Papers by Peter S. Hofman
Business & Society, 2017
This article introduces the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the seemingly oxy... more This article introduces the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the seemingly oxymoronic context of Chinese "authoritarian capitalism." Following an introduction to the emergence of authoritarian capitalism, the article considers the emergence of CSR in China using Matten and Moon's framework of explaining CSR development in terms both of a business system's historic institutions and of the impacts of new institutionalism on corporations arising from societal pressures in their global and national environments. We find two forms of CSR in China, reflecting the "multiplexity" of its business system: one in the mainly family-owned small and medium-sized enterprise sector reflecting concern with local reputation, and another in the corporate, mainly state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector, reflecting global and national societal expectations. We investigate the dynamics of CSR in China through the interplay of the global and national societal pressures and mediating and even leading roles played by the State and the Party.
Business Strategy and the Environment, 2020
This study explores the impact of supply chain collaboration on eco-innovations in the context of... more This study explores the impact of supply chain collaboration on eco-innovations in the context of 220 Chinese manufacturing supplier firms involved in global supply chain networks. It investigates how supplier and customer collaborations help firms to enhance product eco-innovations, and/or process eco-innovations, and how the institutional context (i.e., regulatory, market, and community pressures) influences
Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 2018
Drawing on social capital and agency theories and using a multi-study research design, this study... more Drawing on social capital and agency theories and using a multi-study research design, this study examined how perceived risk and return interacts with familism to influence individuals' investment strategies in new venture financing, both capital seeking and capital providing behavior. We found that individuals high in familism are more likely to seek capital from and provide capital to family members than non-family members for new ventures. However, such relationships are more complex than prior research suggests because when individuals' risk and return
Facilitating sustainable innovation through collaboration, 2010
This chapter analyses the emergence of sustainable innovations in a selected number of firms and ... more This chapter analyses the emergence of sustainable innovations in a selected number of firms and addresses key explanatory factors that contribute to emergence and diffusion of the innovations. The focus is particularly on regional support structures that facilitated the innovation processes, and on gaps between the needs identified within firms' innovation processes and functions provided by support structures. Ten sustainable innovation processes are analysed to gain insight in the relationship between the nature of the innovation process, the type of needs for firms, and the type of functions provided in regional innovation systems. It is concluded that especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) demand articulation remains a major barrier as users are often only involved when the innovation is ready to enter the market, while regional support functions in this respect are deficient. Moreover, SMEs have major difficulty interpreting and anticipating sustainability policies and regulations at local and national levels, leading to innovations that face major regulatory barriers or are unable to cope with policy changes.
This paper analyses developments of the past three decades in the Dutch electricity system in the... more This paper analyses developments of the past three decades in the Dutch electricity system in the perspective of co-evolution of technological and societal development. The electricity system based on fossil-based, large-scale, technology and a relatively closed social network is changing towards a much more diverse system in terms of actors, sources and technologies. The paper explains how developments in the institutional set-up, technological base, and societal preferences and problems, underlie this process of change and provide opportunities for modulation of electricity generation and use in a climate friendly direction. The paper focuses on developments in governance which have had considerable implications for the electricity regime. The mode of governance based on autonomy and a natural monopoly has long been a good match the dominant design of the electricity regime: the central station electricity system. The change of mode of governance towards liberalisation creates pre...
Business Strategy and …, 1999
Page 1. Business Strategy and the Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 8, 255–266 (1999) PARTNERSHIPS: A ... more Page 1. Business Strategy and the Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 8, 255–266 (1999) PARTNERSHIPS: A PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY Cathy L. Hartman1, Peter S. Hofman2* and Edwin R. Stafford1 1Utah State University, USA 2University of Twente, The Netherlands ...
