Peas in a Pod: Are Efficient Municipalities also Financially Sustainable?

Are efficient councils financially sustainable? We argue that an efficient council may not necessarily be financially sustainable. Our subsequent empirical analysis finds limited evidence in favour of an ‘efficiency–sustainability’ nexus. Thus, policies aimed at improving a council's efficiency may not automatically enhance their financial sustainability. Public policy makers have principally focused on improving the operational efficiency of local government on the presumption that this will result in a more financially sustainable sector. We argue that it is erroneous to assume that an efficient local government entity will necessarily be more fiscally sustainable. To test this argument, we apply an innovative method for empirically testing the association between financial sustainability and operational efficiency to the New South Wales local government system. Our results suggest limited positive associations between financial sustainability measures and municipal efficiency.     

Accounting towards sustainability in production and supply chains

Growing interest in sustainability and corporate supply chains accompanies increased globalisation across developed and developing countries, a stronger focus on the logistics of procurement behind international trade, and information flows between parties about corporate economic, social and environmental performance. Accounting provides information to oil the wheels of supply chain relationships. The purpose of this paper is to consider what an accounting for sustainability of production and supply chains might look like. An overview is provided of the issues associated with a broadening of accounting needed for sustainable supply chains. The paper highlights: ongoing problems of scope and terminology, lack of a broad sustainability focus because of complexity which stunts the impact on decision makers, and the need for transdisciplinary teams to increase connectedness and performance of the supply chain. The need for further research relating to three issues is identified. First, who undertakes the accounting for supply chains; second, why should a business function account for supply chain involvement; and, third, what information is relevant to different functional managers?     

Investigation of current perspectives for NHS Wales sustainable development through procurement policies

Public sector procurement has to operate under the pressure of policies and strict budgets. This paper examines the current perspectives of the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) on sustainable procurement policies. In particular, it investigates the adoption levels of the sustainable procurement policies of buyers (NHS Wales), examines the level of engagement of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with NHS Wales, and explores the support for the existing sustainable procurement function through order processing analysis of catalogue coverage.     

An Empirical Examination of the Market Returns and Financial Performance of Entities Engaged in Sustainability Reporting

The importance of sustainability reporting to external stakeholders is reflected in the advent of various reporting guidelines and government inquiries. However, evidence of the inadequacy of such reporting, coupled with limited evidence of its use by market participants (such as investors and creditors) for resource-allocation decisions, raises questions about the overall value-relevance of sustainability reporting. This study seeks to identify, in the Australian context, whether the level of sustainable reporting is associated with a range of financial and market performance attributes of the firm.     

An Empirical Examination of the Market Returns and Financial Performance of Entities Engaged in Sustainability Reporting

The importance of sustainability reporting to external stakeholders is reflected in the advent of various reporting guidelines and government inquiries. However, evidence of the inadequacy of such reporting, coupled with limited evidence of its use by market participants (such as investors and creditors) for resource-allocation decisions, raises questions about the overall value-relevance of sustainability reporting. This study seeks to identify, in the Australian context, whether the level of sustainable reporting is associated with a range of financial and market performance attributes of the firm.     

Corporate sustainability in asset pricing models and mutual funds performance measurement

This study explores whether corporate sustainability is a relevant factor in multifactor asset pricing models. It contributes to the literature on asset pricing, as well as to the literature that examines how sustainability impacts capital markets, by constructing a new factor that captures differences in the returns of sustainable and non-sustainable firms. Specifically, it examines whether an additional sustainability factor has explanatory power in asset pricing models that include size, book-to-market equity, and momentum factors. This research has practical implications for the performance measurement of portfolios and mutual funds that are managed in accordance with sustainability criteria in that it disentangles general stock-picking skills from the differences in returns between sustainable and non-sustainable stocks.     

Energy efficiency complexities: A technical and managerial investigation

Increased concern about sustainability issues has been voiced in the accounting literature. Although environmental performance is only one dimension of sustainability, it is nevertheless a key factor, especially in sectors such as the process industry, which consume substantial volumes of materials and energy. Energy itself is important because its production is a major cause of carbon emissions. Hence efforts to reduce its use are important, and here energy efficiency measurement and management play a key role.Although the conceptual challenges posed by energy efficiency measurement are well known in the technical literature, there has been little discussion of energy efficiency management. This paper examines the complexities involved in the measurement and management of energy efficiency. In particular, it examines how these complexities impede effective use of management control systems to impact the ability and motivation of employees to work toward the goals of sustainable development. The study is a cross-disciplinary one, and combines technical energy efficiency research and environmental management accounting research in performance management. The study provides practical knowledge of what happens in organizations pursuing sustainable development, in this case environmental performance. The paper demonstrates a performance indicator that does not allow proper energy efficiency performance management because it is still technically underdeveloped. Setting targets for the indicator is especially problematic.     

