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The purpose of this paper is to analyse empirically whether policies to improve the local business climate affect employment in general, and among groups of immigrants that suffer from structural unemployment.

The paper analyses the relation between Swedish entrepreneurs’ perception of the local business climate and total employment as well as employment among immigrants born outside of Europe, a group that tends to be particularly affected by structural unemployment. Instrumental variable and Arellano-Bond GMM estimation indicate that a better local business climate improves immigrants employment considerably more than total employment.

The results suggest that improvements in institutions and policies that entrepreneurs perceive as shaping the business climate may have an important effect on employment, in particular employment of groups that tend to have high rates of structural unemployment. Given the limitations, the estimates appear robust over a variety of specifications.

The authors use a subjective measure of local business climate policies, but instrument this with an exogenous variable and lagged variables. The unit of observation are Swedish municipalities, which in contrast to other countries control many factors important for business.

Employment policies often focus on labour market institutions. The results suggest that other policies and their local implementation may be equally important for employment. Unfortunately the study does not reveal much detail of which specific measures give the greatest effects. That remains to be done in future research.

The positive employment effects the authors find are particularly large for immigrants born outside of Europe. If the results are correct, then better local business climate could make an important contribution to social cohesion.

While there are more studies that analyse the relation between entrepreneurship and employment, much fewer previous studies have tried to establish a link between business climate policies and employment. The authors do this with a novel approach.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive analysis of the carbon management activities of the cement industry in Europe, based on a study involving the four largest producers of cement in the world. Based on this analysis, the paper explores the relationship between managerial perception and strategy, with particular focus on the impact of government regulation and competitive dynamics.

The research is based on extensive documentary analysis and in‐depth interviews with senior managers from the four companies who have been responsible for and/or involved in the development of climate change strategies.

It was found that whilst the cement industry has embraced climate change and the need for action, there remains much scope for action in their carbon management activities, with current effort concentrating on hedging practices and win‐win efficiency programs. Managers perceive that inadequate and unfavourable regulatory structure is the key barrier against more action to achieve emission reduction within the industry. Interestingly, EU cement companies are also shifting their CO₂ emissions to less developed countries of the South.

The paper analyses corporate climate strategy in one of the most carbon intensive and yet least studied industries. With specific focus on the EU, the paper highlights a number of policy approaches for encouraging the cement industry on the path of deeper emission reduction.

This paper focuses on the long-term situation with water resources, and water sector in particular, analyzed through a Foresight study. The authors attribute particular attention to implication for Russia, which is relatively better positioned regarding the availability of water resources. However, the country still faces challenges related to the protection of water resources, drinking water supply, water networks, consumption patterns, water discharge, treatment and re-use. The present study aims at identification and analysis of trends, factors and uncertainties in water supply, demand, use and re-use with a particular focus on sustainability of water systems; water use by households and industry; and new water services and products.

Research methodology in this paper involves a horizon scanning exercise for the identification of the key trends, factors and uncertainties along with the identification of weak signals of future emerging trends and wild cards in the form of future surprises, shocks and other unexpected events that may disrupt the preservation of water resources and the future of the water sector. Trends characterize broad parameters for shifts in attitudes, climate, policies and business focus over periods of several years that usually have global reach. These are usually experienced by everyone and often in similar contexts. Trends may represent threats, opportunities or a mixture of them, identified through underlying processes, possible events and other future developments.

A key systemic restriction of water use for the next decades both globally and in Russia relates to competition between agriculture, energy, manufacturing and household water use. Given that the amount of renewable water resources is almost fixed and even decreases because of pollution, circular economy solutions for water use will be required. Implications of the global trends identified in the study for Russia are dependent on the overall situation with water resources in the country. Russia has sufficient water supply: the overall intake of water for drinking and economic purposes in Russia amounts to 3 per cent of the total water resources, two-thirds of which are discarded back to water bodies. At the same time, there are substantial problems associated with the extremely uneven distribution of water resources across the country, as well as high “water intensity” of the Russian GDP. The Russian water sector is currently not very attractive for investors. Moreover, it has significantly less lobbying opportunities than other infrastructure sectors, and this complicates its institutional and financial positions. Meanwhile, there have been some positive changes with regard to activities with a short pay-off period.

