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Using 49 years of General Social Survey data (1972–2021), we investigate the relationship between individual happiness and support for government environmental expenditure. Contrary to expectations, we find a negative correlation between higher levels of happiness and support for environmental spending. Employing various methods to address endogeneity, including bivariate probit and instrumental variable approaches, we uncover a non-linear relationship where individuals with greater life satisfaction are less likely to support government environmental expenditure. We also find that tax morale serves as a moderating factor in this relationship. We validate these findings using World Values Survey data from over a hundred countries. Our results challenge conventional assumptions about the link between personal well-being and environmental policy attitudes. This unexpected relationship suggests that policymakers should develop targeted strategies to engage happier individuals (especially those with low tax morale) in supporting environmental measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical forests are vital for global biodiversity and climate stability, but the political economy of deforestation and land-use change constantly challenges their integrity. In this article, we analyse 50 years of policy development in the municipality Marqués de Comillas, located in Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico, to understand how development and conservation priorities have evolved, interacted, and shaped land-use in a tropical forest frontier. By analysing peer-reviewed literature and empirical data, we identify five phases of policy continuity and change that have produced diverse socio-environmental outcomes. We reveal a persistent state-led prioritisation of rural development over environmental concerns, pursued through policies promoting settlements and agricultural expansion and exacerbated by external market forces. This focus has caused substantial ecosystem degradation and deforestation without significant livelihood improvements. Recent conservation initiatives, such as payment for ecosystem services, show potential for challenging the status quo by offering alternative livelihood opportunities benefiting both people and ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) in listed Korean companies over ten years. The results show a significant positive effect of CSR on CFP in the manufacturing sector, but no notable impact in the non-manufacturing sector. A detailed analysis identifies social contribution as the key driver of this positive effect, while the other CSR sub-categories play a minor role. Higher ownership by majority shareholders and treasury stock is associated with lower CSR. This research enhances understanding of the CSR-CFP link in Korea, offering valuable insights for insiders and investors in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-promoted biodiversity conservation can either align with or diverge from Indigenous Peoples’ priorities, knowledge, and self-determined development paths. Drawing on fieldwork at the Amazon borders of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, this paper examines Indigenous organizations’ efforts to uphold territorial rights and pursue planning with Indigenous values in landscapes earmarked for conservation. The key question centers on how ‘border configurations’ affect grassroots planning and conservation focusing on the experience of Peruvian Secoya (Siékopai) People. Using expert interviews and ethnographic methods, the paper finds that conservation agencies risk losing credibility without genuine efforts toward social equity and well-being, constrained by mandates that often neglect local needs. The success of Life Plans depends on solidarity networks that balance conservation with viable economic alternatives, equitable power dynamics, and access to services. Ultimately, the paper shows that Life Plans empower Indigenous organizations, offering meaningful options for political self-representation within Amazonian conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental impact reporting has become a lynchpin for global agri-food supply chain decision-making. This importance has become heightened as governing bodies such as the European Union pass traceability legislation in an effort to reduce Scope 3 emissions. Despite this heightened importance, few studies have explored the role of supply chain management software in achieving sustainability goals within the agribusiness sector. This article provides a current perspective on ongoing supply chain and logistics software issues that might restrict the effectiveness of sustainability reporting. We argue that agribusinesses may struggle to achieve sustainability targets effectively without proficiency in supply chain software. This research contributes to the field by offering a nuanced understanding of the technological competencies required for sustainability success in agribusiness. This article highlights the importance of developing and implementing advanced supply chain management software to address the need for enhanced sustainability practices within the agribusiness sector. Using interviews with pre-farmgate and post-farmgate agribusiness employees, we demonstrate how these software skills will likely impact sustainability reporting and governance. Managerial implications also include the need for targeted skill development to facilitate more sustainable agribusiness management practices, as mastering such technological competencies is critical for adhering to evolving global environmental standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study examines the effect of forest loss on child health and educational outcomes in Indonesia, a country that has experienced one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. In line with the findings in the medical and biological literature that deforestation can encourage the breeding of malaria-carrying mosquitoes through changes in local ecosystems, our estimation results show that deforestation significantly increases child fever but not other infectious diseases, implying an increased incidence of malaria infection due to deforestation. In addition, the results from the education analysis show that children exposed to larger-scale deforestation in early childhood are afterwards more likely to fall behind academically in terms of years of education. Various robustness checks suggest that these adverse health and educational effects are driven by forest loss but not by other possible preexisting trends or confounders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One way in which governments foster sustainable homebuilding and housing is by subsidizing single homes' investment in sustainability technologies. The problem with these programs is that they incentivize inefficient investment by supporting technologies that make technical and economic sense on a small scale. Furthermore, this arrangement constitutes a flawed marketing system, producing a limited impact on global well-being and sustainability in the long term, as it rules out more efficient sustainability technologies. This paper addresses these shortcomings by designing a public policy proposal based on a contract between the government and homeowners that incentivizes the adoption of collective sustainable technologies, changing the marketing system with a shift in the behavior of a dominant actor, the government. Results indicate that an equilibrium in which the homeowners choose to participate in the new collective program in exchange for a subsidy is feasible and stable. Moreover, the generalization of the proposed program may generate a new way to incentivize the more efficient use of sustainable home technologies in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the influence of environmental responsibility, social responsibility, and governance practice disclosures on the financial performance of non-financial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2021. It employs moderated regression analysis and sub-group regression to explain the relationships between the variables. The results suggest a surprising finding that the indicators of environmental responsibility and governance disclosure practices lead to a decline in corporate financial performance, while the social responsibility indicator does not significantly affect corporate financial performance. Expenditures resulting from ESG practices can be perceived as a misuse of corporate resources, a missed opportunity, or, alternatively, as an overinvestment. However, the decline in performance due to environmental responsibility disclosure and governance practices can be mitigated by companies that engage in internationalisation. To sustain environmental, social, and governance activities over the long term, managers are required to deliver consistently increasing and higher financial performance.

The fashion industry’s current manufacturing approach raises various environmental and social concerns, including but not limited to carbon emissions, resource depletion, waste generation, substantial energy consumption, and labour exploitation. Green and digital fashion can minimise these issues. However, fashion’s green and digital shifts need more coverage.

This study demonstrates how convolutional neural networks (CNNs), supported by open-source software and guided by corporate social responsibility (CSR), can enhance photovoltaic (PV) panel maintenance. Connecting industrial informatics with sustainable practices underscores the potential for more efficient and responsible energy systems within Industry 4.0. The rapid expansion of solar power necessitates effective maintenance and inspection of PV panels to ensure optimal performance and longevity. CNNs have emerged as potent tools for detecting defects in PV panels through infrared thermography (IRT).

The aim of the study is to examine the impact of society’s economic well-being determinants – above and beyond the firm-specific and macroeconomic determinants – on firm profitability in Poland. Based on stakeholder theory we hypothesized that the economic well-being of society can influence firm performance. Therefore, we included real wage and salary growth, internal migration, international migration, and natural increase variables in the regression models. We applied four models with different sets of variables using pooled ordinary least square regression, as well as fixed and random effects regressions with robust standard errors clustered at the firm level. The dataset covers the period from 2004 to 2021, comprising 5400 firm-year observations from Poland in the wholesale and retail trade sector. We found that firm profitability generally increases with higher inflation and exchange rate depreciation. Moreover, in models including society’s economic well-being variables, GDP growth is no longer a significant determinant of firm profitability. Most importantly, the study demonstrates a positive relationship between real wage and salary growth and firm profitability. We also found that international migration is negatively associated with firm profitability. Regarding natural increase, the study suggests that it has a positive effect on return on equity, but not on return on assets.

