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Many firms struggle to implement strategies that can successfully enhance the environmental sustainability of their processes. Drawing on the theories of green intellectual capital and complementary assets, this study develops a model describing the mechanism whereby firms can translate a green (i.e., environmental) strategy into a superior green process innovation performance (GPIP).

Regression analysis of multi-source survey data collected from 514 managers at 257 firms (257 top management members and 257 safety or environmental managers) was used to test the hypotheses.

A firm's green strategic intent has positive effects on the three aspects of green intellectual capital (i.e., human, organizational and relational capital). In turn, these three aspects have positive effects on GPIP. Moreover, green organizational capital positively moderates the effect of green relational capital on GPIP, whereas it negatively moderates the effect of human capital on GPIP.

In order to implement a green strategy successfully, especially in polluted industries such as the chemical industry, managers need to develop not only the firm's tangible resources but also its intangible resources. The more they invest in green organizational capital, the higher the level of GPIP that can be achieved. On average, a firm's green human capital is more important than its organizational and relational capital. Moreover, its organizational capital helps capture the benefits of its relational capital, but it impairs the creativity of its human capital.

The authors contribute to the literature on green strategy implementation by suggesting that green intellectual capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between a firm's green strategic intent and GPIP.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether economic growth enhances life satisfaction. It provides a conceptual solution to the heavily debated Easterlin paradox which states that aggregate income positively relates to life satisfaction in one‐time international comparisons but not in longitudinal analyses. First empirical results are presented for Germany.

The present study uses path analysis to capture not only direct but also mediated effects of economic growth on life satisfaction. Findings – The paper finds that economic growth does enhance life satisfaction over time. The effect is not direct but mediated via consumer confidence, customer satisfaction, income satisfaction, health satisfaction and job satisfaction. Modeled by consumer confidence, adaptive expectations reduce this effect but cannot entirely compensate for it, as suggested by literature. In addition to this negative compensatory effect which is mediated by customer satisfaction, consumer confidence has a positive direct influence on life satisfaction.

Since the history of aggregate customer satisfaction measurement is still young, this empirical analysis should be seen as pioneer work. Future research on the Easterlin paradox should utilize future data, model mediated relationships and time lags, and integrate customer satisfaction and consumer confidence.

Economic growth strategies are successful in raising life satisfaction. Governments should not only pay attention to quantitative but also to qualitative growth. Collective optimism can improve life satisfaction.

This study contributes to solving the Easterlin paradox. Unlike the extant literature on the Easterlin paradox, this paper integrates national customer satisfaction and consumer confidence into a sociologic model and explicitly accounts for mediated effects. National customer satisfaction is used to model qualitative aspects of economic growth.

Sociologists are discussing whether or not economic growth enhances subjective well‐being. To complement their research from a housing perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether aggregate income enhances dwelling satisfaction over time. While cross‐sectional studies have only examined the direct influence of income on dwelling satisfaction, this paper suggests that there are additional influences mediated by other social indicators.

Based on data from Germany, correlation and regression analyses examine the impacts of aggregate income and other social indicators on dwelling satisfaction. Path analysis is used to test for the existence of mediated relationships.

The paper finds that aggregate income positively influences dwelling satisfaction. Environmental satisfaction, customer satisfaction and satisfaction with family relations also positively impact dwelling satisfaction and mediate influences of aggregate income. The mediated effects are stronger than the direct effect of aggregate income on dwelling satisfaction.

The longitudinal availability of aggregate customer satisfaction data is still limited. Future research on dwelling satisfaction is encouraged to account for customer satisfaction and to reexamine the analyses of this study with future data.

Stimulating economic growth is a good strategy to improve dwelling satisfaction. Policies improving the environment, family support and shopping opportunities are also effective.

This paper is original in that it examines the impacts of economic growth and customer satisfaction on dwelling satisfaction. While the extant literature has only analysed direct effects of income on dwelling satisfaction, this study also accounts for mediated effects.

Past research showed that overly positive attitudes and intentions towards fast food contribute to obesity. In the face of rising childhood obesity, the purpose of this paper is to explore attitudinal and behavioral reasons behind adolescents' suboptimal food choices. It tests hypotheses about differences between teenagers and adults in customer attitudes and intentions regarding fast food restaurants.

The hypotheses are tested with German survey data and moderated regression analysis.

Teenagers do not underestimate the negative effects of fast food. However, their decision making fails to incorporate existing knowledge on competitive advantages and gives greater weight to customer satisfaction compared with adults. Behavioral differences between teenage and adult consumers result from differences in cognitive development rather than social pressure.

As this study uses subjective consumer data from Germany, future research could validate the conclusions with objective behavioral data from various countries.

