Frontier production functions are important for the prediction of technical efficiencies of individual firms in an industry. A stochastic frontier production function model for panel data is presented, for which the firm effects are an exponential function of time. The best predictor for the technical efficiency of an individual firm at a particular time period is presented for this time-varying model. An empirical example is presented using agricultural data for paddy farmers in a village in India.

https://www.une.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/24633/emetwp56.pdf

Frontier production functions, technical efficiency and panel data: With application to paddy farmers in India

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Governing the Commons

Summary Electric vehicles (EVs) coupled with low-carbon electricity sources offer the potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to tailpipe emissions from personal transportation. In considering these benefits, it is important to address concerns of problemshifting. In addition, while many studies have focused on the use phase in comparing transportation options, vehicle production is also significant when comparing conventional and EVs. We develop and provide a transparent life cycle inventory of conventional and electric vehicles and apply our inventory to assess conventional and EVs over a range of impact categories. We find that EVs powered by the present European electricity mix offer a 10% to 24% decrease in global warming potential (GWP) relative to conventional diesel or gasoline vehicles assuming lifetimes of 150,000 km. However, EVs exhibit the potential for significant increases in human toxicity, freshwater eco-toxicity, freshwater eutrophication, and metal depletion impacts, largely emanating from the vehicle supply chain. Results are sensitive to assumptions regarding electricity source, use phase energy consumption, vehicle lifetime, and battery replacement schedules. Because production impacts are more significant for EVs than conventional vehicles, assuming a vehicle lifetime of 200,000 km exaggerates the GWP benefits of EVs to 27% to 29% relative to gasoline vehicles or 17% to 20% relative to diesel. An assumption of 100,000 km decreases the benefit of EVs to 9% to 14% with respect to gasoline vehicles and results in impacts indistinguishable from those of a diesel vehicle. Improving the environmental profile of EVs requires engagement around reducing vehicle production supply chain impacts and promoting clean electricity sources in decision making regarding electricity infrastructure.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00532.x

Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Electric Vehicles

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to position sustainable entrepreneurship in relation to sustainability innovation. The framework builds on a typology of sustainable entrepreneurship, develops it by including social and institutional entrepreneurship, i.e. the application of the entrepreneurial approach towards meeting societal goals and towards changing market contexts, and relates it to sustainability innovation. The framework provides a reference for managers to introduce sustainability innovation and to pursue sustainable entrepreneurship. Methodologically, the paper develops an approach of qualitative measurement of sustainable entrepreneurship and how to assess the position of a company in a classification matrix. The degree of environmental or social responsibility orientation in the company is assessed on the basis of environmental and social goals and policies, the organization of environmental and social management in the company and the communication of environmental and social issues. The market impact of the company is measured on the basis of market share, sales growth and reactions of competitors. The paper finds conditions under which sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability innovation emerge spontaneously. The research has implications for theory and practitioners in that it clarifies which firms are most likely under specific conditions to make moves towards sustainability innovation. The paper makes a contribution in showing that extant research needs to be expanded with regard to motivations for innovation and that earlier models of sustainable entrepreneurship need to be refined. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

/pdf/sustainable-entrepreneurship-and-sustainability-innovation-2oeo2nn77q.pdf

Sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability innovation: categories and interactions

The concepts of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship are making amazing breakthroughs in EU countries and the United States. Until recently, the debates on both sides of the Atlantic have taken place in parallel trajectories with few connections among them. In the first part of the paper, we describe the European and US historical landscapes in which those concepts took root. In the second part, we analyse how the various conceptualizations have evolved. This analysis paves the way for the third part, in which we highlight the conceptual convergences and divergences among regions as well as within the US and European landscapes.

