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Recent decades have witnessed increasing interest in the concept of the circular economy within both the business world and political circles. The circular economy spans the entire life cycle of products from product design through production, marketing, and consumption, to waste management, recycling, and re-use, and enthusiasm for putting the concept into practice has been identified across different sectors of the economy. This exploratory case study reviews how some of the leading companies in the paper and retail industries, have publicly addressed the circular economy. The case study outlines the nature of the circular economy, provides a cameo literature review of published work on the circular economy, describes the approach adopted for the case study, reports the findings of the review of how the leading companies in the paper and retail industries have addressed the circular economy, and discusses some wider issues. Keywords: circular economy, case study, paper industry, retail industry, greenwash, economic growth

Green Public Procurement is currently a voluntary instrument to promote Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy. Surveys in this field help to understand how individual States, Public Authorities and Organizations, are approaching this voluntary instrument and thus how far they support Eco-Innovations and Sustainable Economy. Our survey focuses on mapping of units of local self-governments in the Slovak Republic that carried out Green Public Procurement in the category of paper products through the Electronic Contracting System (ECS) in 2017. We consider local self-government units to be major consumers of paper products, especially because of their extensive administration, what makes them a target group to promote the use of Green Public Procurement in a given category in practice. The total number of contracts awarded through the ECS in 2017 was 471. As the results show, the share of Green Public Procurements in the total number of Public Procurements in the Slovak Republic in 2017 was not satisfactory. In order to improve the situation, it is necessary to further deepen the targeted dissemination of examples of good practice in Green Public Procurement.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the company's financial performance in the pulp and paper industry which was measured using the concept of Economic Value Added (EVA) and Market Value Added (MVA) during the period 2017 and 2018. Design/methodology/approach: Research data is obtained through related websites and literature review. Findings: The results of the measurement of EVA and MVA for the period 2017 and 2018 show only PT.Alkindo Naratama, Tbk. which adds to the economic value of the company and market value added (> 0). Research limitations/implications: The population in this study consisted of all pulp and paper companies that had go public and be listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), which is as many as nine companies, then do the purposive sampling selection which obtained a sample of four companies. Practical implications: While three companies, namely PT. Kedawung Setia Industrial, Tbk. PT.Suparma, Tbk. and PT. Kertas Basuki Rachmat, Tbk. experience instability in EVA and MVA. Originality/value

International audience; An intertwined supply network (ISN) is an entirety of interconnected supply chains (SC) which, in their integrity secure the provision of society and markets with goods and services. The ISNs are open systems with structural dynamics since the firms may exhibit multiple behaviors by changing the buyer-supplier roles in interconnected or even competing SCs. From the positions of resilience, the ISNs as a whole provide services to society (e.g., food service, mobility service or communication service) which are required to ensure a long-term survival. The analysis of survivability at the level of ISN requires a consideration at a large scale as resilience of individual SCs. The recent example of coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak clearly shows the necessity of this new perspective. Our study introduces a new angle in SC resilience research when a resistance to extraordinary disruptions needs to be considered at the scale of viability. We elaborate on the integrity of the ISN and viability. The contribution of our position study lies in a conceptualization of a novel decision-making environment of ISN viability. We illustrate the viability formation through a dynamic game-theoretic modelling of a biological system that resembles the ISN. We discuss some future research areas.

The Guidelines on Building a Market-Oriented Green Technology Innovation System, which was released by China in 2019, has become a powerful signal to guide the development of green technology innovation (GTI). In the current digital strategy of China, the public media has become a key factor for promoting the transparency of enterprise environmental information. This paper measures the GTI efficiency of the listed paper enterprises in China as well as incorporating media attention into the research framework to explore the influencing factors of GTI of the listed paper enterprises in China during the digital economy era. The results showed that a positive media report had a positive impact on GTI and has become a new driving factor in promoting sustainable production in the digital era. Government support and openness also have a positive impact on GTI. However, negative media reports, environmental regulations, and technological innovation abilities have an inhibitory effect on the GTI efficiency of paper making enterprises.

