The latest issue of Tékhne – Review of Applied Management Studies is composed of six articles. Scientific research conducted in the fields of management, by both national and international academics and professionals, is disseminated, in accordance with the purpose of the journal. The articles traverse a variety of themes of the scientific management area, including organizational citizenship behaviour; auditing; innovation performance; bond market development and economic growth; and corporate governance and information asymmetries.
The first article is by Marcia Duarte. This author focuses on organizational and professional commitment, and the influence that these two foci of commitment have on explaining nurses’ organizational citizenship behaviours. The empirical analysis was conducted based on a survey sample of 420 nurses employed in two Portuguese hospitals in 2009.
The second article, authored by Bruno Almeida, analyses the independence of the auditors in Portugal, and how auditors and teachers perceive this issue. More specifically, this study intends to determine if there are significant differences in the way that each professional group faces the auditors’ behaviour in relation to independence, the control mechanisms of this attribute, and if the Portuguese auditing market promotes independence. To develop the study, 1275 questionnaires were distributed to both professional groups in 2010. A total of 447 fully answered questionnaires were used for the empirical analysis.
In the third article, Waqas Mohammad Raja and Song Wei address the relationship between innovation performance and quality practices. Previous research studies in this area are explored in order to explain the effect of various quality practices on the innovation performance of the firm in different industries. The study explains why different quality practices, such as leadership, process management, supplier relationship, customer focus and strategic planning, are used for better innovation performance in firms, and presents different scenarios in which these practices have a positive or negative influence on the innovation performance of firms.
The fourth article also contemplates the theme of innovation performance. Based on a sample of 238 Swiss watch manufacturing firms, Kayhan Tajeddini evaluates the intervening role of the innovativeness variable linking market, learning, and entrepreneurial orientations to business performance. The study addresses the impact of key antecedents on innovativeness and examines how three different types of organizational cultural competitiveness can lead to greater innovation performance.
The fifth article, by Rudra Pradhan, Danish Zaki, Ranapratap Maradona, Saurav Dash, Manju Jayakumar, and Debaleena Chatterjee, focuses on the long run relationship between bond market development and economic growth. This study contributes to the finance literature by addressing two questions: first, the existence of cointegration between bond market development (BOMD) and per capita economic growth (PGDP); and second, the presence of a long run and short run direction of causality between BOMD and PGDP. The analysis is based on data collected between 1990 and 2011 for G-20 countries.
Finally, the last article is by Helena Alves, Natália Canadas, and Ana Maria Rodrigues. Based on a structural equation model, this study analyses the direct and indirect relation between the corporate governance rules and information asymmetry, through voluntary disclosure and organizational performance. The authors contribute to the body of research on the impact of the corporate governance rules on the voluntary disclosure of information and on organizational performance, and hence on the reduction of information asymmetries. The empirical analysis is applied to the specific case and reality of Iberian Peninsula listed companies.
