heterogeneity in the adoption of photovoltaic systems in flanders abstract we study the determinants of pv adoption in the region of flanders belgium where pv adoption reached high levels during 2006 2012 because of active government intervention based on a unique dataset at a very detailed spatial level we estimate a poisson model to explain the heterogeneity in adoption rates we obtain the following findings first local policies have a robust and significant impact on pv adoption second there is a strong unconditional income effect implying a matthew effect in the subsidization of pvs our third finding is however that this income effect is largely driven by the fact that wealthier households are more likely to adopt because they tend to be higher users are more frequent house owners or own houses that are better suited for pv in several extensions we consider the determinants of the average size of installed pvs and the differential impact of certain variables over time

socio geographic perception in the diffusion of innovation solar energy technology in sri lanka abstract understandings of the diffusion process have tended to emphasize either the adoption perspective which focuses on individual characteristics or the market perspective which focuses on institutional context in this paper we bring these two perspectives together by recognizing that people are embedded in socio geographic contexts that affect their perceptions of their situations which in turn shape the innovativeness of individuals and places focusing on the diffusion of solar home systems shs in sri lanka we explore the role of context at the village by comparing adoption rates among villages and individual by comparing time to adoption among household decision makers in a case study village scales at the village scale we find that expectations of government policy based on interactions related to ethnicity and politicians previous power grid connection promises are significant drivers of shs adoption along with perceived tolerance levels in the village for non conformist behavior among household decision makers within the case study village we analyze relative adoption time and the duration of the innovation decision process and find that perceiving strong village level social control inhibits shs adoption decision making the results add to innovation diffusion theory and provide policy recommendations for agencies promoting solar energy in developing countries

does foreign environmental policy influence domestic innovation evidence from the wind industry this paper analyses the relative influence of domestic and foreign demand pull policies in wind power across oecd countries on the rate of innovation in this technology we use annual wind power generation to capture the stringency of the portfolio of demand pull policies in place e g guaranteed tariffs investment and production tax credits and patent data as an indicator of innovation activity we find that wind technology improvements respond positively to policies both home and abroad but the marginal effect of domestic policies is 12 times greater the influence of foreign polices is reduced by barriers to technology diffusion in particular lax intellectual property rights reducing such barriers therefore constitutes a powerful policy leverage for boosting environmental innovation globally

protest responses and willingness to pay attitude toward paying for stormwater pollution abatement abstract in contingent valuation cv surveys there is often a proportion of individuals who are not willing to pay to obtain avoid an increase decrease in some attribute of a particular environmental public good some of these respondents might protest an aspect of the cv survey e g payment vehicle or the behavioral intention i e willingness to pay wtp constituting the measure of economic value respondents attitudes toward the behavior of paying for a particular public good may contribute to the decision to pay independent of other explanatory variables such as the price of the intervention household income and methodological characteristics of the cv survey moreover attitude toward paying for the good may manifest in protest responses as a reaction to higher prices and methodological factors e g the payment vehicle to the extent that protest beliefs are dependent on such matters of survey design they may be alleviated through changes in cv methodology however to the extent that protest beliefs are a reaction to the act of paying methodological remedies may not be effective cv surveys of stormwater pollution abatement were conducted in four australian state capital cities the surveys differed with respect to the type of pollution abatement intervention the payment regime the vector of prices used in the dichotomous choice question and the institution responsible for implementing the stormwater pollution intervention protest beliefs were measured for all respondents irrespective of their responses to the wtp question results indicated that attitude toward paying underpinned protest beliefs regarding the role of government in stormwater management and individual rights to unpolluted waterways this attitude was present in each city sample despite methodological differences between the cv surveys attitude toward paying explained variability in wtp and was a larger predictor than was price household income was significantly associated with attitude toward paying and this relationship was also invariant over city samples protest beliefs were not independent of either the wtp question or demographic factors such as household income rather these beliefs were related to wtp through attitudes toward the act of paying for stormwater pollution abatement censoring protest responses in the present study would bias cv samples toward those individuals who are favorably disposed toward paying for environmental public goods and those from higher income households

venture management in japanese companies abstract this study based on a survey of reports on the subject published in japan since 1980 and an in depth analysis of 20 companies aims to understand the reasons why japanese firms have adopted western style venture management techniques and the organizational patterns they have created to implement them although they started relatively recently large japanese firms have adopted venture management methods in about the same proportion as their american counterparts the main reasons for this lie in the need to diversify out of mature industries to foster innovation to speed up new product development and to create an organizational vehicle permitting creative younger employees to develop their ideas the traditional characteristics of japanese firms have not been found suited to the latter two reasons the general pattern of organizing new venture activities was found to represent five different models ranging from company wide task forces to the creation of a separate new venture company these models constitute a decreasing order of integration of venture teams with other divisions and staff departments of the parent company the degree of integration of venture teams with the parent was found to be only partially related to the extent of diversification involved while task forces and new venture companies the two extreme categories represented increasing diversification the intermediate organizational forms were less uniformly related in separating the diversification variable into its technology and market components however a somewhat better explanatory link could be established companies in which new ventures drew upon the core technology tended to integrate their ventures with the parent more than others the other reasons for the weak link between diversification and integration was surmised to be the general trend toward encouraging entrepreneurship and speeding up the innovation process this was reflected in the authors interviews with companies and some overt behavior particularly the propensity to spin off new venture early and often the use of venture management methods in japan with its emphasis on youth and independence constitutes a partial renunciation of certain managerial policies and cultural traits that formed the strength of japanese companies in the past while certain aspects of traditional japanese management such as small group accountability shared division of labor and self organizing teams favor the implantation of venture management methods in japan others having to do with the seniority system and egalitarianism do not so far at least japanese managers have coped reasonably well with the organization frictions that one might have expected to arise partly because of the active interest and involvement of senior management the latter not only helped define the strategic context the domain of search but had venture teams report to them directly or indirectly in most cases

supplementing an emissions tax by a feed in tariff for renewable electricity to address learning spillovers abstract in the presence of learning spillovers related to renewable energy technologies an optimal strategy to mitigate climate change should complement an emissions tax by a subsidy for renewables this article addresses the question how such subsidy should be designed it is shown that the widely used approach of a revenue neutral fixed feed in tariff can yield an optimal outcome under restrictive conditions only it has to be adapted continuously as the electricity price changes moreover funding the tariff by a surcharge on the electricity price has important implications for the design of the emission tax the optimal tax rate has to be below the pigovian level differentiated across fossil fuels and adapted over time as the patterns of technological development change these requirements may pose a formidable challenge for practical decision making however it is important to point out that the eventual choices made with respect to the design and funding of a feed in tariff have to be based on a careful and more comprehensive policy assessment including inter alia economic effects beyond the electricity sector and existing institutional constraints

the value of urban tree cover a hedonic property price model in ramsey and dakota counties minnesota usa article i nfo urban tree cover benefits communities these benefits economic values however are poorly recognized and often ignored by landowners and planners we use hedonic property price modeling to estimate urban tree cover s value in dakota and ramsey counties mn usa predicting housing value as a function of structural neighborhood and environmental variables including tree cover using a spatial simultaneous autore gressive sar error model we measure tree cover as percent tree cover on parcels and within 100 250 500 750 and 1000 m results show that tree cover within 100 and 250 m is positive and statistically significant a 10 increase in tree cover within 100 m increases average home sale price by 1371 0 48 and within 250 m increases sale price by 836 0 29 in a model including both linear and squared tree cover terms tree cover within 100 and 250 m increases sale price to 40 60 tree cover beyond this point increased tree cover contributes to lower price tree cover beyond 250 m did not contribute significantly to sale price these results suggest significant positive effects for neighborhood tree cover for instance for the shading and aesthetic quality of tree lined streets indicating that tree cover provides positive neighborhood externalities

yea saying in contingent valuation surveys a number of recent papers have provided estimates of willingness to pay derived in contingent valuation surveys exceeding those revealed in experimental or real life markets one possible explanation for the overestimation of values is the presence of yea saying with the objective of reducing the occurrence of yea saying a new elicitation format referred to as the dissonance minimizing d m format is proposed an empirical comparison of the dm format with the conventional dichotomous choice dc format and the ambivalence reducing polychotomous choice pc format suggested by ready whitehead and blomquist 1995 is made results are encouraging for the dm

