the emergence of the biodiesel industry in brazil current figures and future prospects abstract the aim of the present paper is to characterize and analyze the emergence of the biodiesel industry in brazil and provide an assessment of the extent to which the goals established by the national biodiesel production and usage program have been reached in relation to the goal of including biodiesel within the brazilian energy matrix the program can be seen to be responding dynamically and ahead of schedule in 2010 the b5 blend was already part of the diesel consumed in brazil with 81 of the biodiesel coming from soybean oil and 14 from beef tallow by contrast the plans to diversify the feedstocks used to produce biodiesel and improve production in the poorest regions of brazil have failed to prosper regarding the goal of fostering social inclusion by encouraging the participation of family based farming this has been partially achieved finally the goal of cost efficiently producing biodiesel is far from being achieved the economic feasibility of the production and use of biodiesel in brazil can be questioned since it is still strongly supported by tax incentives and production and marketing subsidies

work and family role adjustment of different types of global professionals scale development and validation although the original model of expatriate adjustment proposed by black and colleagues has received substantial empirical support it has come under increased academic scrutiny due to both the conceptual overlap among its dimensions and its limited applicability for global professionals who interact with individuals from diverse cultures drawing on role theory we conceptualize and develop a multidimensional scale of the work and family role adjustment of global professionals we assess this scale through five interlocking studies using data from a total of 1231 corporate and self initiated expatriates international business travelers and global domestics after confirming the scale s dimensionality we provide evidence for convergent discriminant nomological and predictive validity we also demonstrate differences in levels of adjustment and in relationships between work and family demands and resources and their respective forms of adjustment across various types of global professionals we contribute to international business research and the organizational behavior and work family literatures by offering a theoretically based scale that assesses adjustment to both work and family roles for a wide range of global employees our scale further lends itself as a diagnostic tool during the selection training and support of global professionals and their families

career management issues facing expatriates this research explores expatriate assignments from a career development perspective first the article examines the impact of five organization level career development programs and policies on expatriate effectiveness then it explores the impact of five individual level career management strategies on the success of expatriate transitions data from 118 expatriates in saudi arabia europe south america and japan are presented to examine these career development issues

innovation outcomes in a distributed organization intrafirm mobility and access to resources prior research has established a relation between intrafirm mobility and innovation outcomes at distributed organizations the literature has also uniformly agreed on the mechanism underlying this relationship the sharing of tacit knowledge and recombination of ideas that occurs because of intrafirm mobility but a second mechanism may also be at work intrafirm mobility might help distant employees secure access to resources for their innovative projects using unique data on travel employment and patenting for 1 315 inventors at the indian research and development r d center of a fortune 50 multinational i find that intrafirm mobility in the form of short duration business trips from a distant r d location to headquarters is positively related to higher subsequent patenting at the individual level i also find mobility immediately prior to meetings at which r d funds are most likely to be disbursed to be related to higher subsequent patenting this study sheds new light on how intrafirm mobility a

organizational predictors of expatriate job satisfaction the study presented here attempted to identify the factors under the control of the organization that may predict expatriate job satisfaction the results indicate that both job task and organization characteristics are significantly related to both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction the results appear to have both managerial and research implications

world bank environmental reform revisiting lessons from agency theory daniel nielson and michael tierney s article delegation to international organizations agency theory and world bank environmental reform international organization spring 2003 makes a strong argument for ways in which principalagent p a models advance theoretical explanations of the behavior and performance of international organizations ios most ios suffer from widely recognized gaps between their mandates and their performance gaps not well explained by the major theories in our field p a models are premised on the assumption that performance problems naturally arise when one actor the principal delegates to another actor the agent the authority to act in the former s interests the models seek to explain why and how the divergence of interests between the two parties may result in the agent s actions differing from the principal s intentions how agents may be better controlled and the costs of doing so the article is a straightforward application of the basic insights of the p a model to the case of the world bank s environmental behavior the authors want to explain what they identify as sudden and significant environmental reform at the bank in 1994 after previous bank reforms fell short of altering its behavior the authors argue that the successful reform efforts reflect the convergence of preferences among the bank s major member state principals and their use of a variety of screening oversight and contracting tools to reduce slippage between their interests and those of the bank staff agents the authors test their model by examining the bank s environmental behavior from 1980 2000 and use descriptive statistics to assess bank environmental lending behavior during the same period they conclude that a comparison of lending patterns in 1994 2000 with the 1987 93 period shows

