Future disassembly and recycling technology: results of a Delphi study

This article presents the results of a Delphi study that was carried out between November 1996 and March 1997. The subject of this study is future disassembly and recycling technology for the electronics and the automotive industry. The results reflect the opinions of a panel of about 70 specialists, preselected by the authors. Issues in this Delphi Study range from the possibilities for automatic disassembly and sophisticated material separation and sorting techniques to the development of recycling output prices. All issues were investigated for technological feasibility and for economic attractiveness. The main conclusion of this study shows that obstacles for future disassembly and recycling technology are of an economic rather than a technological nature. Automatic disassembly will probably gain importance in the next 25 years, but only for specific product categories. Sorting and separation techniques will become increasingly sophisticated.     

Sustainability accounting in action: Lights and shadows in the Italian context

This study analyses the use of eight tools for sustainability accounting and the aims of sustainability accounting in decision making. The data, collected through a survey and interviews, indicate that only a small set of experimenter firms use these tools while other firms appear to be more conservative. From a decision making perspective, sustainability accounting is closely associated with the monitoring of internal compliance and efficiency. Unfortunately, sustainability accounting is in a relatively early phase of development and the lack of engagement by most firms is negative for the construction of a more balanced relationship between business and environmental and social issues.     

The fintech gender gap

Can fintech close the gender gap in access to financial services? Using novel survey data for 28 countries, this paper finds a large and ubiquitous ‘fintech gender gap’: while 29% of men use fintech products, only 21% of women do. This difference exceeds the gender gap in bank account ownership at traditional financial institutions. While country characteristics and individual-level controls explain about a third of the fintech gender gap, the residual gap declines by 60% when accounting for gender differences in the willingness to use new financial technology, the suitability of fintech products, and the willingness to use fintech entrants if they offer cheaper products. The paper concludes by discussing drivers of differences in attitudes and implications for policy to foster financial inclusion with new technology.     

Evolution in the rationales of foresight in Europe

The traditional mechanistic approach to Strategic Thinking influenced the rationales and consequently the early experiences of Technology Forecasting in Europe. On the other hand, the more recent dynamic non-linear approaches to Strategic Thinking and a gradual regionalization of the innovation policy have favoured the replacement of Forecasting with Foresight and, more recently, with Regional Foresight, where the complexity of phenomena is taken into greater account. In fact, during the last few decades, a transition has occurred from a mainly hierarchic capitalism to a flexible one. At micro-economic level, this has caused a gradual transition from hierarchical organisational models with tangible assets to network organisational models, which are knowledge-based and face complex and unsettled scenarios.

This paper tries to demonstrate that the concepts of Forecasting and Foresight cannot be considered outside of this context and of changes that have occurred in Strategic Thinking, where the needs for more global and interdisciplinary views of problems are striving to integrate Strategic management and Entrepreneurship into the new concept of Strategic Entrepreneurship.

In order to demonstrate this evolution in the rationales of foresight and in its applications, this work analyses and compares some among the more significant experiences of transition towards Regional Foresight in Europe.     

Decision-analytic refinements of the precautionary principle

In public decision making about uncertain technological hazards, the precautionary principle calls for prompt protective action rather than delay of protections until scientific uncertainty is resolved. The precautionary principle has a sound basis in decision theory, particularly in situations where the potential hazards are serious and the costs of protective actions are tolerable. This article suggests that the precautionary principle should be refined to address three complications: (1) situations where the exposures to be reduced or prevented may have beneficial as well as hazardous consequences; (2) situations where the protective action itself will create potential hazards; and (3) situations where targeted research investments, coupled with delay of protective action, are likely to support wiser public decisions than prompt protective action. Each of these complications is shown to be relevant to contemporary policy debates about application of the precautionary principle. The usefulness of the precautionary principle in public decision making will be enhanced if these decision-analytic refinements are adopted in formal definitions of the principle.     

Crashing into the future

The title of this paper, Crashing into the Future, references a conception of technology as containing its own future demise. It is a conception of the future as accident or discontinuous. We find this in J.G. Ballard's novel Crash (1973), in many of David Cronenberg's early films of the seventies, and more recently in his film adaptation of Crash (1996). This paper focuses on Crash (both the novel and the film) in terms of the way the future is pathologized through the car, and, in particular, how the car crash foregrounds temporality in a manner that is traumatic.     

