Setting Climate Action as the Priority for the Common Agricultural Policy: A Simulation Experiment

We quantitatively assess the impacts of re-allocating budgetary resources within Pillar 1 of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from direct income support to a direct greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction subsidy for EU farmers. The analysis is motivated by the discussion on the future CAP, with calls for both an increased ambition on climate action from the agricultural sector and for a more incentive-based delivery system of direct payments under strict budgetary restrictions. By conducting a simulation experiment with an agricultural partial equilibrium model (CAPRI), we are able to factor in farmers’ supply and technology-adjusting responses to the policy change and to estimate the potential uptake of the GHG-reduction subsidy in EU regions. We find that a budget-neutral re-allocation of financial resources towards subsidised emission savings can reduce EU agricultural non-CO₂ emissions by 21% by 2030, compared to a business-as-usual baseline. Two-thirds of the emission savings are due to changes in production levels and composition, implying that a significant part of the achieved GHG reduction is offset globally by emission leakage. At the aggregated level, the emission-saving subsidy and increased producer prices compensate farmers for the foregone direct income support, but differences in regional impacts indicate accelerated structural change and heterogeneous income effects in the farm population. We conclude that the assumed regional budget-neutrality condition introduces inefficiencies in the incentive system, and the full potential of the EU farming sector for GHG emissions reduction is not reached, leaving ample room for the design of more efficient agricultural policies for climate action.     

Customizing competitive strategy to entry timing: Implications for firm performance in the pharmaceutical industry

Our study examines the effect of business-level strategy on performance. Past literature examining the aforementioned effect in the pharmaceutical industry is scarce. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies that analyze how competitive strategy is contingent on firm entry timing. Hence, to explore our understanding in this area, the present study was conducted in the German pharmaceutical industry. Two hundred valid responses were collected from CEOs. The data were analyzed using SPSS and partial least square (PLS) techniques. The findings indicate a surprising result that, while the differentiation strategy is significantly related to pharmaceutical companies' performance, cost leadership strategy is not.     

Environmental management capabilities for a “circular eco‐innovation”

At a micro level, eco‐innovation marks a transition towards a circular economy (CE), and standardised routines and controls are being implemented by businesses to introduce eco‐innovative processes and thus a circular business model. Eco‐innovation applied to a circular model implies changes to companies' environmental management and accounting practices used to manage natural resources. In this context, this study analyses and measures formal and informal environmental management systems, such as certification standards and other management and environmental accounting procedures used in eco‐innovation and the CE within the dynamic capabilities theoretical framework. The study also investigates the cause‐and‐effect relationship between firms' “circular eco‐innovation” and environmental capabilities using partial least squares structural equation modelling and tests it using a sample of Spanish companies. This study offers new knowledge about the interposition of business eco‐innovation and CE‐related activities introduced by firms from the dynamic capabilities perspective.     

What is wrong with aggregate production functions. On Temple’s ‘aggregate production functions and growth economics’

In an article in the 2006 volume of this journal, Jonathan Temple presented a defence of the use of the aggregate production function in growth theory in the light of various criticisms that have been levelled at it. These criticisms include the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies, various aggregation problems, and the problems posed by the use of value data and the underlying accounting identity. We show that Temple has underestimated the seriousness of these criticisms, especially the last one, which vitiates the concept of the aggregate production function. Because of the identity, estimates of putative aggregate production functions, such as the aggregate elasticity of substitution, cannot be interpreted as reflecting the underlying technology, and hence the use of the aggregate production function is extremely problematical.     

Design Automation of the Manufacturing Process of a Mini Biodiesel Plant

The increasing pollution in the atmospheric layer has meant world-wide temperature variations, causing the melting of icecaps and floods, among other environmental factors. This change in temperature has been mainly caused by the indiscriminate emission of CO2, especially due to the rising number of vehicles in circulation. Researchers have identified that, among other types of fuel, diesel has the highest level of CO2 emission. Hence the need for the development of biodiesel, produced from oleaginous plants, aimed at reducing the emission of this harmful gas into the atmosphere, besides using renewable resources. However, as in any automation process, it is necessary to have sensors, actuators, and controllers, which together perform the automation and control of the production process. Besides that, there are other process variables to be accounted for, such as temperature, flow, and level. Considering such concept, and within the academic context, the creation process of a mini biodiesel plant will be described.     

Buying into Capitalism? Employee Ownership in a Disconnected Era

This article considers whether employee ownership mitigates the negative workplace outcomes identified by the Disconnected Capitalism Thesis (DCT). Drawing on a programme of in‐depth interviews with workers and managers in employee‐owned businesses (EOBs), the article reveals how they are partially insulated from the vicissitudes endemic within contemporary capitalism. In contrast to the workplace outcomes envisaged within the DCT, these firms are characterized by strong workforce participation, high levels of employment security, active employee engagement and strong levels of employee creativity. Not only are these features beneficial for productivity and firm performance, they generate a form of ‘connected’ capitalism, partially offsetting wider negative systemic forces at play in the economy.