Green human resource management and the enablers of green organisational culture: Enhancing a firm's environmental performance for sustainable development

Scholars have shown that green human resource management (GHRM) practices enhance a firm's environmental performance. However, existing studies fail to explain how GHRM initiatives can enable a green organisational culture or how such a culture affects the environmental performance and sustainable development of the firm. This paper examines the relationship between GHRM practices, the enablers of green organisational culture, and a firm's environmental performance. We conduct a large‐scale survey of 204 employees at Chinese manufacturing firms. Our findings suggest that proenvironmental HRM practices including hiring, training, appraisal, and incentivisation support the development of the enablers of green organisational culture. We suggest the key enablers of green organisational culture include leadership emphasis, message credibility, peer involvement, and employee empowerment. Our paper contributes to HRM theory in terms of originality and utility of research by explaining that the enablers of green organisational culture positively mediate the relationship between GHRM practices and environmental performance. Managers are provided with a detailed understanding of the GHRM practices needed to enable an organisational culture of environmentally aware employees. Finally, we address potential implications of this work for teaching green organisational culture to future generations of responsible managers.     

Democracy across Gender Diversity and Ethnicity of Middle Eastern SMEs: How Does Performance Differ?

This paper examines the relationship between boards of directors' demographic diversity and firms' financial performance. In particular, we highlight how women and ethnic minorities can affect Middle Eastern SMEs' financial performance. Using an unbalanced panel of 1,855 firm‐year observations of 371 boards of directors from nine Middle Eastern countries, our results support the positive impact of women and ethnic minority group members on Middle Eastern firms' performance. However, our evidence implies that when Western ethnic minority members increase, firms' performances tend to decrease, because these board members are appointed for regional and international board reputation legitimacy, personal business agendas, and links to the external corporate environment.     

The management of technological innovation in the machine tool industry: a cross-national regional survey of Britain and Switzerland

Abstract
The research was undertaken during 1983 to find out why a country such as Switzerland has been able to manage innovation in a mature industry, such as machine tools, much more successfully than Britain. The methodology used was by structured interviews of Managing Directors in a sample of firms in the two important machine tool regions of Berne and Yorkshire/Humberside. The results cover the main types of innovation in products and processes, the reasons for innovation and the problems which were encountered by the companies visited. We found that the Swiss firms were strong on product innovation. The most important innovation was the introduction of computer numerical control (CNC), and the Swiss firms had on average introduced this earlier than the British firms and it accounted for a larger proportion of their turnover. The main problem for firms in both countries was in adjusting to upstream developments in electronic controls. The Swiss had better downstream market links with their customers who were mostly in foreign countries. Some British firms were handicapped by being part of company groups and used public sector grants for their innovation, whereas the largely independent Swiss firms carried out more self-financing.     

The economics of the Syrian refugee crisis in neighbouring countries: The case of Lebanon

In this article, we investigate the effects of a massive displacement of workers from a war‐torn economy on the economy of a neighbouring country. Applying a general equilibrium approach to the Lebanese economy, we explore effects from various components of the crisis on the labour market, the production apparatus and macroeconomic indicators. Along with previous literature, our findings suggest limited or no adverse effects on high‐skilled native workers, but a negative impact on the most vulnerable Lebanese workers. When aid takes the form of investment subsidies, significantly better growth and labour market prospects arise, recalling the necessity of complementing humanitarian aid with development aid to succeed in achieving long‐term objectives. This may however not be politically viable in a context where refugees are considered as temporary.     

The Chinese born globals of the Zhejiang Province: A study on the key factors for their rapid internationalization

With the increased participation of emerging economies in the global economy, born globals (BGs) in emerging countries become significant players. However, researches on Chinese BGs are still very limited. The aim of this paper is to explore the key factors that influence the rapid internationalization of Chinese BGs and examine how these factors can explain the successful and quick integration of Chinese BGs into global market. Based on an Anglo-Saxon literature review, we identified six major factors explaining BGs’ rapid internationalization and compared them on two groups of Chinese SMEs (BGs and non-BGs) in an exploratory study. Based on the analysis of the exploratory study, we identified two key factors for the rapid internationalization of Chinese BGs, namely managers and networks. Then, we select four Chinese BGs and conducted a comparative case study in order to examine and understand the role of these two factors in their internationalization process. We conclude this paper with the contribution, implication, and limitation of our study, as well as the perspective for our future research.     

