‘House poor’ or simply ‘poor’?

This paper defines a set of indicators for distinguishing housing affordability problems resulting from high rents from those chiefly arising from low income. In place of the common ratio of rent to income, it uses a residual income indicator with indicators of over-consumption and over-paying for housing services. The indicators are computed for a sample of renter households in Switzerland, one of the countries with the greatest rental share. They help define more precisely who needs general income assistance and who needs specific housing aid (only one fourth of the former).     

Is there a ‘California effect’ in US environmental policymaking?

What determines state environmental policymaking in the US? Vogel (Trading Up: Consumer and Environmental Regulation in a Global Economy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1995; J. Eur. Pub. Pol. 4 (1997) 556–571) argues that California has been a de facto leader since the early 1970s in terms of automobile emissions standards. In this paper, we investigate the generality of California’s leadership role with respect to changes in overall pollution abatement expenditures. We present a simple model of yardstick competition in abatement costs. Using state-level panel data from 1977 to 1994 on abatement costs, our results indicate at best a minor role for California. Other states, in particular California’s immediate neighbors, do not appear to use California as a guideline.     

Why do firms adopt ‘beyond‐compliance’ environmental policies?

This paper examines why firms selectively adopt ‘beyond‐compliance’ environmental policies. It argues that existing explanations based on factors external to firms are under‐specified and a focus on internal dynamics is also required. It draws insights from institutional theory, corporate social performance perspective, and stakeholder theory and relates them to internal processes. Beyond‐compliance policies are adopted, if at all, due to two types of intra‐firm process: power based and leadership based. These processes arise under different conditions and lead to different types of outcome. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

‘Repeat commercializers,’ the ‘habitual entrepreneurs’ of university–industry technology transfer

Among academic faculty, is there a class of ‘repeat commercializers’ who account for a disproportionate share of commercialized technologies arising from university research? In a survey of 172 engineering, mathematics, and science faculty members from a major Canadian university, we found evidence that a class of repeat commercializers does exist. Further, we found that the 12% of the faculty who are repeat commercializers account for 80% of the commercialized innovations. Interviews with repeat commercializers in the same faculties at the same university suggest that repeat commercializers parallel habitual entrepreneurs in that they have the ability to commercialize (i.e. the ability to generate and identify commercializable inventions and the ability to acquire resources for the commercialization of their inventions) and the aspiration to do so (i.e. commercialization-friendly attitudes). Since repeat commercializers account for such a large percentage of commercialization activity, it is important that programs and policies associated with technology transfer address the needs of this subpopulation of the faculty.     

‘Sameness’ and ‘Difference’ Revisited: Which Way Forward For Equal Opportunity Initiatives?

Recent interest in ‘managing diversity’ has reopened debates about forms of equality in the workplace. Approaches to equality developed in the 1970s and 1980s have been characterized as an attempt to ensure that if individuals bring the same abilities to work, or perform in the same way, they should receive the same access to jobs and employment benefits, regardless of social group membership. Managing diversity appears to be about a more positive valuing of difference. Benefits are seen to derive from different perspectives and approaches and these should be nurtured and rewarded rather than suppressed. Feminists have long argued about the extent to which women are the same as, or different from, men, and about the political consequences of adopting these positions. Recent theoretical developments have led to some novel solutions to this dilemma. These include asserting claims to both ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’, the deconstruction of ‘difference’, and the reconstruction of ‘sameness’ on women's terms. This paper explores approaches to equal opportunities through both established and novel theoretical perspectives. It argues that existing practice cannot be fitted neatly into the conventional distinctions between ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’, and explores the potential characteristics and strengths and weaknesses of equality initiatives based on the new theoretical perspectives.     

‘Steady As We Grow?’

With the three sources of economic crisis in Britain-inflation, the balance of payments and public finances-under control, the prospect is for continued recovery and good growth, with little inflotion, for some year to come.     

Patent statistics: deciphering a ‘real’ versus a ‘pseudo’ proxy of innovation

Patent statistics have fascinated economists concerned about innovation for a long time. However, fundamental questions remain as to whether or not patent statistics represent the real state of innovation. As Griliches pointed out, substantial questions involve: What aspects of economic activities do patent statistics actually capture? And, what would we like them to measure? He pointed out that these statistics can be a mirage appearing to provide a great number of objective and reliable proxies for innovation.This paper aims to address some of these questions by making a comparative evaluation of the representability of patent statistics in four levels of the innovation process, using as examples research and development (R&D) in Japan's printer and photovoltaic solar cell (PV) industries over the last two decades. Furthermore, this research provides a new set of patent statistics which could be considered a more reliable proxy for innovation.     

‘Thatcherism’ without Thatcher?

Have Mrs Thatcher's more radicol policies prepared the ground for a substantial restructuring of the British economy? Or is she merely responding to fundamental economic changes that are stimulating a response in the political market? Nigel Ashford, Senior Lecturer in Politics of the North Staffordshire Polytechnic, contrasts the Government's timid policy response with the electorate's increasing desire for economic liberalism, and examines the gulf between Conservative economic policy and the more truly radical ideas Mrs Thatcher is sometimes thought to promulgate.     

From ‘start-up’ to ‘re-boot’: Product lifecycle strategies and competitive advantage in the computer industry

The PC sector, following the packaging and car manufacturing industries, will increasingly be forced to acknowledge and account for its product base throughout the commodity's life, and beyond. The environmental problems being posed by electronic waste have been recognized and both the EU and the individual Member States are discussing solutions which may or may not include legislative action. In anticipation, product take-back programmes are beginning to emerge within the industry and the economics and logistics of re-use and recycling are at the forefront of this debate. The issues in store for this sector are examined and specific initiatives by organizations considered. It is asked whether a ‘closing of the product loop’ will generate a competitive advantage for these companies and what impact an industry-led ‘consortia’ initiative may have.     

ISO14000与绿色家园

论述了物业管理行业贯彻ISO14000标准的重要性 ,并就我国物业管理行业实施ISO14000认证的方法与途径进行了深入分析     

The ‘New Competition’ and Working Time

Jill Rubery, who is Senior Lecturer at the Manchester School of Management, and Sara Horrell, Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, draw on a study for the Equal Opportunities Commission to discuss the significance of the competitive conditions said to lie behind changes in working time. They argue that the existing approaches to understanding these changes – they are ‘determined’ by the ‘market/technology’ or relate to a redefinition of power relations within the workplace – are both inadequate. What is required, they suggest, is a more complex analysis of competition which takes into account both the factors that shape market conditions and the factors inside the organisation that influence responses to them.