Lessons from the fastest Brazilian unicorn

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the process of why a Brazilian digital startup company reached unicorn status the fastest.Design/methodology/approachAfter the literature review, the authors conducted the questionnaire containing 13 questions used in 18 in-depth interviews conducted in the case study. Saturation point combined with the independent and in-depth analysis of the researchers is used to achieve internal and external validity. The primary data collected underwent an analytical approach, followed by a resource-based view (RBV). RBV does not deal with time. There is a gap in the literature and an opportunity here: to analyze the fastest company to become a unicorn under the RBV lens.FindingsThe case reveals that value can be found in traditional sectors, as is the case of the real estate sector. This is a case of a company in the direct home-buying space.Practical implicationsThe contribution of this paper is both practical, with the seven lessons, and theoretical. Resources allocated to a specific context in a specific geographic region shift the attention away from the absolute value of resources to the timing of aggregating them. Thus, the contribution accounting for time is new to the RBV.Originality/valueThe originality lies in the analysis of the dynamics of digital businesses with exponential growth.

Spanish Version of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale: An Adaptation and Validation Study

The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) has been the most widely used instrument to assess teacher efficacy beliefs. However, no study has been carried out concerning the TSES psychometric properties with teachers in Mexico, the country with the highest number of Spanish-speakers worldwide. The purpose of the present study is to examine the reliability, internal and external validity evidence of the TSES (short form) adapted into Spanish with a sample of 190 primary and secondary Mexican teachers from 25 private schools. Results of construct analysis confirm the three-factor-correlated structure of the original scale. Criterion validity evidence was established between self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Differences in self-efficacy were related to teachers’ gender, years of experience and grade level taught. Some limitations are discussed, and future research directions are recommended.

Assessing Fidelity to and Satisfaction with the “Adolescent Coping with Depression Course” (ACDC) Intervention in a Randomized Controlled Trial

This paper aims at describing the process for assessing the intervention fidelity of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an “Adolescent Coping with Depression Course” (ACDC) and to assess the participants’ satisfaction with the intervention. We applied the comprehensive fidelity model developed by the National Institutes of Health’s Behavior Change Consortium to examine how our intervention met the fidelity requirements under five categories. Data came from a two-arm parallel cluster RCT. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the ACDC intervention using the comprehensive fidelity model indicated that the level of fidelity in this study did not reach 100%. However, it was approaching a high level of treatment fidelity. Participants also expressed high levels of satisfaction (M = 3.65, SD = .95). This analysis is important to show how appropriately the intervention was implemented, areas for improvement to increase its fidelity, and to ensure the internal and external validity of the findings. Trial Registration: ISRCTN registry ISRCTN19700389. Registered 6 October 2015. https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN19700389. Full Protocol: 10.1186/s12888-016-0954-y

Experimental design

Experiment is a research method appropriate to examine causal relationships, also in relation to the current problems of science, including sustainable development. Conducting experiments can take place in laboratory conditions, but also in natural environments. The main objective of an experiment is always to test what the researcher actually wants and to obtain results that can be generalised to the entire population. In other words, planning experiments requires considering many aspects related to their internal and external validity. The key aspect that needs to be considered in conducting experiments is proper problem defining, as well as the concepts of causality, manipulation or null and alternative hypotheses. It is also worth bearing in mind that in social sciences, when engaging participants in research, caution must be exercised. Depending on whether each participant of the experiment is exposed to all conditions or different people test different ones, the classification of experiments is distinguished into within-subjects and between- subjects design. In this chapter, the most commonly used experimental designs in this division are presented. However, the experimental method offers more complex schemes such as randomised block design or Latin square design. Finally, the obtained findings should be properly presented—in the form of a report following APA standards.

Internal and External Validity in Ethical Reasoning

A particular approach to ethical reasoning has come to dominate much Anglo-American philosophy, one which assumes that the most rigorous method is to proceed by analysis of thought experiments. In thought experiments, features such as context and history are stripped away, and all factors other than those of ethical interest are stipulated to be equal. This chapter argues that even if a thought experiment produces results that are internally valid—in that it provides a genuine ethical insight about the highly controlled and simplified experimental scenario under discussion—this does not imply external validity. Just as in empirical experiments, there is a yawning gap between succeeding in the relatively easy project of establishing internal validity in a controlled and simplified context, and the more difficult one of establishing external validity in the messier and more complex real world.

Conflict Resolution Behavior Questionnaire: New Evidences of Validity

This study aimed to investigate new evidence of internal and external validity of the Conflict Resolution Behavior Questionnaire (CRBQ) for the context of the state of Paraíba, Brazil. A total of 252 people participated this study, being in a marital relationship, with an average age of 38.3 years (SD = 10.87), the majority of whom were married (70%) and female (57.1%). An Exploratory Factorial Analysis of the CRBQ pointed an adequate structure with three factors (agreement, avoidance, and attack), with alphas ranging from 0.75 to 0.77, which were related to personality traits. In this direction, the results are discussed, in the light of the specialized literature, and it is concluded that the psychometric adequacy of the CRBQ expands the evidence of validity and can be used in future studies in the Brazilian context by researchers and those interested in the subject.