the economic performance of innovative small firms in the south east region and elsewhere in the uk thwaites a and wynarczyk p 1996 the economic performance of innovative small firms in the south east region and elsewhere in the uk reg studies 30 135 149 the paper explores the contribution of innovative small firms to local economic performance in different regional environments in the uk the empirical analysis is based on a sample of small independent firms listed on the spru innovation database 1975 83 it uses detailed financial and other data on each firm to examine their performance in different operational environments the results suggest that the average innovative sme exhibits many of the characteristics of a fast growth firm however the modus operandi of enterprise appears to differ between firms located in the south east region and other parts of the uk and these differences lead to variable outcomes in terms of employment asset and export growth thwaites a et wynarczyk p 1996 la performance economique des petites entreprises innovatrices situees dans la region sud est et d

regional distribution of photovoltaic deployment in the uk and its determinants a spatial econometric approach abstract photovoltaic pv panels offer significant potential for contributing to the uk s energy policy goals relating to decarbonisation of the energy system security of supply and affordability the substantive drop in the cost of panels since 2007 coupled with the introduction of the feed in tariff fit scheme in 2010 has resulted in a rapid increase in installation of pv panels in the uk from 26 5mwp in 2009 to over 5gw by the end of 2014 yet there has been no comprehensive analysis of the determinants of pv deployment in the uk this paper addresses this gap by employing spatial econometrics methods to a recently available data set at a fine geographical detail following a traditional regression analysis a general to specific approach has been adopted where spatial variations in the relationships have been examined utilising the spatial durbin model using the cross sectional data relating to the uk nuts level 3 data empirical results indicate that demand for electricity population density pollution levels education level of households and housing types are among the factors that affect pv uptake in a region moreover lagrange multiplier test results indicate that the spatial durbin model may be properly applied to describe the pv uptake relationship in the uk as there are significant regional spillover effects

measurement of bequest value using a non monetary payment in a choice experiment the case of improving forest ecosystem services for the benefit of local communities in rural kenya abstract this paper adds to the limited literature on the bequest value of environmental resources a choice experiment ce was carried out in order to estimate the economic value of changes in ecosystem services that impact on the welfare of rural communities in the vicinity of a rainforest in kenya our results demonstrate that in addition to valuing immediate benefits respondents were willing to pay 1750kshs for the use of forest resources by posterity the results also establish that the chosen non monetary payment vehicle was not evaluated differently to a standard cash payment

consequences of cultural practices for entrepreneurial behaviors although national culture is an important regulator of entrepreneurship there is a dearth of studies that 1 explore the effects of national cultural practices on entrepreneurial behaviors by individuals 2 use appropriate multilevel research designs 3 consider the effects of culture on different entrepreneurial behaviors such as entry and post entry growth aspirations we combined global entrepreneurship monitor gem and global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness globe data from 42 countries for 2005 2008 to address these gaps using a multilevel design we found societal institutional collectivism practices negatively associated with entrepreneurial entry but positively associated with entrepreneurial growth aspirations uncertainty avoidance practices were negatively associated with entry but not with growth aspirations and performance orientation practices were positively associated with entry our analysis highlights the differential effects of cultural practices on entrepreneurial entry and growth aspirations and demonstrates the value of multilevel techniques in analyzing the effect of culture on entrepreneurship

a model of cultural differences and international alliance performance we propose a model of cultural differences and international alliance performance to explain the ambiguous findings regarding the influence of national culture differences on alliance performance building on research on national organizational and professional cultures we argue that the closer the domain of a social group is to the value creating activities of an alliance the more disruptive cultural differences between the partners members of that social group will be organizational culture differences will tend to be more disruptive than national culture differences and differences in the professional culture most relevant to alliance value creation typically will be the most disruptive implications for research and managerial practice are discussed and the model s relevance for international r d alliances is highlighted

green for green the perceived value of a quantitative change in the urban tree estate of new zealand abstract the urban tree estate impacts on the quality of urban life through the provision of a series of benefits that are ecological aesthetic social and economic in nature most of these benefits do not have a market price and exact information on the type of values people attach to urban trees is scarce the optimal allocation of resources towards the management of this natural asset is therefore problematic this study measures by contingent valuation the perceived monetary value of avoiding a 20 decrease in the urban tree estate of 15 cities in aotearoa new zealand the results reveal that on average households would be willing to pay around 2003 nzd 184 annually for the avoidance of a 20 reduction in their local urban tree estate with the commitment covering a period of 3 years half of the households would be willing to pay less than nzd 105 while the other half would be willing to pay more whether residents were willing to pay was influenced by the magnitude of the requested contribution bid the perceived seriousness of the 20 loss qualification and the strongest motivation for taking care of trees when using volunteer work as a metric for the valuation 66 of the sample agreed to contribute 4 h of volunteer work and 55 of those who refused to pay the contingent bid said yes to contributing in this form half the sample was dissatisfied with the number of trees in their cities the great majority wanting more trees the respondents indicated different importance levels for a series of benefits and negative effects associated with city trees aesthetics fresh air and trees representing nature in the city and bringing wildlife into the urban environment were the most highly regarded benefits while trees causing drainage problems generated the most concern the diverse motives given for interest in city trees highlighted the difficulties associated with measuring the total economic value of changes in this urban natural capital due to the non use bequest and existence value components

the network of relationships between the economic environment and the entrepreneurial culture in small firms abstract in this article we maintain that the cultural evolution processes of small firms are strongly influenced by the type of relationships that they establish with the economic environment in the first part of the article the main points of the discussion are set forth here the theoretical debate is presented and the existing relations between the entrepreneurial culture and the interaction of firms with their economic environment is analyzed in the second part of the article the methodologies adopted for the statistical analysis are explained and the results of the empirical analysis are presented finally in the third part the implications for practitioners industrial policies and future directions in research are discussed the importance of openness to change in the entrepreneurial culture is a basic assumption in this study it is well known that in small and medium firms entrepreneurs often demonstrate a resistance to change that limits the firm s competitiveness in some observed territorial and industrial contexts this resistance to change is determined by a cultural entrepreneurial homogeneity this homogeneity is a result of the similarity of the social educational and entrepreneurial experiences of the subjects observed indeed the entrepreneurs studied had for generations received the same education lived in the same area and come from the same social setting this entrepreneurial culture is typified by distrust of innovation and discontinuity which leads these entrepreneurs to favor already proven solutions and initiate the behaviors of others rather than take innovative actions principal component analysis has been used to identify the influences that various factors within and external to the firm have in the forming of an entrepreneurial culture and thus on the openness of entrepreneurs and firms to learning in the sample a trade off emerged between tendencies to homologous behaviors and the spirit of initiative through cluster analysis we identified categories of entrepreneurs with a different propensity to innovation regarding established firm routines learning entrepreneurs belong mainly to industries that serve the final consumer while bounded entrepreneurs tend to specialize in commodities more often for export the implications of our results might interest new entrepreneurs who can include this element when analyzing the viability of new ventures small already operational firms can evaluate opportunities arising from export processes or might adjust their position on the production filiere to be closer to the final market this empirical analysis should be reapplied to firms in areas with different environmental characteristics or to production filieres where the relationship between customer and supplier is different as for example in high tech industries so as to verify whether the intensity of the relations with the market differs according to external factors or the technological intensity of the industries examined

economic guideline about financial utilization of flat plate solar collectors fpscs for the consumer segment in the city of eskisehir abstract solar energy systems yield energy savings relative to conventional systems by considering the ecological balance although it still has barriers the most commonly used system of this type is fpsc in turkey which produces hot water by absorbing solar energy through fpscs this study is a kind of guidance about utilization of fpscs in eskisehir that concentrates on a consumer segment the aim of the study is displaying the necessity of transition to renewable energy systems in the local free markets where the place of domestic resources the data is supplied from an original hand collected survey and turkish governmental institutions such as the central bank of the republic of turkey cbrt and the turkish statistical institute turkstat that is used for a possible scenario to show how these systems can become an extensive investment and financed in the city the most significant finding is purchasing a fpsc device which is a rational and profitable investment decision for households in the economic conditions of eskisehir this type of energy system has certain costs including installation credit and annual maintenance costs however after they have been set up fpsc systems yield many ecological advantages that more than offset the associated costs such as fuel savings over the long term and exemptions from tax payments that apply to other types of fuels these advantages benefit both the environment on a global scale and the region in which the system is constructed therefore the global and local economy can improve its structure by utilizing fpscs

