history dependence in concave economies abstract this paper investigates concave intertemporal optimization problems and derives two mechanisms either growth or control state interactions e g due to endogenous preferences that allow for multiple steady states including an unstable one therefore history dependence is possible in a perfectly governed economy subject to the law of diminishing returns if one of these two mechanisms is present this result complements a large amount of literature that attributes history dependence to convexities as a consequence lock ins into undesired evolutions are possible beyond the familiar case of increasing returns

nonconvexities in optimal pollution accumulation abstract with a few exceptions the analysis of optimal pollution accumulation or detrimental stock externalities rests on the assumptions that the level of damage is unbounded and that pollution decay increases monotonically with the level of pollution stock we show that these assumptions are restrictive and that their generalization alters the basic economic properties of optimal pollution control we specify a decay function which is concave with low stock levels and convex when pollution is higher we show that although multiple steady states may exist the globally optimal solution may be independent of the initial pollution level it is also possible that there are cutoff levels which determine the optimal long run equilibrium implying that the feedback control law is discontinuous and nonmonotonic bounded damage may have similar implications but in contrast to concave convex decay they may occur even with zero discounting

consumer environmental concern and green product purchase in malaysia structural effects of consumption values this study examines the effects of consumption values i e functional value social value emotional value conditional value and epistemic value on malaysian consumers environmental concern as expressed in their purchase of green products it also investigates the differences between three usage groups light average and heavy users and the signi cant factors that promote those differences the study applies a quantitative method in which a structured self administered questionnaire is used data is analysed using the structural equation modelling sem technique via the analysis of moment structure amos computer programme version 21 and one way analysis of variance anova using the statistical package for social sciences spss computer programme version 21 empirical results confirm that social value has the paramount impact on consumers environmental concern as expressed by their purchase of green products and that epistemic value and functional value quality rank behind functional value price emotional value and conditional value have no significant effects statistically significant differences were observed when comparing the light users with average users and with heavy users p 0 05 the findings of this study introduce a new momentum for the preceding discoveries on consumer environmental concern as shown in the purchase of green products which is inadequately covered in the malaysian context they also provide important information for companies and encourage them to place more emphasis on social value epistemic value and functional value quality in their manufacturing in order both to boost environmental concern among consumers in their purchasing decision making and to produce green goods that will be readily liked by consumers

the relationship between resilience and sustainability of ecological economic systems resilience as a descriptive concept gives insight into the dynamic properties of an ecological economic system sustainability as a normative concept captures basic ideas of intergenerational justice when human well being depends on natural capital and services thus resilience and sustainability are independent concepts in this paper we discuss the relationship between resilience and sustainability of ecological economic systems we use a simple dynamic model where two natural capital stocks provide ecosystem services that are complements for human well being to illustrate different possible cases of the relationship between resilience and sustainability and to identify the conditions under which each of those will hold a resilience of the system is necessary but not sufficient for sustainability b resilience of the system is sufficient but not necessary for sustainability c resilience of the system is neither necessary nor sufficient for sustainability and d resilience is both necessary and sufficient for sustainability we conclude that more criteria than just resilience have to be taken into account when designing policies for the sustainable development of ecological economic systems and vice versa the property of resilience should not be confused with the positive normative connotations of sustainability c 2011 elsevier b v all rights reserved

complementarity impatience and the resilience of natural resource dependent economies we study how society s preferences affect the resilience of economies that depend on more than one type of natural resource in particular we analyze whether the degree of complementarity of natural resources in consumer preferences may give rise to multiple steady states and path dependence even when resources are managed optimally we find that for a given social discount rate society tends to be less willing to buffer exogenous shocks if resource good are complements in consumption than if they are substitutes the stronger the complementarity between the various types of natural resources the less resilient the economy is and even more so the higher is the social discount rate

market motives distinctive capabilities and domestic inertia a hybrid model of innovation generation the authors develop and test a model of innovation in which the generative process of innovation is fostered by a balance of three forces market motives distinctive capabilities and domestic ine

perceptual and structural barriers to investing in natural capital economics from an ecological footprint perspective this paper argues that perceptual distortions and prevailing economic rationality far from encouraging investment in natural capital actually accelerate the depletion of natural capital stocks moreover conventional monetary analyses cannot detect the problem this paper therefore makes the case for direct biophysical measurement of relevant stocks and flows and uses for this purpose the ecological footprint concept to develop the argument the paper elaborates the natural capital concept and asserts the need of investing in natural capital to compensate for net losses it shows how the ecological footprint can be used as a biophysical measure for such capital and applies this concept as an analytical tool for examining the barriers to investing in natural capital it picks four issues from a rough taxonomy of barriers and discusses them from an ecological footprint perspective it shows why marginal prices cannot reflect ecological necessities how interregional risk pooling encourages resource liquidation how present terms of trade undermine both local and global ecological stability and how efficiency strategies may actually accelerate resource throughput affirming the necessity of biophysical approaches for exploring the sustainability implications of basic ecological and thermodynamic principles it draws lessons for current development

innis lecture environmental crises past present and future environmental crises are distinguished by rapid and largely unexpected changes in environmental quality that are difficult if not impossible to reverse examples would be major extinctions and significant degradations of an ecosystem i argue there are three preconditions for crisis failures in governance an ecological system exhibiting a tipping point and an economy environment interaction with positive feedbacks i develop a simple model to illustrate how a crisis may arise and draw on our knowledge of past and present crises to highlight the mechanisms involved i then speculate as to whether climate change is indeed a crisis in the making les crises environnementales sont caracterisees par des changements rapides et largement non anticipes dans la qualite de l environnement qui sont difficiles sinon impossibles a renverser des exemples pourraient etre des extinctions d especes et des degradations significatives d un ecosysteme l auteur suggere qu il faut trois conditions pour qu il y ait crise faillites de gouvernance un systeme ecologique au point de bascule et une interface environnement economie riche de retroactions positives l auteur developpe un modele simple pour illustrer comment une crise peut emerger et s appuie sur la connaissance des crises passees et presentes pour souligner les mecanismes en jeu on specule en fin de texte sur la question a savoir si le changement climatique est une crise en train de prendre

