The mediating effect of sustainability strategy between sustainability committees and business performance: can persistent assessment condition this effect?

Purpose This study aims to analyse the role of persistence in the assessments carried out by sustainability agencies in the interaction between sustainability committee characteristics, sustainability strategies and performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors accessed a sample of European sustainable multinational and transnational companies (EMNs) for the period 2008–2017 from RobecoSAM universe. Using a set of simultaneous equation models, the authors test the effect of the sustainability committee on sustainability performance considering the sustainability strategy as a mediating element. Moreover, the authors analysed if the persistent assessment of sustainability agencies conditions the previous interaction. Findings Persistence of the sustainability assessment performed by an external agency is necessary to support the sustainability strategy and the sustainability committee, legitimating an organization in its institutional context. Practical implications This study provides practitioners with relevant insights into the identification of the sustainability strategy followed by an EMN and the effects associated with it can be useful for social and economic agents in decision-making processes. Social implications A persistent assessment could be a signal over time of the evolution of organizations, reinforcing the monitoring mechanisms. It is a stimulus to EMNs as they obtain both an indicator of their levels of performance and public recognition. Originality/value The lack of similarity in the levels of sustainable performance observed among companies can be explained by the persistence, which is an omitted variable in previous studies.

Missing the Target: Brazil's Agricultural Policy Indirectly Subsidizes Foreign Investments to the Detriment of Smallholder Farmers and Local Agribusiness

Currently there is controversy about the effect of direct foreign investment in the Brazilian agricultural sector, mainly due to the impact it has on small farmers, land use, the environment, and food security. In this context, Brazil finds itself in an even more delicate situation, since in order to remain a bulwark of the economy, Brazilian agribusiness depends heavily on public policies that directly impact its treasury. This suggests there is an indirect transfer of public resources to transnational companies involved in agribusiness production chains. This paper assesses the allocation of agricultural credits in Brazil and the market share held by Brazilian groups, vis-à-vis multinational corporations in the agribusiness supply chains. The study was carried out analyzing the three largest supply chains established in the country: soybean, corn, and cattle. Results reveal that 75% of the operating credit (crédito de custeio), which represents 60% of the total government credit in Brazil, goes directly to soybean, corn, and cattle farmers. Most of this subsidized credit budget goes to the soybean farmers, which are mostly encompassed by large farmers. Results also reveal that 76.1% of the soybean supply chain in Brazil is controlled by foreign multinational corporations. These findings suggest that resources invested in large farmers that take part in supply chains controlled by multinational foreign groups end up indirectly financing foreign companies to the detriment of local smallholder farmers and domestic agribusiness. This highlights the need for restructuring Brazilian agricultural policy in favor of family farmers and domestic agribusiness.

Digging Deeper: Deep Wells, Bore-Wells and Water Tankers in Peri-Urban Hyderabad

Hyderabad in India is a rapidly growing city and a popular global hub of high-tech and information technology industries. With its aspiration to be a global destination for transnational companies and engine of economic growth for the twenty-first century, it is rapidly urbanizing and expanding outward with intense infrastructure development. With this rapid expansion, the city increasingly witnesses water insecurity, especially in its peri-urban areas. To supply the high-tech and aspirational pockets of Hyderabad, water has been piped and sourced from far-away reservoirs, deep wells, and borewells, as well as through water tankers that collected water from the surrounding peri-urban areas. These unsustainable practices have led to groundwater shortages and severe water insecurity for the ordinary residents living at the edge of the city. Through a grounded understanding based on ethnographic fieldwork, this chapter delves into the everyday experiences of water insecurity in peri-urban Hyderabad. The chapter discusses the context of vulnerability and ways of coping in relation to water insecurity in peri-urban communities. It seeks to give a micro- and nuanced view of rural-urban relationships around water in Hyderabad, in a context of water-related conflicts, privatization and (piped) connections between the urban and peri-urban localities.

