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1 – 10 of 15This study examines how the effects of three predictors, namely left–right political orientation, generalized trust and political trust, on fossil fuel taxation attitudes vary…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines how the effects of three predictors, namely left–right political orientation, generalized trust and political trust, on fossil fuel taxation attitudes vary between post-communist and other European countries.
Design/methodology/approach
By using European Social Survey (ESS) Round 8 data and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, this paper studied the effects of the hypothesized predictors on fossil fuel taxation attitudes across post-communist and other European countries. The countries were analyzed both in group and individually.
Findings
The results showed that stronger left-wing orientation, higher generalized trust and higher political trust predict more support for fossil fuel taxation at the country group level in both post-communist and other Europe. However, the effects were generally speaking less consistent and significant in the countries of the post-communist Europe. By and large, the effect of political trust was the most significant and universal.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to the understanding how left–right political orientation and generalized trust have somewhat distinct effects on fossil fuel taxation attitudes in different European country contexts, while the effect of political trust is more universal across the continent.
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This paper analyzes the role that the climate change concern (CCCi) has on the willingness to accept an environmental tax. The author aims to grasp how individual general tax…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyzes the role that the climate change concern (CCCi) has on the willingness to accept an environmental tax. The author aims to grasp how individual general tax preferences can differ with respect to the specific (environmental) tax. He focuses attention to the Italian case since it has been argued that the potential acceptability of a carbon tax in Italy is relatively high, and this topic has been scarcely explored so far among Italian citizens (Rotaris and Danielis, 2019).
Design/methodology/approach
The author conducted an online survey among 514 Italian economics students.
Findings
The CCCi positively influences the environmental tax morale (ETMi). The general tax morale (TMi) positively affects the specific (environmental) TMi. The CCCi alters individual tax preferences. The author evidenced that also subjects with low TMi turned out to be willing to pay an environmental tax if aware of the environmental issues.
Research limitations/implications
Although the author used a common methodology in this strand of research, he is aware that in an online survey individuals can be influenced by the self-reporting and hypothetical choice bias (see Swamy et al., 2001), that in turn can characterize their reported preferences. Moreover, even if economics university students are commonly used as a subject pool in experimental economics settings, and although several studies showed that the behavioral responses of students are largely the same as those of nonstudents in identical experiments (for a discussion see Alm, 2012; Choo et al., 2016), there is awareness that in this case, they are not taxpayers yet (Barabas and Jerit, 2010).
Practical implications
The author’s results remark the importance of increasing climate change awareness among people to let them be more willing to pay the environmental tax, for instance through investments in sensibilization campaigns on the importance of energy source usage and climate-related topic. Then, an increase in the general TMi leads to an increase in the specific (environmental) TMi. The author’s evidence showed that people with high tax morale logically recognize the positive impact of paying an environmental tax when the CCCi increases, since the more the theme becomes important, the larger the willingness to pay the specific tax. For this reason, policymakers should carry on campaigns to increase the general level of TMi to increase the overall tax compliance level and the relative tax revenues, following the guidelines given by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019) to support taxpayer education programs, such as including TMi research and analysis into education programs, improving the ease of paying taxes or strengthening revenue–expenditure links to build the social contract.
Social implications
It should be paramount to increase awareness about environmental topics among people in general and among those who are relatively tax immoral. The author’s results remark on the importance of targeting energy and environmental tax policies to groups rather than to individuals. According to this evidence, we support the use of nonmonetary tools to nudge people in the environmental transition by changing their behavior in energy use, for instance through the taxation on fuel and other nonrenewable energy resources.
Originality/value
It is the first empirical study that analyzes the impact of CCCi on the environmental TMi in Italy, in particular controlling for the role of the general willingness to pay taxes (TMi). To obtain individual attitudes toward tax payment, most of the empirical studies in behavioral economics employ international surveys. For studies across citizens living in European countries, the European Social Survey (ESS) and European Values Study (EVS) represent the most used ones (see, for instance, Martinez-Vazquez and Torgler (2009) in Spain; Torgler and Werner (2005) in Germany; Nemore and Morone (2019) in Italy). However, these surveys do not allow to study the relationship between the environmental and general TMi across the same subject pool. In fact, despite the ESS (2016) provides individual responses about the willingness to pay an environmental tax, it does not provide information about the general individual attitude toward tax payment (this information is contained only in the ESS wave of 2004, hence referring to a different subject pool). On the contrary, each wave of the EVS (i.e. 2008, 2017) provides information about the general individual attitude toward tax payment, but this survey does not provide a question regarding the willingness to pay an environmental tax. Therefore, to obtain information about the willingness to pay both general and environmental taxes, across the same subject pool, it is needed to carry out a survey.