the influence factors on choice behavior regarding green products based on the theory of consumption values abstract this study applies the theory of consumption values to determine the influence factors on consumer choice behavior regarding green products and examines whether there are significant differences in consumption values and choice behavior between consumers with different outlooks on environmental concerns one way analysis of variance and multiple regression is used to assess data collected by a questionnaire survey the results indicate that consumers with high environmental concern support green products more and show greater readiness to choose them this study concludes that the main influence factors on consumer choice behavior regarding green products include psychological benefit desire for knowledge novelty seeking and specific conditions and do not include functional values price and quality this study contributes to preliminary but vital insights in effective promotion of green products

residential consumers in the cape peninsula s willingness to pay for premium priced green electricity a number of studies have explored the willingness i e stated willingness as opposed to actual willingness of consumers to pay a premium for green electricity in developed countries however little is known about how this translates into an emerging economy context this study investigates the level of willingness of residential households in south africa s cape peninsula to pay a premium for electricity from renewable energy it methodologically drew on recent contributions in the literature on norm motivated behaviour used to identify testable factors that could influence residential consumers willingness to pay wtp interestingly the study found a significant positive link between household income and wtp for green electricity contrary to the findings of some previous studies not only are higher income households more likely to pay a premium but typically they are also willing to pay a bigger premium it was also further established that the view that green electricity is reliable involvement in the recycling of waste and the belief that everyone should contribute to green electricity generation drive the wtp

determining factors of curtailment and purchasing energy related behaviours changing people s behaviour in relation to energy consumption will be one of the most important challenges in the near future we analyzed the determinants behind individuals decisions to adopt curtailment behaviour or to purchase energy saving products using data from 213 university students we explored the influence of personal capabilities and moral norms along with trust in information on energy saving actions provided by different entities on two energy saving behaviours the results of the statistical model emphasise how personal norms and trust in information provided by private companies on the one hand and family and friends on the other strongly influence the adoption of energy saving actions and curtailment behaviours the paper reveals the pivotal role of private companies in developing the market demand for energy saving products by providing credible and scientifically based information on environmental performance the paper also contributes to strengthening the reliability of value belief norm theory and emphasizes the role of trust in information as a contextual factor that influences the adoption of a pro environmental behaviour

sources procedures and microeconomic effects of innovation fabio arcangeli paul david frank engelman christopher freeman massimo moggi richard nelson luigi orsenigo nathan rosenberg michele salvati g n von tunzelman two anonymous referees and the participants at the meeting of the committee on distribution growth and technical progress of the italian national research council cnr rome november 16 1985 have helped with various redraftings a particularly grateful acknowledgment is for the insightful and patient help of moses abramovitz this work has been undertaken at the science policy research unit spru university of sussex as part of the research program of the designated research centre sponsored by the economic and social research council esrc earlier support to the research that led to this paper by the italian national research council cnr is also gratefully acknowledged the statistical research has been undertaken with the assistance of stephano brioschi ilaria fornari and giovannu prennushi

climatic tipping points and optimal fossil fuel use the economics of climate change is characterized by many uncertainties regarding for instance climate dynamics economic damages and potentially irreversible climate catastrophes using an optimal growth model of a fossil fuel driven economy subject to climate externalities and potentially irreversible climatic regime shifts this paper contributes to the understanding of how the risk of such events impacts on optimal fossil fuel use carbon taxes and fossil fuel prices over time we show that in excess to an increase in the expected present value of marginal damages and an increase in the probability of triggering the event there also exists a third opposing effect this effect comes from the fall in value of remaining fossil fuel reserve which results from the potential regime shift which may or may not occur sometime in the future and implies that optimal fossil fuel policy shifts towards using more resources early on this effect is related to the idea of the green paradox we prove the existence of this effect and show under which circumstances it can become quantitatively important numerically the green paradox effect seems to be somewhat smaller than but comparable in size to the increase in expected marginal damages in general our findings highlight the importance of considering the supply side impacts on climate policy in response to catastrophic climate events

factors influencing buying behaviour of green energy consumer green energy has gained significant research attention across the globe due to its ability to reduce environmental damage however for complete acceptance of green energy only government regulations are not enough the willingness to use green energy and contribute to the wellbeing of the environment should spring from within consumers such willingness may be developed by enhancing consumers perceived value of green energy however in order to do so it is necessary to assess existing levels of consumers perceived value towards green energy the present study develops a multidimensional green perceived value scale to measure existing levels of consumers perceived value the scale considers green perceived value as a multidimensional second order construct comprising functional value social value conditional value and emotional value dimensions such an attempt has not been made before which highlights the originality value of the present study the scale can be used to assess consumers perception towards green energy such information would help in formulating strategies that encourage consumers to voluntarily adopt green energy the study also reveals that it is not only the financial aspects that lead consumers to decide on adoption of green energy consumers are also driven by emotional and social considerations thus policy makers could formulate pro green energy programmes and mass messages that appeal to consumers sense of responsibility to voluntarily adopt green energy without having to rely on financial incentives researchers could examine the considered dimensions of the scale further with respect to other constructs related to consumer behaviour

willingness to pay and price elasticities of demand for energy efficient appliances combining the hedonic approach and demand systems abstract this article proposes a combined approach for estimating willingness to pay for the attributes represented by energy efficiency labels and providing reliable price elasticities of demand own and cross for close substitutes e g those with low energy efficiency and those with higher energy efficiency this is done by using the results of the hedonic approach together with the quantity based demand system qbds model the elasticity results obtained with the latter are then compared with those simulated using the linear almost ideal demand system la aids the methodology is applied to the dishwasher market in spain it is found that 15 6 of the final price is actually paid for the energy efficiency attribute this accounts for about 80 of the average market price the elasticity results confirm that energy efficient appliances are more price elastic than regular ones

