In recent years, tourism has experienced remarkable growth worldwide. This sector is rapidly becoming the main export activity and the most important source of GDP growth in several countries. In Portugal, it represented around 19.7% of exports in 2019. The internet and online platforms contributed decisively to this growth. Generation Z already represents a considerable portion of society and, in the coming years, will become the central consumer segment. With this research, we intend to identify the key factors in the decision to purchase online, in Generation Z individuals, in the Portuguese tourism sector. We carried out a characterization of the sector, a bibliographic review and the identification of key variables. We applied a structured questionnaire to a sample of 233 individuals aged between 10 and 25 years. Subsequently, the data were processed using descriptive methodologies and association tests between variables. The key factors in the decision to purchase tourism products/services in Generation Z are Trust, Price, the use of aggregating websites, WOM/EWOM, the Offer of products/services online and the Online experience. In the opposite direction, it was given less importance to Convenience, Reviews on tourism websites, Tourism Advertising, Social networking and the possibility of Canceling the reservation. This study allows us to establish the bases for future research, to help researchers to understand Generation Z consumption habits.

E-commerce is a business model that allows organizations to explore global markets. The objective of this study is to identify all the key points involved in e-commerce business, along with several sub-themes related to e-commerce, namely the concept of e-business and e-marketing. Next, it was noted that e-commerce could express the connections between many purchase actors but is mainly used through the B2C model. The adoption of e-commerce is linked to different internet techniques and tools, which has several advantages and risks. This study also highlights the connections of e-commerce with globalization, e-marketplaces, and platforms. Finally, the authors present the KPIs in terms of sales, marketing, and customer service that the e-sellers should take into account when they are defining the e-commerce strategy and the age segmentation criteria that must be used to create homogeneous groups of e-buyers.

The pharmaceutical industry is facing the pressure of a global economy, loss of value in local markets and the highly intense innovation that characterizes this sector. This has a heavy impact, particularly in smaller economies. With this investigation, we intend to identify the determinants of internationalization as levers for sustainability in the pharmaceutical export sector of a small economy. Data was collected from a sample representing 63% of the total universe, Portuguese pharmaceutical organizations with exporting activity. A contextualization of the sector and a bibliographic review were previously carried out, which laid the groundwork for the empirical framework. This study revealed a deeply internationalized sector conditioned by a few shortcomings, namely a certain lack of sustainable competitive advantages, relatively low investment in research and development (R&D), insufficient innovation in internationalization strategies as well as scarce institutional support. Our findings may help pave the way for a more complete understanding of the dynamics of internationalization in highly competitive sectors.

Pharmaceutical industry faces the pressure of a global economy, the loss of value in local markets and the highly innovative intensity that characterizes the sector. With this investigation, we intend to carry out the first characterization of the Portuguese pharmaceutical industry. This study aims to identify the determinants of internationalization as levers of sustainability and to establish a pattern that corresponds to better outcomes in pharmaceutical companies’ internationalization ventures. All companies from the Portuguese pharmaceutical export sector, a total of 16 companies, were contacted. Data was collected from a highly representative sample corresponding to 63% of the total. A previous contextualization of the pharmaceutical sector and a bibliographic review were carried out, creating the basics of the empirical framework, a quantitative research. This study revealed a deeply internationalized sector, but the overall results are conditioned by some weaknesses, namely the lack of sustainable competitive advantages, a limitation in companies’ resources to compete in a global environment and the reduced innovation in the object of internationalization. It was also observed the reduced institutional support to export ventures. This sector is considered strategic given the high contribution to country's exports. The conclusions of this study may have important implications for Portuguese pharmaceutical industry, to institutional organizations supporting the sector and to the academic environment.

The main goal of this research is to study the impact of uncertainty on export performance, from a resource-based perspective. Despite the ample research on how economies behave during periods of high uncertainty, there is still a poor understanding of how this affects smaller sectors, particularly the most exposed to global competition. In this paper, we perform an evaluation of export performance for the Portuguese pharmaceuticals sector (PPI), before and after a period of considerable uncertainty. This study’s results show strong incremental performance gains, during this period. It also confirmed the importance of marketing capabilities, innovation and networking resources in developing international businesses.