An exploration of the factors affecting the diffusion of advanced costing techniques: a comparative analysis of two surveys (1996-2005)

The issue of cost calculation has been largely debated in the last years under the pressure of the perceived lost of relevance of the so called "traditional cost accounting approaches". The enthusiasm for new management accounting techniques has often driven most of attention towards technical or theoretical aspects of the proposed new cost models. In particular, Activity-Based Costing (ABC) implementation literature pinpoints a large number of studies that have looked at technical and organizational/behavioral factors that influence effective implementation. Recently a great attention has been paid by researchers on the contingent factors affecting the adoption of advanced management accounting techniques and the influence of the variables that drive towards higher levels of cost system sophistication. The need is felt for insightful studies regarding processes and contingent variables working through time in relation with these changes. Improved analysis can be obtained by undertaking replication studies based on larger number of responses and/or across geographic and cultural borders. Whitin the boundaries of a contingent framework analysis, this paper has provided additional insights into areas relating to factors influencing the level of sophistication of product cost systems in Italy. The paper presents the comparison of two survey results carried on in a ten years distance on the same sample of Italian largest companies. These two long-distance surveys provide the opportunity to assess the changes occurred in the companies that in 1996 declared the adoption of (or the interest in adopting) ABC and Target costing (Cinquini et al., 1999).Moreover, the time elapsed could allow the perception about adopters’ behavior, along different stages of the diffusion process of advanced costing techniques. The research findings pinpoint that only “importance of cost information” and “cost structure”, among the contextual variables considered in the more recent survey responses, are positive and significant in relation with increasing in implementation of advanced costing techniques. This outcome could open to further studies to assess whether or not adopters are moving from a “fad and fashion” behavior of the early stages, to a more rational approach in which the matching between management needs and tools potentiality is maximized.Management accounting innovations, Activity-Based Costing, Target costing, Product costing design, Cost system sophistication, Contingent factors

An exploration of the factors affecting the diffusion of Advanced Costing techniques: a comparative analysis of two surveys (1996-2005)

The issue of cost calculation has been largely debated in the last years under the pressure of the perceived lost of relevance of the so called "traditional cost accounting approaches". The enthusiasm for new management accounting techniques has often driven most of attention towards technical or theoretical aspects of the proposed new cost models. In particular, Activity-Based Costing (ABC) implementation literature pinpoints a large number of studies that have looked at technical and organizational/behavioral factors that influence effective implementation. Recently a great attention has been paid by researchers on the contingent factors affecting the adoption of advanced management accounting techniques and the influence of the variables that drive towards higher levels of cost system sophistication. The need is felt for insightful studies regarding processes and contingent variables working through time in relation with these changes. Improved analysis can be obtained by undertaking replication studies based on larger number of responses and/or across geographic and cultural borders. Whitin the boundaries of a contingent framework analysis, this paper has provided additional insights into areas relating to factors influencing the level of sophistication of product cost systems in Italy. The paper presents the comparison of two survey results carried on in a ten years distance on the same sample of Italian largest companies. These two long-distance surveys provide the opportunity to assess the changes occurred in the companies that in 1996 declared the adoption of (or the interest in adopting) ABC and Target costing (Cinquini et al., 1999).Moreover, the time elapsed could allow the perception about adopters’ behavior, along different stages of the diffusion process of advanced costing techniques. The research findings pinpoint that only “importance of cost information” and “cost structure”, among the contextual variables considered in the more recent survey responses, are positive and significant in relation with increasing in implementation of advanced costing techniques. This outcome could open to further studies to assess whether or not adopters are moving from a “fad and fashion” behavior of the early stages, to a more rational approach in which the matching between management needs and tools potentiality is maximized.Management accounting innovations, Activity-Based Costing, Target costing, Product costing design, Cost system sophistication, Contingent factors

Analysis of publishing patterns in accounting history research in Italy, 1990-2004

In the last decade, an increasing number of analyses of accounting history literature have been undertaken to classify historical research paths and to map the variety of approaches and issues of the discipline in different geographical settings so as to make international comparisons. The paper develops these topics in the Italian context by studying the development of accounting history research (AHR) in the last 15 years. Contributions by Italian authors have been published in international and national specialist journals as well as in more general accounting journals. Other papers have been presented and published in the proceedings of the biannual SISR (Societa Italiana di Storia della Ragioneria) Congress and in the Congress celebrating the 500th anniversary of the publication of Pacioli\u27s Summa held in Venice in 1994. The findings chart publication trends during the period 1990-2004 from a quantitative and qualitative perspective, based on different dimensions, the dynamic of change in Italian AHR, and its possible limitations. The paper is informed by an international perspective and causal interpretations are attempted

Developing a panarchy model of landscape conservation and management of alpine-mountain grassland in Northern Italy.