private eco brands and green market development towards new forms of sustainable governance in food retailing abstract this study seeks to analyze the role of retail eco brands in the development of markets for sustainability certified food products building on insights from the new institutional economics nie paradigm but also broader literature in the supply chain management and marketing research we suggest that private eco branding and third party certification can be explained as private institutional arrangements that motivate and enable sustainability governance by retailers both upstream and downstream in the value chain based on semi structured interviews with western european retailers this study reveals critical functions of retailers sustainability oriented brands these functions address a number of inefficiencies pertained to the third party certification making eco branding a private product policy tool to proactively set and implement sustainability in food production and consumption practices at the same time limitations associated with the development and use of private eco brands are identified based on these limitations we suggest that while retailer s eco brands are likely to play an important role in transforming food markets towards higher levels of sustainability in the future the continuous value of third party certification schemes in implementing sustainability in the food supply chain should not be underestimated the role of the latter will be to reduce transaction costs and liability risks associated with retail efforts to govern product sustainability issues upstream in the supply chain

determinants of levered portfolio performance the cumulative return to a levered strategy is determined by five elements that fit together in a simple and useful formula a previously undocumented element is the covariance between leverage and excess return to the fully invested source portfolio underlying the strategy in an empirical study of volatility targeting strategies over the 84 year period 1929 2013 this covariance accounted for a reduction in return that substantially diminished the sharpe ratio in all cases

market efficiency a theoretical distinction and so what with the aid of some simplifying assumptions the capital asset pricing model comes to dramatic conclusions about practical matters such as how to choose an investment portfolio and how to value financial assets as illustrated in this article when one particular clearly unrealistic capm assumption is replaced by a more real world version some of the dramatic practical conclusions of capm no longer follow this result has implications for financial practice research and pedagogy

government interventions in sustainable supply chain governance experience in dutch front running cases numerous multi actor governance systems have recently emerged ensuring sustainability of international traded products business and civil society actors play a dominant role in initiating and governing sustainable supply chain governance systems sscg systems within specific product markets we see the emergence of various competing sscg systems this has led to debates on effectiveness transparency and legitimacy of these forms of self governance in the market these developments also call for a debate on appropriate roles for national governments most of the academic literature in this field focuses on methodologies for supply chain governance and their impacts but hardly addresses the roles taken on by governments and effectiveness of possible government interventions this article combines analysis of market dynamics in the timber and coffee product chains with policy analysis integrating approaches from the research fields of sustainable business and policy analysis the article shows how competition between various sustainable supply chain governance systems in the netherlands has resulted in recent market breakthroughs while initially government interventions were very limited and diverse the article suggests an approach for more systematic analysis of these dynamics and the roles of various actors by identifying both the public policy cycle and the private policy cycle

substitutes or complements a configurational examination of corporate governance mechanisms we conduct an exploratory qualitative comparative case analysis of the s p 1500 firms with the aim of elaborating theory on how corporate governance mechanisms work together effectively to do so we integrate extant theory and research to specify the bundle of mechanisms that operate to mitigate the agency problem among publicly traded corporations and review what previous research has said about how these mechanisms combine we then use the fuzzy set approach to qualitative comparitive analysis qca to explore the combinations of governance mechanisms that exist among the s p 1500 firms that achieve high and not high profitability our findings suggest that high profits result when ceo incentive alignment and monitoring mechanisms work together as complements rather than as substitutes furthermore they show that high profits are obtained when both internal and external monitoring mechanisms are present at the same time however monitoring mechanisms evidently combine in complex ways such that the

portfolio optimization with factors scenarios and realistic short positions this paper presents fast algorithms for calculating mean variance efficient frontiers when the investor can sell securities short as well as buy long and when a factor and or scenario model of covariance is assumed currently fast algorithms for factor scenario or mixed factor and scenario models exist but except for a special case of the results reported here apply only to portfolios of long positions factor and scenario models are used widely in applied portfolio analysis and short sales have been used increasingly as part of large institutional portfolios generally the critical line algorithm cla traces out mean variance efficient sets when the investor s choice is subject to any system of linear equality or inequality constraints versions of cla that take advantage of factor and or scenario models of covariance gain speed by greatly simplifying the equations for segments of the efficient set these same algorithms can be used unchanged for the long short portfolio selection problem provided a certain condition on the constraint set holds this condition usually holds in practice

green products an exploratory study on the consumer behaviour in emerging economies of the east abstract the recent years have witnessed a phenomenal change in quantum and pattern of consumption in the developing nations of the east ever increasing consumption is putting a strain on the environment the present work delves into understanding the relationship between environmental concerns and consumer choice behaviour in purchasing green products in the context of india being a large emerging economy in south east asia attempt has been made to examine the influence of consumption values on sustainable consumer behaviour across consumer segments with preferential green choice approach difference multiple linear regression analysis one way analysis of variance and other standard statistical analysis of the data collected through questionnaire survey have been done results indicate that price sensitivity is high regardless of their choice preference social value parameter being the dominant factor influences sustainable consumption behaviour adoption among the green preferential cluster consumption values differ significantly across consumers exhibiting different preference for products with and without green credentials being higher for those with green purchase or consumption experience or notion

eco efficiency in micro enterprises and small firms a case study in the automotive services sector abstract a significant number of small and micro enterprises worldwide make important contributions to global the economy however research studies that deal with this kind of enterprise especially regarding their environmental issues are limited this paper aims to demonstrate the viability of eco efficient practices among small firms and micro enterprises as a competitive advantage tool eco efficient practices were applied in a micro sized auto parts and electrical automotive services enterprise in brazil the procedures were applied based on the brazilian business council for sustainable development and the brazilian support for micro and small enterprises eco efficiency model the outcomes were evaluated and then measured again three years later to provide more consistent results the approach was carried out using qualitative action research followed by a statistical analysis of variance anova and an f test to compare the averages of the entire studied period together with a post hoc tukey statistical test to identify which averages among the studied years were driving significant differences levene s test was also performed to verify the homogeneity of the variance between all of the studied years in order to corroborate the analysis as important findings from this approach the micro sized enterprise attained better financial environmental and social performance and has purchased new financial incomings an important aspect was the engagement of the staff and owner during the implementation and evaluation of the new eco efficient practices eco efficient practices had positive and enduring results as verified by statistical analysis among the five studied years this provides evidence that eco efficient practices could provide low cost benefit for both environmental and small and micro enterprises

beyond ecolabels what green marketing can learn from conventional marketing ecolabels have emerged as one of the main tools of green marketing although a great deal of effort has been invested in making them more effective and efficient the market share of ecolabelled products is still low partly because they have been addressed mainly to green consumers in a theoretical exposition of marketing theory we find that green marketing could learn from conventional marketing in discovering other means than labelling to promote green products examples include addressing a wider range of consumers working with the positioning strategies of price place and promotion and actively engaging in market creation

the capital asset pricing model in economic perspective the capital asset pricing model capm is theoretically incomplete in its demand side focus risk averse investors and internally inconsistent homogeneous beliefs is not conclusively supported empirically and yet it legitimizes a notion that investors can earn higher returns by bearing undiversifiable risk our article does not merely extend the capm with more realistic assumptions it completes its original framework by including 1 risk taking investors in the investor population 2 investors who can have heterogeneous expectations or beliefs an overlooked but required condition for the capm to be an internally consistent and meaningful model of competitive financial asset pricing under uncertainty and 3 a positive sloped short run supply curve based on a reasonable interpretation of the nature of financial asset trade upon a complete economic interpretation it is shown that the equilibrium systematic risk rate of return relationship depends on whose aggregate trading activity dominates ri

does the optimal size of a fish stock increase with environmental uncertainties we analyze the effect of environmental uncertainties on optimal fishery management in a bio economic fishery model unlike most of the literature on resource economics but in line with ecological models we allow the different biological processes of survival and recruitment to be affected differently by environmental uncertainties we show that the overall effect of uncertainty on the optimal size of a fish stock is ambiguous depending on the prudence of the value function for the case of a risk neutral fishery manager the overall effect depends on the relative magnitude of two opposing effects the convex cost effect and the gambling effect we apply the analysis to the baltic cod and the north sea herring fisheries concluding that for risk neutral agents the net effect of environmental uncertainties on the optimal size of these fish stocks is negative albeit small in absolute value under risk aversion the effect on optimal stock size is positive for sufficiently high coefficients of constant relative risk aversion

optimal harvesting of stochastic spatial resources abstract we characterize the optimal harvest of a renewable resource in a generalized stochastic spatially explicit model despite the complexity of the model we are able to obtain sharp analytical results we find that the optimal harvest rule in general depends upon dispersal patterns of the resource across space and only in special circumstances do we find a modified golden rule of growth that is independent of dispersal patterns we also find that the optimal harvest rule may include closure of some areas to harvest either on a temporary or permanent basis biological reserves reserves alone cannot correct open access but may under sufficient spatial heterogeneity and connectivity increase profits if appropriate harvest controls are in place outside of reserves

policy as myth and ceremony the global spread of stock exchanges 1980 2005 we examine the antecedents and consequences in developing countries of creating a national stock exchange a core technology of financial globalization we study local conditions and global institutional pressures in the rapid spread of exchanges since the 1980s and examine how conditions at the point of adoption affected exchanges subsequent vibrancy little prior research connects the process of diffusion with the operational performance of adopted policies we find that international coercion was associated with more ceremonial adoption but that contrary to expectations common in institutional research contagion processes via peer groups and normative emulation of prestigious actors enhanced vibrancy economic globalization provides a generative context in which to consider the policy implications of organizational theory and research globalization creates both opportunities and challenges for countries on the periphery of the world economy the central question for policy makers is what structures and institutions they should adopt to promote economic and social vibrancy notably waves of alternative theories and associated packages of reforms have swept over the globe in recent decades observing this process of global diffusion and often abandonment of policies and practices meyer boli thomas and raminrez 1997 extended analyses of myth and ceremony at the organization level to the nation state in their world society approach a core idea in this work is that coercion and mimicry of peers or competitors typically based in a substrate of network ties often

eco labels as a multidimensional research topic trends and opportunities abstract this study analyzes the importance of ecolabels as an eco innovation tool that can contribute to the sustainable design production and consumption of products our research has a dual objective the first is to build a theoretical framework that explains the relationship between ecolabels and eco innovation their determinants demand supply and institutional and political influences and the dimensions that arise from them second according to this framework a systematic literature review was carried out to identify the trends and opportunities in ecolabeling as a multidimensional topic from empirical geographical and sectorial perspective the main contributions of this paper are a proposal for cyclical ecolabeling innovation process an understanding of the ecolabeling dimensions according to the studies analyzed and ecolabel performance in the market additionally the systematic literature review revealed that ecolabels have been mainly explored in food sectors and developed countries and researchers tend to assess their performance from the dimension of market dynamics

price premium for high efficiency refrigerators and calculation of price elasticities for close substitutes a methodology using hedonic pricing and demand systems this article uses the hedonic pricing method to estimate the price premium paid for the highest energy efficiency label a in the refrigerators market of the basque autonomous community spain the estimated figure is 8 9 of the final price or about 60 euro which represents one third of the energy savings that a consumer gets during the lifetime of a refrigerator with the highest energy efficiency label this figure is then combined with the linear version of the almost ideal demand system la aids to obtain own and cross price elasticities of demand the information presented here is useful for policy design and analysis the results indicate that the demand for refrigerators with the highest energy efficiency label is highly sensitive to price variations

