Innovation and competitive advantages from the integration of strategic aspects with social and environmental management in European firms

This paper analyses the nature and details of the association that the integration of social and environmental considerations with corporate strategy has for different competitive advantages and innovation activities at the firm level. Its objective is to answer the question as to whether a positive link exists between integration and the effects of environmental and social performance on these different dimensions of economic performance. The question of the specific form of this relationship is also raised. These questions are analysed using cluster analysis and regression models. Results are presented for four different dimensions of competitive advantage, and for two types of innovation activity. These raise the possibility that the process of integration is more important for bringing about a positive link than a resulting integration type. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Marketing and the law

Marketing decisions are particularly vulnerable to legal rulings made in both the courts and the legislatures. The effective management of those legal implications challenges the modern marketing professional. Grasping marketing’s overall legal environment, including its governing case law, regulatory statutes and future trends, is essential. This review will provide analysis of recent court cases and legislation with particular emphasis on creatively assisting the marketer’s management of the legal factor.     

Organisation für Kooperationen — Ansätze für eine erfolgreiche Einbindung des Kooperationsmanagements in das eigene Unternehmen

Kooperationen stellen Unternehmen vor spezifische Herausforderungen. Dabei geht es nicht mehr nur darum zu entscheiden, ob mit externen Partnern zusammengearbeitet werden soll. Aufgrund einer zunehmenden Zahl von Partnerschaften stellt sich vielmehr vielfach die Frage, wie Kooperationen im eigenen Unternehmen erfolgreich begleitet bzw. verankert werden k?nnen. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht verschiedene Herausforderungen im Umgang mit Kooperationen und leitet entsprechende Handlungsoptionen für das Marketing-Management ab.     

A Strategic Approach to Financing Public Transport Through Property Values

Traditional sources of finance are becoming inadequate to meet the needs of public transport. This has led to the emergence of a number of local earmarked tax and charging mechanisms, in particular road user charges and tolls. This article examines one group of such mechanisms: charges to property owners and developers, and draws on worldwide examples of the practical use of a number of such schemes. There are a number of practical difficulties with capturing value from property owners and developers, and these are detailed with a commentary on best practice.     

Information,motivation, and control in decentralized planning: the case of discretionary managerial behavior

A simple piecewise-linear managerial incentive scheme is analyzed in a decision-making environment in which a manager is allowed some discretionary activity (effort). Initially, he must report to the planner a target that will be used subsequently to evaluate his performance. If managerial effort is chosen after the random production components are realized, this predicted target will be more realizable than one reported in the absence of such discretionary adjustment. The sensitivity of target and performance to the parameters of the incentive scheme and the manager's utility function is examined to study the planner's ability to both acquire information and motivate performance. J. Comp. Econ., Sept. 1979, 3(3), pp. 235–253. Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.     

The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard – linking sustainability management to business strategy

The Balanced Scorecard of Kaplan and Norton is a management tool that supports the successful implementation of corporate strategies. It has been discussed and considered widely in both practice and research. By linking operational and non‐financial corporate activities with causal chains to the firm's long‐term strategy, the Balanced Scorecard supports the alignment and management of all corporate activities according to their strategic relevance. The Balanced Scorecard makes it possible to take into account non‐monetary strategic success factors that significantly impact the economic success of a business. The Balanced Scorecard is thus a promising starting‐point to also incorporate environmental and social aspects into the main management system of a firm. Sustainability management with the Balanced Scorecard helps to overcome the shortcomings of conventional approaches to environmental and social management systems by integrating the three pillars of sustainability into a single and overarching strategic management tool. After a brief discussion of the different possible forms of a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard the article takes a closer look at the process and steps of formulating a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard for a business unit. Before doing so, the basic conventional approach of the Balanced Scorecard and its suitability for sustainability management will be outlined in brief. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

IDENTIFICATION AND ESTIMATION OF EXCHANGE RATE MODELS WITH UNOBSERVABLE FUNDAMENTALS*

This article is concerned with issues of model specification, identification, and estimation in exchange rate models with unobservable fundamentals. We show that the continuous‐time model proposed by Gardeazabal, Regúlez, and Vázquez (International Economic Review 38 (1997), 389–404) is not identified and that this property is characteristic of the discrete‐time representation of the model that they used as the basis for estimation by simulated method of moments. We briefly discuss the implications of this result in the context of the asset‐market model of exchange rates with unobservable fundamentals.     

Prolonged gestation: Energy efficiency and renewable energy businesses

Life cycle theories suggest that businesses evolve through a number of stages: from an embryonic stage of introduction to growth, maturity, and decline. The force that propels their development is consumer acceptance. Industries pass through life cycles as well. However, not all industries pass through each stage of the life cycle, and the duration of stages varies across industries. Some industries skip the slow introductory phase; others avoid the decline stage and are continually revitalised through technological innovation. Still others continue to show substantial promise, but fail to take-off. It is this industry condition, persistent promise without corresponding growth, that we characterise as extended gestation. We believe that energy efficiency and renewable energy (EERE) businesses in Minnesota face the challenge of extended gestation. In this paper, we review the literature on the traditional stages of industry development, explore some of the factors that may lead an industry to remain in a state of extended gestation, and report the results of a study undertaken to better understand the factors that affect the growth of EERE businesses.