Academic literature on the topic 'Environmental sustainability and Natural Resource Based View Theory'

Building on the natural-resource-based view, and using a sample of 7,165 European SMEs, this chapter investigates the drivers of eco-design innovations among SMEs under three categories: (1) sustainability-oriented firm capabilities, (2) technological capabilities, and (3) access to finance. The findings reveal that sustainability-oriented capabilities achieved through investments into circular economy are the strongest driver of SMEs' eco-design innovations. Firms' technological capabilities are also found to boost their ability to adopt eco-design innovations. While equity finance increases the possibilities for SMEs to devote resources to eco-design, grant finance is interestingly observed to decrease such possibilities. The more traditionally used form of debt finance remains detached from eco-design implementations. The study contributes to a better understanding of how eco-design practices can be broadened within SMEs and highlights policy recommendations in this regard.

This chapter is an overview of how Monteverde settlers transformed their environment into a diversity of agricultural systems. We first discuss “people living in nature,” how Monteverdans have viewed natural resources and defined sustainability. We describe the environmental and social conditions that determined agronomic options in the area, and outline the area’s major agricultural activities (dairy, coffee, and beef), other crops, and efforts at agricultural diversification. Where possible, we cite published studies, but few exist for some issues. We rely heavily on local experts, including long-term community members, local agronomists, veterinarians, and farmers. We also draw on agricultural production data collected by local organizations. From the earliest indigenous settlers to today’s commercial farmers, biologists, and artists, Monteverde’s inhabitants have exhibited a wide spectrum of approaches to natural resource use. The community’s ongoing debate over the meaning and practice of “sustainability” throws into sharp relief residents’ differing worldviews, kinds of knowledge, and perceptions of constraints and opportunities. People’s decisions on how to use natural resources depend on three factors: their attitudes and beliefs, their knowledge, and the opportunities, constraints, and conditions that they confront. For example, beliefs may demand that people be “stewards” of the land, that they use resources to maximize economic returns during their lifetime, or that they use resources as sparingly as possible. Their knowledge may prepare them to be organic vegetable farmers, traditional dairy farmers, business people, or biologists. The social, environmental, and economic context in which they make decisions further defines which options are available or attractive. As one local farmer stated, “We do the best we can with what we have, based on what we know, and what the circumstances permit or encourage us to do.” Monteverdans generally agree that “sustainable agriculture” is a good thing, but there is less agreement on what it means. Following the taxonomy of Gillespie (1998), three sustainable agriculture “schools of thought” exist in Monteverde. The first group is the “Ecocentric Agriculture” school, whose approach focuses on what is sustainable in a biological/ecological sense. Many local biologists and organic producers espouse this view.

Due to recent economic, social, and public health drawbacks, social enterprises (SEs) play an increasingly important role in addressing a wide range of social problems, as part of their market-based approach to social value creation. Since SEs operate mainly in challenging contexts characterized by scarce resource environments, they need to develop strategies in order to effectively accomplish their missions while achieving organisational sustainability. Often, SEs expand their activity overseas within an internationalisation strategy. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of resources in the internationalisation strategy undertaken by SEs. The study applies the resource-based view (RBV) to understand how the type and nature of resources may influence the international activities pursued by these organisations. The findings highlight the important role of different key resources in the growth, sustainability and internationalisation of SEs.

In the era of digital world that we live in, a new vision for learning is required. Learning is essentially personal, sociocultural, distributed, ubiquitous, flexible, dynamic, and complex in nature. There are multiple challenges, opportunities, and movements in learning that must be considered in the development and implementation of online learning environments. From the emerging computational capacity as a virtualized resource pool available over the network, several benefits can be obtained with regard to the management of computing infrastructures, such as environmental sustainability and improved Personal/Cloud Learning Environment use. In fact, Personal learning environments, Cloud computing, Semantic Web 3.0 and Ontologies are relatively new terms that hold considerable promise for future development and research in higher education contexts. Motivated by the aforementioned perspectives, the purpose of this chapter is to explore and discuss how these terms can be understood towards a more personalized, sociocultural, open, dynamic and encouraging model to support/facilitate teaching and learning processes, fulfilling the integrated view of the educational context presented in Part I of this book.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating and immediate effect on all economies, impacting in the lifestyles and livelihoods of people around the world. There are strong concerns about how the crisis will affect SMEs that represent over 90% of all firms worldwide. In emerging countries, SMEs already operate in challenging contexts characterized by institutional voids and scarce resource environments where entrepreneurs need to continuously develop strategies to survive. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of resources in a single case of a Brazilian SME and its strategies to survive the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The study applies the resource-based view (RBV) to understand how the type and nature of resources influence the activities pursued by this SME and relate the crisis with their usual challenges. Findings highlight the important role of different key resources in the survival, growth, and sustainability of SMEs, along with the need of institutional conditions to support and foster entrepreneurship.

