Purpose
Over the past two decades, scholarly attention has focused mainly on a direct and inverse relationship between corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and corporate financial performance (CFP). This study aims to explore the bidirectional causality hypothesis, as good environmental results can lead to good financial results, which makes it possible to invest more resources in projects that improve environmental performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test the bidirectional causality between CER and CFP on a sample of listed Italian manufacturing firms over the 2005-2014 period. The authors use a fixed effect panel data regression and check the robustness of the results with alternative econometric techniques.
Findings
Although the findings do not support bidirectional hypothesis, they establish direction/causality from CFP to CER. As a result, environmental responsibility is a consequence of prior financial performance, which supports the slack resources hypothesis.
Research limitations/implications
Given that companies’ environmental commitment is dictated by economic evaluations or by assessing the availability of resources to invest, it seems that the spread of environmentally responsible behaviours might be supported by different external pressures.
Originality/value
The paper provides further insights on sustainability management literature by establishing a bidirectional relationship between firm performance and environmental responsibility.
The rapid development of new technologies has created interesting and unexpected possibilities in e-health, and digital platforms have become widespread, connecting users, experts, and practitioners of the health world. This triggered our investigation into the relationship between the engagement platforms used by 293 doctors with various specializations, their satisfaction, and the dimensions of social sustainability in the healthcare sector. The research focused on professional interaction and its sphere of action in engagement platforms, defined as virtual contact points for exchanging information, thus increasing the co-creation of value between physicians and patients. In order to verify our hypothesis, a health digital platform called paginemediche.it was used, and the two dimensions of engagement and sustainability were considered, examining their causal relationship and evaluating their effects on physician loyalty in terms of the re-use of the digital platform by doctors. Our results, using a multiple linear regression analysis, showed that the social sustainability of the digital health platform was directly influenced by online engagement, generating a positive effect on physician loyalty. In particular, the human dimension of social sustainability proved to be decisive for the re-use of the platform.
RESUMEN Se analiza la decisión en salud como un proceso de crítica, diferenciando la actitud de la aptitud crítica, cuya combinación resulta en posiciones de comportamientos políticos diferentes. Se proponen motivaciones subjetivas y sociales para la actitud crítica. A la pregunta retórica de "¿quién decide?" se responde que es el Estado, del que se hace una presentación breve, señalando la importancia de la introducción de temas de debate en su agenda por parte de actores sociales. Se mencionan hechos históricamente recientes en nuestro país que significan una posible reformulación del Estado. Se mencionan las contradicciones y conflictos individuales y sociales como uno de los insumos de la constitución de los actores sociales y de la manera como se decide, junto con diversos niveles sociales donde ello ocurre. Se responde a la pregunta "¿por qué?" señalando que el problema tratado se inserta estructuralmente en la vida social misma.
Abstract:The purpose of this work is to carry out a review of the main technical-economic and environmental implications associated with the production of photovoltaic (PV) energy, one of the renewable sources for the production of electricity which currently presents the highest rate of growth worldwide-particularly in Europe and in Italy. The review provides a detailed exploration of the most important initiatives taken at the national level for the end-of-life management of the modules, and highlights issues associated with the disposal and/or recycling of obsolete photovoltaic panels in terms of techno-economic and socio-environmental sustainability. The paper highlights the main critical elements and potential opportunities deriving from the technological, managerial, and organizational options available to enhance recovery and recycling rates of PV panels in Italy. Results point out the importance of a circular economy perspective, through the involvement and awareness of the actors in the process, in order to render an even greener photovoltaic energy life cycle.
Pensar en Salud traduce el pensamiento de un epistemólogo que en varios pasajes del libro se define como militante de base. En la conjunción de esta aparente dualidad puede comprenderse mejor el objetivo: incorporar conceptos y categorías explicativas al análisis de la salud que den sustento teórico metodológico a la relación investigación-acción. Desde el punto de vista teórico identifico dos conceptos: totalidad e historicidad, que a mi juicio constituyen las bases fundamentales de la argumentación. Otro elemento esencial para el epistemólogo militante es la traducción de la teoría en acción transformadora. Afirma que esa relación debe buscarse en la intersección entre la ciencia y la ideología, considerando esta última como una forma de la práctica de la ciencia que tiene efecto sobre la conciencia de los individuos, fundamental para la construcción de hegemonía. Estas son ideas básicas para comprender la obra en su conjunto y van a aparecer trabajadas desde diversos ángulos, tanto en los primeros capítulos “¿Cuál ciencia?” y “Enseñar medicina”, dedicados a la fundamentación teórico-metodológica, como en los restantes, donde se presentan temas como “Atención ¿primaria o primitiva? de salud” y “Tecnología y salud” que, además de su contenido específico, son excelentes ejemplos de cómo pensar en salud.
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