internalizing sustainable practices a configurational approach on sustainable forest management of the dutch wood trade and timber industry a number of environmental labels and certificates have been developed to inform consumers of the environmental impacts this paper explored different configurations of institutional and organizational conditions for the internalization of sustainable practices for the institutional conditions the level of institutional pressures were considered for the organizational conditions the following elements were taken into account 1 the timing of adoption 2 the willingness to cannibalize existing capabilities and routines to incorporate institutional demands for sustainability 3 the degree of implementation of these demands 4 the internal representation of environmental concerns and 5 the type of organization the paper analyzed sustainable forestry practices in wood trade and timber factories in the netherlands using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis from the analysis three configurations were found 1 concerned internalization for early adopting wood trade companies 2 forced internalization for late adopting wood trade companies and 3 lagged internalization for late adopting timber factories the configurations revealed that important conditions for explaining internalization of sustainable practices are high levels of implementation and high levels of willingness to cannibalize the findings reaffirm the relevance of institutional and organizational conditions in explaining the internalization of environmental friendly practices they also showed that the interplay between a firm s internal and external environments influence the internalization of environmental practices the results imply that practice internalization is more subtle than previously understood in the literature

propensity of green consumption behaviors in representative cities in china abstract green consumption behaviors are based on consumers attitude however there is a gap between them improving green consumption attitude will to a large extent affect the acceptance of green consumption the study interviewed consumers in four representative cities in china through questionnaires which was to search for a solution that affect consumers willingness to pay for green products by employing a multivariate logistic regression furthermore an empirical analysis was made to study their green consumption behaviors it is shown that chinese consumers have already been aware of green consumption to a certain extent and that green consumption willingness is influenced by age location sources of information and a host of other factors at present nearly half of the consumers are willing to pay an extra of no more than 5 for green products which is lower than the premium price for green products relative to non green ones however the actual premium price of green products in china exceeds this level in general rendering green products a less advantageous position in markets approaches including multiple marketing channels trade in services and green branding can effectively raise consumers reserve price for green products

schumpeterian dynamics an evolutionary model of innovation and imitation abstract this paper develops a simple evolutionary model of innovation and imitation it analyzes how dynamic interactions between equilibrating force of imitation and disequilibrating force of innovation mold the evolutionary pattern of an industry s state of technology and shows that in this schumpeterian world the industry will never approach a neoclassical equilibrium with perfect knowlwdge even in the long run the paper also examines the steady state efficiency distribution of firms that characterizes the industry s long run and obtains some comparative dynamics results

jules or jim alternative conformity to minority logics to what extent do organizations respond favorably to minority participation that is conform to demands from minority resource suppliers that hold an unconventional logic a favorable response to m

impossible frontiers a key result of the capital asset pricing model capm is that the market portfolio the portfolio of all assets in which each asset s weight is proportional to its total market capitalization lies on the mean variance efficient frontier the set of portfolios having mean variance characteristics that cannot be improved upon therefore the capm cannot be consistent with efficient frontiers for which every frontier portfolio has at least one negative weight or short position we call such efficient frontiers impossible and show that impossible frontiers are difficult to avoid in particular as the number of assets n grows we prove that the probability that a generically chosen frontier is impossible tends to one at a geometric rate in fact for one natural class of distributions nearly one eighth of all assets on a frontier is expected to have negative weights for every portfolio on the frontier we also show that the expected minimum amount of short selling across frontier portfolios grows linearly with n and even when short sales are constrained to some finite level an impossible frontier remains impossible using daily and monthly u s stock returns we document the impossibility of efficient frontiers in the data

examining green consumerism motivational drivers does premium price and demographics matter to green purchasing environmental deterioration caused by consumers non sustainable consumption pattern is putting a strain on the environment and is hindering sustainable development in order to impede this effect and promote a more sustainable economy one solution is to reduce or shift consumption from conventional products to green products the unfortunate reality indicates that inadequate information on how to promote consumers green behavioral intention is slowing the growth of green markets such inadequacy appears as a prevailing obstacle facing firms while developing segments and communicating strategies for effectively promoting green products the mentioned impact is more prevailing and most experienced in countries like malaysia hence consumers behavioral intentions must be better understood in order to strengthen knowledge about fostering green purchases this study aims to determine the motivational factors that influence green purchasing intention and simultaneously assess the moderator roles of the premium price and demographic characteristics given that consumers degree of greenness varies a survey was administered and a total of 405 usable questionnaires were obtained structural equation modeling sem was applied to test the hypotheses results indicate that environmental attitude eco label and cultural value man nature orientation significantly influence the green purchase intention the result also indicates that the premium price has no moderating effect denying its role as one of the main barriers for consumers to walk their talk as it has previously been reported by studies and opinion polls in addition the findings revealed that education level and gender have a significant positive moderation effect this suggests that green purchase intentions motivational factors are greater among highly educated individuals especially with female consumers in particular this study contributes to the understanding of the main factors that motivate consumers intention to purchase green products in malaysia it also offers insights and discusses implementations for manufacturers marketers and policy makers concerned with the drivers that motivate consumers green purchasing intentions which require different marketing plan and strategy than conventional products

optimal management with potential regime shifts we analyze how the threat of a potential future regime shift affects optimal management we use a simple general growth model to analyze four cases that involve combinations of stock collapse versus changes in system dynamics and exogenous versus endogenous probabilities of regime shift prior work in economics has focused on stock collapse with endogenous probabilities and reaches ambiguous conclusions on whether the potential for regime shift will increase or decrease intensity of resource use and level of resource stock we show that all other cases yield unambiguous results in particular with endogenous probability of regime shift that affects system dynamics the potential for regime shift causes optimal management to become precautionary in the sense of maintaining higher resource stock levels