a needs driven approach to expatriate adjustment and career development a multiple mentoring perspective although effective in improving socialization development and retention in the us domestic context mentoring would likely benefit expatriates and their firms but it remains theoretically underdeveloped in the international context we develop a theory of international mentoring by integrating current perspectives on protean and boundaryless careers with the literature on mentoring and expatriates expatriates need multiple mentors to assist their adjustment and development during the pre departure expatriation and repatriation stages of international assignments we discuss both hierarchical and peer and formal and informal mentoring relationships to delineate which relationships best address specific expatriate needs international mentoring may improve expatriate adjustment development and retention and thus may affect outcomes of international strategy we conclude by discussing implications and avenues for future research

impact of policies and subsidies in agribusiness the case of oil palm and biofuels in colombia abstract we analyze the economic impacts of policies supporting biodiesel production in colombia such as subsidies and mandates for compulsory fuel mixtures in the major biodiesel source being palm oil we seek to establish the impact of these policies on oil palm producer incomes prices and production levels of crude palm oil cpo and biodiesel as well as the impacts on demand for land for oil palm plantation expansion we also calculate the so called deadweight costs to account for the social costs derived from the inefficiencies of government interventions in the biodiesel markets the analysis is done using a partial equilibrium models for the two interrelated sectors the production of palm oil and biodiesel and the demand for new land needed to cope with the additional palm oil needed the model was calibrated for 2009 to simulate for the 2010 2020 period the results of the simulations reveal that the subsidies alone are themselves not effective tools to achieve the government objectives defined in the biofuels program in colombia subsidies need to be complemented by increased blending mandates to ensure that palm cultivation and production of biodiesel investments are profitable enough that producers would bet on such business additionally we find that producers of palm oil benefit most from subsidies in the short term however in the long term it is the biodiesel entrepreneurs who will appropriate the larger share of growth revenue of the entire production chain the social costs of the biofuels program are small in the short term and represent only between 0 2 and 0 7 of the tax expenditure however in the long term they would become significant and would account for around 4 1 to 6 1 of the tax payers expense

work role transitions a study of american expatriate managers in japan throughout the course of a career an individual must make numerous role transitions instigated through such events as overseas transfers domestic transfers promotions company reorganizations and inter company job changes this paper examines the relationships between several variables and work role transition in the case of an overseas assignment to japan role ambiguity and role discretion were found to influence work adjustment while predeparture knowledge association with local nationals and family s adjustment were found to correlate with general adjustment of american expatriate managers in japan

dual career expatriates expectations adjustment and satisfaction with international relocation dual career expatriate couples present a challenging set of problems for international human resource managers the results of a survey of husbands and wives in expatriate dual career couples are analyzed relative to 1 differences between the expatriates and their trailing spouses 2 differences between male and female led dual career couples 3 differences between dual career couples opinions prior to expatriation and upon repatriation the results of the study indicate dual career couples have relatively consistent concerns and expectations prior to expatriation and upon repatriation to their home country the significant differences observed were between male led dual career couples prior to expatriation when compared to male led dual career couples upon repatriation in addition the dual career expatriate respondents did not feel the mnc that transferred them overseas provided adequate training or social support during the international assignment

the effects of governance modes on the energy matrix of andean countries this article addresses the consequences of different modes of energy governance on the energy matrix energy governance is understood as a regulation system of the energy related interplays between the state the society and the economy the energy matrix is a useful instrument for comparative policy analysis since it informs us about production and consumption trends by sources and sectors our central argument is that energy governance follows two different patterns one hierarchical and the other cooperative that are not necessarily determined by the initial factors allocation and produce different effects on the energy matrix hierarchical governance is based on centralized decision making and state centered development while co governance is based on decentralized decision making and market oriented development to develop this argument we compare the energy matrix from the five andean countries venezuela colombia ecuador peru and bolivia

