Creative Industries and Entrepreneurship

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    Portugal: Pathways of Sport for People with Disabilities
    (Springer Nature, 2023) Mataruna-Dos-Santos, Leonardo Jose; Vitorino, Anabela; Pimenta, Nuno M.
    Although Portugal has come a long way in the promotion and organization of disability sports, still a lot is to be done. Portuguese legal framework is rather progressive and supportive of inclusion (e.g. Portugal was one of the first countries in the world to include the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in national law and to structurally move away from the medical model for framing and addressing people with disabilities). This had a major impact at many levels, but the process of changing the society, and particularly the sport system, has been quite slow, though continuous, and without meaningful backs and forwards. This means Portugal seems to be on a good track towards inclusion but needs to keep giving meaningful steps. The scarcity of resources systematically allocated is not a big help, but this has also been changing (e.g. Paralympic athletes have now equivalent individual financial support as Olympic athletes), Still there is a lot to do particularly on grassroots disability sport, sport clubs, and seemingly on the promotion of adapted physical activity, beyond formal and competitive sport alone. This chapter describes how disability sports is organized in Portugal, within the context of the whole sport system and policy framework. Also, participation numbers are presented, together with identified barriers and facilitators to disability sport. Hopefully this chapter provides a good support to help identify and stimulate further efforts towards an unnoticed and natural inclusion of disability sports in the scope of the sport system and the overall society. © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
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    Digital Communication in Sport Sector: A Brief Analysis of the Pandemic Crisis Period
    (Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2023) Milla, Asli Cazorla; Machado, Monica; Mataruna-Dos-Santos, Leonardo Jose
    The COVID-19 pandemic changed the general behaviour of the society regarding leisure and entrainment in social media. The pandemic had huge impact in the world of marketing and communications. Starting from the social distance to the lockdown period, the society converted their actions to access and consume content from the different social media channels. Some marketing practitioners argue that making money is critical right now whereas others strongly believe the opposite. The strength of digital and social media communication in times of crisis has been proven in the past and it has been proven during this pandemic as well. During this pandemic we have witnessed similar communication practices that are adapted by the global companies. It became evident that brands must make tough choices affecting customers and develop the right message through right channel while ensuring the honesty and trust in their campaigns. With the uncertainty of next quarter or even next months, brands have had to adjust their marketing budget drastically. Whatever they have planned in the beginning of 2020 was no longer applicable and it leads to quick and sweet adoption of new realities in their communication strategies. Being transparent, supporting local communities and overall focusing on brand awareness rather than product push have been the common practices amongst brands. In addition to successful communication practices, we have also witnessed common pitfalls such as brands communicating the same message without giving any solutions to their customers when it comes to products or services adoption. This research aim to analyze the digital communication strategies adopted in crisis during pandemic period. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.
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    Savior or Distraction for Survival: Examining the Applicability of Machine Learning for Rural Family Farms in the United Arab Emirates
    (MDPI, 2023-02) Gilani, Sayed Abdul Majid; Copiaco, Abigail; Gernal, Liza; Yasin, Naveed; Nair, Gayatri; Anwar, Imran
    Machine learning (ML) has seen a substantial increase in its role in improving operations for staff and customers in different industries. However, there appears to be a somewhat limited adoption of ML by farm businesses, highlighted by a review of the literature investigating innovative behaviors by rural businesses. A review of the literature identified a dearth of studies investigating ML adoption by farm businesses in rural regions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), especially in the context of family-owned farms. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the drivers and barriers to ML adoption by family/non-family-owned farms in rural UAE. The key research questions are (1) what are the drivers and barriers for rural UAE farms adopting ML? As well as (2) is there a difference in the drivers and barriers between family and non-family-owned farms? Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with farm businesses across several rural regions in the UAE. Then, through a Template Analysis (TA), drivers and barriers for rural UAE-based farm owners adopting ML were identified. Interview findings highlighted that farms could benefit from adopting ML in daily operations to save costs and improve efficiency. However, 16 of 20 farms were unaware of the benefits related to ML due to access issues (highlighted by 12 farms) in incorporating ML operations, where they felt that incorporating ML into their operations was costly (identified by 8 farms). It was also identified that non-family-owned farms were more likely to take up ML, which was attributed to local culture influencing family farms (11 farms identified culture as a barrier). This study makes a theoretical contribution by proposing the Machine Learning Adoption Framework (MLAF). In terms of practical implications, this study proposes an ML program specifically targeting the needs of farm owners in rural UAE. Policy-based implications are addressed by the findings aligning with the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). © 2023 by the authors.