Stakeholders’ Perceptions

This article provides an analysis of cross-sectoral policy integration between two natural resource sectors: forest and water. Policy integration is defined as a vertical and horizontal process and we explore if perceptions of the effects of forest on water affect integration processes. We conducted a survey with forest and water stakeholders in three EU Member States – Germany, Spain and Sweden – with the aim to answer the following research questions: “How are forest and water perceptions distributed across sectors and stakeholders?” and “How do forest and water perceptions affect the process of cross-sectoral policy integration?”. Results show that with regard to the effects of forests on rainfall, there is more disagreement among stakeholders; however, in general, there is a rather positive view of the effects of forest on water. Positive perceptions are found related to increased chances of cross-sectoral collaboration and participation in joint research projects. This article concludes that the participants in our study are not naïve about forest-water interactions and are open and already engaged in cross-scale, cross-sector and multi-stakeholder interactions. This is despite the perception in the literature that administrations are not engaging in the integration of the forest and water sectors, which might be due to the conceptualization of policy integration only as an output while dismissing the relevance of it as a process.

Given the uprising interest in the environmental responsibility issues among small businesses, the purpose of this paper is to design to probe into the relationship between stakeholders’ influence and environmental responsibility of Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs), and its consequent outcomes in an emerging economy. A sample of 110 MSME owners participated in this study. Data were collected by means of questionnaire designed to measure the 12 constructs of focus. In order to test the hypotheses and examine the relationships proposed in the research framework, structural equation modelling was performed using SmartPLS. This study revealed that among the primary stakeholders, only employees and customers significantly influenced environmental responsibility practices of MSMEs. Besides, it was found that environmental responsibility results in financial improvements and better relations with employees and customers. This study is limited to MSMEs in Malaysia. Despite the relatively low response rate, which is common in MSME research, the geographic and sector distribution of samples provides a basis for generalizability of the results. Since many MSME owners/managers are sceptical about the benefits of environmental practices, the findings of this study provided empirical support from an emerging economy about the positive outcomes of environmental practices. By examining the key determinants that foster environmental practices in MSMEs, the current study provides important insights for policy makers to encourage MSMEs to initiate such responsible practices, which can lead to environmental preservation. Other than enriching a systems-based view of firms’ environmental behaviour, this study empirically tests a research framework on role of stakeholders in determining environmental responsibility of small firms and their outcomes on firms’ performance.

This study assessed the perception of stakeholders on the use of EPS for building construction in Nigeria towards identification of all major challenges relating to the problem. This is meant to promote the diversification of its use and acceptability across Nigeria and enhance sustainable development.

Question: recent studies cite poor risk management as the main evil that causes serious damage to a banking system of an economy as a whole. Discuss this phenomenon using recent corporate failures that have been experienced in Zimbabwe (100 marks).

INTRODUÇÃO
O desenvolvimento de estruturas moleculares e atômicas a partir das alterações possíveis pelas nanotecnologias têm revolucio-nado o universo da indústria, bens e serviços. Todos os setores vêm sendo aplacados pelas inovações nanotecnológicas, cujo contexto brasileiro, não é diferente. Entretanto, ainda que muito esteja sendo investido em transformação, processos e criação tecnológicas, todo fruto desse desenvolvimento se dá em nome da alavancagem eco-nômica. Isso importa salientar porque todo esse processo desenvol-vimentista e hábil a maximização econômica, depara-se com a praça pública do mercado, sendo toda a sociedade alcançada e afetada por tais resultados. Se, no âmbito interno da empresa as nanotecnologias são fatores extremamente positivos desde a economia com os meios de produção, e o resultado econômico satisfatório a ser partilhado entre os sócios; no conglomerado social das pessoas, há a preocupação com os riscos, diante da pouca ou quase nenhuma pesquisa científica que demonstre os parâmetros de nanotoxicologia em humanos e no meio ambiente. Então, como conciliar esses interesses se, aparentemente, são conflitantes? Pode o Direito promover o desenvolvimento e assegurar a sociedade?
Dados mostram que a cooperação dos stakeholders podem ser uma das chaves para a gestão eficiente dessas implicações, justa-mente, por causa da responsividade social. Já, o Direito, para não em-perrar o desenvolvimento e assegurar à sociedade a sustentabilidade, deve ser o intermediador dessa cooperação e o guardião dos com-promissos, já que tem estrutura e ferramental jurídico para entender os interesses e determinar que a gestão responsável seja obrigação de todos os envolvidos na exploração das nanotecnologias.