dimensions determinants and differences in the expatriate adjustment process we comprehensively test the black mendenhall and oddou 1991 model of the dimensions and determinants of adjustment to international assignments we also expand the model to examine two individual factors i e previous assignments and language fluency and three positional factors i e hierarchical level functional area and assignment vector as moderators of adjustment determinants surveys were completed by 452 expatriates from 29 different countries assigned to 45 host countries by large multinational firms the multi dimensionality of adjustment was investigated and confirmed support for the expanded black et al 1991 model was found several significant moderating effects emerged showing different patterns of adjustment for those with different amounts of previous expatriate experience and levels of host country language fluency hierarchical level and assignment vector were also important moderators but the effects for functional area were generally weak

delegation to international organizations agency theory and world bank environmental reform current international relations theory struggles to explain both the autonomy and transformation of international organizations ios previous theories either fail to account for any io behavior that deviates from the interests of member states or neglect the role of member states in reforming io institutions and behavior we propose an agency theory of ios that can fill these gaps while also addressing two persistent problems in the study of ios common agency and long delegation chains our model explains slippage between member states interests and io behavior but also suggests institutional mechanisms staff selection monitoring procedural checks and contracts through which states can rein in errant ios we evaluate this argument by examining multiple institutional reforms and lending patterns at the world bank from 1980 to 2000

evaluating the economics of biodiesel in africa abstract road transport in sub saharan africa is expected to rise in the coming years paradoxically this expansion is occurring at a time when oil prices have reached new heights unstable oil prices do indeed increase the vulnerability of importers however it also presents them with a unique opportunity to explore promising technical options to help reduce their over reliance on imported petroleum fuels this paper takes a closer look at the potential for biodiesel with an emphasis on fuels produced from oil palm castor oil and jatropha in ghana kenya and tanzania respectively the paper provides an economic appraisal of biodiesels from these feedstocks and sets the context for further discussions on biofuels in africa

sector based political analysis of energy transition green shift in the forest policy regime in france abstract this article examines energy transition political process from a sector based approach through the analysis of recent shift in the french forest policy regime we demonstrate that since 2007 energy transition policies have led to a harvesting turn within the french forest policy framework meaning that priority is given to wood mobilisation mainly for biomass uses in addition our findings suggest that the political authority wielded by the state over forest policy has shifted from forest administrative services to energy agencies and local authorities finally we show that although implementation of the harvesting turn is a cause of sectoral and inter sectoral tensions energy transition challenge also contributes to a process of re institutionalisation of mediation relationships among forestry stakeholders and wood based industries representatives the article concludes by arguing that sectors should retain relevant institutional frameworks for actors when choosing political arrangements required for implementing energy transition policy

why do international assignees stay an organizational embeddedness perspective we apply an organizational embeddedness perspective to examine international assignees retention with the organization specifically we hypothesize that assignees social ties within and their perceived fit with the host unit positively relate to two sacrifices on leaving the organization their firm specific learning during the assignment and their perceived career prospects in the organization perceived career prospects are expected to predict subsequent retention moderated by firm specific learning these hypotheses are tested using a sample of 143 inpatriates in 10 german multinationals with retention measured 2 and 4 years later we show that inpatriates trusting ties with hq staff and their fit with the hq positively relate to their firm specific learning and their perceived career prospects and that the latter predicts their retention 2 and 4 years later perceived career prospects mediate the direct relationship between inpatriates fit with the hq and inpatriate retention and the indirect relationship between inpatriates trusting ties with hq staff and their retention furthermore inpatriates firm specific learning mitigates the effect of perceived career prospects on retention decisions 2 years later we contribute to the organizational embeddedness careers and international business literatures by explaining when and how facets of organizational embeddedness relate to assignee retention

ecuador s energy policy mix development versus conservation and nationalism with chinese loans abstract ecuador s energy policy faces a complex variety of political and economic objectives that are difficult to reconcile in a consistent manner ecuador is a small oil producer and exporter with significant renewable mainly hydropower resources hosting some of the richest biodiversity areas in the world part of which are inhabited by so far indigenous un contacted people being a developing country tensions arise between conservation aims and development imperatives as well as between resource nationalism and much needed foreign financing however the really limiting factor for the country s energy development seems to be its constraints in financing the government s development and redistributive policies resorting to chinese loans for oil may be part of the solution in the short term but it does not substitute for a more consistent energy policy ecuador s case illustrates the dilemmas of energy policy in natural resource rich developing countries when confronted with diverging political economy social environmental and macro financial goals

