Environmental policy, innovation and performance : new insights on the Porter hypothesis

Jaffe and Palmer (1997) present three distinct variants of the so-called Porter Hypothesis. The “weak” version of the hypothesis posits that environmental regulation will stimulate certain kinds of environmental innovations. The “narrow” version of the hypothesis asserts that flexible environmental policy regimes give firms greater incentive to innovate than prescriptive regulations, such as technology-based standards.Finally, the “strong” version posits that properly designed regulation may induce cost-saving innovation that more than compensates for the cost of compliance. In this paper, we test the significance of these different variants of the Porter Hypothesis using data on the four main elements of the hypothesised causality chain (environmental policy, research and development, environmental performance and commercial performance). The analysis is based upon a unique database which includes observations from approximately 4200 facilities in seven OECD countries. In general, we find strong support for the “weak” version, qualified support for the “narrow” version, and qualified support for the “strong” version as well.PORTHER HYPOTHESIS;ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY;INNOVATION;ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE;BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Business model configuration and dynamics for technology commercialization in mature markets

Purpose: The food industry is a well-established and complex industry. New entrants attempting to penetrate it via the commercialization of a new technological innovation could face high uncertainty and constraints. The capability to innovate through collaboration and to identify suitable strategies and innovative business models can be particularly important for bringing a technological innovation to this market. However, although the potential for these capabilities has been advocated, we still lack a complete understanding of how new ventures could support the technology commercialization process via the development of business models. Design/methodology/approach: To address this gap, this paper 1) builds a conceptual framework that knits together the different bodies of extant literature (i.e. entrepreneurship, strategy and innovation) to analyse the business model innovation processes associated with the exploitation of emerging technologies; 2) determines the suitability of the framework using data from the exploratory case study of ISIT3D - a firm which has started to exploit 3D printing in the food industry; 3) improves the initial conceptual framework with the findings that emerged in the case study. Findings: From this analysis it emerged that: 1) companies could use more than one BM at a time; hence, BM innovation processes could coexist and be run in parallel; 2) the facing of high uncertainty might lead firms to choose a closed and/or a familiar business model, while explorative strategies could be pursued with open business models; 3) significant changes in strategies during the technology commercialisation process are not necessarily reflected in a radical change in the business model and 4) firms could deliberately adopt interim strategies and BMs as means to identify the more suitable ones to reach the market. Originality/value: This case study illustrates how firms could innovate the processes of their BM development to face the uncertainties linked with the entry into a mature and highly conservative industry (food).This research work was supported by the Roma Tre Scholarship and the “Bit by bit: Capturing the value from the digital fabrication revolution” project, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (Ref. EP/K039598/1)

Brazilian scientific articles on “Spirituality, Religion and Health”

Abstract Background Studies on “Spirituality, religion and health” (R/S) have been increasing worldwide, including in Brazil. Mapping this production can help researchers to understand this field and also to identify gaps in the Brazilian R/S studies. Objective To analyze the Brazilian scientific articles on “Religion, Spirituality and Health” available on the main electronic databases using a bibliometric approach. Methods A comprehensive review of four major databases (PubMed, Scopus, BVS and Web of Science) was conducted. Three reviewers performed the data analysis. Off-topic articles, articles from Portugal, books and thesis were excluded. Articles were then classified by: Publication year, journal, Central focus in R/S, Academic Area, Main topic and Study Type. Results From 3,963 articles found, 686 studies were included in the final analysis (320 had central focus on R/S). There was an increase of articles in the last decade (most observational), with predominance of mental health issues, and from journals in the field of psychiatry, public health and nursing. Discussion This study enabled us to widen our understanding about how the field of “spirituality, religion and health” has been established and how this field is increasing in Brazil. These findings can help in the development of future Brazilian studies

Complementary Spiritist Therapy: Systematic Review of Scientific Evidence

Spiritism is the third most common religion in Brazil, and its therapies have been used by millions worldwide. These therapies are based on therapeutic resources including prayer, laying on of hands, fluidotherapy (magnetized water), charity/volunteering, spirit education/moral values, and disobsession (spirit release therapy). This paper presents a systematic review of the current literature on the relationship among health outcomes and 6 predictors: prayer, laying on of hands, magnetized/fluidic water, charity/volunteering, spirit education (virtuous life and positive affect), and spirit release therapy. All articles were analyzed according to inclusion/exclusion criteria, Newcastle-Ottawa and Jadad score. At present, there is moderate to strong evidence that volunteering and positive affect are linked to better health outcomes. Furthermore, laying on of hands, virtuous life, and praying for oneself also seem to be associated to positive findings. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies on magnetized water and spirit release therapy. In summary, science is indirectly demonstrating that some of these therapies can be associated to better health outcomes and that other therapies have been overlooked or poorly investigated. Further studies in this field could contribute to the disciplines of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by investigating the relationship between body, mind, and soul/spirit

Non-linear optical measurement of the twist elastic constant in thermotropic and DNA lyotropic chiral nematics

Throughout the whole history of liquid crystals science, the balancing of intrinsic elasticity with coupling to external forces has been the key strategy for most application and investigation. While the coupling of the optical field to the nematic director is at the base of a wealth of thoroughly described optical effects, a significant variety of geometries and materials have not been considered yet. Here we show that by adopting a simple cell geometry and measuring the optically induced birefringence, we can readily extract the twist elastic coefficient K22 of thermotropic and lyotropic chiral nematics (N*). The value of K22 we obtain for chiral doped 5CB thermotropic N* well matches those reported in the literature. With this same strategy, we could determine for the first time K22 of the N* phase of concentrated aqueous solutions of DNA oligomers, bypassing the limitations that so far prevented measuring the elastic constants of this class of liquid crystalline materials. The present study also enlightens the significant nonlinear optical response of DNA liquid crystals

Liquid crystal cells based on photovoltaic substrates

Liquid crystal cells with LiNbO3:Fe crystals as substrates, are described. The photovoltaic field generated by the substrates is able to reorient the liquid crystal director thus giving rise to a phase shift on the light propagating through the cell, as in liquid crystal light valves. The process does not require the application of an external electric field, thus being potentially useful for applications requiring a high degree of compactness. An efficient optical switch with a high transmission contrast, based on the described optically-induced electric field, is also proposed