Environmental sustainability orientation,competitive strategy and financial performance

Extant research has established that environmental sustainability orientation (ESO) has a positive influence on performance outcomes. Nevertheless, several contingencies tend to affect the strength of this relationship. In this study, we draw on natural resource‐based theory to introduce competitive strategies as moderators in the ESO–performance nexus. Using time‐lagged data obtained from 269 firms in Ghana, this study finds that firms pursuing the differentiation strategy can positively boost performance outcomes with ESO than without differentiation strategy. We also find that firms can use the low‐cost or the integrated strategy to get higher impact on performance with ESO, respectively. Based on the results, firms in Ghana do not need differentiation strategy in order to boost the effect of ESO on financial performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The impact of commodity price shocks among regional economies of a developing country

Volatile commodity prices have become commonplace in the world economy. Although is widely accepted that commodity‐rich countries are affected by this phenomenon, information about how commodity price shocks impacts their regional economies is scarce. This work analyses how shocks in copper prices impact the economies of the major copper‐producing regions in a developing country, such as Chile. To achieve this goal, a two‐step method is implemented. First, we estimate long‐term copper prices using the Wets and Rios approach (2015) and these estimates are then contrasted with those forecast by the Chilean public advisory committee. Second, a general equilibrium model is implemented to simulate the effects of both expansive and restrictive copper price cycles within major producing regions in Chile. Our results show that the proposed approach yields more homogeneous price projections than those made by the Chilean Government, which, in turn, are very close to variations in response to negative shocks. The price simulations confirm that price cycles affect the savings of government and business, which directly dampens regional production, mainly via investment, capital mobilisation and diversification of production. Because of this, fiscal revenues generated by copper sales act as a trade cycle term multiplier in regional economies. Overall, within copper‐producing regions, we suggest implementing long‐term policies to improve profit distribution efficiency.     

Shopping mall image: systematic review of 40 years of research

Scholars have measured mall image, or mall attractiveness, since the mid-1970s. The models proposed are strongly rooted in the retail location and store image theories. However, apart from this common ground, the constructs adopted share few similarities with respect to the selection of mall attributes used to measure mall image. As a result, the extant literature is fragmented, offering several different models that are difficult to compare. This state-of-affairs is averse to the progress of knowledge, as it lacks external validity needed when different contexts are investigated, which is the case of shopping centres established in several different urban environments, countries and cultures. As a result of a systematic literature review, which employed bibliometric analysis and content analysis, both the roots and the frontier of research were identified. A list of mall image attributes was generated and identified those that seemed theoretically more relevant in capturing the construct of mall image.     

Enhancing the Creative Performance of New Product Teams: An Organizational Configurational Approach

Innovation is crucial to managing ever‐increasing environmental complexity. Creativity is the first stage of the innovation process and is particularly relevant in modern new product development (NPD) projects. In response to a call for further empirical research on collective creative performance combining individual and team levels in a comprehensive framework, this paper offers useful evidence for the design of NPD teams to foster creative performance. The results suggest that different sets of individual traits and collective processes combine and interact, enabling a similar level of creative performance from different configurations of individual and team “ingredients.” There are no consistently good‐quality or poor‐quality NPD teams or processes. However, equifinal configurations—based on team composition, and interpersonal, coordination, control, and diversity management processes—can be effective in producing creative products. Through a large‐scale study of 119 teams of students involved in an NPD activity, this paper contributes by expanding creativity and NPD team design literature, providing the basis for a “first right” approach to real‐world, in‐company research. It first proposes and tests the adoption of the configurational equifinality approach in the NPD team design domain, introducing the concept of complementarities among different types of “team ingredients,” both at the individual and team level. Second, it introduces different multidimensional measures of team creative performance, relevant to generalizing and comparing the research results. Third, it offers several guidelines for designing real‐world NPD teams through the combination of diversity and interpersonal management, as well as coordination and control processes, which have not been studied to any great extent but are at times controversial in creativity literature.     

Common Context for Decisions and their Implementations

Decisions are frequently sent to implementers without the context that guided them. It should not be a surprise, then, that results are not as expected. The lack of supplementary information and a common context produces wrongly implemented or lost decisions. This paper proposes a solution to this problem based on groupware technology. In particular, a combination of tools including shared workspaces, process modeling with workflow and a discussion tool, is proposed. A case is used to illustrate the problem and its solution.     

A comparison of MAD and CVaR models with real features

In this paper we consider two different mixed integer linear programming models for solving the single period portfolio selection problem when integer stock units, transaction costs and a cardinality constraint are taken into account. The first model has been formulated by using the maximization of the worst conditional expectation as objective function. The second model is based on the maximization of the safety measure corresponding to the mean absolute deviation. Extensive computational results are provided to compare the financial characteristics of the optimal portfolios selected by the two models on real data from European stock exchange markets. Some simple heuristics are also introduced that provide efficient and effective solutions when an optimal integer solution cannot be found in a reasonable amount of time.     

Trade Reform and Inequality: The Case of Mexico and Argentina in the 1990s

This paper provides empirical assessments of one of the leading explanations for the increase in skill premium in Mexico and Argentina during the 1990s: trade liberalisation. We present evidence showing that imports increase skill premium in Mexico, while exports reduce it. In Argentina, trade increased skill premium in the early 1990s (the beginning of trade reforms), although it reduced it later in the decade. These results are helpful for a comparison between South–South integration, FTAA or bilateral FTAs with Northern economies as alternative trade policy options for Latin American countries.     

Public policies,political cleavages and urban space: state infrastructure policies in São Paulo,Brazil, 1975–2000

This article deals with the state policies of urban infrastructure in São Paulo, Brazil, from 1975 to 2000. Working with primary information about the investments made by the state in public works, we discuss a series of arguments present in the urban studies literature about the patterns of state investment in urban spaces and propose an alternative explanation for state action in Brazilian urban spaces in recent decades. We analyze the main elements that have influenced the overall pattern of investments, describe the main characteristics of this policy over time and in each of the municipal governments of the period, as well as develop an evaluation of the spatial distribution of the resources among each of the main social groups in the city.