Managers as drivers of CSR in state-owned enterprises

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly required not only of private sector companies, but also of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), whose main function is to provide services to society and not principally to obtain financial reward. The important role played by managers in implementing CSR has been demonstrated by prior research. The objective of this paper is to examine how managers of SOEs perceive the concept of CSR, the reasons for their involvement and how it is integrated into everyday business practices. In addition, we examine whether managers' attitudes towards CSR policies are influenced by their personal profiles and by the sector in which the SOEs work. We find that, although these managers are aware of the importance of the CSR principles underlying their activities and understand the meaning, scope and dimensions of CSR, there remains an evident need to enhance the application of CSR policies among the strategies of SOEs. The manager profile and the sector in which the SOEs work both have a strong influence on their behaviour regarding CSR issues.     

Seeking,Thinking, Acting: Understanding Suburban Resident Perceptions and Behaviors Related to Stream Quality

Theories in risk, psychology, and communication suggest aiming to inform the public about basic ecological facts may not be enough to influence knowledge of risks or behaviors to mitigate water quality risks. The risk information‐seeking and processing model and the theory of planned behavior suggest several additional variables that are likely to influence risk‐mitigating behaviors. We used data from a survey of watershed residents in Ohio to explore a model of behavioral intentions to positively impact stream health. Residents' informational norms, or the perceived pressure to know about local stream health, strongly predicted their information‐seeking behaviors. Active‐seeking behaviors predicted positive attitudes toward behaviors impacting stream health, which predicted intentions to positively impact stream health. Implications for outreach include couching communication in terms of risk found important to the local community, here wildlife were seen as negatively influenced by water quality, as opposed to plain reports typically provided by utility companies. Increasing social pressure to feel informed by emphasizing the existing knowledge of stream ecology among residents could change the norm for the less informed. A low response rate limits the generalizability of findings here, but leveraging these findings in outreach efforts could prove more successful in engaging the public to improve stream health and support policies to improve stream health.     

Governing Quasi-Public Network Services for adaptation to climate change

Adaptation takes place in both private and public sectors, or as an interrelation between the two, and often under the realm of public regulation. Thispaper uses the Swedish and the Norwegian electricity grid sector, as providers of a vital public good under strict public regulation, to analyse reforms' effects on adaptive capacity in this area. The paper shows that transformational changes in both sectors during the 1990s shifted both the formal organisational structure (rules and regulations), as well as the organisational culture, in the direction of economic efficiency. These two dimensions individually reduced adaptive capacity to climate change, although differently in the two countries. However, the formal structure and organisational culture also yielded substantial influence on each other. This leads to the conclusion that when designing public regulations and implementing reforms, organisational culture must be considered in the design. Also the paper contests previous findings in the literature by showing that under given conditions there exist some substitution between the two dimensions in influencing adaptive capacity, implying that both dimensions should be included when analysing adaptation since analysing them in isolation is likely to lead to wrong conclusions.     

桂林市公共场所空气污染的检测与分析

采用甲醛检测仪、有机气体检测仪等测试分析了桂林市宾馆、商场、候车室、家具城、文化娱乐场等公共场所的甲醛和TVOC浓度。结果显示:候车室和文化娱乐场所的甲醛、TVOC合格率均为100%;宾馆、商场、家具城的TVOC合格率分别为98.7%、98.9%、95.0%,甲醛合格率分别为78.8%、91.1%、85.0%;皮革制品、家具板材等为主要的甲醛和TVOC污染源。     

案例城市环境基本公共服务与现状比较研究

日益严重的环境问题带来了越来越多的关注度,同时,以为公众提供良好的环境质量为目标的环境基本公共服务,也逐步进入人们的视野。环境基本公共服务是由政府或主要由政府提供的,保障公民最基本的环境权益的服务,包括环境基本公共硬服务和软服务两大方面,其内涵主要由公众、政府、相关企业三方之间的相互供求关系而决定。以环境基本公共服务的具体承载单元———城市为依托进行案例研究,选取纽约、新加坡、广州三所城市进行环境基本公共服务现状对比,结合中国环境基本公共服务外延性不足和无差别受益性两大特点,为中国加强环境基本公共服务水平提供建设性意见。     

环境保护工作新思路研究

中国环境保护工作的新形势和公益性属性为环境保护工作中实施社会治理提供了现实需求和理论基础.本文从社会治理的内涵入手,结合中国环境保护工作的形势和环境保护工作的公益属性分析,探讨了在环境保护工作中推进社会治理的可行性;从环境影响评价中公众参与存在的问题出发,分析了中国环境保护社会治理当前存在的问题;再此基础上,从社会治理制度、参与渠道等方面提出了以社会治理思路推进中国环境保护工作的思路.     

环境影响评价机制中公众参与存在问题及对策研究

随着新环境保护法的实施,人们的环境保护意识越来越高,信息公开和公众参与的重要性也愈发凸显。对于环境保护的重要环节———公众参与,在建设项目的环境影响评价中更是体现了“民主决策”、“预防为主”的思想。随着公众对环保认识程度的加深,环境需求的提高,公众参与中一系列问题也随之产生。文章在结合实际工作的基础上,从参与者的人选及参与的方式、时机、信息公开的方式等方面剖析了公众参与存在的一些弊端,并提出了对策和措施,为中国现有的公众参与制度的完善提供了一些参考。     

海洋开发活动环境影响的公众调查与反馈研究——以厦门海域某清淤整治工程为例

随着海洋经济的快速发展,海洋开发活动环境影响评价的公众参与工作也越来越重要.厦门市是中国沿海经济特区之一,文章以厦门海域清淤整治工程的环境影响评价公众参与调查与反馈过程为案例,通过对该项目公众调查和反馈的过程,分析了海洋环境影响评价在实施公众参与时可能面临和需要解决问题:该项目由于及时召开了补充座谈会并通过专题调查报告的形式解决了公众的疑问,同时应公众的要求业主做好环保措施.通过对公众意见的调查与反馈,可以使海洋开发项目真正达到经济、社会、环境效益协调统一.     

Pigou meets Mirrlees: On the irrelevance of tax distortions for the second-best Pigouvian tax

This paper extends the Mirrlees (1971) model of optimal income redistribution with optimal corrective taxes to internalize consumption externalities. Using general utility structures and exploring both linear and non-linear taxes, it is demonstrated that the optimal second-best tax on an externality-generating good should not be corrected for the marginal cost of public funds, since it equals one in the optimal tax system. In the optimum, distortions of income taxes are equal to marginal redistributional gains. If the government does not have access to a non-distortionary marginal source of finance, the marginal cost of public funds can be either larger or smaller than one depending on subjective preferences for income redistribution. The optimal second-best corrective tax is then either higher or lower than the Pigouvian level. The findings in this paper generalize and amend prior results based on representative-agent models, shedding new light on the weak double-dividend hypothesis, and on the welfare gains of recycling revenue from environmental taxes.