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1 – 10 of over 78000Sreten Ćuzović and Svetlana Sokolov Mladenović
The aim of this chapter is to highlight the importance of sustainable development, especially its environmental component in trade and retail sector of the Republic of Serbia. Due…
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to highlight the importance of sustainable development, especially its environmental component in trade and retail sector of the Republic of Serbia. Due to a number of factors, such as increased consumer awareness on the importance of eco-products, new statutory and legal regulations, and increased competition, retail chains are increasingly oriented to the concept of sustainable development, in particular promoting its environmental component, eco-products, and eco packaging. Trade, especially retail, plays an important role in linking producers and consumers, and society as a whole. In this way, trade has a good overview of all the changes occurring in the environment, production, and consumer needs. Changes in the environment further stimulate trade to operate in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, including all its dimensions. In this regard, special attention is paid to the protection of working and living environment, as components of sustainable development. The chapter includes a review of literature in the field of sustainable development and application of this concept in the trade and retail sector. The theoretical aspect of the research focuses on conceptualization of sustainable development and its environmental component in trade and retail. With reference to theoretical research on the implementation of environmental component of sustainable development in trade, empirical research has been conducted from two aspects. First, analysis focuses on the performance and socio-economic importance of trade sector of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the number of ISO 14001 certificates in trading companies. Second, analysis shifts to the largest trading companies in the Republic of Serbia, based on available secondary data on the implementation of the concept of sustainable development and its environmental component.
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Harold Klein and William Newman
Companies have been predicting marketing and economic conditions for years, but they lag behind in forecasting environmental changes that can have dramatic impact on their…
Abstract
Companies have been predicting marketing and economic conditions for years, but they lag behind in forecasting environmental changes that can have dramatic impact on their operations. SPIRE is a systematic approach to spotting coming problems, as a look at how one company put it to work indicates.
Narendra Singh and Karnika Gupta
To create a sustainable environment, the aim of this study is to explore and identify the components of environmental attitude that can drive the specific ecological behaviour of…
Abstract
Purpose
To create a sustainable environment, the aim of this study is to explore and identify the components of environmental attitude that can drive the specific ecological behaviour of Indian consumers. Further, it defines environmental attitude components as moderators and investigates them as predictor of ecological behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The constructs of environmental attitude (EA) and ecological behaviour (EB) are measured using standardized scales with modifications that represent demography of Indian consumers, then, introduced among 300 respondents. Factor analysis, correlations of the factors, and regression analysis are used to draw the results.
Findings
Constructs of EA and EB are found to be multidimensional and support the literature. Many of their components are found to be significantly correlated inferring that consumers behave ecologically in specific manners depending on the formed attitude. Also, findings suggest that EA components work as predictors of EB. Further, developing a positive environmental attitude is a step to achieve sustainable environment.
Research limitations/implications
An attempt is made to improve scales to best suit Indian conditions but development of a reliable and valid measure never ends. This may partly limit the generality of the results. To study fresh issues on Indian conditions, a new scale index can be tested. Researcher, producers, media, policy planners and executives will get a cue to generate relevant value of their work.
Originality/value
The paper is a maiden attempt on Indian consumers and has enough potential to change the behaviour for achieving sustainable living. It will strengthen the literature in extrapolating the consumer classes besides identifying two new components of EB: costly exercise and uncaring behaviour.
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Bokolo Anthony Jnr., Mazlina Abdul Majid and Awanis Romli
The purpose of this study is to identify the key Green information technology (IT) components needed to be considered by government-based institutions and to develop a Green…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify the key Green information technology (IT) components needed to be considered by government-based institutions and to develop a Green policy framework based on the identified Green IT components to facilitate government-based institutions achieve sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The Green policy framework and associated propositions are developed to facilitate government-based institutions achieve sustainability. In addition, a case study approach was adopted to verify the proposed framework based on data collected from open-ended interviews and sustainability report documents from two government-based institutions in Malaysia. Furthermore, the collected data were analyzed based on content analysis using descriptive and narrative method to present the findings of Green IT components adopted in the selected case studies.
Findings
Findings show that sustainability considerations are increasingly being deliberated in institutions. Moreover, finding from the analyzed data also indicates that there is an increased interest towards implementation of Green IT initiatives for developing, operating and usage by practitioners and staff within government-based institutions.
Research limitations/implications
Findings from this study suggest that the Green policy framework components have implications to support only government-based institutions address environmental, social and economic-related issues.
Practical implications
The developed Green IT components serve as robust indicators or constructs to measure management of Green IT initiatives currently being implemented and thereby provide a framework for sustainability committee members to benchmark their current Green IT practice.