Board of directors’ effects on financial distress evidence of family owned businesses in Lebanon

The objective of this paper is to determine the managerial governance characteristics related to financial distress companies. The boards failed to accomplish their monitoring duties, which seemed to be one of the main reasons behind the actual financial distress and bankruptcy that swept the companies across the planet. Through the analysis of a sample of 178 Lebanese non listed and owned family firms, the results showed that the boards (that have a higher proportion of outside directors) are less inclined to face a financial distress than the boards with a lower proportion. Besides, a different conclusion proves that the board’s size and financial distress are directly linked. The paper highlights the extent to which financial distress is associated with corporate governance from a Euro Mediterranean country. It would be a source of education to Lebanese investors who excessively go for short-term returns and of help for regulatory authorities in the framework of making policies on corporate governance reformation.     

The interplay between stakeholders,resources and capabilities in climate change strategy: converting barriers into cooperation

This article investigates how organizations deal with drivers and barriers to the adoption of low‐carbon operational (LCO) practices and, accordingly, we propose a framework for relationships with stakeholders to guide organizations in orchestrating stakeholders, resources and capabilities to meet the challenges and opportunities arising from climate change. Data was collected through interviews with experts working within companies participating in the Carbon Disclosure Program and the Brazilian GHG Protocol Program. Our findings show that the level of willingness of stakeholders influences how companies select mechanisms to deal with drivers and barriers to LCO practices. Our results, qualified by stakeholder relationships theory and the natural resource‐based view, introduce an analytical approach called ‘mechanisms of responses’ to understand how organizations deal with drivers and barriers in the context of climate change in order to guide companies to adopt LCO practices, strengthen co‐operation with stakeholders and develop the required organizational capabilities.     

The central role of human resource management in the search for sustainable organizations

The aim of this article is to present the main contributions of human resource management to develop sustainable organizations. The relationship between human resources and organizational sustainability, which is based on economical, social and environmental performance, involves some important aspects concerning management such as innovation, cultural diversity and the environment. The integration of items from the triple bottom line approach leads to developing a model based on a strategic and central posture of human resource management. Based on this model, propositions and recommendations for future research on this theme are presented.     

Terrorism and tourism demand: a case study of Lebanon,Turkey and Israel

Using a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model, this paper examines the impact of domestic and transnational terrorism on tourism demand (as measured by visitor arrivals) to Lebanon, Turkey and Israel. The distinguishing feature of this paper is that we use a dynamic framework that takes into account (i) the intensity of terrorism and (ii) the associated spillover effects. The empirical results, based on monthly data from 1995 to 2007, reveal that terrorism in one country affects visitor arrivals not only to that country but also to other countries. We find that tourists view Lebanese and Turkish tourism markets as substitutes. Terrorism in Israel, of all types (i.e. domestic or transnational) and intensities, affects visitor arrivals to Lebanon and Turkey. In overall terms, terrorism has a much larger negative impact on visitor arrivals to Lebanon.     

Environmental management and the “soft side” of organisations: Discovering the most relevant behavioural factors in green supply chains

Anchored in the resource‐based view theory, the objective of this research is to empirically analyse the behavioural factors affecting the green supply chain management (GCSM) performance in a fast‐growing emerging economy by taking an empirical data set of 101 responses from personnel in the mining sector. Behavioural factors in green supply chains are still a critical challenge—not yet a well‐explored academic subject—when the focus is on the mining industry of emerging economies like India; the lack of studies in this field could be a factor preventing the Indian mining industry becoming more green. In terms of methodology, original survey data were processed through AMOS 4.0, adopted for assessing the causal connection among the six constructs, that is, top management support, teamwork, workplace culture, resistance to change, green innovation, and green motivation. We further explore the input from the human side of GCSM by highlighting that top management support and green motivation are the most crucial behavioural factors that influence GCSM in the Indian mining sector. The study will be helpful for mining companies because it will enable them to identify the areas that require their attention for enhancing GCSM performance related to behavioural aspects.