Assessment of the Public Administration Tools for the improvement of the Eco-efficiency of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) face barriers to the implementation and development of eco-efficiency that could be overcome taking advantage of the adequate stimuli and incentives. A previous research and a thorough literature analysis show Public Administration (PA) is a key stakeholder. PA could use better its tools to stimulate SME to improve their ecoefficiency. Among these tools it can be named well known command and control tools like legislation or taxes, but also price policies, green procurement, ecological education, eco-innovation support and others. This paper reviews these tools and how they contribute to overcome barriers to ecoefficiency by offering external and internal incentives for SME. The analysis is focused on the case of Venezuelan public administration and SME but it can be generalized to other case studies. In addition, a panel of experts validates the results and assesses the public administration tools by means of the policy Delphi method. The assessment is based on criteria like: market influence, capability of the public administration for controlling results, tool costs, impact on public administration image, timespan to get results, etc. The assessment, therefore, allows ranking and understanding the tools according to their effectiveness and efficiency to support SME to improve their ecoefficiency. Due to the specific characteristics of the case study: SME of Venezuela, the method shows the best mix of public administration tools includes mainly command and control tools. Also the mix includes certain new-approach tools like advertising about responsible consumption and eco-efficient products, or education/training in environmental responsibility. The method also allows understanding better how the tools will help accomplishing the objectives for ecoefficiency of the public administration. Therefore, this research provides a method for raising information to be used when planning the actions to improve eco-efficiency of the SME.Fernández-Viñé, MB.; Gómez-Navarro, T.; Capuz-Rizo, SF. (2013). Assessment of the Public Administration Tools for the improvement of the Eco-efficiency of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Journal of Cleaner Production. 47:265-273. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.08.026S2652734

Influence of transnational economic alliances on the IFRS convergence decision in India - institutional perspectives

This study contributes to the literature on global governance by highlighting the importance of not losing sight of the nation state as an important player in the transnational governance arena. Specifically, literature on global (accounting) regulation devotes a great deal of attention to the roles of organisations and agencies with transnational remit (such as global standard setters, donor agencies) while often downplaying the significant impacts of the more traditional cross-country links forged through economic relationships and resource dependencies between national and transnational institutional fields. This was specially noted in the case of the indirect influences of the US’s decision to delay IFRS convergence. While being interpreted as an indirect source of influence, such a decision played a very significant role on the convergence negotiations in India. The study shows how the US influence was channelled through Japan with which India has significant trade and economic relations and, most importantly, holds a joint forum specifically to discuss convergence issues. The consequences of India’s links with countries such as US and Japan in the decision-making process provide a vivid indication of the important roles of cross-governmental relationships in the global governance arena, and also question the position of transnational organisations as pervasive powers in such governance. The study’s findings clearly demonstrate that the pursuit of full IFRS convergence strongly favoured by the transnational forces was invariably challenged in the Indian context by the influences of powerful nation states advocating a more cautious approach

Community safety policies in Sweden : a policy change in crime control strategies?

Internationally, there has been a general trend towards crime prevention and community safety measures. The main policy ideas and instruments associated with this trend have spread widely in Western countries. This article examines the Swedish national crime prevention policy. As Sweden is a welfare society with a long tradition of social crime prevention, it is of great interest to explore to what extent the aforementioned trend has influenced its crime prevention policy. We do this by examining Sweden’s national policy and how its concepts have spread to the local level—specifically, to municipalities and their local crime prevention councils. We find that there has been a preventive shift in Sweden, although not as far-reaching as in many other European countries. Substantial changes have occurred in the understanding and direction of crime prevention work, and the question is to what extent this development will continue

Women directors and disclosure of intellectual capital information

This paper uses a resource-based perspective and balanced panel data analysis to explore whether the representation of women on the boards of directors of Spanish companies is associated with an increase in voluntary disclosure of information concerning intellectual capital [IC]. We find that gender diversity is a complementary corporate governance mechanism that has a significant positive effect on levels of disclosure of IC information. This appears due to the presence of women on boards serving to prompt stronger monitoring and oversight behaviour. Our findings should encourage support for policies that will increase current levels of representation of women on corporate boards and influence the setting of corporate governance requirements relating to disclosure bycapital market regulators.This work was supported financially by the research unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy (project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939), through funds provided by COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI); and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio