Circular economy and sustainability: The role of organizational behaviour in the transition journey

Implementing circular economy (CE) requires complex and dynamic changes in technical and behavioural aspects. Few studies spend efforts to understand the organizational behavioural side of CE transition. Thus, this study proposes a theoretical framework that addresses the requirements for the transition towards CE from the organizational perspective. We conducted a systematic review aiming to identify the relations between CE and organizational culture. As a result, we developed a theoretical framework composed of five building blocks (mindsets, values, behaviours, capabilities and competences) that guide the transition towards a CE-oriented culture aiming to achieve sustainability in business. We also identified several gaps for future researches. We concluded that the framework could enrich the literature discussion in the field and be used by practitioners for the identification of paths to implement CE from the organizational culture perspective. In addition, the use of this framework could lead to the achievement of the sustainable development.     

Can sustainable investments outperform traditional benchmarks? Evidence from global stock markets

To contribute to overcoming global sustainability challenges, investors have been increasingly interested in making sustainable investments and incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into their portfolio selection decisions and managerial activities. However, these investors and other agents interested in sustainable investment need updated and robust information to support their decision making. We analyzed the performance of several Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSIs) and compared them with their respective market benchmarks from 2013 to 2018. The indices comprise the following regions and countries: the world, the Asia‐Pacific, Europe, emerging markets and the US. The analysis was conducted based on both classic and modern portfolio metrics. The results suggest that sustainable investment performance is still heterogeneous worldwide, but there is a promising opportunity for investors to obtain superior risk‐adjusted returns in certain regions while incorporating sustainable investment practices. The findings are of utmost importance to financial market practitioners, business managers, academics and other stakeholders interested in promoting investments, corporate practices and scientific knowledge to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).     

Looking good or feeling good? The dual role of the body in the taste transformation process

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the process of taste transformation in body-centered consumption fields and the role of the body in this process. Although previous studies have investigated taste acquisition, the body is still commonly understood only as the enactor of the practices in this process. By analyzing the context of healthy living, this study identifies the body as a lived-in trigger of taste transformation and the main place where change unfolds. It demonstrates how, after taste transformation, the body becomes a lived-in enactor of practices that display mastery of the tenets of a taste regime but is still captured in normative systems that animate the desire for change. The findings reveal that the body is both situated in normative beauty systems and an embodied enactor of practices and that by unveiling its dual role, it allows individuals to navigate distinction-over and distinction-between.     

Saving rates and portfolio choice with subsistence consumption

We analytically show that a common across rich/poor individuals Stone-Geary utility function with subsistence consumption in the context of a simple two-asset portfolio-choice model is capable of qualitatively and quantitatively explaining: (i) the higher saving rates of the rich, (ii) the higher fraction of personal wealth held in risky assets by the rich, and (iii) the higher volatility of consumption of the wealthier. On the contrary, time-variant “keeping-up-with-the-Joneses” weighted average consumption which plays the role of moving benchmark subsistence consumption gives the same portfolio composition and saving rates across the rich and the poor, failing to reconcile the model with what micro data say.     

The boomerang effect of mandatory sanitary messages to prevent obesity

A variety of prevention measures are being adopted to counter obesity. One of them is to include health sanitary messages on advertisements for food products. We tested the efficacy of this type of measure in an experimental study with 131 participants who were randomly exposed to an advertisement for a hedonic product containing or not a sanitary message. Implicit memory representations (priming protocol), explicit attitudes (questionnaire) and a behavioral measure of food choice (healthy versus unhealthy snack) were collected. Results showed that participants associated negative concepts more easily to the product when the advertisement was presented without the sanitary message, while there were no differences in the explicit attitudes. Moreover, the choice of a healthy snack doubled in the absence of sanitary message. Contrary to its objectives, the obesity prevention sanitary message fills in consumers’ need for justification leading to a greater acceptability of the advertised product and increased choice of an unhealthy snack.     

Discharge and entrepreneurship in the preventive restructuring directive

The European Council adopted the Preventive Restructuring Directive (2019/1023/EU) on June 20, 2019, which must be transposed by July 17, 2021, subject to a possible extension of a maximum of 1 year for countries encountering particular difficulties in the implementation. The Directive signals a paradigm shift in EU policy on insolvency from the traditional focus on cross‐border issues. The new Directive puts insolvency squarely at the heart of internal market regulation, following the EU's policy since the Great Recession of 2008 of promoting and strengthening the economy. Since 2016, the European Commission has issued several documents to facilitate insolvency procedures, leading to the recently adopted Preventive Restructuring Directive. Besides restructuring, the Directive promotes the discharge of pre‐insolvency debt for entrepreneurs. The Directive does not require that discharge be extended to other natural persons but recommends it. This article discusses the relationship between entrepreneurs and non‐entrepreneurs in an insolvency situation and concludes that a fair interpretation of the new Directive requires that the situation of the ordinary person with liability for business debt be closely scrutinised.     

Evolución de la capacidad tecnológica en México. Aplicación del análisis estadístico multivariante de cluster

This paper conducts an analysis on the existence of state clusters related with technological capabilities in Mexico. An empirical study was conducted using the technique of multivariate statistical cluster analysis, based on the set of indicators proposed by Cepal (2007), collecting data from various public sources country for 2006 and 2012 in order to study the time evolution of such clusters, trying to see what states have been moving to a cluster located in positions more which have advanced and retreated over the period. The results show the existence of 7 groups of states characterized by different technological capabilities, plus states are identified in decline and progress, both in terms of absorptive capacity and innovation, and in relation to the technological infrastructure capabilities.     

Optimal hedging under nonlinear borrowing cost,progressive tax rates,and liquidity constraints

Empirical research using optimal hedge ratios usually suggests that producers should hedge much more than they do. In this study, a new theoretical model of hedging is derived. Optimal hedge and leverage ratios and their relationship with yield risk, price variability, basis risk, taxes, and financial risk are determined using alternative assumptions. The motivation to hedge is provided by progressive tax rates and cost of bankruptcy. An empirical example for a wheat and stocker‐steer producer is provided. Results show that there are many factors, often assumed away in the literature, that make farmers hedge little or not at all. Progressive tax rates provide an incentive for farmers to hedge in order to reduce their tax liabilities and increase their after‐tax income. Farmers will hedge when the cost of hedging is less than the benefits of hedging that come from reducing tax liabilities, liquidity costs, or bankruptcy costs. When tax‐loss carryback is allowed, hedging decreases as the amount of tax loss that can be carried back increases. Higher profitability makes benefits from futures trading negligible and hedging unattractive, since farmers move to higher income brackets with near constant marginal tax rates. Increasing basis risk or yield risk also reduce the incentive to hedge. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 20: 375–396, 2000     

‘Chariots of fire’: the evolution of tank technology, 1915–1945

We reconsider the notion of technological trajectories by means of a detailed case-study of the evolution of tank technology between 1915 and 1945. We use principal component analysis to analyze the distribution of technical characteristics and how they map into specific service characteristics. We find that, despite the existence of differences in technical leadership, tank designs of different countries show a high degree of overlap and closeness along a common technological trajectory. In the conclusions, we speculate on whether this pattern can be explained by common heuristics that influenced the rate and direction of design activities or by doctrinal viewpoints influencing the development and use of tanks in the battlefield.