Excellence in Professional Disciplines and Their Importance in Social and Educational Entrepreneurship

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It is a work that from the beginning focuses on the abstract concept of excellence in professional performance. From here the authors seek to explain how such excellence is formed, based on field work. The size of the sample and the research method reduces the relevance of the results obtained.

Based on the aforementioned sample, some more or less relevant characteristics are deduced, where the researcher's bias may be notable as it is not based on any of the many theoretical frameworks that exist in the literature.

The work could be improved by entering the field of competencies, where rigorous literature exists. It could also improve from well-developed academic concepts such as self-efficacy or the theory of planned behavior. Both help to understand professional performance based on behaviour.

The work has the merit of providing data from field work.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We appreciate the review work done, thank you very much for considering our work. The following is a response to each of the reviews carried out.

Best regards,

Ramón

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Reviewer. “Based on the aforementioned sample, some more or less relevant characteristics are deduced, where the researcher's bias may be notable as it is not based on any of the many theoretical frameworks that exist in the literature”.

• The authors apologize to the reviewer for the small sample used. We point out this issue as a limitation and need for a proposal for future research. For the development of this proposal, we will consider integrating an existing theoretical framework as a reference, case, for example, the one related to competencies as you have kindly indicated to us.

Reviewer. “The work could be improved by entering the field of competencies, where rigorous literature exists. It could also improve from well-developed academic concepts such as self-efficacy or the theory of planned behavior. Both help to understand professional performance based on behaviour”.

• Information on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is integrated. Furthermore, the proposed conceptual improvement will be incorporated into future research in this field. This aspect is noted as a limitation of the present research.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Author(s):

 Through this study, you have set out to analyze the personal characteristics, along with the role of contextual mediators, of fifteen relevant Portuguese nationals recognized for their excellence. Consequently, comprehending and familiarizing yourselves with the professional trajectories of these individuals enables you to pinpoint the distinctive characteristics of excellence, with the aim of proposing action plans in the social and educational domains.
Across the article, the author(s) provides evidence to support his(their) claims and perspectives, using mostly recent and relevant sources.

 My suggestions are:

-          Revising the wording in line 15: „proposing proposals”

-          At lines 25-26

It is recommended to cite the source of the quote "Excellence is doing the best you can do in what you should do every day.", which would prevent potential misattribution (search engines do not return a result for this famous quote).

-          At lines 378-379

It is recommended to cite the source so that readers can verify these statements.  

"Simone Weil pointed out that the human soul needs security and risk ( ... )"

With kind regards,

A reviewer

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We appreciate the review work done, thank you very much for considering our work. The following is a response to each of the reviews carried out.

Best regards,

Ramón

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Reviewer. “Revising the wording in line 15: „proposing proposals”.

• "Proposals" are changed to "conceptual model" (indicated in table 3).

Reviewer. “At lines 25-26. It is recommended to cite the source of the quote "Excellence is doing the best you can do in what you should do every day.", which would prevent potential misattribution (search engines do not return a result for this famous quote)”.

• “Textual quote removed”.

Reviewer. “At lines 378-379. It is recommended to cite the source so that readers can verify these statements. "Simone Weil pointed out that the human soul needs security and risk (... )".

• “Textual quote removed”.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf