• Energy Research
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Abstract This study aims to assess the efficiency of the fossil fuel taxation scheme currently in effect in Switzerland. To this end, the concept of implicit CO2 prices is introduced, based on which prices for different fossil fuel uses are derived. Implicit CO2 prices are defined as the difference between actual prices paid by consumers and efficient domestic fuel prices. Efficient domestic fuel prices, in turn, consist of private production costs, a uniform value added tax and only local external costs, not including external costs due to CO2 emissions and global climate change. The resulting prices differ substantially, which suggests that there is considerable cost-saving potential in reducing CO2 emissions in Switzerland. For passenger cars and air traffic, the implicit prices are negative. For these uses, higher fuel charges would therefore be beneficial from a purely domestic perspective, i.e., without considering the negative repercussions of global warming.

Abstract This paper studies the impact of oil price changes on economic growth in Saudi Arabia to measure its dependency on the crude oil sector. To this end, an On/Off threshold regression is specified to allow the oil/GDP relationship to be asymmetric, nonlinear, and time-varying with regard to the business cycle phases. Further, we empirically test the diversification hypothesis put forward by the National Transformation Program (Saudi Vision 2030) to check whether the equity-energy investment initiative could boost economic growth in Saudi Arabia. First, our findings confirm the contribution of the oil sector to economic growth in the country, but also show that the oil/Saudi economy relationship exhibits nonlinearity and threshold effects, as the impact of oil price varies per regime depending on the state of the market. Second, in line with the Vision 2030 expectations, we are in favor of transforming the economy and opening its equity market. We also quantify a positive and significant impact of equity investment on the Saudi Arabian economy. Further, this diversification route will stimulate a beneficial oil effect on the real economy.

AbstractEmbedding sustainability in day‐to‐day operations necessitates employees' proactiveness beyond compliance with standardised management practices. Exchanging information on safety and environmental issues is acknowledged as a component of workers' proactive behaviours for sustainability embeddedness, which is hardly promoted by codified procedures. Accordingly, identifying leverages to stimulate information exchange is a primary objective for academics and practitioners. The study investigates drivers of information exchange on safety and environmental near misses by examining five situation‐related antecedents: rewards/reinforcements, organisational boundaries, social proactiveness, stakeholder salience and connectedness. The study relies on a mixed method approach, by combining social network analysis and a questionnaire survey conducted among four large Italian companies. The findings partially support the hypothesis of the study, highlighting rewards/reinforcements and connectedness as relevant antecedents of information exchange, while organisational boundaries only partially relate with information exchange. Surprisingly, stakeholder salience and social proactiveness do not emerge as significant drivers of information exchange. The study contributes to the debate on extra‐role pro‐sustainability behaviours and provides implications for managerial practice.

This article presents the Tetrahedron of Innovation Processes model that aims to diagnose, through the understanding and analysis of the three vertices, areas that need improvements in training to generate a change in knowledge. The present research is intended to show the managers of a company in the energy sector the relationship between training and development programs and how their application can help the organization to design an organizational context orienting human behavior towards activities of learning and innovation. The model can be used to understand the relationship between capacity and internal resources on the influence of employee skills in information processing, creativity, and critical thinking by encouraging employee behavior, guiding a flow of knowledge to the company. Given the context, the model was able to ponder and classify the main aspects that must be improved for the development of human capital in the company studied and can help to find significant solutions for the necessary improvements to occur. With this, the article brings a paradigm shift in training and learning that will aid in the development of human knowledge.

Much of the debate on sustainability is predicated on the belief that environmental demands lead to the production of sustainable technologies that induce environmental benefits. This fails to account for the influential ways technologies are used in practice, and the interactions between users and technologies that shape their environmental effects. This article uses the example of how cars and their drivers together accomplish the practice of driving through their interactions with each other, and explores the implications this has for generating environmental outcomes. We draw on a body of literature that argues how together, users and technologies participate in carrying out practices that actively shape outcomes, and we show how and why this applies to sustainability. The article presents the case of the Toyota Prius, analyzing Toyota’s intent in designing a sustainable car and contrasting it with the perspectives of thirty-eight of its drivers. We find that the possibility for fuel and carbon reduction is coproduced and is a result of complex interactions between technology, drivers, and driving practice.

An extensive number of studies uses trade-to-GDP as a proxy for globalisation in environmental research. Globalisation encompasses much more than just trade in goods. Globalisation is the integration of various countries and includes spillovers of ideas and technology, financial flows, the worldwide movement of labour, and national governments meeting on an international level in a bid to solve social and political problems. This study considers the effect of globalisation on carbon dioxide emissions by using a more flexible and comprehensive measure based on the KOF globalisation index for a panel of 21 OECD nations covering the period 1970–2014. Since the globalisation process is not uniform across countries and time, we use a fully-fledged nonparametric technique to estimate the time-varying coefficient and trend functions. Our results show that the effect of globalization on CO2 emissions is positive up until 2000, then switches to turns negative thereafter.

Sustainable business strategies or technologies determine the market dynamism so as to withstand competitiveness. The evaluation of such strategies is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. To deal with such problems, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and analytical network process (ANP) could be deployed. AHP considers the distribution of goal amongst the elements being compared and judges the element which has the greater influence on the goal. In order to overcome the drawbacks with AHP, ANP could be used which is a holistic approach in which all attributes and alternatives involved are connected in a network system that accepts dependencies. Priorities which are established in ANP are the same way as they are in the AHP using pair wise comparisons and judgments. ANP is the most comprehensive framework for the analysis of societal, governmental and corporate decisions that are available today to the decision-maker. It is a process that allows one to include all the factors and criteria, tangible and intangible that has an effect on making a best decision. The paper reports a research study that is focused on the selection of the best alternative from the perspective of sustainability for an Indian relays manufacturing organization.

Abstract Cap-and-trade programs are designed to minimize the overall cost of pollution control by effectively allowing firms with low abatement costs to reduce emissions on behalf of those with higher abatement costs. However, these trades redistribute where emissions are generated, which has important implications for welfare because many pollutants have differential environmental and health impacts depending on where they are emitted. This paper compiles and analyzes a national data set of power plant emissions in order to assess how the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon dioxide (CO2) cap-and-trade program involving nine states in the United States, impacts the emissions and damages from copollutants. Our results suggest that, in addition to achieving its goal of reducing CO2, the program has lowered the quantity of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions as well as associated damages in the policy region. However, two factors diminish the overall benefits from the program. First, within the RGGI region, trading shifts electricity generation to locations with higher marginal damages for SO2. Second, there is leakage of electricity generation and emissions to nearby states, although this latter effect is more modest than ex ante analyses predicted.

PurposeThe present paper is aimed at 1) performing a systematic literature review (SLR) on applications in the perspective of sustainable agri-food supply chain (SC) of blockchain technology (BCT); 2) analyzing the selected literature, focusing on the advantages of the sustainable uses of the blockchain of the aforementioned SC and 3) presenting an outlook and research directions capable of addressing unresolved problems.Design/methodology/approachThe SLR was conducted using detailed criteria to identify academic articles. Moreover, specific keywords and databases were used. The time frame considered included the years 2010–2020.FindingsThe review analysis indicates that the use of BCT or BCT supported by ICT/IoT contributes to sustainability of agri-food production. However, this technology can lead to several challenges such as scalability, privacy leakage, high cost and connectivity problems.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper demonstrates that BCT can widely use agri-food supply chain due to its intrinsic characteristics. However, it is not excluded that the criteria chosen may not have identified important articles regarding BCT, the agri-food sector and sustainability.Originality/valueAlthough the body of academic literature published on this topic is expansive, the effect of BCT on the agri-food SC's sustainability aspects has not yet been adequately analyzed. Thus, the article is aimed at investigating how BCT is used in the SC. In particular, the article is intended to update information about BCT and its impact on sustainability.