SOCIOFORMACIÓN EN CONTEXTO UNIVERSITARIO ECUATORIANO BAJO CONDICIONES DE COVID-19

Introducción: La socioformación universitaria, surge para abordar aprendizajes dirigidos a solucionar problemas a través de prácticas reflexivas, sumando el impacto generado por la COVID-19, cuyas influencias en Ecuador plantearon retos con el cambio de modalidad presencial a virtual. Objetivo: Analizar la socioformación en la nueva realidad y perspectivas universitarias del Ecuador frente a la COVID-19. Métodos: Se aplicó un diseño documental con revisión de la bibliografía en las bases científicas y buscadores Scielo, Google académico, Redalyc, Dialnet, utilizando las palabras clave: universidad, educación, virtual, COVID-19 y socioformación. Se encontraron 20 artículos, de los cuales se seleccionaron 15, que cumplieron los criterios de inclusión y exclusión, en inglés y español, publicados entre los años 2015-2021. Resultados: El impacto de la pandemia en la sociedad del conocimiento, genera la necesidad de garantizar formación profesional, recurriendo a herramientas que incluyan los estudiantes en el campo laboral, inclusive empresas transnacionales donde requieran mano de obra competente, adaptadas a diversas culturas, métodos, procesos y estructuras que reclaman multidisciplinariedad de conocimientos, donde la socioformación como paradigma educativo propicie en los universitarios la búsqueda, interpretación y solución de problemas. Conclusiones: Con la aplicación de la socioformación, como abordaje de problemas en el contexto de la COVID-19, en situaciones reales que demandan el cambio significativo en la vida, de manera colaborativa, se construyen conocimientos, interacción constante y permanente en acciones basadas en valores, que permitirá generar una sociedad más consciente de sus problemas Palabras clave: Socioformación, universidad, educación, virtual, COVID-19 ABSTRACT Introduction: University socio-training, arises to address learning aimed at solving problems through reflective practices, adding the impact generated by COVID-19, whose influences in Ecuador posed challenges with the change from face-to-face to virtual modality. Objective: To analyze socio-training in the new reality and university perspectives in Ecuador in the face of COVID-19. Methods: A documentary design was applied with a review of the bibliography in the scientific bases and search engines Scielo, Academic Google, Redalyc, Dialnet, using the keywords: university, education, virtual, COVID-19 and socioformation. Twenty articles were found, of which 15 were selected, which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, in English and Spanish, published between the years 2015-2021. Results: The impact of the pandemic in the knowledge society, generates the need to guarantee professional training, resorting to tools that include students in the labor field, including transnational companies where they require competent labor, adapted to diverse cultures, methods, processes and structures that demand multidisciplinarity of knowledge, where socioformation as an educational paradigm propitiates in university students the search, interpretation and solution of problems. Conclusions: With the application of socioformation, as an approach to problems in the context of COVID-19, in real situations that demand significant change in life, in a collaborative way, knowledge is built, constant and permanent interaction in actions based on values, which It will allow to generate a society that is more aware of its problems. Keywords: socio-training, university, virtual, education, COVID-19

Analysis of mergers and acquisitions between 2009 and 2020

This paper studies the dynamics and trends in processes of mergers and acquisitions in a highly competitive and global economic environment. The aim of this study is to analyse and divide into periods M&A agreements in the global economy. The study produces a precise definition and discusses benefits and drawbacks of such horizontal and vertical agreements. The authors discuss historical waves of mergers and acquisitions processes and present 11 individual periods containing special aspects and description of types of the agreements, as well as supplement the periods with COVID-19 pandemic flow for 2020-2021. A polynomial regression analysis is used to predict the mechanism, results and magnitude of mergers and acquisitions. Furthermore, a discrete time model enables studying behaviour pattern of mergers and acquisitions happened during 2009-2020. The results demonstrate that transnational companies are greatly attributed to economic growth through mergers and acquisitions despite their rather high preparation and implementation costs. It may be expected an escalation of capital redistribution among pharmaceutical and bioengineering companies in a post-pandemic period due to increased M&A agreements.

Practicality, support or premeditated calculation in the digital age: the case of Ecuador

This paper aims to analyze the attitudes among young Ecuadorians with regard to processes of technological practicality. It seeks to identify the turning points in the decision-making process regarding the transfer of data and to examine the associated conceptual debate surrounding the role of related participants, such as governments, supranational organizations, transnational companies and end-users. Interviews were conducted with 299 university students in the city of Ambato, Ecuador, using quantitative techniques. The participants stated that they were aware of practicality but not of its effects and limitations, indicating that not everyone would be willing to give up part of their privacy in return for benefits in frequently used applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp or Netflix. Generally, participants felt dominated by technology, which often masks the processes of dependency associated with the costs and custody of data surrendered in exchange for a benefit. Issues of fairness and security in the treatment of data and the uneven coverage of services highlight a need for greater regulation of technological platforms.