In the modern conditions, business requires constant rationalization of all activities and processes that occur in the logistics system. One of the preconditions for ensuring the competitiveness in the market is to manage the own performance. This paper presents research that relates to the project of centralization of the warehouse in the company of paper production. Currently, any production facility has its own warehouse that is, through executed decomposition, proved like a poor solution. Any project requires certain investment funds, which are in this case over half million EUR, because it is a large and complex logistics company that employs about one thousand workers. The focus of this paper is an economic analysis of the project of centralization of warehouse. The new centralized system gives better results in the comparison with the current system of decentralization. Considering the savings, which are realized by switching to a centralized warehouse system, and required investment funds, repayment period of the same is slightly less than five years, what is relatively a short period.

One of the important keys for businesses today to be able to compete is to strengthen their supply chain management system.The impact of a pandemic is felt by all types of businesses, the most important unit of business that also feels the impact of the pandemic is how businesses maintain and even improve the performance of their supply chain management and one of the businesses or industries that is sufficiently affected by the pandemic for its supply chain resilience ispulp and paperindustry. The purpose of this study is to improve the performance of the supply chain, especially in the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia during the pandemic. This study uses two independent variables, namely inventory policies and information sharing and one dependent variable, namely supply chain performance. Data collection in the form of a survey using questionnaire media was carried out on 85 practitioners who work in supply chain units such as production, marketing and logistics. Data collection was carried out from July to September 2020. The results of this study are the conclusion that there is a positive and significant effect of inventory policies and information sharing on supply chain performance. The estimated coefficient of inventory policy on supply chain performance is 0.61, while the estimated coefficient of information sharing on supply chain performance is 0.24. The simultaneously effect of the two independent variables on the dependent is 0.72.

We use the data leak of the Panama Papers on April 3, 2016 to study whether and how the use of secret offshore vehicles affects firm value around the world. The data provide insights into the operations of more than 214,000 shell companies incorporated in tax havens by Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. Using event study techniques, we find that the data leak erases US$135 billion in market capitalization among 397 public firms with direct exposure to the revelations of the Panama Papers, reflecting 0.7 percent of their market value. Tax aggressive firms and firms with exposure to perceptively corrupt countries are more adversely affected. This is consistent with the leak (i) reducing firms’ ability to avoid taxes and finance corruption, or (ii) increasing regulatory fines for past tax evasion and violations of anti-corruption regulations. Taken together, secret offshore vehicles are used for value-enhancing but potentially illegal activities that go beyond tax avoidance. Offshore intermediaries facilitate such activities.

In the past decade, the Chinese paper industry, which is highly polluting and energy intensive, has shown overall increases in production, sales, income, and profit, although the growth rate has declined. Overall, China’s paper industry exhibits small-scale and scattered distribution, characterized by continuous overcapacity and outdated technical knowledge. This has inevitably resulted in a variety of serious environmental problems during its development. Owing to the environmental problems resulting from the development of the paper industry, various environmental regulatory policies and measures have been adopted in China, mainly command-and-control, market-based, and voluntary policies and measures. This study identifies and analyzes particular issues inherent to China’s environmental regulatory policies and measures regarding the paper industry and proposed policy suggestions for improving the environmental regulation of China’s paper industry.

This article shows how companies can circumvent competition legislation by developing new informal ways of cooperation. We focus on the case of the Nordic pulp and paper industry which was particul...

This study draws the themes on environmental factors from two prominent authors in the business model innovation field, Allan Afuah and Alexander Osterwalder, with partner Yves Pigneur. This study reveals that both models have the same concept, even though the arrangement of the process is vice versa. This paper aims to reveal the environmental factors that contribute to a business model innovation. Evidence has shown that the entrepreneur and organization lead to creating the environmental factors in achieving a complete ecosystem in business model innovation. A lack of models and theories in business model innovation studies has led to this study to develop a model based on the entrepreneurship field. Therefore, this study reveals the environmental factors that contribute to the emerging business model innovation. The findings from this study results in a combination of these factors which are categorized based on the current situation. This study is expected to give understanding and knowledge to academicians and will be helpful to practitioners to create and apply a real business model innovation in various industries.