Sinds het begin van de jaren negentig wordt projectsgewijs getracht afvalpreventie binnen bedrijv... more Sinds het begin van de jaren negentig wordt projectsgewijs getracht afvalpreventie binnen bedrijven te introduceren. In dit artikel worden de resultaten die deze projecten teweeg brengen binnen bedrijven beschreven en geanalyseerd vanuit een tweetal invalshoeken. In eerste instantie worden twee gangbare methodieken (PRISMA en quickscan) vergeleken op effectiviteit (in termen van bereikte resultaten op bedrijfsniveau) en efficientie. Daarnaast wordt bekeken in hoeverre de projecten binnen de deelnemende bedrijven een leerproces op gang brengen dat uiteindelijk moet uitmonden in een meer op duurzaamheid gerichte bedrijfsstrategie. De voornaamste conclusie is dat afvalpreventieprojecten op korte termijn bevredigende resultaten opleveren. Wel zijn er twijfels over het milieurendement van de quickscan-methode. De bijdrage van de onderzochte preventiemethodieken aan duurzaamheid is vooralsnog geringer. Voor veel bedrijven is afvalpreventie slechts een eenmalige ervaring. Er treden beperkt...
This report is published as part of the research project CondEcol-Exploring the Conditions for Ad... more This report is published as part of the research project CondEcol-Exploring the Conditions for Adapting Existing Techno-Industrial Processes to Ecological Premises. The aim of the CondEcol project is to develop strategic management and governance perspectives for realizing product and process innovation with a high potential for improved eco-efficiency. The CondEcol project is structured as a multidisciplinary study of the conditions for moving existing production and consumption patterns in the direction of sustainable development. Changes are to be achieved through knowledge-sharing and partnership with industry; goals that directly reflect the focus of the programme providing extra funding for the project-RAMBU ("Conditions, Governance and Policy Instruments for a Sustainable Development") within the Research Council of Norway. Working closely with two industrial partners, Norsk Hydro and Renewable Energy Corporation (REC), the project explores three high-profile cases of technology and product development as a basis for identifying factors that may hinder or promote innovation and diffusion of new technologies with high eco-efficiency. An important challenge in changing production and consumption patterns is to look for solutions that reduce the environmental strain per consumed unit (eco-efficiency), and to decouple economic growth from environmental impacts. Public authorities and private enterprises have placed these ideas on the agenda, and pragmatic discourse in academia is already underway. However, there is still limited understanding of how and to what extent eco-efficiency gains at the level of specific products or production processes can be converted into eco-effective gains for society at large. By joining a network approach with the conceptual tools of industrial ecology, economics, strategic management, and integrated governance-and by anchoring the approach in specific case studies of past and current innovation journeys-the CondEcol project aims to develop a new and comprehensive framework for identifying and communicating effective instruments for promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns. The fact that the cases in question involve major attempts by industrial actors to introduce more eco-efficient technologies, and that the cases reflect the actors own experience of the obstacles encountered, makes the CondEcol-project different. Insights from the social sciences regarding sustainable development have only recently come to bear on strategic decisionmaking in business, so the output of the project should have relevance for promoting more sustainable processes internally in firms as well as in the market and society as a whole. CondEcol is an integral part of ProSus' ongoing research and dissemination activities. It is also directly tied into the SUSLINK-project, an integrated, multi-level effort focusing on European, national, local and household aspects of sustainable production and consumption in the energy and transport sectors.
For decades economic growth has been the foremost priority on the political agenda in China, but ... more For decades economic growth has been the foremost priority on the political agenda in China, but in a recent declaration China’s leaders have pronounced the building of a harmonious society as the official long-term goal in China. CSR is perceived as the private sector’s contribution to this goal (Wong, 2009). Key concerns are how to sustain this economic growth, and understanding the contribution of CSR to greater sustainability in China’s international value chains and to a ‘harmonious society’ inside China.
KNAW Narcis. Back to search results. Publication Greening of Industry Network Special Conference ... more KNAW Narcis. Back to search results. Publication Greening of Industry Network Special Conference Issue (1999). Pagina-navigatie: Main. Title, Greening of Industry Network Special Conference Issue. Published in, Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 8, p.255-312. ...
A key element of climate change mitigation and adaptation is the transfer of more effective and e... more A key element of climate change mitigation and adaptation is the transfer of more effective and efficient low-carbon technologies between developed and developing countries. Although several policy mechanisms for technology transfer are in place most observers agree that these have not been very effective in accelerating the rate of diffusion of energy efficient and renewable based technologies. There is a need for market-oriented approaches in order to diffuse efficient technologies more rapidly and to reduce high transaction costs which is a major factor explaining low effectiveness of existing mechanisms. At the 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm it was recognized that an “expanded approach to collaboratively accelerate the widespread adoption of clean energy and climate friendly technology” is needed. while in recent climate change negotiations such as the Bali Action Plan the need for scaling up technology transfer also features prominently. The problem is how to gear global market...
