Business Commons^™

Feeling The Heat: Climate Change Is Becoming A Big Factor In Business Decision-Making, Risk Assessment, Candace Beeke, Sahan Dissanayake, Jennifer Price, Moss Adams

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland Business Journal Publisher and President Candace Beeke spoke recently with PSU’s Sahan Dissanayake and Jennifer Price, with Moss Adams, about the direct and indirect effects of climate change on business, along with the physical impacts and economic hazards. Here are their insights.

Barriers For Small Businesses To Adopt Sustainable Practices In The Sioux Falls Area, Meredith King

Honors Thesis

Sustainability is a broad concept that encompasses environmental, social, and economic factors to meet current and future needs. Many individuals and large businesses are becoming conscious of the effects they have on the planet and the people around them. However, despite the financial benefits and positive publicity of environmentalism, many businesses are not adopting sustainable practices. This study interviewed local business owners to answer the question “What are the main reasons that small businesses in the Sioux Falls area of South Dakota do or do not adopt sustainable practices that benefit the environment and the community?” Five business owners were …

Cultivating Authentic Leaders: Toward Conceptual Coherence And Sustainable Practice, Yoshie Tomozumi Nakamura, Elizabeth Nutt Williams, Lori Pyle, Steven E. Grande

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

The purpose of this paper is twofold. One is to better understand the contested construct of authentic leadership and its cultivation and practice. The other is to offer a conceptual framework for practicing sustainable authentic leadership. Based on a review of authentic leadership literature with a focus on its sustainability, we introduce a conceptual framework through a lens of an ecological model to capture the dynamics of individual and systems perspectives. Practicing sustainable authentic leadership is not a simple act; rather authentic leaders need to embrace paradoxes to navigate today’s complex systems and to find new ways to create positive …

Competitive Sustainability: The Intersection Of Sustainability And Business Success, Clyde Eiríkur Hull

Articles

Sustainability that beats the competition is different from sustainability that does not. Some who care very much about sustainability may not care at all about business success. However, they should. If businesses were to see that competitive sustainability leads to financial success, they would take it up and abandon nonsustainable practices

A Commentary On Culture, Sustainability And Market Transformations, Tracy Harwood

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

From Oceanography To Critical Marketing By Way Of Dismantling Fast Fashion: The Purposeful Research Trajectory Of Deniz Atik, Beatriz De Quero Navarro, Annamma Joy

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Deniz Atik’s curiosity and persistence has led her to dive in the complex waters of a powerful and ubiquitous contemporary phenomenon: fast fashion. From a critical perspective on marketing studies, Atik has addressed the impact of fast fashion on the environment, workers’ rights, consumer welfare, and the global system of industries and philosophies around fashion markets. Problematizing the logics of sustainability, western beauty standards and consumer vulnerability in terms of identity and representation are central analyses in her literature that proposes new perspectives on the universe of constructs related to fast fashion to be analyzed in the context of post-modern …

A Qualitative Study Of Mindfulness, Sustainable Consumption And Consumer Well-Being And Their Interrelationships, Saba Resnik

Economic and Business Review

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental degradation, negative economic consequences and social injustices caused by the unsustainable consumption of clothing products. Overall, therefore, sustainability requires more sustainable production of fashion apparel products as well as more responsible consumption behaviours by individual consumers. To gain a clearer picture of the concepts of mindfulness, sustainable consumption and consumer well-being and their interrelationships, in-depth interviews were conducted with individual consumers. The results of this study indicate a positive relationship between these three concepts as well as an overlap between the concepts of mindfulness and well-being.

Using Foundation Capital For Good: Opportunities In The Balance Sheet, John Sherman, Veronica Olazabal

The Foundation Review

Foundations increasingly use their full balance sheets to unlock more of their capital for good. They look beyond conventional grantmaking to pursue their charitable purposes in many ways that exemplify innovative, full-balance sheet approaches: investing in nonprofit and for-profit companies that offer clear social and financial returns; investing their corpus in companies whose products and services align with their missions; using social bonds to inject new resources into their programs; offering guarantees to help grantees manage risk; and avoiding companies whose practices run counter to their grantees’ efforts.

