An empirical study of the initial adoption of ISO 14001 in Japanese manufacturing firms

This paper analyzes stakeholders' environmental preferences/pressures and the financial flexibility that together influence firms to adopt ISO 14001, which is the international standard primarily concerned with an Environmental Management System (EMS). Since firms retain ISO 14001 once they have adopted it, a firm's decision to adopt ISO 14001 is considered from the period that they initially acquire the certification. Therefore, we assert that we have to focus on the determinants of initial ISO 14001 adoption. We analyzed: 1) the determinants of initial ISO 14001 adoptions respective to 1996, 1999, and 2004; and 2) the determinants of initial ISO 14001 adoptions during the period 1996-2004. The estimation results support the view that stakeholders' environmental preferences/pressures and firms' financial flexibility influenced their decision to adopt ISO 14001 in both analyses. Particularly, it is remarkable that we found that: 1) the determinants of the initial ISO 14001 adoption differed among the years of adoption; and 2) there is a positive relationship between economic performance and initial ISO 14001 adoption.     

Does eco-certification boost regulatory compliance in developing countries? ISO 14001 in Mexico

Private sector initiatives certifying that producers of goods and services adhere to defined environmental process standards are increasingly popular worldwide. According to proponents, they can circumvent chronic barriers to effective public sector environmental regulation in developing countries. But eco-certification programs will have limited effects on producers?? environmental performance if, as one would expect, they select for those already meeting certification standards. Rigorous evaluations of the environmental effects of eco-certification in developing countries that control for selection bias are rare. We use plant-level data on more than 80,000 Mexican facilities to determine whether ISO 14001 series certification of environmental management systems boosts regulatory compliance. We use propensity score matching to control for nonrandom selection into the program. We find that plants recently fined by environmental regulators were more likely to be certified, all other things equal, but that certified plants were subsequently fined just as often as similar uncertified plants. These results suggest that in Mexico, the ISO 14001 program attracts dirty plants under pressure from regulators??not just relatively clean ones??but does not have a large, lasting impact on their regulatory compliance.     

ISO 14001 and the Reduction of Toxic Emissions

ISO 14001 is an international standard for Environmental Management Systems, adopted by over 36,000 organizations worldwide. This paper attempts to determine the length of time after which a given company has implemented ISO 14001 experiences emission reduction. The sample used is a group of 264 manufacturing facilities in the USA, which represent 23 percent of all the ISO 14001 certified organizations in the US, analyzed throughout the period from 1996 to 2001. The results show that 75 percent of the companies experienced a reduction in their emissions, among which 53 percent had already done so just one year after obtaining ISO 14001.     

ISO 14001 Environmental Certification: A Sign Valued by the Market?

The main purpose of this work is to analyse whether ISO 14001 certification is interpreted by the capital market as a sign of environmental responsibility, modifying long-term efficiency expectations and the profitability of firms. Under competing assumptions that ISO 14001 certification is adopted by firms either proactively or reactively, we test competing hypotheses about how this certification affects the market value of firms. The analysis is based on a sample of 80 environmental certifications of the plant systems or processes of large Spanish firms which traded on the continuous market of the Madrid Stock Exchange from 1996 to 2002. Using event study methodology, we found that ISO 14001 certification has a negative effect on the market value of certain firms. Specifically, the results obtained seem to show that the market negatively views the allocation of resources to ISO 14001 certification in the case of less polluting and less internationalised firms. On the other hand, the results obtained do not suggest clear evidence that the economic impact of ISO 14001 certification is negative for more polluting and more internationalised firms.     

