Safety-at-work competences as a driver of corporate social responsibility

In order to operate effectively in a continuously changing and frequently turbulent markets, companies must account for the needs and expectations of both their management and lower-ranking employees. To that end, it is essential that business organizations identify ways to adopt changes that will guarantee their success. One way to improve the market position of a company is to employ the principles of corporate social responsibility. A key requirements as well as a key area of such responsibility is occupational health and safety, whose guidelines fall within the scope of the overall practices enshrined in labor law. A prerequisite for the effective fulfillment of such requirements is to secure competent contractors who will undertake all measures associated with this field. The article notes the issue and examines it against the standards set forth in ISO 26000. The author demonstrates the need to acquire competences that will enable the concerned company to ensure the safe performance of work and the fulfillment of occupational health and safety requirements in conformity with the principles of corporate social responsibility. Only by embracing the rules of CSR under such an approach will a business be able to achieve the desired outcomes

Knowledge and innovation management in agribusiness: A study in the Dominican Republic

To date and worldwide, most business activities in the agribusiness sectors have focused on increasing productive efficiency to the detriment of the environmental impact of these activities, despite close connection that exist between agribusinesses and natural resources. This paper argues that knowledge and innovation management (KIM) can play a key role in fostering and managing creativity in the agribusiness sector. To test this assumption, an empirical model linking KIM with employee creativity, responsible green innovation, and performance in the agribusiness sector of the Dominican Republic is proposed and tested with data from 110 agribusiness companies. We found that strengthening the relationships between the above constructs is needed, with a view to readjusting the meaning of firm performance in the light of emerging (post-pandemic) circumstances for agribusinesses. The statistical analyses yield important implications and recommendations for practice, management, and policy making in these areas in this country and elsewhere

Influence of the entrepreneur's capacity in business performance

The article presents a theoretical model of the entrepreneur's capacities and their influence on business performance. Starting from the traditional theory of dynamic capacities, those related to entrepreneurship and/or that influence the entrepreneur's capacities are identified, determining factors such as training, experience and confidence. In addition, other factors such as the environmental and institutional environment have been taken into account as they affect the entrepreneurship. For this purpose, a study was carried out with the Smart PLS software in a sample of companies in the tourism sector in the Mar Menor Region (Spain). An essential factor in the development of entrepreneurship in the region is the sustainability of the coastal lagoon. Some considerations are obtained from the study of the factors that determine the model of capacities, in which the confidence of the entrepreneur and the environmental sustainability, exert a positive and significant influence in the business performance. Furthermore, among the mentioned capacities of the entrepreneurial influence, experience and trust are the ones that most influence the success of the tourism business

La creatividad en entidades de la Economía Social: una visión desde casos múltiples y una metodología mixta

Los nuevos modelos de creatividad, de conocimiento y sostenibilidad merecen conocerlos, aún más en las Entidades de Economía Social (en adelante EES) con una lógica de gestión unitaria. Este artículo, en base a un estudio de casos múltiples y usando cuestionarios focalizados en expertos, tiene a priori el propósito de conocer su visión de los diversos ecosistemas institucionales que orbitan alrededor de los ejes temáticos de la economía social, especialmente los centros de formación y cooperativas educativas. En el proceso se utilizaron las etapas de la metodología Delphi para la comprobación teórica de las relaciones y una depuración de los indicadores. A continuación, se ha realizado un análisis de regresión de mínimos cuadrados parciales PLS SEM con el propósito de que el estudio estadístico sea comprobable. La aportación del artículo nos lleva a establecer estrategias en el ámbito de la sostenibilidad de las EES, a través de un estudio empírico, y que se fueron identificadas a través de la gestión de la creatividad en cooperativas de la educación, ONGs y fundaciones relacionadas con la formación técnica especializada

Classical strong metal–support interactions between gold nanoparticles and titanium dioxide

Supported metal catalysts play a central role in the modern chemical industry but often exhibit poor on-stream stability. The strong metal–support interaction (SMSI) offers a route to control the structural properties of supported metals and, hence, their reactivity and stability. Conventional wisdom holds that supported Au cannot manifest a classical SMSI, which is characterized by reversible metal encapsulation by the support upon high-temperature redox treatments. We demonstrate a classical SMSI for Au/TiO2, evidenced by suppression of CO adsorption, electron transfer from TiO2 to Au nanoparticles, and gold encapsulation by a TiOx overlayer following high-temperature reduction (reversed by subsequent oxidation), akin to that observed for titania-supported platinum group metals. In the SMSI state, Au/TiO2 exhibits markedly improved stability toward CO oxidation. The SMSI extends to Au supported over other reducible oxides (Fe3O4 and CeO2) and other group IB metals (Cu and Ag) over titania. This discovery highlights the general nature of the classical SMSI and unlocks the development of thermochemically stable IB metal catalysts

COMPUESTOS FUNCIONALES DE LA LECHE MATERNA

Newborns have special nutritional requirements due to the incomplete development of their organic systems, which will diminish once the organs acquire full functionality. In the complete development of the infant organism, not only the correct nutrition of the child has a great contribution, but also many other functional compounds naturally present in breast milk such as Hormones, growth factors, neuropeptides, anti-inflammatory agents and immunomodulator agents. A thorough review of the scientific literature regarding the properties and occurrence of such functional compounds in breast milk has been carried out due to their importance in the elaboration of infant food. Therefore, the main objective of this work was to give enough scientific evidence for the use of these compounds as functional ingredients in the production of infant formulas. In general, infant formulas lack in these bioactive compounds, hence their supplementation with bioactive compounds as ingredients might increase the nutritional value of the infant formulas achieving the same positive effects that human milk has on infants.Los recién nacidos poseen unas necesidades nutritivas especiales debido al incompleto desarrollo de sus sistemas de órganos, que irán abandonando conforme estos sistemas vayan adquiriendo su completa funcionalidad. Al correcto desarrollo del organismo infantil va a contribuir no sólo la correcta nutrición del niño, sino también la acción de muchos compuestos funcionales presentes en la leche materna, entre los que destacan: hormonas, factores de crecimiento, neuropéptidos, agentes antiinflamatorios y agentes inmunomoduladores. Debido a la importancia que tienen estos compuestos en la alimentación infantil hemos realizado una revisión bibliográfica sobre sus diferentes propiedades y su presencia en la leche materna, con el objetivo de poder justificar el empleo de estos productos como ingredientes funcionales en la elaboración de las fórmulas infantiles. En general, dichas fórmulas son deficitarias en estos compuestos bioactivos, por lo que su adición como ingrediente podría incrementar la calidad nutricional de las fórmulas infantiles consiguiendo los mismos efectos positivos que sobre el niño tiene la lactancia materna

Sustainability and Creativity Management in Agribusiness

Agribusinesses are closely linked to natural resources, and sustainability is relatively important to companies indulged in agribusiness. This is especially true in developing countries, whose agricultural activities have largely focused on increasing efficiency rather than protecting the natural environment. Agribusinesses in these countries are currently facing the challenge of adopting corporate social responsibility practices. In this context, individual and collective creativity can be decisive. Our objective is to assess the role of creativity in improving knowledge management and innovation, environmental sustainability and performance in the agribusiness sector in the Dominican Republic. We develop a model linking green creativity with corporate social responsibility, knowledge-based innovation and sustainability performance, and formulate and validate numerous hypotheses that could help to better understand the different relationships and impacts between these elements. Testing these hypotheses could have implications for agribusiness management and policy in the Dominican Republic and possibly in other countries with a similar nature of their productive structure