Search results

The purpose of this paper is to seek to fill the gaps found in the literature to understand why and how the partnerships are formed and to map the dynamics of partnership networks of Brazilian electricity companies.

To map the dynamics of partnership networks formed by the Brazilian electricity companies, a social network analysis technique was adopted: R statistical software was used to make calculations and plot these networks.

It was found that the partnership network had a clear potential for an increase in the number of projects; however, the partnerships for the execution of such projects were dispersed. Although the concessionaires established partnerships with diverse institutions, the latter did not intercommunicate. Moreover, when analyzing the projects with respect to the project-type investigated, the institutions engaged in specific project types can be identified; thus, there is an opportunity for concessionaires, authorized contractors and licensed companies to identify the best partners, i.e. those that already possess the expertise to execute specific projects in future partnerships.

The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in partnership network development dynamics to understand how such networks form, change and evolve over time.

Tentar preencher as lacunas encontrada na literatura, entender o porquê e como as parcerias ocorrem e também mapear a dinâmica da rede de parcerias estabelecida pelas empresas elétricas brasileiras.

Para mapear a dinâmica das redes de parceria formada pelas empresas do Setor Elétrico Brasileiro, foi adotada a Técnica de Análise de Rede Social com o apoio do Pacote Estatístico R para fazer cálculos e desenhar essas redes.

Os resultados apontaram para o fato de que a Rede teve um potencial aumento no número de projetos, no entanto, as parcerias para a execução de tais projetos foram dispersas. As concessionárias estabeleceram parcerias com diversas instituições, mas estas não se comunicaram entre si. Além disso, ao analisar os projetos em relação aos temas desenvolvidos, é possível identificar as instituições envolvidas em temas de projetos específicos, o que cria uma oportunidade para concessionárias, contratadas e empresas licenciadas para identificar os melhores parceiros, aqueles que já possuem certas competências para executar projetos específicos em futuras parcerias.

Este artigo pretende preencher a lacuna em relação à dinâmica de desenvolvimento da rede, entendendo assim a forma como elas se desenvolvem, mudam e evoluem ao longo do tempo.

Intentar llenar las lagunas encontradas en la literatura, entender el por qué y cómo las alianzas ocurren y también mapear la dinámica de la red de alianzas establecida por las empresas eléctricas brasileñas.

Para mapear la dinámica de las redes de asociación formada por las empresas del Sector Eléctrico Brasileño, se adoptó la Técnica de Análisis de Red Social con el apoyo del Paquete Estadístico R para hacer cálculos y diseñar esas redes.

Los resultados apuntaron al hecho de que la Red tuvo un potencial aumento en el número de proyectos, sin embargo, las alianzas para la ejecución de tales proyectos fueron dispersas. Las concesionarias establecieron alianzas con diversas instituciones, pero éstas no se comunicaron entre sí. Además, al analizar los proyectos en relación a los temas desarrollados, es posible identificar a las instituciones involucradas en temas de proyectos específicos, lo que crea una oportunidad para concesionarias, contratistas y empresas licenciadas para identificar a los mejores socios, aquellos que ya poseen ciertas competencias para realizar proyectos específicos en futuras alianzas.

Este artículo pretende llenar la brecha en relación a la dinámica de desarrollo de la red, entendiendo así la forma en que se desarrollan, cambian y evolucionan a lo largo del tiempo.

There is a traditional discrepancy in the specialized literature on how the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) should be understood. Additionally, there is a further situation, which in our opinion is also contradictory; many organisations are developing CSR projects; on the other hand, there is a proliferation of news on these organizations that lead us to question what the true extent of their commitment to CSR is. To that purpose, we have developed a case study that has allowed us to verify that one of the most active organisations in Spain in terms of the CSR adopted is using it basically as a marketing instrument, since it is using its at least formal compliance with institutional rules in order to increase its legitimacy in front of its main stakeholders.

