Recent isber items

Annual Report NSF Center for Nanotechnology in Society at University of California at Santa Barbara

Thu, 28 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Annual Report NSF Center for Nanotechnology in Society at University of California at Santa Barbara

Eco- vs. productive efficiency: A new approach to effective and comparative performance analysis

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Increasing social concerns over the environmental externalities associated with business activities are pushing firms to identify activities that create economic value with less environmental impact and to become more eco-efficient. However, this task has proven challenging because there is no systematic methodology to integrate undesirable outputs, such as emissions, in the calculation of economic or productive efficiency. In this paper, we develop a methodology based on the nonparametric frontier approach to measure corporate eco-efficiency, and to compare it to productive efficiency. Our eco-efficiency model rectifies several problems encountered in existing approaches. Our methodology allows us to calculate, for each firm, the reduction in emissions necessary to attain eco-efficiency. In addition, our methodology measures changes in efficiency attributed to undesirable outputs. We apply our methodology to data from 84 U.S. electric utilities in 2007. Our analysis demonstrates...

Survey Questionnaire on Environmental Management Practices: Summary of Results by Industry and practices

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This document provides a summary of the results of a survey on Environmental Management Practices (EMP) conducted by the University of California at Santa Barbara during October and November 2003. The survey was sent to 3255 facilities in 8 industrial sectors: pulp, paper and paperboard mills, chemical and allied products, refining, primary metals, machinery, electronics /electrical, automotive, and utilities. The survey yielded 562 responses, which constitutes a 17.2% response rate. This summary includes a general description of the sample, a profile of the respondents, and summary statistics of facilities' environmental management practices, relations with stakeholders, and environmental performance measures. In addition, we report the factors that respondents noted were influencing them to improve their environmental performance and adopt particular environmental management practices. In many cases, these results are categorized by industry to facilitate comparisons.

The...

Eco-Labeling Strategies: The Eco-Premium Puzzle in the Wine Industry

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Eco-labeling signals that a product has been eco-certified. While there is increasing use of eco-labeling practices, there is still little understanding of the conditions under which eco-labels can command price premiums. In this paper, we argue that the certification of environmental practices by a third party should be analyzed as a strategy distinct from although related to the advertisement of the eco-certification through a label posted on the product. By assessing eco-labeling and eco-certification strategies separately, we are able to identify benefits associated with the certification process independently from those associated with the actual label. More specifically, we argue in the context of the wine industry that eco-certification can provide benefits, such as improved reputation in the industry or increased product quality, which can lead to a price premium without the need to use the eco-label. We estimate this price premium of wine due to the eco-certification...

CHANGING PATTERNS IN MINCERIAN RETURNS TO EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE IN THREE ASIAN COUNTRIES

Tue, 4 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

We analyze large nationally representative surveys of the labor force from three developing Asian economies (India, the Philippines and Thailand) at two points in time separated by a decade or more. Secondary and tertiary education attainment rose in the interim while the Mincerian education-wage profile became more convex. We document these shifts, allowing for inter-cohort dynamics. Returns to secondary education fell. Returns to college rose for older workers everywhere and for young workers in India, but fell for young Thais and Filipinos. We develop a new decomposition that permits us to attribute the shifting returns to education to the evolving structure of employment and inter- and intra-industry wage patterns. Secondary returns fell sharply in every sector as secondary-educated workers rapidly became available, while employment structures shifted slowly to absorb them. Conversely, rising returns within modern services were instrumental in lifting the returns to tertiary...

THE DIFFUSION OF VOLUNTARY INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT STANDARDS: RESPONSIBLE CARE, ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyzes the factors that explain the international diffusion of voluntary international management standards. We argue that to understand the diffusion of international standards we need to define a model that includes interactions between standards as well as interactions between standards and their institutional environment. We present two opposite views explaining how the previous diffusion of management standards facilitates or hampers the adoption of new management standards. We test a comprehensive model of diffusion of international environmental management standards within the chemical industry using a panel of 113 different countries during the period 2000 to 2003. Our results show that the previous experience of businesses in voluntary standards such as the Chemical Industry’s Responsible Care program or ISO 9000, government commitment towards Environmental Management Systems Standards, and the level of activity of international non-governmental organizations...