consumer responses towards home energy financial incentives a survey based study abstract residential energy efficient and renewable energy eere products play an important role in energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction various financial incentive programs have been developed to promote the adoption of these products however their effectiveness in attracting consumers is not very well understood in this study we investigated impacts of financial incentives on homeowner s decision making towards six eere products two forms of incentives tax credits and interest free loans were examined through a household mailing survey in florida the united states results showed that although half of the respondents were interested in eere products the high investment cost was a major concern that hindered their purchase activities homeowners were attracted to financial incentives and valued tax credits much higher than interest free loans the current federal home energy tax credit levels were found to attract only 2 12 percent of homeowners to buy eere products the willingness of participation was especially low for the costly products such as solar panels the participation rate was also very low for lower income i e annual household income below 50 000 families living in older residences this study contributes to the understanding of economic and social aspects of consumer decision making on energy efficiency and alternative energy

starting point bias in dichotomous choice valuation with follow up questioning abstract follow up questions are frequently used to improve the efficiency of dichotomous choice contingent valuation questionnaires however a number of authors e g 12 16 have noted a significant difference between the wtp distributions implied by initial and follow up question responses this paper investigates starting point bias as one explanation for the phenomenon we develop a model of starting point bias in the context of dichotomous choice questioning with follow up using a monte carlo simulation to illustrate the potential bias imparted to wtp estimates an application is provided based on data from a cv study in northcentral iowa

a review on technical improvements economic feasibility and world scenario of solar water heating system abstract the solar water heating system swhs is one of the most common application of solar energy utilization system the usage of solar water heating system is not commonly employed throughout the globe due to its high initial cost the advancement in swhs will lead to be beneficial over conventional system over the long span of time the eco friendly nature of such system promotes these systems to be used frequently in both domestic and industrial heating the investigators throughout the globe focusing on technical advancement as well as economic feasibility of swhs the present study focused on to report such studies which demonstrates the economic feasibility of swhs in the long run the payback period of swhs varies from one origin to other as it depends on numerous factors like price of fossil fuels rate of subsidy solar insolation etc initially the paper reported the basic components of swhs and their advancements further the global scenario of swhs is discussed followed by the studies reported on a techno economic analysis of swhs which shows that the economic feasibility is equally important as technical feasibility for its implementation the last section inculcates the recent studies on the technical advancement of swhs and the future research trends of swhs were discussed

protest beliefs in contingent valuation explaining their motivation abstract the definition and treatment of protest responses in contingent valuation cv can have a significant influence on the estimated values of the good in question if these responses are censored in order to understand how protest responses are motivated in a cv about forest biodiversity in germany we used an item battery to identify respondents protest beliefs the items were measured for all respondents irrespective of their willingness to pay wtp in principle then a scale based on these beliefs is taken as a dependent variable of regression analyses in addition to environmental concern we used norms the warm glow of giving and dilemma concern as further explanatory variables the latter focuses on cooperation problems in protecting the environment our results show that protest beliefs are significantly influenced by the explanatory factors furthermore the protest beliefs themselves have a significant effect on the decision to be wtp as well as on the amount of money stated by those who are wtp the censoring of protest responses may therefore be indefensible

the structure of motivation for contingent values a case study of lake water quality improvement abstract critics of the contingent valuation cv method have argued that individuals apply noneconomic motives in responding to cv questions implying that elicited values are not valid measures of the economic benefit of environmental improvement this study examines the role of such motives by using measures of attitude and motive strength to interpret willingness to pay wtp values for a set of nested environmental goods with potential use and nonuse benefits motivational structure is found to be more complex than suggested by the simple distinction between valid economic theoretic and noneconomic motives social motivations possibly associated with the benefit of contributing to a public good rather than the benefits of the good itself are potentially relevant to the wtp decision but do not give rise to separable values the strength of perceived personal responsibility for provision of the good is significantly associated with wtp but also with the theoretically desirable property of enhanced scope sensitivity wtp is not found to be associated with the extent to which the individual feels under some general moral obligation to contribute to good causes motives arising from ethical concerns for the environment and altruism are also potentially relevant to wtp but are closely related to underlying motives associated with existence and personal use values respectively it is suggested that the cv debate should be informed by further empirical investigation of the extent to which motives for wtp can be treated as separable

household level innovation diffusion model of photo voltaic pv solar cells from stated preference data we focus on predicting the adoption time probabilities of photo voltaic solar panels by households using discrete choice experiments and an innovation diffusion model the primary objective of this research is cohesively mapping the theory of disruptive innovation into diffusion of innovations to aid policy makers by linking two critical uncertainties of new technology 1 whether households prefer the new attributes of the new technology and how these preferences vary by market segments and 2 when are they going to adopt if at all our study uses recent developments of discrete choice experiments and establishes a causal link between the attributes of the technology attitudinal constructs and socio demographics and adoption time probabilities using the bass diffusion model the data was collected from ontario a province of canada the innovation diffusion model allows us to compute the cumulative probability of adoption over time per household technology awareness and energy cost saving have a significant effect on the adoption probability reinforcing the need for effective education these findings also suggest that campaigns should explain more about investment criteria feed in tariffs and environmental attributes this study findings call for a need to use seeding strategies to accelerate exogenous word of mouth wom for this new technology

the salience of culture s consequences the effects of cultural values on top executive commitment to the status quo while top executives are argued to play a central role in strategic adaptation evidence suggests that they are not equally open to organizational change this study extends earlier investigation of the determinants of top executive commitment to the status quo csq to the international arena examining the influence of cultural values on executive open mindedness toward change using data from a survey of top managers in 20 countries analyses reveal that values of individualism uncertainty avoidance power distance and long term orientation are significantly related to executives adherence to existing strategy and leadership profiles further while confirming earlier findings that industry tenure is positively related to strategy csq results show that tenure does not significantly affect leadership csq once cultural values are controlled in summary the findings reveal that culture has an important impact on executive mindsets as demonstrated by the fact that executives of differing cultural background are not equally open to change in organizational strategy and leadership profiles second the findings suggest that executives views of appropriate leadership profiles reflect the imprint of cultural socialization moreso than professional experience finally and more broadly the study offers empirical support for the view that values figure prominently in shaping executives strategic and leadership orientations 1997 by john wiley sons ltd

theoretical incentive properties of contingent valuation questions do they matter in the field abstract green et al 1998 green d jacowitz k e kahneman d mcfadden d 1998 referendum contigent valuation anchoring and willingness to pay for public goods resource and energy economics 20 2 85 116 show theoretically that stated preference questions about public services can be framed in such ways that if the subjects accept the frame the payoff maximizing behavior will be to answer truthfully one key element of such a theoretically incentive compatible framing is that the hypothetical decision rule specified in the survey instrument is understood to be a majority rule rather than the efficiency rule typically used in cost benefit analysis we conducted field experiments in germany and switzerland to test if a referendum framing as suggested by green et al is effective in reducing strategic misrepresentation in a contingent valuation setting we did not find the expected effects of the framing treatments on stated willingness to pay or on individuals stated beliefs about the social choice context the results do not support hopes that a theoretically incentive compatible framing could be purposefully used to invoke the specific beliefs about the linkage between responses and policy implementation that would make stated preference questions incentive compatible

dissemination of solar photovoltaics a study on the government programme to promote solar lantern in india abstract the study examines the reasons for the limited dissemination of solar lanterns in india it uses diffusion of innovation framework to examine the dissemination process the impact of the characteristics of solar lantern on dissemination and also the communication within the community about the product are examined to understand the influence of the characteristics of solar lantern on dissemination and the information source used by adopters a survey of 188 users across 15 locations is carried out the study shows that the benefits promoted by the government programme for disseminating solar lantern are not the reasons for purchase in most cases the results suggest that the emphasis on subsidy by the support programme shifts the focus to the cost of the solar lantern than its benefits contrary to expectation there is no significant difference in the profile of early and late adopters the subsidy for solar lanterns and the targets set for government officials are the possible influence on the observed profile for adopter categories the early majority who can afford the solar lantern and take up the innovation on its merits are expected to disseminate the innovation the programme on the contrary not only fails to identify and promote to the early adopters but focus on the disadvantaged groups there are therefore no champions for the innovation and an absence of word of mouth communication the information source is restricted to government agencies while the potential user looks for evaluative information on the product from existing users the application of diffusion of innovation framework to understand the dissemination process of solar lantern suggests reworking the support programmes designed to promote solar lanterns the lessons can be extended to programmes designed for dissemination of other solar photovoltaic products

