Electricity as an Energy Vector: A Performance Comparison with Hydrogen and Biodiesel in Italy

This study presents a comparative analysis of electricity, hydrogen, and biodiesel as energy vectors, with a focus on powering an aluminum smelter in southern Italy. It evaluates these vectors in terms of efficiency, land requirements for carbon-neutral energy production, and capital expenditure, providing insights throughout the entire supply chain (upstream, midstream, and downstream) into their feasibility for industrial applications. The research reveals that biodiesel, despite being carbon neutral, is impractical due to extensive land requirements and lower efficiency if compared to other vectors. Hydrogen, downstream explored in two forms as thermal power generation and fuel cell technology, shows lower efficiency and higher capital expenditure compared to electricity. Additionally, green hydrogen production’s land requirements significantly exceed those of electricity-based systems. Electricity emerges as the most viable option, offering an overall higher efficiency, lower land requirements for its green production, and comparatively lower capital expenditure. The study’s findings highlight the importance of a holistic assessment of energy vectors, considering economic, environmental, and practical aspects along the entire energy supply chain, especially in industrial applications where the balance of these factors is crucial for long-term sustainability and feasibility. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable guidance for similar industrial applications, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach in the selection of energy vectors.

Bio-PCI a renewable reductant for iron production—where can it flourish?

Presently the iron and steel makers are compelled to incorporate rational initiatives to reduce its processing CO_2 total emissions.In the medium and long term,the injection of small particles of biochar through the tuyerees in blast furnaces,here called Bio-PCI,offers attractive features from the environmental and metallurgical point of view,as it is a renewable carbon neutral reductant and presents lesser impurities than coke.However,its utilization in iron plants is been hindered by the traditional large availability of relatively economical coal and coke.As the cost of the principal processing inputs increases(coal,coke and iron ore) the gap between fossil and renewable reductants decreases.In this sense,our contribution aims to complement the metallurgical inquiry of technical feasibility with a strategic identification of the areas with best prospects to benefits from the incorporation of Bio-PCI:where can it flourish?.Our analysis leads to indicate that emerging countries in specific,China,Brazil and India,are in a prime position to incorporate the Bio-PCI as they simultaneously comply with a growing iron industry based on blast furnaces,and possess an important potential for energy generation from forestry residues.

New Idea Generation and Individual Motivation： A Conceptual Framework

The adoption of specific idea management programs is becoming a strategic asset for organizations, as they are increasingly trying to adopt specific organizational solutions to detect, fertilize, evaluate, and promote new idea generation within and across their boundaries. The centrality of the ideas generation is linked to its vital characteristic of being the main source for new products, services, processes, and drivers of change. This paper copes with the controversial role of the general organizational setting and closely focuses on the rewards mechanisms that could further nurture creativity. By formulating a set of propositions, the paper submits that the understanding of the motivational drivers and the organizational settings is paramount to distill the links between idea generation and incentive structures. This paper aims also to critically analyze and assess the impact of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on idea generation both at an individual and team level, and develop a framework within which it explores the necessary change to be adopted by firms in managing the idea generation. What is new to the field is the recognition of the impact of the individual locus of control on creative performance. In this vein, the paper sees its ultimate aim in uncovering the dynamics of individual and collective motivation related to creativity, considered as the main source for innovation. The paper concludes that new ideas could be nurtured through the adoption of routine system aligned with the companies＇ human resource management policy.

The Impact of Outsourcing on Business Performance： An Empirical Analysis

Corporate decisions related to ＂make or buy＂ have significantly changed over the last 20 years, since the rush towards concentration on core business of the 1980s has progressively lost grasp. Although long-term alliances and mega deals are replacing the existing spot contracts, both academic literature and managerial practices still lack appropriate models for coping with such decisions. As a consequence, the traditional accounting approach, extensively based on emerging costs and cost savings, seems to be less and less effective in the governance of such phenomena. On the other hand, the managerial literature still suffers significant gaps in modeling the relations between outsourcing and business performance. The attention paid to the subject in past decades has not been matched by the rigor in assessing the actual impact on business performance. This paper aims to fill some of the existing gaps by presenting an original empirical study based on the analysis of the impact of outsourcing decisions on business performance.