The study was conducted in Baguio City, 240 kilometers north of Manila,
Philippines. Geographically 5,052 feet above sea level, within a plateau and has a cool climate year-round. However, as in other emerging mega cities in the world, pollution from vehicles is becoming a risk factor among stakeholders; and pedestrianization has been found to be one of the mitigating measures.

The main thoroughfare is called Session Road. Previous studies of Session Road resulted to stakeholders’ concurrence that Baguio’s business district is ‘dysfunctional’ due to factors like air pollution and traffic congestions. Another study on the area’s air quality significantly found that the pollution concentrations present warrant public health concern. Efforts to pedestrianize met strong resistance from the business group and passive political will.

The Technology Acceptance Model was utilized to predict the end-users
acceptance of pedestrianization. Two alternative traffic schemes -
pedestrianization and traffic calming (scheme 1) and pedestrianization and traffic calming with universal shuttle (scheme 2) were presented to stakeholders categorized as vulnerable, students, vehicle operators, commercial and commuters. The desirable features of the two recommended schemes were specified and rated by the stakeholders according to what they perceive as adaptable, safe, and convenient.
The stakeholders’ responses resulted in a moderate acceptability index in terms of adaptability of the first scheme, high acceptability on the adaptability of the second scheme, high acceptability index on safety and convenience for both schemes. Among the major stakeholders, the random commuters’ level of acceptability of the second scheme was significantly higher than the student and the transport-private sector in terms of convenience. And lastly, the desirable features of the schemes were rated according to social sectors.

University tourism education is relatively a new phenomenon in Zimbabwe and its multi disciplinary nature poses challenges in the organization of the curriculum. Issues of imbalance, content/competencies developed, employability and the demands of various stakeholders provide a constant tension that has to be diffused through careful curriculum design and evaluation. A survey was conducted to examine the stakeholders' perceptions on structure, relevance, adequacy and balance of the courses, quality of lecture delivery and graduate employability. The results revealed that stakeholders had moderate perceptions on competencies developed by the degree programme. The study also identified some gaps in the curriculum that need to be addressed. These gaps could be filled by developing a graduate competency framework which can be used by all stakeholders. This framework could also help to reduce misconceptions about stakeholders' expectations and subsequently increase the chances of graduate employability.

The perceptions and attitude of local people towards a protected area have been identified in literature as a key factor for its success, since perceptions affect operations within the environment. The study identifies and analyses the perceptions of local stakeholders in the Slovenian Kamniško-Savinjske Alps Regional Park in designation in order to improve further stakeholder participation planning in the establishment and management of the park. Contrary to similar studies, the study is carried out on the case of the park in designation where the attitudes of local stakeholders strongly influence the process of establishment. The qualitative method of the grounded theory is used to inductively develop the theory from in-depth, semi-structured, and open-ended interviews with local stakeholders and park founders. The article discovers links between main entities influencing the perception and provides a more comprehensive descriptionof the reasons and the background of their formation. The perception of benefits, the inclusion in the park establishment and past experiences with institutions represented by founders have the most influence on the local stakeholders’ attitudes towards the park.

Sabemos que a atividade de uma organização, qualquer que ela seja, nos setores público, privado ou social, com ou sem fins lucrativos, decorre num espaço que está muito para além dos colaboradores que tem, das instalações que ocupa, dos clientes que capta, dos fornecedores que possui ou, até, daqueles que, não estando incluídos em nenhuma destas categorias, conhecem a organização e observam e avaliam o seu desempenho.

To fulfil international conservation commitments, governments have begun to recognise the need for more proactive marine planning policies, advocating sensitive engineering design that can deliver secondary benefits above and beyond the primary purpose of developments. In response, there is growing scientific interest in novel multi-functional coastal defence structures with built-in secondary ecological and/or socio-economic benefits. To ensure research efforts are invested effectively, it is first necessary to determine what secondary benefits can potentially be built-in to engineered coastal defence structures, and further, which of these benefits would be most desirable. It is unlikely that secondary benefits are perceived in the same way across different stakeholder groups. Further, their order of priority when evaluating different options is unlikely to be consistent, since each option will present a suite of compromises and trade-offs. The aim of this study was to investigate stakeholder attitudes towards multi-functional coastal defence developments across different sector groups. A preliminary questionnaire indicated unanimous support for implementing multi-functional structures in place of traditional single-purpose ones. This preliminary survey informed the design of a Delphi-like study, which revealed a more nuanced and caveated level of support from a panel of experts and practitioners. The study also elicited a degree of consensus that the most desirable secondary benefits that could be built-in to developments would be ecological ones – prioritised over social, economic and technical benefits. This paper synthesises these findings, discusses the perceived barriers that remain, and proposes a stepwise approach to effective implementation of multi-functional coastal defence developments.

