Research Outputs

Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Marketing Components and Their Role on Fair Trade in Coffee Agriculture: A Scoping Review
    (MDPI, 2025)
    Maradiaga-López, Juan
    ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    The aim of this study is to conduct a scoping review of the literature on the marketing environment and Fair Trade in the coffee industry, identifying its contribution to organizations and society. Quantitative studies were selected from databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, following a selection process aligned with the PRISMA methodological guidelines and establishing eligibility criteria for articles using the PICOS strategy. To understand the effects of macromarketing, strategic marketing, and operational marketing on the development of the Fair Trade coffee market, the results demonstrate that marketing plays a significant role in the market’s growth. Specifically, marketing is crucial in communicating the value of Fair Trade, raising consumer awareness, and supporting the economic well-being of coffee producers. Ethical consumption and branding strategies are essential for positioning Fair Trade coffee in competitive markets. However, further studies are needed to corroborate these findings and provide more up-to-date perspectives.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Wearable biosensors for human health: A bibliometric analysis from 2007 to 2022
    (SAGE Publications, 2024) ;
    Muñoz-Urtubia, Nicolás
    ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    Estrada-Muñoz, Carla
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    ;
    Salinas-Martínez, Nicolás
    ;
    Méndez-Celis, Paula
    ;
    Carmelo-Adsuar, José
    Objective: This study aimed to determine the status of scientific production on biosensor usage for human health monitoring. Methods: We used bibliometrics based on the data and metadata retrieved from the Web of Science between 2007 and 2022. Articles unrelated to health and medicine were excluded. The databases were processed using the VOSviewer software and auxiliary spreadsheets. Data extraction yielded 275 articles published in 161 journals, mainly concentrated on 13 journals and 881 keywords plus. Results: The keywords plus of high occurrences were estimated at 27, with seven to 30 occurrences. From the 1595 identified authors, 125 were consistently connected in the coauthorship network in the total set and were grouped into nine clusters. Using Lotka's law, we identified 24 prolific authors, and Hirsch index analysis revealed that 45 articles were cited more than 45 times. Crosses were identified between 17 articles in the Hirsch index and 17 prolific authors, highlighting the presence of a large set of prolific authors from various interconnected clusters, a triad, and a solitary prolific author. Conclusion: An exponential trend was observed in biosensor research for health monitoring, identifying areas of innovation, collaboration, and technological challenges that can guide future research on this topic.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Caffeine placebo effect in sport and exercise: A systematic review
    (MDPI, 2024) ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    ;
    Lay, Nelson
    ;
    Gil-Marín, Miseldra
    ;
    Muñoz-Urtubia, Nicolás
    The objective of this review article is to systematically identify the caffeine placebo effect in sport and exercise activities. We selected randomized controlled trial studies to better understand the impact of caffeine and its placebo effect on sports performance. We extracted a set of articles that refer strictly to the topics of caffeine and its placebo effect in sport and exercise, considering the databases integrated to the Core Collection Web of Science and Scopus, as well as the registration of the documents in PubMed®, a system with a selection process aligned with the guidelines for the PRISMA methodology, establishing the eligibility criteria of the articles with the PICOS tool, to which a systematic review is applied. Finally, the results show that caffeine improves anaerobic capacity and endurance, while placebo perceived as caffeine can also increase performance by reducing pain and improving concentration. This finding underscores the influence of expectations and placebo on physical performance, suggesting that managing these expectations may be an effective strategy for improving athletic performance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Analyzing managerial skills for employability in graduate students in economics, administration and accounting sciences
    (MDPI, 2024) ;
    Andino-González, Patricia
    ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    The study analyzes how graduate students in economics, administration and accounting perceive their managerial skills for employability, with the aim of determining its associated variables to improve the educational processes of future managerial leaders. It focuses on the importance of developing transferable skills that meet current and future job demands. To measure the perception of skills, a structured and duly validated questionnaire (Employability Skills 2000+) was used, answered by 225 graduate students in Economics, Administrative and Accounting Sciences in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The data obtained from the application were analyzed using the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) method with the FACTOR software. The CFA generated an adaptation of the original scale with 21 variables. The resulting scale determined three predominant factors: personal management skills, fundamental skills and teamwork skills, which presented good consistency and validity, allowing us to make conclusions regarding employability skills in the context studied. The findings show the existence of a correlation between fundamental skills and variables such as work experience, employment status and gender, as well as a high correlation between teamwork skills, work experience and employability conditions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Healthy Behavior and Sports Drinks: A Systematic Review
    (Nutrients, 2023)
    Muñoz-Urtubia, Nicolás
    ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    Estrada-Muñoz, Carla
    ;
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    ;
    Castillo, Dante
    This review article aims to systematically identify the relationship between sports drinks and healthy behavior. This systematic literature review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline criteria, and eligibility criteria were established using the PICOS tool (population, interventions, comparators, outcomes, and study) from about 1000 records of sports drinks articles identified in the various Web of Science Core Collection databases. The literature review stages determined a reduced set of 15 articles relating these drinkable supplements to healthy behavior. This study concludes that water consumption should be emphasized for non-athletes, sports drinks should be labeled to indicate water consump- tion and carry a warning label, and more randomized clinical trials should be considered to ensure conclusive results for health decision making.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Bibliometric mapping of school garden studies: A thematic trends analysis
