Values,gender and attitudes towards environmental policy: A study of future managers

This study explores if the value priorities and their impact on future managers' attitudes towards environmental responsibilities vary with gender. While relevant prior studies mostly focus on gender‐based variations of individuals' personal values in developed economies, we concentrate on both personal values and pro‐environmental attitudes in an emerging economy. This study is built on MBA students (a proxy for future managers) in India since India is characterized as a male‐dominated society and a producer of larger number of MBA graduates. Overall, our results show that personal values and attitude towards environmental responsibilities do not vary significantly with gender. Only two values (among the 21 values) and one value type (out of 10 values) get significantly higher ranking from females compared with males. Further, although ‘universalism’ and ‘benevolence’ are found to have a statistically significant impact on respondents' attitude towards environmental responsibility, the latter is invariant to the respondents' gender. Our findings may indicate India's transformation from a male‐dominated society towards a more gender‐balanced society. These findings can be used to operationalize a pro‐environmental recruitment policy and to formulate strategies to improve female participation in MBA cohorts of business schools.     

Paradigm shift from a liquidation culture to a corporate rescue culture in Malaysia: A legal review

The company law landscape in Malaysia has witnessed a significant change in its insolvency law with the adoption of two new corporate rescue mechanisms, the corporate voluntary arrangement and judicial management under the Companies Act 2016 (CA 2016), which has repealed the Companies Act 1965 (CA 1965). Previously, the insolvency laws under the CA 1965 were based on the traditional pro‐creditor laws of winding up and receivership, which embodied the liquidation culture. This article examines the transition of the insolvency laws in Malaysia from a liquidation culture under the CA 1965 to a corporate rescue culture under the CA 2016. It also reviews the necessary changes to the pro‐creditor laws, which are preserved under the CA 2016 in order to accommodate the pro‐debtor laws with the introduction of the corporate rescue mechanisms, which came into force on March 1, 2018. Through comparative and critical analysis of similar laws in the United Kingdom and Singapore, this article argues that while the corporate rescue mechanisms are regarded as pro‐debtor however the review reveals that the position of secured creditors are impeding its application and reforms ought to be considered.     

Enterprise level cluster innovation with policy design

ABSTRACT

An industrial cluster is an important link in the process of industrialization. The existing research is mainly based on the market economy. Our paper considers external policy design for cluster innovation based on the transition from planned economy to market economy in China. This paper finds some enterprises in the cluster are transferred from micro-enterprises to small ones, but does not find clustering from the small enterprise to middle or larger enterprise. Furthermore, our paper explained why such a cluster occurs by applying a semi-parametric counterfactual approach. The results indicate that building cluster zones as upgrading the enterprise structure policy and implementing VAT tax systems as the tax benefit policy has the most proponent role in industrial clustering, whereas increasing the loan/financing as the credit policy has a minor impact, which is not negligible either. Overall, this study explains why clusters shift to high output valued with a high interpretation of up to 97%. The contribution of this paper is not only to describe the time process of micro-to-small enterprise clustering but also to give the policy design how to achieve rapid micro-to-small enterprise clustering.     

A review of CSR classification schemes and the operationalization of bolted-on vs. built-in CSR

Recent conceptualization of built-in versus bolted-on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives has offered a much-needed distinguishing framework to sophisticate our understanding of why different CSR initiatives yield varying corporate social performance (CSP) and associated recognition from stakeholders. One of the major roadblocks in conducting research on these two types of CSR initiatives is the absence of a valid and reliable measure. We address this void by developing a measure for bolted-on versus built-in CSR that relies on coding publicly available content. Our measure of these two types of CSR initiatives tests favorably for both convergent and discriminant validity and inter-rater reliability. Advancement of such a measurement instrument will positively contribute to CSR research, enabling scholars to better theorize the linkage between CSR and reputation, and other aspects of firm performance.     

Green supply chain management – food for thought?