Farm animal welfare (FAW) is a growing societal concern, reflected by over 30 years of research to inform policy and practice. Despite the wealth of evidence to improve FAW, implementation of good practice continues to be an issue. The role of the stakeholder, particularly farmers, is pivotal to FAW improvement. This semi-systematic review synthesizes the evidence published in the last 30 years, worldwide, to address two main questions “what do farmers think (farmer’s general view) about farm animal welfare?” and “what are the factors that influence their thinking?”. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify factors that influenced the implementation of FAW innovation. The main outcomes extracted from 96 peer-reviewed publications on a range of livestock species identified 11 internal factors including farmer knowledge, empathy, personality, values, and human-animal bond; 15 external factors including economic advantages, communication, time and labor influenced the perception of FAW. Farmers’ knowledge and cost implications of FAW were the most frequently reported factors. The review further highlights the need for promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and stakeholder participation. This study suggests strategies to improve FAW, including tools to support behavioral changes amongst farmers.

Over the past decades, the growth of the meeting and convention industry has generated substantial direct and indirect impacts on local and national economies (Lee and Back, 2005; Crouch and Brent Ritchie, 1997). Thailand's meeting and convention industry has developed dramatically over the last decade. Interest in the industry has grown, and competition has intensified in the marketplace due to the significant contributions to the local and national economies (Weber and Ladkin, 2005; Sangpikul and Kim, 2009)

Thailand’s tourism has began to pay attention to the promotion of sustainable ecotourism, which can contribute to meet the twin objectives of environmental conservation and socioeconomic development, since 2001. Moreover, recently approaches to “green initiatives” which aim to maintain the delicate balance between tourism promotion and environmental protection to ensure long-term sustainability were developed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in 2009 as a crucial tool to promote the tourism industry. Furthermore, for the MICE industry, the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), 2007) announced a “Green Meeting” initiative in 2007. This campaign aims to promote environmental responsibility within the country’s rapidly growing Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions, or MICE industry. In addition, within the recent year TCEB continues to encourage Thai MICE operators to do more, and to bolster their capability to comply with the ISO 50001 standard and will also contribute to the sustainability and competitiveness of the nation's MICE industry in the long run (Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), 2011).

This paper will critically analyse stakeholders’ perceptions of the environmental sustainability of MICE industry in Thailand. Comparing current best practice models of sustainable MICE development and exploring the perception of industry’s stakeholders will be utilize for the investigation. Thus, this study will contribute the current issues of MICE industry and possible solution for future development of sustainable MICE industry in Thailand.

Keywords: stakeholders’ perceptions, environmental sustainability, MICE industry

References

Crouch, G. I. & Brent Ritchie, J. R. (1997) Convention Site Selection Research. Journal of Convention & Exhibition Management. [Online] 1 (1), 49–69.

Lee, M. J. & Back, K.-J. (2005) A review of economic value drivers in convention and meeting management research. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. [Online] 17 (5), 409–420.

Sangpikul, A. & Kim, S. (Samuel) (2009) An Overview and Identification of Barriers Affecting the Meeting and Convention Industry in Thailand. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism. [Online] 10 (3), 185–210.

Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) (2007) MICE GOES GREEN [online]. Available from: http://www.tceb.or.th/about-us/e-community/news/721-mice-goes-green.html (Accessed 15 January 2012).

Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) (2011) Thailand: Destination of ‘CHOICES’! TCEB Debuts new Green Meetings Program at IMEX AMERICA 2011 [online]. Available from: http://www.tceb.or.th/about-us/e-community/news/1408-thailand-destination-of-choices-tceb-debuts-new-green-meetings-program-at-imex-america-2011.html (Accessed 15 January 2012).

Weber, K. & Ladkin, A. (2005) Trends Affecting the Convention Industry in the 21st Century. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism. [Online] 6 (4), 47–63.

In today's extremely competitive global tourism market environment, it is crucial to differentiate tourism destinations to encourage and inform potential visitors. In terms of Alexandria's competitive position, this chapter aims to investigate Alexandria's branding initiatives and reveal official internal stakeholders' (OIS's) perceptions. The study applies collage technique to explore stakeholder perceptions and develop 'Brand Alexandria' accordingly. The findings show that different OIS's perceptions reveal different identities in relation to 'Brand Alexandria'. The chapter presents the perception of OISs in Alexandria as posters which are integrated into a single composite poster.

