Stakeholders influence on managers' environmental behaviors

La importancia del medioambiente ha aumentado tanto en teoría como en práctica en los últimos años. Los “stakeholders” – empleados, proveedores, accionistas, gobiernos, organizaciones no gubernamentales – han jugado un papel fundamental en la modificación del rol de la empresa respecto al medio ambiente. Los investigadores sugieren que la importancia de un “stakeholder” es la suma de su poder, legitimidad y urgencia. Sin embargo, los estudios muestran que la percepción del directivo será la que finalmente determine la importancia de un “stakeholder” para la empresa. La literatura ha investigado en profundidad cómo reaccionan las empresas ante las presiones medioambientales por parte de los distintos “stakeholders”. Sin embargo, no se pocos investigadores se han centradoen las distintas estrategias que los “stakeholders” emplean para presionar a las empresas con prácticas que tengan en cuenta al medioambiente. Los “stakeholders” que tienen una menor capacidad para modificar el comportamiento de las empresas emplean tanto estrategias de presión directas (por ejemplo: boicots y manifestaciones ante las fábricas) como estrategias indirectas de presión (por ejemplo, a través del empleo de alianzas y el aumento de información para la sociedad sobre las prácticas medioambientales de las empresas). Este trabajo explora la presión social como estrategia indirecta de presión empleada por los “stakeholder” para modificar las decisiones medioambientales de las empresas y, a su vez mide la efectividad de dos mecanismos no coercitivos para modificar las decisiones respecto al medioambiente de los directivos con menor preocupación por el mismo. Para ello, un experimento, juego del dictador, se llevo a cabo para probar que los individuos que toman decisiones responden de forma distinta en términos de comportamiento si le afecta económicamente pero con consecuencias medioambientales. Los resultados muestran que la presión social puede ser utilizada como herramienta para modificar las decisiones sobre el medioambiente. Además, los resultados sugieren que la influencia de los “stakeholder” será mayor si el directivo/a es consciente que sus decisiones van a ser conocidas por cualquier “stakeholder” en cualquier de los mecanismo llevados a cabo en el experimento.Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important in organization theory and practice. Stakeholders – employees, suppliers, shareholders, regulators, non-governmental organizations – have played a crucial role in modifying firms’ environmental approach. Researchers suggest that a stakeholder’s saliency is the sum of its power, legitimacy and urgency. Yet, studies show that managers’ perception finally determines a stakeholder saliency. Stakeholder literature has investigated how firms react to pressures from stakeholders. However, few studies have focused on the diverse range of strategies a stakeholder can use to pressure firms to modify their environmental record. Stakeholders, which have less capacity to modify firms’ environmental behavior, use as direct pressure strategies (for example, boycotts and demonstrations) as indirect pressure strategies (network, alliances and spreading environmental information about a focal firm. This paper explores social pressure as a tool for modifying decisions regarding environment and checking the effectiveness of two non-coercive mechanisms to modify environmental decisions of those individuals that have no commitment to environment. For that purpose, a dictator game experiment was carried out aiming to prove that decision makers submitted to several social stimuli respond differently in terms of behaviors affecting them economically, but with environmental consequences. Results show that social pressure can be used as a tool for modifying decisions regarding environment. And, results also suggest that stakeholder influence is higher if a manager is aware that their decisions will be known by stakeholders in any of the mechanisms undertaken in this experiment

Desarrollo e implementación de material docente audiovisual y multimedia en asignaturas de grado de Educación y Psicología

Memoria ID12-0089. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2012-2013

Essential Micro-foundations for Contemporary Business Operations: Top Management Tangible Competencies, Relationship-based Business Networks and Environmental Sustainability

Although various studies have emphasized linkages between firm competencies, networks and sustainability at organizational level, the links between top management tangible competencies (e.g., contemporary relevant quantitative-focused education such as big data analytics and data-driven applications linked with the internet of things, relevant experience and analytical business applications), relationship-based business networks (RBNs) and environmental sustainability have not been well established at micro-level, and there is a literature gap in terms of investigating these relationships. This study examines these links based on the unique data collected from 175 top management representatives (chief executive officers and managing directors) working in food import and export firms headquartered in the UK and New Zealand. Our results from structural equation modelling indicate that top management tangible competencies (TMTCs) are the key determinants for building RBNs, mediating the correlation between TMTCs and environmental sustainability. Directly, the competencies also play a vital role towards environmental practices. The findings further depict that relationship-oriented firms perform better compared to those which focus less on such networks. Consequently, our findings provide a deeper understanding of the micro-foundations of environmental sustainability based on TMTCs rooted in the resource-based view and RBNs entrenched in the social network theory. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings, and we provide suggestions for future research

