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This research presents the development of a Building Passport for Sustainable Conservation (BPSC) as a questionnaire with a set of 23 core indicators, for a baseline assessment of heritage buildings. The aim of this tool is to identify priorities for future interventions, by recognising the contributions of heritage buildings to sustainability that should be preserved and the fragilities that need to be improved.

The BPSC uses a selection of core indicators for sustainability observable on heritage buildings. It was applied to four different case studies of modern heritage in the Netherlands, to verify its applicability and limitations.

The results suggest that this tool has the potential to contribute to an expedite assessment, reaching consensual evaluations of priorities for sustainable conservation, while reducing the time and cost of the process, contributing to support informed redesign decisions.

Recently, existing building sustainability assessment (BSA) tools have been adapted and new BSA tools developed for heritage buildings. Some tools target existing buildings, but seldom cover cultural significance and heritage values. Others target the after-redesign situations – aiming at assessing how sustainable the redesign is. Often BSA tools are complex and time-consuming, with extensive indicators and data requirements. The BPSC developed in this research covers the main aspects of sustainability and related heritage values, in a simpler tool for a baseline assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the contribution of the Porter Report toward increasing the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy and highlights the factors that affected its operationalization.

This paper considers the contributions of the Porter Report, entitled “Building the Competitive Advantages of Portugal”, presented in 1994, particularly with regard to the recommended clusters and public policies, as well as the assessment and warnings provided by Michael Porter in 2002, examining both in the present perspective.

Although Michael Porter, in 2002, made a critical judgment about the country’s evolution since the 1994 report, it is clear that, on the one hand, the recommended development model attracted high attention and had positive repercussion in academic and business circles, while on the other hand, some of the objectives were achieved, albeit at a slower pace than would have been desirable. Political and economic context and the time period are relevant for all technological and geostrategic changes, among others. The accuracy of the diagnosis and the development model proposed by Michael Porter is confirmed and the difficulty in its implementation is highlighted.

The analysis of the Portuguese evolution after Porter’s recommendations is instrumental in understanding the competitiveness and development challenges faced by a small peripheral economy in the European integration process. Understanding these difficulties and successes is of utmost importance in improving the definition and in the implementation of policies focused on the competitiveness of countries and regions.

This study aims to explore the factors moderating possibly indirect relationships between gender diversity and its effect on bank performance. The causality of this relationship remains unclear.

The sample consists of all banks (n = 27) operating in Serbia.

The gender diversity-performance relationship is indirect. The gender diversity of executive boards positively impacts bank performance, over a threshold level. This is observed only in banks where gender diversity is extended to more than one level of executive authority.

Gender diversity should be fostered, particularly in small and competitive markets. The gender diversity-performance link is based on gender-related social interactions, which are interdependent and should not be taken into account as isolated factors.

To the knowledge, this is the first study to provide insight into indirect, gender related, moderatory interactions effecting gender diversity – performance link, in banking.

Many jurisdictions fine illegal cartels using penalty guidelines that presume an arbitrary 10% overcharge. This article surveys more than 700 published economic studies and judicial decisions that contain 2,041 quantitative estimates of overcharges of hard-core cartels. The primary findings are: (1) the median average long-run overcharge for all types of cartels over all time periods is 23.0%; (2) the mean average is at least 49%; (3) overcharges reached their zenith in 1891–1945 and have trended downward ever since; (4) 6% of the cartel episodes are zero; (5) median overcharges of international-membership cartels are 38% higher than those of domestic cartels; (6) convicted cartels are on average 19% more effective at raising prices as unpunished cartels; (7) bid-rigging conduct displays 25% lower markups than price-fixing cartels; (8) contemporary cartels targeted by class actions have higher overcharges; and (9) when cartels operate at peak effectiveness, price changes are 60–80% higher than the whole episode. Historical penalty guidelines aimed at optimally deterring cartels are likely to be too low.

Portugal experienced very destructive earthquakes in the past, such as the well-known “Lisbon earthquake” in 1755. With such in mind, accurate estimates of human and economic losses can play a significant role in providing various societal key players with objective information for response strategies. This paper aims to present the contribution of the most recent study in Portugal (PRISE) concerning comprehensive seismic risk assessment, which can be used as good practice and reproduced in different contexts.

PRISE (earthquake loss assessment of the Portuguese building stock) covered three main lines of research, corresponding to the three components typically considered in any seismic risk assessment study: the characterization of the seismic hazard, the identification of the exposure to earthquakes and loss potential and the vulnerability of the exposed assets. Each of these components has been fully characterized through the collection of census and local data (exposure), used to carry out nonlinear analysis (hazard and fragility).

By involving different research institutions and partners with extensive knowledge and expertise in the earthquake domains, the developed model is capable of producing economic and human earthquake loss estimates in real time (through an innovative Web-based platform) or for specific event scenarios, considering exposed population, residential and industrial buildings. The platform uses open-source tools and hence, it can be reproduced in other countries or contexts.

Research wise, the hazard, vulnerability and exposure models can still be significantly improved, e.g. by adding critical infrastructure (hospitals, school buildings and bridges) or updating the nonlinear models, for more accurate loss predictions.

The findings and loss estimates for different earthquake scenarios show that planned interventions are required. Decision-makers and other relevant stakeholders (Civil Protection) can make use of the developed platform to produce specific estimates, to test the effect of different retrofitting interventions or to plan for emergency scenarios.

A real-time Web-based framework to estimate building damage and economic/human losses because of seismic events has been developed, aiming to provide the Portuguese Civil Protection and other playmakers with a unique platform for planning and preparing for emergency scenarios.

In past years, the global supply chain has witnessed devastating effects of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has renewed the interest of the Sustainable Supply Chain (SSC) stakeholders on sustainability. The stakeholders are now rethinking their business processes and strategy to make them sustainable. In this context, the relevant literature is required to support emerging markets to formulate sustainability-focussed strategies. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of potential antecedents that leads towards sustainable development of freight transportation in emerging markets.

Initially, the antecedents of the Sustainable Freight Transport (SFT) system are derived from the literature survey followed by verification from the experts. Then, the potential antecedents are categorized under four (social, organizational, operational and environmental) broad categories. Afterwards, a Neutrosophic Analytic Network Process (N-ANP) method is employed to obtain the priority weights of the identified potential antecedents.

The paper identified and ranked 17 antecedents of the SFT system. According to the study’s findings, the top three antecedents of SFT are “the presence of a multimodal transportation system,” “circularity in SFT” and “traffic congestion management”. The results from the study advocate the promotion of existing multi-modal transport facilities which is promising to achieve sustainability. The results suggested the adoption of the digital twin to manage the transport operations.

This study sheds light on how to achieve sustainability in the freight transportation system post-COVID era highlighting the potential antecedents. The study’s findings will assist practitioners in developing SFT strategies in the face of such pandemics in future.