<p> The research examines how firms&rsquo; price premiums are affected by performance in facility and community level environmental certification programs. Relying on a propensity score matching approach aimed at correcting for self-selection bias, I analyze two major voluntary environmental certification programs in Costa Rica: the Blue Flag Program, which provides certification for coastal communities, and the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) program, which certifies beyond-compliance environmental performance by individual hotels. To do this, I use panel data for the entire population of hotels and beach communities in Costa Rica between 2001-2008 (n=3,500 hotel-year observations). The majority of studies of voluntary certification programs tend to analyze individual programs and their associated effect on participant firm facilities, leaving aside the environmental performance of the community where participant firm operate. This research seeks to quantify the combined price premium effects of two voluntary environmental certification programs: one focused on firm facilities and another focused on communities. </p><p> Findings of the study suggest: (1) a lack of a significant price premium for firms showing low certified facility-level environmental performance even when they are located in communities receiving collective environmental certification (in the form of the Blue Flag). (2) Significant price premiums for firms showing superior certified facility-level environmental performance. And (3), most interestingly, community level environmental certification only increases the magnitude of the price premiums for firms showing the highest individual facility-level environmental performance. That is, to gain the greatest price premiums from a certified &ldquo;green&rdquo; reputation, it is necessary for firm to be located in host community receiving collective environmental certification and to also show the highest levels of certified facility-level environmental performance.</p>

This research examines what strategies firms choose when their operations will have adverse impact on the natural environment and what influences that choice. It is an exploratory study in a new research area aimed at building theory from case studies. The natural environment is very prominent among social and political controversies and the condition of the environment has both direct and indirect strategic significance. Yet the management literature has for the most part neglected it. As the literatures from ecology, game theory, and other social sciences illustrate, however, the natural environment presents a paradoxical decision-making situation that all organizations face, whether aware of it or not. Because in this situation there is no "rational" criterion for what strategies "should" and at the present time no theory for what strategies "will" be chosen, this paradoxical structure constitutes a challenge to the individualistic, utility-maximizing rationality norms at the basis of strategic management. Electricity generating firms are studied because they have detrimental environmental effects and because they face technological choices with a range of environmental impact. Five U.S. utilities, two Canadian utilities, and one U.S. non-utility generator are sampled across a range of government regulation and ownership regimes. Data were collected from fourteen interviews with top executives in each firm, and from firm publications, secondary sources, and interviews with executives at two industry organizations. These were content analyzed to identify relevant corporate strategies, models of the environment, environmental attitudes, and government relations, as well as for structural and programmatic commitments to environmental issues. The findings suggest that all firms are aware of environmental issues, some much more than others. Non-utility generators aggressively adopt energy conservation and less-polluting technology to capture strong economic advantages and avoid regulatory risks. Among utilities, explicitly environmental regulation and government ownership are associated with greater environmental sophistication and greater strategic commitments, most notably voluntary collaborative, consultative relationships with regulators, environmentalists, and the public. These utilities also have strong conservation programs, which cause difficulties for those with excess capacity. Canadian firms appear vastly more sophisticated environmentally than U.S. firms.

<p> The ability to sustain small businesses operating in war-torn areas is important not only to the business owners, but also to foreign communities receiving United States contract services for recovery from widespread decimation. While all small businesses address a wide range of issues, businesses operating in war-torn areas also face cultural diversity, local regulations, and potential threats to employee safety. The conceptual framework for this exploratory multiple case study was transformational-transactional leadership theory, guiding the research to discover traits and strategies of successful leaders in the population of small businesses that were profitable beyond 5 years while operating in the war-torn area of Afghanistan. In addition to participant questionnaires and review of the businesses&rsquo; balance sheets, income statements, and tax returns, data were collected from 3 CEO participants in face-to-face, semistructured interviews. Participants&rsquo; verbatim comments were analyzed via thematic analysis. The coding system evolved from applying preliminary codes to a small sample of data and reiteratively refining the codes as prominent themes emerged. Participants identified unique challenges of working with a multinational workforce. There were 3 primary findings: successful leaders used elements of both transformational and transactional leadership; the most important strategy was gaining knowledge of regional infrastructure and customs; and successful leaders used management assistance. These findings may contribute to social change by prompting small business leaders to re-examine their perspectives on workforce diversity; they will also enable leaders who provide services overseas to realize profitable business goals while contributing to foreign local economies.</p>

