Impacts of climate change on lower Murray irrigation*

This article evaluates irrigated agriculture sector response and resultant economic impacts of climate change for a part of the Murray Darling Basin in Australia. A water balance model is used to predict reduced basin inflows for mild, moderate and severe climate change scenarios involving 1, 2 and 4°C warming, and predict 13, 38 and 63% reduced inflows. Impact on irrigated agricultural production and profitability are estimated with a mathematical programming model using a two‐stage approach that simultaneously estimates short and long‐run adjustments. The model accounts for a range of adaptive responses including: deficit irrigation, temporarily following of some areas, permanently reducing the irrigated area and changing the mix of crops. The results suggest that relatively low cost adaptation strategies are available for a moderate reduction in water availability and thus costs of such a reduction are likely to be relatively small. In more severe climate change scenarios greater costs are estimated. Adaptations predicted include a reduction in total area irrigated and investments in efficient irrigation. A shift away from perennial to annual crops is also predicted as the latter can be managed more profitably when water allocations in some years are very low.     

New Corporate Forms: One Viable Solution to Advancing Environmental Sustainability

There is a clear trend in corporate governance toward increased attention to the environmental and social impacts of business operations. Major consulting firms are advising Fortune 500 companies on how to become more environmentally sustainable, private equity and “impact” investors are measuring environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, and voluntary reporting and shareholder resolutions on issues of environmental sustainability are on the rise. While traditional corporate forms allow companies to embrace social and environmental responsibility with some measure of success, various real and perceived risks encourage directors to focus on short‐term profitability. Even if a company has a strong social mission at inception, founders often have difficulty “anchoring their mission” over time. And the lack of required disclosure of social and environmental performance makes it more difficult for investors to evaluate and compare companies. Many believe that the institutionalized mispricing of natural resources and the continued failure to price externalities, combined with the progressive nature of climate change, require the transformation of both business and law. This article discusses social and environmental sustainability within the traditional corporate form and then explores three emerging alternatives that are now being used by businesses in California: limited liability corporations (LLCs); benefit corporations (B corps); and flexible purpose corporations (FPCs). Of these three alternatives, FPCs—a corporate form that requires shareholders to agree on one or more social missions with management and the board—may be best suited to meet the needs of the many small private firms (as well as some large public companies) that, whether for purely economic or altruistic reasons, plan to integrate ESG into their operations.     

International Expansion of SMEs: The Inducascos Case

While small and medium enterprises contribute to gross domestic product, generate crucial employment, and improve socio-economic development, unfortunately the literature on the internationalization processes of these companies remains timid and inconsistent. The following study seeks to analyze the international expansion of the Colombian company Inducascos. The research follows the structure of a case study including literature analysis and secondary data of the Colombian industrial market and Inducascos. Challenges, opportunities and learning process of the organization related to its international expansion and set out, seeking to contribute to the existing studies in international business.     

Social exclusion and rural transport: Gender aspects of a road improvement project in Tshitwe,Northern Province

This article presents a case for a reorientation of the way in which rural transport needs are perceived, planned and provided for, with a view to improved targeting of interventions, particularly with regard to addressing the mobility and accessibility needs of rural women. In addition, it seeks to critically appraise the sustainability of poverty alleviation properties attributed to the labour-based road works, especially in respect of their impact on women. It also explores the role that non-motorised modes of transport could play in reducing the transport burden of the Tshitwe community.     

The Impact and Determinants of Nine-Ending Pricing in Grocery Retailing

Research into nine-ending pricing indicates a clear effect on sales but strong variance, suggesting that their effects are context dependent. This research relates nine-ending effects to a broad set of determinants and investigates the influence of brand, category, store, and store area clientele characteristics. The numerous empirically supported hypotheses indicate that the framework built on level and image effects is well adapted for explaining the effectiveness of nine-endings. They validate that a wide and indiscriminate practice of nine-ending pricing is not effective. The findings show that the impact of nine-endings can lead to sales losses (e.g., premium brands); however, a nine-ending price is more effective for increasing sales of small brands (e.g., low market-share, low price, and new items) that belong to weaker categories (e.g., low price, low budget-share). The effect erodes as the store's nine-ending pricing practices intensify. For category sales, a simulation reveals the existence of a threshold for which overuse is counterproductive.     

Entry‐Timing Advantages in Renewable Natural Resources Industries

In this paper, we explore the conditions of entry‐timing advantages in renewable natural resource industries. Drawing from behavioural theory of the firm, we classify firms in two groups depending on the different heuristics used to make entry decisions when facing the cyclical endogenous nature of these industries: crowd firms are procyclical, making decisions based on the current phase of the industry cycle, whereas anti‐crowd firms follow a countercyclical strategy, making uncertain, and risky decisions by estimation of the next phase of the cycle. Therefore, anti‐crowd firms anticipate the deployment of resources each cycle, potentially gaining entry‐timing advantages beyond those provided by traditional competitive isolating mechanisms. Through a mathematical simulation of a performance feedback model, we reveal that the entry‐timing advantage of the anti‐crowd group becomes possible when the rivalry in the industry and the price sensitivity of competitors are high, and when the time required to deploy the resources is short.     

Optimal management of a flammable forest providing timber and carbon sequestration benefits: an Australian case study*

In deciding to keep or fell a forest stand given its age, the risk of loss of timber through wildfire is an important consideration. If trees also have value from sequestration of carbon, another effect of fire is the unplanned loss of stored carbon. Factors affecting the decision to keep or fell trees, and how much to spend on fire protection, are investigated using stochastic dynamic programming, using carbon sequestration in stands of mountain ash in Victoria as a case study. The effect of treating sawlogs as a permanent carbon sink after harvesting is explored.     

Transforming learning into export performance by Chinese firms

Organisational learning plays a vital role in enhancing firm performance, particularly for companies operating in foreign markets. Knowledge gained from various markets needs to be integrated for it to have a significant impact on performance. This study seeks to demonstrate how organisational learning can transform knowledge into performance through an organization-wide commitment to learning, a knowledge integration system and an organisational capability to learn. A survey undertaken in South China would show that there is a sequential chain of effects among these constructs.