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) and nature-based solutions are increasingly recognized as instruments to address urban sustainability challenges, yet rely on a good understanding of complex social-ecological system (SES) to function adequately. Adaptive co-management (ACM), engaging a broad variety of stakeholders in collaborative learning, is an effective strategy to improve the resilience of a SES. However, ACM studies have been criticized for neglecting the urban context, while also offering little clarity on process objectives and outcomes. To address these knowledge gaps, while also drawing attention to the important issue of socially inclusive UGI development, we present a guiding framework and approach to encourage the ACM of UGI featuring two main components. Firstly, a Learning Alliance (LA) serves as an instrument for collaborative learning and experimentation across different scales. To facilitate upscaling, we propose to establish a complementary Urban Learning Lab (ULL) to facilitate a regular exchange between the LA and legitimate peripheral networks and stakeholders in the city region. Secondly, a stepwise approach to SES analysis serves to engage a representative group of stakeholders in the LAs and ULLs, and support the processes of setting LA objectives and monitoring of adaptive capacity. We illustrate our approach to the ACM of UGI with a case study of LivadaLAB in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Applying the framework and approach, we demonstrate increased adaptive capacity of the SES around UGI as indicated by: 1) improved overall stakeholder salience, in particular for previously disempowered actor groups, 2) increased number and strength of connections between stakeholders, and 3) the consideration of a broader range of sustainable development objectives by stakeholders in their daily practice.

Before the pandemic, two topics were rising; the stakeholder capitalism-this substantial movement made by investors and CEOs on growth aligned to environmental and social sustainability, and the EU Green Deal-the European Commission's initiative to make Europe the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050. They will rise again soon. Companies leaders should take a decision. It could be influenced by risk projection, such as the loss of bargaining power in relations with investors, consumers and employees. And also by opportunities such as to attract financial and human capital in better conditions than the competition, to expand markets, to increase loyalty and goodwill among customers, consumers, employees and the supply chain.

Although some progress has been made, the heavy engineering sector in Nigeria today continues to be fractured in their structure and approach to construction. It is a sector that has already achieved changes in key aspects of its delivery, but still requires continuous transformation to achieve greater efficiency. Lack of flexibility to accommodate change in project delivery methods have complicated the extent to which contractors can manage and mitigate risks in infrastructure projects. From the reviewed literature, contemporary developments have suggested a holistic perception of risks which integrates threats and opportunities. Using a qualitative method, this paper examined contractor's perceptions of project risks and ascertained if their opinions are aligned with the holistic perspective of project risk that incorporates a link between threats and opportunities. The primary objectives of the paper was to: (i) examine perceptions of project risk among contractors of infrastructure projects in the Niger Delta (ii) to investigate the extent to which their views are aligned with contemporary developments in the heavy engineering sector (iii) to propose the way forward.

This thesis looks at the influences and dynamics of community positions towards nearby mining projects in Brazil and Chile from an affected communities perspective. This subject is important because even after many initiatives and guidance aimed at helping companies to obtain good community relations, also known as a social license to operate (SLO), conflict in many mining community contexts is still prevalent today. In considering this, the thesis draws from Stakeholder, Resource Dependence and Social Movement Theories to help explain community positions towards these mining projects.
The field research includes multiple stakeholder interviews from case studies of eight different mining affected communities in Brazil and Chile which are categorized into groups of higher or lower conflict. The main findings are that the more independent from mining a community is the greater the likelihood of conflict and the more independent type of communities perceived the mining projects as threats to their independence. The lower conflict communities were more economically dependent on their nearby mining projects. My findings also indicate that these more independent communities’ collective mobilization to resist such projects is nullified by influence strategies employed by mining companies via initiatives such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) that can serve as co-optation and lead to divisions within communities.
The findings of this thesis call into question the validity of CSR-related notions such as an SLO from an affected communities perspective. An SLO implies community power; however, the research from the community perspective indicates that community power is not a constant or unchallenged. When countered by mining companies and the State, community resistance is broken down and community positions change. The scenario of mining company community relations set in a globalized world is dynamic and ever changing due to the various influences directed to and from affected mining communities.
I propose a model which suggests that in situations of high interdependence between mining company and local community, stakeholder theory holds true.  In these cases the vast array of social responsibility-related practical guidance literature on gaining good community relations is valid. Where a community is more independent and collectively resists the mining project, the company will use countermobilziation, CSR, co-optation and obstruction strategies to obtain a resistance free environment in which to conduct mining activity.
The research contributes to stakeholder and resource dependence theories as well as to related practitioner literature on community relations and business and human rights by problematizing these theories and guidance. Specifically, the findings question the idea that CSR and best practice community relations lead to a win-win situation. In many cases implementing CSR exacerbates community conflict and divisions and is ultimately more irresponsible than responsible. The literature does not sufficiently consider the complexities of power imbalances between company/State and community in a globalized context and how this affects community relations and conflict from a community perspective. Further research should be conducted around the dynamics of influence strategies employed by State, company and community in the realm of development and human rights.

