Is the environment‐friendly factor attractive to customers when purchasing electric vehicles? Evidence from South Korea

In a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, several countries worldwide are implementing policies to promote electric vehicles (EVs). However, contrary to expectations, the diffusion speed of EVs has been rather slow in South Korea. This study analyzes consumer preferences for the technological and environmental attributes of EVs and derives policy and environmental implications to promote market diffusion of EVs in South Korea. We conduct a choice‐based conjoint survey of 1,008 consumers in South Korea and estimate the consumer utility function using a mixed logit model considering consumer heterogeneity. Based on the consumer utility function, we analyze consumers' willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for EV attributes such as driving range, charging method, charging time, autonomous driving function, carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction rate, and purchase price. The results indicate that the current low acceptance of EVs is due to their relatively high price and lack of a battery charging technology that satisfies consumers' expectations of the charging method and time. One interesting finding is that Korean consumers have a relatively higher WTP for the CO₂ reduction rate of EVs than consumers in other countries; however, they do not consider CO₂ reduction over other technological attributes when choosing EVs. This implies that the rate of CO₂ reduction of EVs is not an important factor for South Korean consumers when buying EVs. We also calculate the effect of CO₂ reduction with the market penetration of EVs and find that CO₂ reduction through the diffusion of EVs depends on the country's electricity generation mix.     

Driving the electric bandwagon: The dynamics of incumbents' sustainable innovation

Given that entire industries face sustainability challenges, it is important to understand the dynamics that lead “firms‐in‐an‐industry” to engage in sustainable product innovation. To provide more insight into the question of how innovation activities spread from individual firm action to an industry‐wide engagement, this paper examines the automobile industry and the development of electric vehicles (EVs). The analysis covers automobile incumbents over a crucial decade for EV development in the industry, focusing on the different strategic motives that especially the so‐called “first movers” used to justify their earlier engagement. We find that EVs became a core pillar of the incumbents' technology strategies through a combination of coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures. Yet, the strategic motives to engage in EVs stayed poles apart between different companies. The insights from our study are relevant for those interested in the diffusion of sustainable product innovation and in incumbent behaviour in sustainability transitions.     

Exploring the enablers and inhibitors of electric vehicle adoption intention from sellers' perspective in India: A view of the dual‐factor model

The electric vehicle (EV) is a crucial innovation with the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help reduce the causes of climate change. Despite their multiple benefits, EVs are selling lower numbers than would be expected, seeming to require more positive intent from their sellers to increase the pace of EV adoption. Hence, this study explores the enablers and inhibitors of EV adoption intention from the sellers' perspective using a dual‐factor model. The extended theory of planned behavior has been used to explore the enablers, whereas the status quo bias theory has been used to explore the inhibitors of EV adoption. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern, and perceived corporate social responsibility obligation have significant positive impacts on intention to adopt EVs. However, regret avoidance, inertia, perceived threat, and perceived value have significant impacts on the resistance to adopt EVs. This study enriches the literature related to intention and resistance to adopt green technology and also provides several suggestions to marketers for increasing the pace of EV adoption.     

Marketing of electric vehicles

Substituting electric vehicles for traditional ones could reduce local pollution and greenhouse emissions from the transportation system. However, these societal benefits come at high costs to the owner of the EV in terms of price, driving range, availability, loading capacity, speed and acceleration. In addition, the usability of an EV is hampered by the lack of an infrastructure for recharging. Such a product hardly sells itself to potential customers. Besides supportive national policies, skillful marketing is needed to get it accepted and diffused throughout society. This paper outlines a two‐phase strategy for the marketing of EVs based on a discussion of current and expected future characteristics of EVs and on a review of research on early adopters. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Business Strategies of Incumbents in the Market for Electric Vehicles: Opportunities and Incentives for Sustainable Innovation

This paper focuses on the relation between large car manufacturers’ incentive and opportunity to innovate and their electric vehicle (EV) business strategies. We analyze how environmental regulation and the firm's incentive (measured by net income) and opportunity to innovate (measured by EV asset position, determined from a combination of patent, partnership and prototype data) affected EV sales over the period 1990–2011. During the EV's R&D period in the 1990s, large car manufacturers that were regulated by the full zero emission vehicle mandate developed a significantly stronger EV asset position, but did not sell significantly more EVs than their rivals. During the EV's commercialization period (2007–2011), large car manufacturers with both a strong incentive and a strong opportunity to innovate sold significantly more EVs. Based on these results, the paper offers a typology of business strategies, several managerial implications, and recommendations for policy makers to stimulate sustainable development. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Dispatching and routing of emergency vehicles in disaster mitigation using data fusion

