Does microfinance foster the development of its clients?A bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review

This paper conducts a scientometric analysis and systematic literature review to identify the trends in microfinance outcomes from the perspective of their recipients,specifically more vulnerable people,while also focusing on the demand side.Applying the keywords“co-occurrence networks”and“citation networks,”we examined 524 studies indexed on the ISI Web of Science database between 2012 and March 2021.The subsequent content analysis of bibliometric-coupled articles concerns the main research topics in this field:the socioeconomic outcomes of microfinance,the dichotomy between social performance and the mission drift of microfinance institutions,and how entrepreneurship and financial innovation,specifically through crowdfunding,mitigate poverty and empower the more vulnerable.The findings reinforce the idea that microfinance constitutes a distinct field of development thinking,and indicate that a more holistic approach should be adopted to boost microfinance outcomes through a better understanding of their beneficiaries.The trends in this field will help policymakers,regulators,and academics to examine the nuts and bolts of microfinance and identify the most relevant areas of intervention.

Market orientation for the hotel segment： The Portuguese case

In view of the importance of the hotel segment for the tourism and for the economy of countries such as Portugal, the objective of this study was to measure the level of orientation for the market of the largest hotel groups of Portugal. This investigation initially emphasized the importance of the marketing for the organizations, mainly the orientation for the market. After a brief explanation on the hotel segment in Portugal, an empirical study was presented, of quantitative, exploratory and traversal character, performed with the largest groups of 20 hotels of Portugal, using as an instrument of collection data, the traditional Markor scale （market orientation） adapted to the hotel sector. After analyzing the data, it was found in the investigated organizations that a good capacity to generate market information and response to the market, which formed two of the three constructs of Markor scale. However the results obtained with the construct of the dissemination of market information were below the expectations. It was possible to conclude that marketing professionals of the large hotel groups in Portugal are well oriented to the market, something not shared by other investigated departments of the hotels. So the current challenge for the main networks of hotels in Portugal is to improve the internal dissemination of information that marketing professionals gathered at the market.

Organizational ambidexterity, open innovation and innovation outputs: How do followers and low-flyer EU countries innovate?

This study analyses the role played by organizational ambidexterity and open innovation in innovation outputs,considering business units with different levels of technological intensity(medium-high and high tech,and medium-low and low tech)for countries with different inno-vation profiles.The countries considered in this paper are i)Estonia and Slovenia as innovation followers;i)Slovakia,Hungary,Spain,Czech Republic,Italy,Portugal,Norway,and Croatia as moderate innovators;and ii)Bulgaria,Lithuania and Romania as modest innovators.In the empirical approach,the research hypotheses arise from the literature review and are tested using secondary data collected from the Community Innovation Survey(CIS)201o.The conceptual model is tested using the logistic regression method,which indicates suitable accuracy and reliability for empirical testing purposes.The evidence reveals that for innovation followers,ambidexterity has a greater influence on the practice of eco-innovation,marketing innovation,and product innovation.For moderate innovators,ambidexterity has a greater influence on the practice of product innovation,process innovation,and eco-innovation.Concerning modest in-novators,ambidexterity has a greater influence on the practice of product innovation,process innovation,and eco-innovation.With regard to open innovation,for innovation followers,this has a negative influence on product innovation in medium-high and high-tech companies.For moderate innovators,open innovation has a greater influence in process,organizational,and eco-innovation.In the case of modest innovators,open innovation is more significant for innovation outputs in product,organizational,and marketing innovation.Size is not always positively related to innovation outputs.