THE ADOPTION OF ISO 14001 WITHIN THE SUPPLY CHAIN: WHEN ARE CUSTOMER PRESSURES EFFECTIVE?

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Voluntary programs are now widely used by governments and other actors to improve the environmental performance of firms beyond regulatory compliance. However, it is important to understand the effectiveness and limitations of these voluntary approaches. This paper investigates the rationale for firms to ‘comply’ with or ‘resist’ the mandate of their customers to adopt the international certified management standard (CMS) ISO 14001 in the North American automotive industry. We argue that the effectiveness of such a mandate will vary according to the characteristics of the relationship between suppliers and customers. We contrast and test hypotheses based on both transaction costs economics and signaling theories to suggest that both suppliers marked by a dependent relationship with their customers as well as those marked by a distant relationship with their customers have incentives to comply with the requests of their customers but through different mechanisms. Our results,...

Information Disclosure Policies: Evidence from the Electricity Industry

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

A "third wave" of environmental policy has recently emerged that emphasizes information provision as an integral part of the risk mitigation strategy. While theory suggests that information programs may correct market failures and improve welfare, the empirical effectiveness of these programs remains largely undetermined. We show that mandatory information disclosure programs in the electricity industry achieve stated policy goals. We find that the average proportion of fossil fuels decreases and the average proportion of clean fuels increases in response to disclosure programs. However, the programs also produce unintended consequences. Customer composition and pre-existing fuel mix significantly affect program response, suggesting that effective information disclosure policies may not be efficient.

AN INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE DIFFUSION OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT STANDARDS: THE CASE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT STANDARD ISO 14001

Wed, 1 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

This paper investigates the determinants of the early adoption of the international environmental management standard ISO 14001 using a panel of 84 countries from 1996 to 2002. It analyzes the relationship between firms’ decisions to adopt international management standards and institutional factors. The analysis emphasizes that, in the case of an emerging standard, the potential lack of consensus within the regulatory/institutional environment concerning the value of a new standard could send mixed signals to firms about the standard. The results show that in the early phase of adoption, regulative and normative forces within the institutional environment can work against each other. This study contributes to the institutional theory perspective by offering a more complex specification of the neo-institutional model where institutional forces can compete with each other.

Voluntary Agreements to Improve Environmental Quality: Are late joiners the free riders?

Wed, 1 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Within the context of environmental voluntary agreements (VAs), this paper analyzes how free riding affects the effectiveness of collective corporate political strategies that aim at shaping government policy. We demonstrate that substantive cooperative strategies are more likely to be pursued by firms that enter a VA at its initiation while free riding or symbolic cooperation is more likely to be adopted by late joiners. We demonstrate that late joiners and early joiners within VAs adopt different cooperative strategies because they face different institutional pressures. We also find that late joiners that cooperate only symbolically may endanger the overall effectiveness of a VA. Our analysis is based on the strategies of firms participating in the Climate Challenge Program established in 1995 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the representatives of the national electric utilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Survey Gives UCSB, Santa Barbara Police High Marks"

Wed, 6 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Results of Attitude Towards Police (ATP) surveys regarding Santa Barbara Police Department and UC Santa Barbara Police Department, Chief MacPherson and "the importance of communicating respect and concern for the needs of community members, one person at a time".

"Avoidable Errors and Their Victims" Letter to the Editor re: After Innocence

Wed, 6 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

"Avoidable Errors and Their Victims" Letter to the Editor re: After Innocence

"Research on Policing Will Benefit Society"

Wed, 6 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The opening of the Center on Police Practices and Community (COPPAC) at the University of California, Santa Barbara ~ Researching Today for a Safer Tomorrow ~

Community Review of Police Conduct: An Intergroup Perspective

Tue, 5 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Law enforcement continually walks a fine-line between the protection and the violation of individual rights. It derives its power from the community it serves, and it is accountable to that community. To ensure the latter, some cities have implemented community review systems that monitor police conduct. These systems are intended to be impartial evaluators of law enforcement, in particular, complaints against law enforcement. We analyze the various structures and characteristics of community review systems, as well as the empirical research attending them. In doing so, we situate the problems associated with community review systems from a social psychological perspective, arguing that their shortcomings may be remedied through a consideration of intergroup processes which focus on shared identity and the role of power differentiation between police and community. Finally, we suggest improvements and further research.