The aim of this paper is to develop a robust methodology for the dispatching and routing of emergency vehicles (EVs) in a post-disaster environment with the support of data fusion. In this work, we consider an earthquake scenario with a large number of casualties needing medical attention. Given an influx of information (regarding casualties, road, traffic conditions, etc.), data are fused to provide estimates of the entities under consideration. We use this information to dispatch and route EVs to casualty pickup locations, followed by delivery to appropriate hospitals. Key factors here include patient priorities, clustering criteria, and distance. Similarly, factors affecting the dispatching of EVs from patient locations to hospitals include waiting time at hospital emergency rooms, hospital capacity, and distance. Routes must be generated for EVs by accounting for real-world road networks, existing road damage, congestion, and related issues. We develop a dispatching and routing simulation model, and utilize a case study to evaluate the performance of our proposed methodology.     

Spatial Spillovers Revisited: Innovation,Human Capital and Local Dynamics

This symposium focuses on understanding key territorial‐level innovation trends and processes by country, region and technology. It questions various widely accepted assumptions, offers fresh perspectives, both conceptually and methodologically, and challenges a paradigm shift in the field of innovation and spatial dynamics. It consists of three articles analysing at different scales (urban, regional and national) the territorial dynamics of innovation and their determinants. The innovation process, with local symbiosis and spatial spillovers at its core, is analysed within the conceptual framework of national and regional innovation systems and regional economic development. Based on a discussion of spatial spillovers and the way they shape the evolutionary and symbiotic relationships between local agents and actors, including university, industry and local development agencies, the symposium highlights the relevance of this framework for a better understanding of the transformation of local economic development processes. It investigates the differences in the geography of innovation regarding different institutional settings, different systems of innovation, and different national innovation strategies. While addressing mainly the EU, the US, and emerging countries such as China and India, the contributions also highlight the critical role of current innovation policies from a general perspective. In so doing, the symposium recognizes a contrarian perspective that argues that contemporary information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide a way to leapfrog the dominant role of proximity in innovation processes, creating a complimentary rather than a substitution effect for more remote and peripheral places. That said, this symposium focuses primarily on an urban network view of the innovation process and proximal effects in this context.     

Business strategies and the transition to low‐carbon cities

Cities are key drivers of global climate change, with the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions being tied to urban life. Local actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change are essential for stabilization of the global climate and can also help to address other urban ecological problems such as pollution, decreasing biodiversity, etc. Companies are important urban actors in the development of low‐carbon cities because they provide a multitude of goods and services to city populations and directly influence urban carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. This is a new area of research. While studies on corporate sustainability are numerous, there is little, if any, existing research that examines the role of companies in climate change adaptation and mitigation within specific urban areas. Urban ecologists also have not examined how corporate activity affects urban systems. Taking a multi‐disciplinary systems approach, we present a conceptual model of the role of companies in managing urban interactions with the climate system. We also present empirical findings illustrating how one company ‘partners’ with the city of Rotterdam to test electric vehicles as a pilot project for urban climate adaptation and mitigation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The impact of renewable energy diffusion on European consumption-based emissions

The amount of carbon embedded in the final consumption of goods and services in a country or region depends on the amount of goods and services consumed and the emission intensity of the production processes along global production chains. A reduction of consumption-based emissions can be achieved from both sides, a reduction in total consumption and a reduction in the emission intensity of the production processes. The power sector is one of the most carbon intensive industries along global production chains and the global deployment of renewable power generation technologies (RPGTs) is one possibility to significantly reduce emissions in this industry. This paper combines three different strands of literature, multi-regional input–output analysis, dynamic energy–economy–environment models and technological change in renewable energy (RE), to model the impact of the global diffusion of renewable energies on European consumption-based emissions. The global diffusion of RE technologies (photovoltaic and wind) depends on the development of technology costs, which are modeled using learning curves. With increasing deployment of renewables within the EU as well as increasing RD&D efforts, the EU can achieve an accelerated costs decrease for these technologies, thus fostering deployment of RPGTs at a global scale through the effect of decreasing costs. This behavior indirectly influences the electricity mix abroad, making it less carbon intensive, so that consumption-based emissions of the EU decrease.     

