Environmental proactivity,competitive strategy,and market performance: The mediating role of environmental reputation

This article examines the impact of small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) proactive environmental strategy on market performance through the mediating mechanism of environmental reputation. In addition, we investigate the potential moderating role of competitive strategies on the environmental reputation-market performance nexus. Data were collected from 223 SMEs. Using the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, the results show that a proactive environmental strategy positively enhances environmental reputation. Also, the influence of proactively environmental strategy on market performance is mediated by environmental reputation. In addition, our findings show the relationship between environmental reputation and market performance is greater for firms that adopt the differentiation strategy but not significant for firms adopting the low-cost and integrated strategies. Our study offers several theoretical and practical implications.     

成都市国际化营商环境升级版战略研究--基于万博新经济研究院营商环境指数的分析

打造营商环境是促进经济的重要环节,提升营商环境是增强城市竞争力和吸引力的手段。论文通过引入万博新经济研究院发布的《后疫情时代中国城市营商环境指数评价报告(2020)》,多角度对比分析成都与国内先发城市,发现成都在营商环境方面的优势与短板,最后得出改进措施,旨在为成都打造国际化营商环境提供理论依据。     

优化营商环境,推动发展高质量经济

促进中国经济高质量发展的必由之路是优化营商环境,提升区域竞争力。目前我国面临着国际内外的复杂局势,经济未来的发展趋势不容乐观,为此我们要深入落实新的发展理念,建立新的发展思路,构建新的发展格局。优化营商环境应实现建立服务型政府,实现企业经营环节的全覆盖,降低制度性交易成本、建立完善的商业系统生态链、打造具有中国特色的营商环境。     

Large agricultural investments in Kenya’s Nanyuki Area: Inventory and analysis of business models

Many experts agree that more agricultural investment is needed in the global South to improve local food security and reduce poverty. However, there is a lack of consensus about the types of investment needed to achieve these goals. This paper contributes to the literature on large agricultural investments and corresponding business models by inventorying and analysing such investments in Kenya’s Nanyuki area. We identify four clusters of business models that differ primarily by type of production and other distinct determinants, namely: demand from markets; access to land; land tenure regime and colonial history; actors involved; biophysical context; labour availability; and governance of the value chain via private standards. The study results shed light on the factors that help or hinder implementation of large agricultural investments and shape their impacts in the context of African land use systems. The way land is accessed represents one of the most-decisive factors determining the risks and opportunities associated with such projects. We find that most investments in the Nanyuki area occur on land bought or leased from private owners.     

Circular business model implementation: A capability development case study from the manufacturing industry

Circular business models (CBMs) have huge potential to deliver economic, social, and environmental benefits, but CBMs have yet to be implemented widely in industrial settings. One reason is that they are often presented as one-size-fits-all solutions, but this is misplaced because product-specific criteria and company capabilities determine the correct choice and implementation of CBMs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how CBM selection and capability development facilitates the implementation of CBMs. For this purpose, we have adopted a qualitative research approach and undertaken 25 explorative interviews in three large Swedish manufacturing companies. In this paper, a CBM implementation framework consisting of two parts has been developed. The first part addresses the choice of the appropriate CBM based on tactical configurations. The second part provides a capability development path by explicating underlying routines that need to be progressively developed in order to move smoothly to more advanced CBMs.     

Application of bootstrap re-sampling method in statistical measurement of sustainability

Sustainability is of essential interest for many organizations and is defined as the ability to maintain existing resources at a certain rate or level when encountered with barriers. Factors affecting sustainability are categorized as enablers (capacities) and barriers (challenges) that have positive and negative effects on sustainability, respectively. To evaluate the status of sustainability, organizations need a measurement method to account for all the aspects of the sustainability classified into social, economic, and environmental tiers. Previously many researchers have provided indexes and measure specific to the studied field, which is not applicable to other areas. Furthermore, the proposed methods fail to cover all the aspects of sustainability. This study investigates a statistical method to measure the sustainability and the application of the bootstrap re-sampling method in order to overcome the problem with normality assumption when the sample size is not large enough and thus develop a more realistic stochastic model. The Bootstrap re-sampling method enables the unbiased estimation of population parameters such as mean and standard deviation. The proposed method is evaluated by comparing its results with those found in the literature.     