Social implications
This study provides an agenda to guide government-based institutions achieve sustainability goals. Accordingly, government-based institutions can adopt the framework’s components to evaluate their progress, hence improving their target of attaining sustainability. Besides, this research provides an approach for assessing current practices adopted in government-based institutions against the Green IT components.
Originality/value
The originality of this study is attributed to the fact that this study presents Green IT policy framework to be considered by government-based institutions in achieving sustainability. The framework provides an agenda to simultaneously consider all three dimensions of sustainability the people, planet and profit (social, environment and economic). Moreover, this is one of the first studies to explore Green IT practices in government-based institutions.
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Neha Jain and Geetilaxmi Mohapatra
The present study aims to construct and compare Composite Environmental Sustainability Index (CESI) for 20 emerging countries for the period 1990–2020.
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to construct and compare Composite Environmental Sustainability Index (CESI) for 20 emerging countries for the period 1990–2020.
Design/methodology/approach
The study constructs CESI using the principal component analysis (PCA). Furthermore, for the preparation of index weights, varimax rotation is used to get component loadings.
Findings
The study finds that the overall CESI values lies between 2 and 4.8 for the 20 emerging countries considered in the study. This study depicts a diverse picture of environmental sustainability among emerging countries. The study also shows the trend of CESI values from 1990 to 2020. The bottom three countries whose CESI is very low compared to others are Iran, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. However, Brazil, Columbia and Chile are top three highest scorers in 2020.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature by constructing a composite index comprising of three sub-indices to measure the environmental sustainability of an economy. These sub-indices include seven indicators that are more inclusive and comprehensive. To the authors' knowledge, this is a pioneering attempt in the construction of the index for emerging countries.
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Xin Liu, Siyi Liu, Jiani Wang and Hanwen Chen
This study examines the relationship between internal control and corporate environmental responsibility.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between internal control and corporate environmental responsibility.
Design/methodology/approach
Unlike US studies that concentrate solely on internal control over financial reporting, this study uses a comprehensive index that encompasses internal control over financial reporting, operations, and compliance. Corporate environmental responsibility is measured by environmental investments. Our research sample comprises Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2018.
Findings
The results demonstrate a positive correlation between internal control and corporate environmental investments. Furthermore, we find that firms with high-quality internal control can improve their financial and environmental performance through environmental investments. After decomposing internal control into its five components, we show that the control environment, control activities, and information and communication components exhibit stronger effects on environmental investments than the risk assessment and monitoring components. Finally, the cross-sectional analyses reveal that the positive effect of internal control is more pronounced in private firms and in firms that are subject to weaker environmental regulation.
Originality/value
By focusing on the effect of a comprehensive internal mechanism on corporate environmental responsibility in China, this study contributes to the literature in developed-country settings that overwhelmingly focuses on the impact of external stakeholders and regulations.
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Notwithstanding been a significant stakeholder in the sustainable and responsible tourism (RT) development and management process, worldwide very few studies exclusively…
Abstract
Purpose
Notwithstanding been a significant stakeholder in the sustainable and responsible tourism (RT) development and management process, worldwide very few studies exclusively investigated tourists’ attitudes towards them. Moreover, studies are especially missing for developing and least developed countries where domestic tourism market is more significant than international market. Besides, in Bangladesh, there is no study as yet which aimed to identify domestic tourists’ attitudes towards responsible tourism management (RTM) and to its triple bottom line (TBL) components. So, the purpose of this paper is to fill these gaps, contributing thus to the existing RTM literature.
Design/methodology/approach
After conducting extensive literature review, this study followed both the exploratory (in-depth interview) and single cross-sectional descriptive (survey) research designs. Further, this study used descriptive statistics (frequency distribution analysis) and multivariate dependence data analysis technique (multiple regression analysis) to analyse the data collected from the 385 sample respondents through systematic random sampling.
Findings
Based on the findings, the present study argues, Bangladeshi tourists have positive attitudes towards each of the TBL components and to RTM, however, there is scope for further improvement. This study also suggests that there is a close link between tourists’ attitudes and their socio-demographic characteristics.
Originality/value
With the support and reference to this study, destination management organisations can work on each of the TBL components to enhance Bangladeshi tourists’ positive attitudes towards RT practices at Cox’s Bazar (CB). Moreover, this study on CB, Bangladesh also contributes to the RTM literature and minimises the known literature gap for developing countries.
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The purpose of this paper is to revise, update and extend the economic vulnerability and economic resilience indices, where economic vulnerability is associated with inherent…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to revise, update and extend the economic vulnerability and economic resilience indices, where economic vulnerability is associated with inherent exposure to external shocks and economic resilience with policies that enable a country to minimize or withstand the negative effects of such shocks. This study also proposes a revised vulnerability/resilience framework to assess the risk of a country being harmed by external economic shocks.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used in the study involves defining economic vulnerability in terms of inherent features of an economy and defining economic resilience in terms of policy-induced changes, and then devising measureable indices to measure such vulnerability and resilience across countries. The exercise required the examination of various global indices to assess their suitability, in terms of relevance and country coverage, for measuring the vulnerability index and the resilience index and the components of the two indices.