Accommodation and Institutional Talk: Communicative Dimensions of Police-Civilian Interactions

Mon, 4 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

In this chapter, we focus on Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT)'s utility for analyzing one under-studied domain of intergroup communication, namely police-civilian encounters. By so doing, we focus on one aspect of institutional talk where a power imbalance is clearly evident. In addition to presenting recent self-report data relevant to this initiative, new intercultural data from China, Taiwan and the US, are also introduced. But first, we overview some important assumptions and concepts of the theory, interlaced with a selection of empirical research studies.

Building the Case: Why Should We Care About Police-Community Relations? Current Research

Mon, 4 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Building the Case: Why Should We Care About Police-Community Relations? Current Research

Review of Speaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Jusitce

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Review of Speaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Jusitce

Accommodating a New Frontier: The Context of Law Enforcement

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This chapter spotlights communication accommodation theory (CAT: see Giles, Coupland & Coupland, 1991) -- a longstanding framework (Gallois, Ogay & Giles, 2005: Giles, 1973) that has been heralded as one of the most prominent in the social psychology of language (Tracy & Haspel, 2004) and one that has captured cross-disciplinary imaginations (Coupland & Jaworski, 1997). The theory has had a hsitory of application to an array of organizational contexts (e.g. Bourhis, 1991) and, herein, we add another exciting possibility, namely its relevance for a more incisive appreciation of understanding police-civilian relations. After a brief discussion about what images people hold of police officers, we introduce CAT with particular attention to its face and identity concerns, whilst we distil the theoretical essence of CAT down to four key principles, underscoring its potential for developing not only an innovative reserach agenda for the future, but also for suggesting...

Liability, Stress and Community: Communicative Issues in Policing

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Liability, Stress and Community: Communicative Issues in Policing

Communicating Police Misconduct: Alleged, Variably Reported, and/or Real?

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

A review of Regina Lawrence's The Politics of Force: Media and the Consturction of Police Brutality and Jeffrey Ian Ross' Making News of Police Violence: A Comparative Study of Toronto and New York City

Patronizing and Policing Elderly People

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

426 students rated a vignette wherein an older person was patronized (more or less) or not by a police officer. Trait attributions were linearly related to extent of patronization: predictably negative for the patronizers, yet positive for the recipients. Visual appearances of patronizers and patronizees did not influence these patterns.

Communicative Dynamics of Police-Civilian Encounters: American and African Interethnic Data

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Research in the American West, China, and Taiwan has shown that officers’ communication accommodative practices (and attributed trust in them) can be more potent predictors of satisfaction with the police than are the socio-demographic characteristics of those judging. With Black and White respondents, this study continues this line of work in Louisiana and South Africa and tests a new model about the relationships among perceived officer accommodation, trust in the police, and reported voluntary compliance from civilians. In addition to an array of differences that emerged between nations and ethnicities, officer accommodativeness indirectly predicted civilian compliance through trust. The hypothesized model was partially supported and culturally-sensitive.

Nano-Punk For Tomorrow's People

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Major issues surrounding the impact of emerging nanotechnologies on society were well represented at a conference on human enhancement at the Said Business School at the University of Oxford. The essay describes the contrasting perspectives of speakers from the United States, Continental Europe, and the global South. Cutting across regional differences was a second debate: while some participants felt that social issues were presented as a drain on scientific progress, others, including the author, argued that culture and society should be analyzed alongside science as positive contributors to human enhancement. The essay suggests that creative process is a better model of societal governance of science than is regulation alone, and that this perspective might help bridge some of the conference's contrasting perspectives.

Will Small be Beautiful? Making Policies for our Nanotech Future

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:00:00 +0000

With the passage of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) in 2000, US investment in nanotechnology research and development soared quickly to almost US$1 billion annually. The NNI emerged at a salient point in US history as lawmakers worked to reshape national science policies in response to growing international economic competition and the increasing commercialization of academic science. This paper examines how advocates of nanotechnology successfully marketed their initiative. It pays especial attention to their optimistic depiction of societies and economies improved by nanotechnology, and considers why utopian techno-visions continue to flourish despite their tendency to ultimately disappoint.