Integration of management systems: A methodology for operational excellence and strategic flexibility

Organisations employ various management systems (MSs) to systematically address the needs of their stakeholders. As the number of MSs is mushrooming, the need has arisen to integrate them into one holistic business management system that addresses various stakeholder requirements in an integrated manner. However, the dynamics of the integration process are not yet fully understood and research has yet to establish how the integration of MSs gives rise to various types of organisational improvements. This paper focuses on how the integration process unfolds in practice to give rise to a number of socio-technical changes essential to the integration of MSs. This research is based on four cases; it reveals that integration streamlines operational processes through a number of structural, functional, and operational changes. Integration reforms bureaucratic structures, further giving rise to operational excellence and strategic flexibility. The research also provides the extension of lean production practices bundles, and an operationalisation of Adler’s concept of enabling bureaucracy.     

Evaluation of the social and economic impact of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on sustainable mobility using cumulative ordinal models: trend odds model

In the context of environmental sustainability evaluation, grouped under climate change, health and ecosystem themes, an impact that could be investigated is the Global Warming Potential (GWP), whose sources are a multitude. In urban areas the evaluation of real vehicles emissions is an essential activity in order to suggest possible solution to local administrators. They still express the need to improve and maintain the characteristics of the breathing air at the best possible quality level. Moreover, these solutions, such as planning measures or traffic control management in respect of pollution, would be apply at different geographical levels, i.e. national, regional or urban scale. Another factor to be investigated is the effect of technologies and emission control systems to comply more stringent limits (Euro 4/5/6) and improve air quality to a lower environmental impact. GWP, indicator of climate change, is measured in terms of CO₂ equivalency emission values variable. To perform this activity an experimental campaign was carried out with several vehicles from different manufacturers and with a wide variety in terms of mass, power, engine displacement and type approval technology. The experimental plan includes some repetitions of the urban section in Naples city centre.The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a strategy on the choice of a logistic model with ordinal data and with trend, and, second, to evaluate the usefulness of such models for environmental sustainability (CO₂ and other vehicular pollutant emissions), with particular emphasis on model formulation, the interpretation of model coefficients, and the implications of such models.     

‘Asset Price Urbanism’ and Financialization after the Crisis: Ireland's National Asset Management Agency

The impact of the global financial crisis on cities is the subject of an important body of research. One aspect which has received surprisingly little attention is the urban dimension of government interventions in the financial sector, particularly given the integration of finance and real estate is widely understood as a key driver of the crisis. This article examines one such intervention, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), a ‘bad bank' established by the Irish government to acquire and manage ‘toxic' real estate loans from the banking sector. Although envisaged as an intervention in the financial sector, the relationship between finance and real estate is such that the agency has a significant impact on urban development and, at the same time, that the management of urban space plays a key role in resolving the financial crisis and restoring the flow of credit in the economy. The article develops the concept of ‘asset price urbanism' to capture the way in which urban space and its relationship to finance is managed to bolster the relationship between real estate and credit, and theorizes this as a significant aspect of contemporary accumulation. The article thus makes an empirically grounded conceptual contribution to literature on the urban dimension of financialization.     

Do investors value companies' mandatory nonfinancial risk disclosure? An empirical analysis of the Italian context after the EU Directive

In October 2014, the European Union adopted Directive 2014/95/EU (hereafter, EU Directive), mandating companies of a certain size to draft and publish corporate nonfinancial information (NFI) regarding society and the environment. In this study, we examine the mandatory disclosure of nonfinancial (NF) risks by listed Italian companies, as required by the EU Directive, focusing on both the state‐of‐the‐art of such disclosure and its usefulness for investors. For this purpose, the study adopts a two‐staged research approach; in the first stage, we employed a manual meaning‐oriented content analysis to investigate the NF declarations (NFDs) of the listed Italian companies that were obliged to disclose NFI, returning a quality NF risks disclosure index. In the second stage, we used the value relevance methodology to investigate whether the disclosed NF risk information affects the levels of equity prices, through a modified Ohlson model. Our research is one of the first to investigate the value relevance of mandatory disclosures of NF risks following the implementation of the EU Directive, in the Italian context. The research was carried out in 2017, the first year of the directive's application for listed Italian companies. The main findings support a positive association between NF risk information disclosure levels and companies' market value. Moreover, they provide evidence of a significant mediating effect of NF risk on the relationship between financial risks and market value.     

