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SMEs are slower than large firms to adopt new ICT unless effective use of ICT and performing operations electronically (eBusiness) across all sectors of the economy can act as a driver to increase competitiveness. Potential SME benefits and firm and sector-specific strategies drive the adoption and use of ICT. Furthermore, sectors are increasingly global and dominated by large firms and the structure of their values chains and operations shape opportunities for SMEs. Principal reasons for non-adoption are lack of applicability and little incentive to change business models when returns are unclear. SMEs also face generic barriers to adoption including trust and transaction security and IPR concerns, and challenges in areas of management skills, technological capabilities, productivity and competitiveness. The issues for governments throughout the European Union (EU) are to foster appropriate business environments for eBusiness and ICT uptake, and target programs to overcome market failures to the extent that they are needed in particular areas (e.g. skill formation, specialized information). Governments have a range of SME eBusiness and internet use programs. However, commercial considerations and potential returns are the principal drivers of SME adoption and profitable use. The key drivers for enabling eBusiness development are commitment and support of industry associations, in particular in sectoral initiatives, synergies by having access to resources from other initiatives or organizations, competitive pressure and ease of participation. The key barriers slowing ICT adoption are competition among companies in the target group, Lack of awareness, often combined with mistrust regarding ICT and ICT service providers, costs, lack of internal ICT and management knowledge, Network infrastructure issues: access and interoperability, Legal uncertainties. The European Commission has identified 3 factors that make it difficult for SMEs, in particular, to engage more fully with ICT and develop sustainable business ...

AbstractUnderstanding how preferences for public policy instruments shape policy support helps policymakers to design policies that begin to tackle large‐scale and complex problems, such as climate change. Climate change policies generate both local and global costs and benefits, which affect the public's policy preferences. In this article we investigate the role of perceived conditional cooperation and distributive concerns on climate policy attitude formation. We identify a range of climate policies and test public opinion for adoption of these policies at different scales of government. The important theoretical distinction is the scale‐driven distributional nature of policy costs and benefits as well as concerns regarding the cooperation of other actors. We use data from Sweden and a conjoint experimental design where we vary level of government, type of policy, and the targeted group. We find evidence that people support policies when costs are shared broadly. We also find that support for climate policy is conditional on expected policy adoption by other units of government at various scales. This implies that unpopular climate policies might be more popular if the funding structure of the policy allows for binding policy and that the cost‐sharing is taking place at higher levels of government.

Private green finance is imperative for climate change mitigation and adaptation, but the share of private green finance remains small, and the studies that have tackled the efficacy of policy instruments in promoting green finance are limited. Many economies, especially in Asia, have implemented different policies to incentivize the private sector to issue green bonds. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of such policies. To date, this is the first study to provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of a broad range of green bond policies on the issuance of green bonds. Given the nascent nature of green bonds, this paper documents the effects of several policy instruments supporting green bonds on the private sector's issuance of green bonds in 58 green-bond-issuing economies, including 11 economies in Asia, over the period January 2010−June 2020. Using the difference-in-difference specification within the multilevel longitudinal model, the paper finds that some green bond policies, such as green bond grants and tax incentives, as well as cooperation and policy signals, are effective in promoting the issuance of green bonds in the private sector in Asia. Regional cooperation and standardization have incentivized private green bond issuance in the European Union but not in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region. Global cooperation and international standardization have had a positive impact on the issuance of private green bonds.

The finding that the preferences of middle-income Americans are ignored when they diverge from the preferences of the rich is one of the most widely accepted and influential conclusions in political science research today. I offer a cautionary note regarding this conclusion. I demonstrate that even on those issues for which the preferences of the wealthy and those in the middle diverge, policy ends up about where we would expect if policymakers represented the middle class and ignored the affluent. This result emerges because even when middle- and high-income groups express different levels of support for a policy (i.e., a preference gap exists), the policies that receive the most (least) support among the middle typically receive the most (least) support among the affluent (i.e., relative policy support is often equivalent). As a result, the opportunity of unequal representation of the "average citizen" is much less than previously thought. The analysis also shows, however, that substantial opportunity exists for unequal representation of strong partisan preferences. Together, these results reinforce the importance of party identification for understanding policy outcomes and who gets represented.

