PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the determinants of Portuguese energy companies' performance.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve our objective, we have used data from 457 Portuguese energy companies, in the period between 2011 and 2018. Three dependent variables were tested using panel data, through the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation method.FindingsThe results point out that the determinants of companies' performance change according to how different stakeholders appreciate corporate performance. In general, shareholders are concerned with maintaining their levels of profitability over time as well as with the company's market image. Managers are centered on maintaining solid margins on EBITDA through good management of cash flow, leverage and current assets. For the rest of the stakeholders, including global society, debt and investments in tangible fixed assets reduce profitability while investments in immaterial assets help to create value and performance for energy companies.Originality/valueAs far as the authors are aware, this is the first time that a study has been carried out in the Portuguese energy sector using the GMM-system model for three different stakeholders' views of corporate performance determinants.

This report presents the results of a survey on the National Associations of Sociology in Europe conducted in the years 2012–2013 by the European Sociological Association (ESA) under the auspices of its Committee for National Associations. The National Associations of Sociology were progressively established and institutionalized throughout the twentieth century, each one reflecting the political circumstances of the European Continent at the time. Of the 40 associations surveyed, 10% were in existence in 1950, which shows that the consolidation of the associative movement of sociologists in Europe is generally quite recent and gradually built up over the course of a century or more. The size of each association in terms of numbers of members is a key dimension in understanding how sociology is organized throughout Europe. The same may be said of the difficulties encountered when establishing the ESA as recently as 1992. The results of the survey show that the European sociological community is the aggregate of several parallel currents going back well over a hundred years. Each current has generated as many tributaries as there are individual academic and professional corporations operating in the dozens of countries where sociology has been able to take root and develop, whilst favoured – or sometimes opposed – by university and social policies, governments and public or private bodies. Moreover, each country has its own story to tell about the particular claims and losses, its ups and downs, advances and set-backs that sociology as a discipline has experienced

Europe is facing new and radical challenges that demand extraordinary resilience from EU members, especially southern European societies, because of their outlying position and specific social problems in comparison with their EU neighbours. The difficulties of building a united Europe in the wake of the economic, financial and political crisis have exposed divergences in EU governance. In this context, sociology is an important tool to inform public policies and to provide the general public with an understanding of current challenges. The uses of sociology have social, political and practical implications in fields that are especially significant for southern European societies, such as welfare, work and employment, education, migration, social cohesion and political participation. However, the usual tensions in the organization of scientific research are now particularly intense in terms of how the sociological knowledge utility is understood and communicated. The trend toward internationalization in current research systems forces research communities to compete in a global market of scientific production, where English is the dominant language, and to publish results for an academic audience. Simultaneously there is a pressing need to make sociological knowledge relevant and applicable to regional and localproblems.

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