Economic and social inequality in Mexico presents a challenge in the transformative recovery of the country. This chapter aims to identify opportunities and multi-actor actions in the different scenarios of economic growth and sustainable development for Mexico in the coming years. We managed to propose public policy recommendations for the country by building future scenarios along with the participation of representatives from government, business, civil society and academia. A regenerative Mexico by 2030 requires policies that encourage private, domestic and foreign investment; regulatory frameworks for investment in clean technologies; implementation of tax incentives to promote a green economy and cooperative and inclusive models, such as the social and solidarity economy. Inclusive and collaborative multi-actor actions among the country's sectors become the common denominator of future scenarios for Mexico from an optimistic, resilient and hopeful perspective for its population.

Latin American countries must prioritize energy efficiency and renewable energies in their energy policies. This has been debated for the past few decades. However, it is impossible to deny that energy efficiency and renewable energies have significant potential to mitigate the adverse effects of ever-increasing energy consumption induced by economic growth and the transformation of societies toward more energy-intensive models. This chapter identifies how sustainable energy policies could be considered successful in various Latin American economies through an active review and comparison of traditional energy models and their transition and respective consequences. The chapter concludes that there are national energy plans in countries in the region with a sustainable approach, and that clean energy and renewable sources have great potential. But it is also concluded that there is still a long way to go concerning legislation and legal frameworks.

This study has used public sources, interview with one of the case protagonists.

This business case portrays the problems that an energy producing company faced in Portugal, in its transition from being a public company to becoming privatized. The Portuguese Government issued EDP with generous subsidies to guarantee its future profits and privatization success, but a few years later, after EDP was fully privatized, there was great political pressure to downsize such subsidies. The case describes the main steps taken by EDP from its creation and privatization, culminating at the end of 2017, where it was heavily criticized by media and political parties due to a high value of subsidies that had been granted to the company by the Portuguese Government in the past, while it was still a public company, and the renegotiation of those same subsidies after it had been privatized. EDP’s President António Mexia was under police investigation due to having led the renegotiation talks in 2007, and it was feared that EDP’s investors could refrain from investing in the company. Should EDP campaign to clear its good name, or would it be better to let the matter fall with the passing of time? Could the share value be affected? Should EDP prepare itself for loss of revenue due to an eventual downsizing of the subsidies?

This study covers energy sector, privatization issues and government support. The relevance of this study is good for use in Business Schools and MBA courses.

The purpose of this paper is to address the question of how a developing country, like Mexico, can reform its electricity industry at the same time as addressing climate change issues.

The objective is to provide a tool that policy makers could use to make better and more informed decisions if they decide to liberalise the power sector in Mexico. The problems they would face are difficult to address in an analytically tractable way using conventional economic models. Also, these problems are too idiosyncratic to solve by translating empirical experience from other markets. In response, a system dynamics model has been developed in order to test the impact of a range of different environmental and energy policies.

The paper finds that a reform setting where competition is allowed in fossil fuel technologies; while the public company (CFE) keeps control of hydro and nuclear capacity produce the most well rounded scores in terms of efficiency, CO2 emission reductions and political feasibility. The results could improve the policy implementation process by shedding light on the circumstances and policy choices that can exacerbate or minimise effects.

A simulation of this kind would increase the understanding of these kinds of policies by providing structured insights into key uncertainties. They can also foster new ideas – in the energy sector have underpinned major policy initiatives. But results should be taken with caution, as complete validation of models is impossible.

These results add to the policy implementation literature. For the case of Mexico that has not engaged in a specific model of deregulation, the use of simulation model would be very useful to predict flaws in the design of the new regulation and to prevent unwanted scenarios to happen.

A judicious implementation of an electricity reform can help achieve lower carbon emissions reductions which would be beneficial against the climate change problem.

To the author's knowledge, the approach of analysing ex ante the environmental outcome of electricity reform using a simulation model in a developing country has not been treated in literature.

This paper aims to achieve a better understanding about the competitive and institutional pressures that can determine socially responsible corporate behaviours of organisations that operate in an organisational field.

The paper draws on New Institutional Sociology to analyse pressures on Spanish electricity companies to behave in socially responsible ways. Data collection covers the period 1997‐2008 and the data sources were the following: semi‐structured interviews, industrial regulation, documents, websites of organisations and associations, and informal discussions.

