Transferia: solving local pain or bringing global gain?

ABSTRACT

The sustainability of container transferia, a specific type of intermodal terminals located in the vicinity of ports, is analysed in an external cost evaluation. This concept enables transporting large amounts of containers from a port to a transferium, outside the most congested area, by high-frequency barge or rail transport. From this point onwards, the transport is executed by truck or intermodal. The paper presents a case study of maritime-based container transport in Belgium. A geographic information systems-based model compares transport alternatives, regarding their societal impact. The findings suggest that when trucks perform the hinterland transport to transferia instead of direct truck transport to the port, the production of external costs decreases in the port area, but remains stable in the hinterland. However, when intermodal chains can replace these truck services to the transferia, external costs remain limited in the port area, but also decrease in the hinterland in most cases.     

Sign reversal in the relationship between income smoothing and cost of debt

Despite the fact that income smoothing by managers is a pervasive phenomenon that has been widely researched, extant literature provides incomplete evidence on how smoothing is associated with cost of debt in general, and in the private loan market in particular. The institutional factors associated with private loan contracts, combined with the theoretical motivations for smoothing, make it unclear whether smoothing will be positively, negatively, or not associated with loan spread. Using both cross‐country and within‐country analyses on an international sample of private loans, we predict and provide evidence that income smoothing is associated with lower cost of debt when the threat of private benefits consumption by managers is low, but is associated with higher cost of debt when the threat of private benefits consumption by managers is high. We provide the first evidence in the literature that the garbling effect of smoothing can predictably dominate the signaling view of smoothing in debt contract design, and we identify private benefits consumption threat as the feature of the contracting environment that empirically reveals a sign reversal in the relationship between smoothing and cost of debt.     

Integrated performance management using information technology: a study of UK charities

This paper explores how UK charities use information technology (IT) to support integrated performance management (IPM). Based on six case studies of small and medium-sized charities (SMCs), it finds that SMCs see IT as important for IPM, but face significant barriers establishing effective IPM. The paper concludes that charities would benefit from a more strategic infrastructure approach to IT, integrating IT for data, information and knowledge.     

Transfer Price Negotiation in the Presence of Unequal Bargaining Power: The Effect of a Peer Evaluation Scheme on Inter-divisional Profit Distribution

This study examines how managers balance economic incentives and inter-divisional equity considerations during transfer price negotiations. Our experiment shows that both buyers and sellers are willing to give up a significant amount of their profits to pursue a more equitable outcome (one that results in greater inter-divisional profit equalisation). We also find that incorporating peer evaluation schemes into negotiators' formal incentive plans has both economic and social-psychological impacts on negotiation behaviour, resulting in even greater inter-divisional profit equalisation. While this outcome may seem 'fairer' to the individual managers, from the firms' perspective profit equalisation can obscure divisional performance, potentially leading to resource allocation inefficiencies.     

Environmental NGO–business collaboration and strategic bridging: a case analysis of the Greenpeace–Foron Alliance

Environmental NGO–business collaborative partnerships, commonly called green alliances, are encouraging corporate enviropreneurship, entrepreneurial innovations that address environmental problems and result in operational efficiencies, new technologies and marketable ‘green’ products. Aside from offering environmental, scientific and legal expertise, environmental NGOs can provide linkages to other societal stakeholders, referred to as strategic bridges, to support enviropreneurial initiatives. This article focuses on the linkage capabilities of environmental NGOs by developing an extended strategic bridging framework that articulates necessary process contingencies and engagement strategies for building effective bridges with environmental stakeholders. Propositions are advanced and tested in an analysis of the alliance between Greenpeace and Foron Household Appliances in Germany during 1992–93 for the marketing of an environmentally responsible refrigerator. Stakeholder characteristics and partnership outcomes reveal managerial implications and conceptual extensions of strategic bridging in green alliances, and future research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Does women’s participation in agricultural technology adoption decisions affect the adoption of climate‐smart agriculture? Insights from Indo‐Gangetic Plains of India

Increased participation of women in the agricultural technology adoption decision by farm households is one of the key indicators of gender empowerment in the agricultural sector. This study examines whether women’s participation in the household decision to adopt agricultural technology affects the adoption of climate‐smart agriculture (CSA), using data collected from 1,267 farm households from two Indian states of Bihar and Haryana. When we considered the sex of the household head (using a dummy variable for male‐headed vs female‐headed household) as a basis of analyzing the role of gender in the adoption of CSA, we found that women in Haryana had no role in the adoption of CSA. On the contrary, when we considered women’s participation in technology adoption decisions as a basis of gender analysis, we found that women’s participation in technology adoption decisions in Haryana is much higher as compared to Bihar. Consequently, the likelihood to adopt CSA is higher in Haryana than in Bihar. We also found that wealth, training, and access to extension and market positively influenced CSA adoption. Qualitative analysis shows that women farmers prioritize family food security rather than farm income, and therefore, they are more likely to focus on CSA to ensure food security.     

The U.S. Carpet Industry: History,Industry Dynamics,and a Simple Model for Short-Term Forecasting

This article presents a simple model that can be used to assess the current situation of the carpet industry and develop a short-term outlook for it. Using quarterly data over the time period 1999:Q1–2016:Q2, we build a regression model of U.S. carpet industry shipments. We find that the recent leveling-off of shipments is likely to persist. While housing recovery will aid the demand for carpeting, increases in income are likely to be offsetting, as the switch to alternative floor coverings will be ongoing.     

Economics at the American Chemistry Council

This article examines the role of the economics team at the American Chemistry Council, a major trade association representing the leading companies in the business of chemistry. The history of the team, its organization, its role in providing good statistics, monitoring and forecasting business conditions, conducting policy analysis, and thoughts on managing professionals are presented.