Performance drivers of green innovation under incomplete information

AbstractThe environmental management practices have been well studied; few studies are presented the firm's green innovation activities. This study is adopted to evaluate the green innovation for environment management, with a particular focus on managerial, process, product and technological aspects. The empirical analysis from Taiwanese printed circuit board manufacturing firm's reveals that such studies does exist and that the effect of focal firm's green innovation activities has been evaluated. This study identified the appropriate green innovation criteria for the case firms and developed the following selection method: (i) evaluate the weights of aspects, criteria and alternatives as described both by linguistic preferences; and (ii) rank alternative suppliers using a grey relational analysis with entropy weight. This study presents theoretical and empirical evidence of green innovation drivers in the domains of environmental management and has interesting implications for operations management research and practices. This knowledge may contribute to better decision-making towards implementing green innovation practices

Scaling of global input–output networks

Examining scaling patterns of networks can help understand how structural features relate to the behavior of the networks. Input–output networks consist of industries as nodes and inter-industrial exchanges of products as links. Previous studies consider limited measures for node strengths and link weights, and also ignore the impact of dataset choice. We consider a comprehensive set of indicators in this study that are important in economic analysis, and also examine the impact of dataset choice, by studying input–output networks in individual countries and the entire world. Results show that Burr, Log-Logistic, Log-normal, and Weibull distributions can better describe scaling patterns of global input–output networks. We also find that dataset choice has limited impacts on the observed scaling patterns. Our findings can help examine the quality of economic statistics, estimate missing data in economic statistics, and identify key nodes and links in input–output networks to support economic policymaking

Green and lean sustainable development path in China: Guanxi, practices and performance

Globalisation has created both drivers and pressure for Chinese organisations to enhance their business performance as well as environmental performance. Green and lean practice is emerging as a critical approach for Chinese organisations to achieve sustainable development and improve organisational performance. By conducting empirical studies from 172 respondents on green and lean practice in different Chinese organisations, this research shows how green and lean practice affects organisational performance and how this association is affected by guanxi. The findings explain that guanxi between organisational partners improves the positive effect of green and lean practice on organisational performance. The results of this paper offer helpful insights into how managers should enhance their guanxi initiatives, in order to improve environmental and business performance over their supply chains. The paper also suggests the limitations of this research, as well as directions for future research

Fine-Scale Mapping of the 4q24 Locus Identifies Two Independent Loci Associated with Breast Cancer Risk

Background: A recent association study identified a common variant (rs9790517) at 4q24 to be associated with breast cancer risk. Independent association signals and potential functional variants in this locus have not been explored. Methods: We conducted a fine-mapping analysis in 55,540 breast cancer cases and 51,168 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Results: Conditional analyses identified two independent association signals among women of European ancestry, represented by rs9790517 [conditional P = 2.51 × 10−4; OR, 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02–1.07] and rs77928427 (P = 1.86 × 10−4; OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02–1.07). Functional annotation using data from the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project revealed two putative functional variants, rs62331150 and rs73838678 in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with rs9790517 (r2 ≥ 0.90) residing in the active promoter or enhancer, respectively, of the nearest gene, TET2. Both variants are located in DNase I hypersensitivity and transcription factor–binding sites. Using data from both The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC), we showed that rs62331150 was associated with level of expression of TET2 in breast normal and tumor tissue. Conclusion: Our study identified two independent association signals at 4q24 in relation to breast cancer risk and suggested that observed association in this locus may be mediated through the regulation of TET2. Impact: Fine-mapping study with large sample size warranted for identification of independent loci for breast cancer risk

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk

The emerging role of EID in Asia Pacific in greening the economies

There have been several eco-industrial development (EID) initiatives in Asia Pacific since 1997. These EID initiatives, adopting the industrial ecology (IE) concept, have taken various approaches to sustainable development in their regions. Some have taken the form of eco-industrial estate while others have taken the structure of a city or town. This paper simplifies these various approaches into a generic structure, and presents four developmental stages describing how these EID models advanced from lower stages of plainly environmental protection to higher stages of a green economy. Three categories of national/regional EID involvement are also proposed in this study. Finally, it is argued that Asia Pacific economies belonging to different developmental stages need to assess their respective strengths in order to craft their competitive green economy strategies for a promising world market share

On the industrial ecology potential in Asian developing countries

This paper focuses on the current situation in the adaptation and adoption of industrial ecology in Asian Developing Countries (ADCs). The objective of this paper is to consider the possibilities to develop an eco-industrial development (EID) strategy for these developing countries. We review the regional indigenous resources of ADCs and use the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) grouping to classify the preconditions of industrial ecology in ADCs. The authors of this paper argue that unlike the usual way of applying industrial ecology as a technical tool or a practical instrument, ADCs need to adopt industrial ecology as a strategic vision and as a strategic approach to plan the economic, social and ecological development of their national economies. In this way, it can be possible for the ADCs to avoid the same problems that occurred when the developed countries experienced industrialization and rapid economic growth, and move toward more sustainable development. © 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Promoting cleaner production through local government: Philippine Clean Cities Center (CCC) project

The Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) has partnered with the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) to demonstrate that local governments can successfully reduce resource use and waste generation in their own operations and in businesses and communities by applying the principles of Cleaner Production. The project design has proven to be remarkably cost-effective and should serve as a model for other municipal associations in Asia Pacific region concerned about sustainable resource use and waste management