hydropower externalities a meta analysis this paper presents a meta analysis of existing research related to the economic valuation of the external effects of hydropower a database consisting of 81 observations derived from 29 studies valuing the non market impacts of hydropower electricity generation is constructed with the main aim to quantify and explain the economic values for positive and negative hydropower externalities different meta regression model specifications are used to test the robustness of significant determinants of non market values including different types of hydropower impacts the explanatory and predictive power of the estimated models is relatively high whilst controlling for sample and study characteristics we find significant evidence for public aversion towards deteriorations of landscape vegetation and wildlife caused by hydropower projects there is however only weak evidence of willingness to pay for mitigating these effects the main positive externality of hydropower generation the avoidance of greenhouse gas emission positively influences welfare estimates when combined with the share of hydropower in national energy production sensitivity to scope is detected but not linked to specific externalities or non market valuation methods

power to change analysis of household participation in a renewable energy and energy efficiency programme in central australia the australian government funded a national solar city program 2008 2013 to support communities to increase adoption of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy technology one community was alice springs a town with about 9000 households in the geographic centre of australia the programme offered a package of support free energy audits discounts for the purchase of renewable energy technology and energy efficiency measures and ongoing information households that adopted solar hot water and photovoltaic systems reduced their electricity usage immediately after adoption by 10 and 34 respectively and this was maintained in the long term a small rebound effect of 15 was observed in the photovoltaic adopters it was observed that on average households that adopted only energy efficiency measures did not have a significant reduction in their electricity usage over the long term however consistent with expectations this study did show that there was a significant correlation between the number of energy efficiency measures adopted and the greatest household reduction in electricity usage these contrary results indicate that there are additional factors involved the connection between the effective use of measures coincident behavioural change or increased energy awareness and greater energy reduction is discussed

the european low carbon mix for 2030 the role of renewable energy sources in an environmentally and socially efficient approach abstract the european union s commitment to increase the presence of renewable energy sources in its portfolio has resulted in better levels of security of supply competitiveness and environmental sustainability this proposed work reviews european legislation regarding the promotion of renewable energy sources as well as the bibliography that applies portfolio theory methodology to energy policy this double revision gives rise to the question whether the share limits of renewable energy technologies anticipated for the european power mix in 2020 and 2030 are actually efficient the optimization model corrects for the attractiveness of renewable energy sources as opposed to conventional sources in terms of costs risks and pollutant gas emissions this model successfully and explicitly identifies the positive effect on the environment that is represented by the inclusion of renewable energy sources in the portfolio the goal is to minimize the cost and risk that society must bear to produce electricity in addition to compliance with european pollutant gas co2 so2 nox and pm objectives the results for 2020 indicate that the eu would not be able to reach its emissions reduction goals with the anticipated shares of renewable energy sources in 2030 achieving a lower emissions portfolio would not mean taking on greater costs although it would be necessary to assume a greater level of risk the anticipated shares of renewable energy sources 5 and fossil fuel technologies 15 would be overdimensioned in the forecasts analyzed in terms of technologies both nuclear and wind energy stand out both with shares above 20 on the contrary biomass and solar photovoltaic energies would be unnecessary in order to reach efficiency in any case one thing is clear the eu would be the master of its energy future if it prioritizes the importance of renewable energy sources in its efficient portfolio

large scale deployment of renewables for electricity generation comparisons of resource assessments suggest that sufficient renewable energy resources are available to allow for large scale deployment of renewable energy technologies economic analysis identifies barriers to the adoption of renewable energy sources resulting from i market structure ii competition in an uneven playing field and iii various non marketplace barriers however even if these barriers are removed the problem of technology lock out remains the key policy response is strategic deployment coupled with increased r d support to accelerate the pace of improvement through market experience this paper suggests significant contributions from various technologies are possible but does not assess their optimal or maximal market share copyright 2005 oxford university press

economic and policy analysis for solar pv systems in indiana in recent years the energy market in the us and globally is expanding the production of renewable energy solar energy for electricity is also expanding in the us indiana is one of the states expanding solar energy with solar photovoltaic pv systems therefore we conduct benefit cost analysis with several uncertain input variables to determine the economics of adopting solar pv systems in indiana based on policy instruments that could increase adoption of solar pv systems the specific objectives are analyses of the cost distribution of solar pv systems compared with grid electricity in homes and estimating the probability that solar can be cheaper than electricity from grids under different policy combinations we first do the analysis under current policy and then the analysis under potential policy options for a variety of scenarios also the results inform government policy makers on how effective the alternative policies for encouraging solar pv systems are the results show that current policies are important in reducing the cost of solar pv systems however with current policies there is only 50 50 chance of solar being cheaper than electricity from grids if potential policies are implemented solar pv systems can be more economical than grid electricity

uncertainty avoidance moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and innovation a meta analysis transformational leadership is commonly assumed to facilitate employee innovation in all cultures drawing upon field studies from 17 countries this meta analysis revealed that supervisor transformational leadership is positively related to individual and team level innovation regardless of national boundaries however the relationship trended somewhat more strongly in countries with higher levels of uncertainty avoidance these findings suggest that employee innovation in most countries can be enhanced by investing in supervisor transformational leadership but organizations operating in countries with higher levels of uncertainty avoidance may benefit more from this strategy

the emperor and the cowboys the role of government policy and industry in the adoption of domestic solar microgeneration systems abstract while domestic solar microgeneration installations have increased in popularity there is potential for their adoption to slow as financial incentives are reduced or phased out this study uses a postal survey of 362 solar adopters in western australia to identify areas of policy improvement for the adoption of domestic solar systems research included quantitative analysis of likert type statements and analysis of qualitative comments by survey respondents including testing the validity of inferences in comments using publicly available data while the vast majority of respondents were satisfied with their systems satisfaction rates were lower for consumers not receiving the premium feed in tariff and where information on systems was not self sourced consumers considered governments to be untrustworthy and information provided by industry was perceived as inconsistent and inaccessible consumers felt they did not receive a fair price for electricity exported to the network and feared that changes in utility prices could render their investment uneconomical concerns regarding members of industry may be allayed by certification schemes but these remain voluntary and limited in effectiveness these findings underscore the need for increased government activity in providing independent information to consumers and regulating the solar industry including commitments to long term policies and certification schemes

the socio cultural environment for entrepreneurship a comparison between east asian and anglo saxon countries this study uses a theory of face to identify predictors of interest in entrepreneurship in six east asian and four anglo saxon countries at the cultural level social status of entrepreneurship and shame from business failure predict interest in entrepreneurship better in east asian than anglo countries at the individual level social status predicts interest in entrepreneurship in the entire sample

do subsidies work better in low income than in high income families survey on domestic energy efficient and renewable energy equipment purchase in china abstract domestic energy efficient and renewable energy eere equipment shows a great energy saving potential in household energy consumption two rounds of large scale financial subsidy programs have been developed in china since 2010 to promote the adoption of green equipment however how these subsidies attract chinese families of different income levels is not fully explored given this knowledge gap we conducted a self completion questionnaire survey in 2012 to ask 526 respondents about their purchase of domestic eere equipment we explored the effects of subsidy incentives and family incomes on the purchase attitudes and intentions of individuals toward the seven categories of eere equipment we find that family income positively moderates the relationship between eere equipment purchase attitude and behavioral intention and subsidy incentives positively affect the moderating effect of family income in other words a higher family income and better familiarization with subsidy incentives can promote the transformation of green attitudes into eere equipment purchasing intention the results may indicate that the subsidized prices are still high in the view of the low income families this study contributes to the understanding of the effects of chinese subsidy incentives and of the economic concerns of people about the purchase of domestic eere equipment

