PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of ISO 9000 certification on three dimensions of firm performance that are theoretically derived to have a relationship with the adoption of ISO 9000 standards, namely, sales revenue, cost of goods sold/sales revenue, and the asset turnover ratio (sales/total assets).Design/methodology/approachEmploying a panel data approach covering all publicly traded companies in Brazil that had adopted the ISO 9000 standards from 1995 to 2006, the authors investigate the impact of the certification on firm performance using three categories of economic regression models: the pooling of cutting data with ordinary least squares, the fixed effects and the random effects.FindingsISO 9000 certification is found to be associated with an increase in sales revenues, decrease in cost of goods sold/sales revenue and increase in the asset turnover ratios of the certified firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings suggest that companies large or small, irrespective of their capital structure (i.e. debt/equity) and cutting across industries will benefit from the adoption of ISO 9000 standards. However, the extent to which firms benefit from such adoption is likely to vary. Moreover, the generalizability of the research findings is limited by the size of the sample.Originality/valueThe paper's chief contribution lies in the validation of the signaling theory in the context of business organizations and extending the domain of research on this topic to emerging markets generally.

There are numerous studies regarding water pricing, demand and elasticity for certain regions. However, in Brazil, there are no studies on these matters, even though there is a need to explore the behavior of Brazil's population, especially because the nation is susceptible to extreme water events. São Paulo State, Brazil's most important economic region, has recently experienced a severe water scarcity status. In an attempt to control water demand, the São Paulo Water Agency (SABESP) implemented a ‘bonus and onus’ program. In this context, the aim of this study was to analyze the SABESP programs in terms of their structures and results using a panel model. The econometric results showed that (i) the bonus program was successful and more effective than the onus program, and (ii) water consumption reduction was more significant in regions supplied by water reservoirs where the relative water level was lower, although inhabitants of other regions also reduced their water consumption.

O objetivo deste trabalho é Identificar os fatores macroeconômicos e os indicadores industriais que influenciaram o spread bancário brasileiro no período de Março de 2011 a Março de 2015. É considerada a subclassificação de alguns segmentos de atividade industrial. Foram utilizados dados mensais de séries temporais em modelos de regressão linear multivariada com uso do Eviews (7.0), dezoito variáveis foram consideradas como possíveis determinantes..  Influenciam positivamente; a inadimplência, os IPIs (Índices de Produção Industrial) de bens de capital, bens intermediários, bens de consumo duráveis, bens semiduráveis e não duráveis, a Selic, o PIB, a taxa de desemprego e o EMBI+. Determinam negativamente; os IPIs bens de consumo e geral, IPCA, o saldo da carteira de crédito e o índice de vendas no varejo. Foi considerado p-valor de  05%.. A conclusão principal é que o progresso da indústria, da geração de empregos e do consumo podem reduzir o spread.

PurposeThe paper aims to evaluate the relative importance of various factors that influenced the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Brazil in recent years. Analysis of empirical data indicates that evolution of the consumer market and strength of consumer sales are more important in explaining capital movements into Brazil than other frequently offered explanations such as exchange rates and country risk.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses two‐stage least squares regression to estimate the coefficients of a system of simultaneous equations relating FDI flows into Brazil to various influential factors.FindingsThe results indicate that internal market growth represented by aggregate consumer sales was a significant determinant of FDI into Brazil. Increase in interest rate on consumer financing was negatively related and the attractiveness of the Brazilian market had no impact on FDI flows during the captioned period.Research limitations/implicationsWhile factors such as inflation and exchange rates might be more important for smaller, less stable markets, in the case of larger emerging markets such as Brazil, multi‐national firms might be less concerned with short‐term fluctuations and more guided by internal market growth that affords greater opportunities to achieve economies of scale and scope.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that policy planners in big emerging markets should try to stimulate their internal markets rather than tweak fiscal and monetary policies to attract FDI.Originality/valueThe paper extends and expands the knowledge of international capital flows and provides a more nuanced understanding of the importance of internal market dynamism in attracting FDI into emerging markets.

From late 2013 until the beginning of 2015, the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil, experienced a severe water shortage. During that period, economic incentives were implemented by the regional water provider in a successful attempt to reduce water consumption. We aimed to investigate whether such incentives, as well as the experience of a scarcity period itself, had a persistent impact on consumer behaviour after the water crisis was over. This study was conducted by means of a hierarchical linear model with three levels (HLM3) to verify if the reduction effect remained in the midterm and a regression using panel data to understand which factors influenced water consumption behaviour change before, during, and after the local severe water drought. The results indicate that the average water consumption level subsequent to the rain scarcity period was significantly lower than before and that, in addition to the economic incentives, the severity of the scarcity event explained the behaviour change verified in water consumption.