individual organizational work and environmental influences on expatriate turnover tendencies an empirical study foreign postings for executives are costly undertakings for multinational corporations especially when they fail yet little research has been done on the causes of expatriate turnover this 155 expatriate survey assesses individual organizational work and environmental influences on both internal and external turnover tendencies it was found that job autonomy and material life satisfaction were key predictors for both internal and external turnover tendencies only for organizational turnover did job autonomy supersede material life satisfaction as the lead predictor of turnover tendencies american expatriates attach much importance to maintaining living standards in postings to foreign locations

mentoring across global boundaries an empirical examination of home and host country mentors on expatriate career outcomes there has long been an interest in the effects of mentors on protege career outcomes and with scholars now beginning to examine mentoring across national boundaries using survey information as well as company records for 299 expatriates 163 men 136 women in 10 countries we examined the impact of home and host country mentors upon expatriate effectiveness we found that having a host country mentor had a significant positive effect on the expatriate s organizational knowledge organizational knowledge sharing job performance promotability and perceptions of teamwork having a home country mentor had a significant positive effect only on organizational knowledge job performance and promotability surprisingly our results revealed that having a home country mentor had a significant but negative effect on the expatriate s organization identification and job satisfaction contrary to the literature neither type of mentoring had a significant effect on job tension implications for practice as well as future research are detailed

feedstock diversification for biodiesel production in brazil using the policy analysis matrix pam to evaluate the impact of the pnpb and the economic competitiveness of alternative oilseeds abstract while biodiesel feedstock diversification is a main objective of the brazilian national program for the production and use of biodiesel pnpb in portuguese its achievement has remained elusive and biodiesel is predominantly produced from soybean 75 this research uses the policy analysis matrix pam approach to evaluate the pnpb effects and compare the economic efficiency and the competitiveness of biodiesel from three oilseeds soybean rapeseed and sunflower in contrast to papers that present results of experimental biodiesel production initiatives this paper explores the case of representative production chains best available technology and management practices the findings indicate that biodiesel production is competitive from the three oilseeds but the profitability of biodiesel from the soybean is notably higher the tax breaks and subsidies provided by the pnpb have a positive impact on the profitability of biodiesel production chains 7 43 for soybean 3 88 for rapeseed 5 53 for sunflower these results are encouraging and suggest two actions i to review the incentive policies tax reduction and payments to farmers of the different crops pay for oil content instead of crop yield and ii to invest in organizational and managerial approaches in the alternative oilseed agricultural systems to improve their technical and economic efficiency

green industrial policy green growth requires green technologies production techniques that economize on exhaustible resources and emit fewer greenhouse gases the availability of green technologies both lowers social costs in the transition to a green growth path and helps achieve a satisfactory rate of material progress under that path the theoretical case in favour of using industrial policy to facilitate green growth is quite strong economists traditional scepticism on industrial policy is grounded instead on pragmatic considerations having to do with the difficulty of achieving well targeted and effective interventions in practice while these objections deserve serious attention i argue that they are not insurmountable a key objective of this paper is to show how the practice of industrial policy can be improved by designing institutional frameworks that counter both informational and political risks

inducing efficiency in the use of foreign aid the case for incentive mechanisms in this article we point out that one of the main problems in foreign aid allocation is the efficient use of these funds as resources available for foreign aid are intrinsically scarce their efficient use would be in the interest of donors and especially recipient countries the aim of this paper is to show how it is possible to design incentive schemes which by relating the allocation of aid to the way it is used may induce the recipient country to use these resources appropriately we discuss potential benefits and problems of different contractual forms showing how comparing the performances of different countries may help to design optimal incentive mechanisms finally we illustrate a proposal of performance conditioning of the grant element which may help in tackling the efficiency problem