subsidies for residential solar photovoltaic energy systems in western australia distributional procedural and outcome justice governments seek to increase renewable energy capacity by providing subsidies to householders opting to install residential solar energy photovoltaic systems the funds used to pay for these subsidies are sourced from tax revenue or electricity tariffs paid by all community members including those on a low income this sees a redistribution of funds from all community members to installers of residential solar energy systems this research compared community attitudes towards distributional justice or the fairness of this redistribution of funds with outcome justice associated with the environmental benefits of renewable energy a randomised survey distributed in four metropolitan and two regional communities in western australian resulted in 295 responses a response rate of 22 33 of community members prioritised distributional justice 30 prioritised outcome justice and 37 indicated that they were unsure about their preference however support for renewable energy was found with 80 of respondents supportive of renewable energy subsidies and 68 supportive of renewable energy taxation including in electricity tariffs qualitative comments indicate that in spite of the preoccupation with distributional justice in the residential solar energy literature community members are concerned with procedural justice issues in this case procedural justice can be interpreted as government commitment to existing policy the expanded scope of renewable energy policy and enhanced regulations

economic creativity and innovation implementation the entrepreneurial drivers of growth evidence from 63 countries this paper examines the effect of culture on national innovation and prosperity because culture shapes the way people think about and behave in regard to risk opportunities and rewards it should influence the nature of entrepreneurial activity and by extension economic outcomes using structural equation modeling on a sample of 63 countries we propose and test a comprehensive explanation of how culture as an umbrella construct as opposed to an analysis of its constituent parts affects innovation and national prosperity we propose a two stage model of innovation and find support for our hypothesized relationship that economic creativity influences innovation implementation at the national level we find that culture does indeed influence economic creativity we also find that innovation implementation explained some of the variation in prosperity across countries by establishing that big picture culture matters to innovation the door has opened for researchers to evaluate this relationship using data from any one of a number of rival culture frameworks moreover these empirical finding buttress the theoretical arguments that culture powerfully shapes the character of national innovation

going to the woods is going home recreational benefits of a larger urban forest site a travel cost analysis for berlin germany we present an application of the travel cost method to a large urban forest site in berlin germany the analysis is based on a large onsite survey and the same survey administered online although such applications are rare in an urban context applying a seasonal demand model to the case of grunewald is possible because the distances travelled are relatively large the majority of the respondents use motorized or public transport and grunewald is a large and unique urban forest site with very few substitutes the main results are the following 1 the demand for visits to grunewald is less elastic if only berlin residents are taken into account compared to when residents from the entire larger urban area of berlin are considered 2 estimated consumer surpluses are therefore greater if only berlin residents are taken into consideration 3 in addition demand is more elastic for the internet sample than for the on site sample 4 results suggest a lower bound overall consumer surplus of 14 95 per visit the results indicate that despite its inherent limitations non market economic valuation through the travel cost method can provide administrations with a powerful tool to monetize the benefits of urban forest recreation to increase public funding and redirect resources to address intensified use

beyond technology push and demand pull lessons from california s solar policy abstract the scale of the technological transformation required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to safe levels while minimizing economic impacts necessitates an emphasis on designing climate policy to foster or at least not impede environmental innovation there is only a weak empirical base for policy makers to stand on regarding the comparative innovation effects of various climate policy options however empirical scholarship in environmental innovation is hindered by the complexity of both the innovation process and the interactions between the dual market failures of pollution and innovation that are in play and it appears that the field would benefit from the structure provided by a common lexicon this paper focuses on the issues related to policy categorization in this field these issues have received little attention in the literature despite their importance to making insights gained from empirical studies generalizable the paper reviews the origins strengths and weaknesses of the dominant policy typology of technology push versus demand pull instruments its primary contribution however is to assemble a comprehensive chronology of solar policy in california and its impacts on innovation where known and then use this as a basis for building a new policy categorization that takes advantage of the intuitive resonance of the dominant typology while encompassing the broader range of policy instruments that are employed in practice in order to stimulate environmental innovation the most noteworthy aspect of the new categorization is that it introduces a third category of environmental innovation policy instrument that focuses on improving the interface between technology suppliers and users this reflects developments in the economics of innovation literature as well as considerable evidence in the domain of distributed solar energy technologies that opportunism by some of the actors that work at this interface can be a barrier to innovation

bias in discrete response contingent valuation abstract the empirical literature on discrete response contingent valuation has found that seemingly innocuous changes in the statistical models estimated result in significantly different point estimates of willingness to pay this paper hypothesizes and tests several potential explanations for these results first it investigates and compares the biases inherent in single bounded and double bounded maximum likelihood estimation procedures and examines how they react to various bid designs and sample sizes then it examines the presence and identification of outliers in binary choice data and how these outliers influence estimation finally it presents an alternative approach to addressing the issue of outliers which explicitly acknowledges the possibility of upwardly biased response probabilities

angel investors around the world we document that the choice between disintermediated individual angel investments and intermediated private equity and venture capital investments depends on legal economic and cultural differences we find evidence of this using pitchbook s comprehensive data on more than 5000 angel and 80 000 private equity and venture capital investments in 96 countries from 1977 to 2012 the data further indicate that investee firms funded by angels are less likely to successfully exit through either an ipo or an acquisition these findings are robust to propensity score matching methods as well as to clustering standard errors and excluding u s observations among other approaches

how do learning externalities influence the evaluation of ontario s renewables support policies abstract support programs for renewable electricity generation in ontario have been in place since 2005 including feed in tariffs and a competitive procurement process these programs have been criticized on a number of fronts in particular critics claim the level of support was excessive and creating surplus supply however prior studies have ignored one potential benefit of renewable energy support that it can help to promote cost reductions in new technologies through learning by doing this paper uses a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium cge model featuring learning by doing effects to assess the renewable support programs provided in ontario our results in line with previous studies do not justify the high support rates paid in ontario given our core range of assumptions but our modeling approach allows us to identify the combination of key parameter values relating to learning effects and environmental damages that justify the observed rates these parameters are hard to measure empirically and our modeling approach introduces a new tool for examining the impact of variations in these parameters on policy analysis

simultaneous attainment of energy goals by means of green certificates and emission permits abstract we discuss the analytical effects of introducing emission permits and green certificates and the corresponding quotas as regulatory mechanisms to respectively reduce emissions from electricity production and ensure a certain deployment of renewable energy the different case studies in this paper show that both instruments can be used in order to reach an emission goal or a goal of renewable energy however the combination of these instruments and the way they are used is shown to be important for the price faced by consumers it is shown that the effect on the consumer price is not an unambiguous increase with the introduction of a green quota there is a choice between quotas leading to a lower consumer price and quotas leading to a higher consumer price as a result of this it is shown that it is always optimal to reach a renewable energy deployment goal by the use of green certificates however to reach an emission goal it is sometimes most favourable with respect to consumer prices to use green certificates and sometimes to use emission permits

identifying the warm glow effect in contingent valuation abstract this paper reports the results from a contingent valuation study designed to investigate the influence of warm glow in willingness to pay wtp responses interindividual differences in warm glow motivation are measured through a factor analysis performed on a list of attitudinal items the reported wtp measures fail to pass the scope test both socioeconomic variables and motivational factor scores are significant in the explanation of the individual wtp measures we compute cold wtp measures by taking out the effect of the warm glow motivation these cold measures satisfy both the scope test and hausman s adding up property

lessons from the polder energy tax design in the netherlands from a climate change perspective this paper evaluates energy tax reform in the netherlands between 1988 and 2002 from a climate change perspective in particular the introduction of two indirect taxes on energy products is now responsible for a considerable amount of tax revenue from a green tax base the paper discusses the energy tax base and rate structure from a modern pigovian tax perspective and illustrates the practical difficulties involved in the indirect and non uniform taxation of emissions also further improvements of the energy tax structure are discussed such as a better targeting of the energy tax base and tax rate to fuel characteristics

china s transition to green energy systems the economics of home solar water heaters and their popularization in dezhou city abstract studying the popularization of solar water heaters swhs is significant for understanding china s transition to green energy systems using dezhou as a case study this paper presents new angles on analyzing swh deployment in china by addressing both the economic potential and the institutional dimensions at the local level using estimates from the demand side of hot water for a typical three person household in dezhou the paper evaluates the economic potential of a swh in saving electricity and reducing carbon dioxide emissions then expanding the analysis beyond economics we take an institutionalist approach to study the institutional factors that contribute to dezhou s success in swh adoptions by examining the five main actors in dezhou s energy regime we find that dezhou s swh deployment is driven by an urge to develop businesses and the local economy and its success results from at least five unique factors including the development of swh industrial clusters in dezhou big manufacturers market leadership in swh innovations a tight private enterprise local government relation geographic location within the swh industrial belt and the adaptive attitude of dezhou s households towards natural resource scarcity

