The management of the value of a firm requires the identification of important value drivers. The main objective of the paper is to find out whether value based management (e.g. shareholder value oriented management) has to take into account environmental aspects. In order to answer this question, the paper will determine whether there is an empirically proven relationship between the economic and environmental performance of companies. The paper is divided into three main parts: The development of a basic theory, the examination of existing empirical results and the concluding integration of theory with empirical results. Basic Theory: To build a basis, the paper first specifies the theoretical connection between economic and environmental performance of companies. Economic performance (e.g. definable by financial statement and/or capital market data) and environmental performance (e.g. definable by operational and strategic data) are linked in a model. Based on the model the influence of environmental aspects on corporate value is examined resulting in seven hypotheses for the relationship of environmental and economic performance. Empirical Results: In order to test the developed theoretical relation, empirical studies are identified and assessed, with regard to the relationship between economic and environmental performance. The research results in 122 studies from all over the world, which are subject to further investigation. The analyzing process includes different steps. First, the studies are divided and reviewed as far as their empirical method and soundness are concerned. Mainly they can be differentiated in regression, event and portfolio studies. Furthermore the study categorizes the environmental and economic variables used in the analyzed studies. Economic measures are divided into the following categories: market based measures (e.g. stock price), accounting based measures (e.g. RoA), accounting and market based measures (e.g. Tobins q), perceived performance measures (i.e. derived from questionnaires) and miscellaneous measures (e.g. shadow prices). Environmental measures on the other hand are divided into the seven categories: strategic environmental performance, operational environmental performance, questionnaires, rating/ranking, events, environmental disclosure and mutual funds. The next step identifies the empirical result of every study as well as important determinants (e.g. the distinguished environmental and economic categories) of the results. The objective is to show whether general patterns for the existence of different results can be defined. Overall it can be shown that about 40% of all studies report a significant positive relationship between economic and environmental performance, contrary to only 11% reporting significant negative results. Furthermore, in order to assess the special role of environmental aspects as value drivers 23 suitable studies are analyzed on the basis of Rappaport?s shareholder network. Results provide an even stronger evidence for the value creating role of environmental aspects. Conclusion: Finally we can detect statistically proven environmental value drivers combining theoretical and empirical research. At the same time, the empirical methods are also evaluated, especially with regard to there ability to provide useful support for the development and examination of the theoretical research. Overall it seems to the authors that the whole research on the topic runs parallel and is not combined. There are only a few studies who are built on already recognized relations or which try the confirm such relations. Based on these cornerstones, requirements for further empirical research are identified and specified.

For almost 40 years researchers have been trying to identify the relationship between corporate environmental and corporate economic performance. Neither theoretical debate nor empirical studies investigating the relationship show conclusive results. Within a field research seminar at Technische Universität Dresden, nine students conducted a meta-analysis of 124 studies to assess different aspects of the relationship between corporate economic and corporate environmental performance. In the first part of our paper, we analyze and present the theoretical background based on a review of literature. In the second part, we test for empirical evidence. At first, the conceptual frameworks and measurement methods for corporate economic and corporate environmental performance are discussed. We also look at the impact of environmental performance on shareholder value. Thereafter, we examine the influence of time, industries and publication bias. In conclusion, our research indicates that the quality of journals merits further examination to improve results.