This article looks at the structures, pathways, and tools for foundations wanting …

Doing Good: Navigating The Csr Maze In India – Review Of Book By Meena Raghunathan, Ruchi Tewari, Aatman Shukla

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of The Attitudes Towards Sustainable Tourism Development: The Case Of Urgup, Duygu Bora, Mehmet Bahar

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

The limited number of resources that humanity has creates the responsibility of protecting those resources and transferring them to future generations. It is vital that the natural, cultural and historical assets that form the basis of the tourism sector can be sustained without being consumed by excessive use. Research is aimed to investigate the attitudes of the local people, one of the key stakeholders of tourism, towards sustainable tourism development. Research population consists of local people living in Ürgüp destination, which hosts thousands of national and international tourists every year. According to the data obtained from the study, it has …

Making Sustainability A Core Competency: Consumer Response To Sustainable Innovative Products, Clyde Eiríkur Hull, Jennifer D. Russell, Monika Kukar-Kinney

Articles

Research suggests that sustainability may not be sufficient to yield a competitive advantage. Building on the resource-based view, this research evaluates three questions: (1) Can using sustainability as a differentiator lead to consumers choosing sustainable products? (2) Does product sustainability appeal more to environmentally concerned consumers? (3) Does product sustainability appeal more when paired with innovation? To test the hypotheses, an online survey of 344 US respondents was conducted. Consumers were given a hypothetical budget for an office chair and asked to choose between two products at a time. Hypotheses were tested with frequency and Chisquare tests and logistic regression. …

A Qualitative Look Into Repair Practices, Jumana Labib

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This research poster is based on a working research paper which moves beyond the traditional scope of repair and examines the Right to Repair movement from a smaller, more personal lens by detailing the 6 categorical impediments as dubbed by Dr. Alissa Centivany (design, law, economic/business strategy, material asymmetry, informational asymmetry, and social impediments) have continuously inhibited repair and affected repair practices, which has consequently had larger implications (environmental, economic, social, etc.) on ourselves, our objects, and our world. The poster builds upon my research from last year (see "The Right to Repair: (Re)building a better future"), this time pulling …

Defining Regenerative Business Through The Context Of Place: A Case Study West Michigan Businesses, Aislinn Teachout, Aislinn Teachout

Masters Theses

This study builds upon existing scholarly literature on regenerative design and regenerative sustainability by relating the framework to existing West Michigan businesses and their place-specific practices. Applying concepts from those more developed fields to business sustainability, this paper contributes to the still emerging field of regenerative business by proposing a comprehensive definition of regenerative business. The definition is then applied to three businesses in a case study format to highlight regenerative business practices. While none of the businesses highlighted claim to be regenerative, all have examples of practices that demonstrate regenerative action and enhance the West Michigan community.

By defining …

Public Debt Sustainability Measures And Its Growth Implications For The Nigerian Economy, O. W. Gobna, G. Usman, S. S. Mohammed

Economic and Financial Review

This study utilises the linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models to investigate the impact of public debt sustainability measures and its growth implications for the Nigerian economy from 1981 and 2021. The results suggest that public debt-to-oil revenue ratio (PDOR) has a significantly negative effect on economic growth both in the long- and short-run. It also shows that public debt-to-non-oil revenue ratio has an asymmetric effect in the short-run and a positive relationship on economic growth in the long-run. The study concludes that economic growth needs to be enhanced through improved government non-oil revenue. Therefore, to bolster economic …

How A Community Foundation’S Disaster Framework Guided Rapid Pandemic Response, Steven W. Mumford, Isabel Barrios, Kellie Chavez Greene

The Foundation Review

Disasters create opportunities for philanthropy to rebuild equitably by prioritizing the most vulnerable community members in disaster response and addressing existing disparities and structural inequities in the recovery phase. As intermediaries between donors and local communities, community foundations are well-positioned to lead transformational disaster response.

Through its experience with Hurricane Katrina and subsequent disasters in the region, the Greater New Orleans Foundation developed a flexible disaster framework that emphasizes four broad principles — resilience, sustainability, civic participation, and equity — and specific practices in each area to guide rapid and long-term disaster response and preparedness. This article describes how the …

Does Citizens’ Involvement Reflect Sustainability In Smart Cities?, Zeina Mazloum

BAU Journal - Creative Sustainable Development

Though being highlighted for years as a core driver for smart cities to advance, a small body of research revealed the significant role of citizens in contributing to smart cities’ maturity and sustainability. This paper emphasizes the importance of citizens’ involvement in the decision-making process in smart cities through obtaining a high quality of life, ensuring rapid urban growth, attracting brains, talents, and skills in addition to raising productivity. All these serve as solid foundations for sustainability in smart cities and opens doors wide for future studies.