Assessing participation in voluntary environmental programmes in the developing world: the role of FDI and export orientation on ISO14001 adoption in Thailand

Empirical assessments of the determinants of firm participation in Voluntary Environmental Programmes (VEPs) in the developing world are largely absent from the environmental regulation literature, leaving a number of important factors unique to such countries unexplored. This article examines these factors, namely the roles played by Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and export orientation, in addition to factors deemed important in the industrialized world context to the problem of ISO14001 adoption in one developing nation, Thailand. We make use of unique primary data from 494 firms, and focus on three important industries, the resource-based food and beverages industry, the labour-intensive textiles and wearing apparel industry, and the more high-technology electronics and electrical appliances industry. We find that FDI plays a role in ISO14001 adoption, especially FDI from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and ISO14001-rich countries. Other important determinants include firm size, experience with ISO9000, and production of intermediate products. Firms faced with fewer obstacles to environmental improvements such as those facing lower costs, having more understanding of the procedure, and with greater access to the appropriate technology are also more likely to adopt ISO14001.     

The World Production and Trade of Rare Earth Elements： The Position of the Pacific Area

In this paper we analyze the characteristics of the so-called rare earth elements （REEs） and its industrial applications. We present the policy, or lack thereof, in the countries in the Pacific Rim for its mining and commerce, and the current and future weight that rare earth minerals will have in international trade. The technological revolution experienced over the last 25 years, has brought the REEs to the public＇s attention for being instrumental in obtaining catalysts, lasers and optical fiber, luminescent substances and LEDs, superconductors, permanent magnets, batteries and ultra-capacitors. China＇s leading position as the supplier of these minerals worldwide, and its recent export restriction policy for domestic industrial activities have driven up international prices. Price increase for REEs is leading to the need for both recycling and its replacement. It has also led other countries in the Asia Pacific Rim to prospect new potential sites on their own territories, or even to restart operations in deposits that had been previously abandoned. Those strategies will likely gain greater importance as environmental pollution problems associated with the exploitation, processing, and recovery of REEs increase.     

Characteristics of Organizational Leadership and Motivation as a Factor of Change in the Public Health System

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of organizational leaders in the health system and the factors that motivate health workers, in order to improve health care. The research was conducted in the public health institutions in Montenegro. The objectives of the research were to investigate whether leaders affect the motivation of employees in order to implement changes in the health system. The study was implemented through the interview method on the representative sample of 603 employees in public health institutions. The factor analysis revealed the latent characteristics of the organizational leader and the factors that motivate employees in public health institutions. The result of study indicates that employees in public health perceive organizational leadership to have a good quality. Result also exposes that the strongest motivation factor is a financial incentive. Financial incentive is the main motivator for employees in the public health sector, while the participation in decision-making was the least important motivational factor. The results obtained indicate that employees are primarily focused on individual goals, which influence the acceptance of change within the health system. The role of organizational leaders in motivating is poor because obtained factor scores are not correlated. The research has shown that organizational leaders do not have a great impact on the motivation of employees in the public health sector. This has effect on the process of accepting changes, where the roles of leaders are very important, especially in providing support to employees.     

Effect of School-Based Income Generating Activities on the Financial Performance of Public Secondary Schools in Kenya

This study was conducted to determine the value added by Income-Generating Activities （IGAs） on the financial performance of public secondary schools, in terms of assets, liability portfolio, and net worth. Secondary school managers have the gigantic task of balancing meager resources between subsistence and development needs as well as good performance in national examinations. However, macro-economic shocks such as inflation, fuel shortage, and crop failure, among others, often militate against the success of public schools. School-based IGAs enable public schools to cope with external economic shocks, without necessarily passing down budgetary adjustments to parents. However, the country lacks a clear policy guideline to facilitate the initiation, management, accounting, reviewing, and financial reporting of IGA projects. Besides, there is no documented information regarding the value added by IGA initiatives to the financial performance of public secondary schools. The study found that IGA and non-IGA schools were significantly different in terms of category, student population, age, annual income, and number of paid workers. Schools having IGAs were 1.9 times more likely to own as many assets as schools not having IGAs. Besides, IGA schools were about 2.2 times less likely to have their liability in excess of the median threshold. Regarding net worth, the study found that schools having IGAs were about 2.1 times more likely to be operating above the median threshold; suggesting that schools having IGAs were wealthier than non-IGA schools. Based on the findings, this study concludes that IGA projects were beneficial to schools by improving the ability of schools to accumulate assets and manage their liabilities. The study recommends the need to： formulate an appropriate policy framework to guide and standardize IGA activities; initiate suitable training programs for school IGA managers; as well as engage business development managers to advice schools on IGA matters.     

