Do Corporate Global Environmental Standards in Emerging Markets Create Or Destroy Market Value

Arguments can be made on both sides of the question of whether a stringent, global corporate environmental standard represents a competitive asset or liability for multinational enterprises (MNEs) investing in emerging and developing markets. This paper seeks to answer this question by analyzing the global environmental standards of a large sample of US-based MNEs in relation to their market performance. We find that firms adopting a single, stringent global environmental standard have higher market values, as measured by Tobin's q, than firms defaulting to less stringent, or poorly enforced host country standards. Thus, developing countries that use lax environmental regulations to attract foreign direct investment end up attracting poorer quality, and perhaps, less competitive firms. Our results also suggest that externalities are incorporated to a significant extent in firm valuation. We discuss plausible reasons for this observation.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39644/3/wp259.pd

A natural-resource-based view of the firm: Fifteen years after

The authors revisit Hart\u27s natural-resource-based view (NRBV) of the firm and summarize progress that has been made in testing elements of that theory and reevaluate the NRBV in light of a number of important developments that have emerged in recent years in both the resource-based view literature and in research on sustainable enterprise. First, the authors consider how the NRBV can both benefit from recent work in dynamic capabilities and can itself inform such work. Second, they review recent research in the areas of clean technology and business at the base of the pyramid and suggest how the NRBV can help inform research on the resources and capabilities needed to enter and succeed in these domains. © The Author(s) 2011

Transforming Business Education: 21st Century Sustainable MBA Programs

Business education should give students the skills to solve complex global challenges. It should align management practices with goals for a sustainable future. Sadly, few management schools even discuss the real issues business leaders face today. This article challenges others to develop a curriculum that embeds sustainability in the core of their programs. The authors argue that faculty and business school leadership should move beyond “saddlebag” initiatives that bolt sustainability onto the traditional, shareholder primacy-driven core. This article profiles three programs as case studies transforming business education to prepare leaders to achieve a more sustainable world. Business schools are torn between competing paradigms. Given the existential challenges facing humanity, business schools will have to change or simply lose relevancy. Our stories of disruption give evidence of success and hope for the coming transformation of business education and of capitalism itself. The lessons learned and insights in this article provide guidance for business school leaders aspiring to redefine management for global sustainability and business school programs. It is an open invitation for others to disrupt and rethink business education before it is too late

Transforming Business Education: 21st Century Sustainable MBA Programs

Business education should give students the skills to solve complex global challenges. It should align management practices with goals for a sustainable future. Sadly, few management schools even discuss the real issues business leaders face today. This article challenges others to develop a curriculum that embeds sustainability in the core of their programs. The authors argue that faculty and business school leadership should move beyond “saddlebag” initiatives that bolt sustainability onto the traditional, shareholder primacy-driven core. This article profiles three programs as case studies transforming business education to prepare leaders to achieve a more sustainable world. Business schools are torn between competing paradigms. Given the existential challenges facing humanity, business schools will have to change or simply lose relevancy. Our stories of disruption give evidence of success and hope for the coming transformation of business education and of capitalism itself. The lessons learned and insights in this article provide guidance for business school leaders aspiring to redefine management for global sustainability and business school programs. It is an open invitation for others to disrupt and rethink business education before it is too late

New frontiers in international strategy

This paper is based on a panel we organized at the "First Annual Conference on Emerging Research Frontiers in International Business Studies", organized by the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), to discuss several new lines of research in international strategy. Four lines of research are developed: The strategic implications of semiglobalization, the impact of institutional voids in international strategy, primitives and levels of analysis in international business, and strategies for the base of the pyramid. Taken together, these studies aim to open a new frontier in our understanding of International Strategy, based on the co-location of firms as places and a key element in international business.international business; semiglobalization; internal strategy; base pyramid; institutions; competitiveness;

Toward quality criteria for collective judgments

While most organizational and social decision making is done in a group or collective mode, there are few guides or evaluative criteria for judging when a high-quality outcome has been reached. Most past studies of group decision making have been conducted in laboratories using student subjects and factual problems with correct answers as means for judging outcome quality. Such proxies are rough approximations at best of real-world conditions where value differences can be intense and problems have no correct or best answer. Drawing upon the existing literature, evaluative criteria are proposed including process, content, and outcome concerns. An instrument based upon these criteria is then applied retrospectively to six cases of ad hoc collective decision making. Using dimensional analyses, a set of more detailed evaluative factors is derived from actual participant responses. The results provide some insights into the nature of high-quality collective judgments as well as the most effective procedures for their achievement.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25548/1/0000090.pd

The Federal Photovoltaics Utilization Program: An evaluation and learning framework

