DEFINING ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK

Environmental performance indicators are becoming increasingly important at the company level. This is due, in part, to stakeholders demanding environmental improvements and proof that these have been made. The need for an integrated framework for environmental performance indicators is considered; the indicators fall into four categories: the state of the environment; corporate environmental policy; environmental management systems; and the products and processes of the company as evaluated by an ecobalance improvement. The state of the environment evaluates the company's relative contribution to the national and European environmental impact and hence the companies' own impact compared with the reference document Europe's Environment: Statistical Compendium for the Dobris Assessment. Corporate environmental policy is the basis of the framework and 21 key aims are suggested to ensure that comprehensive statements are produced and that all significant environmental initiatives undertaken by the company receive recognition. The environmental management system indicators are divided into qualitative and quantitative economic indicators and quantitative non-economic indicators to evaluate environmental performance. The ecobalance tool is used to evaluate the environmental performance of the company's products and processes.     

The power of the family

We study the importance of family ties on economic behavior. We define our measure of family ties using individual responses from the World Value Survey (WVS) regarding the role of the family and the love and respect that children are expected to have for their parents in 81 countries. We show that with strong family ties home production is higher and families larger, labor force participation of women and youngsters, and geographical mobility lower. To assess causality, we look at the behavior of second generation immigrants. Our results overall indicate a significant influence of the strength of family ties on economic outcomes.     

The cross-section of mutual fund fee dispersion

In this paper, we empirically analyze the factors affecting the cross section of mutual fund fee dispersion. In the context of equity mutual funds, fee dispersion stems primarily from the heterogeneity of products, clienteles and production functions. However, the relevant theory predicts that search costs can also generate fee dispersion. By controlling for observable sources of heterogeneity, we find that fee dispersion decreases with fund size and age, as well as with the amount of assets under management of the investment company. In addition, we find lower levels of fee dispersion for funds that charge marketing and distribution fees. Although we cannot rule out the possibility that these factors are a proxy for some unobserved source of heterogeneity, our results are also consistent with the theoretical prediction that search costs positively affect fee dispersion.     

Does corporate social responsibility make over-educated workers more productive?

This article provides first evidence on whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences the productivity effects of over-education. By relying on detailed Belgian-linked employer–employee panel data covering the period 1999–2010, our empirical results exhibit a positive and significant impact of over-education on firm productivity. Moreover, they suggest that the effect of over-education is positively enhanced when the firm implements a CSR process, especially when it aims to have: (i) a good match between job requirements and workers’ educational level, (ii) a diverse workforce in terms of gender and age, and (iii) a long-term relationship with its workers. When focussing on required education and over-education, the results suggest that CSR, besides representing an innovative and proactive approach for the firms’ stakeholders, may also be beneficial for the firm itself through a bigger increase in productivity for each additional year of required education or over-education.     

Galileo used to live here.: Tuscany Hi Tech: the network and its poles

The paper outlines how networking between smaller companies and larger companies is evolving and how these changes need to be incorporated into policies for regional economic development. The strengths and weaknesses of the Tuscan region are outlined and on the basis of this situation a strategy was devised to exploit its scientific and technological resources. A particular feature of the strategy is the establishment of a new optical fibre communications system linking three university centres, Pisa, Florence and Siena.     

The Banking Relationship's Role in the Choice of the Target's Advisor in Mergers and Acquisitions

We analyse the factors influencing the target company's choice of bank advisor in mergers and acquisitions (M&As). We first examine the choice of hiring an advisor, which is nontrivial, since in one‐third of transactions our sample target companies did not hire one. We also analyse the choice to hire as advisor a bank with a strong prior relationship with the company (i.e., the main bank). Using data on 473 European M&A transactions completed in the period 1994–2003, we find evidence that the decision to hire an advisor depends on three main factors: (i) the intensity of the previous banking relationship, (ii) the reputation of the bidder company's advisor, and (iii) the complexity of the deal. We also investigate the impact of the bank advisor on shareholder wealth. We find that the abnormal returns of target company shareholders increase with the intensity of the previous banking relationship, thus indicating a ‘certification role’ on the part of investment banks.     

EVOLUTIONARY TRENDS IN ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING

The growing concern of stakeholders about ‘green’ issues has forced many managers to produce environmental reports aimed at providing information on the environmental consequences of a firm's activities. Unfortunately, there are no definite rules about the form, structure and content of environmental reports. The development of the environmental reports of 14 leading companies over the last few years is considered to determine the most common evolutionary trends.     

Which factors are perceived as obstacles for the growth of Italian academic spin-offs?

During the last decades, academic spin-offs have received increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners, mainly due to their ability to advance industrial application of scientific knowledge. In the past, scholars believed that these organisations were subjected to fast growth after their establishment. Only in the last decade, scholars realise that the fast-growing perspective hypothesised was an oversimplification, as the majority of high-tech academic spin-offs growth slowly or remain small in size for long time. The aim of our study is to investigate the reasons that inhibit the growth of established academic spin-offs, focusing on the Italian context. Through the implementation of the Delphi technique and of the fuzzy logic we derive new and relevant results, for scholars, spin-offs’ managers and policy-makers.     

Remittances,financial development,and growth

Despite the increasing importance of remittances in total international capital flows, the relationship between remittances and growth has not been adequately studied. This paper studies one of the links between remittances and growth, in particular how local financial sector development influences a country's capacity to take advantage of remittances. Using a newly-constructed dataset for remittances covering about 100 developing countries, we find that remittances boost growth in countries with less developed financial systems by providing an alternative way to finance investment and helping overcome liquidity constraints. This finding controls for the endogeneity of remittances and financial development, does not depend on the particular measure of financial sector development used, and is robust to a number of robustness tests, including threshold estimation. We also provide evidence that there could be an investment channel trough which remittances can promote growth especially when the financial sector does not meet the credit needs of the population.