Walkability refers to how the pedestrians are facilitated and regarded as the users of the street (mode of transportation due to the public transportation walkability strategy). Malang plays a significant role as the second largest city in East Java Province. The Malang city shows some street problems recently. One of them is the lack of infrastructures for pedestrians. The congestion seems to be greater every year and lead to jaywalking pedestrians. The street activities show the motorized vehicles a lot. It seems that the pedestrians are being neglected. One of the components of walkability is the policy support to guarantee the pedestrians rights as the users of the street corridor.The study is aimed to analyze the walkability policy support. The existences of the policies and how they are implemented is the matter of the study. The component shows the degree of policy supports in order to respect the pedestrians. The collected data about the policies from national to local levels are evaluated using content analysis method. Among some policies, there are the presences of the related policies in national and local level. The number 79 of Government Regulation in 2013 about Traffic Network and Road Transport regulates the facilitation of the pedestrians in extension of the number 22 of Traffic Network and Road Tranport Act in 2009. At local level the pedestrians consideration is regulated by Local Regulation, number 4, in 2011 about the Malang City Master Plan 2010-2030. The quality of the policy support is still poor due to the pedestrians needs compared with the motorized ones. The presence of the number 03/PRT/M/2014 of Ministry of Public Work Regulation about The Guidance of Pedestrians Network Infrastructure Planning, Providing and Using in Urban Areas is specially designed in order to fulfill the pedestrians needs. This regulation respects the walking activity and facilitate pedestrians in a manner of convenience, safety and security. Because of the recently existence as the regulation so that the implementation has not done yet. But learning from some cases about street-traffic that had happened recently in Malang city, it can reflect the ignorance of the walking activities as the mode of transportation in accordance with improved public transportation. It recommends to revise City Master Plan of Malang which has the better planning of pedestrian facilities as an integration of transport network planning. There is an interesting finding about how much the act and regulation pay attention to the pedestrian needs. It shows an extreme leap that need to be examined on other next research.Keywords: walkability, pedestrian rights, policy support

This e-book aims to examine a number of policy tools that support public involvement and enhance public-private partnering in next generation infrastructures, tools which are generally overlooked. The papers in this issue explore the main domains where these complementary actions might take place. They encompass policies directed to the demand and supply sides of the market, information society and industrial innovation policies, additional measures that can be taken by local and regional public administrations and new policy tools to foster user empowerment

This is a conference paper. ; Domestic wastewater use has the potential to be an important part of urban water management in Hanoi if it is supported by Vietnamese policy. This appears to be the case, with the water and environmental legislation stipulating discharge and treatment requirements; outlining financial incentives; and encouraging research, development and private participation in treatment and use. However, policies in potential reuse sectors, principally agriculture and aquaculture, do not reflect these positive assertions. Furthermore, inadequate financial provision for treatment that would facilitate planned use and stimulate private sector interest is also an impediment. In Hanoi, the result is that wastewater use takes place informally through the utilization of polluted water for agriculture and aquaculture. However, small changes could lead to safe, cost effective planned reuse which would protect the environment and provide Hanoi with a much needed water supply in the future.

This paper describes employer enterprise dynamics in Portugal for high-growth and gazelle enterprises for the period 1990-2007, using the methodology by Eurostat and OECD. It discusses stylized facts related to firm performance by size, sector and survival prospects, using two parallel perspectives, by turnover and by employment, when appropriate. It also discusses the importance of existing framework conditions, which may be hindering entrepreneurial activity, as well as current supporting mechanisms offered by the government to encourage start-ups and fast growing SMEs. Regulations and the unique cultural environment in which Portuguese firms operate seem to be instrumental to the understanding of their relatively poorer performance.