green transition of energy systems in rural china national survey evidence of households discrete choices on water heaters abstract energy systems in rural china are experiencing a transition from traditional fossil fuels to renewables this paper aims to investigate the potential factors that influence the choices of rural residents regarding water heaters with a focus on the low carbon transition to solar water heating systems to this end a face to face questionnaire survey is undertaken with 3404 rural households randomly selected among 12 representative provinces a comprehensive set of discrete choice modelling approaches were used the empirical results show that 1 sociodemographic variables have significant effects on residents first stage choice of a water heater to buy or not to buy but few effects on the second stage decision to choose electric lpg or solar water heaters which type to buy 2 information spillover is important to facilitate the usage of water heaters particularly of solar products 3 the electricity price which is regulated at a very low rate has no apparent effect on the choice of solar water heaters 4 government subsidy has a significant effect in the first stage but no differentiated effect on the decision choice in the second stage policy and managerial implications are presented to speed up the ongoing low carbon transition of energy systems in china

the verticality of policy mixes for sustainability transitions a case study of solar water heating in china abstract climate change and sustainable development are the defining challenges of the modern era the field of sustainability transitions seeks systematic solutions for fundamental transformations of socio technical systems towards sustainability and exploring the role of policy mixes has been a central research agenda within the field in the extant literature there exists a lack of both conceptual and empirical research on the vertical dimension of policy mixes for sustainability transitions this study provides a multilevel and evolutionary interpretation of the vertical interactions of policy mixes in the process of industrial path development towards sustainability transitions an exemplary case of solar water heating swh technology in shandong province in china is presented capturing both the bottom up and top down processes of interactions on the one hand urban level policy initiatives can inform higher level policymaking on the other hand national level priorities can greatly configure policy strategies for lower level governments moreover as the industry matures the interactions of multilevel policy mixes evolve from simpler unidirectional patterns to more complex bidirectional ones through a vertical policy learning feedback mechanism this study generates two important policy implications that extend beyond the chinese context first dynamic vertical interactions between multilevel governments indicate the need to develop more nuanced perspectives on the design of policy mixes second policy makers need to hold a more dynamic view of policy mixes by recognizing their temporal and coevolutionary nature through the policy learning process

analysing future trends of renewable electricity in the eu in a low carbon context the aim of this paper is to analyse the situation and trends of electricity from renewable energy sources res e in the eu up to 2030 taking into account several drivers and barriers and different maturity levels for the renewable energy technologies the methodology is based on the results of simulation models providing insights on future outlooks complemented with an analysis of regulations and other drivers and barriers regarding the most mature renewable electricity technologies the main drivers will be public policies carbon prices and support schemes and the expected up ward trend in fossil fuel prices and the main barriers are related to grid access administrative procedures and the exhaustion of places with the best wind resource for those already commercial but expensive technologies the main driver is support schemes but not carbon prices allowing the exploitation of the large potential for investment cost reductions barriers are mostly related to their high investment costs finally for those technologies which are emerging and immature further technical improvements as a result of r d efforts will be needed and they cannot be expected to significantly penetrate the european electricity market until 2030

solar pv where the sun doesn t shine estimating the economic impacts of support schemes for residential pv with detailed net demand profiling abstract countries with low irradiation and solar pv adoption rates are increasingly considering policy support for solar pv although consumer electricity demand and solar generation profiles are often mismatched this paper presents a methodology for policymakers in such conditions to examine more precisely the financial performance of residential solar pv from the consumer perspective as part of an ex ante policy assessment we model a range of prospective policy scenarios and compare policy mechanisms that compensate homeowners for generation those that reduce their upfront costs and those that assist with financing using ireland as a case study the results confirm the intuitive notion that more generous financial remuneration schemes provide quicker payback however we observe that in low irradiance regions there is little difference between upfront grants and feed in tariffs to accelerate payback timeframes we also show the importance of retail tariff structure in consumer payback for solar pv systems with one part tariffs generating shorter paybacks than two part tariff structures although the latter is more likely to secure revenue for electricity infrastructure investment drawing from this analysis the paper proposes some options for the design of policy supports and tariff structures to deliver a sustainable residential renewable electricity system in low irradiance regions

towards a contemporary approach for understanding consumer behaviour in the context of domestic energy use domestic sector energy use is increasing in the uk and currently accounts for 30 of total use policies of liberalised energy markets have allowed greater consumer choice but have not sought to reduce carbon emissions overall sales of energy efficiency products are rising but uk housing stock standards are poor and do not facilitate improved efficiency and further the sales of such products are influenced by their price thus the higher capital costs of products such as boilers and solar systems make them initially unattractive to consumers previous market based research into the adoption of energy efficiency products has often focused on single factors for example demographics this has limited the ability of policy makers to make informed decisions that address a broader range of factors such as individuals cognitive abilities values and attitudes as well as external factors such as social networks marketing and products and services this paper provides a wider critique of the theoretical base related to consumer behaviour product attributes and socio environmental theories that relate to energy use the aim of the paper is to draw together theories relevant to energy use in order to aid policy making in the broader context and to develop the discussion around integrated theories of consumer behaviour

scott a shane winner of the global award for entrepreneurship research scott a shane is the 2009 winner of the global award for entrepreneurship research in this article we discuss and analyze shane s most important contributions to the field of entrepreneurship his contribution is extraordinarily broad in scope which makes it difficult to pinpoint one or a few specifics that we associate with shane s scholarship instead they can be summarized in the following three points first he has influenced what we view as central aspects of entrepreneurship shane has been a leading figure in redirecting the focus on entrepreneurship research itself second he has influenced how we view entrepreneurship shane s research is arguably theory driven and it applies and develops theoretical lenses that greatly improve our understanding of entrepreneurship third he has contributed to how we conduct entrepreneurship research shane has been a forerunner in examining relevant units of analysis that are difficult to sample research designs and databases specifically designed for studying entrepreneurial processes and sophisticated analytical methods this has contributed to advancing the methodological rigor of the field summing them up the contributions are very impressive indeed

when households go solar determinants of uptake of a photovoltaic scheme and policy insights abstract the need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels has resulted in escalating interest in renewable energy generation yet few countries have seriously tested household potential to produce energy from pv panels propelled by mandatory eu targets for renewable energy and constrained with limited territory the government of malta launched a subsidy scheme with a view to encouraging pv installation by households the scheme reached the desired adoption levels within a very short period of time the study takes an entire country dimension to assess the determinants of household investment in pv panels a unique dataset is specifically constructed for this study we find that the prevalence of younger households higher incomes dwelling ownership and unshared roof space results in higher rates of uptake neither higher educational levels nor the participation in other environmental schemes recycling contribute any explanatory power to uptake of pv panels pro government sentiment captured by voting outcomes significantly and positively influences the take up of the grant and installation of pv panels we conclude by identifying some pointers for policy makers interested in harvesting the potential of households

relationship between individualist collectivist culture and entrepreneurial activity evidence from global entrepreneurship monitor data this paper examines how one dimension of national culture an individualist collectivist orientation is related to total entrepreneurial activity depending on the level of economic development measured by gdp per capita researchers have traditionally associated individualism with high rates of firm creation arguing that an orientation towards achievement and the pursuit of personal objectives dominant aspects in individualist cultures are determinants of entrepreneurial activity the current analysis shows that a country s culture correlates to entrepreneurship but cannot uphold the idea that higher levels of individualism mean higher rates of entrepreneurship using data from the global entrepreneurship monitor on 52 countries the results show that a country s entrepreneurship rate is negatively related to individualism when development is medium or low and positively related to individualism when the level of development is high thus individualism is not related to entrepreneurship in the same way in countries with differing levels of development

a public perspective on the adoption of microgeneration technologies in new zealand a multivariate probit approach the growing demand for electricity in new zealand has led to the construction of new hydro dams or power stations that have had environmental social and cultural effects these effects may drive increases in electricity prices as such prices reflect the cost of running existing power stations as well as building new ones this study uses canterbury and central otago as case studies because both regions face similar issues in building new hydro dams and ever increasing electricity prices that will eventually prompt households to buy power at higher prices one way for households to respond to these price changes is to generate their own electricity through microgeneration technologies mgt the objective of this study is to investigate public perception and preferences regarding mgt and to analyze the factors that influence people s decision to adopt such new technologies in new zealand the study uses a multivariate probit approach to examine households willingness to adopt any one mgt system or a combination of the mgt systems our findings provide valuable information for policy makers and marketers who wish to promote effective microgeneration technologies