This paper explores methods of applying resilience theory to a case study of natural resource management and the cultural landscape of upland and alpine pasture in northern Italy. We identify that the close interaction between alpine pastures and its managers offers a strong fit with the concept of a social-ecological system that maintains the cultural landscape. We first considered a descriptive approach looking historically at socio-economic development in the study area. We explored whether this can be related to resilience phenomena such as regime shifts, thresholds and/or regime stability through adaptive processes. However, we found it difficult at this overarching level to conceptually combine natural and social capital of alpine pastures and their managers in any quantitative way. We also interpreted our data through considering economic, social and ecological information as acting within separate but interacting domains. This led us to construct conceptual models of adaptive cycles to describe the alpine mountain grassland ecosystem of our study site and to conclude that a panarchy model can offer a powerful metaphor for its ecological dynamics. This has practical implications both for the management of Natura 2000 interest and the maintenance of the cultural landscape in which this Alpine interest occurs. We suggest that Resilience theory through its dynamic approach of interacting scales of adaptive cycles offers useful insights into the resource management (of valued cultural and natural attributes) but that care is needed in distinguishing between descriptive metaphor and predictive model or "real" system.natural resource management, natural and social capital

Solid and gaseous bioenergy pathways: input values and GHG emissions

The Renewable Energy Directive (RED) (2009/28/EC) and the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) (2009/30/EC) fix a threshold of savings of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for biofuels and bioliquids, and set the rules for calculating the greenhouse impact of biofuels, bioliquids and their fossil fuels comparators. To help economic operators to declare the GHG emission savings of their products, default and typical values are also listed in the annexes of the RED and FQD directives. The Commission recommended Member States to use the same approach for other bioenergy sources in the report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on sustainability requirements for the use of solid and gaseous biomass sources in electricity, heating and cooling (COM(2010)11). Typical and default GHG emission values for solid and gaseousbioenergy pathways were reported in the report. SWD(2014)2014 updates the values defined in the COM(2010)11 to account for the technogical and market developments in the bioenergy sector. This report describes the assumptions made by the JRC when compiling the updated data set used to calculate default and typical GHG emissions for the different solid and gaseous bioenergy pathways and the results of such calculations in terms of typical and default GHG emission values . In the annexes the comments/questions received from JRC as reaction to the presentation of the data in stakeholders/experts consultations are reported together with their relative answers/rebuttals. This report describes the assumptions made by the JRC when compiling the updated data set used to calculate default and typical GHG emissions for the different solid and gaseous bioenergy pathways and the results of such calculations in terms of typical and default GHG emission values . In the annexes the comments/questions received from JRC as reaction to the presentation of the data in stakeholders/experts consultations are reported together with their relative answers/rebuttals.JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transpor

Biofuels from algae: technology options, energy balance and GHG emissions: Insights from a literature review

During the last decade(s), algal biomass received increasing interest as a potential source of advanced biofuels production resulting in a considerable attention from research, industry and policy makers. In fact, algae are expected to offer several advantages compared to land-based biomass crops, including: better photosynthetic efficiency; higher oil yield; growth on non-fertile land; tolerance to a variety of water sources (i.e. fresh, brackish, saline) and CO2 re-using potential. The algal growth can be also integrated in wastewater (WW) treatment systems to combine the nutrient streams removal with biofuels production. In addition, a wide range of marketable co-products can be extracted from algae (e.g. chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nutritionals) along with the production of biofuels, under a biorefinery system. Considering the potential benefits, several European-funded pilot projects, under science-business partnerships, have been dedicated to the development of algae technologies in the biofuels and bioenergy sectors. Despite the extensive research and investments in the last decade(s), no large-scale, commercial algae-to-biofuels facilities were implemented yet. In fact, in the current algae cultivation sites, the produced biomass is currently exploited for production of food and feed, combined with the extraction of high added-value products, such as proteins, nutritional supplements and chemicals. We report on the current-status of technology options for the potential exploitation of algae (of both macro- and microalgae species) in the biofuels and bioenergy sectors. We presents a comprehensive review of recent advances on promising algal biofuel production pathways, in terms of technological development, opportunities and limitations to their overall effectiveness. Furthermore, we analyse the main features, assumptions, modelling approaches and results of the algal biofuel pathways considered in the LCA literature. We highlight and interpret the energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions balances resulting from examined LCA studies, in view of the key parameters mainly affecting the results. A comparison of the performance associated to the proposed algal biofuels pathways with that found for conventional fossil derived fuels is also reported.JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transpor

Solid and gaseous bioenergy pathways: input values and GHG emissions: Calculated according to methodology set in COM(2016) 767: Version 2

The Commission's legislative proposal for a recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED-recast) (COM(2016) 767), in Art. 26(7), specifies the minimum greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions saving thresholds that bioenergy must comply with in order to count towards the renewables targets and to be eligible for public support. Annex V (liquid biofuels) and Annex VI (solid and gaseous biomass) of the RED-Recast describe the methodology for GHG savings calculations needed to comply with the GHG criteria. They also provide a list of Default GHG emission values, aggregated and disaggregated, that operators can use to demonstrate compliance of their product with the GHG criteria. This report describes the input data, assumptions and methodological approach applied by the JRC when compiling the updated dataset used to calculate GHG emissions for the different biomass pathways. The GHG emissions resulting from the application of the methodology from COM(2016) 767, and presented in Annex VI of the document, are also shown. The report aims to provide operators, stakeholders ,and the scientific community all the necessary information to explain the assumptions chosen as well as to guarantee reproducibility of the results. Additional analysis to test the sensitivity of the results to various assumptions is presented in the final section of the report.JRC.C.4-Sustainable Transpor

