Innovations and Continuous Improvements and Their Impact on Firms’ Performance

This paper examines the influence of innovation and continuous improvement practices on the competitiveness of firms, which in turn affect their performance. Results obtained from 112 Qatari firms confirm that continuous improvements had a significant positive influence on the firms’ competitiveness. Among six of the ten Ekvall’s creative climate factors examined, only four had some positive influence on the competitiveness of the firms. The authors also found that the organization’s internal environment had significant positive influence on the competitiveness of the firms. Furthermore, results show that organizational competitiveness significantly influenced performance. Managerial implications of the findings are also provided.

New Developments in Real-Time Kinematic Water Quality Monitoring of Lakes and River Basins

The kinematic approach to water monitoring of rivers and lakes was by Archimedes Logica under the EU initiatives (LIFE1996) for the monitoring of the Lagoon of Venice. These systems were limited to the measurement of typical basic parameters: pH, Eh, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, temperature and immersion depth. However, this earlier system was unable to help against pollution from hydrocarbons. In this paper, the authors present a new kinematic monitoring system named AQUARIUS, which integrates a new generation of automatic chemical and biological analyzers. Automatic sampling and measurement equipment for micro-organism discrimination and counting are present, especially for detecting dangerous species like toxic algae. This article describes the wide spectrum of applications of the new AQUARIUS system: safety control of freshwater reservoirs, detection of urban and agriculture impacts on inland waters and early warning detection of man-made accidents, which are aided by the adoption of new mobile measurement equipment and broadband data channels offered by the modern 3G network.

China-European Union Trade and Global Warming

The globalization of trade has numerous environmental implications. Trade results from a geographic separation of consumption and production. This creates a mechanism for consumers to shift environmental pollution to other countries. China is now the world third biggest trader and the second biggest trade partner of EU. China has also overtaken the U.S. as the world biggest CO2 emitter since 2005. As China’s biggest trade partner, EU has a large trade deficit with China, but on the other hand, CO2 emissions embodied in Sino-EU trade are much more unbalanced than the trade imbalance itself. EU avoided a huge amount of CO2 emissions through trading with China. This lowers CO2 emissions in the EU and facilitates EU meeting its CO2 emission reduction targets, but it creates additional environmental burdens for China. In this paper, the dual imbalances between China and the EU, its mechanism, and policy implications will be presented.

Public on Conserving an Urban Wetland

The present study examines responses of the public to a proposed ecotourism program. Several individuals were randomly contacted in Kerala, India, to elicit their observations and responses to the proposed program, including residents, local travelers and workers. Though a large share of the sample population supported the project, anticipating that it would accelerate the development of the city and increase their annual earnings, many were unaware of the ecological importance of the mangrove wetland. Only 5% of the total sampled populations were aware of the importance of conserving wetland ecosystems in a growing city. This exemplifies the cheerless state of the environmental consciousness of the public in Kerala, despite that the city is among the most literate, socially advanced and environmentally cognizant populations in India. This study highlights the need for development of much deeper scientific consciousness among the public at large.

Consumers Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility

To build a better and more profitable corporate image, Western firms have been investing in social responsibility. The Romanian consumer has fairly recently been exposed to this holistic marketing concept since the Revolution of 1989, and in this regard, in this article, the authors verify conventional corporate social responsibility principles of building customer loyalty as well as goodwill from stakeholders. The paper explores the competitive advantage and its various components in which companies make use of marketing instruments that influence CSR activities of retailers.

Gathering Under a Green Umbrella

The Parasol Club is a student-run, collaborative group focusing on sustainable resource use at the University of Arizona (UA), especially rainwater harvesting. The group’s fundamental idea is that, as a land-grant university in an arid environment, UA should serve as a learning laboratory for the development and demonstration of techniques for sustainable use of water and energy. Parasol’s success is due largely to its collaborative model in which students work closely with facilities staff, faculty, and administrators to identify sites, gather materials and labor, and bring projects to fruition. Completed projects serve as a testament to the effectiveness of the collaborative model. As the group has demonstrated the power of institutional collaboration at the university, its circle has widened to include members of several academic departments, additional facilities staff, and university administrators. New campus projects are planned, and the group has extended its reach to work with Tucson primary schools and neighborhood organizations on rainwater harvesting projects. This paper discusses Parasol’s model as an example for collaborative infrastructure and project development at an institutional level.

Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix and Quintuple Helix and How Do Knowledge, Innovation and the Environment Relate to Each Other?

This article develops an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary framework of analysis that relates knowledge, innovation and the environment (natural environments) to each other. For that purpose the five-helix structure model of the Quintuple Helix is being introduced. The Triple Helix model, designed by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (2000), focuses on the relations of universities, industry and governments. The Quadruple Helix (Carayannis & Campbell, 2009) blends in the perspective of a media-based and culture-based public. The Quintuple Helix finally frames knowledge and innovation in the context of the environment (natural environments). Therefore, the Quintuple Helix can be interpreted as an approach in line with sustainable development and social ecology. “Eco-innovation” and “eco-entrepreneurship” should be processed in such a broader understanding of knowledge and innovation.

On the Dynamic Mechanism of Developing Recycling Economy for Enterprises in China

Recycling economy, as a new type of development model and economic growth mode, will form a social resultant force in government promotion, enterprise entities and public participation. Thus, it is quite necessary to discuss on the economic behavior, development restriction and profit motive of the Government, enterprises and the public as the micro-economic entities. Especially in the process of current recycling economic development of China, the sticking point for further development and achievement of Chinese recycling economy lies so much on how to enhance the intrinsic dynamics of the enterprises for developing the recycling economy.

Case Study Reclaimed the Greener Way

Thanks to the strategic priorities of the current federal administration, discussions about green management are a popular trend in the business community. Increasing efficiency, limiting energy consumption, and reducing waste internally as well as along the supply chain has been one way that managers have addressed “going green.” Some examples include front-to-back printing and stringent recycling efforts. For the lumber industry, going green is not as easy as changing how employees print or recycle plastic bottles, especially since one of the main resources in the lumber industry is wood. In this regard, the authors discuss a proposed supply chain model to reduce intra-process shipments, improve raw material acquisition and usage, and improve production yields through repurposing of the wood by-product created during the manufacture of reclaimed, wood-based products. The proposed model also suggests that entrepreneurial efforts could lead the way in innovating how wood by-products can be used to create disruptive methods that could lead to new wood based businesses.

Sustainable Agriculture

This paper examines developing issues and attitudes that unite and divide the United States and the European Union as the discussion and regulation of agriculture evolves. While some terms, such as “organic,” are defined in law in both the United States and European Union, the increasingly used “sustainability” is an evolving concept. The main sustainability issue is how to provide food and fiber for a rapidly growing world population. In this context, the role of biotechnology is questioned. Americans tend to favor what are sometimes called genetically modified crops, while Europeans remain cautious. Europeans lean more toward organic farming, while Americans assert that much of the world will starve if organic methods are required. This paper reviews the directions that the discussion of these issues is taking and will show areas of agreement and where the two sides diverge.