Globolocalization versus Russophony: the search for an alternative to hybridity and cross-cultural situation

The relevance of the research topic is due to social contradictions caused by the proliferation of glovolocalization, transculturation and translocality projects in the global culture, associated with the active implementation of the manipulative practices of adaptation of linguistic and cultural locuses to the global market. Hybridity as a basic property of postmodernity requires the interpretation of these projects on the basis of new methodological premises: philosophy of media, structuralism and poststructuralism, critical theory. The neoliberal hehemony lays in the basis of these projects an imaginary tolerant cross-cultural phenomenon, which often makes it difficult to identify the deepest paradoxes of their repressiveness. The central project of cross-culture today is glocalism. The aim of the research is to carry out a comparative analysis of global localization and Russophony as alternative (pragmatic and ethical) ways of resolving hybrid conflicts between cultures and finding ways of dialogue at the global (world) and local (Russian) levels. As a result of the analysis of materials on glocalization, the author comes to the conclusion about the existence of a number of legitimate contradictions in glocalism, the main ones of which are: the contradiction between capital and labor, time and space; the contradiction between ethical universalism and the economic particularism of the market; the contradiction between the imaginary freedom of horizontal communication and the asymmetric governing structure of organized haos; the contradiction between transnational companies and the state, which risks losing its national and civilizational subjectivity; the contradiction between the promises to the regions from transnational companies and the real possibilities of the regions; double codes in relation to protest movements in globalist and anti-globalist regions. As an alternative to glocalization in relation to Russia and a number of other countries, including Ukraine, we propose a solidarity project of Russophony as a mechanism of linguistic solidarization of cultural subjects on civilizational, cultural and symbolic grounds.

Small and medium businesses in Switzerland and multinational companies

The article gives a comparative study of the main elements of Swiss system of business — transnational corporations and small and medium companies (SMEs). Using the methods of statistical analysis, systematic and comparative approaches the author analyzes their role in country economy, modification of activities and changes of their positions in innovative spheres. The author examines the factors of attractiveness and preferences which have influenced the location of TNC headquarters in Switzerland and its new trends. Multinationals are a driving force for Switzerland`s economy development. Swiss multinationals are also leaders in foreign direct investments. The study shows special significance of small and medium enterprises for Swiss economy and exports, their contribution to innovations and R&D. Foreign trade provides the greatest impetus for SMEs growth. The author analyzes the process of internationalization of small and medium companies in specific conditions of small country and their support by different instruments in the framework of three-tier system of interaction (federal center — cantons — municipalities) including financial support and preferential taxation. The federal government supports SMEs in obtaining bank loans by funding loan guarantee cooperatives. As a result it was envisaged that transnational companies and SMEs cooperated in creating a competitive and innovative economy and cluster model in Switzerland. The author notes the negative influence of pandemia on Swiss economy and MNC and SME, but at the same time there are some signs of its recovery.

ОЦЕНКА ЭФФЕКТОВ ВЛИЯНИЯ МЕЖГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ ИНТЕГРАЦИИ НА АГРАРНЫЙ СЕКТОР КАЗАХСТАНА

Researching the agro-industrial complex development in formation of the Eurasian economic Union context is intended to assess the impact on agricultural production stability and competitiveness and its growth in integration process. Using the following indicators to assess the international economic integration process was carried out effects assessment of interstate integration on stability and competitiveness Kazakhstan’s agricultural sector: the economic openness indicator, the share of mutual trade turnover in the total trade turnover, the index of intra-industry trade for two countries case and one industry (the Grubel-Lloyd index), the preference coefficient, the mutual preference coefficient, the relative preference coefficient. Countries that are members to the integration Union get a number of dynamic advantages, which are showed in integration development process in the long term. There are not excluded the probability of the following negative integration effects – unilateral advantages for more developed member countries, price increases due to the formation of member countries’ transnational companies, demonstrations of descending economies effects scale (losses on scale). In general, the positive effects of integration, both static and dynamic, exceed the negative ones. Исследуя развитие агропромышленного комплекса в условиях формирования Евразийского экономического союза, предполагается оценить влияние на устойчивость и конкурентоспособность аграрного производства нарастание интеграционного процесса. С помощью показателей, позволяющих оценить процесс международной экономической интеграции: показатель открытости экономики, доля оборота взаимной торговли в общем обороте торговли, индекс внутриотраслевой торговли для случая двух стран и одной отрасли (индекс Грубеля-Ллойда), коэффициент предпочтения, коэффициент взаимного предпочтения, коэффициент относительного предпочтения, проведена оценка эффектов межгосударственной интеграции на устойчивость и конкурентоспособность аграрного сектора Казахстана. Страны, входящие в интеграционный союз, получают ряд динамических преимуществ, которые проявляются в процессе развития интеграции в долгосрочном периоде, где не исключается вероятность возникновения негативных эффектов интеграции - односторонних преимуществ для более развитых стран-участниц, повышение цен вследствие формирования транснациональных компаний стран-участниц, проявлений нисходящего эффекта масштаба (потерь на масштабе). В целом позитивные эффекты интеграции, как статические, так и динамические, превышают негативные.