The Federal Photovoltaics Utilization Program(FPUP) was established in 1978 with the belief that getting photovoltaic cells into the market was a “bootstrap problem” - one of eliminating market uncertainties through federal procurements to enable investments in improved production processes. A lack of clearly defined program objectives and expected results, however, was translated into continuing difficulties in implementation. Using the FPUP experience as an example, an alternative model of photovoltaic procurement is proposed which is simultaneously more structured (in that greater analytical control is used in selecting applications to fund) and more adaptive (in that continuous feedback is built in). A discussion of such a framework and sequential evaluation design is followed by some comments pertaining to the future of other commercialization efforts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45443/1/11077_2004_Article_BF00146006.pd

Quantification of nitrate storage in the vadose (unsaturated) zone: a missing component of terrestrial N budgets

National terrestrial nitrogen budgets for many developed countries have been calculated as part of the management of impacts of N on the environment, but these rarely represent the subsurface explicitly. Using estimates of vadose zone travel time and agricultural nitrate loading, we quantify, for the first time, the total mass of nitrate contained in the vadose zone of aquifers in England and Wales. This mass peaked in 2008 at 1400 kt N (800 to >1700 kt N from sensitivity analyses) which is approximately 2.5 to 6 times greater than saturated zone estimates for this period and indicates that the subsurface is an important store of reactive nitrogen. About 70% of the nitrate mass is estimated to be in the Chalk, with the remainder split between the Permo-Triassic sandstones, the Jurassic Oolitic limestones and minor aquifers. Current controls on fertiliser application mean that the vadose zone is now a nitrate source and in 2015 we estimate the net flux from the unsaturated zone to groundwater to be 72 kt N/annum. The mass of nitrate in the vadose zone should be included in future terrestrial nitrogen budgets at national and global scales to improve ecosystem management. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Modelling the groundwater nitrate legacy

This report details the findings of a project jointly funded by the British Geological Survey (BGS)and Defra through the Environment Agency. The overall aim of the work was to investigate the use of new models to inform decision-making on nitrate pollution in groundwater and the potential for incorporating unsaturated zone processes into the model currently used by the Environment Agency to delineate Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs). The potential application as supporting evidence for the Water Framework Directive has also been considered as nitrate pollution of groundwater remains the most significant reason for failure of WFD environmental objectives across England. The background to the nitrate legacy in groundwater and to the approaches to NVZ designation is described in Stuart et al. (2016). A series of developments to the BGS Nitrate Time Bomb (NTB) model have been made to improve a number of areas and approaches used in the first version of the model. The improvements included a spatially and temporally distributed nitrate input function, improved unsaturated zone thickness estimation, travel time attribution using a 1:250,000 geological map, estimating nitrate velocity in the unsaturated zone using groundwater recharge and aquifer properties, and introducing nitrate transport processes in low permeability superficial deposits and the saturated zones. These now allow the model to be applied at sub national scale. Using the improved model we have also made the first estimate of the mass of nitrate stored within the unsaturated zone and how this will change over time to improve UK nitrate budget estimates. The new version of the BGS NTB approach was applied in three case studies at different scales which compared its outcomes to the results from other modelling to demonstrate that the model can be benchmarked against the other nitrate modelling approaches: • For a basin-scale model of the Thames Chalk (Howden et al., 2010 & 2011). The NTB model gave comparable results to the original study back to 1925 provided that the same nitrate input function was used. Both models failed to predict nitrate concentrations in the Thames after the mid-1980s. • At the multi-borehole scale in the Permo-Triassic. A similar approach was used to the BGS model in the Eden Valley. This replicated the existing model for the area used by the Environment Agency both in terms of trend assessment and in the lack of dilution available within the aquifer block for blending purposes. • At the single borehole scale in the Chalk of the South Downs. The existing Environment and National Park model constructed by AMEC treated the unsaturated zone very similarly to the NTB model. This model provided a good fit to observed concentrations and confirmed the importance of estimating unsaturated zone delays. The assessment of modelled travel time from different areas of the catchment clearly illustrated the arable areas that would give a relatively rapid respond to changes in nitrate management. To illustrate the potential application of the BGS NTB model to support the Environment Agency’s NVZ designation methodology, areas of England were identified where unsaturated zone lags may be significant and where there is uncertainty in the NVZ designation. A major advantage of the BGS NTB model is that it covers the whole of England (and Wales) in a consistent way. A national overview of areas of designation uncertainty identified large areas of England, in particular the chalk outcrop of southern and eastern England. These were compared to areas with significant unsaturated zone travel time indicating where travel time may be contributing to designation uncertainty. The results suggest that the model may be useful both for identifying currently impacted groundwater which reflects legacy fertilizer application and also where additional designation could be needed as impacts have not yet emerged. Application of the model to support implementation of the WFD has also been considered and whilst no quantitative analysis has yet been carried out there are a number of ways that the model could be of significant benefit. For example, the model could be used to estimate when trend reversal would be expected to occur as a result of measures (at a specific location or across a groundwater body) and the time required to achieve good chemical status (alternative objective setting). A further application could be for scenario testing such as evaluating the effects of different land use/management measures as part of cost benefit analysis or considering the long term impacts of climate change through changing fertiliser use and/or recharge