“Green” Marketing In The Apparel Industry: The Spectrum Of Veracity, Stephanie R. Keane

Honors Theses in Science, Technology, and Society

Apparel companies’ propensity for manipulation in their marketing of environmental initiatives contributes to immense environmental pollution from petrochemical textile material production. Public scrutiny pressures these businesses to adopt “green” initiatives to avoid losing devoted consumers. In some cases, these initiatives disguise the real operations of a company or claim benignity for the company when this is not the reality. Previous business ethics research analyzed the emergence of “greenwashing” in corporations and thus concluded that corporations market themselves as eco-friendly to portray commodification as sustainable. In the form of case studies, this paper scrutinizes four companies: Zara, Patagonia, Lululemon, and Pact. …

Effective Green Marketing Strategies On Social Media: Selling Companies And Their Consumers On Investing In Carbon Offsetting And Solar Energy In 2021, Melvin Richard Springer Iv

Honors Theses

In a digital world where consumers and businesses alike care significantly about sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR), the success of startup companies hinges on constant, clear, and thoughtful communication. Through my research into successfully marketing such concerns on social media as well as my internship at Clearloop, I discovered some of the best ways to convince both companies and consumers that preserving the planet should be a primary concern for every environmentally conscious company. Companies that ignore their impacts on the environment are synonymous with companies doomed to fail in the 21^st century. Clearloop’s model of partnering with …

Nevada Economic Development And Public Policy 2022-2026: A Sustainable Future For All Nevadans, The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West

Policy Briefs and Reports

This report evaluates economic development efforts in the State of Nevada since the 2011 publication of Unify, Regionalize, Diversify: An Economic Development Agenda for Nevada; assesses demographic and economic trends for Nevada and its regions; examines how state and federal actions since the onset of COVID-19 can position Nevada and its regions to address long-standing economic, educational, and social deficits; and offers policy recommendations to be implemented in the next four years to facilitate a sustainable future for all Nevadans.

Support New Business To Solve Old Problems With Kentucky’S Keystone Waste From Bourbon & Brewing, Samuel C. Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

Provided here is a policy solution from the backside of Kentucky bourbon and brewing to upcycle Kentucky’s “keystone” wastes and grow businesses in the process. Potential effects range from removing the bottleneck on bourbon production and producing GHG-friendly biogas to lowering the price of milk.This full whitepaper brief provides an incentive model for keystone wastes which have a provider and a use. It is equally applicable for policymakers or advocates wishing to place a policy incentive behind waste-to-product upcycling, businesses involved with methane sequestration & renewable biogas energy, and shifting regulatory and penalizing models of pollution into incentive model for …

Sustainability, A Competitive Advantage In The Corporate World, Samantha Kennelly

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract: Over the years, society has become more aware of the impact they leave on the environment. For this reason, many are wondering what can be done to curb their footprint, and research has shown that customers now more than ever are demanding more sustainable goods. The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between corporate social responsibility, consumer desires, and sustainability as a competitive advantage. I will first discuss the history and present factors surrounding environmental problems, in particular marine plastic pollution, we face today. I will define microplastics and marine plastics and …

Effects Of Economic Development Status And Eco-Product On Consumption Values: From The Perspective Of Us Consumers, Mostafa Zaman

Doctoral Dissertations

Consumers select a product based on numerous product characteristics. Numerous studies conducted earlier revealed that consumers in developing countries preferred products made in western or developed countries because their product quality is better than the quality of local products (Lee & Nguyen, 2017; Dao & Heidt, 2018; Rodrigo et al., 2019). Moreover, consumers are increasingly concerned about manufacturers’ environmental issues. Although ethical consumers believe that eco-products could save the environment, some consumers are not concerned about the eco-products and thus select products based on other product attributes (Joshi & Rahman, 2015). Hence, it becomes very challenging for retailers to select …

From Fast Fashion To Sustainable Slow Fashion, Isabel Agatha Millward-Pena

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to express a need for sustainability within the fast fashion industry, in the form of cultural movement that acts as alternative to the current means of production, consumption, and philosophies. Sustainability within current popular discourses is often human-centered and lacking authenticity, thus I aim to highlight an alternative that is opposite of that. In doing such, I bring to light the negative effects of the industry through a case study on the fast fashion company SHEIN, who claim to be making sustainable efforts. I analyzed SHEIN’s 2021 Sustainability and Social Impact Report (SSIR), focusing …