融资约束对创新持续性的影响研究——基于创新开放度的调节效应

企业如何缓解融资难并实现可持续性创新发展是当前亟待解决的问题。本文基于信息不对称理论与开放式创新理论,以2015-2019年我国高新技术企业为研究对象,探讨融资约束、创新开放度与企业创新持续性之间的关系。研究发现:外源融资约束和内源融资约束均对企业创新持续性产生负向影响;创新开放度对外源融资约束与企业创新持续性之间的关系具有负向调节作用,但对内源融资约束与企业创新持续性之间的关系不具有调节作用;处于不同生命周期阶段的企业,内外源融资约束对企业创新持续性的影响存在异质性,创新开放度的调节作用也存在差异。     

Conversation with secrets

We analyze the sustainability of a conversation when one agent might be endowed with a piece of private information that affects the payoff distribution to its benefit. Such a secret can compromise the sustainability of conversation. Even without an obligation, the secret holder will disclose its secret if it prevents preemptive termination of the conversation. The nonsecret holder lacks this possibility and stops the conversation. Competition and limited effectiveness of the conversation amplify this result of early disclosure and render the conversation process less sustainable. We discuss policy and managerial implications for industry standard development and joint ventures.     

Transparency trade-offs in the operation of national Public Private Partnership units: The case of Ireland’s National Development Finance Agency

Since 2002, the Irish National Development Finance Agency [NDFA] has played a leading role in the procurement of Public Private Partnership [PPP] projects in Ireland (UNECE, 2008). It has procured 9 PPP projects bundles, which are currently listed on its website, between 2002 and 2022 ¹ in addition to Primary Care, Justice, OPW and Education bundles not currently listed on its website. Ireland follows a global pattern where national or provincial PPP units, frequently organised as arm’s-length bodies, play a central role in managing the partnership-based procurement of infrastructure projects (Burger, 2009). This paper examines how the NDFA, acting as Ireland’s PPP unit, has affected the transparency and accountability of Irish PPP procurement. Our analysis indicates that the expanding role played by the NDFA has been depoliticisation and agencification. Our analysis deviates from some previous critical studies of PPP agency governance (Sześciło, 2020) in that we argue that agencification can adversely affect some aspects of PPP transparency while strengthening others, such as selection process transparency. Nonetheless, we suggest the approach to PPP procurement could harm the long-term sustainability of Irish PPP. Using the example of Ireland, our paper contributes to an understanding of the impact of such institutional arrangements on transparency and accountability of PPP procurement.     

Fulfilling its promise? Strategic public procurement and the impact of equality considerations on employers’ behaviour in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Public administration is an important force influencing equality in today’s society. Like budgetary choices, public procurement has increasingly gained attention as a means to promote equality. Yet, there are important gaps in knowledge, especially regarding how equality requirements in public procurement affect company behaviour. This paper sheds first light on the impact strategic public procurement has on employers’ behaviour. Based on empirical research, this paper highlights that companies perceive a limited prevalence of equality stipulations in Scottish public procurement practices and raises doubts about the impact of public procurement practices to create a successful business case for equality.     

Waste reduction in focus

Waste reduction and greater efficiency have the appearance of desirable and laudable initiatives in the quest for sustainability. There are undeniable benefits but they are limited. The emphasis on waste reduction is still on the end products, on reuse and recycling. The emphasis on efficiency is too restricted for it has multiple meanings. The benefits are limited—fundamentally because of the disordered state (high entropy) of our wastes, paradoxically because efficiency encourages consumption rather than conservation, and commercially because of deficiencies in our economic system. The emphases are well intentioned but counter-productive while we continue to employ processes and develop products not found in nature. They divert our attention away from developing processes and products which emulate the natural world. Natural processes restore order (low entropy), are effective, while being intrinsically efficient and extrinsically inefficient, and furthermore are desirably wasteful, thus promoting biodiversity unlike man-made processes and products.     

New development: 4P recommendations for implementing change,from research in hospitals

How are hospital staff involved in process improvement initiatives such as Lean? What can we learn from Lean implementation experiences about the sustainability of such initiatives? The authors considered such questions in a study of workplace change in Australia and Canada. They found that Lean is more likely to be sustained when leaders adopted the 4P recommendations presented in this article.     

上市公司可持续发展问题研究

本文认为，上市公司经营的稳定性、业绩的成长性和发展的持续性界定为可持续发展。本文通过对123家可持续发展能力不足和11家具有较强可持续发展能力的两类上市公司研究发现，完善的公司治理则是可持续发展的基础，大股东掏空上市公司、违规担保和委托理财、盲目进行不相关多元化投资、欺诈上市是导致上市公司难以持续经营的主要原因，而专注主业、善于资本经营，品牌、创新和管理优势是实现上市公司可持续发展的关键因素.     