expatriation repatriation and domestic geographical relocation an empirical investigation of adjustment to new job assignments this research examines the relative impact of six sets of factors on multiple indices of adjustment to new job assignments these six sets of factors include demographic variables indices of the internationalness of the job change e g whether the job changer is an expatriate repatriate or domestic geographical relocator job characteristics variables types and amount of career development assistance degree of change between successive job assignments and types of individual coping strategies employed by job changers data were collected from 459 job changers from twenty six countries the results highlight both the commonalities among expatriates repatriates and domestic geographical relocators in adjusting to new job assignments as well as the differences among them

buen vivir vs development ii the limits of neo extractivism like the entire andean region ecuador has an economic structure that is dependent on primary exports during the last boom in commodity prices the neo extractivist development strategy generated economic growth and simultaneously reduced inequality however this bonanza was not used to advance in economic diversification or for transition towards buen vivir sumak kawsay good living as postulated in the constitution and the national development plans we establish that neo extractivism is not compatible with buen vivir analysing three concrete aspects to this end the failure to fulfill the rights of nature and ecological sustainability the lack of advances in transforming the productive matrix insufficient results in matters of redistributive social policies

repatriation of corporate executives an empirical study the effective management of corporate executives returning from foreign assignments has received little attention from academic researchers this study is based on questionnaires completed by members of the american society of personnel administration international aspi the focus of the study was directed at problems that occurred in repatriating executives programs used by corporations to repatriate returning executives and examines why programs have not been instituted by multinational corporations

energy policy in the caribbean green economy context and the institutional analysis and design iad framework as a proposed tool for its development abstract market integration efforts of caribbean small island developing states have become transposed on the growing paradigm shift towards green economy pathways central to this is the challenge of implementing caribbean energy policy in a manner that is aligned with green economy ideals and face the realities of regional indebtedness and environmental impacts here we analyze the current state of the caribbean energy policy development arena and propose that the currently weak policy and institutional design regime might potentially benefit from the application of the institutional analysis and design iad model especially within the operational context of the green economy it allows us to identify current policy dilemmas bottlenecks and discrepancies and to disentangle some of them while offering up a way forward with others we do not so much offer distinct recommendations but focus more on delineating how to clear the pathway for sound policy intervention and outcomes by doing so we set forth a challenging agenda for future policy analysis research that will advance caribbean energy policy in more robust ways

the distinction between stable and dynamic cross cultural competencies implications for expatriate trainability existing research fails to distinguish between stable cross cultural c c competencies e g personality traits and dynamic ones yet stable competencies may constrain trainability in the dynamic c c skills that are critical for c c adjustment accordingly this distinction is drawn using black mendenhall s 1990 3 dimensional typology of c c competencies as a framework operationalizations for the c c competencies are suggested the practical and theoretical implications for expatriate management are then discussed

ecuador s yasuni itt initiative the old and new values of petroleum abstract this article examines the financial mechanism currently known as the yasuni itt initiative by which ecuador would be compensated for not exploiting the reserves of heavy crude lying underneath the yasuni national park a biosphere reserve for humanity located in the amazon region an analysis of the ways in which the proposal is being debated is offered to illustrate the unique problems posed by the incorporation of natural capital in economic decisions a focus on the creative measurements and calculations offered by a range of social actors highlights the relevance of morally framed evaluations in defining the future economic use of the park i show how an anthropological perspective may complement ecological economics and various political and economic approaches to development policy and enrich our understanding of the specific challenges posed by the design of economic instruments for the protection of ecological wealth in latin american countries poor in financial capital but rich in biological diversity

toward a theoretical framework of repatriation adjustment although the increased internationalization of business has brought greater scholarly attention to the issue of adjustment to overseas assignments comparatively little research activity has been paid to the topic of adjustment back to the home country and home office repatriation adjustment in this article we argue that repatriation adjustment is sufficiently different from other forms of work adjustment e g domestic relocation and expatriate assignments to warrant separate theoretical and empirical investigation to facilitate this we propose an initial theoretical framework and set of derived propositions to guide and spark future research on this topic