This study aims to investigate how carbon regulation shapes economic inequality in developing countries. Based on high-resolution satellite data, we exploit the shock of the Chinese central government gradually phasing in the emission trading scheme (ETS) across regions to conduct a staggered difference-in-difference estimation. We present strong evidence of the ETS’s effectiveness in mitigating spatial development inequality. Our findings remain robust to different identification strategies and alternative measures. Plausible mechanisms driving our results may involve the reduction in the innovation gap and the improvement in factor allocation. Notably, cities with higher levels of marketization, carbon intensity, and digital finance development are more substantially impacted by the ETS. Furthermore, accounting for spatial interactions, the ETS implemented in pilot cities significantly alleviates spatial development inequality in neighboring non-pilot regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the global shift toward green development, enterprises are increasingly compelled to undertake substantial green innovation (SGI) to facilitate their transformation into environmentally sustainable entities. Based on the resource-based view (RBV) and upper echelons theory, the study empirically analyzes the impact of green strategy orientation (GSO) on enterprise SGI. It reveals the mediating mechanism of environmental investment (EI) and human capital investment (HC), as well as the moderating role of CEO green experience (Green) and environmental uncertainty (EU). It uses data from 1,745 listed manufacturing enterprises in China from 2011 to 2022 as our sample. The study finds that: (1) GSO significantly impacts SGI, the finding that passes the instrumental variable method, Heckman two-stage method, PSM method, and a series of robustness tests. (2) EI and HC significantly mediate the GSO–SGI relationship. (3) Green and EU positively moderate the GSO–SGI relationship. (4) Heterogeneity analysis shows that enterprises with green investors’ attention and those with high regional market competition intensity are more likely to enhance SGI through GSO guidance. (5) Further analysis shows that GSO can enhance enterprise ESG performance by promoting SGI. This study has significantly contributed to the literature on green innovation and the combination of RBV and upper echelons theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assess how investors' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sustainable investments responds to the social impact of those investments, using a framed field experiment. While investors have a substantial WTP for sustainable investments, they do not pay significantly more for more impact. This also holds for dedicated impact investors. When investors compare several sustainable investments, their WTP responds to relative, but not to absolute, levels of impact. Regardless of investments' impact, investors experience positive emotions when choosing sustainable investments. Our findings suggest that the WTP for sustainable investments is primarily driven by an emotional, rather than a calculative, valuation of impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy and the principles by which it is guided, has become the subject of more and more scientific works, the authors defining this green part of consumerism in multiple and diverse ways, but all focusing on the decision-making power of consumers and producers regarding the consumption of goods and services, respectively of the practical measures to maximize the recycling and reuse of the resulting waste. This research follows the evolution of the impact of the human factor on the environment at the level of Romania in the period 1948-2024, of the European Union, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland (UEFTA-Liechtenstein) in the period 2010-2022, respectively 2004 - 2021. The main purpose of the article is to to determine the economic behavior models of the main actors on the global market, regarding the circular economy, with the aim of understanding their motivations and obviously to recommend the changes in mentality and implicitly the reactions, respectively the actions perceived to be strictly necessary for a sustainable use of raw materials and materials used in production processes. Of course, the concept of circular economy is one of vital importance for the entire human society, especially in the conditions of the demographic explosion predicted in the foreseeable future. For multiple reasons, this concept is absolutely decisive for avoiding the economic, social and ecological collapse of the entire planet we live on. The fundamental question we want to answer is “What are the main behaviors of consumers and producers regarding the circular economy?”, in order to be able to determine the current motivations, possibly future forecast and rewards that prove beneficial in the implementation of the principles of the green economy. The study is based on data related to GDP/capita, the recycling rate, the amount of greenhouse gases emitted and the number of vehicles with alternative propulsion.

Entrepreneurship's evolving role now extends beyond economic realms to encompass broader societal and environmental imperatives. Sustainable entrepreneurship emerges as a linchpin in addressing contemporary challenges, offering innovative solutions that harmonize economic resilience with environmental and social objectives. Yet, the determinants underpinning individuals' intentions towards sustainable entrepreneurship, particularly within the Algerian context, remain underexplored. Keeping this into consideration, our research endeavours to identify the motivational factors influencing the decision to engage in sustainable entrepreneurial activities among students at the Kolea University Pole.

Local communities play a crucial role in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The role and massive influence of the local environment raise several questions. This paper aims to answer the following questions: (1) how and why the local communities affect SMEs’ sustainability, (2) which pillar of sustainability plays a stronger role in this matter, (3) which internal and external motivators drive a firm’s sustainability actions, and (4) whether company and personal characteristics have a significant effect on local patronage.

AbstractWith new technologies emerging, productivity is increasing, while environmental issues are being addressed. Studies focus on the benefits of technological progress but pay limited attention to potential risks. This paper uses data from 286 Chinese cities to explore the impact of industrial robots on urban green total factor productivity. We find that industrial robots significantly reduces urban green total factor productivity. Mechanism analysis shows the main effect is driven by manufacturing agglomeration and crowding out environmental investment. Urban green total factor productivity decomposition shows that industrial robots block green technical progress and efficiency. Heterogeneity analysis shows that industrial robots significantly impact urban green total factor productivity in developed, highly market-oriented, and industrialized regions. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of industrial robots in urban green development and provide corresponding policy implications for guiding the harmonious development of technology and sustainable urban growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]