Do sustainability disclosure mechanisms reduce market myopia? Evidence from European sustainability companies

Market myopia is a behavioural bias that causes investors to overvalue short-term earnings and undervalue long-term profits. This anomaly should not be compatible with sustainability disclosure mechanisms, the set of tools which firms use for reporting on their sustainable practices, and which contribute towards long-term performance improvements. Our aim is to study whether market myopia, as a symptom of market inefficiency, decreases with the implementation of sustainability disclosure mechanisms. We test for the presence of market myopia in a sample of firms listed on the S&P Europe 350 Index. For this purpose, we propose to use an adaptation of the valuation model for residual income under linear information dynamics developed by Felthan and Ohlson. Using the rating provided by RobecoSAM Sustainability Yearbook, we find market myopia to be less prevalent in companies classified as high sustainability reporters. An association is also found between persistent enforcement of sustainability disclosure mechanisms and a reduction of the market myopia effect.     

Sustainability in the prospective scenarios methods: A case study of scenarios for biodiesel industry in Brazil,for 2030

In order to build prospective scenarios for biodiesel industry in Brazil, with a sustainable perspective, it was necessary to develop a cross-disciplinary work to include Sachs’ dimensions of sustainability into the scenarios method. This meant linking concepts from different disciplines, without transforming it in a new discipline. In order to support the proposition for the new method, a study case is presented, the framework for the biodiesel scenarios in Brazil, by 2030. An in-depth interview was used to test the proposition of having the sustainability dimensions as driving forces. The result was the identification of a critical uncertainty composed of various aspects related the response to climate change and environmental conservation. The scenario storylines that were developed based on the critical uncertainties showed that sustainable options for the future are possible if the mental maps are enlarged to see beyond the business as usual.The results show that the scenarios storylines go through social, environmental and economic aspects, supported by other aspects like the territorial and political. Also it showed that sustainable options are possible if the mental maps are enlarged to see beyond the business as usual.     

Characterizing desired futures of Canadian communities

In sustainability research and practice, one method widely used in exploration is visioning, in which desirable sustainable futures are articulated and explored in depth. Communities across Canada have used this method to develop collective desirable futures, in many cases to provide an end goal for local sustainable development. In this paper, we conduct a meta­-analysis of desired futures created by communities across Canada with the aim of identifying regional commonalities according to the three pillars of sustainability, social, environmental, and economic. Although sustainability demands a balance between its social, economic and environmental components, Canadians futures apparently place the greatest importance on social aspects with 338 desires against 222 and 230 respectively for economic and environmental sustainability. Community (105); Infrastructure, development, and transportation (126); and Natural environment (157) are the categories most frequently recorded within each of the three components of sustainability. The meta­analysis also noted significant differences amongst regions. The study was conducted in the context of an initiative known as the Sustainable Canada Dialogues that mobilized 60+ scholars from across the country around a consensus on science ­based, viable solutions for greenhouse gas reduction. Our results suggest that climate policy that simultaneously reduces greenhouse gas emissions while enhancing some of the key aspects of social sustainability would be attractive to many Canadians.     

我国政府采购制度研究

我国政府采购从试点到全面推行的过程中,取得了显著的经济和社会效益,但是也存在不少问题。本文在分析问题的基础上,提出完善我国政府采购制度一些对策,以进一步提高政府采购的效率,实现政府采购的经济目标和其他社会经济目标。     

政府采购救济制度设计之理念偏差及其纠正

政府采购救济制度是事关充分有效保障供应商权利、制约采购权及我国加入GPA前国内法律调整的关键问题,其质疑投诉制度过于冗长和救济范围较窄、救济对象欠全面等缺陷也是导致我国政府采购实践质次价高甚至政府采购法制价值虚置的重要原因,对其改造迫在眉睫。理论上看,现行救济制度之弊端并非立法机关的疏漏、立法技术和能力欠缺所致,其根本在于权力导向型制度设计之理念偏差。可见,制度改造不能通过就事论事的具体方面和环节的修补而完成,必须从理念到规则对现行救济制度进行系统检讨,变权力导向型制度设计理念为规则导向型理念,并依新理念统摄政府采购救济制度型构。     

政府采购的市场比较制度研究

政府采购产品和服务相对于政府自我生产具有更高的潜在效率。为验证这一判断,并发挥绩效评估的激励约束功能,在政府采购的实践中,必须对采购绩效进行准确评估。而准确评估的前提就是要有一套客观准确的评估依据。市场效率具有客观实在、现实最优、实时动态、操作性强等特性。运用市场比较制度,可以有效解决评估依据的客观性和准确性问题。该制度利用市场效率,从价格、时效、质量三个方面对政府采购绩效进行比较,其比较结果为政府采购计划控制、过程管控、绩效评估提供依据。