The paper offers one of the first studies on the future of Russian water resources with a focus on the water supply and sanitation sector. A comprehensive approach to trends identification (not found in other studies on Russian water resources) allowed authors to identify social, technological, environmental, economic, policy and value-related global trends and uncertainties. Moreover, implications of these trends and uncertainties, as well as Russia-specific trends, were outlined.

The purpose of this paper is to address the perceptions of managers in large companies located in Brazil regarding the long-term and short-term benefits of adopting strategic actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Based on an empirical analytical method, this paper examines interviews conducted with senior managers of leading companies located in Brazil to identify their perceptions of adopting strategic actions toward mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The key results are as follows: the most commonly perceived long-term benefit was operational improvement, based on the improved energy efficiency of operations; strategic management of aspects affected by climate change can make managers more aware of the benefits derived from the decisions taken; and a short-term view and aversion to uncertainty can lead to failures in strategic management, limiting the effectiveness of actions for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

This paper contributes to the literature on the topic of climate change by presenting evidence that adaptation and mitigation measures can increase organizational managers’ perception of long-term benefits, and that climate change management structures guide managers to make the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the barriers in public policy faced by the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a creative economy at the local level.

This research uses a qualitative case study method, and the informants are selected with a purposive sampling technique. The researchers collected data through in-depth interviews of 15 informants. The informants include local government officials, SME actors and creative economy activists. Data are analyzed using thematic analysis in the qualitative method.

This study shows that the development of SMEs in the creative economy is constrained by the mindset and administrative behavior of the local policymakers who tend to be normative, routine-minded and inflexible. Consequently, the local government’s administrative capacity in the creative economy sector has not demonstrated significant support for efforts to increase the competitiveness of creative economies at the regional level.

Research implications suggest how the findings may be important for the policy and practice of SMEs’ development of a creative economy at the local level. The findings suggest that local government needs to engage with the actors and activists of SMEs in the strategic formulation for the development of a creative economy.

This study extends the theoretical and practical knowledge about policy implementation of SMEs’ development by a local government in the creative economy sector in Indonesia.

Drawing on the theory of contingency, the aim of this work is to understand how supply chain-related contingencies, arising from climate change, are related to changes in the organisational structure of firms. Further, the authors explore how this relationship influences the perception of sustainability managers on the adoption of low-carbon operations management practices and their related benefits.

To achieve this goal, this research uses NVivo software to gather evidence from interviews conducted with ten high-level managers in sustainability and related areas from seven leading companies located in Brazil.

The authors present four primary results: a proposal of an original framework to understand the relationship between contingency theory, changes in organisational structure to embrace low-carbon management, adoption of low-carbon operations practices and benefits from this process; the discovery that an adequate low-carbon management structure is vital to improve the organisations’ perceptions of potential benefits from a low-carbon strategy; low-carbon management initiatives tend to emerge from an organisation’s existing environmental management systems; and controlling and monitoring climate contingencies at the supply chain level should be permanent and systematic.

Based on the knowledge of the authors, to date, this work is the first piece of research that deals with the complexity of putting together contingency theory, climate-change contingencies at the supply chain level, organisational structure for low-carbon management and low-carbon operations management practices and benefits. This research also highlights evidence from an emerging economy and registers future research propositions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the underpinning ideas of public procurement allowed for broader outcomes – a more strategic form of public procurement – to emerge. The paper contributes to the literature on public procurement by empirically addressing the evolution of procurement as a government policy lever in New Zealand so as to demonstrate how policy pragmatism can ensure a shift without a complete overhaul of a complex system.

The paper has used a single country case study to examine a recent development in procurement policy. The objectives of the paper are achieved by adopting a unique conceptual framework connecting ideas, sensemaking and bricolage.

The paper provides empirical and conceptual insights about how bricolage, or policy pragmatism, aids in dealing with the constraints of ideational legacies. It demonstrates a particular form of targeting in procurement, common in public administration but not well understood in the procurement field.

Single country case studies lack scientific generalizability. However, they add to the canon of knowledge that is lacking in the field of public procurement in this case. They also provide a stronger starting point for further research especially with respect to comparative studies.

