The environmental sustainability of protected area tourism: towards a concession-related theory of regulation

Demand for Protected Area (PA) tourism continues to grow, raising concerns for its environmental sustainability. Numerous sustainable tourism guidelines and best practice examples exist for separate aspects of PA regulation and management. However, such efforts are insufficient to reliably and holistically understand how regulation can mediate the relationship between tourism development and PA environmental sustainability. This paper proposes a theory development project, to map the compatibility and interplays among various regulatory approaches, and their consequences for sustainable PA tourism. The project is initiated here by taking the first steps toward a concession-related theory of regulation. The focus on concessions has been chosen because concessions are the most under-researched aspects of PA tourism regulation. Four regulatory aspects are selected and conceptualized in this paper: the approaches to PA planning, the types of monitoring undertaken, the methods of concession allocation and the design of environmental requirements in concession contracts. Methodologically, grounded theory is used, with data collection relying on written sources. The paper develops two sets of narrative statements regarding the prospects for PA environmental sustainability, under particular examples of concession-related regulation. The conclusion articulates several research questions, as an immediate research agenda, and calls for an international research group to be formed.     

Can governance help in making an IPO “successful”? New evidence from Europe

This paper investigates the determinants of a “successful” IPO from a corporate governance perspective upon a representative sample of European listings from 2000 to 2015. We use an extensive dataset of market performance, financial data, and corporate governance characteristics to run the investigation. Differently from previous studies, our analysis embraces both a short‐term perspective and a medium–long‐term perspective, where the board of directors seems to perform different tasks, moving from a value creation to a value protection strategy. Among the others, we find that board size, board independence, and their qualifications, together with their experience in other boards, are associated with a positive performance of the IPO in a short‐term horizon and in the medium–long‐term period, although significant differences emerge among those time perspectives.     

Post-crisis firm survival,business model changes,and learning: evidence from the Italian manufacturing industry

Small Business Economics - Company survival after recessions depends on the entrepreneurial ability of decision makers to react to the crisis and learn how to make the best use of chances. The aim...     

Environmental Innovations and Internationalization: Theory and Practices

Based on original data on Italian firms specializing in medium‐ and low‐tech industries, we study the relationship between firms’ upstream and downstream internationalization and their propensity to introduce products or processes that reduce environmental impact. Preliminary evidence suggests that geography plays an important role in green firms’ activities and supply chains. More precisely, results suggest that firms that outsource to and rely on non‐local suppliers are less likely to engage in environmental innovations. Moreover, we verify that firms engaged in export activities play a similar and negative role, regardless of the export intensity and typology of foreign markets (i.e. developed versus emerging). Tapping global flows of knowledge by being a part of a multinational group positively spurs the development of green innovations, as for FDIs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Assessing social support networks in cross-national comparative surveys: Measurement issues

In recent years many cross-national comparative surveys, such as Gender and Generation Programme, International Social Survey Programme, European Quality of Life Survey, or General Social Survey, have included assessment of social support networks. Generally, two approaches were used; the name generator approach and the role relation approach. As more cross-country surveys are conducted every year, it may seem reasonable to use such data sets, since they provide high quality comparisons across countries. However, one should pay close attention to the measurement instruments, as these may cause unintentional but systematic variability in the observed data. While the data from each survey can be of high quality ??per se??, we claim that results from these surveys are not comparable, owing to their different measurement approaches and survey instruments. In this paper we present data from several experiments which show that scientific findings from these surveys depend significantly on questionnaire design.     

Timing of Mitigation and Technology Availability in Achieving a Low-Carbon World

This paper analyzes the economic and investment implications of a series of climate mitigation scenarios, characterized by different levels of ambition for long-term stabilization goals and transitional pathways. Results indicate that although milder climate objectives can be achieved at moderate costs, stringent stabilization paths, compatible with the 2°C target, might require significant economic resources. Innovation and technology are shown to be able to mitigate, but not structurally alter, this trade-off. Technologies that allow capturing CO₂ from the atmosphere are shown to be important for expanding the feasibility space of stringent climate policies, though only if deployed at a scale which would represent a tremendous challenge. In general, the analysis indicates that the timing of mitigation is an important factor of cost containment, with early action being desirable. It also elaborates on the set of mitigation strategies and policies that would be required to achieve climate protection at maximum efficiency.     

Preference erosion and the developing countries exports to the EU: a dynamic panel gravity approach

The erosion of preferences due to multilateral tariff reductions is a long-standing concern for many developing countries. This paper focuses on the erosion of the preferences granted by the EU in the rice industry. Since 2004 there has been a sharp decrease in border protection for the EU rice industry. Because the EU grants trade preferences to a considerable number of rice exporting developing countries, the reform implied preference erosion as well. By addressing the impact of preference erosion on developing countries rice exports to the EU, this paper contributes two original insights to the literature: first, by proposing a new empirical approach to compute the preference margin when tariff rate quotas are in force which is based on the assumption of the existence of fixed costs and economies of scale in international trade; second, by estimating the trade elasticities of preferences by means of a dynamic panel gravity equation to deal with the issues of endogeneity of preferences and persistency in bilateral trade flows. The results show that the way preference margins are calculated matters significantly when assessing the existence and extent of their erosion and the values of trade elasticities. Finally, the estimations highlight the fact that the impact of preferences is still very strong for some of the countries concerned.