Titel: Den ekonomiska skillnaden mellan frivillig kontra obligatorisk CSR Assurance Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Björn Eklund & Sarah Andersen Handledare: Anders Hedman Datum: 2022 - Januari Syfte: 2024 blir det obligatoriskt för svenska företag att genomföra en extern granskning av sina CSR rapporter. Studiens syfte har därför varit att genom en jämförande studie, undersöka de ekonomiska konsekvenserna av obligatorisk kontra frivillig CSR Assurance bland företag. Metod: Studien förhåller sig till en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi med en hypotetisk deduktiv forskningsansats. En kvantitativ metod används för att samla in kvantifierbara och generaliserbara resultat. En longitudinell design har använts där data från Thomson Reuters Eikon hämtats hem för företag under 2015–2019. Resultat & slutsats: Studien har kommit fram till att kortsiktigt påverkas företags lönsamhet negativt med CSR Assurance. Dessutom har obligatorisk CSR Assurance en större negativ påverkan där man kan anta att det beror på användning av frivillig CSR Assurance är mera uppskattat av läsarna vilket medför en mindre negativ påverkan på företagets lönsamhet. Vidare enligt signaleringsteorin där signalen måste kosta, påverkar företagets kortsiktiga lönsamhet negativt men positivt på långsiktigt.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien visar att kortsiktigt påverkas företagets lönsamhet negativt av CSR Assurance men mer negativt när företagen använder obligatorisk CSR Assurance. Studiens resultat ger även beslutsfattarna i företag en konkret drivkraft till att tänka långsiktigt i sina investeringar.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning:  Förslag för framtida forskning är att inkludera en annan databas, som tar mer hänsyn till begreppet CSR Assurance och ger en mer uppdaterad urvalslista. Vidare är ett annat förslag att undersöka om användning av GRIs riktlinjer och CSR Assurance nivå även har en påverkan på företagens ekonomiska prestanda. / Title: The financial difference between voluntary versus mandatory CSR Assurance Level: Student thesis, final assignment for bachelor’s degree in Business Administration Author: Björn Eklund & Sarah Andersen Supervisor: Anders Hedman Date: 2022 - January Aim: In 2024, it will be mandatory for Swedish companies to carry out an external review of their CSR reports. The purpose of the study has therefore been to, through a comparative study, examine the financial consequences of compulsory versus voluntary CSR Assurance among companies. Method: The study relates to a positivist research philosophy with a hypothetical deductive research approach. A quantitative method is used to collect quantifiable and generalizable results. A longitudinal design has been used where data from Thomson Reuters Eikon was retrieved for companies during 2015–2019. Result & Conclusions: The study has concluded that in the short term, companies' profitability is negatively affected by CSR Assurance. In addition, compulsory CSR Assurance has a greater negative impact where it can be assumed that it is due to the use of voluntary CSR Assurance is more appreciated by readers, which entails a less negative impact on the company's profitability. Furthermore, according to the signaling theory where the signal must cost, the company's short-term profitability has a negative but positive effect in the long term. Contribution of the thesis: The study shows that in the short term, the company's profitability is negatively affected by CSR Assurance, but more negatively when companies use mandatory CSR Assurance. The results of the study also give decision-makers in companies a concrete drive to think long-term in their investments. Suggestions for future research: Suggestions for future research are to include another database, which takes more account of the concept of CSR Assurance and provides a more updated selection list. Furthermore, another proposal is to investigate whether the use of GRI's guidelines and CSR Assurance level also has an impact on companies' financial performance.

La Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (RSE) es relativamente novedosa para los países en desarrollo, aunque en algunos países son considerados obstáculos que paralizan el accionar de los gerentes y se desconoce si repercute en el desempeño económico, por ende, no es lo mismo para todos los sectores. Ante ello la investigación tiene por objetivo establecer la relación que existe entre la sostenibilidad empresarial y el desempeño económico de empresas agroexportadoras peruanas supervisadas por la SMV. Para su cumplimiento se utilizó un enfoque cuantitativo, de tipo básico, con diseño no experimental. A su vez, la población consta de 21 empresas del sector agroexportador y que, mediante criterios de inclusión, exclusión y eliminación, la muestra fue de 14 empresas. Además, está establecido mediante estadígrafos de correlación de Pearson y Rho de Spearman. Los resultados permitieron confirmar la hipótesis de investigación al encontrar que no existen pruebas suficientes para la existencia de relación entre sostenibilidad empresarial y desempeño económico; todo ellos medidos en la relación entre ROE y sostenibilidad empresarial (Sig. 0.3662), ROA y sostenibilidad empresarial (Sig. 0.3535), ROCE y sostenibilidad empresarial (Sig. 0.4229). Concluyendo, que en el Perú las empresas agroexportadoras no emiten reportes de sostenibilidad empresarial porque no hay incentivos para los accionistas, no se refleja como un potencial de beneficios por las inversiones realizadas y no es un potencial de ganancias por cada sol de capital invertido. / Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is relatively new for developing countries, although in some countries they are considered obstacles that paralyze the actions of managers and it is unknown if it has an impact on economic performance, therefore, it is not the same for all sectors. Given this, the research aims to establish the relationship that exists between business sustainability and the economic performance of Peruvian agro-export companies supervised by the SMV. For its fulfillment, a quantitative approach was used, of a basic type, with a non-experimental design. In turn, the population consists of 21 companies in the agro- export sector and through inclusion, exclusion and elimination criteria, the sample was 14 companies. Furthermore, it is established using Pearson correlation statistics and Spearman's Rho. The results confirmed the research hypothesis by finding that there is insufficient evidence for the existence of a relationship between business sustainability and economic performance; all of them measured in the relationship between ROE and business sustainability (Sig. 0.3662), ROA and business sustainability (Sig. 0.3535), ROCE and business sustainability (Sig. 0.4229). Concluding, that in Peru agro-export companies do not issue business sustainability reports because there are no incentives for shareholders, it is not reflected as a potential profit for the investments made and it is not a potential profit for each sol of capital invested.