Domestic heating from forest logging residues: environmental risks and benefits

The European Union (EU) relies largely on bioenergy to achieve its climate and energy targets for 2020 and beyond. Special focus is placed on utilization of biomass residues, which are considered to cause low environmental impacts. We used the dataset from the latest European Commission document on the sustainability of solid and gaseous biomass (SWD2014 259), complementing those results by: i) designing three pathways for domestic-heat production using forest logging residues, with different combustion technologies; ii) expanding the analysis to include forest carbon stock development with and without bioenergy; iii) using absolute climate metrics to assess the surface temperature response by the end of the century to a bioenergy and a reference fossil system; iv) including multiple climate forcers (well-mixed GHG, near term climate forcers and surface albedo change); iv) quantifying life cycle impacts on acidification, particulate matter emissions and photochemical ozone formation; v) reviewing potential risks for forest ecosystem degradation due to increased removal of residues. Supply-chain GHG savings of the three pathways analysed ranged between 80% and 96% compared to a natural gas system, above the 70% threshold suggested by the EU. However, the climate impact of bioenergy should be assessed by considering also the non-bioenergy uses of the biomass and by including all climate forcers. We calculate the Surface Temperature Response to bioenergy and fossil systems by means of Absolute Global surface Temperature Potential (AGTP) metric. Domestic heating from logging residues is generally beneficial to mitigate the surface temperature increase by 2100 compared to the use of natural gas and other fossil sources. As long as residues with a decay rate in the forest higher than 2.7%*yr1 are considered as feedstock, investing now in the mobilization of residues for heat production can reduce the temperature increase by 2100 compared to all the fossil sources analysed, both in case of bioenergy as a systemic change or in case of bioenergy as a transitory option. Furthermore, several environmental risks are associated with the removal and use of forest logging residues for bioenergy. These issues concern mostly local air pollution, biodiversity loss and, mainly for stumps removal, physical damage to forest soils. Forest logging residues are not free of environmental risks. Actions promoting their use should consider: (i) that climate change mitigation depends mainly on the decay rate of biomass under natural decomposition and time and rate of technology deployment, (ii) whether management guidelines aimed at protecting long-term forest productivity are in place and (iii) whether proper actions for the management of adverse effects on local air pollution are in place

Climate change impacts of power generation from residual biomass

The European Union relies largely on bioenergy to achieve its climate and energy targets for 2020 and beyond. We assess, using Attributional Life Cycle Assessment (A-LCA), the climate change mitigation potential of three bioenergy power plants fuelled by residual biomass compared to a fossil system based on the European power generation mix. We study forest residues, cereal straws and cattle slurry. Our A-LCA methodology includes: i) supply chains and biogenic-CO2 flows; ii) explicit treatment of time of emissions; iii) instantaneous and time-integrated climate metrics. Power generation from cereal straws and cattle slurry can provide significant global warming mitigation by 2100 compared to current European electricity mix in all of the conditions considered. The mitigation potential of forest residues depends on the decay rate considered. Power generation from forest logging residues is an effective mitigation solution compared to the current EU mix only in conditions of decay rates above 5.2% a−1. Even with faster-decomposing feedstocks, bioenergy temporarily causes a STR(i) and STR(c) higher than the fossil system. The mitigation potential of bioenergy technologies is overestimated when biogenic-CO2 flows are excluded. Results based solely on supply-chain emissions can only be interpreted as an estimation of the long-term (>100 years) mitigation potential of bioenergy systems interrupted at the end of the lifetime of the plant and whose carbon stock is allowed to accumulate back. Strategies for bioenergy deployment should take into account possible increases in global warming rate and possible temporary increases in temperature anomaly as well as of cumulative radiative forcing

Ultrafine palladium nanoparticles immobilized into poly(4-vinylpyridine)-based porous monolith for continuous-flow Mizoroki-Heck reaction

Ultrafine Pd nanoparticles (dm = 2.3 nm), obtained by metal vapor synthesis technique, were immobilized into a poly(4-vinylpyridine)-based porous monolith by means of a new synthetic approach. The synthesis involves stabilization of Pd nanoparticles with 4-vinylpyridine ligand and their subsequent immobilization into the monolith by radical co-polymerization of the resulting metal-embedding monomer with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate in presence of porogenic agents (i.e. DMF and PEG-400) inside stainless-steel columns (HPLC type). The hybrid monolithic reactors containing highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles were effectively used as catalyst for Mizoroki-Heck cross-coupling reactions carried out under continuous-flow conditions. The devices showed long life-time (>65 h) and very low Pd leaching (<2 ppm)