Pre-defined and optional staging for the deployment of enterprise systems: a case study and a framework

The effective deployment of enterprise systems has been a major challenge for many organisations. Customising the new system, changing business processes, and integrating multiple information sources are all difficult tasks. As such, they are typically done in carefully planned stages in a process known as phased implementation. Using ideas from Option Theory, this article critiques aspects of phased implementation. One customer relationship management (CRM) project and its phased implementation are described in detail and ten other enterprise system deployments are summarised as a basis for the observation that almost all deployment stages are pre-defined operational steps rather than decision points. However, Option Theory suggests that optional stages, to be used only when risk materialises, should be integral parts of project plans. Although such optional stages are often more valuable than pre-defined stages, the evidence presented in this article shows that they are only rarely utilised. Therefore, a simple framework is presented; it first identifies risks related to the deployment of enterprise systems, then identifies optional stages that can mitigate these risks, and finally compares the costs and benefits of both pre-defined and optional stages.     

The people behind the scenes: Episodic volunteering at fundraising events

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have become increasingly dependent on episodic volunteers (EVs), those that would help carry out an event with little training and expectation to commit to future events. Despite its importance to the survival of NPOs, the use of EVs with respect to fundraising has received little research focus. Furthermore, none of the existing studies identified examined how fundraising EVs differ from other EVs. This study seeks to contribute to our understanding of fundraising EVs using a global perspective. Data were generated using surveys distributed in seven countries, tallying more than 4,000 respondents. Variables included demographic characteristics, previous donation and volunteer history, motives, mode of volunteering, and overall experience. The data were analyzed by applying between-group (logistic regression on participation) and within-group analysis (ordered logistic regression on willingness to participate in the future). Data were further analyzed by examining differences by country. We found that country, gender, religion, income, employment, history of donations, mode of volunteering, and several motives, both intrinsic and extrinsic, were significant in the logistic regression analysis of participation in fundraising episodic volunteering. The ordered logistic analysis unexpectedly found that the only predictors to foster a willingness to engage again were the responsiveness of the event team and a desire to fulfill spiritual satisfaction. In recruiting and selecting EVs for fundraising events, NPOs should consider previous or current donors and those with regular volunteering experience and they should market volunteer opportunities towards those in search of spiritual fulfillment and meaning. Moreover, NPOs should prioritize quick and clear communication with fundraising EVs in order to foster a willingness to volunteer again. Lastly, NPOs should regularly assess for country-specific factors and contexts that may affect episodic volunteering in fundraising events. Our paper illustrates who fundraising EVs are, their motives, how they choose to volunteer, and what contributes to their willingness to volunteer again. Given the limited research on fundraising EVs, this study serves to help lay the foundation of research for this unique subgroup. Our aim was to not only address the dearth of literature but serve as a springboard for future research on fundraising EVs.     

Planning for Peace in Contested Space

This article explores the debate about contested space in urban policy and planning. Beginning with a review of key concepts and theories, it proceeds to identify models for understanding such spaces and for effective public intervention. It takes a case study of Belfast, on which there is substantial literature and data, to explore whether the recent history of this city can contribute to the debate about the role of urban planning and policy in contested space. Finally, it suggests that the Belfast experience indicates the need for a broader framework of intervention than is possible within a purely planning paradigm.     

Policies to benefit from the globalization of corporate R&D: An exploratory study for EU countries

This article explores how the globalization of corporate R&D has led to the emergence of new policy strategies across the EU, involving a more proactive role of governments and a closer connection between innovation policies and FDI promotion policies. The first part presents an analytical framework encompassing the main policy objectives and instruments at stake, which aims at facilitating the design and evaluation of policies geared towards the globalization of corporate R&D. Both the policies to attract inward FDI in R&D and those towards R&D offshoring are addressed, as well as the distinct policy implications of alternative entry modes. The second part provides evidence of the evolution of European policies in response to the globalization of corporate R&D, pointing out a set of country-specific examples and suggesting avenues for policy intervention at the EU level. Although the focus is on the EU, this study may inform policy learning in other developed and developing countries alike.     