leveraging factors for sustained green consumption behavior based on consumption value perceptions testing the structural model changing lifestyle and consumption pattern being the aftermath of growth and urbanization is putting a strain on environment and sustainable development the consumption value perceptions are identified in the study as the drivers of sustained green product consumption and intention to pay the green price premium using the theory of consumption values these value perceptions are certain parameters measuring consumer utilities along multiple value dimensions impacting choice behavior environmental attitude contextual factors and consumer innovativeness were included as the first order constructs data was collected through survey based method using structured questionnaires structural equation modeling was applied for testing the hypothesized model results confirmed consumers price and knowledge perceptions to be the major determinants of the behavioral outcome of sustained green consumption and behavioral intention to pay the green price premium is the outcome of sustained green consumption implications of the research were discussed

adoption of green electricity by german small and medium sized enterprises smes a qualitative analysis abstract the german government aims at generating 80 percent of the country s electricity from renewable sources by 2050 in the german liberalized electricity market customers can support this target by purchasing green electricity ge i e electricity produced from renewable energy sources yet the demand for ge has remained low among small and medium sized enterprises smes which represent the country s biggest electricity customer group based on a review of the relevant literature this article investigates factors that determine smes decisions whether to adopt ge for this purpose thematic interviews with ge providers and representatives of smes are performed and qualitatively analyzed the results of the interview analysis form the basis for a conceptual framework that reflects the ge adoption decisions of german smes and lay the groundwork for future analysis in this area

exploring the gap between consumers green rhetoric and purchasing behaviour why do consumers who profess to be concerned about the environment choose not to buy greener products more regularly or even at all this study explores how consumers perceptions towards green products consumers and consumption practices termed green perceptions contribute to our understanding of the discrepancy between green attitudes and behaviour this study identified several barriers to ethical consumption behaviour within a green consumption context three key themes emerged from the study it is too hard to be green green stigma and green reservations there is currently a perception based on a number of factors that it is too hard to be green which creates a barrier to purchasing green products furthermore some consumers were reluctant or resistant to participate in green consumption practices due to their unfavourable perceptions of green consumers and green messages this article suggests that green perceptions may influence consumers intention to purchase green products accordingly it discusses the implications and suggests avenues for future research

how does the diversity of investors beliefs affect stock price informativeness abstracta growing number of studies have investigated the role of stock prices in aggregating private information and guiding resource reallocation however this article may be the first attempt to study how the diversity of beliefs affects stock price informativeness the framework of the noisy rational expectations model shows that stock informativeness is determined by both the precision and use of private information in trading if private beliefs about the value are highly diverse the aggregate average opinion revealed in a stock s price will be more accurate and thus more informative as the price becomes more informative however individual investors will rely less on their private information when this occurs less private information will be absorbed in price which in turn reduces price informativeness our model shows that the relationship between belief diversity and price informativeness is u shaped in equilibrium

will my risk parity strategy outperform the authors gauged the return generating potential of four investment strategies value weighted 60 40 fixed mix and unlevered and levered risk parity they report three main findings 1 even over periods lasting decades the start and end dates of a backtest can have a material effect on results 2 transaction costs can reverse ranking especially if leverage is used and 3 a statistically significant return premium does not guarantee outperformance over reasonable investment horizons see comments and response on this article

eco localism and sustainability abstract economic sustainability is best secured by the creation of local or regional self reliant community economies this is the central argument of eco local economic theory drawing on the experience of local currencies community corporations regional food economies and other locally oriented efforts eco local theory presents a new analysis of the economy of place it focuses on locally symbiotic capital positive externalities of self reliance and negative externalities of long distance trade and its specific concepts and analyses of the economy efficiency and economies of scale and consumption and welfare given its specific values and assumptions it is an economic theory of the social economy that is compatible with but distinct from ecological economics

profit fluctuations signal eroding resilience of natural resources abstract a common pattern of environmental crises is a vicious cycle between environmental degradation and socio economic disturbances here we show that while such feedbacks may give rise to critical transitions in social ecological systems at the same time they can offer novel opportunities for anticipating them we model a community that has joint access to the harvest grounds of a resource that is prone to collapse individuals are tempted to overexploit the resource while a cooperative harvesting norm spreads through the community via interpersonal relations both social and ecological collapses can be induced by environmental or socio economic driving forces regardless of the type and cause of collapse we find that upcoming transitions may be detected using simple socio economic response variables such as individual profits our findings suggest that such alternative sources of information can be used to detect upcoming critical transitions in social ecological systems however we also find that robust detection of critical transitions may be confounded by recovery attempts undertaken by resource users in the vicinity of an upcoming collapse which may be falsely interpreted as a stabilization of the social ecological system

the power of emotional value exploring the effects of values on green product consumer choice behavior using the theory of consumption values this research proposes to explore the consumer choice behavior for green products in pakistan functional value price and quality social value conditional value epistemic value and emotional value and environmental value were used to study the consumer choice behavior for green products it also gauges the extent to which emotional value moderates the impact of other consumption values on green product consumer choice behavior based on a sample of 260 respondents the results indicate that functional value price social value and environmental value have a positive impact on green product consumer choice behavior while conditional value and epistemic value have a negative effect functional value quality and emotional value do not influence green product consumer choice behavior as a moderator emotional value has a significant effect on the role of functional value social value conditional value epistemic value and environmental value this confirms and significantly adds to the literature of green product consumer choice behavior in a developing market

