Explore the vast range of titles available.

The objective of this article is to analyze the strategies or patterns of adaptation of firms for responding to environmental requirements or expectations. We specifically analyze the influence of the different pressure agents or stakeholders on the degree of proactivity of these patterns. We therefore propose and validate four types of environmental response pattern, representing particular configurations of both the scope of environmental objectives and their allocation of internal resources. The analysis, which is focused on a sample of 240 industrial firms, provides empirical evidence enabling us to identify, understand, and evaluate the impact of stakeholders on the choice of environmental response pattern.

Purpose - The university environment is experiencing important changes that have to be managed in order to ensure the university's survival. One of the most notable changes is the appearance of a new kind of student who wants to update and or expand his her knowledge. This has caused universities to expand their educational offer through seminars, Master's programmes, special courses. This work endeavours a dual objective: to analyse the elements that determine the attendees' satisfaction with the stated courses; and to analyse the relationship between the satisfaction experienced by the course attendees and their loyalty to the institution that offers the courses.Design methodology approach - The information from a survey of the attendees of these kinds of courses at a Spanish university has been used.Findings - The work herein developed shows how the teaching staff, the teaching methods and course administration are key elements to achieving student satisfaction and their subsequent loyalty.Research limitations implications - This research has been applied to a specific university, and it would be appropriate to expand the research to other institutions of higher education.Practical implications - The appropriate management of the determinants of satisfaction is vital to the strategic decisions of universities.Originality value - The work centres on the analysis framework, on a new kind of student and on these students' specific demands, specifically on the demands satisfied through short courses aimed at updating previously acquired knowledge. Most prior works focus on analysing the satisfaction with university degrees and on the educational offer that these organisations can provide, such as continuing education and or complementary courses.

This paper examines the perceptions of firms in April 2020, one month after the Spanish Government declared the state of alarm, about how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect their business activity in the following months, and what employment decisions they expect to make in response. The data for the study was collected by the Government of the region of Aragon (Spain) through a survey of a non-randomly selected sample of firms located in the region. In addition to prospects and intended actions, firms were asked whether or not they had applied for ERTE aid (the Spanish job retention scheme to contain the pandemic crisis). We find that firms participating (voluntarily and anonymously) in the survey anticipated rather well the severity of the effects of the pandemic in the following months. The ERTE aid helped firms to maintain the jobs of their inactive employees, while firms that did not ask for aid responded by laying off employees. Further, the ERTE aid helped to maintain the jobs of furloughed employees, but the firms receiving ERTE aid expected to lay off the same proportion of employees as firms without that aid, controlling for the different anticipated effects of the pandemic in the two groups of firms.

Purpose - This study aims to learn more about the relationship between managers' perception of stakeholder pressure related to environmental matters and the degree of proactivity of firms' environmental strategies. It seeks to analyse the moderating effect that managers' perception of environmental issues as competitive advantage opportunities can have on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach - Structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to verify the research framework. Findings - The results indicate that, only in the least polluting firms, managers' competitive advantage expectations derived from environmental management moderate the relationship between the degree of environmental proactivity and stakeholder pressure. However, it is not effective in high polluting firms, perhaps as a consequence of the high degree of stakeholders' environmental pressure perceived by managers. Practical implications - The results highlight the relevance of managers' subjective perceptions of the potential of environmental protection measures to generate competitive advantages. They suggest that the consideration of this variable is fundamental in order to better understand the degree of proactivity of firms' environmental strategies, as well as the influence of stakeholder pressure on environmental proactivity. The main limitation is the low response rate of the survey. Originality/value - This is an original contribution because, although there are studies analysing how stakeholder pressure and managers' perceptions and values affect choice of environmental strategy, none of them analyse the combined impact of both issues.

