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DA UNIVERSIDADE PORTUCALENSE
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Balancing Legacy and Progress: Environmental and Social Sustainability Practices in European Union Family Firms.
2026-07-03 - Jayantilal, Shital; Gomes, Sofia; Lopes, João Miguel; Nogueira, Elisabete
This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of environmental and social sustainability measures by family businesses in the European Union and examine associations between these practices and company-specific characteristics. The research analyzed a sample of 2523 family businesses from the 27 European Union member states. The findings reveal significant variations in the adoption of environmental and social sustainability practices across countries and businesses. Using a multilevel latent class model, four distinct classes of family businesses were identified: advanced implementers, non-implementers, pro-social implementers, and pro-environmental implementers. In addition, three groups of countries with similar distributions of family business profiles were identified. The study underscores the heterogeneity of environmental and social sustainability practices among European family firms, revealing four distinct firm-level classes' adoption profiles and three country-level latent classes. Smaller businesses (micro entities), older firms (founded before 2000), and those with annual turnovers of around one million euros were more frequently associated with higher levels of adoption of social and environmental sustainability measures. By constructing multilevel models, the research highlights heterogeneity in the adoption patterns of sustainability practices within and between countries without attributing these differences to specific national or institutional factors. The conclusions further emphasize that EU family businesses exhibit heterogeneous patterns of environmental and social practices, with adoption varying across firm-level and country-level profiles and no consistent sequences in practice implementation; social measures (e.g., employee conditions) are more prevalent than environmental ones. The observed patterns are discussed in relation to firm characteristics and resource availability, while recognizing that explanatory mechanisms are not directly tested in this study. These findings contribute to advancing knowledge on family businesses' roles in fostering environmental and social sustainability in the European context by providing an exploratory, descriptive, and multilevel mapping of sustainability practice profiles. Socioemotional wealth, stakeholder theory, and dynamic capabilities are used as interpretive lenses to discuss the findings rather than as empirically tested mechanisms, given the cross-sectional and observational nature of the data. The study also offers practical implications, suggesting that policy and managerial approaches may benefit from considering cross-country and firm-level heterogeneity when promoting sustainability adoption.
The Contribution of Leadership to Nursing Team’s Effectiveness in Primary Health Care Organisations
2025-10-11 - Fonseca, Isabel; Madeira, Carlos Rui; Rodrigues, Ana Paula; Gaspar, Pedro Miguel
The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 has posed unexpected and emergency challenges to humanity for which no country, health system or institution was prepared. If in a normal context the effectiveness of a healthcare team is extremely important for the quality of the services provided, in the context of a pandemic this factor becomes even more important for users and for the sustainability of the Portuguese National Health Service. The aim of this study is to analyze how leadership contributes to nursing team effectiveness when mediated by job satisfaction, organizational trust and commitment, and moderated by employee self-rated health in a Northern Portuguese Primary Health Care Organization (PHCO).
A quantitative study was carried out by applying a questionnaire to all the nurses in an PHCO. 207 valid responses were obtained (87.7% response rate). The proposed model was tested using the structural equation modeling technique. The results indicate that: i) leadership positively influences job satisfaction, commitment (to the leader), organizational trust and team effectiveness; ii) team effectiveness is influenced by job satisfaction and organizational trust; iii) commitment (to the leader) had no significant effect on team effectiveness.
This study provides insights into the relationships between leadership and team effectiveness in PHCO settings and is anticipated to inform future interventions aimed at improving team performance.
Physical Frailty, Social Support and Psychological Well-being in the Older Portuguese Population
2025-10-11 - Gaspar, Pedro Miguel; Lages, Marisa; Victor, José A. M.; Facal , David; Juncos-Rabadán , Onésimo
Objectives: Research on physical frailty phenotypes in community-dwelling older adults is important to estimate their prevalence. The aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of pre physical frailty (pre-FF) and physical frailty (FF) in a Portuguese sample of old adults and explore the associations between these phenotypes and demographic, comorbidity, social support, and psychological well-being factors.
Methods: We assessed frailty (Fried criteria) in 250 community-dwelling older adults (179 women) aged 60 years or over (mean 71.04 years) without dementia, neurological or psychiatric disorders. Physical health, social support and psychological well-being were diagnosed according to questionnaires Charlson Index, Medical Outcomes Study Social Support, and General Health, respectively.
Results: Prevalence of pre-FF was 43.2%, and that of FF, 29.6%. Physical frailty profiles differed significantly in relation to age, education, physical health (comorbidity), and psychological well-being, but not in sex.
Implications: The present study reaffirm prevalence rates of pre-FF and FF in Portugal, and adds evidence to the association between FF, physical health, social support and psychological well-being underlining its importance in the quality of aging.