natural resource dependence human capital accumulation and economic growth a combined explanation for the resource curse and the resource blessing abstract in existing studies no consensus has been reached on the relationship between natural resource dependence and human capital accumulation to narrow the divergence this paper carries out a normative research to explain the co existence of the phenomena of the resource curse and the resource blessing based on an organic combination of conceptual and mathematical models it first establishes a conceptual model to analyse the potential effects of the government s policy preference and natural resource development activities on human capital accumulation and economic growth furthermore it develops an endogenous growth model to normatively illuminate the effects in the conceptual model and to explore the condition for the occurrence of the resource curse the conceptual model analysis indicates that the rate of return on education investment and government behaviours play the crucial role in promoting the formation of the economic virtuous circle at the micro level and macro level respectively while resource development activities exert dual impacts on the circle the main mechanisms in the conceptual model can be validated in the mathematical model the rise in the subjective discount rate the elasticity of intertemporal substitution and resource goods price are adverse to the economic virtuous circle while high quality education and the institutional environment giving priority to manufacturing can become the necessary condition and sufficient condition for forming the circle respectively the allocation efficiency of production factors plays a decisive role in whether the blessing occurs whereas sufficient human capital is an essential guarantee for evading the curse

subsistence substitutability and sustainability in consumption we propose a representation of individual preferences with a subsistence requirement in consumption and examine its implications for substitutability and sustainability specifically we generalize the standard constant elasticity of substitution ces utility specification for manufactured goods and environmental services by adding a subsistence requirement for environmental services we find that the hicksian elasticity of substitution strictly monotonically increases with the consumption of environmental services above the subsistence requirement and approaches the standard ces value as consumption becomes very large whether the two goods are market substitutes depends on the level of income we further show that the subsistence requirement may jeopardize the existence of an intertemporally optimal and sustainable consumption path our results have important implications for growth development and environmental policy

sushi or fish fingers seafood diversity collapsing fish stocks and multispecies fishery management we present a model of a multispecies fishery and we show the following i consumer preferences for seafood diversity can trigger a sequential collapse of fish stocks under open access fishery ii the stronger the preferences are for diversity the higher is the need for coordinated multispecies regulation iii second best optimal management of only one or a few species is less strict than socially optimal management of the same species iv myopic regulation of one species ignoring spillovers to other species can cause depletion of other stocks that would not be depleted under open access

sustainability of an economy relying on two reproducible assets evaluating the sustainability of a society requires a system of shadow or accounting values derived from the sustainability objective as a first step toward the derivation of such shadow values for a maximin objective this paper studies an economy composed of two reproducible assets each producing one of two consumption goods the effect of the substitutability between goods in utility is studied by postulating in turn neoclassical diminishing marginal substitutability perfect substitutability and perfect complementarity the degree of substitutability has strong effects on the maximin solution affecting the regularity or non regularity of the program and on the accounting values this has important consequences for the computation of genuine savings and the sustainability prospects of future generations

antitrust innovation and competitiveness the essays in this book explore how the us antitrust laws especially the sherman act have affected the ways in which us corporations can form alliances to compete in world markets the editors start from the premise that current antitrust laws needlessly and unwisely restrain innovation because they inhibit communication and co operation between firms although not all the contributors agree with them about the extent of this effect

simulating security markets in dynamic and equilibrium modes an asynchronous discrete time model run in dynamic mode can model the effects on market prices of changes in strategies leverage and regulations or the effects of different return estimation procedures and different trading rules run in equilibrium mode it can be used to arrive at equilibrium expected returns

unveiling ethical product features the importance of an elaborated information presentation abstract despite growing consumer awareness of ethical consumption market sales are not growing accordingly because the presentation of appropriate ethical product information may influence consumers to choose ethical products this paper analyses the requirements necessary for the successful communication of ethical product features based on mcguire s 1976 information processing model and a review of current literature the information s comprehensibility meaningfulness and credibility are investigated in an online survey of us american citizens n 595 for two product categories representing fast moving consumer goods and durable goods a generalized mixed logit model revealed that all three communication factors affect consumers choices the more concerns about or expertise in organic production and fair trade purchase the consumers expressed the less important their price sensibility and the more they preferred a comprehensive addendum and credible sources e g government certificate or traceability the results strongly suggest that advertisers and marketers can customize product communications in order to better engage both the mass market and ethically oriented consumers

sustainability meta labelling an effective measure to facilitate more sustainable consumption and production abstract arguably one of the most prominent measures to facilitate more sustainable consumption and production has been the instrument of product labelling but with a plethora of labelling schemes having been implemented by various actors over the last decade many now accuse them of being confusing rather than facilitating as a result governments in france uk and germany as well as businesses such as walmart and non governmental organisations like wwf have begun to consider seriously the implementation of some form of meta scheme that condenses existing product labels and other communication measures into an overarching sustainability message yet so far in depth studies on the potential institutionalisation of a sustainability meta labelling scheme are missing drawing upon a novel theoretically integrative framework that combines theoretical arguments of constructivist institutionalism and institutional entrepreneurship with the concept of legitimacy this paper addresses this gap by exploring how the notion of sustainability meta labelling has so far been discussed and investigating the prospects for such an overarching scheme to become institutionalised empirically the paper bases on documentary analysis and elite interviews focussed on case studies of four existing product labelling schemes eu ecolabel eu energy label marine stewardship council and fairtrade label as well as the notion of sustainability meta labelling legitimacy constructions are demonstrated rather than shown to be highly dynamic and oftentimes inherently conflicting many of these conflicts thereby appear to be likely to increase rather than decrease with the implementation of an overarching sustainability meta labelling scheme in a sense this study shows that the very issue that is claimed to drive the establishment of a sustainability meta labelling scheme the different interpretations of the sustainable development concept through different product labels might in fact pose one of the main challenges for its institutionalisation and effectiveness in facilitating more sustainable consumption and production

