Going green: the adoption of environmental initiatives in Michigan's lodging sector

The greening of tourism activities continues to receive attention from industry members and academics. This paper assesses familiarity with, perceived benefits of and adoption levels of various environmental initiatives within the accommodation sector in Michigan, USA, based on 217 responses to an online survey of lodging providers. Variations in familiarity with various green schemes, as well as in perceived benefits of the adoption of green business practices, were assessed across property characteristics, including type, ownership, location and size. The existence of a written environmental policy was associated with higher levels of adoption of green practices for less than half of these practices; fewer than anticipated. Interesting differences in the practices adopted between smaller, independent and larger chain properties emerged, with the smaller independents more likely to engage in community-oriented activities and use local and/or organic products. The almost complete implementation of the proper disposal of hazardous waste contrasted with minimal use of keycards to control power use. The findings have implications for the promotion of green initiatives to the lodging sector, particularly in terms of which agency or organization could best deliver this messaging. Potential synergies between the findings and the award-winning tourism marketing campaign, Pure MI, are discussed.     

National differences in entrepreneurial networking

The paper reports findings of a study into the personal contact networks of Greek entrepreneurs, and compares these to results already published for other countries (Canada, Japan, Italy, Northern Ireland, Sweden, the UK, and the USA). Findings show that generic behaviour across borders cannot be assumed, although similarities exist in the under-representation of women as network members, the average age of network contacts, duration of relationships, and average monthly meetings. A clear example has also been provided of a culture where business networks are very deeply embedded in social structures, and where little or no evidence of an instrumentalist neo-classical model can be found. From a theoretical perspective, adaptation of Hofstede's four-dimensional model provides a generally robust interpretive framework for the results.     

Making Sense of an Interconnected World: How Innovation Champions Drive Social Innovation in the Not-for-Profit Context

Social innovation is critical for supporting the economic and social fabric of communities globally. Yet little is known about the processes through which social innovation occurs and how context shapes them. To date, scholarship has focused primarily on social entrepreneurs and social enterprise creation, while the role of established not-for-profits (NFPs) as agents of social innovation has received surprisingly little attention given their importance to communities. It is expected that innovation will be increasingly important for NFPs as shifts in their funding models create greater complexity in maintaining sustainability and continuity in social service delivery. This research generates a deeper understanding of the processes of social innovation within NFPs by examining how multiple levels of context influence the behaviors of a key set of agents: innovation champions. Adopting an interactionist lens, the study explores how shifts in funding policy at the macro level, and the role of leaders (CEOs and Boards) and organizational institutional logics at the meso level, influence champion behavior at the micro level. To do this, we draw on sensemaking as an important cognitive and action-enabling mechanism. A qualitative, multicase study design with 46 interviews across six case organizations allows an in-depth exploration of this under-investigated area. The findings indicate that bricolage activity can facilitate championing that supports social innovation within NFPs and that organizational context guides the direction and content of champion behavior. The findings further uncover a broader range of behaviors and outcomes than have been previously attributed to champions, while highlighting the critical role that bricolage-enabled championing can play in driving social innovation that is both directly impactful and offers significant longer-term social impact. The important roles that sensebreaking, sensegiving, and sensemaking play in connecting champions’ interpretations of their contexts to their behaviors are also outlined.     

Local Immigration Enforcement and Local Economies

We examine the impacts of a locally enforced immigration program—287(g)—on private employer reports to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Using contiguous‐county pairs to account for time‐varying local economic shocks, we identify impacts on immigrant‐intensive industries that are robust to prepolicy time trends, implementation timing, and the exclusion of pairs with large prepolicy differences. Reported employment was 4 percent higher in manufacturing, but 7–10 percent lower in administrative services. These results are consistent with adverse labor‐supply shocks, and, to a lesser extent, a decline in labor demand for locally produced goods and services.     

A SURVEY OF THE ECONOMICS OF FAIR TRADE

Fair Trade has spread in developing countries as an initiative aimed at lifting poor smallholder farmers out of poverty by providing them with premium prices, availability of credit, and improved community development and social goods. Fair Trade is also viewed as a niche market for high value products in a context of globalization and trade liberalization policies that affect smallholder farmers in developing countries. This paper provides an overview of the potential effects of Fair Trade, both theoretical and empirical, on small‐scale producers in developing countries. Our review discusses the empirical evidence on prices and income, as well as the importance of limited market access and productivity. We discuss evidence on labor markets and human capital investments as well.     

Non-GAAP earnings and board independence

We examine the association between board independence and the characteristics of non-GAAP earnings. Our results suggest that companies with less independent boards are more likely to opportunistically exclude recurring items from non-GAAP earnings. Specifically, we find that exclusions from non-GAAP earnings have a greater association with future GAAP earnings and operating earnings when boards contain proportionally fewer independent directors. Consistent with the association between board independence and the permanence of non-GAAP exclusions reflecting opportunism rather than the economics of the firm, we find that the association declines following Regulation G and that managers appear to use exclusions to meet earnings targets prior to selling their shares more often in firms with fewer independent board members. Overall, our results suggest that board independence is positively associated with the quality of non-GAAP earnings.     

The North American horticultural industry and the risk of plant invasion

We develop a monopolistic competition model of the horticultural industry and estimate the resulting profit function with U.S. and Canadian industry data. Combining the results with a hazard analysis of the characteristics of exotic plants introduced in North America, we explore optimal tax simulations for internalizing the risk and costs of a potential plant invasion. If the share of the exotic plant sales in final profits is large, then the resulting annual fee will be high, discouraging the expansion of the nursery industry. However, the annual revenues could fund efforts to mitigate the damages resulting from any accidental plant invasion.