A Voluntary Agreement between Firms
Voluntary environmental performance is a tempting term. For a variety of reasons, some companies seem to be doing what they would have done in the past only under the threat of laws. As mentioned earlier, one of the reasons for voluntary action could be the fear of stricter regulation. The actions of companies can perhaps be considered an experiment. After many years of active opposition to many environmental demands with limited success, some companies seem to be wondering if there are entrepreneurial opportunities to be green. While some anecdotal evidence suggests that companies have increased their profits through improved environmental performance, other anecdotes suggest that these “win-win” opportunities are limited (Lyon and Maxwell (1999)). Overall, the evidence at this stage does not support the idea that polluters will systematically reduce their wastewater without government regulations and programs to encourage this behavior. The basic idea behind the MES is that looking at abnormal changes in stock prices in response to an alliance announcement provides a good indication of traders` prospects in terms of impacting companies` future cash flows. Initially, abnormal returns around the date of announcement of the alliance activity are estimated. Second, these abnormal stock market returns are attributed to explanatory variables.
Other articles such as Hamilton (1995), Konar and Cohen (1997) and Khanna, Quimio and Bojilova (1998) examine the impact of disclosure of corporate emissions. The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in the United States provides information on emissions from a large list of toxic substances by each source on a given size. These documents all examine the impact of publishing this information on companies` stock market performance. Hamilton found that publishing sorting information reduced the market value of companies with high levels of pollution. Konar and Cohen found that companies that experienced a sharp decline in the stock market after the publication of the TRI data subsequently reduced their emissions more than other companies. Khanna, Quimio and Bojilova (1998) found that in response to stock market losses due to tri-information, companies reduced their on-site emissions by transferring waste to other facilities (off-site transfers). The net effect was a slight reduction in overall waste, although off-site shipments were likely destined for recycling or safer treatment. Perhaps the most important influences on pathways and articulation in higher education are the vast economic, technological and social changes. Increasing national wealth allows governments to expand higher education and build facilities in smaller population centers, greatly expanding access.
Increasing personal and family wealth gives people and their children the resources and, above all, the desire to pursue higher education. Improvements and reduced transportation and communication costs make it much more convenient for students to study at institutions far from home. These are some of the reasons for the strong expansion of transnational higher education over the past two decades, which has led to the partnership agreements already mentioned, as well as the many paths and articulation agreements being developed between institutions in different countries. Distance and resource-based education techniques and, more recently, the widespread use of information and communication technologies have fostered a variety of new pathways and articulation agreements. This suggests that the future development of pathways and articulation in higher education is likely to be influenced as much by these general economic, technological and social developments as by measures specifically targeting pathways and articulation in higher education. The research has evolved to find explanatory variables at the industry, company, and alliance level to better understand why some companies benefit more than others from alliance announcements. At the industry level, most studies have focused on non-financial corporations, with research on financial services companies having only recently emerged (see, for example, Amici et al., 2013 for Banking). At the enterprise level, for example, the size of enterprises has been the subject of extensive studies, suggesting that small enterprises may benefit more from alliance activities than large players (p..
B e.g. McConnell & Nantell, 1985; Das, Sen and Sengupta, 1998). At the alliance level, it has been found that the type of alliance plays a role, with technology alliances generating higher abnormal returns than marketing alliances, for example (Das, Sen & Sengupta, 1998). Lyon and Maxwell (1999) offer several reasons for companies to voluntarily pursue environmental protection that goes beyond their requirements. First, companies may be able to reduce their costs by improving their environmental performance. Porter and van der Linde (1995) argue that pollution is a signal that companies are inefficient because it indicates that polluters are not getting the best out of their production practices. Palmer, Oates and Portney (1995) challenge this theory, arguing that companies are indeed very smart about allocating their resources. Event study methodology (MES) plays an important role in analyzing and understanding the impact that decisions to work with other companies (both through (contractual) alliances and joint ventures) have on the value of the companies involved. According to Gulati (1998:293), strategic collaborations (alliances) include all “voluntary agreements between companies that involve the exchange, sharing or joint development of products, technologies or services. They can occur as a result of a variety of patterns and goals, take a variety of shapes, and occur across vertical and horizontal boundaries. “Unlike mergers and acquisitions, the organizations involved retain their respective independence and identity. The correction of externalities, as discussed so far in this chapter, has focused on government intervention in private markets through regulatory approaches such as taxes, permits, and standards.
However, if government operates with objectives other than maximizing social welfare (Peltzman (1976)), then there is no guarantee that state intervention will achieve social optimum. Moreover, the second-choice arguments of Lipsey and Lancaster (1956-1957) and the literature on the “double dividend” suggest that government intervention could reduce social welfare, even if the government`s goal is to improve well-being. It is therefore useful to consider other possible ways of achieving environmental protection. Two options are voluntary environmental compliance programs and recourse to the courts. 1.A(n) ____ is a voluntary cooperation agreement between undertakings. Kintzer (1973) proposes a useful typology of articulation agreements and transfer policies: formal agreements or state legal regulations that require the adoption of certain measures, state policies that promote articulation and transfer, and voluntary agreements between individual institutions or systems. The United States has taken various measures to encourage the articulation and transfer of institutions from 2 to 4 years of age, most of which are reprimanded or voluntary rather than mandatory, although often expressed in legislation. The State Education Commission (2001) noted that of the 50 United States, 30 had laws to support transfer, 40 had nationwide cooperation agreements, 33 States regularly collected and reported data on transfers, 18 States offered incentives and rewards for the transfer of students or sending or receiving institutions, and 26 States maintained a national guide on transfer.
While there is evidence that government policies can influence the effectiveness of student transfer (Wellman, 2002:45), others (Anderson et al., 2006) have questioned the effectiveness of state articulation agreements. Other jurisdictions adopt the range of measures to promote articulation described in kintzer`s typology, with the extent of government prescription, encouragement or calmness of articulation generally related to the extent of their involvement in other aspects of higher education. Most event-based analyses of strategic alliance decisions in the strategic literature indicate positive abnormal performance for participating firms after the announcement (e.B. Das et al., 1998; Anand and Khanna, 2002; Chan et al., 1997; Kale et al., 2002; Oxley et al., 2009). Second, businesses could benefit from the favourable public image that “greener” offers. In some cases, companies may find a marketing advantage: if consumers are willing to pay a premium for products made in a more environmentally friendly way, there will likely be a profitable niche for greener businesses. Two final examples illustrate the continued economic relevance of these “voluntary” policies. First, let`s look at the price undertaking that the EU has negotiated with China regarding the import of solar panels. At the time, this was an important trade policy event from the Chinese perspective, as solar panels accounted for 7% of china`s total exports to the EU in 2012.bk Secondly, although VER are not currently common, they were not used in a large industry until 2008. After the MFA expired in 2005, the US and the EU quickly negotiated a series of VER for Chinese textile and apparel exports to their markets for the period 2005-08.bl Fourth, and ultimately, companies could play a strategic game with their competitors and use non-compliance as a strategic tool.
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