The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of the implementation of the ISO 38200: 2018 management system on the competitiveness of companies for the paper industry. This research was carried out in several companies that use wood as raw material for production in Kalimantan Indonesia with a total of 263 company respondents who have implemented a management system ISO 38200: 2018. The research background is due to lack of research on the benefits of ISO 38200:2018 in wood companies in Borneo Indonesia. The data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires on september until october 2019 and analyzing data processing use Structural Equation Model (SEM) and software Linear Structural Model (LISREL) version 8.70. The results show that the implementation of ISO 38200:2018 has significantly influenced business competitiveness such as increase customer satisfaction index, increase sales, increase productivity and safety and employee satisfaction.

Canadian pulp and paper companies have been experiencing hard times during the last decade. The rising Canadian dollar, low-cost competition and the decline in number of conventional markets have led to several restructuring projects and shutdowns among pulp and paper mills. Setting up a transformation strategy is considered vital for those companies to overcome the crisis and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Several transformation pathways could be undertaken, ranging from process modernisation to product portfolio and market diversification. The increasingly volatile business environment makes strategic decisions a tough task. Our objective is then to help decision makers, within the pulp and paper industry, identify profitable transformation strategies that would resist the major driving forces affecting the companies’ competitiveness. A scenario-based modelling approach is presented to evaluate a set of transformation strategies under different trend-based future scenarios and to identify the most robust strategic options, allowing a given pulp and paper company to meet the future challenges. A mathematical model is developed to evaluate the profitability of each transformation strategy under different plausible future scenarios. Investing in high-value bioproducts such as Bioethanol is suggested as a viable transformation pathway. Opting for innovative pulp and paper products such moulded fibre packaging would be a promising strategy to consider within a multi-product diversification pathway. Mixed strategies are also evaluated and it is found that investing in bioethanol while modernising the P&P assets would be the most profitable and the less risky strategy, but with the highest investment cost among all strategies.

Electronic paper (e-paper) is a major sector of Taiwan’s Optoelectronic industry. It has paid much attention on the development of flexible displays. Even though the market is booming, the future is still unclear for business development. No research has yet forecasted the future market size of the e-paper industry. In addition, proposing an appropriate forecasting model to understand the trend of this industry plays a crucial role for market players and government’s authorities in formulating correct strategies. Therefore, in this paper, the future market size of Taiwan’s e-paper industry is predicted by an effective combined grey model. Two combinations of DGM(2,1) and Verhulst model with Fourier series and Markov chain, namely FM-Verhulst and FMDGM(2,1), were presented. Based on the annual data of Taiwan’s e-paper industry, the results show that the forecasting performances of two FM-Verhulst and FMDGM(2,1) models are highly accurate compared with other grey models. Precision is 96.36% and 97.77%, respectively. However, for long-term prediction, the FMDGM(2,1) model obtains the best performance in all proposed grey models. With obtained forecasting results in Taiwan’s e-paper industry by the FMDGM(2,1) model, it can be pointed out that the future market size of Taiwan’s e-paper would slowly increase in the next few years.

Studies are largely optimistic about the ability of standardized procedures to constrain decision-makers’ biases and produce more equitable results across fields. However, work that embraces standardization as an equalizing force stands in contrast to research on standardization and street-level bureaucrats, which asserts that standardized procedures are not self-actuating and cannot be understood apart from the environments in which they are used. I examine how frontline workers vary in their approach to an actuarial-based tool intended to standardize judgments. In a highly controlled decision-making environment, child welfare workers whose racial and sex characteristics afford them higher status report subverting the tool; conversely, workers in the same position whose ascriptive characteristics yield them lower status in terms of race and sex describe following the rules. In an environment where the same tool is adopted only ceremonially, all workers experience decision-making as unconstrained, regardless of their ascriptive characteristics. This work fills gaps in knowledge about how social status and organizational context intersect to affect rule abidance. Examining these dynamic relationships advances understanding of how organizations reproduce inequality and the limits and potential for standardization to transform social hierarchies.