Desempeño y procesos gubernamentales

El texto que aquí se presenta, permite al lector reconocer distintas problemáticas de las administraciones públicas en diferentes vertientes, así como reconocer diagnósticos y alternativas de solución, acordes a la problemática planteada.El gobierno se materializa a través de la Administración Pública, opera por medio de dependencias y entidades adscritas al Poder Ejecutivo. Sus principales actividades están relacionadas con la planeación, la organización, la administración de recursos humanos, la dirección y el control. A partir de este planteamiento inicial, el libro que aquí se presenta La Administración Pública y el gobierno en México: desempeño y procesos gubernamentales pretende aportar al estudio de las administraciones públicas, a través del análisis del desempeño de los gobiernos, tanto en el ámbito federal, estatal y municipal

Linking Employee Stakeholders to Environmental Performance: The Role of Proactive Environmental Strategies and Shared Vision

Drawing on the natural-resource-based view (NRBV), we propose that employee stakeholder integration is linked to environmental performance through firms’ proactive environmental strategies, and that this link is contingent on shared vision. We tested our model with a cross-country and multi-industry sample. In support of our theory, results revealed that firms’ proactive environmental strategies translated employee stakeholder integration into environmental performance. This relationship was pronounced for high levels of shared vision. Our findings demonstrate that shared vision represents a key condition for advancing the corporate greening agenda through proactive environmental strategies. We discuss implications for the CSR and the environmental management literatures, with a particular focus on the NRBV and stakeholder integration debates

Genome-wide association analysis of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes reveal novel loci associated with Alzheimer's disease and three causality networks : The GR@ACE project

Introduction: Large variability among Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases might impact genetic discoveries and complicate dissection of underlying biological pathways. Methods: Genome Research at Fundacio ACE (GR@ACE) is a genome-wide study of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes, defined based on AD's clinical certainty and vascular burden. We assessed the impact of known AD loci across endophenotypes to generate loci categories. We incorporated gene coexpression data and conducted pathway analysis per category. Finally, to evaluate the effect of heterogeneity in genetic studies, GR@ACE series were meta-analyzed with additional genome-wide association study data sets. Results: We classified known AD loci into three categories, which might reflect the disease clinical heterogeneity. Vascular processes were only detected as a causal mechanism in probable AD. The meta-analysis strategy revealed the ANKRD31-rs4704171 and NDUFAF6-rs10098778 and confirmed SCIMP-rs7225151 and CD33-rs3865444. Discussion: The regulation of vasculature is a prominent causal component of probable AD. GR@ACE meta-analysis revealed novel AD genetic signals, strongly driven by the presence of clinical heterogeneity in the AD series

Genome-wide association analysis of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes reveal novel loci associated with Alzheimer's disease and three causality networks: The GR@ACE project

INTRODUCTION: Large variability among Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases might impact genetic discoveries and complicate dissection of underlying biological pathways. METHODS: Genome Research at Fundacio ACE (GR@ACE) is a genome-wide study of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes, defined based on AD's clinical certainty and vascular burden. We assessed the impact of known AD loci across endophenotypes to generate loci categories. We incorporated gene coexpression data and conducted pathway analysis per category. Finally, to evaluate the effect of heterogeneity in genetic studies, GR@ACE series were meta-analyzed with additional genome-wide association study data sets. RESULTS: We classified known AD loci into three categories, which might reflect the disease clinical heterogeneity. Vascular processes were only detected as a causal mechanism in probable AD. The meta-analysis strategy revealed the ANKRD31-rs4704171 and NDUFAF6-rs10098778 and confirmed SCIMP-rs7225151 and CD33-rs3865444. DISCUSSION: The regulation of vasculature is a prominent causal component of probable AD. GR@ACE meta-analysis revealed novel AD genetic signals, strongly driven by the presence of clinical heterogeneity in the AD series

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues