Stakeholders’ environmental influence. An empirical analysis in the Spanish hotel industry

We draw on the insights of stakeholder theory to explore the extent to which environmental management practices are driven by (i) an attempt to enhance a firm’s legitimacy, and (ii) a response to pressures arising from powerful stakeholders. The material for this investigation has been gathered from a sample of 279 Spanish hotels. The hotel industry which is only marginally affected by environmental regulation and is thus a widely neglected setting in this context, could be a particularly interesting subject for investigation, able to throw some light on the extent to which firms produce different responses to the environmental concerns of their stakeholders. Our results reveal that corporate environmental management practices may be a response to genuine environmental concerns, and we then speak of explicit environmental management, or there may also be reasons different from the environmental, in which case we speak of tacit environmental management. Our findings suggest that explicit and tacit environmental management account for a variety of organizational responses to the environmental demands of stakeholders, depending on (i) the stakeholders’ power regarding environmental issues, (ii) the stakeholders’ use of power to protect the environment, and (iii) the perceived economic advantages of environmental management activities.Publicad

Stakeholders’ environmental influence. An empirical analysis in the Spanish hotel industry.

We draw on the insights of stakeholder theory to explore the extent to which environmental management practices are driven by (i) an attempt to enhance a firm’s legitimacy, and (ii) a response to pressures arising from powerful stakeholders. The material for this investigation has been gathered from a sample of 279 Spanish hotels. The hotel industry which is only marginally affected by environmental regulation and is thus a widely neglected setting in this context, could be a particularly interesting subject for investigation, able to throw some light on the extent to which firms produce different responses to the environmental concerns of their stakeholders. Our results reveal that corporate environmental management practices may be a response to genuine environmental concerns, and we then speak of explicit environmental management, or there may also be reasons different from the environmental, in which case we speak of tacit environmental management. Our findings suggest that explicit and tacit environmental management account for a variety of organizational responses to the environmental demands of stakeholders, depending on (i) the stakeholders’ power regarding environmental issues, (ii) the stakeholders’ use of power to protect the environment, and (iii) the perceived economic advantages of environmental management activities.Environmental management; Stakeholder theory; Hotels; Service industry;

Photon management with nanostructures on concentrator solar cells

Optimizing the feature sizes of dielectric nanostructures on the top (ZnS) and bottom (SiO2) surfaces of a 1 μm thick GaAs solar cell, we obtain a higher efficiency (34.4%) than a similar cell with a state of the art bilayer antireflection coating and a planar mirror (33.2%). The back side nanostructure increases the photocurrent due to enhanced optical path length inside the semiconductor, while the nanostructure on the front side increases the photocurrent due to lower reflectance losses. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.We acknowledge the SGAI-CSIC for the allocation of computational resource and the financial support by MINECO (ENE2012-37804-C02-02, FPI grant) and CAM (S2009/ENE-1477).Peer Reviewe

Photonics Crystals on high efficiency III-V Solar Cells

Póster presentado en la 28th European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC 2013), celebrada en París del 30 de septiembre al 4 de octubre de 2013.We have explored the following photon management options for increasing the efficiency of concentrator solar cells: increasing the voltage by recycling the luminescence, increasing the current reducing reflection and increasing the optical path. We find that a 1m m thick GaAs solar cell with optimized nanostructured front and back surfaces has significantly higher efficiency than a similar cell with a perfect back side mirror and a state of the art bilayer antireflective coating. We have also designed a multilayer coating with high reflectivity at angles away from the surface normal that results in luminescence trapping, and thus increases the open circuit voltage and the cell efficiency.Peer Reviewe

¿Hay hoteles verdes en España? Un análisis exploratorio

En el presente trabajo se realiza un estudio exploratorio para definir las estrategias medioambientales de operaciones entre los establecimientos hoteleros. Para ello, tras una breve revisión teórica, donde se expone la necesidad de integrar las cuestiones ambientales en la estrategia de operaciones, se proponen las principales dimensiones que ayudan a explicar la respuesta de la empresa a estas consideraciones: la presión del entorno hacia la protección ambiental, la gestión ambiental mínima, la gestión ambiental diferenciadora, los años de experiencia en implantar medidas de protección ambiental, la utilización de las técnicas de la Dirección de Operaciones y la formalización de los planes y programas ambientales. Asimismo, se diseñan escalas de medida para recoger estas dimensiones, las cuales se utilizan para detectar el patrón que siguen más de 240 establecimientos hoteleros españoles de tres, cuatro y cinco estrellas. Finalmente, se contrastan los resultados de aplicar la tipología propuesta con los obtenidos en otras investigaciones, se sintetizan las principales aportaciones y se plantean líneas futuras de investigación

Estrategia medioambiental, contexto organizativo y rendimiento: los establecimientos hoteleros españoles

En el presente trabajo se realiza un estudio de las estrategias ambientales que adoptan los establecimientos hoteleros españoles y se discute si existen diferencias significativas en algunas características organizativas en función de la estrategia ambiental adoptada. Para ello, y en armonía con las principales tipologías de estrategias ambientales detectadas en la literatura, se clasifican los establecimientos hoteleros españoles en cuatro grupos: Proactivos, Defensivos, Acomodativos y Reactivos. Asimismo, se comprueba que estas diferentes estrategias ambientales se explican por distintas características de la organización, tales como la intensidad de la presión social que ejercen los grupos de interés sobre el establecimiento y la posesión de determinadas capacidades organizativas. Adicionalmente, se puede observar que las empresas de los grupos con una estrategia ambiental más desarrollada se asocian a un rendimiento económico superior. Finalmente, se comparan los resultados obtenidos en este estudio con otras investigaciones precedentes y se discuten las implicaciones que se desprenden de este trabajo, tanto en el ámbito académico, como en el profesional

On the singular braid monoid of an orientable surface

In this paper we show that the singular braid monoid of an orientable surface can be embedded in a group. The proof is purely topological, making no use of the monoid presentation.Ministerio de Ciencia y TecnologíaJunta de Andalucí

Pool-Type Fishway Design for a Potamodromous Cyprinid in the Iberian Peninsula: The Iberian Barbel—Synthesis and Future Directions

M.B., J.R.R., and J.P. would like to acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) (Ref. CGL2012-34688) and thank the CITEEC (Centro de Innovación Tecnolóxica en Edificación e Enxeñería Civil) of the University of A Coruña and the Center for Hydrographic Studies of CEDEX for their ongoing collaboration in this research field. Finally, the authors want to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions that improved this manuscript.The Iberian barbel (Luciobarbus bocagei) is one of the most common cyprinids in the Iberian Peninsula, whose migratory routes are often hampered by anthropogenic barriers. Fishways might be an effective mitigation measure if they integrate designed operational characteristics that account for the biomechanical requirements of this species. Understanding the flow conditions inside the fishway, and how barbel responds to the hydrodynamics of the flow is imperative to improve free migratory routes with minimum energetic cost associated. Herein, we analyze and synthesize the main findings of research on pool-type fishways for upstream passage of the Iberian barbel and derive recommendations of design criteria for pool-type fishways for this species and others of similar biomechanics capacities. Ultimately, we identify research needs to improve upstream passage of this species.A.T.S. was supported by the Norwegian Research Centre for Hydropower Technology—HydroCen (Project No. 257588); M.B. was funded from EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement 754446 and UGR Research and Knowledge Transfer Fund—Athenea3i; and J.M.S. was supported by national funds via FCT under the CEEC Institucional 2018 (Ref. 2/ISA/FCT/2018). Forest Research Centre (CEF) is a research unit funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia I.P. (FCT), Portugal (UIDB/00239/2020)