Entrenched Board in New Public Firms： An Empirical Study of Chinese IPOs

This study empirically investigates the impact of managerial entrenchment on firm financial performance of Chinese firms initial public offerings （IPOs）. Using 142 firms listed in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange （SZSE）, which was collected from the Guotaian Research Service Center （GTA-RSC） databases, this study uses two proxies to measure firm performance and three proxies to measure managerial entrenchment. The two proxies for firm performance are Tobins＇ Q and return on assets （ROA）, and the three proxies for managerial entrenchment are entrenchment 1, entrenchment 2, and entrenchment 3. These three entrenchment proxies are derived from the principal component analysis （PCA）. Though previous studies of managerial entrenchment and firm performance variables suffer from endogeneity, with respect to the corporate governance it is unclear as to which variables are endogenous and which are exogenous. This study confirms that the data are linear and no endogeneity issue should be address in this study, but only heteroskedasticity, non-normality for Tobins＇ Q are a problem, therefore, the regression method employed for Tobins＇ Q is the generalised least square （GLS） and the ordinary least square （OLS） between estimators for ROA. The regression result for Tobins＇ Q reveals that managerial entrenchment is negatively impact on firm performance. The results are in contradiction to the stewardship theory for new firms whereas the managerial entrenchment for new firms is positive. Furthermore, only one entrenchment proxy yields a significant coefficient. In conclusion, the negative results of entrenchment proxies were caused by the different institutional structures and legal systems which are the Chinese corporations that are still largely owned and controlled by a state and hence the centralised state controlled was responsible for all managerial actions.     

Threshold Effects in the Capital Account Liberalization and Foreign Direct Investment Relationship

This paper examines how capital account liberalization （CAL） affects foreign direct investment （FDI） inflows. Authors use a dynamic panel model encompassing 14 Middle East countries over the period from 1985 to 2009. The findings suggest that countries that are able to reap the benefits of the capital openness policy satisfy certain threshold conditions regarding the level of financial development and institutional quality. Thus to promote FDI, governments in this region should develop a set of policies that not only focus on financial openness, but also on the improvement of the financial system and legal institutions.     

Environmental management practices: good or bad news for innovations delivering environmental benefits? The moderating effect of market characteristics

We examine empirically whether environmental management practices (EMPs) (environmental audits, ISO 14001 standard, etc.) promote (or not) additional innovations delivering environmental benefits. Using a large sample of French firms (N=4114) and simultaneous equations model (SEM), we found that EMPs positively influence the decision of firms to introduce innovations delivering environmental benefits, but this positive relationship is moderated by market characteristics. The findings indicate that EMPs promote such environmental-related innovations when the market of the main activity of the firm is growing. However, when the market is uncertain or competitive, this relationship turns out to be negative.     

Information Disclosure as Environmental Regulation: A Theoretical Analysis

Governments around the world are beginning to embrace a new form of environmental regulation – mandatory disclosure of information. While information disclosure programs appear to have an impact on subsequent firm behavior – often resulting in lower levels of pollution – little is known about the costs and benefits of these programs and whether or not they enhance social welfare. This paper presents a simple bargaining model where mandatory information disclosure is used to overcome a lack of information on the part of the public. We characterize the conditions under which information disclosure will lead to a reduction in emissions, and ultimately, the conditions under which it will enhance social welfare. Several extensions of the model are briefly explored, including the effect of two sources of pollution – only one of which is subject to information disclosure. This paper was prepared while V. Santhakumar was a Visiting Scholar at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies, Vanderbilt University.     

