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Points out that the trend in the USA and the UK to adopt business codes of ethics has been followed in recent years by Australian business organizations. Presents findings from two studies which involved the top 500 Australian enterprises. The first examined the likelihood of code adoption in relation to such variables as organization type, size, income and major activities. The second was concerned with the actual nature of the content to determine whether codes were designed to deal with ethical issues, corporate values and ethical decision skills rather than with management policies and legal issues; and whether a code was in fact a code of ethics as opposed to rules on business etiquette and behaviour.

Recent years have seen a movement toward using active learning to ground professional development in classroom practice. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The present case study describes how a group of middle school mathematics teachers improved classroom instruction through the use of lesson study.

This case study suggests the success of the lesson study in supporting teachers’ active learning.

For the lesson study, teachers’ active learning is assessed across four dimensions.

Introduction: Climate change and the limiting nature of fossil natural resources are compelling elements that have driven the search for environmentally friendly alternatives to the traditional economy. In this context, as the main pillar of bioeconomy, biomass can contribute to energy sustainability, temper effects of climate change, and make the use of natural resources more efficiently. Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have a relatively common economic history of agriculture playing a pivotal role in the former centralized economy. Purpose: This chapter analyzed the importance of biomass produced from residues of crops in CEE countries. This analysis is regarded as incentive to take a deeper look at biomass in CEE countries with acknowledged agricultural potential. CEE countries have been part of the former European socialist bloc, with agriculture being a core component of the centralized economy. Even though their economies have been undergoing a lengthy transition process to the market economy, this sector of activity still holds a significant share. Therefore, CEE countries provide a suitable ground for our analysis. Methodology: The authors selected characteristics of the agricultural sectors and development, and assess their relationship with biomass production in the CEE countries, using an Ordinary Least Squares method. Then, the authors investigate the environmental implications of crop biomass production in a similar framework. Findings: The results reveal that the agricultural biomass sector contributes to economic development, and it does not have negative implications for environmental indicators. These results show that biomass production is a sustainable target to be pursued.

Subsequent to the First World War, the French Government regulated the Champagne industry, and locked the status of protected (and excluded) grapes into the new Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée system, forever altering the incentives and output of wine producers. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

As a result, some indigenous varietals have disappeared entirely from the region – and a handful remain only in the vineyards and bottles of a few bold entrepreneurs, constituting less than 1 percent of Champagne production.

The authors assess several traditional explanations (from taste and preferences to agricultural resilience)-and dismiss them as unconvincing. Instead, the authors adopt a public choice framework of regulatory capture to explain the puzzle of thwarted entrepreneurship and consumer choice.

This paper is original.

This study aims to investigate the stationarity and convergence of CO₂ emissions series in MENA countries. The stationarity and unit root properties of per capita carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions series are explored by an increasing amount of studies, which use different methodologies. Examining the time series properties of energy and environmental series is crucial for both researchers and the policymakers, given the close link between energy, environment and the real economy. In fact, if energy exhibits the presence of a unit root, this suggests that this series does not revert to its equilibrium level after being hit by a shock.

The contribution of this work is twofold. First, to the author’s knowledge, a very little attention has been paid to the topics of stationarity and convergence of CO₂ emissions in the case of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) member states, especially in a panel context. Convergence analyses of CO₂ emissions for MENA countries can improve the knowledge of energy and environmental scenario of the area, giving some ideas for appropriate future policies. Second, this is the first study that jointly analyzed time series and panel data properties of emissions series for these countries.

The author finds that relative per capita CO₂ emissions in the 19 MENA countries are a mixture of I(0) and I(1) processes and there is a weak evidence to support the stationarity of CO₂ emissions. After having verified the presence of cross-sectional dependence in the series, the panel unit root tests in presence of cross-section dependence show strong evidence in favor of non-stationarity. In addition, after performing tests for ß-convergence, it is also found that per capita CO₂ emissions are converging on average in 11 out of 19 sample’s countries, while s-convergence analysis reveals that the variance of per capita CO₂ emissions decreased over time, which is an indication of convergence.

Important policy implications emerge from the empirical results. Sustainable environmental and energy policies rely heavily on the CO₂ series’ properties. In this regard, determining whether shocks to CO₂ emissions are permanent or transitory is important for setting feasible goals for sustainable environmental policies. Given that per capita CO₂ emissions are essentially associated with a quality of life, the issues of their reduction have been the leading agenda in energy and environmental management over the past two decades.

Because of the peculiar nature of food and agro‐processing industries, the industries cannot tolerate corrosion deposits in their production lines. Hence, there is the need to account for corrosion control before and during the production operations. This is more so in Nigeria where there is little or no proper accountability of corrosion cost in all production system.

