Search results for "STAI"
showing 10 items of 5922 documents
Customer functional value creation through a sustainable entrepreneurial orientation approach
2019
This paper advances a theoretical model to empirically test firms’ behaviour regarding sustainable entrepreneurship, enhancing what researchers have recently proposed at a solely conceptual level; this entails sustainable entrepreneurship being understood as a discipline that reliably allows organizations to successfully respond to sustainable development and market requirements. The authors suggest an integrated approach of dynamic-capabilities, S-D logic and product-service system views, which highlights the managerial predisposition to adopt a strategic position that fosters value in use (instead of regular property value), according to the current school of thoughts engaged with innovat…
Same work, lower grade? Student ethnicity and teachers’ subjective assessments
2010
Previous research shows that ethnic minority students perform poorer in school when they are taught by ethnic majority teachers. Why this is the case was unclear. This paper focuses on one important potential explanation: I examine whether ethnic majority teachers grade minority and majority students differently for the same work. Using an experiment, I rule out the existence of such a direct grading bias. I do find indirect evidence for alternative explanations: teachers report lower expectations and unfavorable attitudes that both likely affect their behavior towards minority students, potentially inducing them to perform below their ability level. Effects of having majority teachers on m…
A problem-adjusted genetic algorithm for flexibility design
2013
Many present markets for goods and services have highly volatile demand due to short life cycles and strong competition in saturated environments. Determination of capacity levels is difficult because capacities often need to be set long before demand realizes. In order to avoid capacity-demand mismatches, operations managers employ mix-flexible resources which allow them to shift excess demands to unused capacities. The Flexibility Design Problem (FDP) models the decision on the optimal configuration of a flexible (manufacturing) network. FDP is a difficult stochastic optimization problem, for which traditional exact approaches are not able to solve but the smallest instances in reasonable…
The effects of recent Spanish pension reforms on sustainability and pension adequacy
2017
ABSTRACTThe Spanish pension system has been recently reformed as a response to the demographic challenge and with the objective of ensuring the sustainability of the pension system in the long-term. The overall reforms include changes in the majority of the system parameters, a new indexation rule and a sustainability factor that links life expectancy and the first pension amount. The aim of this work is to analyse how these reforms affect two important features of a pension system: fiscal sustainability and adequacy. For this purpose, the real internal rate of return (IRR) of the lifetime contributions and benefits and the prospective gross theoretical replacement rate (TRR), both before a…
Do innovation and sustainability influence customer satisfaction in retail? A question of gender
2022
As a consequence of advances in the digitisation process and increased consumer awareness of social, economic and environmental issues, more and more companies are embarking on innovative and sustainable initiatives in response to these new demands. However, given the nature and scope of these practices, research in this direction has not reported clarifying results to date, especially when pursuing a marketing approach to their analysis. Through this research, it is intended to test a model that makes it possible to analyse the effect of innovative and sustainable actions on retail and explain their contribution to customer satisfaction. To do this, this research is based on those studies …
Bioenergy chain building: a collective action perspective
2014
Depletion of natural resources has become a key issue on the European policy agenda. Bottom-up measures have emerged in several countries with a view to promoting awareness campaigns and environmental sustainability, with the agenda set by individuals who start up collective initiatives at the local level. Such collective action provides an incentive to free-ride on the contribution of others. Social norms and the consequent behavior of individuals involved in collective action assume a key role in ensuring sustainable use of a public good, achieving significant, long-lasting success. The present study aims to ascertain which determinants most affect farmers’ willingness to contribute to co…
Community currency (CCs) in Spain: An empirical study of their social effects
2016
Despite its sudden proliferation along the economic crisis period, no previous study has investigated the social effects of the community currency (CCs) experiences in Spain. Previous research on CCs experiences from different countries provided evidences about social capital improvement, introducing CCs as sustainability tools. This research uses the theoretical frameworks of social capital and complex adaptive systems to approach concepts like sustainability, networks, trust, norms, participation and cooperation. Statistical analysis of the data collected in June 2013 through online survey explores social capital and resilience indicators among the Spanish exchange community users, conclu…
Heterogeneous effects of sustainable agriculture practices: micro-evidence from Malawi
2020
Abstract Are the effects of sustainable agricultural practices heterogeneous across agro-ecology and wealth in Malawi? Would a wealth-enhancing policy be associated with increased effectiveness of these practices? Focusing on a nationally representative set of Malawian agricultural households, the article answers the above questions by employing plot-level panel data matched with a set of geo-referenced rainfall and temperature records. The findings suggest a positive correlation between aggregate yield and the adoption of organic fertilizer. A similar result holds for legume intercropping and for hybrid seeds, which are associated to reductions in yield volatility between the two waves. Ne…
Family firm prerequisites for international business operations: a production and marketing capabilities approach
2014
The purpose of this study is to compare SME family firms’ and non-family firms’ organisational prerequisites for international business operations. The main focus lies in the production and marketing capabilities needed for conducting international business. A quantitative study was conducted in Finland. A random sampling was done by utilising the database of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK). A sample of 2,000 firms was gathered from the target population, EK database, which consisted of 16,000 firms. The answer rate for the study was 28%. All together, 555 firms answered the mail survey. Three hundred thirty three respondents were coming from family firms and 222 replies repres…
The environmental Kuznets curve within European countries and sectors: greenhouse emission, production function and technology
2018
Based on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and the technological change and the environment literature, our original contribution consists in analysing within the decomposition model the direct and indirect influence of technological change as well as the energy mix on CO2 emissions. Focusing on the dirtiest sectors of 25 EU countries in the period 1997-2005 and considering the endogeneity issue, we estimate an adjusted EKC relationship comparing a single equation model (univariate model) with a simultaneous equations system (bivariate model). Following Lopez (J Environ Econ Manag 27:163-184, 1994), a second equation is introduced where per capita income is a positive functio…