Account(ing)/(ability): Democratising the Environmental Impact Assessment in Mongolian Mining

<p>This study examines sustainable development in practice, particularly in the context of mining and environmental management in a less developed country (LDC). It argues for sustainable and participatory mining in LDCs, such as Mongolia, by encouraging democratisation of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The EIA, a major tool of environmental management, addresses the negative environmental and social impacts of development projects, such as mining, and has the capacity to mitigate such impacts by incorporating EIA recommendations into business practice. To ensure the inclusion of affected communities in the EIA process, public participation in EIAs is legislated in many countries. This is particularly important for mineral-rich LDCs, as they have experienced growing conflict among mining companies, local communities, and government authorities, due to a lack of dialogue among mining constituents and a lack of effective public policy and public engagement in the promotion of socially and environmentally accountable mining. This study applies Brown's (2009) dialogic accounting framework in the exploration and evaluation of current EIA practices. By using Mongolian EIA practices for illustrative purposes, this study seeks to contribute to debate in EIA and SEA literature, and to support calls for more participatory EIAs that can embed sustainable development into business practice. Furthermore, the current and potential engagement of NGOs in the EIAs of Mongolia is examined in order to explore their potential to foster dialogic accounting.</p>

Account(ing)/(ability): Democratising the Environmental Impact Assessment in Mongolian Mining

<p>This study examines sustainable development in practice, particularly in the context of mining and environmental management in a less developed country (LDC). It argues for sustainable and participatory mining in LDCs, such as Mongolia, by encouraging democratisation of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The EIA, a major tool of environmental management, addresses the negative environmental and social impacts of development projects, such as mining, and has the capacity to mitigate such impacts by incorporating EIA recommendations into business practice. To ensure the inclusion of affected communities in the EIA process, public participation in EIAs is legislated in many countries. This is particularly important for mineral-rich LDCs, as they have experienced growing conflict among mining companies, local communities, and government authorities, due to a lack of dialogue among mining constituents and a lack of effective public policy and public engagement in the promotion of socially and environmentally accountable mining. This study applies Brown's (2009) dialogic accounting framework in the exploration and evaluation of current EIA practices. By using Mongolian EIA practices for illustrative purposes, this study seeks to contribute to debate in EIA and SEA literature, and to support calls for more participatory EIAs that can embed sustainable development into business practice. Furthermore, the current and potential engagement of NGOs in the EIAs of Mongolia is examined in order to explore their potential to foster dialogic accounting.</p>

The competitive factors of German enterprises in Poland

The purpose of this paper is to answer the following research questions: which factors relating to the international competitiveness of German enterprises are most important for the Polish market? Which competitiveness factors play a key role in helping enterprises from the highest developed countries conquer the market of a relatively less developed country? On the basis of a literature review, a research gap is identified, indicating there is a shortage of studies that clearly identify a group of factors that influence a company’s success on the foreign market. The gap is filled with the empirical qualitative research and the conclusions regarding the key competitiveness factors and their effective combination. Competitive strategies and factors key for their implementation are identified, presenting the factors responsible for the growth of German enterprises on the international market (Poland) and achieving market success. The set of enterprises’ competitiveness factors is established and the hierarchy those factors is presented. Although the qualitative research based on thirteen companies is not representative, the leading German enterprises provide a valuable lesson on how to successfully conquer a foreign market. The key competitiveness factors responsible for such success in the context of strategic goals, competition strategies and modern methods of competition are presented and discussed. The findings are very useful for real enterprises in internationalizing situations, where the management has to determine the competitive strategy which should lead to foreign growth and in consequence success on the international market. The study indicates what to focus on when entering the foreign market and which factors have a direct impact on the growth on the foreign market. The paper is a result of empirical research on competitiveness and provides valuable information about the set of ranked competitive factors that have a direct influence on success in a foreign market.

The 1942 Massive Contamination of Yellow Fever Vaccine: A Public Health Consequence of Scientific Arrogance

In the late 1930s, the 17D vaccine against yellow fever was produced in record time. 17D was and is an excellent vaccine. Its rapid diffusion led, however, to several problems, the most important among them being the 1942 massive contamination of the vaccine distributed to the US Army by the hepatitis B virus. The US part of this story is relatively well-known, but its Brazilian part much less so. In 1940, scientists who were producing the 17D vaccine in Rio de Janeiro found that it was contaminated by an “icterus virus” that originated in normal human serum. They solved this problem through the exclusion of human serum from vaccine production, but failed to persuade their US colleagues to do the same. The Rio experts, aware of the potential pitfalls of a new technology, carefully supervised the consequences of their vaccination campaigns. They were thus able to rapidly spot problems and eliminate them. By contrast, US scientists, persuaded of their technical superiority and distrustful of warnings that originated from a “less developed” country, neglected to implement basic public health rules. A major disaster followed. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(9): 1654–1660. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306313 )

Coherent Mortality Forecasting for Less Developed Countries

This paper proposes a coherent multi-population approach to mortality forecasting for less developed countries. The majority of these countries have witnessed faster mortality declines among the young and the working age populations during the past few decades, whereas in the more developed countries, the contemporary mortality declines have been more substantial among the elders. Along with the socioeconomic developments, the mortality patterns of the less developed countries may become closer to those of the more developed countries. As a consequence, forecasting the long-term mortality of a less developed country by simply extrapolating its historical patterns might lead to implausible results. As an alternative, this paper proposes to incorporate the mortality patterns of a group of more developed countries as the benchmark to improve the forecast for a less developed one. With long-term, between-country coherence in mind, we allow the less developed country’s age-specific mortality improvement rates to gradually converge with those of the benchmark countries during the projection phase. Further, we employ a data-driven, threshold hitting approach to control the speed of this convergence. Our method is applied to China, Brazil, and Nigeria. We conclude that taking into account the gradual convergence of mortality patterns can lead to more reasonable long-term forecasts for less developed countries.