Of importance to fast food restaurant managers, the primary determinants of customer attitudes and intentions are food quality, the public brand image, social recognition, and perceived competitive advantages. By contrast, service quality and perceived value are less influential. Satisfying teenage customers is more important than informing them about competitive advantages.

The results imply that fast food‐related childhood obesity may be caused by lack of rationality rather than peer pressure or lack of knowledge.

As an original contribution, the paper compares adolescents' and adults' decision making regarding fast food restaurants and captures the regularly overlooked influences of the public brand image, social recognition, and perceived competitive advantages.

The aim of this study was to prove that radio-frequency (RF) energy with 13.56 MHz can be used for heating building structures in a controlled manner exploiting the advantage that homogeneous heating with sufficient penetration depths can be achieved.

Because parallel electrodes on both sides of the heated structure cannot be used in many practical applications, two special electrode designs have been developed by modeling the field distribution and energy absorption and by carrying out test experiments to validate the simulation results.

One solution is based on a two-dimensional surface capacitor providing certain penetration depths and being especially suitable for treating thin structures such as wooden parquet floor. Such an arrangement can be particularly used for pest control even when sensitive surfaces have to be protected. The other solution uses a capacitive coupling between the grounded shielding and an electrode or an equivalent structure (e.g. moist soil) at the other side of the masonry to establish a sufficiently strong electrical field between a “hot” electrode on the side of the shielding and the coupled rear electrode.

Both solutions significantly enhance the application potential of RF heating.

Criticizes the attitude of separatism used in evaluating management performance. Asserts that looking at narrow functional areas does not provide a holistic picture of an organization, for example, production may reduce its costs by using inferior quality materials but marketing and sales may not be able to sell the product so their performance declines. Suggests that some organizations suffer from conflict between functional areas because they are evaluated on the outcomes from activities they control, affecting overall organizational performance. Indicates that asset investment decisions should be based on the interdependent relationship between accounting, finance and marketing departments, and that this can best be achieved if a cross‐functional team makes the asset investment decisions. Points out the inherent difficulties in evaluating intangible assets. Focuses on advertising and research and development (R&D) and how investments could be evaluated using functional and cross‐functional teams, based on financial data (on 126 firms) accessed from the Compustat PC Plus database. Takes a look at economic value‐added, which questions the differences between the accounting and economic models of a firm. Uses regression analysis to examine the impact of advertising, R&D and other explanatory variables on market value, accounting profitability and sales. Finds support for using cross‐functional teams in evaluating intangible asset investments. Recommends areas for further research.

The context of this chapter is the use of data and advanced data analytics in a commercial setting. Privacy is considered as protection from vulnerability, whereby vulnerability is understood as the state of being exposed to the possibility of being harmed, either physically or emotionally, or in fundamental rights other than privacy. Therefore, privacy's policy instruments, in particular data protection law, could be seen as a means to reduce the risk of harm resulting from data use. Such harm is probabilistic and often uncertain, which, however, does not exclude analyzing costs and benefits of regulatory data protection policies. When balancing privacy protections and opportunities for knowledge gain, regulatory policy could be viewed as superior, when it expands the range of possible trade-offs between vulnerability protection and gaining socially beneficial knowledge.

This issue of Research in Law and Economics covers several areas of important research by a variety of international scholars. It contains theoretical papers on privacy, the protection of personal data, the use of regulatory monitoring under legal standards vs. rules, a study of the properties of market efficiency in securities fraud litigation, as well as an analysis of nonexclusionary price floors. It also contains an empirical paper on the relationship between uncertainty of patent approval of artificial intelligence applications and the Supreme Court's decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. Finally, Volume 30 contains a law-and-economics assessment of the Chinese financial system within the context of the trade-off between centralized control and rapid growth.

The topics of this chapter are quite fundamental for the book. The chapter deals with value in B2B; what is value, what creates value, how could value be identified, estimated, and exploited. For these reasons, the chapter presents a value calculation model and carries out a critical discussion of the meaningfulness of doing such calculations.

A second theme is a discussion about solution sales relative to product sales and also systems selling. We also provide a comparison between business ventures focusing on selling goods, a goods-dominant logic, relative to services, a service-dominant logic. This comparison is made with reference to the two underlying themes of the book, the solution-oriented business and the continuously ongoing organizing activities.

The purpose of this chapter is to set the stage for the rest of the book. It is based on a number of interesting observations illustrating contemporary activities in regard to a broad range of sales-related topics. Among other observations are a number of developments that have followed with digitalization.

The chapter presents the core themes of the book and provides rationales for the choices. The themes are: value-based offerings, solution-oriented business, and on-going efforts of organizing to manage the multitude of issues connected to sales and marketing.

A second issue is the presentation of a framework against which to position important core issues in sales management. This includes aspects of organizational design, leadership, technology support, and more. All these are organized into four main categories. This “map” is utilized to position the coming parts and chapters.