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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse professionals’ competencies in supply chain management (SCM) in the mid-sized supermarket sector in Brazil as a way of broadening the understanding of the importance and the use of competencies in business development. Design/methodology/approach The survey was conducted with 60 managers from 34 companies in the mid-sized supermarket sector in the metropolitan region of Natal, Brazil. The managers evaluated the importance and use of a set of 24 general and specific competencies related to SCM. The gaps between importance and use were identified and analysed. Findings The results showed that the level of use was below the level of importance for all competencies, and the general competencies somehow received more attention than specific competencies in the development and execution of SCM activities. Moreover, the overall average of the gaps between levels of use and importance calculated for the general competencies was less than the general average of the gaps calculated for the specific skills. Research limitations/implications The research was carried out with a sample of mid-sized supermarkets in a particular region. Therefore, it is recommended that the research be extended to other contexts and supermarket companies of other sizes. Practical implications The calculated gaps between managers’ expectations or attributed importance and the perceived levels of competence use in supermarket organisations revealed important lines of action for correcting the course in human resources policy. Originality/value The present paper elaborated on an opportunities matrix, gaps × importance, showing how managers can set priorities to fill competence gaps and improve the companies’ human resources. Besides, it compares levels of importance and uses for two groups of competencies, general and specific related to SCM.

Highlights Tourism and environmental sciences' students are compared. Tourism students highlight topics related to “Profit” and “People”. Sustainability literacy in tourism cannot solely depend on the interest of teachers. Tourism academic programmes should be adapted to teach “strong sustainability”. Environmental sciences professors could be invited to lecture in tourism courses.

University-industry cooperation is important for economic development, particularly at the regional level. Despite this relevance, there is still a lack of understanding regarding the underlying factors that drive the transfer of knowledge and technology. Therefore, this research aims to identify factors related to academic staff's personal and professional characteristics that influence the decision to cooperate with industry. To attain this objective, we built up a unique dataset of academic staff, based on a survey of the total population of a higher education institution in Portugal. Based on a logistic regression, the results reveal that variables such as gender, age and the school influence academic staff's propensity to cooperate with the business sector. We present theoretical and practical implications for academics, policy-makers and practitioners.

Os estudos sobre a qualidade da produtividade e inovação na relação indivíduo-organização tem recebido atenção em diversas perspectivas científicas (sociológica, psicológica, educacional, etc.). Mas, nos últimos dez anos, o tema sobre medida psicológica no ambiente do trabalho tem sido uma área muito produtiva, pois, tem o objetivo de mensurar dado fenômeno e seus impactos no âmbito individual e coletivo no ambiente de trabalho. Das muitas medidas administradas na área do trabalho e da organização, a escala de suporte organizacional é uma das mais promissoras, pois, avalia o quanto a empresa, na percepção do empregado, reconhece e valoriza sua atuação profissional. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo verificar a qualidade psicométrica da estrutura fatorial da escala de percepção do suporte organizacional em trabalhadores. Para a realização dos estudos, duas amostras foram coletadas: a primeira, com 200 trabalhadores brasileiros, homens e mulheres, acima de 18 anos, do setor publico e privada do trabalho, destinada a análise exploratória; na segunda amostra, 201 trabalhadores, com mesmas características sociodemográficas da primeira amostra, a qual, destinou-se para análise confirmatória. Todos responderam, através do e-mail ou rede social, a Escala de Percepção de Suporte Organizacional (EPSO) e questões relativas aos dados sociodemográficos e profissionais. Os resultados na análise exploratória e confirmatória da medida EPSO revelaram uma organização fatorial reduzida com cinco itens e não nove itens, como vem sendo utilizado, estes, contemplaram itens que focaram mais nas questões positivas (de base social e humana) do comportamento organizacional.