Environmental Management Systems as soruces of competitive advantage

An increasing number of firms are adopting environmental management systems as a way of dealing with challenges from the natural environment. Many of these firms also decide to have their environmental management systems certified according to one or both of the available international standards, ISO 14001 and EMAS (The European Union’s Eco Management and Audit Scheme). Both the environmental management system and the certification process involve significant investment of financial resources and management effort, which raises the question of what benefits firms might derive from these activities. Three levels of strategic advantage are identified in this paper. The first level of advantage is transient on nature, being based on competitive preemption and development of first mover advantage. The second level involves development of valuable competencies and more durable resources inside the firm, while the third level advantage depends on the extent to which such resources can be extended and conserved when emphasis shifts from an internal pollution prevention focus towards life cycle oriented environmental management.Natural environment, strategy, resource-based view

Strengthening the Bank's population work in the nineties

This paper argues that the Bank should give renewed priority to population matters and accelerate the current upward trend in lending for family planning programs in the 1990s. It is timely for two reasons. First, the need for bank action in population will increase in the 1990s as a result of growing unmet demand for family planning and stagnant bilateral assistance levels. Second, there is evidence that the initial effects of the 1987 World Bank reorganization have been to strengthening the potential for population work by integrating it more fully with economic analysis and overall country programming, but some further adjustments would assure that the potential could be realized. As the largest and most influential international development organization, there is an important leadership role for the Bank in promoting population policy analysis, dialogue, and in financing family planning programs.Adolescent Health,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Research,Reproductive Health,Early Child and Children's Health

Environmental and Social Disclosure and Data-Richness in the Mining Industry

Self-regulation by firms and industries in relation to the environmental impact they cause is not a full substitute for more traditional regulation of environ-mental externalities. However, some self-regulatory efforts do involve very spe-cific actions that serve to reduce externalities for a specific industry and certainly achieve more than the presentation of a responsible image to the world. An example of such efforts that go beyond common claims about “sus-tainable activities”, are seen in the increasing numbers of mining firms that generate and issue environmental reports. While there is as yet no indisputable proof that reporting has a direct effect on environmental performance, this pa-per shows that within a single industry there are wide variations in reporting practices and that sincerity is apparent in the process.

Environmental Management Systems as soruces of competitive advantage

An increasing number of firms are adopting environmental management systems as a way of dealing with challenges from the natural environment. Many of these firms also decide to have their environmental management systems certified according to one or both of the available international standards, ISO 14001 and EMAS (The European Unions Eco Management and Audit Scheme). Both the environmental management system and the certification process involve significant investment of financial resources and management effort, which raises the question of what benefits firms might derive from these activities. Three levels of strategic advantage are identified in this paper. The first level of advantage is transient on nature, being based on competitive preemption and development of first mover advantage. The second level involves development of valuable competencies and more durable resources inside the firm, while the third level advantage depends on the extent to which such resources can be extended and conserved when emphasis shifts from an internal pollution prevention focus towards life cycle oriented environmental management

Effets de l’expérience sur la perception de mélanges odorants chez l’Homme adulte et le lapereau nouveau-né

 Prix du meilleur poster• L’organisme est exposé à un environnement chimique complexe (mélanges d’odorants) duquel il doit extraire l’information.• Un signal véhiculé par un mélange peut être perçu de façon analytique AB = A+B et/ou synthétique AB = M (mélange)• Homme ->perception d’un mélange AB de façon partiellement synthétique (Le Berre et al.,2008)• Lapereaux -> perception du mélange AB de façon synthétique et analytique (Coureaud et al., 2008, 2009)Objectifs : Comment l’expérience influence-t-elle la perception de ce mélange AB et de ses composants A et B?Qu’en est-il pour un mélange perçu initialement de façon analytique (AC ou CD)

Vivisection: Anatomical Structure and the Satire of Vanity.

I begin this thesis with an examination of the notion of literary structure that Northrop Frye develops through various writings. I relate this to other of his concerns: to the idea of a "center" to the order of literature, and to the possibility of "scientific" or systematic criticism. In the second chapter I place this notion in the context of more general ideas about structure, and raise the issue of the relation of function to structure. I suggest that the ideas of function that orient ideas of structure may be divided into kinds in a way analogous to the way that kinds of causes have traditionally been distinguished. In the third chapter I undertake a consideration of geme, beginning with a brief summary of the approaches and problems associated with the concept. I move on to an account of Frye's theory of gemes and then present his outline of Menippean satire, or the "anatomy" form of prose fiction (with reference to his discussion of the mythos of winter, which describes the principles of satire and irony). An overview of other critical attitudes to the form ends the chapter. In the fourth chapter I present a comparative reading of the "anatomical" works in an effort to discover a partial line of influence and descent, and to determine a abstract common structure, use of which might be considered part of the formal cause of each of the works. Starting from given critical insights, I develop a view of the anatomy as presenting an existential quest, and examine how the theme is associated with certain common formal techniques and patterns of imagery. In the concluding chapter, I analyze further the pattern I have presented, and suggest that developing genre theory requires refining our understanding of the interaction of literary intention with literary structure.Master of Arts (MA