Green not (only) for profit: An empirical examination of the effect of environmental-related standards on employees’ recruitment

Thanks to an original database on French firms we investigate the impact of environmental-related standards on employees’ recruitment. Using a bivariate probit model, we show that voluntary environmental-related standards (i.e., ISO 14001 standard, organic labeling, fair trade, etc.) improve the recruitment of professional and non-professional employees. This finding suggests that, beyond environmental considerations, human resources management can drive registration.     

Regional Developmental Problems of the Rural Settlements in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The paper considers developmental problems of the rural settlements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are results of long-term disparity in the regional development in the period 1991-2012. In this paper it is considered the recent migration from rural to urban areas and the depopulation of the rural areas. The result of these trends reflects the development of the new infrastructure and tertiary activities. In these investigations, statistical data processed and geovisualised in GIS were used. The obtained data indicate extremely unequable regional arrangement of the population in the rural areas and socio-economic development.     

＂A Raft in the Stormy Sea＂： New Roles,New ＂Dresses＂ Operating in ＆ for Business Networks

This paper aims to discuss the development and functioning conditions of business networks. After recalling the main characteristics of post-fordistic environment and comparing it to a ＂stormy sea＂ （section one） of the paper focuses on the idea of networks described as ＂rafts＂ useful to firms to build their own competitive advantages. In fact, while theoretical knowledge is not so valuable because everybody can have it, practical and contextual knowledge is specific and therefore it can be defended. The development of a contextual knowledge is feasible if the firm chooses among all the possible alternatives. Subsequently in section two, it shows how fordistic principles eliminate space, reduce time, and increase the speed of communication among individuals and as entering a network has become a necessity as it allows a firm to obtain competitive advantages. The greatest benefit is the chance to share the task of creating new knowledge among different members. In section three it is discussed if navigation in the post-fordistic stormy sea could take advantage from the existence of a more certain regulation. It is necessary to underline that positive law is not a post-fordistic tool. There is no satisfactory detailed law regarding ideas, knowledge, and know-how, by now. Therefore, it is not possible to rely on a specific regulation framework to protect knowledge found on the network. In conclusion in section four, the work discusses how single organizations need to reach the ＂raft＂--which is the network--through the idea of sharing learning and distinguishing elements necessary to survive in the stormy sea post-Fordism environment. Lastly, section five would be analyzed a public institution--Milan Chamber of Commerce--which has ＂changed its dress＂ to more effectively perform its support role to firms.     

Bar in Questionnaires

Vougiouklis ＆ Vougiouklis have proposed the replacement of Likert scales, usually used in questionnaires, with a bar. With this proposal a discrete situation is replaced by a fuzzy one. There are identified certain advantages concerning the use of the bar as compared to that of a scale during both the stages of filling-in as well as processing a questionnaire. The main advantage associated with business research requirements is the fact that it is expected to be much quicker to fill in and much easier to explain to participants. The bar provides the potential for different types of processing Likert scales cannot. Therefore the researchers are allowed to ascertain that the given answers follow not only the already suggested and used Gauss distribution but also a parabola distribution as it will be suggested in present paper, and which is expected to give the researcher the opportunity to ＂correct＂ this tendency. Therefore, a possibility of choosing amongst a number of alternatives is offered, by utilizing fuzzy logic in the same way as it has already been done in industry and combining mathematical models with multivalued operations.     

Widespread Hotel： An Innovative Made in Italy Model for Cultural Tourism and Local Sustainable Development The Umbria＇s Case

Widespread hotels represent a new Italian phenomenon still not much investigated, both on theoretical and empirical side, which cannot be ignored anymore. Indeed they meet the need to implement techniques and management tools which are able to improve the culture-tourism binomial. This would permit to transform into valid instruments of national economical development, the shared declaration of intents for which culture and tourism, especially in Italy and in this particular fragile period, represent even more the main strategic levers for the sustainable development. This article intends to describe the potentiality of these widespread hotels as innovations particularly suitable with trends recently emerged in tourism sector and outline the phenomenon pattern in ltaly with particular attention on Umbria region, in order to identify his main strength and weakness and some innovation to improve performance. To this end, it starts from the analysis of the national and international economic-managerial literature concerning in particular cultural and experienced trends shown in tourism. Then it introduces the main acquisitions about widespread hotels in Italy, updating and extending them through a desk survey based on indirect sources of various natures. Lastly, it describes the case of Umbria, analyzing more in depth making use of interviews with entrepreneurs/managers of hotels and based on a semi-structured questionnaire. The aspects of indeterminateness which were found, starting from the normative one, testify how the potentiality of the widespread hotels as far as regards the value creation for the enterprise itself and the territorial stakeholder, are still not properly understood and therefore used. It is clear that, therefore, new behaviors are needed for entrepreneurs and, most importantly, for local policy makers in order to create the conditions for the full success of these hospitality models.     

