Engagement With Air Quality Information: Stated Versus Revealed Preferences

Air pollution has a significant impact on health but is often invisible to the naked eye. Real-time air quality information can help people take action to protect their health. However, little is known on how to most effectively frame air quality information to promote public health. We conducted a field experiment to study people’s engagement with real-time air quality information provided through a smartphone application (app). We tested 12 different messaging strategies on both intent to engage with air quality information (through a survey), and actual engagement with air quality information tracked through the app in response to the messaging strategies. Our results, based on 835 survey respondents and 2,740 app users, show that intent to engage and actual engagement differ. Overall, users’ demographics were the most important predictor of engagement with messages. This research demonstrates the significance of testing messaging strategies through field experiments rather than through surveys, and the importance of targeted messages

An institutional perspective on the diffusion of international management system standards : the case of the Environmental management standard ISO 14001.

This paper analyzes how national institutional factors affect the adoption of the intemational environmental management standard ISO 14001, using a panel of 139 countries from 1996 to 2006. The analysis emphasizes that during the emerging phase of the standard, the potentiallack of consensus within the constituents of the national institutional environment conceming the value of a new standard could send mixed signals to firrns about the standard. The resuIts show that in the early phase of adoption, regulative and norrnative forces within the institutional environment can work against each other. Results also show that regulative or coercive forces playa relatively more important role in the early phase of adoption of the standard than in the subsequent phases of diffusion. In the later phases of diffusion of ISO 14001, norrnative forces, such as the diffusion of other management standards, as well as factors related to trade, playa more important role. Because of the similarities between environmental management standards and corporate social responsibility standards, this study can help identify sorne of the challenges for diffusion of ISO management standards in the area of social responsibility.Environmental management standard; ISO 14001;

Institutional Pressures and Organizational Characteristics: Implications for Environmental Strategy

A broad literature has emerged over the past decades demonstrating that firms' environmental strategies and practices are influenced by stakeholders and institutional pressures. Such findings are consistent with institutional sociology, which emphasizes the importance of regulatory, normative and cognitive factors in shaping firms' decisions to adopt specific organizational practices, above and beyond their technical efficiency. Similarly, institutional theory emphasizes legitimation processes and the tendency for institutionalized organizational structures and procedures to be taken for granted, regardless of their efficiency implications. However, the institutional perspective does not address the fundamental issue of business strategy necessary to explain the persistence of substantially different strategies among firms that are subjected to comparable levels of institutional pressures. In this chapter, we present current research arguing that such firms adopt heterogeneous sets of environmental management practices despite facing common institutional pressures because organizational characteristics lead managers to interpret these pressures differently.

ECO-LABELING STRATEGIES: THE ECO-PREMIUM PUZZLE IN THE WINE INDUSTRY

Eco-labeling signals that a product has been eco-certified. While there is increasing use of eco-labeling practices, there is still little understanding of the conditions under which eco-labels can command price premiums. In this paper, we argue that the certification of environmental practices by a third party should be analyzed as a strategy distinct from although related to the advertisement of the eco-certification through a label posted on the product. By assessing eco-labeling and eco-certification strategies separately, we are able to identify benefits associated with the certification process independently from those associated with the actual label. More specifically, we argue in the context of the wine industry that eco-certification can provide benefits, such as improved reputation in the industry or increased product quality, which can lead to a price premium without the need to use the eco-label. We estimate this price premium of wine due to the eco-certification of grapes using 13,400 observations of wine price, quality rating, varietals, vintage, and number of bottles produced, for the period 1998-2005. Overall, certifying wine increases the price by 13%, yet including an eco-label reduces the price by 20%. This result confirms the negative connotation associated by consumers with organic wine. The price premium of this luxury good due to certification acts independently from its label, a confounding result not previously demonstrated by related literature.organic wine, wine market, price premium, eco-wine, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Deregulation and environmental differentiation in the electric utility industry.

This paper analyzes how economic deregulation impacts firm strategies and environmental quality in the electric utility industry. We find evidence that the deregulation introduced to this historically staid industry has stimulated environmental differentiation. Differentiation is most likely to appear where its point of uniqueness is valued by customers, and we confirm this relationship in our sample. Specifically, utilities that served customers who exhibited higher levels of environmental sensitivity generated more green power. The tendency for firms to differentiate in this way is lessened if they are relatively more dependent on coal-fired generation or relatively more efficient. Thus, there is evidence that firms sort themselves into either differentiation or low-cost strategies as the competitive realities of a deregulated world unfold. Deregulation and the ensuing environmental differentiation illustrate how utilities exploited formerly unmet customer demand for green power. The result has been greater levels of renewable generation and, hence, a cleaner environment.Deregulation; Environmental differentiation; Electric utility; Renewable energy; Productive efficiency;

Information Disclosure Policies: Evidence from the Electricity Industry

A “third wave” of environmental policy has recently emerged that emphasizes information provision as an integral part of the risk mitigation strategy. While theory suggests information programs may correct market failures and improve welfare, the empirical effectiveness of these programs remains largely undetermined. We show that mandatory information disclosure programs in the electricity industry achieve stated policy goals. We that the average proportion of fossil fuels decreases and the average proportion of clean increases in response to disclosure programs. However, the programs also produce unintended consequences. Customer composition and pre-existing fuel mix significantly affect program response, suggesting that effective information disclosure policies may not be efficient.disclosure, information, fuel mix, electric utilities

An institutional perspective on the diffusion of international management system standards : the case of the Environmental management standard ISO 14001

This paper analyzes how national institutional factors affect the adoption of the intemational environmental management standard ISO 14001, using a panel of 139 countries from 1996 to 2006. The analysis emphasizes that during the emerging phase of the standard, the potentiallack of consensus within the constituents of the national institutional environment conceming the value of a new standard could send mixed signals to firrns about the standard. The resuIts show that in the early phase of adoption, regulative and norrnative forces within the institutional environment can work against each other. Results also show that regulative or coercive forces playa relatively more important role in the early phase of adoption of the standard than in the subsequent phases of diffusion. In the later phases of diffusion of ISO 14001, norrnative forces, such as the diffusion of other management standards, as well as factors related to trade, playa more important role. Because of the similarities between environmental management standards and corporate social responsibility standards, this study can help identify sorne of the challenges for diffusion of ISO management standards in the area of social responsibility.Publicad