Purpose - This work has two main objectives: to obtain a set of scales for measuring the patterns, attitudes and practices of integration that can be extrapolated to different scopes (both internal and external) and participants (supplier and customer) within the supply chain; and to evaluate the relations between the different components of integration.Design methodology approach - Based on previous literature on the content, measurement and scope of the concept of integration, a model is presented and tested using structural equation modelling. Data were collected from 450 enterprises from the Spanish construction materials sector.Findings - The authors' results suggest that integration is a multidimensional concept that covers the different organisational levels of the company: corporate through attitudes; strategic through patterns; and operative through practices. These components have a different structure and, although attitudes and patterns behave similarly, practices do not, and so there is no single dimension of integration that includes the three levels. With regard to scope, internal and external integration are related but do not constitute one single concept of integration. It therefore cannot be measured as a single dimension in order to relate the integration of the firm with its (corporate, logistic or marketing) performance.Research limitations implications - From a methodological point of view, data were collected from a single sector, in a single moment in time and with a single respondent in each company.Practical implications - Patterns and attitudes have a complete, corporative and strategic content, whereas practices are independent from each other and have a more operational vision.Originality value - Unlike studies that analyse integration and its relationship with outcomes, this work focuses on the concept of integration itself by analysing its three components. Thus, it extends the study of internal and external integration and focuses on the behaviour of the enterprise with two different members of the supply chain (suppliers and customers), thereby extending the analysis beyond the dyad.

Purpose - The recent changes that have occurred in the Spanish university teaching environment, such as growing competition, have caused these courses to become an important differentiating element of what is offered by each university. Therefore, the authors propose to delve deeper into the relationship existing between satisfaction and the intent to recommend the courses taken by the attendees.Design methodology implications - The research developed in the paper endeavours to be a first approximation of the factors that determine the satisfaction of the people who attend the summer courses offered by a Spanish public university. Furthermore, this article analyses whether or not the satisfaction levels of the students translate into one of the positive behaviours that are set forth in specialised literature: recommendation. The information is based on the analysis of a self-administered survey given to the students of the 2003 summer session after completing the course.Findings - The results obtained show that the teaching staff, enrolment and course organisation are the elements that have an impact on student satisfaction, and they show that this satisfaction is what, to a large extent, explains the intent to recommend the courses. In addition to these three elements, and in order to increase the satisfaction levels of students, it is necessary to know the objectives that the students have.Originality value - This paper determines the elements that are potentially capable of generating satisfaction and the subsequent effect of the satisfaction on recommendations for the university (summer courses) have been analysed. Other papers analyse all universities, but this work analyses a university's summer courses.

Purpose Social economy organizations (SEOs) are a hybrid model where relations with stakeholders are managed using transparency mechanisms. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role that online accessibility (which is understood to be a tool to implement transparency) has in raising financial resources and to assess its impact on economic and social achievements. Moreover, the authors study the interaction between online accessibility and external verification. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzes the behavior of 1,400 SEOs between 2009 and 2012 using a structural equation model and the MPLUS 7.4 software, which is based on covariance analysis. Findings The results show that transparency, which is understood as online accessibility, assists in raising financial resources and enhances SEO economic and social achievements. The authors also note that external verifications favor the economic achievements of SEOs but do not improve their social achievements. Research limitations/implications This research has two limitations: this study refers only to Spanish SEOs and no consensus exists on how to measure economic and social performance. Therefore, the conclusions should be considered with caution in other regulatory and cultural fields. The main implications of this work are the criteria the authors provide to help decision makers decide on the transparency model that SEOs should develop according to their management needs. Originality/value This study bridges a gap in the current research by increasing understanding of the role of accessibility as being the most important tool for an organization that strives to embody transparent behavior.

The search for an appropriate response to the new challenges and needs posed by the Knowledge Society in the area of public decisions has led to the development of a number of participation models whose value must be assessed and analysed in an integral manner. Using a theoretical model based on structural equations, the present work identifies the relevant factors for an EF3-approach to the democracy model named e-Cognocracy: it comprises a conjoint evaluation of its effectiveness (doing what is right), efficacy (achieving goals) and efficiency (doing things correctly). The model was applied to a real-life e-Cognocracy experience undertaken in the municipality of Cadrete, Zaragoza. The evaluation resulted in the extraction and identification of a series of relationships that allow the advancement of an EF3-participation acceptance model, in line with the TAM model of Davis and the work of Delone and MacLean, which can be used for the integral evaluation of any e-participation model.

Socially responsible companies develop strategies based on ESG criteria. Literature and agents operating in the markets are concerned about knowing whether the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Governance (CG) practices have a positive impact on financial performance. Main studies indicate that good CG practices are associated with a commitment to transparency. Our aim is to analyse the impact that CSR disclosure, as a transparency mechanism, and good CG practices have on the financial performance of socially responsible companies. To this aim, a system of simultaneous equations is proposed, in which the CSR disclosure variable has a mediating role, acting as liaison between the CG adopted by the organisation and the financial valuation. The results indicate that companies who wish to rise funding on the financial markets should develop both: a good CG and a high level of CSR disclosure, as part of their CSR strategy.