School-to-Work Transition in Saudi Arabia： A Case Study of Youth Cohorts

The paper addresses the youth＇s perception towards jobs and career opportunities in Saudi Arabia, based on the school-to-work transition model. The study is based on a sample survey covering 600 youth cohorts in Yanbu and Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study reveals that school-to-work transition is not a smooth one and is influenced by the perception of youth towards employment and its various dimensions along with the ambitions towards career improvement. The 14 indicators framed in the paper reveal that essentiality, confidence to get a job that satisfies the needs, job availability, and qualifications are found to be important determinants of youth＇s attitude towards work; whereas, willingness to do any job did not get much acclaim. Job selection of youth is determined by location （especially hometown job）, sectoral preferences, training options, and work environment.     

Non-classical Algorithm for Time Series Prediction of the Range of Economic Phenomena With Regard to the Interaction of Financial Market Indicators

The aim of the article is to present non-clasical copyrighted algorithm for prediction of time series, presenting macroeconomic indicators and stock market indices. The algorithm is based on artificial neural networks and multi-resolution analysis （the algorithm is based on Daubechies wavelet）. However, the main feature of the algorithm, which gives a good quality of the forecasts, is all included in the series analysis division into, a few partial under-series and prediction dependence on a number of other economic series. The algorithm used for the prediction, is copyrighted algorithm, labeled M.H-D in this article. Application of the algorithm was performed on a series presenting WIG 20. The forecast of WIG 20 was conditional on trading the Dow Jones, DAX, Nikkei, Hang Seng, taking into account the sliding time window. As an example application of copyrighted model, the forecast of WIG 20 for a period of two years, one year, six month was appointed. An empirical example is described. It shows that the proposed model can predict index with the scale of two years, one year, a half year and other intervals. Precision of prediction is satisfactory. An average absolute percentage error of each forecast was： 0.0099%---for two-year forecasts WIG 20; 0.0552%--for the annual forecast WIG 20; and 0.1788%---for the six-month forecasts WIG 20.     

Board Independence and Internal Committees in the BRICs

To be successful in global markets, companies from the emerging countries need the approval of foreign investors and other stakeholders. In this regard, Brazil, Russia, India, and China （BRIC） have progressively strengthened their corporate governance rules to help their companies overcome the competitors from the old industrialized countries. Directors＇ non-executive qualification, independence, and professional expertise represent basic requirements for effective corporate governance, so they should be carefully considered to guarantee a proper board composition and an adequate establishment of internal committees in listed companies. The paper intends to compare the legislative and regulatory frameworks adopted by the four countries; then it aims at answering to the following research questions by means of an empirical investigation： Have BRIC companies appointed non-executive and independent board members？ What do BRIC companies do in order to assure an effective participation of non-executive and independent board members to corporate governance activities？ Have BRIC companies established internal committees？ The research examines the appointment of non-executive directors and independent directors to the boards of 100 BRIC leading firms, as well as their involvement in internal committees focused on matters requiring motivated and impartial opinions. Although the laws and recommendations seem to favor a general convergence of corporate governance principles among the four BRIC and towards the international best practices, some differences and peculiarities emerge from a firm-level perspective. Indeed, the Indian and the Chinese companies analyzed appear more inclined than the Brazilian and the Russian ones to reassure their international stakeholders about board independence and effective committees.