Factors identifying musician entrepreneurship in a less-developed country; a case of Indonesia's independent musician

Purpose This paper aims to examine Indonesian independent musicians' (indie) adaptation to the environmental business model. The research on institutional entrepreneurship (IE) has been used in organizational studies, including the music profession. However, the music industry's information and technology advancement has not been scrutinized in a less developed country (LDC) context. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach is used to conduct semi-structured interviews with 14 independent music professionals and enthusiasts. The interview result was three stages of coding, including open, axial and selective, as well as generating appropriate themes. Findings The results summarize entrepreneurial behavior, socio-economy and technology factors. The existing literature supports these results, though new perspectives are only identified in the LDC context. Internal factors drive IE, while socio-economy, including music literacy, education and legal issues, influence its sub-setting. On the other hand, technology positively or negatively impacts IE based on individual utilization. Research limitations/implications Despite the massive piracy and copyright issues, independent musicians require creativity and innovation beyond product creation. Weak and unclear regulations in Indonesia prevent musicians from revealing their identity and publishing their artwork, preventing or obstructing them from their goals. Practical implications This paper illustrates the urgency to implement copyright regulations for musicians in Indonesia, which are insufficiently enforced by law enforcement. Such conditions prevents musicians from revealing their identity and publishing their artwork. Social implications This paper addresses the extent to which a community such as independent musician, struggles to find its identity toward the changing of its business model. By mapping the factors associated with an independent musician, the paper suggests that this community has strategic economic potential as a creative entity. Originality/value This paper examines the music industry in less-developed nations by contextualizing their institutions using the IE framework. It contributes to identifying the environmental factors influencing independent institutional musicians. Internal and external factors significantly contribute to identifying Indonesia's independent musician setting through IE.

Influencing Factors and Social Media Reflections of Bakery Products Consumption in Romania

Bakery products, and bread specifically, represent an important part of the Romanian diet. Whether this situation is motivated by quality factors or by quantitative factors is an important aspect that needs to be investigated. In addition, the relation between peoples’ interest in a particular product such as bread during a crisis period should point out important characteristics of that population. Aiming at determining both the influencing factors of bakery product consumption and the importance given to this type of product in the media during a crisis, this empirical study highlights the profound connections between income level and the fear of not having food security for the people of a less developed country such as Romania. The study considers the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods to reach its objectives. The results point to a strong reliance of the respondents on cheap white-flour bakery products in their regular diet, and a significant increase in interest in bakery products during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effect of individual entrepreneurship orientation on export intention in micro and small enterprises

Purpose: Considering the importance of the internationalization of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) for the national economic growth, this study was conducted in order to determine the possible impact of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) on export intention in MSEs through the moderating effect of access to finance. Methodology: This research consists of a survey of 150 agriculture farm owners from Nepal conducted in January 2020. The researchers used SmartPLS as a research tool to analyse the data. Results: The results of this study indicate that out of five dimensions of IEO, only autonomy has a positive significant effect on export intention, whereas access to finance had no moderating role in the effect of IEO on export intention. Conclusion: Overall, this study provides profound insight about IEO in the context of a less developed country like Nepal and also sheds light on Nepalese farm owners’ IEO and their intention to export.

Evidence-Based Policy Development: National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action on Climate Change for Nigeria (NASPA-CCN)

Evidence-based policies are recommended for the enhanced chances of efficacy in achieving policy goals. Achieving this in the policy development process may however require approaches that are not as simple especially in less developed countries, where the research-policy linkage is not commonly the case. This chapter provides a guide to a practical approach that could assist policy makers in similar societies based on the steps adopted in the development of the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action on Climate Change (NASPA-CCN) for Nigeria. The NASPA–CCN has been acknowledged as among the models of climate change policy development that other countries could aim for. It is therefore positioned to offer lessons on policy development in a less developed country environment. The focus in this chapter however is not so much on the subject of climate change but the practical experiences and lessons learnt from the process involved in developing the NASPA-CCN providing lessons learned to mainstream climate change research evidence into policy.

Do electricity consumption and economic growth lead to enviromental pollution: Empirical evidence from association of Southeast Asian countries

Nowadays, environmental pollution has become a global problem and common to both developed and developing countries. The purpose of this study is to analyze the environmental pollution during the period from 1990 to 2014 in order to discuss the most important factors can effect environmental quality in a specific region in Asia. Using a panel data, in particular generalized least squares model for the sample with T large, N small examined by Pesaran (2006), Sickles and Horrace (2014), our results that a less developed country has a lower level of environmental pollution than a more developed country. More specifically, countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam have a positive and significant effect on environmental degradation, but no effect for Myanmar. In regard to environmental quality across year, environmental pollution has become even more urgent over time. Specifically, a negative and significant effect can be found in the period from 2005 to 2014 but insignificant effect in the period from 1991 to 2004, and the magnitude of effect has increasingly increased. Further, electricity consumption and income have a positive and significant effect on environmental pollution. However, although export performance has a negative effect on environmental pollution but this effect was insignificant.