El propósito de este estudio es evaluar las propiedades físicas y mecánicas de las mezclas asfálticas que incorporan residuos de construcción y demolición (RCD) como material de relleno. Se llevó a cabo la caracterización del RCD procedente de diferentes ubicaciones en Lambayeque, optimizando su finura mediante diversos procesos. Con el objetivo de cumplir con este propósito, se diseñaron mezclas para la muestra estándar y para aquellas con adiciones de 1%, 3%, 5% y 7% de RCD como relleno. A partir de estos diseños, se fabricaron briquetas, a las cuales se les someterá a ensayos físicos y mecánicos. / The purpose of this study is to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures incorporating construction and demolition waste (CDW) as filler material. The characterization of CDW from different locations in Lambayeque was carried out, optimizing its fineness by means of different processes. In order to fulfill this purpose, mixtures were designed for the standard sample and for those with additions of 1%, 3%, 5% and 7% of RCD as filler. Based on these designs, briquettes were manufactured and subjected to physical and mechanical tests.

The following study about the economic performance of the Johannesburg’s small Internet service providers investigates the economic performance of the small Internet providers against the backdrop of regulatory conditions. The study departs from the view point that reports about previous studies have not given particular attention to the economic performance of the small Internet service providers and other impacting factors. The study employed the qualitative research approach with an aim of obtaining deeper understanding and internal view as reiterated by the respondents. The analysis presented follows a guide by Neuman (2006) which departs from the premises of themes or concepts. The results of this study provide a perspective of respondents and the conclusions drawn by the researcher. The study ends by providing suggestions and recommendations for future studies. Suggestions and recommendations provided at the end have been prompted by the results and experiences encountered during the study. / M.A. (Communication Science)

Cette thèse présente trois chapitres qui mobilisent un cadre d’analyse évolutionniste et qui étudient empiriquement la relation « innovation-performance » à partir de données CIS. Nous souhaitons montrer que les sources de l’innovation et les méthodes d’appropriation varient en fonction des secteurs d’activité et des stratégies d’innovation des firmes. Dans un premier temps, nous décrivons les tendances de l’innovation à partir de quatre vagues d’enquêtes CIS (1994-2006) et nous analysons la persistance de l’innovation sur un échantillon de 431 firmes avec une régression logistique binaire. Nous montrons que la persistance de l’innovation est plus élevée pour les firmes qui innovent en produits car ces firmes sont contraintes d’investir de manière continue dans des projets d’innovation pour rester compétitives. Les firmes qui innovent en procédés sont moins persistantes car leur stratégie est plus orientée vers des ajustements de la qualité des produits ainsi que vers l’amélioration des processus de production. Les deux derniers essais explorent avec la méthode des doubles moindres carrés le lien innovation-performance économique sur un échantillon de 7 742 firmes portant sur la période 2002-2005. Nous expliquons que la source principale de l’innovation des firmes à « forte intensité scientifique » est la R&D, d’une part, et que les méthodes d’appropriation des rentes de l’innovation passent par l’acquisition d’actifs complémentaires (tels que l’utilisation combinée de titres de propriété intellectuelle et de secrets de fabrication), d’autre part. En revanche, les firmes dans les autres catégories (notamment celles à fortes économies d’échelle) fondent leurs avancées technologiques sur des sources externes de l’innovation telles que les concurrents, les fournisseurs et les utilisateurs avancés. De plus, ces firmes utilisent de manière plus importante des méthodes d’appropriation commerciale telles que les marques ou les stratégies marketing, car leurs produits sont moins exposés au risque d’imitation certes, mais aussi parce qu’elles sont sensibles aux changements de coûts. / This thesis is structured in three essays based on evolutionary theoretical grounds and provides empirical evidence from CIS. It aims at showing that the sources of innovation and the appropriation of innovation rents vary in function of firms’ activities and innovation strategies.In essay 1, we describe four waves of CIS, covering the period 1994-2006 and we study persistent innovation behavior with a discrete choice model on a data set of 431 firms. We find that innovation persistence is more important for product innovators because they need novel products to be more competitive and therefore enrich their base of knowledge continuously. By contrast, process innovators are less persistent because innovation strategy is less “market” oriented and intends to meet quality or production adjustments. The two last essays explore with the two stage least squares method how firms benefit economically from their innovations on a sample of 7 742 firms, on the period 2002-2005. We show that science-based firms rely more on R&D investments to develop their products and maintain their leads by acquiring complementary assets, i.e. they use mixed methods to appropriate the rents of innovation (the combined use IPRs and strategic methods for instance secrecy). By contrast, firms in other categories (for instance firms using cost-cutting strategies) draw more on external sources of knowledge coming either from suppliers or advanced users. Additionally, these firms use more extensively trademarks or non technological methods of appropriation (as marketing devices), because they are less exposed to potential imitation and because they are price sensitive.

