Environmental Management Systems and Local Community Perceptions: the Case of Petrochemical Complexes Located in Ports

Most oil refineries and factories producing basic chemical products are located in port areas, with the result that industrial complexes potentially have a strong environmental impact on their area of influence. These externalities result in a loss of welfare for citizens residing in neighbouring areas. In a context of sustainable development, companies must integrate concerns about the natural environment in their business strategy. External stakeholders, as residents, find it difficult to visualize the actions firms take to reduce their environmental impact, and the adoption of voluntary certified environmental management systems (EMSs) acts as a signal indicating the adequate environmental behaviour of these companies. These certifications enable companies to achieve the social legitimacy they need for long‐term survival and competitiveness. In the context of a petrochemical industrial complex located in the port of Castellón (Spain), this paper primarily discusses whether such certifications – which act as signals of firms’ desirable environmental conduct – translate into higher trust in firms and lower risk perception by residents. Contrary to what might be expected, despite the widespread use by companies of voluntary and certified EMSs, the research findings confirm a relatively high citizen perception of risk regarding the industrial complex and a low trust in companies. On the other hand, the findings also show a low trust in the public institutions responsible for authorizing and monitoring firms’ activities and for enforcing possible sanctions in non‐compliance cases. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

A French migrant business network in the period of export-led growth (ELG) in Mexico: The case of the Barcelonnettes

After independence, Mexico became the destination for a current of migration from Barcelonnette, France. This migration increased between 1870 and 1930. The combination of several conditions, strategies, and characteristics of these businessmen’s social networks allowed a significant proportion to become wealthy. This paper uses the example of the Barcelonnettes to show that the development of manufacturing industry in Mexico was not directly dependent on the need for foreign currency generated by exports in this period; however these manufacturers benefited from the growth of the domestic market, which was the result of increase of exports of primary goods.     

Firm size and productivity from occupational choices

Small Business Economics - We model the distributions of firm sizes and of firms’ total factor productivity (TFP) as outcomes of a market equilibrium from the occupational decisions of...     

Loving Outside the Neighborhood: The Conflicting Effects of External Linkages on Incremental Innovation in Clusters

The present study assesses the explanatory capacity of three levels of factors, namely, internal to the company, and internal and external to the cluster, in predicting firms' incremental innovative performance in cluster contexts. The empirical research conducted here focuses on a sample of 92 companies from the Spanish textile industrial cluster in Valencia. Findings reveal that the significant role played by firms' interorganizational ties as a moderating factor between absorptive capacity and their incremental innovative performance. Additionally, results reflect the differentiated roles developed by intra‐ and extra‐cluster linkages in these interaction processes.     

IS E‐GOVERNMENT LEADING TO MORE ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS? AN OVERALL VIEW

This paper seeks to assess to what extent e-government enables accountability and transparency in EU local governments. It also provides an overall view about how local governments are implementing ICTs initiatives to bring citizens closer to governments. Although the mere capacity of the Internet for the dissemination of information improves accountability and makes benchmarking easier, our results show that the expected benefits are far from being achieved because e-government projects are still in the early stages. The results also show that, at present, ICTs have not had a dramatic impact on EU local government accountability.     

Objectives,Techniques and valuation of state-owned companies in privatization processes

This article aims to analyse the objectives and the techniques of privatization and the valuation methods applied in the state-owned company privatization processes in order to determine the coherence between the formal privatization objectives stated by governments and the techniques and the valuation methods chosen to carry out the sale of state-owned companies. From the results of an international survey carried out by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), we study the privatization practices in three groups of countries: the most developed OECD countries, Eastern European countries and developing countries. While the reasons that have motivated state-owned company privatizations all over the world are quite similar, the techniques of privatization used by these three groups are different with regard to the purpose of the privatization, the ways of carrying it out and the methods of fixing the sale price.     

Antecedents and consequences of external risk perception in franchising: evidence from the hospitality industry

In this article, we contribute to the understanding of the role that external risk perceptions play in decisions regarding the combination of company-owned and franchised units in the hospitality industry, and to knowledge of the impact of specific CEO characteristics on perceptions of environmental uncertainty. We examine the effects of tenure, an entrepreneurial nature and the innovative attitude of the CEO on the perception of external risk, and address the direct and indirect consequences of such perceptions of external risk on the configuration of the network of outlets. Our results show a significant relationship between the characteristics of the CEO and the perception of risk but, contrary to expectations, risk perception is associated with a lower degree of franchised outlets within the ownership mix.     

Promoting Employee Flexibility Through HR Practices

Current competitive environments have created a growing interest in employee flexibility in firms. Recently researchers have differentiated between two facets of employee flexibility: behavior flexibility and skill flexibility. This study proposes a model of relationships between these two facets of employee flexibility and the extent to which HR practices influence them. This model is tested by estimating structural equation models on a sample of 226 commercial departments in Spanish companies. The results of the study show that the two facets of employee flexibility are interrelated, in that skill flexibility influences behavior flexibility. Furthermore, findings confirm the influence of job enrichment on employee flexibility and the significant effect of the internal fit among HR practices on employee flexibility. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Agency-Theory and Internal-Labor-Market Explanations of Bonus Payments: Empirical Evidence from Spanish Firms

This paper combines agency theory and internal-labor-market theories to explain the determinants of bonus payments among a large sample of top and middle managers from Spanish firms. A distinction is made between the decision whether to pay bonus or not and the size of the bonus. The empirical evidence confirms that the two decisions are determined by different factors. The results of the analysis show a trade-off between short-term and long-term incentives (bonuses and promotion opportunities) as well as differences in the pattern of compensation policies across economic sectors and functional areas inside the firm.