基于环境管理体系的企业环境审计初探

环境审计是重要的环境管理手段，而现有企业环境审计技术方法已不能满足现代环境管理的要求。本文从分析现有企业环境审计方法的局限性和EMS的原则和要素入手，将企业环境管理体系与第三方执行的企业环境审计相结合，探讨EMS可以为企业环境审计提供的支持，并提出基于EMS开展企业环境审计的程序。     

Sustainability‐oriented capabilities for eco‐innovation: Meeting the regulatory,technology, and market demands

Despite consensus in the literature that regulation, technology push, and market pull drive eco‐innovation (EI), evidence remains limited on the diverse firm capabilities needed to boost EI. Building on the natural‐resource‐based view of the firm and the EI literature, this paper posits that firms need to renew and realign their capabilities, and ultimately develop distinctive sustainability‐oriented capabilities, in order to meet the rapidly changing regulatory, technology, and market demands. Results of the analysis, based on a survey of U.K. firms, reveal that EIs are more likely to arise when firms (a) build capabilities on voluntary self‐regulation (i.e., executive driven environmental management system and corporate social responsibility) because such organizational capabilities allow them to address increasing regulatory pressures; (b) invest in environmental research and development (i.e., eco‐R&D)—instead of generic research and development—because it provides them with the relevant and specific technological capabilities to tackle technology shifts towards sustainability; and (c) develop capabilities in green market sensing as such capabilities allow them to address green consumption needs.     

Better Than the Euro? The European Monetary System (1979–1998)

ABSTRACT

The euro crisis has provoked a debate on the pros and cons of adjustable exchange rate regimes that enable their participants to negotiate nominal de- and revaluations. To evaluate the functioning of such regimes, we revisit the EMU’s predecessor, the European Monetary System (EMS). We show that in the EMS, devaluations did indeed help more than revaluations did hurt. Assuming that the political-economic heterogeneity of the Eurozone will not vanish in the foreseeable future, the move to a more flexible exchange rate regime might therefore be economically advantageous. However, a purely economic view ignores the huge political ‘maintenance costs’ of negotiable realignments, costs that the EMS members aimed at overcoming when they opted for the euro. The re-politicization of nominal exchange rate policy in today’s Eurozone would therefore not end transnational political conflicts in the Eurozone but fuel new ones.     

EMS exchange rate expectations and time-varying risk premia

In this paper we examine exchange risk premia employing a survey dataset of EMS exchange rates. We are able to test a risk premium model directly, i.e. without having to rely on the rational expectations assumption. Our results indicate that time-varying risk premia are present in almost all cases and that a GARCH-in-mean specification for the premium is often appropriate.     

Greece in the European Union: policy lessons from two decades of membership

This paper examines the first two decades of Greece’s experience as a member of the European Union (EU). In evaluating the Greek experience within the EU, we derive three fundamental policy lessons that apply both to similar small peripheral countries now entering the EU and to the EU itself in terms of facilitating their integration in a large economic area. First, small peripheral countries that enter the EU must address the structural deficiencies of their economies before entry in order to minimize the impact of increased competition after the removal of trade protection, and follow domestic policies that maintain and promote their comparative advantage within the EU. Second, the Convergence Criteria have proven to be a successful mechanism for countries with a poor historical policy record to achieve macroeconomic stability, as shown by the case of Greece. Third, common EU policies can be very helpful in facilitating structural reforms in small peripheral economies. However, these policies must be continuously evaluated and improved so that their effectiveness is maximized.     

EBT: A tool for electronic brainstorming researchers

EBT is a stand‐alone electronic brainstorming tool designed specifically for researchers. It can be used for face‐to‐face as well as dispersed groups, and will work in a typical college computer lab LAN environment. Its features include anonymous and nonanonymous idea‐generation modes, the ability to run multiple simultaneous sessions, and the option of generating a session logfile which indicates the originator and time of each idea generated during a session. EBT is available to researchers on the Internet via anonymous ftp.     

Barriers to EMS in the hotel industry

While some hotels have adopted the formal environmental management system (EMS) or the internationally recognised ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard for the sake of the environment—or other claimed benefits—many hotels are still standing at the crossroads in adopting EMS. This exploratory study was conducted with the aim of investigating the barriers to EMS in the hotel industry in Hong Kong SAR. Of the 330 questionnaires mailed, 83 were returned. Using exploratory factor analysis to identify interpretable orthogonal factors, six factors that hinder hotels from adopting formal EMS were identified and interpreted. They are: (1) lack of knowledge and skills; (2) lack of professional advice; (3) uncertainty of outcome; (4) certifiers/verifiers; (5) lack of resources; and (6) implementation and maintenance costs. Independent samples t-test and ANOVA analysis were also conducted to gain a better understanding of the significant differences in the identified six factors on the barriers to adopting and implementing EMS in the hotel industry among different hotel demographic variables. Implications of the findings are discussed, while recommendations are made to reduce the barriers inhibiting the adoption of EMS in the hotel industry.     

Multiple Wage Bargaining Systems in the Single European Currency Area

Little attention in the EMU literature has been paid to the interaction between centralbank monetary rules and systems of collective wage bargaining. Analytically andempirically, coordinated wage bargaining systems respond with real wage restraintto non-accommodating monetary policy. Since wage determination is dominated bycollective bargaining in all the EMU member states and wage coordination within themember states has grown since 1980, this is a topic of potential importance. In particular, the replacement of the Bundesbank, directly targeting German inflation, by an ECB targeting European inflation has removed a major institutional support of wage restraint in Germany. The consequences of this for EMU are worked out under two scenarios, that inflation expectations will be generated by ECB monetary policy and that they will reflect German inflation outcomes. Possible institutional developments are discussed including government-union bargains. The Bundesbank has also played a major role in maintaining fiscal rectitude by targeting excess fiscal deficits in Germany: again its replacement by the ECB – targeting (if at all) European rather than German fiscal policy – loosens fiscal constraints. For underlying structural reasons therefore, it is possible that Germany and other EMU countries will move to a period of fiscal activism with wage restraint and low inflation purchased through social contract negotiations.     

Is there a “triffin dilemma” for the EMS?

The question explored in this paper is whether the EMS can continue to perform efficiently and ensure low inflation in an economically and financially integrated area with a high degree of currency substitution. A dilemma may arise: on the one hand, currency substitution should be accommodated to provide market participants with the currency they desire; on the other, currency substitution should not determine an excess of liquidity in the system leading to inflation. These objectives might be difficult to reconcile in a system with decentralized asymmetric monetary policy cooperation such as the EMS and might have adverse consequences for the monetary stability of the system.     

用ISO14001环境管理体系管理RoHS限制物质的要点探讨

企业用ISO14001环境管理体系管理RoHS限制物质,必须改变观念,注重环境因素识别以及法律法规和其他要求的识别,注重环境因素控制和监测。