A Review of Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence

Thu, 1 Dec 2005 00:00:00 +0000

A Review of Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence

Communication Accommodation: Law Enforcement and the Public

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

While there is a burgeoning literature on diverse aspects of intergroup communication and some attention to media depictions of police officers and policing, very little research addresses communicative dimensions of police-civilian encounters. This is important to the extent that while it has been estimated that the vast amount of police training is devoted to physical compliance issues, 98% of actual law enforcement practice revolves around communicating with the public and its safety needs. Thus, the communication between police officers and civilians warrants examination. In this chapter, we overview the separate literatures on attitudes toward the police and communication accommodation theory. The findings of three studies are presented exploring the role of accommodation, alongside socio-demographic and other variables, in predicting attitudes toward police. The three studies encompass three different populations: English-speaking adults, Spanish-speaking adults, and...

Jail Tour Presentation

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Surveys (available separately on eRepository) were administered to 32 UC Santa Barbara students before and after touring the Santa Barbara County Jail. Respondents' perceptions of law enforcement (attitude toward police: ATP) increased significantly along five dimensions.

This study demonstrates not only the immediate benefit to law enforcement in exposing the public to the inside of jails, but the major role that communication plays in how the community perceives law enforcement.

Understanding the role of communication in police--community relations can open the door to police--community partnerships that improve the effectiveness and safety of both community members and law enforcement officers.

Jail Tour Survey

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This instrument is used to compare attitudes toward law enforcement before and after county jail tours.

TNCs and the Removal of Textiles and Clothing Quotas

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

For developing countries, the textiles and clothing industries have traditionally been an important gateway to industrialization and increased exports. With the expiration of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, the quota system originally set up through the Multifibre Arrangement was phased out. This has important implications for the allocation of export-oriented production and is likely to affect in various ways a large number of developing countries that rely heavily on such exports.

Drawing on a wide range of studies as well as on original research, this volume shows that transnational corporations (TNCs) are likely to play a critical role in determining the future global production structure in these industries. First, the sourcing strategies of a small number of very large retailing companies (based in the United States, Europe and Japan) place stringent requirements on the locations in which textiles and clothes will be produced. Second, the investment strategies...

Influence of Ancient Settlement in the Contemporary Maya Forest: Investigating Land Use at El Pilar

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Influence of Ancient Settlement in the Contemporary Maya Forest: Investigating Land Use at El Pilar

Imagining the Landscape of Maya Forest: Lessons in Sustainability & Resilience

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Imagining the Landscape of Maya Forest: Lessons in Sustainability & Resilience

Assessing the Situation at El Pilar: Chronology, Survey, Conservation, and Management Planning for the 21st Century

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Assessing the Situation at El Pilar: Chronology, Survey, Conservation, and Management Planning for the 21st Century

Adaptive Management in the Maya Forest: Patnership at El Pilar

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Adaptive Management in the Maya Forest: Patnership at El Pilar

DEREGULATION AND RESOURCE RECONFIGURATION IN THE ELECTRIC UTILITY INDUSTRY

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyzes how economic deregulation impacts resource reconfiguration in the electric utility industry. We argue that to understand strategic change in this industry, we need to understand how development and deployment of a firm's resources reflects path dependencies that nonmarket actors impose on firms. We find evidence that the deregulation introduced to this historically staid industry has stimulated environmental differentiation strategies for incumbent firms. Consistent with theories that suggest differentiation is most likely to appear where its point of uniqueness is valued by customers, utilities engaged in differentiation if they served states whose populace exhibited a higher level of environmental sensitivity. The tendency for firms to differentiate is lessened if they are relatively more dependent on coal-fired generation or relatively more efficient. In both of these cases, the variables are associated with lower operating costs, in turn demonstrating...

Pink and Blue: Outcomes Associated with the Integration of Open Gay and Lesbian Personnel in the San Diego Police Department