Euro-visions Technologies of vision in Until the End of the World

Until the End of the World can be seen as a ‘global' film in terms of its production process, theme, narrative structure and universal appeal. The article challenges this universality by demonstrating that the film mobilises distinctive and definitive European perspectives in its attempt to speculate about our global future. The article initially examines the film's imagining of technological development in the near future. The film is particularly preoccupied with the future of ‘technologies of vision', the techno-scientific and artistic ways through which we represent ourselves and the world around us. In Until the End of the World, these ‘technologies of vision' are contrasted to more traditional processes of story-telling. The position that narrative occupies in the film is analysed with particular emphasis on the position and the function ascribed to the narrator. The article locates both the discursive origins of ‘technologies of vision' and the film's critique of them, not in opposing universes, but within the same historical process, sharing a common ‘destiny' and coming from the same (European) view of the world.     

Shareholders’ requirements for corporate environmental disclosures: A cross country comparison

We survey individual shareholders in Australia, the UK and the US regarding corporate environmental disclosures. In general, respondents in the three countries are interested in, and positively disposed towards, these disclosures. We observe country and gender differences with Australian and female respondents more in favour of environmental reporting than others. Specifically, respondents require disclosure of an overview of environmental risks and impacts, the environmental policy, performance against measurable environmental targets and information on a range of environmental costs. Most shareholders require environmental disclosures to be audited. Shareholders call for environmental information because they believe managers should be accountable to shareholders for their companies’ environmental impacts. Furthermore, shareholders have indicated the uses for specific types of environmental information. Our results imply that legislators, standard setters and companies have to consider the policy implications of these shareholder views.     

Appraising the precautionary principle – a decision analysis perspective

The public and regulators are naturally concerned about any decision that has uncertain but potentially serious health and environmental consequences. When facing such decisions, some individuals say we should resolve significant uncertainties before taking expensive action that may be unnecessary. Others support the precautionary principle, which says that policy makers should err on the side of caution by acting now to avoid or limit potentially detrimental consequences. This paper appraises the precautionary principle from a perspective decision analytic point of view. We argue that neither the 'resolve uncertainties before taking action' nor the 'act now on the side of caution' are appropriate as general policies for all environmental decision problems. Instead, we conclude that policy makers need to conduct sound, in-depth analyses to resolve the pros and cons of acting now versus conducting more research on a case-by-case basis.     

地方政府隐性债务与城投债定价

由于1994年《预算法》限制了中国地方政府凭借自身信用发行政府债券的能力,地方政府通过设立融资平台的方式发行了大量城投债券。虽然城投债被普遍认为是含有政府隐性担保的,但隐性担保主体认定尚未有共识。本文通过加总地方政府下属融资平台有息债务总额的方法,构建地方政府隐性债务负担率指标,并通过分析地方政府隐性债务负担率对城投债一二级市场信用利差的影响,进一步探索市场对城投债隐性担保责任主体的认定。研究发现,政府隐性债务负担率高的地方城投债信用利差偏高,并且这种影响随政策以及宏观形势而变化。自滇公路违约函事件后,投资者在城投债定价中开始普遍关注地方政府隐性债务负担率的信息;而在43号文明确了地方政府债务置换措施后,省级政府的隐性债务负担率开始成为城投债定价的重要影响因素。这说明投资者认可的地方隐性担保的责任主体是随时间变动的。     

The history of the gender division of labour in Britain: Reflections on “‘herstory’ in accounting: The first eighty years”

This article surveys the empirical research on the gender division of labour in Britain since pre-industrial times, seeking in particular to relate it to the history of the professions, which have been relatively little studied in this regard. It argues that industrialization brought about a less dramatic change in gender roles than is often believed. Neither simple economic nor simple biological explanations, or the influence of “domestic ideology”, can adequately explain continuing gender divisions.It relates the empirical data to the current state of feminist theory arguing that the “reserve army of labour” theory is not supported by the evidence, nor indeed is any existing body of theory. Rather a combination of theoretical perspectives, including those which incorporate male prejudice, must be used if we are to understand the long persistence of gender inequality in the workplace.     