This thesis aims to explore the experiences of those individuals involved in the phenomenon of cross-sector collaborations within the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) global food sector. The research is situated within a landscape of diminished availability of funding for Non-profit organizations (NPOs) in which new ways of achieving sustained funding are being sought. Coupled with the emergence of increased Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity from Commercial Entities (CEs), in part driven by societal pressure for companies to ‘do more' and the resultant motivation for CEs to deliver effective CSR programmes, cross-sector collaboration appears to offer a methodology through which both sides can achieve their respective aims. The research gap identified focuses on the lack of understanding of the micro-processes, or attributes of the relationship, at the micro-level of partnership interaction. The sample group was accessed from individuals with extensive experience of NPO-CE collaborations within the area of FMCG global food production. This access allowed the experiences of some of these individuals to be gathered and explored within this study. Data collection techniques took the form of semi-structured interviews with twelve senior executives. An interpretivist approach was employed using a phenomenological research design to elicit an understanding of the experiences of the respondents' involvement with NPO-CE collaborations. The intention was to afford the respondents the opportunity to recount their own experiences in their own terms and with their own emphasis on what was important to them within the broad structure provided by the three core categories drawn from the literature: value creation, partnership processes and relationship dynamics. A thematic data analysis was conducted using the framework developed from the initial literature review and subsequent agenda developed. The findings of the study have numerous implications for both academics and practitioners. Firstly, the study contributes to knowledge through the increased understanding of the nature of NPO-CE collaboration at the micro-process level from the perspective of the individual and provides insight into the nature of such relationships. It suggests a number of attributes that are viewed as significant by those involved in NPO-CE relationships at the individual level, including the confirmation of the importance of trust, effective leadership and formal and informal control measures. Secondly, numerous implications emerge for the practicing manager from the study, including perspectives on the demands, risks and rewards at both the individual and organizational level for managers engaged in cross-sector collaborations. Ultimately the study suggests that the traditional linear temporal framework for cross-sector collaboration development should be viewed as more cyclical in nature, and that the concomitant organizational demands of such an approach should be reflected in the decision-making processes ahead of any potential NPO-CE collaboration. The essence of this revised framework is presented in the form of a conceptual model The exploratory nature of the study has facilitated the identification of areas where future research is required, including: the challenges associated with implementing strategic agility within NPO-CE collaborations; exploring mechanisms for building and maintaining trust within a sustained collaboration; and the potential to develop the conceptual model into a decision-making framework for managers of future NPO-CE collaborations.

This is a sociological study of four factories in New England on acquisitions by Japanese corporations in the late 1980s. It investigated whether two sets of "Japanese" managerial practices were implemented by the Japanese, and whether they were successful at these factories. One was "welfare corporatist" practices which enhance workers' commitment to the organization by employing paternalistic personnel policies. The other was a group of various quality assurance programs that were either developed or nurtured in Japan. A questionnaire survey of 440 employees, interviews of 25 American and 22 Japanese managers, and 4 focus groups were employed. The Japanese seemed to be reluctant to alter existing personnel practices in the U.S. Insufficient math skills of employees can be a serious obstacle to quality assurance programs. Linguistic and non-linguistic communication issues were also a major problem between the Japanese and Americans. Much Japanese managers' frustration seemed to result from weak inter-group communication and cooperation of American firms. In general, the management at these firms were more engaged in implementing quality assurance programs than welfare corporatist policies. Both types of managerial practices seem to have positive results for employees when they are instituted properly. On the other hand, the lack of these practices can cause adverse effects.

<p> This research was an attempt to replicate, yet expand previous empirically supported, qualitative gray literature research conducted by NEXA (2010). The primary difference between this study and the NEXA study is adding significance testing in a quantitative study, to substantiate previously reported positive organizational financial performance associated with business aircraft investment. The outcome contradicted the previous study by providing evidence there were no significant differences in financial performance between those companies that own business aircraft and those companies that do not. The sampling populations were collected from publicly available data through a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aircraft registry and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) / Edgar database for the Standard and Poor&rsquo;s (S&amp;P) 600 Small Capitalization (SmallCap) Index funds. </p><p> The research utilized the Andersen (2001) Utilization strategies, Benefits, and shareholder Value (UBV) conceptual framework. The dependent variables of Earnings Before Income Tax, Depreciation and Ammoritization (EBITDA), Revenue Growth, Return on Equity (ROE), and Return on Assets (ROA) financial indicators and ratios were applied to test the significant differences between the independent variables of companies that own business aircraft versus companies that do not own business aircraft. The breadth of associated costs when contemplating investment in business aircraft goes well beynd the initial cost of the aircraft itself and was not covered in this study. Depending on the strategic objective and intended use of a business aircraft, ownership involves an additional and significant investment in infrastructure and back office support, segregated by direct and indirect costs. </p><p> In order to help define the future roles of business aircraft, the industry as a whole must create a synchronous and performance based public face that emphasizes the broad collection of the multi-dimensional and positive, technological, economic, and regulatory, political, and social dynamic contributions. Moreover, with financial indicators demonstrating positive value, productivity, and performance separation between business aircraft ownership from non-ownership, coupled with the internal as well as external drivers influencing financial results, the public face of business aviation and its aircraft should be one of the top investment decisions for future sustainability and competitive advantage.</p>

<p> When risks are too great for any one organization, and the opportunity cost for not trying is far greater, Strategic alliances between public and private sector organizations present collaborative opportunities to achieve success. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to understand how executives perceive the nature of their involvement in strategic alliances between public and private sector organizations in the United States. The central research question was, &ldquo;How do executive leaders perceive their involvement in forming and sustaining cross-sector strategic alliances between public organizations and private entities?&rdquo; This question and its associated sub-questions were explored using a survey and executive interviews as the sources of data for in-depth phenomenological analysis to determine themes perceived critical to successful cross-sector strategic alliances. Executives in this study suggested their role was to ensure the Strategic Alignment, Mutual Benefit, effective Communication, and a clear Vision were present in their organization&rsquo;s collaborative activities. Conversely, lack of establishing the aforementioned themes was perceived to be detrimental to strategic alliances. The application of this research spans from senior leaders in the public and private sectors to leadership scholars that are interested in better understanding cross-sector collaborations. Respondents asserted that executive leaders are responsible for ensuring that these themes are evaluated in the formative and sustaining phase of a strategic alliance. Additionally, executive leaders may use this research to inform their decision-making about how to avoid failure of their Cross-Sector Strategic Alliance; and for those that were successfully formed, how to affect sustainability. </p><p>