This chapter seeks to provide a better understanding on the predictors of green human resource management which can result in improved environmental and financial performance across hospitality industry. The proposed model has been constructed from the perspective of external pressure (i.e., normative) and internal pressure (manager's environmental concerns) by using the Institutional Theory and Resource Based View Theory. The chapter examines the antecedents of sustainability in hospitality industry in terms of improved financial and environmental performance. It therefore expands the level of understanding on mechanisms which leads to corporation sustainability. While the chapter is written with a focus on hospitality industry, the proposed model is applicable to corporations across other sectors.

Nowadays, the high environmental sensitivity and economic constraints, as well as future prospects for development, require a strong sustainable energy policy. Such policies should be based on the local resource valorization – which gains more emphasis in ultra-peripheral territories as the case of the Madeira and Canary Archipelagos. In fact, renewable energy sources become more competitive from the economic point of view – however, with high environmental and social benefits in both Archipelagos. Thus, the local policies of Porto Santo Island will be inspired on the neighbor archipelago (Canary Islands), more specifically in the El Hierro Island – which is one of the worldwide leaders in sustainability issues. Contextually, the work enables a view through the cooperation perspective, highlighting sustainability strategies in Porto Santo Island (Madeira, Portugal) and El Hierro Island (Canary, Spain). Therefore, it will address diverse forms of energy production through natural resources with influence on spatial planning.

This chapter seeks to provide a better understanding on the predictors of green human resource management which can result in improved environmental and financial performance across hospitality industry. The proposed model has been constructed from the perspective of external pressure (i.e., normative) and internal pressure (manager's environmental concerns) by using the Institutional Theory and Resource Based View Theory. The chapter examines the antecedents of sustainability in hospitality industry in terms of improved financial and environmental performance. It therefore expands the level of understanding on mechanisms which leads to corporation sustainability. While the chapter is written with a focus on hospitality industry, the proposed model is applicable to corporations across other sectors.

<i>Abstract</i>.—Washington State has used education reform best practices to redesign stewardship education. The directors of state natural resource agencies, education associations, businesses, and nonprofits who created the Pacific Education Institute (PEI) provide the leadership. PEI represents a systematic effort to work in the formal education sector using environmental education (EE) standards that align with subject area standards and provide a framework for integrated learning. PEI undertakes education research based on those EE standards to understand student achievement and its relationship to environment- based experiential education. PEI has refined the description of science inquiry to include three types of field investigation with rigorous protocols that will be included in the state’s science tests beginning in 2007. Finally, PEI has fostered a citizen science initiative with NatureMapping to connect the research undertaken by students through field investigation to questions asked by scientists. In partnership, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife expects citizen science to contribute to the statewide biodiversity index now being designed. Integral to delivering these opportunities to K– 12 is the university teacher preparation faculty and their work to prepare preservice teachers with these opportunities. The result is school districts now foster stewardship education, contributing to community sustainability.

Small and medium sized enterprises’ (SMEs) activities have contributed significantly to environmental degradation that causes a disastrous effect on us and our future generation. Considering this, sustainable entrepreneurship has been promoted as a resolution of ecological problems capable of addressing climate change issues, public health, and safety concerns, and has become critical for competing in international markets. SMEs activities increased pollution exclusively causing environmental degradation. In response, the world is focusing on ensuring that SMEs produce products through safe and environmentally friendly practices. Literature suggests that organizational support provide SMEs with the impetus to achieve competitive advantage regarding turnover, customer attraction and market share opportunities to achieve business performance. Nonetheless, the implementation of sustainable entrepreneurship among them is still low due to numerous challenges. This paper intends to investigate the influence of organizational support on sustainable entrepreneurship towards performance among SMEs. A case study involving 300 herbal-based SMEs were surveyed using structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation model. The results show that organizational support have a positive effect on sustainable entrepreneurship and performance among the SMEs, accounting for 52% and 47% variance respectively. This finding reveals that organizational support is significantly related to entrepreneurship performance, thus substantiates previous findings on the crucial roles of organizational support in enabling organizations to achieve sustainable entrepreneurship performance. This study contributes to triple bottom line literature based on incorporation of strategic choice theory, strategic sustainability orientation and resource-based view theory in entrepreneurship framework.