风险层级决策体系下的财务共享中心权责研究

由共享思想衍生的财务共享服务在当前的我国大型企业中已经得到较广泛的运用,当企业的业务线撤销财务权力后,所带来的财务共享中心的权责问题成为了阻碍财务共享服务提升流程处理效率的因素之一。通过对决策事件进行影响度以及风险性的划分并形成决策矩阵,探析在不同组织层级下财务共享中心的具体决策权之所在以及财务共享中心对于企业应急事件信息处理的反应系统,以期为财务共享中心的权责问题决策提供参考。     

Dependence and mean reversion in stock prices: The case of the MENA region

This paper provides empirical evidence on the long memory behavior of the stock markets of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Turkey. To test for long memory in the returns and volatility, we employ the modified rescaled range statistic R/S proposed by Lo [Lo, A.W., 1991. Long-term memory in stock market prices. Econometrica 59, 1279–1313] and the recently proposed rescaled variance V/S statistic developed by Giraitis et al. [Giraitis, L., Kokoszka, P.S. Leipus, R., Teyssiere, G., 2003. Rescaled variance and related tests for long memory in volatility and levels. J. Econ. 112, 265–294]. Further analysis is conducted by employing the ARFIMA (p, d, q) model to estimate the long memory parameters. Egypt and Morocco show evidence of long memory in the return series, while Jordan and Turkey display negative persistence. For the volatility series, long memory is conclusively demonstrated for all markets. Then, we compare the forecasting performance of ARMA and ARFIMA models and find that the ARFIMA model outperforms in out-of-sample forecasting of the markets. Our results should be useful to regulators, practitioners and derivative market participants, whose success depends on the ability to forecast stock price movements in these markets.     

Technologies in Finland in 2020 valued by ZEF-tool

In Northern Finland, information and communication technology, biotechnology, environmental technology and wellness technology have been subjects of special interest in recent times. These technologies are believed to create competence and bring welfare to the area. The aim of this study was to produce possible, probable and desirable pictures of the future for discussion and debate, and for use in strategic processes in different organisations. The idea was to explore the future based on experts’ opinions. The article discusses not only the technologies the experts saw as attractive and credible but also the issues they believed to be directing the development of the technologies in question.     

Global warming, commitment to the Kyoto protocol, and accounting disclosures by the largest global public firms from polluting industries

This study evaluates disclosures on pollution and greenhouse gases by firms domiciled in countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol compared to others. The study is based on disclosures made in the annual reports, environmental reports, and websites of 120 of the largest (in terms of revenues) public firms from the chemical, oil and gas, energy, and motor vehicles and casualty insurance industries. The study uses content analysis to construct weighted and unweighted disclosure indices.The results show that firms from countries that ratified the Protocol have higher disclosure indexes as compared to firms in other countries. Additionally, larger firms disclose more detailed pollution information. Multinational firms that operate in countries that ratified the Protocol but have their home offices in countries that did not are associated with lower disclosures. This lack of consistency in disclosure is not likely to be helpful in informing shareholders about the social responsibility of their investments.     

Kondratiev waves and the future of British cities

This article argues that the connections between long waves of economic change and the growth and decline of particular cities are very complex. Three elements of this complexity are extracted. First, it is argued that the Schumpeterian view that innovation per se usually causes economic growth is probably wrong. Second, that innovations connected with information technology (IT) need to be considered in terms of their production, intermediate use and final consumption; and that their production is not likely to cause a major economic upswing in the British economy in general or in many particular cities. Finally, some information-technology-related employment growth is the result of the decentralization of intermediate uses often concerned with routine clerical or administrative work.     

Environmental concern and environmental behaviour among the Norwegian public

Current studies indicate that the most accurate predictor of actual buying behaviour is consumer attitudes (Glendon and McKenna, Human Safety and Risk Management , London: Chapman and Hall, 1995). This study seeks to investigate questions relating to the extent to which attitudes on safety and risk issues are critical to safety-related behaviour. The dispositional view of human behaviour implies behavioural consistency across different behaviours performed in different situations, as long as the behaviours are instances of the same underlying disposition. The present study tests this hypothesis in relation to health and environmental behaviour. Both direct and indirect effects are investigated. An additional aim was to test for gender differences as well as differences due to age and educational level. The results are based on survey data of a representative sample of the Norwegian population given self-completion questionnaires during the period 1997-98. A total of 1450 respondents replied to the questionnaire. Health attitudes and the Health Value Scale correlated strongly with health behaviour and environmental concern with environmental behaviour. Attitude towards illness prevention was important for both behavioural dimensions. Health behaviour influenced environmental behaviour in an indirect way, through health attitudes. The results imply that it can be useful to study dispositional concepts. When appropriately applied, they yield useful information. It is important to focus on specific attitudes and related specific behaviours in order to change behavioural practices. In addition, it seems possible to change environmental and consumer behaviour through changing health