31,950 research outputs found
Stakeholder engagement: Defining strategic advantage for sustainable construction
This is the accepted version of the following article: Rodriguez-Melo, A. and Mansouri, S. A. (2011), Stakeholder Engagement: Defining Strategic Advantage for Sustainable Construction. Bus. Strat. Env., 20: 539â552, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.715/abstract.Although sustainable development is increasingly becoming a part of business plans, it is unclear what makes the economic, social and environmental dynamics strategically compatible. This research examines which of the following in sustainable development â government policy, managerial attitude and stakeholder engagement â is the most influential on the profitability of companies in the UK construction sector. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were rendered through a survey and semi-structured interviews. Patterns of ambiguity in legislation were discovered as an obstacle for changing the sector's mind-set. Stakeholder engagement was identified as the defining factor increasing managers' awareness, helping legislation to be effectively implemented and making sustainability highly appealing to clients. These findings indicate that to gain competitive advantage, companies should embark on long-term strategic alliances which adopt the proposals of environmental non-governmental organisations and closely follow public opinion. This, strengthens brand equity, allows for premium pricing, increases market share and maximizes profit
Magnetization reversals in a disk-shaped small magnet with an interface
We consider a nanodisk possessing two coupled materials with different
ferromagnetic exchange constant. The common border line of the two media passes
at the disk center dividing the system exactly in two similar half-disks. The
vortex core motion crossing the interface is investigated with a simple
description based on a two-dimensional model which mimics a very thin real
material with such a line defect. The main result of this study is that,
depending on the magnetic coupling which connects the media, the vortex core
can be dramatically and repeatedly flipped from up to down and vice versa by
the interface. This phenomenon produces burst-like emission of spin waves each
time the switching process takes place.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
- âŠ