do markets differ much this essay reports the results of a crosssection study of differences in accounting profitability that sheds light on some basic controversies in industrial economics most previous cross section studies in this field have been concerned with testing hypotheses about structural coefficients in models meant to apply to essentially all markets as we have learned more about the difficulties of constructing such general models and of performing tests on their structural parameters properly structural cross section analysis has fallen out of fashion in contrast to most of the cross section literature the analysis reported here is fundamentally descriptive it does not attempt directly to estimate or to test hypotheses about structural parameters i hope to show by example that one can perform illuminating analysis of cross section data without a host of controversial maintained hypotheses cross section data can yield interesting stylized facts to guide both general theorizing and empirical analysis of specific industries even if they cannot easily support full blown structural estimation one can view the sort of search for stylized facts conducted here as either a replacement for or an input to interindustry structural estimation depending on one s feeling about the long run potential of that research approach this study also departs from much of the cross section literature by being fundamentally concerned with the importance of various effects not just with coefficient signs and t statistics in particular this essay provides estimates of the relative importance of firm market and market share differences in the determination of business unit divisional profitability in u s manufacturing using 1975 data from the line of business program of the u s federal trade commission ftc i find support neither for the existence of firm effects nor for the importance of market share effects moreover while industry effects apparently exist and are important they appear to be negatively correlated with seller concentration in these data section i relates firm market and share effects to current issues and controversies in industrial economics and thus supplies the motivation for our empirical analysis the remainder of the essay treats the data and

schumpeterian dynamics part ii technological progress firm growth and economic selection abstract business firms strive for survival and growth they innovate in order to grow they imitate in order to survive the purpose of this paper the second in the series on schumpeterian dynamics is to construct a simple mathematical model which is capable of studying the evolution of an industry s state of technology as a dynamic outcome of the interactions among innovation imitation and capacity growth at the micro level of firms the doctrine of economic selection insists by means of the analogy to the biological theory of natural selection that only the most efficient firms will survive the long run competitive struggle for capacity growth indeed if neither innovation nor imitation is possible for the firm a firm or a group of firms which is lucky enough to start with the most efficient technology will outgrow all the other firms in the long run once however the possibility of technological imitation is allowed for the firms the industry will settle down to a static equilibrium of perfect technological knowledge not by the success of the most efficient firms in their striving for the higher growth rate but by the success of the less efficient in their effort to imitate the others the blind force of economic selection is thus outwitted by the human force of imitative activities finally when firms are allowed to innovate in their technology the selective force of market competition is no longer capable of weeding out the less fit even in the long run indeed it is shown in the present paper that the dynamic interplay of the processes of innovation imitation and growth will keep the industry s state of technology from settling down to the static equilibrium but reproduce in the long run a relative dispersion of efficiencies across firms in a statistically balanced form

market incumbency and technological inertia this paper uses a case study and a simple mathematical model to study the link between the incumbency and incentives to innovate and introduce drastically new products it identifies the conditions under which fears of self cannibalization are particularly likely to lead incumbents to soft pedal such innovations

schumpeterian competition in experimental markets abstract we report on a series of laboratory experiments that capture key elements of research and development r d rivalry the experimental environment has a small number of sellers who compete in terms of pricing and production decisions and in terms of cost reducing r d rewards for innovation depend on the profitability of product market competition the experiments capture a kind of dynamic schumpeterian competition there is a sharp contrast in experimental results between monopolies and four seller competitive markets aggregate r d is higher under competition than under monopoly and prices follow marginal cost reductions much more quickly under competition than under monopoly the paper examines market performance in the experiments and the sources of market performance problems

a fresh look at understanding green consumer behavior among young urban indian consumers through the lens of theory of planned behavior abstract rapid economic growth and resulting overconsumption have accelerated environmental deterioration worldwide prompting escalated consumption related environmental concerns this study attempts to explore the antecedents of ecologically conscious consumer behavior eccb among young urban consumers in india an emerging market experiencing rapid economic growth with increased urbanization and changes in consumption patterns that are contributing to environmental hazard the empirical study including a literature review uses theory of planned behavior integrating environmental attitudes subjective norms perceived consumer effectiveness and behavioral intention in the model to investigate their influence on eccb the results suggest that attitudes and perceived consumer effectiveness both have a significant direct and indirect positive influence on eccb in addition it would appear that the subjective norm a measure of social demand does not have any significant influence on behavioral intention leading to eccb contrary to established findings in a collective society considered in this study this paper concludes with policy implications of the findings for marketers and policymakers as well as potential directions for further research

gender differences in customer expectations and perceptions of corporate social responsibility abstract the literature on business ethics corporate social responsibility and sustainability includes many studies on gender differences however the results are often contrasting in particular there has not yet been full agreement on the role and significance of gender differences in customer expectations and perceptions of responsible corporate conduct an extensive review of the research on the subject reveals that the published studies have not dealt with the substantive significance of gender differences and as a result the size of such differences is unknown the current study analyses both the statistical and the substantive significance of gender differences in customer expectations and perceptions of corporate responsibility also examining the influence of age and education the analysis is carried out on a remarkably large sample of 908 clients pertaining to 12 of the largest italian banks the overall results show that there is a small substantive difference between women s and men s average expectations with women showing higher average values than men this result holds generally true with variation of education levels and age groups young females show the highest average values of expectations and the significance of gender differences decreases with age in contrast the perception of corporate social responsibility does not show significant gender differences either at the general level or when the analyses are repeated by education levels and age groups the paper introduces the use of a standardized measure of effect size for analysing the substantive significance of gender differences in customer expectations and perceptions of corporate social responsibility this novel approach increases results reliability and accordingly the effectiveness of company or policy maker strategies in designing planning implementing and assessing sustainability initiatives

choices and the value of natural capital sustainability requires maintaining opportunities for future generations so they can meet their needs opportunities are passed to future generations through a set of capital assets nature provides an important class of these assets but markets seldom reveal the marginal value of natural capital rather the marginal social worth or asset price must be imputed based on intertemporal exchange in the context of assessing whether intertemporal allocation rules lead to sustainable development appropriate asset prices must be based on the actual allocations and trade offs society makes therefore measuring economic programmes that enable the measurement of asset prices is an important empirical task we review the theory of measuring natural capital asset prices and discuss the key elements of measuring economic programmes that enable the measurement of natural capital asset prices we place the measurement of economic programmes and natural capital asset prices in the context of wealth based sustainability metrics