Experimental Research on Natural Pozzolan as Cement Replacement

This paper presents the properties of motor and concrete with natural pozzolan as partial replacement of cement. In this research, natural pozzolan from Twin Taung, Sagaing Region and local cement (Crown) are used. Firstly, chemical composition of natural pozzolan and Crown cement are analysed. And then the physical properties of local materials used in this research are determined according to ASTM procedure. Partial replacement percentages of pozzolan are considered 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%.The strength of motor and concrete with natural pozzolan (0%,10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) is tested at 7 days,28 days and 91days. From the trial mix design, the water-cement ratio (0.555) is obtained by using the least square method. To get target strength (4000 psi), by using water cement ratio (0.555) and 68% of maximum aggregate size (20 mm), the concrete mix proportion (1:1.9:3) is obtained.The compressive strength of concrete with various percentages of natural pozzolan at 60 days and 91 days are more than 7 days and 28 days strength. Therefore, it can be concluded that natural pozzolan may be used as cement replacement material when it is not required high strength performance in structures

Is the red dragon green? An examination of the antecedents and consequences of environmental proactivity in China

China is the world’s second largest economy and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, yet we know little about environmental proactivity in the most populated country in the world. We address this gap through a survey of 161 Chinese companies with two respondents per firm (N = 322) where we seek to identify the antecedents and consequences of environmental proactivity. We identify two categorizations of environmental proactivity: Environmental operational improvements and environmental reporting. We find that ecological motivations and regulatory stakeholder pressure are positively related to both types of environmental proactivity, and external stakeholder pressure is negatively related to environmental reporting. Furthermore, we find that (1) if a firm is environmentally proactive (as it relates to either measure) and they are ecologically motivated, there is a positive and significant cost advantage, and (2) if a firm makes use of environmental operational improvement and they are competitively motivated, there is a positive and significant reputation advantage. Implications for researchers, managers, and policy-makers in China are discussed

Empirical Archetypes for Strong Corporate Environmental Performance

We examine 45 existing case studies of firms with strong corporate environmental performance (CEP) to empirically identify four organizational configurations for successful sustainability. These four configurations represent different combinations of variables describing a firm’s external environment, organizational structure, and its strategy-related activities. More specifically, these configurations vary in having a benign or challenging external environment, a mechanistic or organic structure, a low-cost or differentiation strategy, hands-on or hands-off participation by the top-management-team, high or low consideration given to stakeholders, and a short or long-term time orientation. Taken together the four organizational configurations introduce an understanding of equifinality for achieving CEP. In other words, given an adequate variety of ingredients, there are multiple recipes for successful sustainability. Implications for scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers and other stakeholders are discussed

A game-theoretic analysis of social responsibility conduct in two-echelon supply chains

This research investigates how two supply chain members, a downstream firm (F) and an upstream supplier (S), interact with each other with respect to corporate social responsibility (CSR) behavior and what impact exogenous parameters may have on this interaction. A game-theoretic analysis is conducted to obtain equilibriums for both simultaneous-move and sequential-move CSR games. Under certain assumptions, it is concluded that (1) there exists a mutual incentive between their CSR behavior, whereby a win–win performance in terms of both CSR and profitability is achieved as long as exogenous parameters exceed certain critical thresholds; (2) a higher consumer marginal social-benefit potential (MSBP) or a lower consumer marginal perception difficulty (MPD) helps to lower the critical thresholds of CSR budgets and CSR operational efficiency by S and F, making it easier to achieve the win–win performance; (3) an increase in one supply chain member\u27s CSR budget or CSR operational efficiency tends to make the supply chain easier to attain a win–win performance scenario; (4) if CSR decisions are made sequentially, a prior commitment to CSR activities from one supply chain member strengthens the mutual incentive and facilitates the realization of the win–win performance. Business implications of these research findings are also discussed

Post-Covid Youth Work and Mental Wellbeing of Young People Across Scotland and England

This article seeks to contribute to the debate about the current and future support needs of young people (aged 11-25) across Scotland and England who are experiencing mental distress in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. In doing so, it focuses on the profession that works specifically with this age range – youth work - and youth work practice across Scotland and England, and then examines the challenges and opportunities for the profession. It concludes that youth work, and youth workers, are well placed to provide much needed initial mental health support to young people, but that the profession urgently needs the UK and Scottish Governments to financially (re)invest in its infrastructure to deliver this provision

