The Importance of the Diverse Drivers and Types of Environmental Innovation for Firm Performance

Today, firms are faced with a number of environmental challenges, such as global warming, pollution control and declining natural resources. While there is increasing pressure to deliver environmentally friendly products and services, little is known about what drives the many different types of environmental innovation, or how such pursuits' impact firm performance. Using a sample of 2181 firms, this paper examines the factors that drive nine different types of eco‐innovation in Ireland, and assesses how such innovations impact firm performance. We find that, while demand‐side, supply‐side and regulatory drivers impact on the likelihood of a firm engaging in eco‐innovation, the relative magnitudes of these impacts vary across the types of eco‐innovation considered. Moreover, we find that only two of the nine types of eco‐innovation positively impact firm performance. The results point to regulation and customer pressure as viable mechanisms through which firms can be encouraged to eco‐innovate. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Big Fish,Small Pond: The Effect of Rank at Entry on Postsecondary Outcomes

We study whether a student's rank in her program of study in university affects short- and longer-term educational outcomes. Using student-level administrative data from four universities across many cohorts, we show that ranking higher compared to students in the same program in the same year has a positive effect on grade point average and lowers the probability of switching programs at the end of the first year, but has small effects on credit completion, departures, and degree attainment. Our results suggest that being the big fish in the small pond produces moderate advantages in higher education.     

The Limited-Service Brokerage Decision: Theory and Evidence

This study examines the home seller’s brokerage services decision, comparing full-service brokerage and limited-service arrangements. A model is developed which considers seller motivation and availability of effort, along with the cost of brokerage services, broker productivity and market dynamics as factors of influence in this decision. Limited-service arrangements are found to have a significant impact on price and marketing time. The popularity of limited-service arrangements is strongly influenced by the total dollar cost of brokerage services, which, in turn, is determined by housing market conditions.     

A longitudinal meta-analysis of corruption in international business and trade: Bridging the isolated themes

ABSTRACT

This article chronicles the academic debate on corruption in international business and trade. It identifies three themes: contributing factors, consequences, and combating corruption. We found convergence in the literature and that authors tend to remain loyal to their chosen theme. As a result, we found a distressing dearth of research that transcends, integrates, or validates the interrelationships between them. Through our work, we propose the bridging of themes, demonstrating how they interrelate, thereby validating their interdependencies and the broader lens needed through which to observe corruption in international business.     

Are Consumers Really Bewildered by Overchoice? An Experimental Approach to the Tyranny of “Too Much”

Conventional wisdom advocates that consumers love choice. But just how much? This study delves into this subject by considering the cognitive factors that underpin the consumer’s reaction to plentiful assortment on the shelf, but which may cause “analysis paralysis” and indecision. In an attempt to investigate the above, this study adopts an experimental approach to ascertain what occurs when consumers are faced with a multitude of options within the product category of red wine. The results suggest that if executed correctly, retailers can effectively reduce assortment in such a manner that does not negatively impact perceptions of choice, but does indeed reduce the cost incurred when consumers are forced to weigh up options against each other. Of particular interest, the study finds that product knowledge and experience also has a material effect on the outcome of these endeavors. Hence, both product category familiarity and the nature of the consumer should be factored into the strategic thinking of how a retailer can optimize the merchandise assortment displayed to the customer.     

Prospect for China–Korea Economic Relations

I. Introduction The Chinese economy has undergone dramatic changes since the adoption of economic reform and the opening-up policy of 1978. In the past 26 years, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate has reached an average 9.3 percent per year and China’s currentGDP size, measured in comparable prices, is 10.3 times larger than it was in 1978. China’s GDP, measured with the official exchange rate, ranks sixth in the world and is second in terms of purchasing power parity, on…     

Happiness and the Human Development Index: Australia Is Not a Paradox

In ‘Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia’, Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) observe an apparent puzzle: they claim that Australia ranks highly in the Human Development Index (HDI), but relatively poorly in happiness. However, when we compare their happiness data with the HDI, Australia appears happier, not sadder, than its HDI score would predict. This conclusion also holds when we turn to a larger cross‐national dataset than the one used by Blanchflower and Oswald, when we analyse life satisfaction in place of happiness, and when we measure development using Gross Domestic Product per capita in place of the HDI. Indeed, in the World Values Survey, only one other country (Iceland) has a significantly higher level of both life satisfaction and happiness than Australia. Our findings accord with numerous cross‐national surveys conducted since the 1940s, which have consistently found that Australians report high levels of well‐being.     

Late Marketisation versus Late Industrialisation in East Asia

This article analyses the complex interplay of various factors in the 'late marketisation' in China and Vietnam and the 'late industrialisation' in Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The article distinguishes the degree of 'comparative advantage-defying' and 'comparative advantage-following' strategies adopted, and thereby explains the different growth and transition records in the two groups of countries. The article also links the choice of reform strategies to the initial conditions, and attributes the post-transition economic record to the policies adopted. The differences in the allocation of rents and the principal ways in which market discipline was introduced are also discussed.     

Using Indicators to Measure Sustainability Performance at a Corporate and Project Level

More and more businesses are aligning their activities with the principles of sustainable development. Therefore they need to adapt their ways of measuring corporate performance. However, it includes issues which may be outside the direct control of the organisation, that are difficult to characterise and often are based on value judgements rather than hard data. The difficulty in measuring performance is further complicated by the fact that many corporations have a complex organisational structure, with different business streams, functions and projects.This paper has used two case studies to explore how the appropriate use of indicators can be a powerful tool in addressing the sustainability of businesses both at a corporate wide level and at a project level.