Financial costs and benefits of a program of measures to implement a National Strategy on Biological Diversity in Germany

The implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Actions Plans (NBSAP), as required by Article 6 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), would improve the base for political decisions by quantifying the costs and benefits of biodiversity conservation in monetary terms and by illustrating the benefits of related ecosystem services (ESS). However, so far the costs and benefits of the NBSAP have not been routinely estimated. This paper presents results from research quantifying the financial costs and benefits of implementing a set of measures based on the National Strategy on Biological Diversity in Germany (NBS). Based on the NBS and the Quality Status Reports of the EU Habitat Directive, a conservation program was developed consisting of land use changes for six ecosystems/land use types: forests, arable land, grassland, peatlands, wetlands and dry habitats. In addition to the benefits of maintaining biodiversity, two potential ESS benefits of the NBS, water purification and climate mitigation, are estimated as well as the financial costs of implementation. A nationwide contingent valuation study was undertaken to determine the benefits of maintaining biodiversity as a result of the conservation program. The benefits of the conservation program with regard to the ESS water purification are calculated for N-reduction in the leachate and based on abatement costs. The contribution of nature conservation to climate mitigation is calculated for the avoidance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and based on damage costs. The results of the study indicate that the implementation of the NBS would lead to significant financial costs, but the benefits would exceed the financial costs of measures.     

Regional Price Effects of Extreme Weather Events and Wheat Export Controls in Russia and Ukraine

We build on the price transmission framework to identify domestic wheat price effects of wheat export controls. We explicitly take into account that a harvest failure causes domestic price effects. Moreover, the analysis at the regional level provides further evidence of the functioning of export controls in a large country. Results suggest a pronounced regional heterogeneity in the strength of domestic price effects of the 2010/11 export ban in Russia. The wheat price dampening effects amount to up to 67% and are strongest in the major wheat exporting region with direct access to the world market. This effect is transmitted to other regions by increased and reversed interregional trade flows. In contrast, we find that regional variation of export controls’ domestic price effects in Ukraine is rather small.     

Assessing the effectiveness of empowerment on service quality: A multi-level study of Chinese tourism firms

This study tests relationships among three levels of empowerment—organizational, departmental, and individual—and simultaneously their cascading effects on frontline employees' service quality. Drawing on data from 1566 employee-supervisor pairs from 123 departments in 53 Chinese hospitality and tourism enterprises, results reveal a cascading mechanism across three levels of empowerment. Organizational empowerment climate influences employees' psychological empowerment through department psychological empowerment, and department psychological empowerment influences employees' service quality through individual psychological empowerment. Cross-level moderation analysis suggests that only within a high degree of organizational empowerment climate and service behavior-based evaluation does employees' psychological empowerment have positive effects on service quality. In response to the debate on the merits of empowerment programs in organizations, this study supports the usefulness of a cascading, contingency model of empowerment, and demonstrates full delineation of how and when empowerment across three levels influence frontline employees’ service quality.     

Investment climate and firm productivity: an application to Vietnamese manufacturing firms

The fundamental aspect of a national competitive advantage is a good investment climate. Understanding the role of the investment climate in generating firm productivity has received extensive attention by policymakers and economists in many countries. The article studies the effect of different dimensions of the investment climate on firm productivity. Using a large dataset of Vietnamese manufacturing firms, the article finds that deficiencies in the investment climate are prejudicial to firm productivity and competition. Furthermore, in examining the effect of corruption in association with the quality of the business environment, the study also investigates the possibility that corruption may compensate firms for a bad investment climate or at least may neutralize the negative impact of inefficient government regulations. In other words, corruption acts as ‘speed money’ to improve the efficacy of the provision of public services or provides leeway for entrepreneurs to bypass the inefficient regulations. This situation, however, is extremely harmful to the economy in the long run because it distorts the market and erodes the incentives for productive investments. Developing countries therefore need to put much more effort into institutional reforms, especially fighting corruption and efficiency in the provision of public goods and services.     

The role of values for voluntary reductions of holiday air travel

Recent research has shown that holiday air travel constitutes a typical value-action gap as many people continue to fly despite their concerns about climate change. However, some people do voluntarily reduce their holiday flights. Little is known so far about the role that values play in this decision. This paper examines this question based on semi-structured interviews with participants in local climate change and energy-saving projects. It finds that people who voluntarily reduce their holiday air travel are more ready than those who continue to fly to accept that their behaviour makes a contribution to climate change; that they feel a moral imperative to act regardless of its effectiveness in mitigating climate change; and that they distance themselves from socially dominant norms related to holiday air travel. This paper argues that these characteristics are connected to values of self-transcendence and self-direction, and that in this way values remain important for understanding and supporting low carbon behaviour.     

