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Aim of study: This paper objective focuses on the contribution of multifunctional natural forest silviculture, incorporating both private and public product managements, to forest and woodland economics. Area of study: Spain and California (USA). Material and methods: This conceptual article has developed a critical revision of the existing literature on the main economic issues for multifunctional natural forest silviculture in the last decades. Main results: Multifunctional natural silviculture has secular roots as a local practice, but as a science of the natural environment applied to the economic management of forest lands it is still in the process of maturation. Timber silviculture remains the central concern of forest economics investment in scientific publications. By contrast, silvicultural modeling of the natural growth of firewood, browse and other non-timber forest products from trees and shrubs receives scant attention in scientific journals. Even rarer are publications on multifunctional natural silviculture for forest and woodland managements, including environmental services geared to people’s active and passive consumption. Under this umbrella, private environmental self-consumption is represented by the amenities enjoyed by private non-industrial landowners. As for environmental public products, the most relevant are carbon, water, mushrooms, recreation, landscape and threatened biodiversity. Research highlights: This paper is a good example for the conceptual research on forestry techniques and economic concepts applied to multifunctional silviculture in Mediterranean areas of Spain and California. The combination of technical knowledge and private and public economic behaviors definitively contributes to the multifunctional management of natural forest systems.

While knowledge-based firms pay much attention to quality management and environmental management, they pay little attention to transferring external knowledge into the organization, transferring internal knowledge to the outside of the organization, and transferring and localizing innovation within the organization. The role of knowledge transfer and organizational innovation in quality management and environmental management is the focus of this study. This research contributes to a better understanding of the function of organizational innovation and knowledge transfer as a strategic source and competitive advantage in today's competitive and evolving era. The results of this research could be expanded upon and applied in all types of knowledge-based firms inside and outside of Iran. The literature review shows that all previous studies were conducted in developed countries and emerging economies. This study, however, was carried out in Iran, as a developing country, with a focus on concepts such as quality, environment, knowledge, and innovation. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between quality management and environmental management with a focus on the role of organizational knowledge and innovation transfer among managers of knowledge-based firms in science and technology parks and eight provinces were randomly selected as sample clusters in Islamic Republic of Iran Country. This research has been finalized in 2021. A conceptual model was designed in the light of theoretical literature and logical theory. Six hypotheses were formulated. The data were collected using a questionnaire and then analyzed through the Structural Equation Model. The results showed positive and significant relationships between quality management and environmental management; quality management and knowledge transfer; knowledge transfer and environmental management; quality management and organizational innovation; and organizational innovation and environmental management. The results further proved that there is a direct and significant relationship between knowledge transfer and organizational innovation. The current research showed that environmental management and quality management are relevant approaches to promote the productivity of knowledge-based firms, with a focus on the role of knowledge transfer and organizational innovation in achieving goals and missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycotourism is an innovative tourist product linked to rural tourism and offered as an alternative to the use of a forest resource. Here we aim to identify which tourism products have a connection to mycotourism and which mycological activities most attract people to the product. Results identify wine tourism, religious tourism, and spa tourism as the tourism products most closely connected to mycotourism. Visiting truffle festivals, mycological parks and hiring a mycological guide are the most frequent activities. Practical applications of the study include marketing that can be used by public policymakers and private companies alike to promote the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forestry sector is constantly looking for ways for making data-driven decisions and improving efficiency. The application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) allow the users to go beyond looking at simple key performance indicators. Benchmarking is one of the most common tools in business for improving efficiency and competitiveness. This study searched for benchmarking studies in Web of Science until December 2020. It reviewed 56 benchmarking studies in forestry and discusses the potential advantages of using benchmarking in forestry. More than 80% of the studies apply DEA. This review found that almost half of the benchmarking studies in forestry have attempted to estimate the efficiency of forest management organizations at regional scale, mostly being public or state-owned forest districts. A bit more than one-third of the studies have focused on benchmarking forest industries and one-fifth, benchmarking of forest operations. Forest management organizations mainly applied benchmarking for internal comparison and forest industries entirely focused on competitive benchmarking. Surprisingly, in most cases the studies do not necessarily overlap geographically with forest rich countries (e.g., Russian Federation or Brazil). A number of studies address multiple criteria. The future potential for applying automatic data transfer from harvest machines to interactive benchmarking systems are discussed. Finally, the paper discusses the advantages and weaknesses of benchmarking and future research on improving usefulness and usability of benchmarking in forest businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a dataset on 83 countries covering the years 1960–2009, we find a negative indirect effect of the share of renewable natural capital in wealth on economic growth transmitted through demographic factors, more specifically, population fertility. In contrast, in countries with lower income inequality and higher institutional quality, the share of non-renewable natural capital in wealth has a direct positive impact on growth. We also find that countries with higher income per capita, human development, and institutional quality have a higher share of renewable natural capital per capita, but a lower share of renewable natural capital in wealth. Renewable natural capital is thus valuable for the population and of primary concern for empowered countries, even though it contributes less to wealth and economic growth. Our results raise serious questions about the way wealth and growth are defined in economics when one investigates the impact of natural capital and point to the importance of preserving natural capital, particularly, in less developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of