Hydrogen (H2) represents an energy carrier endowed with the potential to contribute to the design of a robust and reliable global energy system by complementing electricity as well as liquid fuels use in an environmentally responsible manner provided that the pertinent H2 production technologies (conventional and new ones) can reach techno-economically attractive performance levels in the presence of irreducible (macroeconomic, fuel market, regulatory) uncertainty. Indeed, the role of H2 in the global energy economy is widely recognized as significant in light also of fast-growing demand in the petrochemical and chemical processing sector as well as future regulatory action on greenhouse gas emissions. Pd and Pd/Alloy-based catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) modules potentially integrated into H2 production (HP-CMR) process systems offer a promising technical pathway towards H2 production with enhanced environmental performance in a carbon-constrained world. However, the lack of accumulated operating experience for HP-CMR plants on the commercial scale poses significant challenges. Therefore, any preliminary attempt to assess their economic viability is certainly justified. A comprehensive techno-economic performance assessment framework has been developed for HP-CMRs with CO2 capture capabilities. A functional Net Present Value (NPV) model has been developed first to evaluate the economic viability of HP-CMRs. The plant/project value of HP-CMR is compared to other competing technology options such as traditional coal-gasification and methane steam reforming-based hydrogen production plants with and without CO2 capture. Sources of irreducible uncertainty (market and regulatory) as well as technology risks are explicitly recognized and the effect of these uncertainty drivers on the plant’s/project’s value is taken into account using Monte-Carlo techniques. Therefore, more realistic distribution profiles of the plant’s economic performance outcomes are generated rather than single-point value estimates. It is shown that future regulatory action on CO2 emissions could induce appealing NPV-distribution profiles for HP-CMRs in the presence of uncertainty and technology risks. Finally, the valuation assessment is complemented with a sensitivity analysis for different representative values of the discount rate that span a reasonable range associated with business and financing risks. It apparently indicates that creatively structured financing mechanisms leading to a reduction of the cost of capital/discount rate could induce more appealing economic performance outcomes and valuation profiles. Furthermore, the proposed research work aims at the development of a methodological framework to assess the economic value of flexible alternatives in the design and operation of HP-CMR plants with carbon capture capabilities under the aforementioned sources of uncertainty. The main objective is to demonstrate the potential value enhancement associated with the long-term economic performance of flexible HP-CMR project investments by managing the uncertainty associated with future environmental regulations. Within the proposed context, promising design flexibility concepts for HP-CMR plants are introduced and operational as well as constructional flexibility options are identified and assessed. In particular, operational flexibility will be realized through periodic and temporary shutdowns of the carbon capture unit in response to regulatory uncertainties. Constructional flexibility will be realized by considering the installation of a carbon capture unit at three strategic periods: 1) installation in the initial design phase, 2) retrofitting at a later stage and 3) retrofitting with preinvestment. Monte Carlo simulations and financial analysis will be conducted in order to demonstrate that, in the presence of irreducible uncertainty, design flexibility options could lead to economic performance enhancement of HP-CMR plants by actively responding to the above sources of uncertainty as they get resolved over the plant’s lifetime.