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Charlotte A. Shahlaei and Ulrika Lundh Snis
The purpose of this paper is to identify the constituent parts of learning in the manufacturing work context and understand why these parts are key in the learning of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the constituent parts of learning in the manufacturing work context and understand why these parts are key in the learning of the employees.
Design/methodology/approach
The data was collected from two sources: a literature review of the Information Systems literature to establish an initial picture of what learning in relation to digital technologies entails and in-depth interviews with engineers in the automotive industry whose knowledge-intensive work is exposed to substantial digital transformation.
Findings
The authors first identified three constituent parts for learning: change, reflection and deliberation. When the authors cross-checked the initial findings through in-depth interviews with the engineers, it was found that these three themes trigger learning through three different mechanisms, that is, balancing newness, finding point of reference and organizing actively. Thus, the findings of this paper extend beyond a categorical identification of what constitutes learning to also illustrate why learning entails these constituent parts.
Research limitations/implications
This paper implies that progressive learning requires active organizing of learning stages. The data is limited to the review of the Information Systems field. The authors have also only focused on the automotive industry as the representative sector in the manufacturing industry.
Practical implications
Applying the model of progressive learning can be a primary way to actively plan and organize learning opportunities for employees. This is key for supporting learning culture in organizations that are exposed to continuous and disruptive changes.
Social implications
A significant part of social sustainability is based on sustainable employability and feelings of contentment at work. This paper is an attempt to highlight how sustainable employability can be achieved by providing effective learning opportunities at work.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper emerges from two sources. First, the authors conducted the literature review and in-depth interviews by devising innovative methods because of the challenges of identifying when (informal) learning has occurred at work. Second, the authors owe the in-depth interviews to the first author’s extensive familiarity with the automotive industry and the knowledge and rapport acquired through her prior longitudinal research on the engineers’ work. It was this background that allowed the authors to find out when these engineers were about to leave the firm because of discontent about their competence development.
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Peter Prowse, Ana Lopes and Ray Fells
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate different approaches to effective campaigning in support of the Living Wage and so this paper contributes to the broader debate over…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate different approaches to effective campaigning in support of the Living Wage and so this paper contributes to the broader debate over the nature of the union movement’s engagement with community groups in pursuit of workplace and social issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a systematic comparison of a union-led and a community-led campaign, drawing primarily upon interview and survey data.
Findings
Though different, both campaigns met with a measure of success in improving employee pay and in increasing union membership suggesting a pragmatic approach to the building of union-community relationships.
Practical implications
The paper shows the need for campaigners to adopt a strategic approach in identifying the target for their campaign, and also the importance of shaping a persuasive argument.
Originality/value
The paper reaffirms the importance of traditional union-led campaigning alongside campaigning through engagement with community groups and so offers a broader framework for exploring the relationships between union and community groups.
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Santhosh Srinivas and Huigang Liang
While every firm is striving to embrace digital transformation (DT) to form new differentiating business capabilities, there are dark sides to such initiatives, and it is…
Abstract
Purpose
While every firm is striving to embrace digital transformation (DT) to form new differentiating business capabilities, there are dark sides to such initiatives, and it is essential to acknowledge, identify and address them. The purpose of this paper is to identify and emperically demonstrate the impact of such darksides of DT. While a firm's DT effort may have many dark sides, the authors identify data breaches as the most critical one and focus on proving their impact since it can inflict significant damage to the firm.
Design/methodology/approach
Through the lens of paradox theory, the authors argue that the DT efforts of a firm will lead to increased risk and severity of data breaches. The authors developed a one-of-a-kind longitudinal data set by combining data from multiple sources, including 3604 brands over a 10-year period, and employed a DT performance scorecard to evaluate a firm's DT effort across four key digital selling touchpoints: site, mobile, digital marketing and social media.
Findings
The findings of this study show that a firm's DT efforts pertaining to its mobile and digital marketing platforms significantly increase the likelihood and severity of a data breach event indicating that these two channels are most vulnerable and need heightened attention from firms. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the negative repercussions of some DT initiatives may be minimized as the firm becomes more innovative. The findings can help firms re-strategize their DT efforts by promoting security and also encouraging a balanced communication strategy.
Originality/value
This research is one of the first to identify, recognize and empirically illustrate the downsides of a DT effort that is otherwise thought to provide only benefits.
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