EDITORIAL

Dear BAR Readers,

I would like to start by saying that BAR is continuously moving forward with its internationalization.

In this regard, BAR accepted SciELO's offer to migrate to ScholarOne, a well-known platform for submission and peer review used by several leading journals in the world and supported by Thomson Reuters. Our editorial team has already been trained in the new system and we shall soon start using it. This improvement will facilitate the participation of contributors from outside Brazil – authors, reviewers and associate editors.

Now, let me present the six articles that compose this issue.

The first paper ("Workplace Learning Strategies and Professional Competencies in Innovation Contexts in Brazilian Hospitals", by Antonio Isidro-Filho, Tomas de Aquino Guimarães, Marcelo Perin and Ricky Leung) discusses the impact of workplace learning strategies (specifically, the way professionals think, change and apply their knowledge) on competences based in new information and communication technologies.

The second piece ("The Equity Premium Puzzle: Analysis in Brazil after the Real Plan", by Fábio Gomes, Luciana Costa and Ruth Pupo) investigates whether there is evidence of an Equity Premium Puzzle (EPP) in Brazil. The study concludes that there is no clear evidence that the risk aversion coefficient would be statistically different from zero, so EPP may not be present in Brazil's current financial context.

The third paper ("The Enhancing Impact of Friendship Networks on Sales Managers' Performance", by Danny Claro, Silvio Laban Neto and Priscila Claro) brings an interesting contribution to Marketing literature: evidence of the moderating impact of friendship networks over the effect of sales forces' professional networks on new product sales as well as on prospecting and converting new deals.

The next article ("Organizational Sacralization and Discursive Use of Corporate Mission Statements", by Fabio Vizeu and Queila Matitz) addresses some of the possible impacts religion (in particular Christian heritage) has on organizational behavior, specifically the role of mission statements as an instrument of organizational sacralization.

The next article ("Participant Diversity and Expressive Freedom in Firm-Managed and Customer-Managed Brand Communities", by Stefânia de Almeida, José Afonso Mazzon, Utpal Dholakia and Hugo Müller Neto) investigates firm-managed and customer-managed brand communities and uncovers distinct effects of participants' demographic and psychographic diversity and degree of expressive freedom on trust, learning, and identification in and with the community.

The sixth paper in this issue ("A Perceived-Control Based Model to Understanding the Effects of Co-Production on Satisfaction", by Natália Pacheco, Renaud Lunardo and Cristiane Pizzutti dos Santos) bring evidence that co-production – i.e., having the consumer participate in production activities, thereby giving him/her some control over the process of the desired product or service – enhances satisfaction towards consumption. This effect is mediated by perceived control.

I hope that you will enjoy these pieces of research. I also hope that BAR can count on future submissions by you.

Let me finish by saying that BAR has been increasing its international visibility and is becoming an ever more attractive outlet for publication, in particular for studies related to the particularities of Brazil and other emerging market contexts.

Best regards,

Jorge Carneiro

Editor-in-Chief

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  08 Apr 2013
• Date of issue
  June 2013