Unmanning the homeland

This article traces some of the history of and logic behind the automation of weapons systems in relation to their planned deployment as an integral element of ‘homeland security’ in the US after the September 11th attacks. We focus primarily on unmanned combat air vehicles that have long been part of the Air Force’s R&D plans, but have now apparently found an event that justifies their production and deployment. What, we wonder, will be the effects on the urban landscape by using unmanned vehicles capable of ‘intelligently’ selecting a target and firing upon it, especially when the technology that allows these weapons systems to find the target as satellite coordinates relies on the same information technology that provides the infrastructure for ‘smart’ communities, and are already deployed in virtually all urban settings. By exploring the logic of speed and surprise that has driven the increased move toward and reliance on automated and intelligent weapons systems, we reveal how the arguments used in favor of developing and deploying such weapons systems also work as arguments against them. The technology that makes a weapons system intelligent, for example, also means that it has to be capable of choosing the wrong target, hence its ‘intelligence’. Similarly, the need to control the element of surprise has its logical end in the pursuit of the ultimate hidden vantage point, exemplified by the dark side of the moon. The technology and logic of the current ‘War on Terror’ fits neatly into already extant long–range military strategic planning, and could have a massive impact on the shape of urban environments in the immediate and distant futures. Cet article reprend en partie l’historique et la logique qui sous–tendent l’automatisation des systèmes d’armes dans le cadre de leur déploiement en tant qu’élément constitutif de la ‘séécurité de la patrie‘ aux Etats–Unis après les attaques du 11 septembre. Il se consacre surtout aux aéronefs de combat sans pilote qui font partie des stratégies de R&D de l’Air Force depuis longtemps même si, apparemment, ils ont dorénavant trouvé un événement justifiant leur production et leur déploiement. Quels seraient les effets sur le paysage urbain d’un recours à ces véhicules sans pilote capables de choisir ‘intelligemment’ une cible et de la viser? Et ce, en particulier si la technologie qui leur permet de trouver la cible sous forme de coordonnées par satellite s’appuie sur cette même informatique qui fournit l’infrastructure aux communautés ‘intelligentes’, celle–ci étant déjà installée sur quasiment toutes les scènes urbaines. En s’intéressant à la logique de rapidité et surprise qui a motivé la tendance croissante et la dépendance à légard des systèmes d’armes automatisés intelligents, l’article révèle comment les arguments favorables au développement et au déploiement de ces systèmes fonctionnent aussi comme arguments contraires. La technologie qui rend intelligent un tel système signifie, par exemple, qu’il doit être capable de choisir la mauvaise cible, donc son ‘intelligence’. De même, le besoin de maîtriser l’élément de surprise trouve sa fin logique dans la recherche de la position cachée optimale, caractérisée par la face cachée de la lune. Technologie et logique de la ‘guerre’ actuelle contre la terreur s’adaptent parfaitement aux plans stratégiques militaires de grande envergure déjà en place et pourraient avoir une incidence énorme sur la conformation des environnements urbains dans un avenir à la fois immédiat et lointain.     

HR in collaborative innovation with customers: role,alignment and challenges

Companies are engaging in collaborative innovation with their customers (CIC), but there has been no comprehensive discussion of the role of human resources (HR) in such initiatives or the challenges involved. We begin with a brief overview of CIC and the challenges for HR and then draw on different streams of research to develop a conceptual framework for the alignment of HR with CIC strategies. Theoretical foundations for the components of the framework are integrated with the discussions of its various components. We begin with a review of staffing and development practices focused on collaboration and relationship skills, as well as creativity, and collaborative- and commitment-oriented HR systems. We then discuss how HR deployment, performance management, control practices and contextual factors potentially affect the relationship between antecedent HR practices and the collaborative and innovative behaviors needed for CIC. Several challenges in aligning HR practices with CIC are explored, such as the limited supply of research talent inclined toward CIC, skills for collecting tacit knowledge, performance assessment and risk-related career implications. Other broader challenges are discussed, such as deployment, preserving internal innovation capabilities and controlling confidential information. Suggestions for overcoming challenges for HR in CIC are discussed and ideas for future research are provided.     

The free movement of workers and social Europe: maintaining the European ideal

The big EU enlargement of 2004 has fuelled the debate about whether labour migration from the east to the west is causing social dumping in the European economy, with the effect of upsetting established national systems of labour market regulation. This article reviews the effects of migration on EU labour markets. It also examines three recent industrial relations disputes which were about job displacement. It argues that there is little evidence of greater labour mobility causing new social dumping pressures on a widespread basis. However, it goes on to suggest that the situation may change if the EU adopts neoliberal policies such as the initial draft Services Directive at the same time as promoting greater labour market openness between the Member States. The article concludes by arguing for a better policy mix which would on the one hand involve the EU maintaining its commitment to the free movement of workers and on the other hand strengthen labour standard‐setting mechanisms at both the EU and national levels.