管理会计师:实现SDGs的重要角色

由于财务专业知识和在组织中的定位,管理会计师们将在领导可持续发展目标中扮演重要角色。2015年9月,世界范围内的多个政府达成一致,共同努力实现17个可持续发展目标（Sustainable Development Goals,简称SDGs）。在联合国的推动下,这些SDGs确定了到2030年全球的首要事项和愿景,并且依靠商业组织向公众传递可持续和包容性发展的承诺。对企业来说,实现SDGs在未来几年里既是机遇又是挑战。

Rising Powers and the Reform of Global Economic Governance:The BRICS and the Normative Challenge Ahead

At a time when the liberal international economic order seems under threat,the transformation of global economic governance poses a strong normative challenge to existing international institutions.The recent establishment of new international financial institutions(IFIs)-the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank(AIIB)and the New Development Bank(NDB)-signified a steady process of transformation of the architecture of contemporary global governance.How rising powers understand,establish and conduct formal and informal rules within new international financial systems is of fundamental importance for the future of world economic order,although not necessarily signaling a decline for the Western-style economic governance and its normative principles.While global economic governance has profoundly changed in the last decade,the suggestion here is that rising powers'efforts to reshape the current global economic order have often been overestimated and only partially contextualized within the enormous achievements gained from economic opportunities driven by Western globalization.Focusing on the contestation of these different world views,the paper analyzes the approach of BRICS(Brazil,Russia,India,China and South Africa)New Development Bank countries to global economic governance within the newly established IFIs,questioning how the normative challenge represents either an opportunity or a threat to the current global order.

不同机构环境下的组织承诺:感知到的程序性约束如何挫败自我牺牲精神

公共服务动机会对公共部门雇员的一些个人工作成果产生积极影响,这已是有据可查的。然而,最近对于这种个人特质“阴暗面”的研究使一些学者认为,程序性约束等组织条件可能会影响一个人的动机,从而导致其他导向型的员工辞职。本研究通过将组织承诺的工作需求—资源模式扩展到不同机构环境中,探讨了公共服务动机的一个维度,即自我牺牲、程序性约束和组织承诺之间的关系。本研究采取混合方法,结合了定量(结构方程模型)和定性(焦点小组及深度访谈)数据,这些数据来自意大利的三个行业(卫生、地方公共行政和非营利组织)。研究表明,自我牺牲对程序性约束和组织承诺之间的负面关系具有积极的调节作用。这些研究结果还强调了自我牺牲的不良影响,这是组织必须处理的。

Multilateralism and the Realization of the Chinese Dream： A Possible Way to Nurture Mutual Trust

When China＇s new president Xi Jinping first introduced the Chinese dream, he said that Chinese dream means the great revival of the Chinese nation （中华民族伟大复兴） （Xinhua Net： http：//news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2013-05108/c_ 124669102.htm）. This great revival invites people to refer to the most prosperous time of Chinese history, when China had been the greatest nation in the world both economically and militarily. Mr. Wang Yi, the new minister of foreign affairs, has explained that the realization of Chinese dreams, albeit the great revival of the Chinese nation needs a peaceful and stable neighborhood （Wang Yi： Insist on Peaceful Development, Realise the Chinese Dream of Nation＇s Revival： http：// theory.people.com.cn/n/2014/0217/c40531-24378766.html）. Yet now the most prominent threat, as China＇s military and economic powers quickly rise, is the deficiency in trust toward China. This lack of mutual trust is especially important among East Asian countries （Ba and Shen in Jilin Univ J Soc Sci Edit 54（3）： 13-20, 2014, p. 14）, the most direct neighborhood of China. In the article, I will analyze the historical and political origins of mistrust toward China, and argue that multilateralism is a highly possible solution for the problem of trust deficiency. Thus, adopting multilateralism is the key for realizing Chinese dreams, because it generates trusts by regulating states＇ behavior through institutionalization of collaboration.