As one of the typical high‐polluting and high‐energy‐consuming industries in China, the paper industry's environmental behavior has become the focus of a range of stakeholders, policy makers, and the whole society because the industry's business activities are a main source of environmental pollution and contribute to massive energy consumption. This study used a qualitative approach to examine the relative importance of external and internal pressures (EP and IP) in driving the environmental behavior of paper enterprises in China. Based on grounded theory, this study aimed to examine the EP and IP on the environmental behavior of paper enterprises to create a comprehensive theoretical model based on grounded theory code analysis. It was found that government pressure, economic pressure, social pressure, and IP have direct and significant positive effects on the corporate environmental behavior (CEB) of paper enterprises in China. Furthermore, government, economic, and social pressures have indirect and significant positive effects on CEB through other pressures. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of these four pressures and provides policy implications.

This study sought to gauge to what extent companies in the production chain focus on the relationship between contextual factors and the definition of eco-innovation strategies. The methodology is based on a quantitative approach using a survey in 117 companies. The results show that, in general, the companies in the sample the correlation with proactive innovation strategies was especially strengthened for those at the beginning of the production chain, with an increase in the mean for this group. This result is not in keeping with the literature when it comes to the sample data. In the literature, companies that operate in the latter stages of the production chain ought to have a greater impact at the environmental actions, as they have more direct contact with consumers of the end product. This improved performance for companies at the beginning of the production chain could be explained by the fact that these are the most polluting companies and have become the focus of environmental legislation.

Purpose: Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) engaged in the business of Trading and Distribution in the United Arab Emirates are characterized by fluctuations in the business performance and growth. Even though 95% of the businesses in the UAE are SME sector, the variations in the growth pattern lead to various challenges which the owner/manager sometimes fails to handle well. The aim of this concept paper is to identify the factors contributing to the sustained growth of SME business in the UAE. Approach/Methodology/Design: The research problem for this study is “how to ensure sustained growth in business for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in the United Arab Emirates”. The other studies on SME business have focused on SME performance but have not specifically focused on sustaining the performance and growing over a long period of time. This research will specifically focus on the factors contributing to sustained growth and this will be ascertained through quantitative survey of various SMEs in the UAE. Findings: This research aims to find the success factors which can be useful to the SME sector of the UAE in order to achieve sustained growth in business. As a result of this study, a possible matrix will emerge showing a framework to be applied for sustained growth of business for SMEs. Practical Implications: Sustained growth and longevity of the business remains the most important dream of every SME owner/manager, and the final recommendations of this research will result in a framework which would help SMEs in the UAE to have a sustained growth in business. Originality/value: The specific objective of this research is to find “factors that contribute to the sustained growth in business”. This would ensure that, despite the vagaries in the business environment, the SME owner will continue to have a stable business with sustained growth over a long period of time.

Australia released the newest edition of its Defense White Paper, describing Canberra’s current and emerging national security priorities, on February 25, 2016. This continues a tradition of issuing defense white papers since 1976. This work will examine and analyze the contents of this document as well as previous Australian defense white papers, scholarly literature, and political statements assessing their geopolitical significance. It will also examine public input into Australian defense white papers and the emerging role of social media in this public involvement. It concludes by evaluating whether Australia has the political will and economic resources necessary to fulfill its geopolitical and national security aspirations.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play a large role in different economies; hence the relevance of research on the factors that may leverage MSMEs competitiveness such as innovation and management. This research aims to review highly cited articles in the Web of Science database regarding management and/or innovation in the context of MSMEs. Besides showing MSMEs classifications across regions, this review also showed that variables employed in the highly cited papers have correspondences with excellence/quality management factors and traditional innovation types, which hence still serve as theoretical frameworks for research on MSMEs competitiveness. Moreover, theoretical relations were identified among all variables, being the strongest among networks-open innovation, information-knowledge, and product and process innovations. The results indicated that MSMEs competitiveness is related to sustainability, information-knowledge, and networks-open innovation; hence MSMEs managers and owners should pay attention to these factors. Finally, future research directions were also gathered and discussed.

