms in auditing practices and institutions, of particular interest to this research is the Theory of the Audit Explosion (TEA). This paper analyzes the control of government-nonprofits relations, under the perspective of the TEA, specifically trying to comprehend if there is a causal relationship between the growth of government-nonprofit relations and the audit explosion in the Brazilian context, as predicted by the theory. A field research, based on documentary data and interviews, was undertaken in three Brazilian SAIs. The conclusions highlight the limitations of the explanatory capacity of TEA in Brazil. Although a formal audit explosion was observed, as predicted by TEA, there are substantive barriers to the audit explosion. This is mainly due to the organizational and institutional aspects related to governmental fund transfer entities. Such problems reflect the poor quality of the partnerships themselves and might be a consequence of political variables such as the spurious relationships of some parliamentary members or public employees with partner NGOs.

Resumo em Inglês:

Given the strategic relevance of Human Resources Management (HRM) in organizations and the lack of scientific instruments to measure employees' perceptions about policies and practices of HRM, this study aimed to validate the Human Resources Management Policies and Practices Scale (HRMPPS) through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using the maximum likelihood method. The study has a quantitative design, but also included qualitative analysis required for the development of a scale. Employees from various organizations composed a sample of 632 people. Scale reliability was assessed by Cronbach's alpha and Jöreskog's rho. A six-factor model was generated showing high-reliability and good fit. Construct validity was provided through convergent and discriminant analyses. The factors were consistent with the literature review and explained about 58% of the construct's total variance. This study contributes to the scientific production in the area of Human Resources Management since HRMPPS can be used not only in relational studies but also as an evaluation instrument by managers who wish to improve their employees' well-being as well as organizational outcomes.

Resumo em Inglês:

This paper analyzes the phenomenon known as accrual anomaly in Brazil. In particular, we examine two hypotheses: (a) that the earnings expectation included in the stock price fails to reflect the difference in persistence of the earnings components (accruals and cash flows); and (b) that the construction of a hedge portfolio by taking a long (short) position in assets with low (high) accruals generates consistently abnormal returns. The data set includes nonfinancial firms listed on the BM&FBOVESPA between 1990 and 2008. The empirical tests required conducting panel data regressions to identify the persistence of earnings and their components; the Mishkin test to identify whether the market rationally prices earnings; and the composition of a zero-investment (hedge) portfolio to analyze whether a trading strategy based on accruals consistently provides abnormal positive returns. The results indicate that the accrual component is not mispriced by the Brazilian market, and that a trading strategy based on accruals does not provide consistently positive returns. Although this evidence does not encourage arbitrage, the results are relevant from various perspectives. The methodology applied permitted identifying the quality of earnings and of their components, as well as association between the components of earnings and returns.

Resumo em Inglês:

Because pension plans have been marketed using outdated technical premises, Brazilian insurance companies find themselves required to identify additional resources to ensure their ability to meet future benefit payments obligations. When calculating the additional amount of this provision, the parameters used are: mortality and disability decrements, the structure of interest rates, financial performance, cancellation fees and conversion rates. The aim of this study is to present the estimation of conversion rates based on a Probit Model. The data for this study was obtained through the transfer of restricted data from the portfolio of a company with relevant activity in the Brazilian insurance market, including a group of 14,511 individuals eligible for retirement in the period between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2009. The resulting analysis of the data allows us to conclude that two factors - the volume of accumulated reserves and the classification of prices as actuarially fair - increase the propensity of an individual to convert resources upon retirement. In turn, retirement age and the need for liquidity reduce the propensity to convert resources upon retirement.

Resumo em Inglês:

Hope is an important construct in marketing, since it is an antecedent of important marketing variables, such as trust, expectation and satisfaction (MacInnis & Mello, 2005). Specifically, literature suggests that hope plays an important influence in risk perception (MacInnis & Mello, 2005) and propensity for indebtedness (Fleming, 2008). Thus, we aim to investigate the relationships among hope, risk perception related to purchasing and consumption and propensity for indebtedness by conducting two empirical studies. The first is a laboratory experiment, which accessed hope and risk perception of getting a mortgage loan. The second is a survey, investigating university students' propensity to get indebted to pay for their university tuition, analyzed through the Structural Equations Modeling method. These studies found that higher levels of hope predicted an increase in the propensity to accept the mortgage loan, independent of actual risks, and an increase in the propensity of college students to get indebted to pay for their studies. In addition, the first study suggests that hope may lead to a decrease in risk perception, which, however, wasn't confirmed by the second study. Finally, this research offers some methodological contributions, using an experimental approach to understand hope and its relationship with perceived financial risk and propensity for indebtedness.

Resumo em Inglês:

This study considers how decision-makers in smaller firms interpret the means and conditions of internationalization, and how different modes of interpretation are likely to inform action choices in this process. Drawing on 58 qualitative interviews with the leaders of Brazilian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the clothing industry located in the state of Paraná, the results support the contention that different understandings given to the means/conditions of internationalization are associated with different action choices. More specifically, the results indicate that: (a) interpretation changes the criteria and parameters by which rational choices on internationalization are made; (b) a comprehensive explanation of internationalization on the basis of situational characteristics is likely to be inconclusive without taking into account decision-makers' interpretations; (c) particular meanings given to internationalization are likely to inform choice in different ways, (d) managers act on the basis of their inter-subjectively negotiated, shared and sustained reality; and (e) investigative proximity with practitioners is pivotal in order to comprehensively account for their interpretations.