Moving towards ecologically sustainable diets: Lessons from an Italian box delivery scheme

Conscious of the nutritional failings of the current food systems, there has been a call in the last decade or so to move beyond sustainable consumption and towards sustainable diets defined as healthy diets that also optimize the environment, food quality, socio‐cultural values, the economy and governance. Previous studies have shown how local food initiatives can lead to greater levels of sustainable consumption and healthier diets and have focused on the key role played by the conscious‐consumer. Analysing various types of local food initiatives—from community‐oriented to more private‐run activities—they have described the processes that local food initiatives set in motion to empower conscious‐consumers and to ultimately change habits and routines. Taking the specific case of a business‐oriented box delivery scheme in Italy, the article sheds further light on the mechanisms that enable clients to consume in more sustainable and healthier ways, with a central role played by learning, commitment and empowerment. Obstacles however exist in the form of the way people's everyday lives are structured, and the competing values that people draw upon in making their food choices. Support is therefore needed from public institutions to make it easier for people to choose healthier and more sustainable food provisioning systems.     

Import-led innovation: The case of the Austrian textile industry

Zusammenfassung Vom Import getragener Innovationsproze\: Der Fall der ?sterreichischen Textilindustrie. - Die empirische Evidenz dieses Artikels zeigt, da\ die ?sterreichische Textilindustrie deutlich auf die massive und haupts?chlich aus den anderen Industriel?ndern kommende Konkurrenz reagierte. Der technische Fortschritt wurde aus technologisch weiter entwickelten L?ndern importiert, w?hrend inl?ndische Forschungsaktivit?ten nur bei kleinen Unternehmen eine Rolle spielten, da diese es schwer hatten, am Technologietransfer teilzunehmen. Ein wesentlicher Teil des Produktivit?tsfortschritts l?\t sich auf den Import der im Ausland am besten bew?hrten Technologie zurückführen. Der Import ausl?ndischer Proze\innovationen half der Industrie, im internationalen Preiswettbewerb zu bestehen: Sie konnte die Produktqualit?t und das Design verbessern und dadurch die Exportpreiselastizit?t ?sterreichischer Textilprodukte verringern.

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Résumé Innovation conduite par des importations: le cas de l’industrie textile autrichienne. - L’évidence empirique trouvée dans cet article suggère que l’industrie textile autrichienne répondit bien à la compétition massive étrangère qui provient principalement des autres pays industrialisés. Le progrès technique dans cette industrie fut importé des pays technologiquement plus avancés pendant que les activités locales en recherche n’étaient importantes que pour les petites entreprises qui souffrirent d’une contrainte en transfert téchnologique de l’étranger. L’industrie gagnait une partie significative de sa croissance de productivité par l’importation de la meilleure technologie pratiquée à l’étranger. L’importation des innovations pour le procédé de fabrication a aidé l’industrie à passer la compétition internationale de prix en améliorant les produits en qualité et en modèle. Ce progrès a contribué à réduire l’élasticité de prix exportatrice vis-à-vis des produits de textile autrichiens.

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Resumen Innovation através de las importaciones: el caso de la industria textil austríaca. - La evidencia empírica presentada en este trabajo sugiere que la industria textil austríaca ha respondido a la importante competencia extranjera que proyino particularmente de otros países industrializados. El progreso tecnológico en esta industria fué importado de países tecnológicamente más avanzados, mientras que actividades de investigatión nacionales sólo jugaron un papel para las empresas peque?as, al gozar éstas de una transferencia de tecnología del exterior restringida. La industria debe gran parte del aumento de la productividad a la importatión de la mejor tecnología extranjera. La importación de innovaciones de proceso ayudó a la industria a enfrentar a la competencia international mediante mejoras en la calidad de sus productos y dise?os que redujeron la elasticidad precio de exportatión de los productos textiles austríacos.

     

Community attachment,tourism impacts,quality of life and residents’ support for sustainable tourism development

This study examined the formation of residents’ support for sustainable tourism development based on the social exchange theory and bottom-up spillover theory. A self-administered survey along with a structural analysis was used. Our result revealed that overall quality of life satisfaction influenced support for sustainable tourism development, and that material life domains and non-material life domains were two important determinants of overall QoL. Perceived sociocultural impacts of tourism had a significant relationship with non-material life domains. Perceived economic impacts of tourism influenced both material and non-material life domains. Community attachment and residents’ perceived impacts of tourism were significantly associated.     