Purpose\ud This paper presents a rail freight forecast for the EU27 for the period up to 2050.\ud \ud Background\ud Rail freight’s market share of the transport sector in Europe has been falling or remained stagnant since 1970. In contrast, the share of road freight has been increasing. As rail freight transport is generally considered an environmentally friendly option, various measures have been implemented for more than two decades, at national and European level, to encourage a modal shift from road to rail. In the latest EU Transport White paper policy paper of 2011, an optimistic target is set for greater use of rail freight transport, in both the near and the longer term future. Specifically: a modal shift, from road to rail, and waterway transport, of 30 % by 2030 and 50 % by 2050 - for distances greater than 300 km.\ud \ud Methodology\ud With the aforesaid policy objectives, the current research examines the possible effects of these aims in terms of future levels of rail freight demand. This research relies heavily upon the EU TRANS-TOOLS modelling tool and explores three scenarios. A Reference scenario - with no significant change to current rail freight policy, infrastructure and existing trends is considered alongside two White Paper scenarios (High and Low) which take more optimistic views of the white paper policy objectives.\ud \ud Results\ud The study finds that the Reference and White Paper Low scenarios demonstrate similar results in terms of growth and modal split. In stark contrast, the White paper High scenario results show that demand for rail freight services almost doubles compared to the Reference values.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud The rail sector is expected to attract new commodities from road transport such as foodstuffs and building and transport materials. To meet this demand, the rail industry - including operators, infrastructure managers and governments - will have to invest in technologies, infrastructure and terminals with a view to significantly increasing productivity against current levels.

I decompose the market value of Colonial New Jersey's paper money into its component parts, namely its real-asset present value and transaction premium. Its market value was predominately determined by its real-asset present value. I also find a small transaction premium that is positively associated with the quantity of paper money in circulation and with the land-bank method of paper money injection. This paper money was not a fiat currency. It traded below face value due to time-discounting not depreciation.

© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. The production and manufacturing sector is one of the primary factors that affects the environment, which has been a very important topic of recent studies. Many approaches are employed to reduce the impact of production on the environment. More recently, carbon-abatement technology and activities have been introduced into the production processes to reduce carbon emissions, such as the implementation of emission trading programs in many industrial sectors, including the paper and pulp sector. Nevertheless, the costs of abatement activities will result in a certain level of sacrifice in productivity growth, when the inputs are reallocated from good output production to abatement activities to maintain bad output under the regulatory limit. However, how and the extent to which such technology will affect productivity remain unclear. Therefore, it is worth investigating the opportunity cost of introducing such technology. In this paper, we offer new empirical evidence by studying panel data on 17 EU member states from 1995 to 2006. Productivity changes are calculated using a data envelopment directional distance function with and without adapting the carbon-abatement technology in the paper and pulp production. The results support our concern about the potential opportunity cost of introducing carbon-abatement technology, which leads to a decline in productivity growth. In addition, industrial production is not operating efficiently; on average it moves further away from the efficient production frontier over time.

The study analyzes the processes of autonomous regulation of the risk concerning the production of paper in a first line company in Uruguay. The dominant culture of security in this business is based on the knowledge of the trade, composed by a set of implicit rules governing the formation and transmission of knowledge. This culture of trade implies that the standards of protection of the workers from occupational hazards are neither imposed by management nor by the headquarters, but constructed in the daily interaction among the workers. In the context of the difficulties met in order to build a joint regulation of security between the management of the company and the Union, the knowledge and experience of the workers appear as the source of more effective safety regulation. However, this autonomous management is crossed by inter-generational and sectors tensions and contradictions, preventing the construction of a labor reflectivity on this theme. In this enclave, the Union loses capacity for action in terms of demands aimed at preventive and reactive security since it is focused on negotiating the impacts of new policies of labor and employment on the company management. There is also a low level of reflectivity from the workers in relation to the components of their culture of trade. Although it actually operates, it is not stated by the collective, and even less recognized as such in the framework of tension and competition between sectors and work teams.

This study proposes a decision model for privatization of newsprint paper industry. Newsprint paper has very demanding market requirements, ones that must be adapted in quality and quantity with consumers’ media preferences. In Iran, there is one newsprint paper producer that supplies 70% of domestic use. Privatization of this producer will enable increased production and reduce the necessity of imported newsprint. Four possibilities are examined as possible solutions: Encouragement for investment; Reformation of rules and regulation; Reformation of firms’ structure; and Liberalization of prices. The Analytical Network Process was used to synthesize and analyze the model. A value-weighted competency model was calculated with the influence of external factors on the competency model. Paired comparison matrices associated with the degree of importance of each of the competencies were achieved. Finally, subsets of competencies’ weighted values and their suboptions were identified through combination of the competencies and the best solution was obtained.