sequencing and valuing public goods abstract this paper establishes several propositions concerning the importance of context in valuing public goods it first provides necessary and sufficient conditions for the value of a public good to be independent of context utility constant valuation sequences are considered where public goods are systematically made available or taken away for the case of strict hicksian substitutes willingness to pay for an increase in one of the public goods is strictly decreasing the farther out in a sequence it is valued for the destruction of public goods the reverse is true for willingness to accept compensation sequencing has opposite implications for the assessment of the benefits of providing public goods than for the assessment of the damage from destroying them

does culture still matter the effects of individualism on national innovation rates abstract does a society s culture affect its rate of inventive activity this article analyzes several independent datasets of culture and innovation from 62 countries spanning more than two decades it finds that most measures of individualism have a strong significant and positive effect on innovation even when controlling for major policy variables however the data also suggest that a certain type of collectivism i e patriotism and nationalism can also foster innovation at the national level meanwhile other types of collectivism i e familism and localism not only harm innovation rates but may hurt progress in science worse than technology

cultural influences on national rates of innovation abstract the purpose of this research was to examine the effect of the cultural values of individualism power distance uncertainty avoidance and masculinity on national rates of innovation in 33 countries in 1975 and 1980 the study found that rates of innovation are most closely associated with the cultural value of uncertainty acceptance but that lack of power distance and individualism also are related to high rates of innovation this research suggests that nations may differ in their rates of innovation because of the cultural values of their citizens these findings have important implications for managers and policy makers first culture matters countries may not be able to increase their rates of innovation simply by increasing the amount of money spent on research and development or industrial infrastructure they also may need to change the values of their citizens to those that encourage innovative activity this concept in turn suggests that national rates of innovation are driven by more fundamental forces than economic conditions and that societal change may be necessary to make less innovative societies more innovative second the values associated with high national rates of innovation are those that many scholars have long argued are important at the firm level an acceptance of uncertainty appears to be necessary probably because innovation requires a tolerance for risk and change individualism seems to be important perhaps because of its association with autonomy independence and freedom lack of power distance appears important perhaps reflecting the role that tolerance of change in the social order and distribution of power play in the innovation process third the study indicates that the strength of the relationship between innovation and two cultural values individualism and lack of power distance were stronger in 1975 than in 1980 suggesting perhaps that these values are becoming less important in spurring the innovation process this finding supports the anecdotal evidence that many collectivist and hierarchical asian nations are becoming more innovative fourth this study shows that per capita income is a more important economic variable than industrial structure in determining national rates of innovation this finding confirms previous work that has shown that as nations become wealthier they become more innovative the reason may be that wealthier countries have more demand for innovations both because innovations are often laborsaving and because wealthier nations have greater demand for new and differentiated consumer goods

understanding the uneven diffusion of building scale renewable energy systems a review of household local and country level factors in diverse european countries abstract this review focuses on renewable energy technology deployment in residential buildings which is part of current targets to develop net zero carbon buildings in europe and to promote the deployment of renewable energy we focus on the adoption of four technologies heat pumps solar photovoltaics solar thermal systems for domestic hot water and space heating and advanced biomass heating while there are several studies on households investment criteria a research gap exists because building owners across europe are quite diverse and the european markets exhibit different stages of maturity this article conducts a critical review of the literature on the diffusion of building scale renewable energy solutions in order to answer the following questions 1 to what extent can findings from studies on household adoption criteria be generalized from one country to another and 2 what insights does the literature offer on factors that might explain the differences in adoption patterns between european countries

inference and optimal design for a welfare measure in dichotomous choice contingent valuation this paper considers the use of contingent valuation to estimate non market benefits from separately valued nested goods survey respondents were asked referendum wtp questions regarding either a scheme to protect the whole area of a wetland or a

information bias in contingent valuation effects of personal relevance quality of information and motivational orientation abstract a laboratory experiment examined the potential for information bias in contingent valuation cv consistent with the view that information about a public or private good can function as a persuasive communication willingness to pay wtp was found to increase with the quality of arguments used to describe the good especially under conditions of high personal relevance under low personal relevance wtp for a public but not for a private good was higher when an altruistic as opposed to an individualistic orientation was activated it is concluded that the nature of the information provided in cv surveys can profoundly affect wtp estimates and that subtle contextual cues can seriously bias these estimates under conditions of low personal relevance

cultural differences and capability transfer in cross border acquisitions the mediating roles of capability complementarity absorptive capacity and social integration this paper presents an integrative model of the impact of cultural differences on capability transfer in cross border acquisitions we propose that cultural differences affect the post acquisition capability transfer through their impact on social integration potential absorptive capacity and capability complementarity two dynamic variables the use of social integration mechanisms and the degree of operational integration of the acquired unit are proposed to moderate the effects of cultural differences on social integration and potential absorptive capacity the implications for acquisition research and practice are discussed

utilities business models for renewable energy a review abstract the transformation of today s electric power sector to a more sustainable energy production based on renewable energies will change the structure of the industry consequently utilities as the major stakeholders in this transformation will face new challenges in their way of doing business they will have to adapt their business models to remain competitive in the new energy landscape the present review of business model literature shows that two basic choices exist utility side business models and customer side business models the two approaches follow a very different logic of value creation while the former is based on a small number of large projects the latter is based on a large number of small projects the article reveals that blueprints for utility side business models are available whereas customer side business models are in an early stage of development applying the business model framework as an analytical tool it is found that existing utility side business models comprise a series of advantages for utilities in terms of revenue potential and risk avoidance this study provides new insights about why utilities will favor utility side business models over customer side business models and why they also should engage in customer side business models in their quest for more sustainable future business models

uncertainty avoidance and the preference for innovation championing roles this paper examines the preferences of 4405 individuals in forty three organizations from sixty eight different countries for four innovation championing roles the organizational maverick the network facilitator the transformational leader and the organizational buffer the study shows that the cultural value of uncertainty acceptance is significantly associated with preferences for these four championing roles it suggests that uncertainty accepting societies may be more innovative than uncertainty avoiding societies because of the greater legitimacy of those roles

levelized cost of electricity lcoe of renewable energies and required subsidies in china newhuadu business school research fund china sustainable energy program g 1305 18257 national social science foundation of china 12zd059 ministry of education 10 jbg 013

regulating technological change the strategic reactions of utility companies towards subsidy policies in the german spanish and uk electricity markets abstract this paper focuses on how incumbent electric utilities strategically react to subsidy schemes supporting renewable energy technologies in the uk germany and spain firms coordinate the development of their technological capabilities and their political activities to shape their regulatory environment analysing the diffusion of wind power in these countries we show that the different ways in which firms coordinate their technological and political strategies lead to very different market outcomes both for the firms market share and the size of the overall market although incumbents are usually seen as being resistant to change in energy systems we show that spanish utilities proactively drive the diffusion of wind power we speculate about the relation between the ownership structure of the energy system and its inertia with respect to the integration of new technologies we derive novel policy implications that explicitly take into account the strategic actions of incumbent firms shaping the technological and regulatory system

bottom up estimation of industrial and public r d investment by technology in support of policy making the case of selected low carbon energy technologies abstract this paper discusses a bottom up approach to estimate the level of r d investment by technology in areas where data are scarce it develops a four step methodology for the estimation of corporate r d investments at technology level this approach can overcome gaps in existing data by combining publicly available information in a novel way even though it introduces some uncertainty this is illustrated for a set of low carbon energy technologies that were identified as key for meeting europe s long term energy and climate objectives by the european strategic energy technology plan the paper finds that the aggregated r d investments dedicated to these technologies amounted to 3 3 billion in the eu in 2007 including public funding from european union member states and at eu level and industrial research activities from companies with headquarters registered in the eu the results allow conclusions on the european energy research policy to be drawn such as the dominance of industrial funds and have provided significant input to the european policy making in this field the paper ends with suggestions on how to further enhance the accuracy of the approach and how to widen its application to other sectors

knowledge transfer in international acquisitions this paper reports on a multimethod study of knowledge transfer in international acquisitions using questionnaire data we show that the transfer of technological know how is facilitated by communication visits meetings and by time elapsed since acquisition while the transfer of patents is associated with the articulability of the knowledge the size of the acquired unit and the recency of the acquisition using case study data we show that the immediate post acquisition period is characterized by imposed one way transfers of knowledge from the acquirer to the acquired but over time this gives way to high quality reciprocal knowledge transfer

