The effect of a destination branding strategy for rural tourism on the perceived value of the conservation of the indigenous resources of the rural tourism destination: the case of Spain

The identification of mechanisms that encourage the tourism sector to contribute to sustainable conservation is of great interest. The present work proposes the use of destination branding based on contribution to the conservation of the indigenous resources of the rural tourist destination, and studies the effect this has on perceived value for the tourist visiting the destination. A scale of destination brand identity is validated, along with a scale for destination brand positioning and another for perceived value, as viewed by the tourist, of contribution to sustainable conservation. The perceived value scale offers an overall perspective which includes: functional-affective factors; benefits–sacrifices; the pre-visit stage; and the stay in the rural tourism location. These findings make a new contribution to both literature and to the professional sector.     

Do institutional investors drive corporate transparency regarding business contribution to the sustainable development goals?

Institutional investors show increasing interest in how companies align their corporate social responsibility strategies with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations (UN). The information disclosed in this regard is essential to know and monitor business contribution to the 2030 Agenda. In this paper, we analyze the influence that institutional investors have on the adoption of the disclosure strategy established by UN and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)—GRI‐SDG Compass. The results obtained for a sample of 989 international companies, which prepare their sustainability reports following the GRI guidelines, show that ownership by foreign investors, pension funds, and “other” investors boosts the relevance of the information disclosed in relation to the 2030 Agenda. On the contrary, government, financial institutions, and cross holdings have no impact on the information systems developed.     

Can tax regulations moderate revenue diversification and reduce financial distress in nonprofit organizations?

As a result of policies to reduce public deficit, nonprofit organizations have been forced to turn to charitable donations in order to diversify their revenue structure and thus reduce their levels of financial distress. Public administrations have supported this process through tax mechanisms designed to provide a legal framework that will encourage private philanthropy. Our aim is to analyse the role of nonprofit tax regulations in moderating the influence of revenue diversification on insolvency risk. To this end, we drew a sample of 406 nonprofit organizations located in Aragon and Navarre, two European regions with different tax regulations, for the period 2008–2018. Our results reveal that some tax regime requirements, such as the organizational purpose, minimum initial endowment, engagement in commercial activity, and accountability and monitoring standards, have a positive impact on revenue diversification and the reduction of financial distress and vulnerability. However, we also detect differences between regions which suggest that tax harmonization for nonprofit organizations remains a challenge.     

Mergers and acquisition trends in Europe

The research revises, in a first step, the different European waves of mergers and acquisitions and their differences with the American waves. Mergers and acquisitions are defined as an important corporate restructuring method with four main different ways to make them. The body of this paper analyzes the merger and acquisition situation in 1994 in Europe compared with the situation in previous years. Mergers and acquisitions activity in major European countries in 1993 and 1994, various volume transactions in mergers and acquisitions activity, cross-border deals in Europe between 1989 and 1994, and the big buyers in cross-border deals in 1994 are analyzed. The paper also emphasizes the different characteristics and their evolution.     

Efficiency of football teams from an organisation management perspective

The aim of this paper is to assess the efficiency of football. Our contributions to the literature are the use of the resource-based theory and the strategy-structure-performance perspective as the study's framework, efficiency has been considered as the result of the qualities of the productive resources in football teams and efficiency is calculated in every area in the field of play. The results show that the entire team's efficiency is positively related to sporting success and the efficiency of attacking and ball recovery areas is directly related to the sport result and the efficiency of the team as a whole.     

Environmental strategy in the global banking industry within the varieties of capitalism approach: The moderating role of gender diversity and board members with specific skills

This research sets out to analyse environmental disclosure in the banking industry by considering the varieties of capitalism framework. This approach is concerned with the way companies interact strategically to resolve coordination issues arising from their operations, and it is supported by prior research. This is a fruitful perspective for exploring the association between country‐level factors and disclosure by firms, such as environmental reporting. This research is based on an international sample of countries operating in coordinated market economies (CMEs) and liberal market economies (LMEs). The results obtained show that financial institutions operating in CME countries are involved in more environmental matters than banks domiciled in LME countries. As regards the moderating variables, the evidence shows that women on the boards of banks in CME countries encourage the reporting of environmental information, as predicted. Nonetheless, and contrary to our expectations, members with specific skills on boards within CME cultures do not favour greater disclosure of environmental information compared with those on boards of banks operating in LME contexts.     

Do the ecoinnovation and ecodesign strategies generate value added in munificent environments?

Within innovation strategies, ecodesign and ecoinnovation are becoming very relevant in recent years as they seek to reduce the environmental impact of both products and production processes by using new technologies and ways of working that contribute to sustainable development and at the same time help to promote the competitiveness of companies. In this framework, the objective of this paper is to analyze the impact that the strategies of environmental innovation in products and processes have on the profitability and the market value of the companies, considering the moderating role that the munificence of the industry has in this relationship. Using the generalized method of moments, the results obtained from a sample of 6,454 international companies during the period 2002–2017 show that although environmental innovation strategies do not entail higher returns, they are well valued by the capital market. This was especially true in environments with greater economic growth and availability of resources, that is, in munificent environments.     

Productivity and Microeconomic Reforms: Strengthening EU Competitiveness

This paper argues that standards of living are a meaningful measure of competitiveness. It views comparisons with the performance of other regions, and in particular with the US, as an evaluation of the distance to the “technology frontier” and the potential for improvements. Productivity and external competitiveness developments are reviewed from a sectoral perspective. A forward looking dimension is given by a brief presentation of the revised “Lisbon Strategy” and the new industrial policy approach proposed by the European Commission.