Paper consumption has been on decline in USA and West Europe for years.Significant capacity reduction in manufacturing capacity has taken place.To manage such environment successfully information systems and customer base require attention.Even mature industries offer price differentiation potential among customer base.Customer base changes can be extremely rapid in markets on the decline. For the Nordic paper industry the years 2001-2007 were a culmination point as to paper production and deliveries. The study uses plant level empirical time series data from these years from one large integrated Finnish paper mill. The research data covers complete customer data and cost components, and a major supplier for European paper markets. The case company worked actively with a customer base and concentrated on the most profitable markets. However, some unprofitable deliveries, which still covered the variable and fixed costs, also supported the operation of the mill and the continuing of the 24/7 shift. The results indicate that even with matured and bulky products like paper, it is still possible to operate on the basis of separated pricing, some bargaining power, and customized focus. In this respect, the markets do not seem to follow the economic theory expectation entirely, that is, for such a mature and bulky product market price differentiation should not be possible. However, to utilize this, it requires up-to-date information system concerning internal cost accounting, together with an emphasis on the management to have an active role with the customer base.

Increasing energy prices and market volatilities force energy intensive industries to implement energy management systems in order to ensure competitiveness. In this paper, we focus on the strategic level of energy management, specifically, on the analysis of the internal and external conditions that form the basis for strategic development. For this, we selected the case of the Austrian paper and pulp industry. We applied a hybrid method by combining an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with an analytic hierarchy process which was based on a survey of expert opinion. The results show that cost-related factors predominate. According to our analysis, the four most important factors are all directly linked to energy costs, energy efficiency, and the energy market. Experts pay little attention to environmental issues or to energy market volatilities. Apart from that, the combination of an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with an analytic hierarchy process promises to be a valuable tool for strategic energy management. This is especially true for energy intensive companies and/or sectors, since it enables decision makers to take strategic decisions based on a systematic understanding of the main issues.

In the early 1970s Ansoff described the significant role of weak signals for strategic planning and foresight. His model is based on the assumption that every effect caused by humans is to be foreseen and unsurprising. Under the auspices of discrete discontinuities in economic, political, technical and social affairs, they can be noticed before they come into existence as a whole. The printing and packaging industry that process food packaging operate their businesses within a complex, strict set of regulations and industrial guidelines. These ruling frameworks ensure that packaging does not negatively impact the products. Swiss studies have shown that cardboard boxes made from recycled paper fibres can contain significant portions of mineral oil. Animal feeding studies have proven that mineral oil mixtures are stored in the body. They can lead to accumulations and damage. The increase of food-packaging migration alerts in recent times has been highlighted by NGOś and the media. The German legislator has decided to act with a national approach towards stringent consumer protection. This paper aims to give an overview of the current status of the “German Ink and Mineral Oil Ordinance” in relation to recent and future risk management within the paper-based packaging supply chain. A possible European spill over will be highlighted. The paper aims to give recommendations for action towards adjusted and more suitable behaviour.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are considered a sector with significant contribution to the economical growth of both developed countries and emergent countries. However, SMEs are facing challenges for their survival with their limited resources. There is also considerable lack of empirical studies focusing on networking between SMEs in developing countries. Promotion of networking approaches with other organizations could be a good start to develop and increase competitiveness of SMEs. The primary objective of this paper is to identify networking factors that influence the competitiveness of SMEs and to develop a hypothesized model that can be tested on SMEs. The outcomes of networking factors can help to improve the survival rate of SMEs, and may offer great opportunities for business competitiveness, locally and globally. Key words: Networking, small and medium-sized enterprises, competitiveness.