Conceptions of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in europe and the united states: convergences and divergences

Introduction: From Third Sector to Social Enterprise Part 1: Social Enterprises in the Fifteen EU Countries 1. Austria: Social Enterprises and New Childcare Services 2. Belgium: Social Enterprises in Community Services 3. Denmark: Co-operative Activity and Community Development 4. Finland: Labour Co-operatives as an Innovative Response to Unemployment 5. France: Social Enterprises Developing 'Proximity Services' 6. Germany: Social Enterprises and Transitional Employment 7. Greece: Social Enterprises Responding to Welfare Needs 8. Ireland: Social Enterprises and Local Development 9. Italy: From Traditional Cooperatives to Innovative Social Enterprises 10. Luxembourg: Work-Integration Social Enterprises in an Emerging Third Sector 11. Portugal: Co-operatives for Rehabilitation of People with Disabilities 12. Spain: Social Enterprises as a Response to Employment Policy Failure 13. Sweden: The Emergence of Work-Integration Social Enterprises 14. The Netherlands: Neighbourhood Development Enterprises 15. United Kingdom: A Wide Range of Social Enterprises Part 2: The Social Enterprises: A Theoretical Perspective 16. Social Enterprises as Incentive Structures: An Economic Analysis 17. The Significance of Social Capital in the Multiple Goal and Resource Structure of Social Enterprises 18. The Social Enterprise: Towards a Theoretical Socio-Economic Approach 19. Management Challenges for Social Enterprises Conclusions: Social Enterprises in Europe: A Diversity of Initiatives and Prospects

/pdf/the-emergence-of-social-enterprise-5ep2jqeqps.pdf

The Emergence of Social Enterprise

Purpose – Twelve years ago, the concept of social enterprise was rarely discussed in Europe, however it is now making significant breakthroughs in European Union (EU) countries. Within this context, the purpose of this paper is to synthesize major evolutions experienced by social enterprises across Europe and the key challenges they are facing; and specific members of the EMES European Research Network provide a more in‐depth update as to current trends and debates in their respective countriesDesign/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a comparative analysis of the different institutions (legal frameworks, public policies, supporting structures, public procurement policies …) which support the development of social enterprises in the different EU countries. To delimit the field, the paper relies on the “ideal‐type” social enterprise as defined by the EMES network: “Social enterprises are not‐for‐profit private organizations providing goods or services directly related to their explicit aim to be...

/pdf/social-enterprise-in-europe-recent-trends-and-developments-upc55g5kc4.pdf

Social enterprise in Europe: recent trends and developments

The main purpose of this paper is to apply structural path analysis to a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) framework. Because the SAM is a comprehensive essentially general equilibrium -data system, the whole network through which influence is transmitted can be identified and specified through structural path analysis. The latter provides an alternative and much more detailed way to decompose multipliers as compared with the traditional treatment of Stone (1978) and Pyatt and Round (1979). This paper consists of five sections. The first one reviews the SAM framework as a basis for multiplier analysis and multiplier decomposition. In particular, the additive decomposition in terms of transfer, open-loop and closed-loop effects is succinctly presented. Section II applies this conventional decomposition to a SAM of South-Korea to illustrate with eleven specific cases the effects of an exogenous injection on the endogenous accounts of the SAM, i.e. the incomes, of the factors, household groups and production activities. Section III is devoted to the presentation of the elements of structural analysis and, more particularly, the transmission of economic influence within a structure. Finally, Section IV applies structural path analysis to the South-Korean SAM and compares and contrasts the multiplier decomposition which it yields, with the alternative decomposition discussed in Section II. The comparison is the more significant in that the two decomposition methods are applied to the same eleven selected cases spanning a variety of sectors (i.e. poles) of origin (for the injection) and sectors (poles) of destination. The empirical analysis in Section IV suggests that structural path analysis applied to a SAM is a potentially operationally useful technique within which a whole series of policy issues can be addressed. The final section is devoted to a brief summary and conclusions.

Structural path analysis and multiplier decomposition within a social accounting matrix framework

/pdf/defining-social-enterprise-1w864n03re.pdf

Jacques Defourny

Papers

Conceptions of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in europe and the united states: convergences and divergences

The Emergence of Social Enterprise

Social enterprise in Europe: recent trends and developments

Structural path analysis and multiplier decomposition within a social accounting matrix framework

Defining Social Enterprise