governing biofuels in brazil a comparison of ethanol and biodiesel policies over the last decade brazil has implemented a new and ambitious biofuel program the national program of production and use of biodiesel pnpb when launching this program in 2004 the government stated that it wanted to avoid the same kind of geographical concentration single crop focus dominance of agribusiness and exclusion of family farmers that have occurred with bioethanol production through the proalcool policy since 1975 this paper compares the life histories of the bioethanol and the biodiesel policies of brazil by analyzing their substantive policy content the power and politics of actors that struggle for the design and implementation of the policies and the polity in terms the organization and institutionalization of the policies the paper concludes that both policies have become submerged by and dependent on the polity and politics of primarily the energy and agricultural sectors that operate as the two semi autonomous governance fields this submerging has shaped the substantive contents of biofuels policies and explains why the 2004 biodiesel policy pnpb in spite of its objectives for social inclusion and rural development faces similar problems in implementation as its predecessor the 1975 bioethanol policy proalcool

energy conservation and sustainable economic growth the case of latin america and the caribbean this study examines the causal relationships among energy consumption economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in twenty countries from latin america and the caribbean region the methodology includes the use of phillips and perron pp tests a cointegration model with vector error correction modeling vecm and vector autoregression var with granger causality the study concludes that of the twenty countries analyzed only in four of them will it be possible to implement energy conservation polices without affecting their economic growth four others are not able to consider an energy conservation policy with economic growth and the other twelve should focus on their economic growth before adopting any conservation policies energy efficiency was found in this region especially in the countries which have both cointegration and short term equilibrium

nationality cultural distance and expatriate status effects on the managerial network in a multinational enterprise we study the role of three characteristics of international managers nationality cultural distance and expatriate status for their network ties a network analysis of cross subsidiary interactions among 457 managers in an mne demonstrates that managers form strong expressive ties with peers with smaller cultural distance and from the same status group however managers form strong instrumental ties with peers who are different on these background characteristics the implications for international management theory and practice are discussed

the effect of biodiesel policies on world biodiesel and oilseed prices a theoretical and empirical model is developed to analyze the effect of a biodiesel mandate a tax exemption tax credit and an exogenous diesel price shock on world soybean and canola markets the jointness in crushing oil and meal from the oilseed reduces the size of the link between biodiesel and oilseed prices a diesel price shock with a mandate results in a smaller change in oilseed prices compared with a tax exemption higher diesel prices increase biodiesel prices under a tax exemption but lower them with a blend mandate when both canola and soybeans are used to produce biodiesel an increase in the diesel price leads to higher canola prices but the effect on soybean prices is ambiguous and depends on relative elasticities of meal demand and canola supply because canola produces more oil than soybeans

the commodification of nature and socio environmental resistance in ecuador an inventory of accumulation by dispossession cases 1980 2013 abstract this article aims to advance understanding of the relationship between social metabolism the commodification of nature local regime changes and patterns of resistance to accumulation by environmental dispossession during the most recent phase of global capitalism ecuador is a resource rich periphery country that has moved after 2007 from a neoliberal to a post neoliberal policy regime by analyzing 64 socio environmental resistance cases in the period 1980 2013 we focus on the continuities and changes in the relationship between environmental dispossession and resistance under the two regimes we find that while resistance to agri food projects has diminished having enjoyed some success under during the post neoliberal regime resistance to infrastructure and mineral extraction projects has remained steady with the impacts from environmental dispossession remaining much like those observed before 2007 at the same time major social investments financed through natural resource extraction and export combined with the introduction of constraints on the media and public assembly have created a political climate in which the resistance observed during the neo liberal period is now a socially deviant behavior

many moving parts factors influencing the effectiveness of hrm practices designed to improve knowledge transfer within mncs minbaeva pedersen bjorkman fey and park s 2003 award winning article highlights the importance of human resource management hrm practices for enhancing employees ability and motivation to transfer knowledge practices that in turn affect knowledge transfer to subsidiaries within multinational corporations mncs in the decade since their laudable article was published some contributions have been made highlighting the contingencies related to the effectiveness of hrm practices in mncs especially those affecting an organizations absorptive capacity these contingencies the moving parts include country level differences in hr systems cross cultural differences in acceptance of hr practices and individual level factors affecting the effectiveness of hrm practices with an eye toward the future i discuss these contingencies paying closest attention to the effect of the individual differences affecting employees willingness to engage in knowledge sharing from the perspective of hrm this year s decade award article opened some significant doors for future research my goal for this commentary is to highlight them and the many that remain relatively unexplored