Markets and policy are inherently interconnected: government policies influence private agents’ decisions (e.g., consumption, investment, financial decisions), which in turn also help shape government policies. Business cycles significantly influence the public awareness of this interconnection, and the recent financial crisis has been a clear example both of how it operates, but also of its potentially harmful economic and social consequences. This complex and intricate relationship extends well beyond the microeconomic level (individual decisions) to the macroeconomic level (aggregate decisions), having consequences for economies and societies. The research area in markets and policy conducts theoretical and evidence-based research on the institutional and organizational framework in which individual decisions of consumption and/or investment take place, while also analysing their overall impact in economic activity. When studying these decisions, the group focuses not only on their behavioural determinants, but also on their financial dimension. In so doing, the group also considers the regulatory and/or legal framework in which these activities take place in various sectors, taking also into account the influence of government, through the study of the determinants of government efficiency and the evaluation of macroeconomic policies. This is inherently an interdisciplinary research area, where researchers using quantitative, qualitative, experimental and mixed-method approaches can collaborate to understand the factors that sustain the creation, the development and the evaluation of markets and policy.

A service is an activity or series of activities of more or less intangible nature that are provided as solutions to customer needs and that normally take place in interactions between the customer and the service provider(s). Services now account for over 70% of the GDP of developed economies, including sectors such as retail, healthcare, banking, insurance, transportation, telecommunications, among others. Despite their importance, services still lag behind in terms of efficiency, quality and innovation, when compared to manufacturing activities. Services have specific traits that require mainstream management theories and practices to be adapted or even re-invented to produce results. In recognition of this, in the last 20 years new theoretical approaches have emerged in Management areas such as Marketing (e.g. the Service Dominant Logic), Operations (e.g. the Unified Services Theory), Organization Theory (e.g. Service Networks) or Information Systems (e.g. Service Science) that have re-shaped our understanding of services. These developments gave rise to the field of Service Management, which is intrinsically interdisciplinary.

The Service Management and Performance group addresses services from multiple perspectives such as Operations, Marketing, Organization Theory, Analytics or Information Systems, and conducts leading-edge, innovative research that has the potential to significantly advance the field of Service Management, theoretically and/or practically. The group emphasizes empirically-based modes of enquiry covering diverse research methodologies, including surveys, case-studies, quantitative modelling, among others. Topic areas include the management of technology-enabled services, benchmarking and efficiency analysis, service networks and the servitization of manufacturing. Our research strategy is based on empirically driven theory and therefore it is strongly based on business interrelations, which are also fostered by our Service Excellence Lab (Slab).

Sustainability and ethics are central interrelated issues in contemporary society, considering the challenges faced by humanity at the social, economic, health and environmental levels. These challenges require an adequate answer from universities and researchers. Through addressing and investigating these issues, the academic world may contribute to facing those challenges in a more effective, ethical and sustainable way. 

This is where the research area in sustainability and ethics is positioned. The group of researchers included in this area focuses on ethically responsible and sustainable behaviors (from both a normative and a descriptive perspective), as well as on the impact of human behavior on human dignity and the social, economic, health and environmental well-being. Considering that leaders are role models and thus impact the organizational functioning in significant ways, leadership represents an important part of that research endeavor. This is also a reason why LEAD.Lab (a leadership knowledge center, housed at Católica Porto Business School, which mission is “to contribute to a more humane, virtuous and effective leadership”; https://www.catolicabs.porto.ucp.pt/lead/?lang=en) is associated with this research group. Other targeted important topics addressed in this research are ethical decision making, social and environmental sustainability, and sustainable healthcare.