The objective of this study is to analyze the aspects that allowed a critical part of Social Economy Organizations (SEOs) to survive a recession period, especially participation in collaborative networks. The financial stress of an SEO will depend on the resources and capabilities available to the organization. To analyze the financial stress of Spanish SEOs, we defined a sample of 714 SEOs. Approximately half of these organizations suffered from financial stress in the analyzed period (2009-2012). The results obtained in this study reveal the existence of three factors that distinguish organizations under financial stress: (a) a high dependence on government funding; (b) changes in the relationship between staff and volunteers; and (c) a lack of access to markets. The combination of these three elements results in an unsustainable situation for the organization. The development of a collaborative profile increases the SEO's probability of surviving the adverse manifestations of its environment. L'objectif de la présente étude est d'analyser les aspects qui permettent à une part importante des organismes d'économie sociale (OES) de survivre à une récession, particulièrement dans le contexte de la participation à des réseaux collaboratifs. Les difficultés financières d'un OES dépendront des ressources et capacités dont l'organisme dispose. Pour analyser les difficultés financières d'OES espagnols, nous avons créé un échantillon de 714 d'entre eux. Environ la moitié de ces organismes ont vécu des difficultés financières durant la période analysée, soit de 2009 à 2012. Les résultats de cette étude révèlent l'existence de trois facteurs de distinction des organismes qui éprouvent des difficultés financières: a) une forte dépendance au financement gouvernemental; b) des modifications de la relation qui unit le personnel et les bénévoles; et c) un manque d'accès aux marchés. La combinaison de ces trois éléments donne lieu à une situation insoutenable pour l'organisme. La création d'un profil collaboratif augmente la probabilité que l'OES survive aux conditions négatives de son milieu. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die Aspekte zu analysieren, mit Hilfe derer ein wichtiger Teil der sozialwirtschaftlichen Organisationen die Rezessionsphase überstanden haben, insbesondere die Teilnahme an kollaborativen Netzwerken. Die finanzielle Belastung einer sozialwirtschaftlichen Organisation hängt von den ihr zugänglichen Ressourcen und ihren Fähigkeiten ab. Zur Anlayse der finanziellen Belastung von sozialwirtschaftlichen Organisationen in Spanien definierten wir eine Probe von 714 Organisationen. Rund die Hälfte dieser Organisationen stand im untersuchten Zeitraum (2009-2012) unter finanziellem Druck. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie decken drei Faktoren auf, die finanziell gestresste Organisationen abheben: a) eine hohe Abhängigkeit von staatlicher Finanzierung, b) Veränderungen in der Beziehung zwischen den Mitarbeitern und den Ehrenamtlichen und c) ein mangelnder Marktzugang. Die Kombination dieser drei Elemente führt zu einer untragbaren Situation für die Organisation. Die Entwicklung eines kollaborativen Profils erhöht die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass die sozialwirtschaftliche Organisation, die nachteiligen Manifestationen ihres Umfelds übersteht. El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar los aspectos que permitieron a una parte crítica de las Organizaciones de Economía Social (SEO, por sus siglas en inglés) sobrevivir a un período de recesión, especialmente la participación en redes colaborativas. El estrés financiero de una SEO dependerá de los recursos y de las capacidades disponibles en la organización. Para analizar el estrés financiero de las SEO españolas, definimos una muestra de 714 SEO. Aproximadamente la mitad de estas organizaciones sufrieron estrés financiero en el período analizado (2009-2012). Los resultados obtenidos en el presente estudio revelan la existencia de tres factores que distinguen a las organizaciones bajo estrés financiero: a) una elevada dependencia de la financiación gubernamental; b) cambios en la relación entre el personal fijo y los voluntarios; y c) una falta de acceso a los mercados. La combinación de estos tres elementos da lugar a una situación insostenible para la organización. El desarrollo de un perfil colaborativo aumenta la probabilidad de que la SEO sobreviva a las manifestaciones adversas de su entorno.