Search results for "Profit"

INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL REPORTING PRACTICES IN THE NON-PROFIT SECTOR

2011

Chapter 2. A critical analysis of the main scorecard models for measuring and reporting IC in the non-profit sector The book focuses on Intellectual Capital (IC) reporting practices within the non-profit sector. This term is an umbrella term, which includes not only the non-profit (or third) sector in strict terms but also all sectors different from the for-profit sector. Nowadays, in a knowledge-based economy, knowledge is critical to for-profit organizations as it is to non-profit organizations (NPOs). In a new competitive environment, NPOs are requested to manage the existing resources efficiently and effectively and to create, maintain and develop new resources based on knowledge. In th…

How to make head or tail of ‘bridging’ and ‘bonding’?: addressing the methodological ambiguity1

2008

A distinction has recently been proposed between bridging (or encompassing) and bonding (or inward-looking) social networks. However, existing theoretical contributions remain vague as to the fundamental meaning of both concepts. As a consequence, two distinct interpretations have developed alongside each other. In the present paper, we employ data on voluntary association membership in Flanders to empirically illustrate that both approaches can lead to substantially different outcomes and therefore appear to tap into different dimensions of bridging versus bonding. These findings underline the problematic nature of the current conceptual ambiguity. We conclude that should the bridging/bond…

Presentación del monográfico ‘Economía social y sector no lucrativo’

2001

Some Remarks on the Present State of Research on Schopenhauer and Indian Philosophy

2017

In this chapter, I take a look at the progress which has been made in the research on Schopenhauer and Indian philosophy during the last 10 years. It consists of three parts: In the first part, I give an overview of the development of subjects within the field of research and of the dissemination of research work as far as I happened to notice it. The second part consists of a critical examination of the state of research. In the third part, I discuss new developments in the digital presentation of sources and literature and make suggestions on improving cooperation between international scholars and students in order to profit more from the synergetic effects which may arise from the joint…

Cultural institutions as agents of urban and community regeneration in the (post-)pandemic city. The case of the «Laboratorio Zen Insieme» in Palermo

2022

Although all cities in the world have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, its impacts on the territories, yet to be understood, are unevenly distributed, revealing extremely varied imbalances depending on the places. However, it is clear that the virus and its variants have aggravated pre-existing socio-spatial inequalities, creating new ones and bringing attention back to those implications between space, planning, public health and citizenship that are at the origins of contemporary urbanism. In a reference framework in which the crisis is globalized but unequal and in the absence of a welfare system capable of responding to the urgencies of the most marginalized social contexts and g…

Ambidextrous Leadership, Social Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Operational Performance

2019

In the knowledge era, new forms of organizing and managing firms emerge to adapt to new situations. One such new form of organizational management is ambidextrous leadership. Ambidextrous leadership combines opening leader behaviors, such as promoting creativity, and closing leader behaviors, such as accomplishing objectives and adhering to norms. Thus, the aim is to demonstrate that a social orientation is not at odds with measures of operational performance other than profitability. The purpose of this study is to examine how ambidextrous leadership is linked to social entrepreneurial orientation and how this in turn affects operational performance. This is done through a rigorous review …

An original multi-objective criterion for the design of small-scale polygeneration systems based on realistic operating conditions

2008

The optimal design and operation of cogeneration and trigeneration systems for buildings applications is a complex issue, which has been investigated by several different approaches. Both the two basic management strategies, namely heat-tracking and electricity-tracking, have advantages and drawbacks in terms of operating results and may lead the plant designer either to undersize or oversize the CHP unit with respect to the optimal lay-out. Experimental works have demonstrated how the actual on-site performance of small-scale polygeneration systems significantly differs from their expected operation, due to the need for a regular plant operation and the effects of outages for scheduled or …

Matching Economical, Energetic and Environmental Benefits: An Analysis for Hybrid CHCP-Heat Pumps Systems

2006

Abstract The optimization of design and operation of combined heat, cooling and power systems usually leads to select different plant lay-outs and size of components, depending on the adopted optimization criterion (maximum profit or energy saving or minimum environmental impact). This occurs when the current energy prices and the normative provisions supporting cogeneration are not able to coincide with the specific customer’s interest and the overall “social interest” for a reduction in energy consumption and in pollutants’ emissions. At EU level, polygeneration is considered to have a large potential for residential and commercial buildings district network, for the tertiary sector and f…

On the Reliability of Optimization Results for Trigeneration Systems in Buildings, in the Presence of Price Uncertainties and Erroneous Load Estimati…

2016

Cogeneration and trigeneration plants are widely recognized as promising technologies for increasing energy efficiency in buildings. However, their overall potential is scarcely exploited, due to the difficulties in achieving economic viability and the risk of investment related to uncertainties in future energy loads and prices. Several stochastic optimization models have been proposed in the literature to account for uncertainties, but these instruments share in a common reliance on user-defined probability functions for each stochastic parameter. Being such functions hard to predict, in this paper an analysis of the influence of erroneous estimation of the uncertain energy loads and pric…

Organic farming and economic sustainability: The case of Sicilian durum wheat

2014

In last years, the organic farming in the world is developing rapidly and Italy is the sixth country for organic area. Sicily is the main organic area of Italian territory and represents the first region for organic cereals. Among these durum wheat is the crop most widespread, especially in the hilly hinterland areas. The paper aims to analyze the economic sustainability of organic durum wheat. For this purpose, it has been determined the gross m argin of whea t within crop rotations of the Sici lian hilly hinterland, comparing 10 organic farms with 10 conventional farms. The results show a higher gross margin of organic wheat respect to conventional one, due to lower variable costs and hig…