Both energy companies and consumers have embraced green electricity as a concept in which electri... more Both energy companies and consumers have embraced green electricity as a concept in which electricity produced by renewable energy sources is separately marketed and priced from conventionally generated electricity based on fossil or nuclear sources. After its introduction in 1995 by an energy distributor at the end of 2003 around 35 % (2.4 million) of Dutch households were buying green electricity, and more than twenty providers of varieties of the product had emerged. From the perspective of realising a sustainable electricity system this seems very promising as inherent to ‘green’ electricity is its renewable source base. From the perspective of realising systems change the new practice involves different competencies, routines and interaction patterns and signifies the creation of a path diverging from the fossil based trajectory of the electricity sector. To increase our understanding of systems change this paper provides a more detailed assessment why the concept emerged and h...
Milieubeleid en Technologische Ontwikkeling in de Nederlandse EconomieDit boek analyseert recente... more Milieubeleid en Technologische Ontwikkeling in de Nederlandse EconomieDit boek analyseert recente inzichten op het snijvlak van technologische ontwikkeling en milieu. In het bijzonder staat de vraag centraal hoe een voortgaande economische groei kan samengaan met een vermindering van het milieubederf. Voor Nederland in het bijzonder is dit een lastige vraag aangezien een belangrijk deel van onze bedrijvigheid zich afspeelt in energie-intensieve sectoren die ook nog eens aan een sterke internationale concurrentie zijn blootgesteld.De auteurs, afkomstig van tal van Nederlandse universiteiten, richten zich in elk van de in dit boek opgenomen bijdragen op dit actuele, voor Nederland van groot belang zijnde vraagstuk. Aan de orde komen recente inzichten in de theorie omtrent innovatie en adoptie van nieuwe technologie, het concept van transitiemanagement en het belang van onzekerheid voor de beslissing om al of niet te investeren in milieuvriendelijke technieken. Verder wordt veel aandac...
Based on theoretical insight from evolutionary economics and technology studies this paper presen... more Based on theoretical insight from evolutionary economics and technology studies this paper presents a conceptual framework to analyse processes of systems change and aims to refine the framework through an empirical analysis of developments in a specific system of production and consumption. The focus is on the electricity system where the dominance of incremental improvement along an established design and fossil-based technological paths has made it difficult for alternatives to gain significant ground. Nevertheless, there also cases where new practices emerge, become embedded within the system, and even have the potential to significantly alter the existing system. Empirically, the paper focuses on explaining the emergence of deviations of established paths and their relative success, as understanding these processes is a key to understanding as to how transitions may occur. The examples highlighted in this paper are the fast rise of combined heat and power generation and the eme...
Annals of Operations Research
The paper investigates national/regional power generation expansion planning for medium/long-term... more The paper investigates national/regional power generation expansion planning for medium/long-term analysis in the presence of electricity demand uncertainty. A two-stage stochastic programming is designed to determine the optimal mix of energy supply sources with the aim to minimise the expected total cost of electricity generation considering the total carbon dioxide emissions produced by the power plants. Compared to models available in the extant literature, the proposed stochastic generation expansion model is constructed based on sets of feasible slots (schedules) of existing and potential power plants. To reduce the total emissions produced, two approaches are applied where the first one is performed by introducing emission costs to penalise the total emissions produced. The second approach transforms the stochastic model into a multi-objective problem using the $$\epsilon $$ ϵ -constraint method for producing the Pareto optimal solutions. As the proposed stochastic energy problem is challenging to solve, a technique that decomposes the problem into a set of smaller problems is designed to obtain good solutions within an acceptable computational time. The practical use of the proposed model has been assessed through application to the regional power system in Indonesia. The computational experiments show that the proposed methodology runs well and the results of the model may also be used to provide directions/guidance for Indonesian government on which power plants/technologies are most feasible to be built in the future.
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Papers by Peter S. Hofman