Socially responsible corporate behaviours of Spanish electricity companies were due not only to internal decisions based on economic rationality, but also to various institutional (coercive, normative and mimetic) pressures.

The study covers a specific organisational field, the Spanish electricity sector. Further research would be necessary in order to analyse other organisational fields and to compare the results.

Conditions under which organisations behave in socially responsible ways are contrasted in the case of Spanish electricity companies, for instance, the healthy economic environment, the monitoring of their behaviour and their participation in associations that promote Corporate Social Responsibility.

Generally, pressures of the environment on organisations to behave in socially responsible ways have received little attention and the specialised literature has focused on the individual organisation level of analysis. So, a contribution of the paper is to analyse the pressures of the competitive and institutional environment on a specific organisational field so that organisations adopt socially responsible corporate behaviours.

This teaching case intends to be a tool for academic purposes as a way to show the different assessments an investor should make and the many problems he/she may face, when evaluating a megaproject. It reviews the experience of two large corporations in Chile, intending to build a major hydroelectric generation project in Chile while facing major opposition from environmental NGOs and other stakeholders. Although in the view of many industry experts and consultants Hidroaysén was a good and necessary project, the environmental implications and some of the project’s stakeholders created a deadlock.

This teaching case was written with the idea of being used as a tool for classes in order to discuss the implications of environmental issues in big projects. The research was based on particular information of the project, financial data of the companies involved, and other public sources (news, interviews, etc.).

The conclusion of this case is that private initiatives, without the right alignment of political actors and civil society, could face the risk of being blocked and not being executed.

COP21 guidelines for responsive investment could be a guideline to follow, aligning private interest with development for countries in the third world.

We offer a way to analyze external impacts on a project of this kind, that using a common framework (COP21 guidelines) could avoid risks taking all considerations into the project.

The aim of this paper is to explore the existing linkages between Bolivian universities and the renewable energy (RE) sector as well as the current role and future potential of the higher education institutions to reduce the technology gap in the RE sector by technology and knowledge transfer.

The investigation is based on two surveys carried out in the frame of the JELARE project, financed by the EU ALFA III programme, with university stakeholders as well as market representatives from the RE sector.

The main findings were that Bolivian universities are far behind the market needs regarding RE technology transfer, the linkages between the higher education institutions and the market are weak and there is a lack of finance and expertise on both sides. On the other hand, potentials can be seen in the introduction of RE study programmes, the implementation of long‐term research strategies as well as internships and applied research programmes conducted jointly.

The research reveals significant deficits in university technology transfer towards the Bolivian RE market, but on the other hand it shows chances which can be taken as a starting‐point by policy makers and other stakeholders to boost local innovation and the development of the RE market.

University technology transfer regarding REs in poor developing countries has been scarcely investigated until the moment and the links between universities and RE labour market in Bolivia specifically have not been subject to research. The explorative surveys undertaken build a base for further research in this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status quo of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based sustainable public value (SPV) reporting by electric utilities. Furthermore, the study attempts to find out whether a stock exchange listing and/or a public ownership are positively associated with electric utilities’ reporting regarding their contributions to a sustainable development (SD) or not.

An empirical analysis of sustainability reports published by electric utilities from 28 different countries all over the world is carried out. The investigation is based on a documentary analysis of 83 GRI G4 reports.

The findings show that electric utilities’ coverage of GRI indicators of the electric utilities sector disclosures varies between, as well as within, the different categories of the GRI guidelines and that the coverage of sector-specific indicators is often lacking behind the general coverage rates. Furthermore, the study reveals that a stock exchange listing is positively associated with electric utilities’ GRI-based SPV reporting. In contrast, public ownership does not show a significant association.

Electric utilities have a significant influence on SD. They operate in a regulated environment that is targeted at utilizing electric utilities for economic and environmental public policy objectives. Against that background, the study discusses which issues of SPV creation are reported by electric utilities that use the GRI guidelines and therefore brings together the public value (PV) and the sustainability community.