Electoral system,corporate political donation,and carbon emission intensity: Cross-country evidence

We examine the association between a country's electoral system and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity of firms and explore whether this association is influenced by corporate political donation. The study draws on the neo-pluralist theory of power in society to examine how possible corporate influence in the electoral systems relates to corporate environmental performance. Using a cross-country panel dataset, we find that companies operating in countries using majoritarian electoral systems (MAJ), where corporations have a relatively low influence on election outcomes, are associated with lower GHG emission intensity than those in proportional electoral systems, after controlling for macro-economic factors and variations in firm characteristics. Further, our findings show that corporate political donation positively moderates the association between MAJ and GHG emission intensity. Our results suggest that corporations are likely to utilise political donations as a component of business strategy to ease the regulatory actions of the state on companies. The results are robust to alternative variable measurements and tests of sensitivity.     

Business Intelligence versus Entrepreneurial Competitive Intelligence and International Competitiveness of North African SMEs

This paper aims to analyze the effects of different devices of business intelligence and entrepreneurial competitive intelligence on the international competitiveness of 300 North African SMEs. Furthermore, we will try through this paper to examine the mechanical role of the internal audit of entrepreneurial competitive intelligence in the packaging of such effects. The originality of this research lies in the attempt to better understand theoretically and empirically the particularities of each of the concepts related to entrepreneurial competitive intelligence and its internal audit on one side and its effects on the international competitiveness based on export intensity on the other side. Our results show that the competitive position of North African SMEs is strongly dependent on the entrepreneurial competitive intelligence approach because it includes essential additional actions which refer not only to a defensive attitude but also and potentially to entrepreneurial orientation.     

Appointment scheduling of outpatient surgical services in a multistage operating room department

This article addresses the appointment scheduling of outpatient surgeries in a multistage operating room (OR) department with stochastic service times serving multiple patient types. We discuss many challenges, such as the limited availability of multiple resources (e.g., staff, operating rooms, surgeons, and recovery beds), and the compatibility of patient and surgeon types. In addition, availability of surgeons is restricted by time window constraints. Three simulation-based optimization methods have been proposed to minimize the patients’ wait time, patients’ completion time, and number of surgery cancellations. The first method is simulation-based tabu search (STS). It combines discrete-event simulation and tabu search to schedule surgery cases. The second and third methods are integer programming enhanced tabu search (IPETS) and binary programming enhanced tabu search (BPETS). IPETS and BPETS improve on STS by incorporating integer programming and binary programming models, respectively. This article includes a case study of an OR department in a major Canadian hospital. We further expand the actual data obtained in the case study to cover a wide range of parameters in sets of test problems, and provide analysis on the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed methods in comparison with several scheduling rules. Finally, comments on the applications of the proposed methods are provided.     

The experience trap

When companies put seasoned managers in charge of important projects, they don't expect missed deadlines, budget overruns, and rampant defects. However, that's what researchers found when they tested hundreds of experienced project managers with computer games that simulated software development projects. The study, conducted by two professors from Insead and one from Naval Postgraduate School, strongly suggests that veterans in complex environments suffer a breakdown in the learning process. The research reveals three reasons for the breakdowns: Time lags between causes and effects make it difficult to see how they're connected; fallible estimates color the chain of decisions that determine a project's outcome; and a bias toward the initial goals prevents managers from setting revised, more appropriate, targets when project circumstances change. Sticking to an initial low budget goal after a project grew in scope, for instance, led subjects to ignore quality assurance, which led to soaring defect rates--and costs. Companies can take practical steps to fix the learning cycle. They can provide feedback that shows the relationships between important variables in the environment. Such feedback might reveal, say, the 20-day ramp-up that a new quality assurance team needs before becoming fully effective. Tools that apply formal models to calculate such things as the effect of turnover on team productivity also help. Setting goals for behavior, instead of targets for performance, is critical as well. Finally, firms can create project "flight simulators" that mimic actual learning environments but don't let complexity overwhelm trainees. Managers can continue learning only if they get decision support tailored to the challenges they face. Firms would do well to focus more on training people higher up in the organization and stop leaving them to fend for themselves.     

