Climate Change and Financial Performance in Times of Crisis

Over the past years there has been a debate on the relationship between the environmental and financial performance of businesses, but researchers have not reached any agreement. This research attempts to explore this relationship, especially as in recent years there has been controversy about how this relationship has been affected by the global economic crisis. Taking into account that successfully limiting global climate change to safe levels in the long term is likely to require connecting climate change policies to sustainable development strategies, this paper focuses on the performance of environmental policies. We used a sample of 855 international companies in sectors of intensive greenhouse gas/CO₂ emissions. Specifically, we used data from the Forbes Global 2000 Index and Carbon Disclosure Project data from 2006 to 2009. The data analysis was performed using panel data methodology. The results obtained show that in times of economic crisis, the synergy between environmental and financial performance is higher, meaning that companies must continue to invest in sustainable projects in order to enhance relations with their stakeholders, leading to higher economic profits. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

‘We (don’t) know how you feel’ – a comparative study of automated vs. manual analysis of social media conversations

Abstract

The ever-growing volume of brand-related conversations on social media platforms has captivated the attention of academics and practitioners, as the analysis of those conversations promises to offer unparalleled insight into consumers’ emotions. This article takes a step back from the hype, and investigates the vulnerabilities related to the analysis of social media data concerning consumers’ sentiment. A review of the literature indicates that the form, focus, source and context of the communication may negatively impact on the analyst’s ability to identify sentiment polarity and emotional state. Likewise, the selection of analytical tool, the creation of codes, and the classification of the data, adversely affect the researcher’s ability to accurately assess the sentiment expressed in a social media conversation. Our study of Twitter conversations about coffee shows low levels of agreement between manual and automated analysis, which is of grave concern given the popularity of the latter in consumer research.     

Trip Cultural Activities and Tourism Expenditure in Emerging Urban‐cultural Destinations

Although tourism expenditure is determined by different factors, the literature has not analysed the extent to which trip cultural activities affect tourism expenditure in the destination. The focus of this paper is a microeconomic analysis performed in 14 emerging urban‐cultural destinations in Andalusia (Spain). The results confirm that there are activities related to cultural visits, attendance at events or gastronomic activities that determine tourism expenditure. These results guide the implementation of specific actions by the policy‐makers in these destinations aimed at increasing the economic impact of tourism, based on the creation of high value‐added tourism products to overcome their mere dependence on built heritage. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managing complexity： A problem of chaos in fisheries policy

This work intends to present chaos theory （and dynamical systems such as the theories of complexity）, in terms of interpretation of ecological phenomena. The chaos theory applied in the context of ecological systems, especially in the context of fisheries has allowed the recognition of the relevance of this kind of theories to explain fishing phenomena and fisheries policies. It has permitted new advances in the study of marine systems, contributing to the preservation of fish stocks. This paper deals with the way how to manage fisheries taking chaos in account of the problem.     

Informal employment in developing countries : Opportunity or last resort?

There is an ongoing debate among researchers and policy makers, whether informal sector employment is a result of competitive market forces or labor market segmentation. More recently it has been argued that none of the two theories sufficiently explains informal employment, but that the informal sector shows a heterogenous structure. For some workers the informal sector is an attractive employment opportunity, whereas for others - rationed out of the formal sector - the informal sector is a strategy of last resort. To test the empirical relevance of this hypothesis we formulate an econometric model which allows for several unobserved segments within the informal sector and apply it to the urban labor market in Côte d'Ivoire.     

Ease of reading of mandatory information on Canadian food product labels

Food product labels present individual product information, safety, nutrition, electronic inventory, container and environmental information, in various formats, languages and images. Some information is mandatory; much is promotional. The food label is an essential tool for regulators of safe food handling, nutrition policy and fair competition. Mandatory information on food labels in Canada is required to be presented in both English and French, readily discernable, prominently displayed and legible. This study examines the ease of finding and reading of mandatory label components on selected Canadian food products. A validated typographical scoring system assessed the lists of ingredients on a purposive sample of 100 food labels representing foods in all groups in Canada's Food Guide. Seven percent of the ingredient lists were easy to read; 26% were difficult to read and 67% were very difficult to read. Well‐educated resourceful readers in consumer focus groups examined food labels for key elements that influence ease of finding and reading information. Focus groups and typographical scoring identified: colour contrast, case, print style, print size, space between the lines, reverse print, organization, justification, type of surface, hyphenation and print reproduction as factors that affect ease of reading. Print that curves around a container, lack of paragraphing or point form organization make reading difficult; text blocks at right angles to each other make comparisons difficult; separation of the nutrition facts table from the list of ingredients makes decision making tedious. Inadequate spacing between lines of print creates problems for readers of English and exacerbates problems for readers of French. Words placed over illustrations, busy backgrounds or watermarks increase reading difficulty. Hazard statements, instructions and storage information imbedded in other information without added space or appropriate heading is difficult to find and read. Canadian consumers echo consumers in 28 European countries who find label information difficult to find and to read and want clear guidelines/regulations on the placement and the typography of mandatory food label components     

Commonality in the LME aluminum and copper volatility processes through a FIGARCH lens

Dynamic representation of spot and three‐month aluminum and copper volatilities is considered. Aluminum and copper are the two most important metals traded in the London Metal Exchange. They share common business cycle factors and are traded under identical contract specifications. The bivariate FIGARCH model, which allows parsimonious representation of long memory volatility processes, is applied. The results show that spot and three‐month aluminum and copper volatilities follow long memory processes, that they exhibit a common degree of fractional integration and that the processes are symmetric. However, there is no evidence that the processes are fractionally cointegrated. This high degree of commonality may result from the common LME trading process. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:935–962, 2008     

W. Sulzbach,die Grundlagen der politischen Parteibildung

Frankfort a. d. M., Maart 1921.     

Polychoric versus Pearson correlations in exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of ordinal variables

Given that the use of Likert scales is increasingly common in the field of social research it is necessary to determine which methodology is the most suitable for analysing the data obtained; although, given the categorization of these scales, the results should be treated as ordinal data it is often the case that they are analysed using techniques designed for cardinal measures. One of the most widely used techniques for studying the construct validity of data is factor analysis, whether exploratory or confirmatory, and this method uses correlation matrices (generally Pearson) to obtain factor solutions. In this context, and by means of simulation studies, we aim to illustrate the advantages of using polychoric rather than Pearson correlations, taking into account that the latter require quantitative variables measured in intervals, and that the relationship between these variables has to be monotonic. The results show that the solutions obtained using polychoric correlations provide a more accurate reproduction of the measurement model used to generate the data.