Strategic alliances by financial services firms

We examine a sample of strategic alliances made by financial services firms during 1986 to 2003. The market reacts positively to the announcements of alliances and seems to incorporate the information about the value of alliances at the time of alliance announcements. We find no evidence of abnormal stock performance after announcements. Our results also suggest that strategic alliances usually are used as a final form of cooperation rather than as a first step towards closer cooperation between firms. For instance, only about 5% of alliances are followed with joint ventures or mergers of partner firms. Nevertheless, strategic alliance firms are more likely to form joint ventures or merge than randomly selected and matched firms. Furthermore, the market reacts more favorably to the alliance announcements by firms that are subsequently acquired by the alliance partners.     

Corporate Transparency and Green Management

How can firms support their customers’ collaborative, social responsibility initiatives – and especially pro-environmental, firm–customer collaborations? Does corporate transparency affect customers’ willingness to undertake pro-environmental collaborative programs? This study addresses these questions in relation to the US residential electricity market. It focuses on the impact of customers’ perceptions of the utility’s degree of transparency and on the willingness to engage in pro-environmental behavior (PEB) related to electricity consumption. The responses of 1257 interviewees from US households to questions related to their electricity suppliers are analyzed through structural equation models (SEMs) using latent variables. Results show that customers’ perceptions of an electricity utility’s transparency affect their willingness to collaborate in environmental programs, and that the degree of perceived transparency of the utility is related to customers’ environmental awareness.     

Flexible mandates for investment in new technology

Environmental regulators often seek to promote forefront technology for new investments; however, technology mandates are suspected of raising cost and delaying investment. We examine investment choices under an inflexible (traditional) emissions rate performance standard for new sources. We compare the inflexible standard with a flexible one that imposes an alternative compliance payment (surcharge) for emissions in excess of the standard. A third policy allows the surcharge revenue to fund later retrofits. Analytical results indicate that increasing flexibility leads to earlier introduction of new technology, lower aggregate emissions and higher profits. We test this using multi-stage stochastic optimization for introduction of carbon capture and storage, with uncertain future natural gas and emissions allowance prices. Under perfect foresight, the analytical predictions hold. With uncertainty these predictions hold most often, but we find exceptions. In some cases investments are delayed to enable the decision maker to discover additional information.     

Trust versus illusion: What is driving demonetization in the former Soviet Union?

The virtual economy argument for Russia suggests that barter allows the parties to pretend that the manufacturing sector is producing value added by enabling this sector to sell its output at a higher price than its market value. We confront this prediction with the actual pricing behaviour of industrial sectors in Ukraine in 1997. Based on the pricing data of 165 barter deals we find no systematic difference in the pricing behaviour in non-cash transactions across sectors. What appears to matter for the pricing behaviour is whether the firm is on the selling or buying end of the barter transaction. We offer a model that sees this pricing behaviour as a mechanism to deal with the absence of trust and liquidity in the economy.
JEL classification: D20, G30, O10, P30.     

Globalization and the empowerment of talent

Many experts have identified globalization as the new way in which firms organize their activities and the emergence of talent as the new stakeholder in the firm. This paper examines the role of trade integration in the changing nature of the corporation. International trade leads to a ‘war for talent’ which makes it more likely that an organizational equilibrium emerges in the integrated world economy in which control is delegated to lower levels of the firm's hierarchy empowering human capital. Furthermore, trade integration is shown to lead to waves of decentralization and to convergence in corporate cultures across countries.     

LABOR LAWS AND CORPORATE INVESTMENT

In the United States, the costs of unionized labor are higher in states without right‐to‐work (RTW) laws. I show that unionized firms located in these states invest less. These firms have about 4 percentage point lower capital expenditures (normalized by net property, plant, and equipment) than other firms. I confirm these findings by examining a natural experiment created by the adoption of RTW laws in Oklahoma and examining union certification elections using regression discontinuity design.     

Global Value Chains,the Rise of the Robots and Human Capital

This essay examines whether robots will lead to the reshoring of activity from low-wage countries to rich countries, leading to a revival of manufacturing in rich countries. I argue that reshoring will not lead to an employment boom in rich countries, because the brilliant robots are a capital-biased technology, and as such, they potentially replace smart people. As a result, the skill premium – the wage discrepancy between a university graduate and a high school graduate – is declining in Europe. I argue further that the expansion of higher education has been too aggressive in light of the capital bias of digital technology.