Eco-innovation and organizational culture in the hotel industry

This study analyzes the relationship between organizational culture and eco-innovation in a sample of 130 hotels in Oaxaca, Mexico.A theoretical model is developed to link the compatibility of the four types of organizational culture defined in the Competing Values Framework (CVF) (hierarchy, clan, market, and adhocracy culture) to different modes of eco-innovation (radical–incremental and component–architectural).In order to test the hypotheses, regression and correlation analyses are conducted. Adhocracy culture and organization size are found to be significant in explaining the presence of eco-innovation.The implications of these results for firms tend towards the convenience of adopting an adhocracy culture, which facilitates the implementation of eco-innovation at different levels and potentiates both environmental and organizational results.     

Transformational leadership,innovation climate,creative self-efficacy and employee creativity: A multilevel study

Highlighting the implications of transformational leadership, the study examines the role of transformational leadership in predicting employee creativity. The study also investigates the mediating role of innovation climate and moderating role of creative self-efficacy. A study was carried out on a sample included a dyad of 372 employees and their immediate supervisors. The findings indicate that transformational leaders can foster a climate for innovation that promotes employee creativity. Further, a significant moderating role of creative self-efficacy was found in the relationship between innovation climate and employee creativity. The findings reveal that employees with high creative-self-efficacy resort to creative behavior when they receive a supportive innovation climate.     

Identifying and evaluating adaptation strategies for cruise tourism in Arctic Canada

The cruise tourism industry in Arctic Canada has recently grown rapidly with stable numbers now emerging. While there are many socio-economic opportunities associated with growth, climate change, and environmental, technical and cultural risks also present significant management challenges. To enhance understanding of these opportunities and risks, this study adopted a policy Delphi approach to identify and evaluate potential adaptation strategies to aid decision-makers and policy-makers managing cruise tourism development and its associated impacts. Over 500 ideas were identified. These were distilled down to 65 potential adaptation options, which were evaluated for priority and feasibility by key stakeholders including local residents, tourism operators, and policy-makers. The majority of recommendations were evaluated as of high priority and most options were perceived to be somewhat affordable and implementable. Key needs included disaster management plans, updated technology and ship navigation systems, improved marine resource mapping, and the development of a code of conduct for cruise tourists to guide visitor behaviour and promote a sustainable approach. The research represents the first empirical study to identify and evaluate adaptation strategies for cruise tourism development in Arctic Canada and outlines current priorities, opportunities, and challenges associated with managing socio-economic change in Arctic Canada in sustainable ways.     

Integrating Strategic Carbon Management into Formal Evaluation of Environmental Supplier Development Programs

Increasing global environmental pressures from regulators, markets and communities have caused focal companies in supply chains to recognize the significance of environmentally conscious management. Greener supply chains are part of this recognition. Environmental supplier development is a valuable and viable strategy for greening supply chains. However, low carbon management is rarely explored in supplier development. Further, formal tools and models for focal companies to evaluate environmental supplier development programs (ESDPs) considering low carbon management and their effect on supplier performance improvement are limited. To help address these gaps in the literature, this paper proposes a portfolio evaluation model for ESDPs that consider three types of supplier performance: traditional operational factors, traditional environmental factors and low carbon management factors. This model applies the fuzzy scoring method to measure the effect of ESDPs on supplier performance, and uses fuzzy DEMATEL to examine the cause–effect interrelationships among the ESDPs. Subsequently, a real world example is used to demonstrate the application of the portfolio model and provide insights into environmental supplier development evaluation, followed by discussions of case application results. This paper concludes with directions for further research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

What is Climate Change Policy Now Trying to Achieve?

Almost all advocates of international climate change policy hope and expect that the Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris in November–December 2015 will reach an agreement to reduce global anthropomorphic greenhouse gas emissions. Yet more than 25 years of international climate change policy has failed to reach such an agreement; emissions, far from having been reduced, have greatly increased. In the author's view, no such agreement will be reached in Paris. Anticipating this, Lord Stern, a highly influential figure in international climate change policy, has restated the case for continuing with this policy while relinquishing the objective of reaching such an agreement, though it had previously been claimed that this was essential to ‘save the world’. Advocating the continuation of climate change policy while disavowing a formerly acknowledged condition of its success seems to represent a further stage in the abandonment of rationality in climate change policy formulation.