    (Horticulturae, 2023)
    Castillo, Dante
    ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    ;
    Torres-Alcayaga, Mario
    This paper analyzes the thematic trends in school garden studies over the past few decades, using a relational bibliometric methodology on a corpus of 392 articles and review articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. The paper seeks to understand how researchers have studied the concept over the last few decades in various disciplines, spanning approximately eighty Web of Science categories. The results show that there is a critical mass of scientific research studying school gardens. The analysis shows the thematic trends in discussion journals, discussion terminology, and consolidates classic papers and some novel authors and papers. The studies and their theoretical trends lead to refocusing the analysis on the effects of school gardens beyond the educational, thanks to the contribution of authors from more than fifty countries engaged in the study of these activities. This work constitutes new challenges for this line of research, raising interdisciplinary research challenges between horticultural, environmental, technological, educational, social, food, nutritional, and health sciences.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Environmental and health factors as organic fruit purchase drivers and the mediating role of price and effort
    (MDPI, 2022) ;
    Llanos-Herrera, Gonzalo
    ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    ;
    Gil-Marín, Miseldra
    This article analyzes the organic fruit consumption behavior associated with environmental and health care. The literature review focused on the relationship between attitudes and perceptions of health care through the organic food consumption, and on the other hand, the association between the organic products consumer behavior and environmental care. The methodology included a theoretical relationship model proposed, considering different constructs provided by previous literature to measure motivations, fears and attitudes associated with the intention to purchase organic fruit, once the methods that confirm their validity and reliability were applied to evaluate seven direct relationship hypotheses, three indirect relationship hypotheses and two moderation hypotheses. As result, nine hypotheses are supported, being health and environmental motivations drivers of the attitude towards organic fruit and the intention to purchase organic fruit, intention that is reinforced by the positive attitude towards these foods but is moderated by the perceived price and the purchase effort.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    The bibliometric analysis of studies on physical literacy for a healthy life
    (MDPI, 2022) ;
    Mendoza-Muñoz, María
    ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    Carlos-Vivas, Jorge
    ;
    Denche-Zamorano, Ángel
    ;
    Adsuar, José
    ;
    Raimundo, Armando
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    ;
    Muñoz-Urtubia, Nicolás
    This article empirically provides a global overview of physical literacy, which allows for the understanding of the structure of the epistemic community studying literacy for healthy living. Publications registered in the Web of Science are analyzed using bibliometrics (spatial, productive, and relational) based on data from 391 records, published between 2007 and April 2022, applying five bibliometric laws and using VOSviewer software for data and metadata processing and visualization. In terms of results, we observe an exponential increase in scientific production in the last decade, with a concentration of scientific discussion on physical literacy in seven journals; a production distributed in 46 countries situated on the five continents, but concentrated in Canada and the United States; co-authored research networks composed of 1256 researchers but with a production concentrated of around 2% of these, and an even smaller number of authors with high production and high impact. Finally, there are four thematic blocks that, although interacting, constitute three specific knowledge production communities that have been delineated over time in relation to health and quality of life, fitness and physical competence, education, and fundamental movement skills.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Perceptions environmental and health impacts of cruise activity in the Roatan ports
    (MDPI, 2022) ;
    Salgado-Gómez, Cintia
    ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    ;
    Araya-Silva, Lorena
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of different stakeholders on the environmental impacts of cruise ship activity in the port of Roatan, Honduras, as an activity that has an impact on the region’s blue economy. A descriptive qualitative research design was applied, with 30 people directly related to the cruise ship activity participating in the study. Data collection was carried out through structured interviews with pre-codes based on Green Marine Management performance indicators. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze the verbal data. From the analysis of the data, conclusions were drawn that there is a generalized perception of the fundamental role in the control and assurance of the environmental impact of the maritime authorities; however, there is evidence of a lack of specialization in the areas of traceability, which could have an impact on the ecosystem and the health of the population, showing a lack of leadership in the articulation of stakeholders.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Identifying the blue economy global epistemic community
    (MDPI, 2021) ;
    Vega-Muñoz, Alejandro
    ;
    Contreras-Barraza, Nicolás
    The following article aims to identify the characteristics of the epistemic community of Blue Economy researchers, through the description of its scientific production, its special organization and clustering. The information was examined using bibliometric techniques on 302 research works using the Web of Science databases (JCR) between 2013 and 2021. At the same time, VOSviewer software was used to represent the relationships metrically and visually between the data and metadata. A set of research works is reviewed which relates environmental conservation and its implication in the development of the territory, and the relationship between technology and the improvement of ocean management, to highlight those state interventions where benefits are generated for the population or where there is an important challenge for improvement.