environmental management and implementation of ISO 14001 standard on organizational innovation due to the mediating role of knowledge transfer. The research methodology was based on an applied objective-based study and it can be considered surveying-correlation approach in terms of data collection and analysis methods. The research statistical population consisted of managers and employees of Sina Insurance Company. Using the Krejcie and Morgan table, 92 individuals were identified as statistical samples. A questionnaire was used to collect data in order to test the research hypotheses. To analyse data, the structural equation modelling method was employed for examining the fit of the structural equation modelling and for testing the research hypotheses. According to the results obtained, the implementation of ISO 14001 standard and environmental management directly explain 0.413% and 0.552% of changes related to the organizational innovation of Sina Insurance Company, respectively. Also, the Sobel test results revealed that the implementation of ISO 14001 standard and environmental management have a positive and significant impact on the organizational innovation through the mediating variable of knowledge transfer at a confidence level of 95%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Applied Economics / Economía Aplicada is the property of FEA-RP, Universidade de Sao Paulo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Planning and forecasting wood resources implies a challenging analysis, which has a direct impact on planning human resources, production timeline, as well as stock management of wooden assortments, which requires a complex data analysis taking into account all inputs that define the yield of wooden material. This paper includes an analysis of monthly time series data from 1991 to 2015 which can be characterized as long time dependence data. In recent years, artificial neural networks have become a popular tool for time dependence data treatment. Therefore, a prediction of monthly requirements of treated wood is performed by developing a new type of neural network in this research. The nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous inputs (NARX) is used as a foundation of a new network. NARX is a type of recurrent neural network which is a very effective tool for approximation of any nonlinear function, especially ones which could occur during a nonlinear time sequence prediction. The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of an artificial endocrine factor inside the standard NARX structure. The developed ENARX model provides an extra sensitivity of the network to environmental conditions and external disturbances, as well as its improved adaptive capability. The proposed network shows better forecasting performances compared to the default NARX network, thus establishing itself as an excellent prediction tool in the field of wood science, engineering and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. Driven hunts exemplify the most representative form of big-game hunting in southern Europe. Aims. We analysed hunter preferences for driven hunts and the marginal willingness to pay for their characteristics. Methods. We conducted a discrete-choice experiment for driven hunts, taking into account the number of deer that could be hunted, the possibility of free-range wild-boar hunting, the presence of trophies, and other characteristics of driven hunts, such as congestion and travel time. Key results. The highest influential driven-hunt characteristic on the utility of big-game hunters is the presence of trophy specimens, whereas for the small-game hunter it would be free-range wild-boar hunting. Conclusions. Small-game hunters are reluctant to participate in the big-game market because of cultural factors and not because of budgetary restrictions. Implications. Wildlife management and marketing of driven hunts can be improved taking into account the hunter preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Actualidad Jurídica Ambiental is the property of CIEMAT, through its Centro Internacional de Estudios de Derecho Ambiental (CIEDA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Responsabilidad Social de la Empresa is the property of Revista de Responsabilidad Social de la Empresa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Innovation can be explained by different inputs like human, technological and relational capitals. A production function can be used to determine the components of innovation, using the abovementioned capitals as inputs. Scientific activity includes the development of patents and publication of the same in specialized scientific journals, and such publications are considered scientific capital. And if we use this scientific capital replacing tertiary education as a human capital indicator, we can obtain a better mechanism for knowledge transmission and innovation in the European context. This paper empirically demonstrates the importance of the paper publication in the generation of innovations in the European region during the period 2007-11, using the economic growth theory applied to the construction of an innovation generating mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concentrates on the evaluation of the efficiency of low carbon industrialization in the tourism sector. Combining the general indices of the regional industrialization with the specific characteristics of low carbon development in the tourism sector, a comprehensive index system is scientifically designed. Due to the complexity of the index system and the tight correlation among some indices, rough set theory (RST) is applied to reduce the dimensions of the index system and delete some overlapped information. Then, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to evaluate the efficiency of low carbon industrialization in every year, in order to investigate the development of regional economy, where the year is considered as the Decision-Making Unit (DMU). Furthermore, the super efficiency value of each DMU is calculated to compare the level of low carbon industrialization in each year. Finally, Leshan city, which is a typical representative of a World Cultural and Natural region in China, is considered as a practical application to show the effectiveness of the proposed model. Then, some valuable suggestions are given to help decision makers improve regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes wood consumption in Spain between 1860 and 2000, taking into account underlying forces and exploring the effects on Spanish forests. The use of wood as a source of power tended to decline in Spain after the dawn of its industrial development, but this was compensated for by the use of wood as a raw material for industrial and urban purposes. The transition between those two models of wood consumption was very slow. Until the 1960s, the consumption of firewood remained high due to the difficulties in extending modern energy networks, and this coincided with a slow but continuous growth of wood consumption as a raw material. From the 1960s on, firewood consumption collapsed, but the use of wood as a raw material grew rapidly. This article shows the links between those transformations and major changes in the economic, technological, social, and political evolution of the country. It also explores the effects of wood consumption on the Spanish forests, highlighting the complex relationship between those two variables. In the long run, the growth of wood consumption did not lead to a national deforestation, but it did significantly affect the nature and the quality of the forests in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]