The industries investigated were grouped into: meat and meat product, dairy and milk, beverages and brewery, confectionery and agro‐processing centres. Questionnaires and interview pro forma were used to collect information from ten major factories/outlets in each category. The study involved the use of life cycle costing to assess corrosion management alternatives and to determine the annualized value of each option.

Among the corrosion prevention methods identified in the industries, greasing gave the least cost contribution (15.9 percent) to the total cost of corrosion prevention followed by painting (17.97 percent) and cleaning (66.14 percent) in that order, while the contribution of each corrosion maintenance method to the total cost of corrosion maintenance was, respectively, 13.08, 7.23, 20.73 and 58.96 percent for annual maintenance, repair, rehabilitation and wages of workers.

This study reveals some of the control measures commonly adopted for minimizing corrosion damage in some selected food and agro‐processing industries in Nigeria. It also investigated the cost implication of each measure and how it affects the present value of processing machineries in each industry. The results of the study have created a state of awareness of corrosion problems to stakeholders, which would encourage preventive actions.

Staff development efforts by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Library, Bauchi are discussed, with particular reference to the area of computer literacy courses. The purchase of a microcomputer (Turbowriter) and steps being taken to acquire CD‐ROM are reviewed as practical efforts towards computerisation in the University Library and suggestions are made for its success. Staff development and retention are advocated for effective computerisation of any library system.

The reason for concern is the rapid decline in loans to small enterprises which is critical to their performance, compared to large businesses following the periods of banking reformations in Nigeria. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of risk perception on bank lending behaviour to small enterprises. It also investigates the impact of government intervention, consolidation and recapitalization on the relationship between risk perception and bank lending behaviour to small enterprise.

This study empirically analysed (ordinary least square) secondary data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletins, Annual Statement of Accounts covering the period 1992–2020.

The results show that the absence of government interventions and the presence of banking reformations have statistically negative significant effect on bank lending to small enterprises. The findings challenge the argument that generally assumes risk aversion of banks towards small enterprise lending because of small enterprise’s inability to prove their credit worthiness and consequently constraining access to finance to the sector. Instead, the results and analysis from this study found theoretical support for the variation of bank behaviour in lending to small enterprises depending on the status of wealth of the financial system.

A key lesson from this study for government concerned about promoting performance of the small enterprise sector is that regulating and enforcing lending requirements on access to debt financing of the sector is necessary if constraints in access debt finance is to be eliminated. Second, while strategies such as bank consolidation, recapitalization may help strengthen and make financially robust the banking system; it places the banks in a gain position where losses looms to them than gain.

This study challenges the argument that generally assumes risk aversion of banks towards small enterprise lending as a result of inability to prove their credit worthiness and consequently constraining access to finance to the sector. Instead, the results and analysis from this study reveal a variation in lending to small enterprises and suggests that the position of the bank in relation to a reference point influences how risk is perceived by the bank and thus impacts on their risk decision-making behaviour.

The ongoing reforms in the Nigerian banking system have resulted to mega banks, driven by advanced competition. This has raised concerns about their social and environmental performance. The purpose of this paper is to agitate for the prioritization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the foremost condition for banking stability in the reforms.

This paper draws largely from the theory of CSR, and reviews pertinent policies and practices in the Nigerian banking system.

The paper identifies self‐induced vices, regulatory laxity, inauspicious macro‐economic environment, and endemic corruption in the economy as the major constraints to the discharge of CSR in the Nigerian banking system.

It may be necessary to restructure the Central Bank of Nigeria to clearly separate the roles of banks' supervision from fiscal policy management for a more effective economic, social and environmental viability of the banking system. Furthermore, the banking system should focus less exclusively on shareholders and financial measures of success to include all stakeholders' relationships in their mission to sustain competitive success in the future.

It is imperative that external regulation should be blended with conscious self‐regulations by the banking institutions for the reforms to effectively include the delivery of CSR. This should be anchored on effective corporate governance in the banking institutions in the system.

Discussions on the appropriate international regime to govern trade in biofuels are in their infancy. However, a large number of countries have set minimum blending targets for biofuels. Meeting these targets will require greater production and increased international trade in biofuels. Concerns exist as to whether unsustainable practices will be used to satisfy this growing demand. There is currently no multilateral agreement governing sustainable production and trade in biofuels. In the absence of an international framework, this paper will seek to demonstrate that concerned countries may unilaterally regulate imports of unsustainably produced biofuels in a way that is consistent with international trade rules. Unilateral regulation is to be understood as a stop gap until multilateral agreement can be reached on the interaction between trade in biofuels and issues of sustainability.