Developing a Risk Management System for Participating Government Agencies of India

Trade facilitation is a critical building block of developing globally integrated value chains. In India, current trade facilitation systems including risk assessment criteria require improvements involving regulatory mandates for food and drugs, animal and plant quarantine, wildlife protection, and textile products. Using illustrative examples, this working paper presents specific system development needs for six major participating government agencies on trade facilitation in India. It provides a model for developing a comprehensive system of risk management. It also discusses the need for institutional cooperation between customs authorities and participating government agencies for a comprehensive single window trade facilitation solution.

Technology Framework for India's Road Freight Transport: Compliance and Enforcement Architecture Reform

In India, different agencies conduct inspections on road freight in transit, which can cause unscheduled stoppages that result in delays and add to operational costs. Compliance and enforcement architecture reform involving road freight transport in the country involves the application of data-based and integrated digital tools that can enable inspection facilities and units to immediately identify potential noncompliance and minimize multiple physical inspections that the current enforcement model entails. This paper presents an alternative model for enforcement agencies with regulatory mandates on the on-road movement and conveyance of cargo. The importance of road freight transport in India can benefit from a technology-based reform, which has become critical to improving the efficiency of domestic trade facilitation.

Join In . . . and Drop Out? Firm Adoption of and Disengagement From Voluntary Environmental Programs

Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) offer opportunities for companies and stakeholders to improve environmental outcomes valued by society in the absence of regulatory mandates. Research has addressed numerous antecedents for firm adoption of VEPs, enhancing knowledge of how stakeholders and firms engage on substantive issues of public importance. However, program adoption is dynamic, and stagnant participation rates may threaten program longevity when firms do not realize expected benefits. Prior literature has not sufficiently addressed the factors that compel firms to drop out. In this study I articulate three consequential drivers of firm commitment to VEPs—transparency, effort, and achievement—and empirically estimate their effects on firm disengagement from one such prominent program: CDP (formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project). Findings indicate that firm transparency and effort represent powerful commitment mechanisms driving continued program participation. This study contributes to theory over multiple literatures related to VEP participation and offers practical guidance for both VEPs and firms.

Regulation as a force for hybrid organization: evidence from the Bonneville Power Administration (1980–2012)

PurposeThis case study highlights state-logic influence on hybrid organizations and institutionally complex environments through acts of regulation (and deregulation).Design/methodology/approachThis study presents a 30-year narrative case focused on the significant social achievements of the Bonneville Power Administration within the Northwest United States. It combines the analysis of historical documentation, annual reports issued by the organization and interviews with firm management to observe the wax and wane of regulatory influence through time.FindingsThe presented case suggests two ways regulation projects state-logic influence onto hybrid organizations. First, it imposes a “floor” level of baseline social activity that must be met despite pressure from market logic stakeholders. Second, it imposes formal administrative procedures that require interaction with, and often approval from, key social stakeholders. Administrative procedures provide a series of public forums used to promote additional social resource allocation in excess of baseline regulatory mandates.Research limitations/implicationsA narrative case covering a 30-year period will by necessity have to prioritize breadth of analysis over depth. This is a limitation of the analysis presented, but it also provides an opportunity to observe the oscillating impact of state and market-logic influence through time.Originality/valueThe study findings have several implications for the growing accounting literature on institutional complexity and hybrid organization. First, the authors highlight the ways regulation shapes institutionally complex spaces and, as a result, the hybrid organizations formed within those environments. Second, the exogenous nature of regulatory mandates indicate hybrid firms could emerge as both a voluntary and an involuntary adaptation to institutionally complex environments. Finally, this study highlights opportunities to further one’s understanding how state logics influence hybrid organizations through the study of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Equity Market Structure Regulation: Time to Start Over

Over the past half-century, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s regulations have become key determinants of the way in which stocks trade and the fees that exchanges charge for their services. The current equity market structure rules are contained primarily in the SEC’s Regulation NMS. The theory behind Regulation NMS is that a system of dispersed markets operating pursuant to SEC-mandated information and order routing links will provide the benefits of consolidation and competition simultaneously. This article argues that Regulation NMS has failed in that quest. It has produced fragmented markets and created questionable incentives for market participants, possibly producing socially excessive investments in trading speed and secrecy. It also discourages exchange innovation, provides insufficient incentives for traders to price orders aggressively, requires brokers to act against their customers’ interests, and forces the SEC to act as a price regulator. The article contends that the SEC should replace Regulation NMS with three simple design principles—issuer choice, exchange autonomy, and regulatory consistency. These would allow market forces, rather than regulatory mandates, to determine the design and pricing of trading platforms and the trading strategies of broker-dealers. They would better align the private incentives of trading platforms with the social objectives of improving liquidity and price discovery.

Economic Analyses of Federal Scientific Collections: Methods for Documenting Costs and Benefits

Federal collections have been created to serve agency missions and, in a few cases, to comply with legislative and regulatory mandates. The benefits generated by federal scientific collections can take monetary and non-monetary forms, and are usually indirect and delayed. The value chains that connect costs to benefits are generally difficult to document. This report describes five methodologies that are available for describing and estimating the benefits federal collections generate. Departments and agencies can use the methods described for evidence-based decisions concerning policies and management practices for their institutional collections. <br><br>

Economic Analyses of Federal Scientific Collections: Methods for Documenting Costs and Benefits

Federal collections have been created to serve agency missions and, in a few cases, to comply with legislative and regulatory mandates. The benefits generated by federal scientific collections can take monetary and non-monetary forms, and are usually indirect and delayed. The value chains that connect costs to benefits are generally difficult to document. This report describes five methodologies that are available for describing and estimating the benefits federal collections generate. Departments and agencies can use the methods described for evidence-based decisions concerning policies and management practices for their institutional collections. <br><br>