The paper provides an excellent example of the development of procurement policy that is useful for procurement officials from other countries undergoing change or looking to update or create procurement policies. It shows a high-level process of implementation for government priority outcomes from a country well-known for its quality of public management and governance.

New Zealand has significant equity issues especially as related to its indigenous population. Procurement is being used increasingly as a lever to improve equity. This article includes information about New Zealand's uptake of social procurement.

This paper fulfils a need for greater understanding of how policy is “put together” and the dynamics at major points of change or the implications of policy changes. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this case study of procurement policy in New Zealand is original, and the author is aware of no other similar work emanating from New Zealand in the academic journals.

The purpose of the present study is to contribute to the existing literature by examining the nexus and the connectedness between classes S&P Green Bond Index, S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index, S&P GSCI Gold, MSCI Emerging Markets Index, MSCI World Index and Bitcoin, during the pre-and post-Covid period beginning from August 2011 to July 2021 (10 years).

The study employs time-varying parameter vector autoregression and Quantile regression methods to understand the impact of events on traditional and upcoming asset classes. To further understand the connectedness of assets under consideration, the study used Geo-Political Risk Index (GPR) and Global Economic Policy and Uncertainty index (GPEU).

Findings show that these markets are strongly linked, which will only expand in the post-pandemic future. Before the pandemic, the MSCI World and Emerging Markets indices contributed the most shocks to the remaining market variables. Green bond index shows a greater correlation and shock transmission with gold. Bitcoin can no longer be used as a good hedging instrument, validating the fact that the 21st-century technology assets. The results further opine that under extreme economic consequences with high GPR and GPEU, even gold cannot be considered a safe investment asset.

Financial markets and the players who administer and communicate their investment logics are heavily reliant on conventional asset classes such as oil, gas, coal, nuclear and allied groupings, but these emerging asset classes are attempting to diversify.

The different scenarios of climate change, such as floods, temperature change and storms, are considered the main drivers influencing the building sector. Understanding how and when these climatic risks will emerge, specifically financial risks, is pivotal in dealing with these risks and applying the adaptation and mitigation strategies so as to minimise the effects and damages. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to discover the financial risks emerging from climate change impact on the building sector and determine the timescale of occurrence for such risks.

The research methodology formulated in this study is founded on a systematic literature review and statistical analysis. Built on this, the potential financial risks emerging from climate change scenarios (CCS) were identified and designed as a questionnaire to collect data from UK expert professionals. Statistical methods were used to rank and compare the outcomes of the survey.

The research observed that around 40 per cent of the participants in this study indicated that one-third of the total identified financial risks (23 factors) would emerge within 5-10 years. The most important factors are increased insurance excess and additional expense in insuring buildings in flood risk zones, whilst the least important financial risks are inability to repay debts and un-insurability because of climate change.

This study is limited to the UK, and regional implications are not covered. However, it is a starting point.

The main contribution of this research project is establishing and developing clusters of the potential risks emerging from CCS, which can assist professionals in the building sector in the management and development of strategies to cope with these emerging risks.

The purpose of this paper is to identify knowledge gaps on insinuations of possible directions of European Union (EU) and international climate policies.

This study has used participatory approach of highly experienced stakeholders’ engagement, involved directly or indirectly in the process of policymaking. A range of priority issues has been initially identified through desk analysis and key stakeholders have been selected and invited to partake in the process. Preliminary results have been validated through interaction with stakeholders during a series of workshops.

The results show the identification of a series of sectors, where climate policy is expected to focus in the future and the definition of 11 specific topics upon which knowledge gaps are expected to appear. Results on the identified knowledge needs are analysed and categorized by each prioritized main topic and compared with literature findings. Emphasis is identified to be placed on the topics of renewable energy, EU climate policy and international climate negotiations, which are the most popular ones, followed by energy policy and energy efficiency.

A key element of the approach is the consideration of key experts’ feedback on their specific area of expertise, instead of general public engagement, therefore leading to accurate results. Despite the fact that our approach was applied to a specific problem, the overall analysis could provide a framework for supporting applications in various problems in the field of priorities’ identification and even expanding to decision-making problems.