Effects of financial constraints on export performance of firms during the global financial crisis: microeconomic evidence from Korea

This study uses a manufacturing firm-level panel data set of South Korea for 2006–2013 to investigate the effect of financial constraints on the export performance of firms, with particular emphasis on the corporate ownership structure. The empirical results show that foreign multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries are not affected by financial constraint during both crisis and noncrisis periods, implying advantages of foreign ownership. However, domestic firms suffer more from financial constraints on exports during crisis years. In particular, domestic firms without parent firms are financially constrained during both crisis and noncrisis periods. However, those with parent firms do not experience financial constraints during noncrisis periods, although they too suffer from them during crisis periods. Thus, parent–subsidiary linkage among domestic firms plays an important role in alleviating financial constraints on export activity in noncrisis years but not as much during crisis years. Therefore, domestic parent firms exhibit less resilience to the global financial crisis, in comparison to foreign MNC parent firms.     

Asymmetric information consolidation and price discovery: Inferring bad news from insider sales

Due to the paucity of sources of negative firm‐specific information, US capital markets have more difficulty identifying and incorporating bad news into stock prices than they do good news. Even though insider selling is a potentially important proxy for undisclosed bad news, researchers have difficulty ex ante identifying information‐based sales due to an inability to separate liquidity‐motivated from information‐based insider trades. We hypothesize that when insiders in multiple firms sell shares of one firm in which they are insiders and at the same time buy shares of other insider portfolio firms, the sale is more likely to be information‐based, since the proceeds are reinvested. Conversely, when an insider sells one firm without purchasing others or sells multiple insider firms the sale is likely liquidity‐motivated. We find that insider sales identified as information‐based using this algorithm are followed by significant negative abnormal returns. Information‐based sales are also more likely to be associated with delistings, earnings declines and earnings restatements. Analysts are also more likely to revise their earnings forecasts downwards for these firms. It is thus possible to ex ante identify insider sales with information content. Our results will be of interest to investors and also to regulators designing insider trading rules.     

我国物流业2019年发展回顾与2020年展望

2019年是中华人民共和国成立70周年,也是物流业稳中有进、变中求新的一年。面对严峻形势,我国物流业顶住下行压力,实现平稳运行,取得多方面进展。具体而言,一是社会物流需求增速持续放缓,总体运行缓中趋稳;二是物流需求结构持续优化,物流供给结构稳步升级,供需结构加速调整;三是科技应用引领数智化转型,科技赋能物流数智化、平台化;四是新兴的供应链服务企业向标准化发展迈出了重要一步,供应链创新发展进入新阶段,现代供应链成为新亮点;五是物流基础设施网络加快升级,物流枢纽网络建设进入实质推进阶段,助力枢纽经济发展;六是物流业"走出去"空间加大,国际物流打开对外开放新局面,我国对外投资合作与对外援助执行保持平稳有序健康发展;七是绿色物流配合污染防治攻坚战,绿色可持续物流取得新进展;八是物流政策落地,物流企业获得感增强,从业人员稳定性增强,物流营商环境持续改善。2020年,我国经济稳中向好的基本趋势不会改变,物流业平稳增长的总体方向不会改变,物流业主要经济指标将继续保持平稳增长,但物流业下行压力依然较大,发展不平衡、不充分矛盾依然比较突出,与人民群众日益增长的美好生活需要和现代化经济体系建设的要求相比依然存在差距,高质量发展任重道远。在新的一年里,为更好地推动我国物流业发展,一要平衡物流稳增长与高质量发展关系,决胜全面建成小康社会;二要坚持目标导向,探索新时代物流业发展的新使命新要求;三要突出新发展理念,推动传统数量型降成本向效率型降成本转变;四要深化产业联动融合,从低水平粗放式发展向精细化、高品质发展转变;五要坚持科技引领和技术驱动,激发物流业高质量发展新动能;六要推进国家物流枢纽联盟工程和全国百家骨干物流园区互联互通工程,建设物流基础设施网络;七要配合"一带一路"倡议,推动国际物流合作与交流;八要进一步处理好政府与市场、国家与地方、市场与企业的关系,营造政府、企业与协会合力推动物流业高质量发展的产业生态圈。