Parents\u27 experiences of a language-focused Home Visiting scheme in Ireland

This article reports parents’ experiences of the Tús Maith (Good Start) home visiting scheme in South-West Ireland. The goal of Tús Maith is to support parents who wish to speak Irish to their children at home in the Kerry Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking heartland area. Home visitors spend an hour a week, over a period of six weeks, interacting with children and parents with varying levels of competency in Irish. Home visitors who are native speakers of Irish, offer individualised guidance on how to promote the use of Irish as a home language, while encouraging families to engage in activities and events organised through Irish in the local community. This paper reports findings from three focus groups with parents (n=22). A thematic analysis of qualitative findings reveal that home visits supported parents by: offering targeted linguistic support focused on language enrichment/learning; providing access to social networks through Irish; creating a designated time to focus on Irish in the home; and promoting the local dialect of Irish. It emerged that the home visiting scheme reaffirmed parents’ decision to speak Irish in cases where Irish was the home language, while motivating and encouraging parents with varying levels of proficiency in Irish, to incorporate Irish into their daily language use. Challenges emerge in terms of assessing outcomes over a limited period of time, along with encouraging more proficient speakers of Irish to engage with the scheme. Home visits emerge as a potentially effective intervention to support the use of minoritized languages at home

Production costs, scope economies, and multi-client outsourcing under quantity competition

Two game models are developed based on production costs and scope economies to investigate the widely observed multi-client outsourcing (MCO) phenomenon. Analytical results demonstrate that outsourcers’ high in-house production costs and the advantage of scope economies motivate firms to outsource collectively to an independent vendor. Under certain conditions, if both firms make their outsourcing decisions simultaneously, collective outsourcing is one of the two equilibria; if both firms make decisions sequentially, collective outsourcing becomes the unique equilibrium. Furthermore, the comparative statics of the critical degree of scope economies are examined for the occurrence of MCO with regard to diverse market parameters. Finally, it is proved that market prices decrease as the degree of scope economies increases when MCO occurs. This research helps explain some widely observed phenomena such as malls, supply chain cities, and the China price

Social responsibility allocation in two-echelon supply chains: Insights from wholesale price contracts

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is considered in a two-echelon supply chain consisting of an upstream supplier and a downstream firm that are bound by a wholesale price contract. CSR performance (the outcome of CSR conduct) of the whole supply chain is gauged by a global variable and the associated cost of achieving this CSR performance is only incurred by the supplier with an expectation of being shared with the downstream firm via the wholesale price contract. As such, the key issue is to determine who should be allocated as the responsibility holder with the right of offering the contract and how this right should be appropriately restricted. Game-theoretical analyses are carried out on six games, resulting from different interaction schemes between the supplier and the firm, to derive their corresponding equilibriums. Comparative institutional analyses are then conducted to determine the optimal social responsibility allocation based on both economic and CSR performance criteria. Main results are furnished in a series of propositions and their implications to the real-world business practice are discussed. The key findings are threefold: under the current model settings: (1) the optimal allocation scheme is to assign the supplier as the responsibility holder with appropriate restrictions on the corresponding rights to determine the wholesale price; (2) inherent conflict exists between the economic and CSR performance criteria and, hence, the two maxima cannot be achieved simultaneously; and (3) although integrative channel profit is not attainable, the system-wide profit will be improved by implementing optimal social responsibility allocation schemes

Pengaruh motivasi, persepsi biaya dan lama pendidikan terhadap minat mahasiswa untuk melanjutkan program pasca magister akuntansi(Studi kasus pada mahasiswa program akuntansi Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta)

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh motivasi internal, motivasi eksternal, persepsi biaya dan lama pendidikan terhadap minat mahasiswa untuk melanjutkan Program Pasca Magister Akuntansi. Sampel penelitian ini berjumlah 100 mahasiswa Program Studi Akuntansi Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. Analisis data yang digunakan adalah analisis regresi linier berganda. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: (1) Motivasi baik Internal maupun Eksternal secara individual berpengaruh terhadap minat mahasiswa untuk melanjutkan Program Pasca Magister Akuntansi pada tingkat signifikansi 0,05, dengan nilai sig Motivasi Internal 0,0115<0,05 dan nilai sig Motivasi Internal 0,000<0,05; (2) Persepsi Biaya secara individual berpengaruh terhadap minat mahasiswa untuk melanjutkan Program Pasca Magister Akuntansi pada tingkat signifikansi 0,05, denga nilai sig. Persepsi Biaya 0,0175<0,05; (3) Lama Pendidikan secara individual berpengaruh terhadap minat mahasiswa untuk melanjutkan Program Pasca Magister Akuntansi pada tingkat signifikansi 0,05,dengan nilai sig. Lama Pendidikan 0,0105<0,05