Advances in Applied Business Research The L.A.B.S. Initiative

This book compiles a series of academic contributions based on the theme of applied business. Applied business research is interpreted in a broad sense, comprising all the studies that in some way allow us to better understand how corporations are managed, how organizational data systems are employed to the best use of firms, how financial decisions impact the success of businesses, and how the macro environment influences the performance of individual organizations. The book is divided into five parts. Part I concentrates on the mechanisms through which firms collect, process and use information. Part II is dedicated to corporate finance, to the financial decisions of firms and to the analysis of stock market regularities. Financial issues continue to be the topic of discussion in Part III, though in a different perspective; here, it is more focused on the role of financial institutions and on the architecture of financial systems. Part IV approaches the economic and business environment faced by the organizations, exploring essentially two themes: the spatial distribution of innovation and the economic value of the language. Finally, in Part V, attention is placed on the academy and, particularly, on the involvement of students in business-related experiments. This book was prepared as an initiative of the Lisbon Accounting and Business School (ISCAL), a Portuguese higher education public institution highly committed to contributing to the advancement of research in the field of applied business.