Findings
The main finding of the study is that a number highly vulnerable states, including economically successful small island economies, emerged with high resilience scores, suggesting that they adopt policies that enable them to withstand the harmful effects of external shocks. This possibly explains why these states register relatively high GDP per capita, in spite of their high exposure to shocks. On the other hand, a number of countries, mostly large and poor developing countries, that are not highly exposed to external shocks due to their limited dependence on external trade, emerged with a low degree of policy-induced economic resilience.
Research limitations/implications
The study utilized global indicators which sometimes had missing data and these had to be filled in using approximations based on assumptions, and alternative assumption could have produced a different approximations. In addition the classification of countries in terms of the vulnerability and resilience nexus depended highly on many underpinning assumptions, including the definitions and the measurement of the components, the weighting schemes and the thresholds used. It is likely that alternative assumptions would yield alternative classifications.
Practical implications
An important practical implication of this study is that highly economically vulnerable states can reduce the harmful effects of external economic shocks if they adopt policies that lead to resilience building. On the other hand, countries that are not highly exposed to external shocks, can render themselves economically unstable due to their weak economic, social and environmental governance.
Social implications
This study considers social development and cohesion as one of the pillars of resilience building. The implication of this approach is that social governance, leading to improvements in the education and health of the population could reduce the harm arising from a country’s exposure to external shocks. This is because social governance affects the extent to which relations within a society are properly developed, enabling an effective functioning of the economic apparatus without the hindrance of civil unrest.
Originality/value
This study has extended previous work on the vulnerability and resilience framework, to include almost all countries of the world, using updated data, and has revised the resilience index to include environmental governance. It has also redefined market flexibility to allow for the downsides of excessive financial riskiness. The revision of vulnerability and resilience indices in the light of new data and their interaction showed more convincingly that economies that are highly economically vulnerable could still register economic success as a result of resilience-conducive policies associated with good economic, political, social and environmental governance.
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Rim El Khoury, Nohade Nasrallah, Osama F. Atayah, Mohamed Mahjoub Dhiaf and Guilherme F. Frederico
This study investigates the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices on environmental performance in firms operating in the discretionary sector in the G20…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices on environmental performance in firms operating in the discretionary sector in the G20 countries. The sample covers 749 firms for the period 2010–2020.
Design/methodology/approach
This study combines qualitative and quantitative data to examine the impact of the implementation of GSCM on accounting performance measured by the operating margin (OM) and return on assets (ROA). The authors also moderate the effects of Six Sigma and quality management (QM) and ISO 9000 and control for firm variables and COVID 19.
Findings
Using a panel data regression and structural equation modeling (SEM), results indicate that discretionary firms with internal solid GSCM practices combined with external environmental monitoring of suppliers are likely to outperform their peers in environmental issues. Using hierarchical regression, results indicate that both ISO 9000 and S&QM have moderating effects at some level of performance. Furthermore, environmental performance is positively correlated with accounting performance. This study contributes to the literature by addressing the impact of GSCM and the importance of reinforcing green and social regulations to protect the planet.
Originality/value
The paper is one of the first to measure GSCM triple components and account for COVID-19 in the context of discretionary companies and G20 countries. It highlights the impact of green initiatives to cope with major disruptions and decrease pollution and environmental disasters.
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Mark Chris Maglanque Lapuz and Christopher Rivera Manlapaz
This study aims to address the following objectives: determine the pro-environmental behavior of students and professors engaged in the course Sustainable Tourism; determine the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to address the following objectives: determine the pro-environmental behavior of students and professors engaged in the course Sustainable Tourism; determine the pro-environmental behavior component of the professor that has the highest influence on the pro-environmental behavior of students; and formulate a model describing the components of the pro-environmental behavior of the professor with significant influence on the pro-environmental behavior of students. It also evaluates the norm-activation-theory-aligned pro-environmental behavior of the course's instructor and the students taking the course after they participated in the course Sustainable Tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
A correlational analysis using the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach was conducted in the survey results to determine the specific components of the professor's pro-environmental behavior that influenced the students' pro-environmental behavior.
Findings
Situational responsibility, efficacy and denial of responsibility were proven more influential in shaping students' pro-environmental behavior. This implies that students learn and adopt a pro-environmental orientation through role modeling and practical application, not by knowledge acquisition.
Originality/value
This could improve the body of knowledge on pro-environmental behavior by analyzing the reciprocal relationships between the person who delivers the course that instills pro-environmental behavior and students who learn from their professors using the norm activation theory.
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