Colouring the socio-economic development into green: I-distance framework for countries’ welfare evaluation

This study examines the relationship between the level of socioeconomic development of the EU 28 countries and the adoption of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 environmental management system. First, through a multivariate comparative analysis of the secondary data obtained from the public statistics, a Hellwig’s synthetic indicator is created to rank the level of socioeconomic development of the EU 28 countries. Then, using the total number of certificates issued in 2012 and the increase from 2011, this study has found a correlation between the level of national socioeconomic development and the adoption of ISO 14001 system in their businesses. Although there was no relationship between the number of ISO 14001 certificates in 2012 and the level of socioeconomic development at the national level, a weak negative correlation was observed between the increase of certification from 2011 to 2012 and the level of national socioeconomic development. The results suggest a higher interest in ISO 14001 adoption by the firms from the less developed countries than those from the more developed states.

X 1 : GDP per capita (USD),

X 2 : rate of inflation (%),

X 3 : rate of unemployment (%),

X 4 : changes in industrial production (%, 2012–2011),

X 5 : energy intensity of the economy (kg oil equivalent/1000 EUR),

X 6 : employment rate (%),

X 7 : resource efficiency [GDP/domestic material consumption (DMC)],

X 8 : percentage of people at risk of poverty/exclusion (%),

X 9 : export/import indicator (%),

X 10 : participation of hi-tech exports in exports (%),

X 11 : rate of poverty risk/exclusion for people at the age 25–29 (%),

X 12 : lifelong learning participation by educational attainment (% of people aged 25–64 benefiting from education and trainings),

X 13 : percentage of population who has never used Internet (% of population aged 16–74),

X 14 : proportion of expenditures on R&D in GDP (%),

X 15 : inflow of FDI (% of GDP).

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The level of socioeconomic development of EU countries and the state of ISO 14001 certification

Fura

2015

“…As previous research proved, the I-distance method can be used as a way to enhance an index (Maricic et al 2014) or create a new one (Isljamovic et al 2014;Seke et al 2013;Radojicic et al 2012;Al-Lagilli et al 2011). By using the I-distance method, a synthesized indicator that incorporates many indicators of social responsibility and competitiveness can be refined.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Different analytical approaches can be used to explore whether the dimensions of the phenomenon are statistically well-balanced in a composite index (OECD 2005). In order to analyze whether the RCI is statistically sound, we employed a statistical I-distance method which can easily overcome the problem of subjectively chosen weighting factors (Isljamovic et al 2014). Besides analyzing the weights assigned to RCI domains, we were able to provide the ranking of countries without the limitation of subjectively assigned weights, as the methodology applied in this paper does not place any weighting factor on its indicators or domains ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards an impartial Responsible Competitiveness Index: a twofold multivariate I-distance approach

Maričić

Kostić-Stanković

2014

Issues surrounding the measurement of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are complex and far-reaching. The indicator based measurement of CSR has started to play an important role in defining the national level of CSR, but the controversy about the choice of indicators and weights assigned to them still remains. This paper has two goals: first, to analyze the Responsible Competitiveness Index (RCI), a composite index which shows how countries are performing in their efforts to promote and apply responsible business practices and second, to review the current indicators used in calculating this index in an effort to form a new theoretical framework. A statistical I-distance method which is able to overcome the problems concerning the aggregation of a composite index that uses subjective weighting factors was used. In a case study we scrutinized two data sets: the official one of 108 countries for the year 2007 was analyzed using I-distance methodology and the one we recreated of 98 countries for year 2013 was analyzed using a twofold I-distance approach. A twofold approach gave an insight to not just domain dynamics, but also to total score dynamic. The results presented in this research paper clearly point out countries with high level of social responsibility and a framework for improvement of the RCI. The framework proposed here can assist in the evaluation of other CSR indexes. Moreover, our approach can be a foundation for further academic CSR research which will be independent from subjectively formed weighting factors.

“…Nowadays there is a large and growing body of literature on the construction of composite indicators of well-being: the quality of life indices (Cox et al 1992;Fayers and Hand 2002;Hagerty and Land 2007). In general, composite indicators are very familiar in country performance comparison in globalization, competitiveness, education, health, human rights, ecological footprint, corruption, quality of work, technology achievement, social cohesion and trust in public institutions (OECD 2008;Marozzi 2012;Isljamovic et al 2014). Other fields where composite indicators have been successfully used are: quality assessment of industrial products (Lago and Pesarin 2000), customer satisfaction (Arboretti et al 2007;Marozzi 2009) and analysis of industrial development policies (Barbieri et al 2012).…”

Section: The Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skills and training requirements of municipal directors: a statistical assessment

Marozzi

Bolzan

2015

A survey has been performed in collaboration with the National Association of\ud the Municipalities of Italy (Veneto region) to study the role of the municipalities with\ud regard to the local area, to reconceptualize the profile of public directors and to study\ud municipal directors as far as requirements in terms of competencies for skills and training\ud are concerned. In the paper the importance of municipal director requirements for skills\ud and training is assessed using composite indicators. The analysis showed that the most\ud important skill requirements refer to internal aspects of the organization, whereas the most\ud important training requirements refer also to external aspects. The analysis has been repeated\ud on the strata of municipal directors obtained by considering municipality population,\ud director sex, length of service, education and opinions about municipal mission. It is\ud shown that the various strata of directors are rather concordant in assessing the importance\ud of skill and training requirements. Municipal directors are aware of Italian public administration\ud now being oriented toward new public management where they are assessed\ud according to the results they produce. The robustness of the results has been addressed\ud using uncertainty analysis