Reducing tourism's threats to biodiversity: effects of a voluntary sustainability standard and training program on 106 Latin American hotels,lodges and guesthouses

The tourism industry can negatively affect wildlife, plants and natural ecosystems through habitat destruction, pollution, over-exploitation of natural resources and visitor impacts to sensitive ecosystems. One approach to mitigate such threats is the application of voluntary sustainability standards, supported by training of tourism enterprises and verified by external audits. The Rainforest Alliance standard defines 78 criteria (requirements) for sustainable environmental, social and business practices, and has been adopted by over 600 tourism enterprises – including hotels, lodges and tour boats – in 12 countries. We examined the performance of 106 hotels in six Latin American countries against 29 of the sustainable tourism criteria most directly related to biodiversity conservation. Independent audits were used to assess hotel performance at baseline followed by a repeat assessment after training, about two years later. Mean conformance with the 29 biodiversity criteria increased significantly during this interval, from 44% to 58%. Improvements were greatest for businesses in the lowest third of performance at baseline (laggards) and smallest for hotels in the highest third (leaders). The results indicate that a voluntary sustainability standard and training program can serve both to recognize existing good actors and to drive incremental improvement in enterprises that were previously less sustainable.     

银行业为何是大赢家?——一个基于竞赛理论的分析

文章以竞赛理论为视角,分析当前我国银行业整体业绩表现突出的原因。得出如下结论:银行业垄断、存贷高利差、信息优势以及货币产品经营者等"先天优势"促成了我国银行业大赢家的局面。这一局面会激励各行业之间展开银行牌照竞赛,产生租金耗散,影响实体经济。文章对此进行分析,并得出结论与政策建议。     

The impact of B Corp certification on financial stability: Evidence from a multi-country sample

B Corps are firms certified by the non-profit B Lab for pursuing both economic and non-economic goals. Whether B Corps realize a higher financial performance has met mixed evidence. Drawing on the stability-change framework, we ask whether B Corp certification is associated with the level and volatility of financial performance. Also, expecting a greater focus on non-economic activities after certification, equity ratio may decline as shareholders may question the increased non-economic focus. Using nearest neighbor propensity score matched pair method, we draw on a multi-country sample of 355 B Corps and 623 non-B Corps. Our findings are not encouraging. B Corp certification does not provide financial gains nor financial stability, and equity ratio declines and becomes more volatile following certification. Our findings paint a gloomy picture of limited economic benefits and declining participation of equity holders following B Corp certification.     

论海南岛国家公园生态认证管理

随着海南国际旅游岛建设上升为国家战略,海南岛国家公园的筹划建设,近年来海南旅游迅猛发展,为在经济、社会、环境效应方面寻找平衡点,生态旅游认证成为积极有效的手段和工具。目前我国非政府组织还很不发达,特别是在海南省。因此,海南省政府在生态旅游认证体系的初期构建中起主导作用。通过对政府部门、生态旅游供给者和生态旅游者的问卷调查,对海南岛国家公园构建生态旅游认证过程中面临的关键问题进行了分析,并在调查基础上提出了海南岛国家公园进行生态认证管理的对策。     

德尔菲法在杨树人工林认证内部评审过程中的应用——以山东省费县为例

本研究在内部评审过程中运用德尔菲法,对中国森林经营认证的3大类9项原则45条标准进行评价得分。通过16位专家的2论咨询结果整理统计得出了山东省费县杨树人工林经营中存在的主要不符合项,并对完善不符合项的困难程度做了咨询。本次德尔菲法在杨树人工林认证内部评审过程中的应用,其结果能较好的反应当前费县杨树人工林经营的现状,明确经营单位在森林经营活动中存在的问题,对今后工作的经营重点难点有建设性的意义,同时也能给相关单位一个参考。     

关于中国开展森林认证的几点建议

森林认证作为促进森林可持续经营和林产品市场准入的一种有效途径,近年来在世界范围内发展迅速。介绍了森林认证在国内外的进展现状,分析了我国开展森林认证的意义和必要性,提出了开展国际互认、实施森林认证产品政府采购政策等7项进一步推进我国森林认证工作的建议。     

“Reverse” nested lottery contests

This paper proposes a multi-prize “reverse” nested lottery contest model, which can be viewed as the “mirror image” of the conventional nested lottery contest of  Clark and Riis (1996a). The reverse-lottery contest model determines winners by selecting losers based on contestants’ one-shot effort through a hypothetical sequence of lotteries. We provide a microfoundation for the reverse-lottery contest from a perspective of (simultaneous) noisy performance ranking and establish that the model is underpinned by a unique performance evaluation rule. We further demonstrate that the noisy-ranking model can be interpreted intuitively as a “worst-shot” contest, in which contestants’ performances are evaluated based on their most severe mistakes. The reverse-lottery contest model thus depicts a great variety of widely observed competitive activities of this nature. A handy closed-form solution for a symmetric equilibrium of the reverse-lottery contest is obtained. We show that the winner-take-all principle continues to hold in reverse-lottery contests. Moreover, we find that a reverse-lottery contest elicits more effort than a conventional lottery contest whenever the prizes available to contestants are relatively scarce.     

Idea Competitions under scrutiny: Acquisition,intelligence or public relations mechanism?

Idea Competitions (ICs) are becoming a popular mechanism chosen by firms to perform Open Innovation. They are a way to engage with external sources of knowledge such as individual entrepreneurs and small firms who are asked to submit ideas and compete for a prize. However, little is known about the success of ICs as acquisition mechanisms. The researchers conducted interviews in five multinational companies to evaluate the effects of using ICs as an acquisition mechanism. Although still preliminary, the results of this study show that the success of ICs as an acquisition mechanism remains uncertain because their output (i.e. the number of ideas acquired) is often low compared to the input (i.e. the number of ideas submitted) and effort required to run them (e.g. to vet ideas). Across the cases observed, ICs appear to be more successful at identifying and acquiring early-stage ideas, particularly those outside the current business focus. The study shows that ICs deliver other functional benefits such as improved intelligence and public relations and that these need to be considered as part of the evaluation of the IC's success. The paper concludes by discussing the conditions in which ICs are implemented and the implications for Open Innovation theory.     

Does mandatory food safety training and certification for restaurant employees improve inspection outcomes?

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mandatory food safety training and certification and inspection results of chain restaurants and independent restaurants, using current food safety inspection results of food service establishments in Central Florida. More specifically, this study examines whether there is any statistically significant difference in the violation frequency among chain and independent restaurants. Reducing the risk of any foodborne illness is a critical strategy that industry stakeholders should pursue in an area dominated by tourism such as Orlando, Florida. A one-way ANOVA was used to determine the differences between the two types of restaurants. Findings indicate that there is significant difference between chain and independent restaurants for critical violations. No difference was found when comparing chain verses independent restaurants for non-critical violations.