The growth of technological modernization, associated to increased specialization, has contributed to important changes in the structure and positioning of companies, with a demand for more sophisticated and more innovative instruments of intervention. Intellectual capital constitutes the source which can meet these demands and is capable of generating wealth. It is found in people, structures and customers. In this new economy, information and knowledge – the main components of intellectual capital – are the main factors in the creation of value, producing intangible assets of great importance in companies. Thus, knowledge constitutes the most important resource for companies. This paper focuses on the theme of continuous education and its repercussion on the intellectual capital of companies, as well as on its market value. Thus it aims to analyse the existing correlations between these variables. The study will focus on companies quoted on the Portuguese Stock Market in the period (2011-2013).To analyse the relationship between investment in continuous education and the market value relevance of the company’s intangibles, will be used Tobin’s Q (Andriessen, 2004). There is empirical evidence that intellectual capital increases companies’ market value. Studies have shown that investment in training results in an increase in worker productivity which, in turn, is translated into an increase in financial performance and, consequently, on market value of the companies. The implementation of policies for continuous training is a way of disseminating individual and organizational knowledge, which can be translated into an increase in the human and intellectual capital of companies.

Objectives: Major countries have promoted Research and Development (R&D) policies on a governmental level with a global move to preoccupy the market that arises from this technological progress. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Concentrating on the base software computing technology, this study proposes a practical method of evaluating a nation’s technological level. It does so by testing whether a nation’s technological competitiveness using patent and paper statistics as measures of a nation’s R&D productivity and influence of scientific technology significantly affects the technological level of a nation that is measured based on the subjective answers of experts. Findings: In this study, an empirical analysis was performed to verify whether patent and paper technological competitiveness, patent technological competitiveness and paper technological competitiveness, respectively, of the base software computing technology present a significant effect on the Delphi Survey’s value. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, patent technological competitiveness has a significantly positive effect on Delphi Survey’s value. Second, paper technological competitiveness has significantly positive effect on Delphi Survey’s value. In conclusion, the study’s technological competitiveness value from patent and paper evaluation indicators has a significant effect on the technological level measured by experts. This indicates that the evaluation method for technological competitiveness using indicators from patents and papers as products of R&D to measure productivity and the influence of science and technology can be exploited for an objective measurement of the national technological level. Improvements/Applications: Therefore, through additional research with various industries applied, the practicality of the national technological level evaluation is expected to appear.

The study aimed to identify the effect of the Jordanian labor culture on the low operating rates in the sectors of engineering, plastic and rubber industries, printing, paper and packaging compared to other industrial sectors in Abdullah II Industrial City. The study reached a number of results, the most important of which is that there is an impact on the Jordanian labor culture on the low operating rates in the sectors of engineering, plastic and rubber industries, printing, paper and packaging compared with other industrial sectors. The study presented several recommendations, the most important of which is to raise or reconsider material and moral incentives in the sectors subject to study by the competent authorities, so that they are fair and appropriate to the nature of work in these sectors under the specified working hours. The State continues to provide all available means to prepare the worker technically and physically to work in the sectors studied through the training centers prepared for the Jordanian workers to train and enroll in these sectors through appropriate material and financial support.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been known for their contribution to increase employment rate in developing economies such as Indonesia. With regard to this, the Indonesian Government launched many programs to empower MSMEs. One of these programs, called Appropriate Technology for MSMEs Program-called Iptekda LIPI, has been implemented since 1998; however, owing to the low productivity and limited competitiveness of MSMEs this program has not been successful. The aim of the study is to examine the barriers of MSMEs’ competitiveness from the perspective of the technology diffusion policy in Indonesia. The research will address two questions: (1) what are the challenges faced by MSMEs in applying technology for their business, and (2) what are the strategies for improving technology diffusion that will result in MSMEs’ success? To answer such questions, this paper will apply the case study of six MSMEs in West Java. The research will apply a qualitative approach using in-depth interviews with six owners of MSMEs in a research context. The findings of the research indicate that the challenges of the program are closely intertwined with the interest and responsiveness of the change agent and the owners of MSMEs. The study recommends a bottom-up approach to technology diffusion for MSMEs and provides a model of MSMEs’ empowerment through the diffusion of technology mechanism. Keywords: Appropriate Technology, Technology Diffusion Policy, MSMEs, Iptekda, Developing Country