Sustainability In Web Development Through Energy Efficiency, Hannah Bebinger

Honors Projects

As global internet usage expands, websites are growing in both size and complexity. Contrary to the common belief that the internet is immaterial and “environmentally friendly”, web pages have significant negative environmental impacts (Frick, 2015). Websites contribute to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and electricity consumption. Considering the current climate crisis, it is crucial that web developers be aware of the impact that their work has on the environment and actively work to improve site energy efficiency. With a lack of regulation and awareness, the environmental impact of websites has remained unchecked despite growing concerns for sustainability. Further research and …

Energy Literacy In Portugal: A System Map And Framework To Increase Energy Literacy Through The Renewable Energy Transition, Molly S. Fox

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Western society lives with a great dependence and an almost simultaneous ignorance of energy consumption (van den Broek, 2019). The systemic landscape of energy knowledge and dissemination is more critical than ever as Portugal races to meet decarbonization goals. This paper fills a knowledge gap by updating the current social landscape of energy literacy in Portugal through a comprehensive system map and framework to increase energy literacy levels through the renewable energy transition. By conducting a semi-systematic literature review, meta-narratives and themes were identified and used to create theoretical concepts, a framework, and a system map. This research found that …

Socio-Cultural And Economic Impacts Of Religious Festivals On Sustainable Local Community Livelihoods In Kerala: The Case Of Palakkad, Dr. Bindu V T Nair, Aiswarya Babu N

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Festivals depict the heritage, culture, and traditions of a particular region. They create a state of exhilaration and enthusiasm. Kerala is a state in southwest India with its own distinct culture and traditions. The state is also known for its religious pluralism. This study attempts to understand the perceived impact of religious festivals on the local community livelihoods in Palakkad, a district in central Kerala. Twelve temples in which religious festivals are held annually, with attendance in the range of thousands, were selected. The selected temples are famous for hosting specific religious festivals which attract a large number of visitors, …

Microfinance Sustainability In A Digitalised Economy, M. A. Adebiyi, T. S. Olusegun, J. Yakubu

Economic and Financial Review

The study examines microfinance sustainability in a digitalised economy using a panel dataset of 1,314 microfinance banks in Nigeria spanning 2012 to 2020. The results show that digitalisation poses significant threats to microfinance sustainability in Nigeria. The industry presently faces strong competition from commercial banks and Fintech companies, and is characterised by a low capital base, product innovation and market penetration, high transaction costs, and some idiosyncratic risks. The study suggests that microfinance institutions should leverage their large customer base by utilising digital innovations. Regulatory agencies should ensure that Fintech services are adequately regulated, affordable, and easily accessible to microfinance …

A Proposed Governance Model For The Adoption Of Geoparks In Australia, Alan Briggs, David Newsome, Ross Dowling

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: Good governance is crucial in establishing and managing geoparks and is a requirement by UNESCO if global status is to be achieved. Australia has three levels of government, government agencies and not for profit organisations that can assist in the reintroduction of geoparks to Australia. This paper examines a range of governance models used by UNESCO Global Geoparks. Design/methodology/approach: This paper explores mechanisms that could be applied in the reintroduction of geoparks into Australia and considers how future geoparks might be managed. The suggested model is based on a review of existing UNESCO Global Geopark governance and their management …

Beyond Fueling Our Bodies To Feeding Our Minds, Alicia Orea-Giner Dr., Francesc Fusté-Forné

Journal of Sustainability and Resilience

Food consumption in tourism is linked with creating sustainable experiences and promoting a new way of being fed and eating. This research note analyzes the relationship between new trends in food consumption and food tourism. From a descriptive approach, it reveals the meaningful connection between producers and consumers. Food tourism stakeholders should consider applying segmentation techniques to personalize its offer and create unique food experiences. Further research is required, especially concerning the Gen Z lifestyles and its impact on the future of food tourism.

Regenerative Tourism Model: Challenges Of Adapting Concepts From Natural Science To Tourism Industry, Asif Hussain, Marie Haley

Journal of Sustainability and Resilience

The study proposes a regenerative tourism model. The application of the natural science ideas of regeneration needs to be clarified before the tourism industry can adopt a regenerative tourism model. Without such clarification, there is a high risk of ‘green washing’ and inappropriate adaption of a regenerative model. The borrowing of natural science to industry and its application in social sciences confuse the essence of the true concept of regeneration. In a regenerative agriculture context restoring a holistic system that mimics nature and includes social and economic spheres contributes to improving the whole system. When a social system aims to …