L’entrepreneuriat a été très longtemps reposé sur les seuls facteurs économiques, comme la recherche et le développement (R&D), les innovations, les infrastructures adéquates, les nouvelles technologies appliquées, un système bancaire efficace, etc. Pourtant, d’autres facteurs s’avèrent encore plus importants lorsqu’il s’agit surtout de chercher à comprendre les dimensions qui sont intrinsèquement pertinentes dans les prises de décisions entrepreneuriales. Parmi ces facteurs, la culture occupe une place centrale qu’on ne peut en aucun cas occulter. En effet, grâce à certains traits culturels qui caractérisent positivement le comportement de leurs peuples, beaucoup de pays ont vu développer leurs économies. Alors que d’autres traits culturels, au lieu d’être prometteurs, constituent plutôt des handicaps au développement économique des pays dits sous-développés. Ceux qui ont une culture négro-africaine semblent les plus touchés. Haïti est l’un des pays de l’hémisphère occidental, plus précisément du bassin caribéen, qui semblent aussi faire partie de cette catégorie, par l’intermédiaire de certains traits culturels négro-africains qui lui sont légués en héritage pendant toute la période coloniale. Tout ceci a été antérieurement prouvé par un ensemble de travaux de recherche théoriques et empiriques. Cependant, dans le but d’apporter quelques éclairages nécessaires aux résultats de ces travaux et surtout d’approfondir notre champ de recherche sous les prismes de la performance globale et du développement socio-économique durable d’Haïti, cette présente thèse se donne plutôt pour objectif principal de tenter de modéliser empiriquement les comportements socioculturels de l’entrepreneuriat haïtien. Dans ce sens, elle cherche à construire un modèle conceptuel théorique de référence qui peut nous permettre de vérifier statistiquement et économétriquement l’influence de certains facteurs socioculturels sur les intentions des actifs entrepreneurs et non-entrepreneurs haïtiens de créer à court terme une entreprise ou de se lancer sur le moyen terme ou sur le long terme dans un projet à caractère entrepreneurial dans leur propre département de naissance. / During a very long time Entrepreneurship was based solely on economic factors such as research and development (R&D), innovations, appropriate infrastructures, new applied technologies, an efficient banking system, and so on. Yet other factors are even more important when it comes to understanding the dimensions which are intrinsically relevant to entrepreneurial decision-making. And among them culture occupies a central place which cannot be overshadowed. Indeed, while some populations’cultural traits positively characterize their behavior and thus would play a role in their countries’ economic development, other cultural traits, instead of being promising, rather consist in handicaps to the economic growth of so-called underdeveloped countries. In this category, those with Black African culture seem to be the most affected. Haiti is one of the countries of the Western Hemisphere, more precisely of the Caribbean basin, which seem to be part of this category, from the black-African cultural traits which are bequeathed to it during the whole colonial period. All this was previously proved by a set of theoretical and empirical research works. However, in order to bring some necessary insights to the results of this work and especially to broaden our field of research in terms of performance and sustainable socio-economic development of Haiti, this thesis aims rather to try to empirically model the sociocutural behaviors of Haitian entrepreneuriat. In this sense, she’s looking to build an theorical reference model which can enable us to statistically and econometrically verify the influence of sociocultural behaviors on he intentions of entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial Haitian assets to create a company in the short term or to embark on a medium-term or long-term project in an entrepreneurial project in their own birth region.

Most theories that attempt to describe the relationship between corporate sustainability strategies and a company’s triple bottom line also make the assumption that there is insufficient evidence to produce generalizable conclusions. This study contributes to the overall body of knowledge, as there is a lack of significant generalizable knowledge on corporate sustainability strategies and a company’s triple bottom line. To provide a methodologically more rigorous review, we performed a meta-analysis on 18 scholarly articles from top-tier academic journals containing 64 experimental treatments that measured an observed (not self-reported) behavioural outcome, which yielded a sample size of 23,871 observations. Most studies combined multiple treatments, which preclude definitive conclusions on the most effective treatments. The findings suggest that there is a positive medium to strong relationship between sustainability-oriented strategies, for both reactive and proactive behaviours (Dyllick et al., 1997; Gminder et al., 2002), and a company’s “triple bottom line.” Furthermore, regardless of the firm type (e.g., multinational corporation or local establishment, emerging economy firm or developed nation business), proactive sustainability-oriented strategies tend to have a higher payoff than firms that adopt reactive sustainability-oriented strategies. This meta-analysis establishes a greater degree of certainty with respect to corporate sustainability strategies and a firm’s triple bottom line relationship than currently assumed by many business scholars. To conclude, the sustainability concept has significantly expanded the scope of measuring organizational performance according to economic, social, and environmental components (Robins, 2006), which are collectively described as the “triple bottom line.” Organizations have determined that specific products and processes can have serious environmental and social implications beyond providing typical economic benefits (Sarkis, 2001). Based on the results of this study, companies should develop more diversified sustainability strategies that will help them to identify and capture value (McMullen, 2001). The results demonstrate that sustainability can provide companies with a strategic advantage, which is vital for the organization’s long-term viability and success (Orlitzky et al., 2003). This study also examines the balance between reasonable return on investment and long-term organizational viability, which greatly impacts organizational decision-makers that contend with numerous stakeholder issues, pressure from environmental agencies, and increased social consciousness that affects workers, consumers, and communities. It supports the conclusion that being proactive in responding to these conflicting pressures and barriers helps organizations to achieve higher levels of performance.