A new app, called M-Tool, has been developed by researchers at Heidelberg University and Tanzanian Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI) as part of the MultiTip project. M-Tool is an innovative app that allows users to capture people’s perceptions of complex systems (or mental models) with mobile devices, and can be tailored to map perceptions of any system or phenomenon. For example, one can draw the processes that cause climate change, influence the fluctuation of (fish) stock, or the functioning of an economy. Respondents create visual diagrams of a particular system by organizing relevant factors and linking them. This is the first mental model tool that can be used by all kinds of users, as it does not require the respondent to read or write. Furthermore, thanks to the standardised set-up of the tool, you can directly compare the perceptions of groups of respondents. The app can now be downloaded for free in app stores.

Purpose:Every school has problems that need to be addressed. With this, Department of Education empowered School-Based Management (SBM), anchored on RA 9155 in 2001 emphasizing the involvement of the stakeholders in the holistic development of a student is valued by school administration. As an integral part of the feedback mechanism among school stakeholders, the assessment of the parents on the existing school-managed programs will be of immense help in the progress of students.
Methodology: Mixed method was used whom 240 parents served as respondents of the study using stratified random sampling.
Findings: It was found out that parents valued health-related programs like National Drug Education Program (NDEP), and Deworming as the most important among the school activities, with 90.88% Mean Percentage Score (MPS) followed by the regular meetings between the internal and external stakeholders, with 90.45% MPS. Ranked third, was the values formation related programs like Model Student of the Month and Family Day, with 88.23% MPS. Overall , all the school-based managed programs were very important to parents with 87.43% MPS.
Limitations: This study was limited to school programs during SY 2018-2019 and the assessment of its importance from the parents' point of view. Value It served as channel to strengthen external stakeholders' involvement and engagement and is holistic research.

This paper is a report on the recent special session of papers presented at the Regional Studies Association (RSA) Annual Conference in Dublin, entitled ‘Beyond Smart & Data-Driven City-Regions: Rethinking Stakeholder-Helixes Strategies’. The session was a collaboration between the Urban Transformations ESRC programme at the University of Oxford and the Future Cities Catapult.

The population of older people is increasing worldwide, and this demographic change pose challenges for cities and communities around the world. The overall wellbeing of elderly population can be achieved not only by improving the healthcare facilities but also by proper planning of their housing requirements to support them to age in place as well. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a framework to enable interventions to improve the age-friendliness of a city. However, there is limited knowledge of identifying the determinants of age-friendly housing. This paper discusses the opinion of stakeholders on how age-friendly housing can be created for the older population in Adelaide, South Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the experts in the field of ageing and housing. The interviews were analysed using qualitative approaches resulting in preferable recommendations for age-friendly housing. The outcome of the interviews indicates that adaptability, access to services and housing options are the most significant factors followed by design, affordability and sense of community in the housing sector for the wellbeing of the older population. The rest of the factors are safety, sharing spaces, maintenance, privacy, increase in housing infrastructure and sense of stability and security of housing. Among them, sharing spaces, increase in housing infrastructure and sense of stability and security of housing have not been mentioned by WHO in their guidelines for age-friendly cities.

The farmers in the command areas play a vital role in water management in the command areas. The system of water distribution, cropping pattern and quantity of water allocated depends on the farmers living in the region. The opinion of all the stakeholders assumes a prime importance in deciding the policies at macro levels. Stakeholders in agriculture and water issues have different perceptions about productivity of water. Both primary and secondary data were used for the study. The secondary data on area coverage of different crops grown in both the project command areas was obtained from the Agriculture Offices of the project zones. Primary data was collected from 120 respondents from head and tail regions of Almatti Left Bank Canal (ALBC), Indi Branch Canal (IBC), Malaprabha Left Bank Canal (MLBC) and Ghataprabha Right Bank Canal of both Upper Krishna Project (UKP) and Malaprabha Ghataprabha Project (MGP) command areas. The perceptions of stakeholders was documented by collecting the perceptions from both farmers and officers/staff of the Command Area Development Authority (CADA) and Irrigation Departments (ID).The socio-economic characteristics were analyzed using the simple tabular analysis. The perceptions of the farmers and staff of different offices of Irrigation department and CADA are documented. They were analyzed using Garrette ranking method. It was observed that the farmers are of the opinion for formation of Water Users’ Association (WUAs) in the command areas should be encouraged and attention needs to be given to strengthen Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) to ensure efficient water management in command areas.
Key Words: Perceptions, Water Productivity, Command areas