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices on the performance of UK food retail small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A quantitative approach using a non-probability sampling of 84 participants was employed. Based on the literature review, five hypotheses were developed and tested using the partial least square-structural equation modeling (SEM-Smart PLS 2.03) approach. The reviewed literature revealed that key internal drivers (ID) and external pressures (EP) stimulate organizations to initiate GSCM practices in UK food retail SMEs. Though empirical findings strongly supported the statement that ID influence GSCM practices, they did not show a significant relationship between EP and GSCM practices. Literature also suggests that practicing GSCM can help improve the efficiency, brand image (BI) and profitability, and thus improve the overall firm performance which is also empirically proved. This study helps enrich existing theories on SCM and organizational performance. As to practical impact, this study should facilitate SMEs in GSCM practices and thus help green the economy. While the findings of this study have limited generalisability as the data were collected from UK SMEs only and the sample size was comparatively small, this research establishes a foundation for further study in this domain.     

Historical path of traditional and modern idea of ‘conscious universe’

What this study shows is that although the ‘idea of conscious universe’ is given further advance by some discoveries of modern sciences, it was articulated by many ancient and previous thinkers. Philosophically, the idea of ‘Consciousness’ can be traced back to ancient times and can be proven through historical documents in various traditions, cultures and religions. In this study, the ideas are provided from perspectives of West, East and Islam. Simply, the term ‘awareness’ and the concept of ‘ability to be aware of the environment’ imply the notion of ‘Consciousness’ in linguistic and psychology. In a comparative study, we show that philosophical and scientific views in the past and contemporary period highly recommended the existence of ‘Consciousness’ attribute. In fact, all of the mentioned studies are talking about the same ideology based on the qualitative perceptions. However, there are some differences in parts, but the major theme is same.     

A flexible adaptation of the WIOD database in a virtual laboratory

ABSTRACT

The World Input-Output Database provides a time series of world input–output tables (WIOTs) that have been used for example to understand the manifold effects of the increased integration of markets through international trade. In order to enhance the flexibility of research on global trade issues using WIOD, we implement the WIOT workflow in a collaborative, cloud-based virtual laboratory environment. We demonstrate that a lab-based adaptation of WIOD is able (a) to continuously create and update versions of the WIOTs in a timely, consistent, and cost-effective way, (b) to enhance original information with accompanying information on standard deviations, and (c) to enable flexible re-casting of the entire WIOT time series into user-specific geographical and sectoral classifications.     

The day-of-the-week effect and conditional volatility: Sensitivity of error distributional assumptions

We test for reliable evidence of the day-of-the-week effect on both the mean and volatility for the S&P/TSX Canadian return index. Unlike previous studies, we permit several specifications for the error distribution — GARCH normal, Student's t, generalized error distribution, and double exponential distribution. Unlike other studies, we find that the day-of-the-week effect in both mean and conditional volatility is sensitive to the particular specification of the underlying distributions. We also find that using a regression analysis assuming a Student's t distribution is a better way to investigate this effect. Our evidence demonstrates the apparent fragility of previous empirical studies on calendar anomalies. Thus, our results serve as a warning that with financial data, the error distributional assumptions are critical to correctly identifying empirical regularities in the data.     

Random walk and breaking trend in financial series: An econometric critique of unit root tests

The present note sheds light on several pitfalls associated with unit root tests that are overlooked by a growing volume of literature in financial economics. Specifically, several studies have confused unit root tests with the Random Walk hypothesis. Unit root tests are not designed for such a task since they aim at investigating whether a time series is difference-stationary or trend-stationary and are not, therefore, predictability tests. Secondly, we emphasize some serious shortcomings associated with the widely used unit root test developed by Zivot and Andrews [Zivot, E. & Andrews, D.W.K. (1992). Further evidence on the great crash, the oil-price shock, and the unit-root hypothesis. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 10, 251–270.]. In particular, we stress that results from the Zivot–Andrews test are sensitive to the methods employed to calculate the critical values and to select the maxim lag k. Furthermore, Zivot–Andrews test imposes a one time structural break in a time series; however recent studies showed that not counting for other true structural breaks may bias the results and may cause a spurious rejection of the unit root null hypothesis. Finally, we support our arguments by an empirical example based on the findings of Narayan and Smyth [Narayan, K.P. & Smyth, R. (2004). Is South Korea’s stock market efficient? Applied Economics Letters, 11, 707–710.] with regards to the efficiency of South Korean stock market. We show that contrary to what the authors claim, the KSE (KOSPI) price index is predictable, and hence the South Korean stock market is not informationally efficient.