Public sector reform implications for performance measurement and risk management practice: insights from Australia

In 2013, the Australian Public Service was subject to a process of governance, accountability and performance reform. The implications of these reforms for micro-level practices are unknown. The authors’ empirical findings show that the reforms developed in three stages, each of which has significant implications for embedding performance measurement and risk management within a broader management control system.     

THE EUROPE–U.S. PRODUCTIVITY GAP IN A REAR‐VIEW MIRROR: WILL MEASUREMENT DIFFERENCES IN THE SERVICES SECTOR OUTPUT PLEASE RISE?

The deterioration in 1995 of Europe's productivity performance relative to the U.S. coincided with the ‘renaissance’ of the U.S. statistical system, which can be regarded, by now, as the frontier in official statistics. This paper raises the natural question whether the European statistical system was ‘left at the station’ while its U.S. counterpart ‘departed’, making it possible for measurement differences to become the primary suspect for the existing productivity gap. My retrospective review of the development path in the services sector productivity statistics suggests that Europe lags significantly behind the U.S. in the services producer price index program, both in terms of scope and timing of its implementation. Accordingly, the role of these measurement differences in the post‐1995 Europe–U.S. productivity story cannot reasonably be ruled out. The paper concludes with a ‘structured guess’ that provides a circumstantial evidence on the benefits generated by the upgrades in the U.S. services sector statistics. The results show that these enhancements led to two kinds of benefits during the post‐1995 period – a considerable reduction in the contribution of industries that traditionally dampened the aggregate productivity trend combined with a larger contribution of those that generally lifted it. This contrasts markedly with Europe where the contribution of these two sources remained unchanged in the meantime.     

Delegation and commitment in durable goods monopolies

This paper studies a simultaneous-move infinite-horizon delegation game in which the principal of a durable goods monopoly entrusts pricing decisions to a manager who enjoys consuming her monetary rewards but dislikes production effort. The delegation contract allows for continual interference with managerial incentives: in each period the principal rewards the manager according to her performance. We show that when the cost of delegation is low relative to profits, the principal can attain the precommitment price plan in a perfect rational expectations equilibrium. The paper analyzes the robustness of this result under alternative specifications of timing and objectives. We also provide a numerical characterization of the equilibrium strategies for the case of linear-quadratic payoffs.     

The income–pollution relationship and the role of income distribution: An analysis of Swedish household data

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between pollution and income at household level. The study is motivated by the recent literature emphasizing the importance of income distribution for the aggregate relation between pollution and income. The main findings from previous studies are that if the individual pollution–income relationship is non-linear, then aggregate pollution for, say, a whole country, will depend not only on average income, but also on how income is distributed. To achieve our objective we formulate a model for determining the choice of consumption of goods in different types of household. Furthermore we link the demand model to emission functions for various goods. The theoretical analysis shows that without imposing very restrictive assumptions on preferences and the emission functions, it is not possible to determine a priori the slope or the curvature of the pollution–income relation. The empirical analysis shows that, given the model used, the pollution–income relation has a positive slope in Sweden and is strictly concave for all three pollutants under study (CO₂, SO₂, NO_x), at least in the neighbourhood of the observed income for an average household. We also show that altering the prevailing income distribution, holding average income constant, will affect aggregate emissions in the sense that an equalization of incomes will give rise to an increase in emissions. One implication is then that the development of aggregate pollution due to growth depends not only on the income level, but also on how growth is distributed.     

Waste Not,Want Not: A Case Study on Food Waste in Restaurants of Lahore,Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Recently, there is growing focus on quantifying food waste problem and analyzing its causes due to an imminent challenge: feed nine billion people by 2050. Among developing countries, we focus on Pakistan which has the sixth largest population in the world and faces serious issues of food insecurity and malnourishment. Astoundingly, despite the gravity of the situation the available research on the issue is almost non-existent. Here, in this first-of-its-kind study for Pakistan we attempt to measure the quantum of food wastage and study its underlying reasons across restaurants in the country’s second largest urban center, Lahore, which is also popularly designated as “the culinary capital of Pakistan”. Segmenting restaurants according to the niche markets they target—as high-end, medium-end, and low-end—and using actual measures of daily wastage, we find overproduction and liability concerns as the prime reasons of excess food preparation and its improper disposal.