English/US
The XLV ANPAD Annual Meeting – EnANPAD 2021 attests to how solid, fruitful and advanced Management Studies has become. The event provided opportunities for researchers in the field to disseminate and debate scientific articles, representing the very best of science in Management. The EnANPAD aims to bring together Management specialists and other stakeholders to discuss topics of common interest, with a view to 1) updating and progressing scientific research in the field, 2) disseminating findings and debating them for improved qualification and validation within the scientific community, 3) encouraging the development of emergent fields, 4) promoting the training of young researchers, and 5) rewarding the best research and academic trajectories.
ANPAD has been the main means of disseminating academic papers and discussing research topics in Management in Brazil. The number of submissions and publications have grown significantly, but we still need to expand the submissions of paper produced by non- Brazilians.
The EnANPAD promotes the publication of complete papers in ANPAD’s electronic proceedings. The presentation formats favored an in-depth debate of the papers and the interaction among attendees and delegates. We had 429 paper presentation sessions, 61 activities from our academic divisions, 5 interdivisional activities, and more than 40 international speakers, including from Italy, the UK, Israel, Germany, New Zealand, the US, France, Norway, Austria, the UAE, and Canada, in addition to relevant Brazilian researchers. Professor Quinetta Roberson, the 2020-2021 President of the Academy of Management (AOM), participated as a speaker.
EnANPAD’s internationalization process needs to be constant and requires support, as provided by both the presence of and the lectures by international guests. They brought cutting-edge knowledge to the Brazilian academia, motivating researchers to attend the event, generating debates, and urging us to seek new intellectual challenges. The meeting included several opportunities for development, such as the academic sessions for paper presentations aimed at academic improvement.
Organizing an event is a significant and relevant activity in the education field, for both trainers and students. In fact, approximately half of the attendees were students in our event. Students take advantage of the event to connect with the academic community, Exchange experiences and network for the development of their own research projects. As one of the major aims and results of graduate studies is student education, scientific events such as the EnANPAD provide the opportunity for students to submit papers resulting from their theses, dissertations and research in general, and then have them reviewed by experts in the field. All papers submitted are diligently reviewed, and authors receive complete feedback regardless of their approval or rejection status.
Our event resulted in 1,621 papers from 2,311 authors published in the electronic proceedings. The authors of the best papers in each division were awarded a fast track for publication in either the BAR – Brazilian Administration Review or the RAC (Journal of Contemporary Administration). Both are open-access journals run by ANPAD and highly ranked in the field in Brazil.
Attendees’ perception of use of the virtual platform and their satisfaction with the EnANPAD
At the end of the event, we carried out a satisfaction survey with attendees addressing the following attributes: technical failures of the platform, attributes prior to the event, attributes during the event, general satisfaction, and recommendation of the event to colleagues. A subgroup of the total attendees provided 65 complete responses, which allowed us to carry out a path analysis. This subgroup was in general: male (56.9%), from the South and Southeast regions of Brazil (70.8%), aged up to 40 years (58.5%), and students (61.5%). The results are provided below, as summarized inTables 1-3, in item groups based on convergent validity and in factors based on descriptive analyses.
Considering the scale (0 – never to 3 – often), Table 1 shows that technical failures in the online platform were rare, but still existing, for all criteria. Ideally, there should be no flaws in the platform. As we want to be better prepared for access congestion in the upcoming events, a pre-test alert for attendees’ microphones and videos is expected to alleviate such problems. The platform service provider can run more tests before the event to avoid general failures with links and platform access items.
Table 2 provides the general satisfaction with the attributes prior to the event, with a scale from 1 (totally dissatisfied) to 5 (totally satisfied). The quality of the paper submission system stands out in this assessment. Feedback from reviewers traditionally needs to be improved, and registration fees can be better detailed to avoid a lack of understanding of the inherent event costs. One of the possible solutions as to fee satisfaction would be the rendering of accounts, to be disclosed with ANPAD’s annual financial data.
Table 3 presents satisfaction with attributes during the EnANPAD 2021, with a scale of 1 (completely dissatisfied) to 5 (completely satisfied). The attributes that stand out are: event organization, divisional panels, event’s contribution to professional growth, information about the event, interdivisional panels, and quality of papers presented. Feedback at presentations, the main topic and professional development workshops were generally well evaluated, but may receive some improvement or adaptation for the upcoming events. In contrast, the doctoral consortium, the networking room, and the thematic lounge require adjustments, as they received average ratings. In particular, many reported that they did not participate in these activities. One of our priorities is to make the EnANPAD assessments more transparent and propose actions for improvement.
Figure 2 shows the predictive path analysis of the three constructs (technical failures in the online platform as perceived by the attendees, satisfaction with the attributes prior to the event, and satisfaction with the attributes during the event) on the indicators General satisfaction with the EnANPAD 2021 (mean= 4.12 with standard deviation = 1.07) and Recommendation of the event to colleagues (mean 4.32, with standard deviation = 0.99). The analysis shows that the greater the general satisfaction with the event, the greater its recommendation to colleagues (adjusted R2= 56.4%, with a coefficient of 0.76, significant at p ≤ 0.01). Therefore, creating greater satisfaction with the event produces greater chances of loyalty to it, with recommendation being one of its indicators. In turn, both the satisfaction prior to the event and the satisfaction during the event form the overall satisfaction (adjusted R2 = 79.9%), with a greater weight for “during” (coefficient of 0.65, significant at p ≤ 0.01) than for “prior” (coefficient of 0.30, significant at p ≤ 0.01). Thus, what happens during the event is more relevant to producing the overall satisfaction with it. The technical failures perceived and occurred in the event negatively and marginally influenced the satisfaction with the attributes during the event (adjusted R2= 6.1%, with a coefficient of – 0.27, significant at p < 0.1). Therefore, they were slightly present at the event, but they have the potential to affect satisfaction during it.
What did you like most?
Attendees reported positive aspects of the event. Figure 3 shows a similarity analysis and how the terms of this positive attitude connects to each other. The online event was praised for allowing different formats of presentation, especially the professional development workshops, and for the relative lower cost of having foreign scholars as keynote speakers. In addition, the mediators in the rooms, divisional sessions and international lectures were also lauded. Complementarily, attendees provided good assessments of the quality of the presentations and paper discussions, as well as the possibility of networking. Attendees also highlighted the good event organization, the topics presented, and the easy use of the platform.
Critiques and suggestions
Finally, attendees provided critiques and suggestions. Figure 4 reveals that the online event was criticized because of its registration fees and because of the little time allocated for interaction with other users, despite the major impact that the online format should have on these aspects. Attendees suggest more time for discussion and a potential return to a face-to-face or hybrid format. They also criticized failures in accessing the platform and suggested simultaneous interpreting for presentations in foreign languages. They also suggested that we should allocate more time for both sessions and paper presentation. Finally, they praised our inclusion policies and the online format, and expect us to keep them.
These are critiques of which we should really be aware for our upcoming event next year.
We thank everyone who attended the EnANPAD 2021. Your contribution with lectures, paper presentations and prestige to our community’s work were fundamental for the success of our event. We have learned to live differently during the pandemic, and we want to continue expanding the possibilities of innovating. In fact, much of what we considered a distant reality a few years ago could be witnessed in the EnANPAD 2021. We hope that the next event will be even better.
We are sure we can always count on you and your contribution!