escaping carbon lock in this article explores the climate policy implications of the arguments made in understanding carbon lock in unruh 2000 which posited that industrial countries have become locked into fossil fuel based energy systems through path dependent processes driven by increasing returns to scale carbon lock in arises through technological organizational social and institutional co evolution culminating in what was termed as techno institutional complex tic in order to resolve the climate problem an escape from the lock in condition is required however due to the self referential nature of tic escape conditions are unlikely to be generated internally and it is argued here that exogenous forces are probably required

economic analysis of flat plate solar collectors fpscs a solution to the unemployment problem in the city of eskisehir abstract this study performs a regional economic analysis of solar energy systems in eskisehir turkey that focuses on production and utilization of fpscs the data is obtained from a locally conducted survey and used for practical estimations both the survey findings and the theoretical predictions give close results and they sustain each other under the condition of free market considering profit maximization to produce 30 fpscs per day in optimum conditions 30 workers would be employed per shift if a company can meet the market demand 450 000 000 turkish liras tl 1 2 85tl with current prices of revenue will be earned from the production of 300 000 fpscs in 30 years are displayed on the other hand this renewable energy system has some costs however once it has been set up the system will produce many ecological advantages that more than offset its costs these effects benefit both the local region in which the system is established and the environment on a global scale in addition the process of collecting and utilizing solar energy can be used together with recycling systems to generate advantages for a local economy and can also benefit the global economy by solving unemployment problems by creating employment opportunities

the effect of national culture on the choice of entry mode characteristics of national cultures have frequently been claimed to influence the selection of entry modes this article investigates this claim by developing a theoretical argument for why culture should influence the choice of entry two hypotheses are derived which relate culture to entry mode choice one focusing on the cultural distance between countries the other on attitudes towards uncertainty avoidance using a multinomial logit model and controlling for other effects the hypotheses are tested by analysing data on 228 entries into the united states market by acquisition wholly owned greenfield and joint venture empirical support for the effect of national culture on entry choice is found

optimal designs for discrete choice contingent valuation surveys single bound double bound and bivariate models this paper finds the designs for discrete choice contingent valuation surveys which maximize the precision of a statistic of interest about the public s willingness to pay wtp for a change in the environmental quality such as median wtp an optimization problem is set up in which the efficiency of the estimate of median wtp or a related concept is the objective function to optimize with respect to the survey design i e the set of bids offered to the respondents in deriving the optimal designs we consider alternative econometric models such as the basic single bound model that uses the responses to the first payment question the traditional interval data or double bound model for surveys with a follow up payment question and the recently proposed bivariate binary response model simulations are carried out to compare the alternative design principles and assess their performances with respect to the statistic of primary interest median wtp and other welfare measures such as mean wtp other designs that are constructed ad hoc are also examined

consumer attitudes towards domestic solar power systems the success of the uk policy to reduce carbon emissions is partly dependent on the ability to persuade householders to become more energy efficient and to encourage installation of domestic solar systems solar power is an innovation in the uk but the current policy of stimulating the market with grants is not resulting in widespread adoption this case study using householders in central england investigates householder attitudes towards characteristics of solar systems and identifies some of the barriers to adoption the study utilises diffusion of innovations theory to identify attitudes towards system attributes and isolates the characteristics that are preventing a pragmatic early majority from adopting the technology a group of early adopters and a group of assumed early majority adopters of solar power were surveyed and the results show that overall although the early majority demonstrate a positive perception of the environmental characteristics of solar power its financial economic and aesthetic characteristics are limiting adoption differences exist between the two groups showing support for the concept of a chasm between adopter categories after moore crossing the chasm marketing and selling high tech products to mainstream customers second ed harper perennial new york however if consumers cannot identify the relative advantage of solar power over their current sources of power which is supplied readily and cheaply through a mains system it is unlikely that adoption will follow recommendations concerning the marketing and development of solar products are identified

stability vs flexibility the effect of regulatory institutions on opportunity type how entrepreneurial opportunities are formed and exploited depends upon the institutional environment in which they are embedded the varying amounts of risk and uncertainty across and within heterogeneous institutional environments have important implications for the types of opportunity developed while the international business and entrepreneurship literatures consider the effect of environmental risk and uncertainty on firms risk and uncertainty are often treated as interchangeable or synonymous and rarely are both considered to be present together to address this we develop a new theoretical model based on institutional economics describing how institutional arrangements promoting stability thus supporting an entrepreneur s ability to assess risk will lead to more imitative opportunities while institutions promoting flexibility thus supporting an entrepreneur s ability to respond to uncertainty by iterating will foster more innovative opportunities we test this framework using cross national data across 40 countries from the gem survey finding that institutional arrangements that promote stability do lead to more imitation while institutions that promote flexibility foster more innovation by treating risk and uncertainty as distinct constructs our study makes theoretical contributions to research on institutional environments and opportunity types with implications for future research on subsidiary initiatives the evolution of mnes and born global firms

protest response and willingness to pay for culturally significant urban trees implications for contingent valuation method the contingent valuation method cvm could assist green space planning management and appreciation by assigning a monetary value to urban trees however the use of cvm is limited by its inherent methodological weaknesses a critical concern is the existence of a large proportion of survey respondents providing zero willingness to pay wtp and that these responses are not amenable to economic theory known as protest responses censoring protest responses from further treatment is a common practice which warrants reconsideration in light of our cvm survey results the survey involved 800 residents requested to state their wtp for preserving the culturally significant stonewall trees in urban hong kong about 28 of respondents returned a zero wtp for all respondents the strength of protest beliefs was assessed and the relationship between protest beliefs and wtp were examined our analysis produced contradictory results some protest items varied negatively with wtp as expected but other items increased with it respondents stated positive wtp harbored latent protest beliefs which are related to non economic preference the findings stand at odds with the assumptions underlying the censoring treatment and raise questions about the validity of wtp estimates these methodological implications should be taken into account in using cvm

exploring the consumer decision process in the adoption of solar energy systems this study examines residential solar energy systems within an adoption and diffusion of innovations framework the findings indicate considerable differences between adopters and nonadopters on many measures multivariate nominal scale analysis is used to develop classification models based on both attribute perceptions of solar energy systems and demographic characteristics

bequest values for marine resources how important for indigenous communities in less developed economies communities owning and living on ancestral land tend to have a strong sense of stewardship over the land and its resources which may translate into an economic value to present generations of being able to pass on ancestral lands to future generations i e bequest value this study estimates bequest values to local users of a traditional fishing ground on the coral coast of fiji using a contingent valuation approach using monetary as well as time based contributions bequest values are estimated at between fj 1 25 1 41 us 0 64 0 73 per individual per week or fj 183 90 us 106 91 per household per year this represents a significant proportion of stated average household expenditure comparable to spending on durable household goods and clothes and footwear these results suggest that low income groups may have significant bequest values which should be accounted for in developing economy valuation studies

energy planning and modern portfolio theory a review abstract modern portfolio theory mpt stands as a widely accepted methodology to meet the challenges associated with the definition of energy planning for a particular territory or region energy planning is thus framed as an investment selection problem mpt is characterized by having a wider capacity and conceptual richness than the other previously used methodologies such as the individual least cost alternative the portfolio approach is based on solving for an objective function that seeks to minimize either the cost or the risk of the portfolio subject to different constraints considering that real electricity generation assets can be defined in terms of cost or return and economic risk for each alternative technology the relevant portfolios are the result of solving the optimization model to determine the efficient cost risk frontier the work presented here consists of an exhaustive review of the literature in relation to the application of mpt methodology to the field of energy planning and electricity production a new classification is proposed from a financial perspective of the selection of investments from the preceding studies it delves deeper into the explanation of the limits to the methodology and into the concept of risk which is key from both a financial and an energy perspective the main methodological contributions found in the literature are examined that are aimed at improving the capacity of the model and adjusting it to the reality of the electricity market finally conclusions are provided from the works analyzed in terms of renewable technologies and the policy implications derived from them in most studies a preference has been shown for the inclusion of renewable technologies in the efficient portfolios however in order to implement the decision to increase the share of renewable technologies greater flexibility in the interconnection capacity between states and in storage capacity is needed