Suchergebnisse

Intro -- Foreword -- European Union Funding Instruments and Juncker Plan for Entrepreneurship Development -- Foreword -- The Juncker Plan and the Opportunities for Greek SMEs -- Acknowledgments - About the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence -- Disclaimer -- Contents -- Contributors -- Introduction -- Part I: International Growth Concerns -- Economic Nationalism: Constrained and Fragmented, If Any? -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Meaning of Economic Nationalism: Protectionist, Statist or Liberal? -- 3 Undermined Sovereignty, Specific Business/Government Relations and Fragmented Policies -- 4 Conclusions -- References -- Digitalization: Disrupting the Business Models of Multinationals -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Digital Technology: Business Models and Operations -- 2.1 Digitalization and Operations -- 2.2 DMNCs: Digitalization and Strategy -- 2.3 DMNCs: Connectivity and Servification -- 3 Digitalization and the International Presence of DMNCs -- 3.1 DMNCs: Assets and Sales -- 3.2 DMNCs: Profits -- 4 Digitalization, DMNCs and Investment Policy -- 4.1 An Investment Policy Framework for the Digital Era -- 4.2 Investment Policies and Digital Divide -- 5 Conclusions -- References -- Part II: EU Policies for Growth -- EU Corporate Governance Framework: The Role of the EU Institutions -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Corporate Governance -- 3 The Stages of Development in the Approach of the Commission -- 3.1 The Infant Stage, the EU Corporate Governance Framework Before 2009 -- 3.2 The Adolescent Stage, the Impact of the Financial Crisis of 2008 -- 4 Conclusions: The Quest for the Proper Motivators for the Development of SMEs -- References -- The EU Digital Single Market and the Platform Economy -- 1 Introduction: The Digital Agenda and Its Impact on EU Growth -- 2 The Digital Single Market Strategy (2015) -- 3 The Platform Economy and Its Impact on Growth.

Although migration has always been a timeless and volatile phenomenon, modern transnational movements of people have become a dominant topic of interest by constantly acquiring new characteristics that modify their evolutionary process. Europe is a geographical area that has been significantly affected by recent changes as a result of the evolution of migration flows of the last 30 years. The urgent need to initially understand and later implement evidence-based policies in order to sufficiently manage the migration phenomenon can be considered as the basic spark that led to the scientific blast of the 21st century, focusing on the gradual development of migration studies. One of the most notable efforts of the scientific community was the use of the comparison method to examine, understand, and in some cases even forecast the characteristics of specific migration case studies, thereby forming the backbone of comparative migration research in general. Greece, due to its geographical position, has been unintentionally positioned, many times, inside the so called "ring of fire", as result of multiple factors and disastrous events that evolved mainly in its neighbouring countries, forcing massive, irregular migration flows to its external borders. The outbreak of the Albanian exodus in the early 1990s and the recent refugee flows of 2015 can be described as two major migration crises that have occurred in Greek's contemporary history, making their comparison a fruitful example of the potential capabilities of the above-mentioned method, contributing to a holistic study of the migration phenomenon in Greece.

Although migration has always been a timeless and volatile phenomenon, modern transnational movements of people have become a dominant topic of interest by constantly acquiring new characteristics that modify their evolutionary process. Europe is a geographical area that has been significantly affected by recent changes as a result of the evolution of migration flows of the last 30 years. The urgent need to initially understand and later implement evidence-based policies in order to sufficiently manage the migration phenomenon can be considered as the basic spark that led to the scientific blast of the 21st century, focusing on the gradual development of migration studies. One of the most notable efforts of the scientific community was the use of the comparison method to examine, understand, and in some cases even forecast the characteristics of specific migration case studies, thereby forming the backbone of comparative migration research in general. Greece, due to its geographical position, has been unintentionally positioned, many times, inside the so called "ring of fire", as result of multiple factors and disastrous events that evolved mainly in its neighbouring countries, forcing massive, irregular migration flows to its external borders. The outbreak of the Albanian exodus in the early 1990s and the recent refugee flows of 2015 can be described as two major migration crises that have occurred in Greek's contemporary history, making their comparison a fruitful example of the potential capabilities of the above-mentioned method, contributing to a holistic study of the migration phenomenon in Greece.

Climate change has been considered one of the most significant risks for sustainability in our century; in order to move towards low-carbon and climate resilient economies, fundamental changes must take place. In this direction, the European Union has set ambitious goals regarding the transition of its Member States to low carbon societies, but the policy strategies to promote this transition must be socially acceptable and supported. So far, climate policies have been evaluated using quantitative methods, including general equilibrium and integrated assessment models but, despite their undoubted contribution to climate modeling, both the quantitative frameworks used for studying climate change and its impacts and those aiming at policy optimization or evaluation feature significant uncertainties and limitations. In order to overcome these issues, a Fuzzy Cognitive Map based approach is proposed, aiming to directly involve stakeholders and assess human knowledge and expertise. The suggested methodological framework can significantly support climate policy making, by supplementing quantitative models and exploring impacts of selected sets of policies, based on qualitative information deriving from a structured stakeholder engagement process. Finally, an innovative approach of incorporating the concept of time into the methodology is proposed and evaluated, in the aim of enhancing the robustness of transition pathways.

Le tourisme est par définition considéré comme une des branches du tertiaire les plus « amicales » envers l'environnement, puisque la nature et les monuments culturels constituent des attraits pour le développement touristique d'une région. Malgré tout, le développement touristique est encore loin de satisfaire les conditions pour le développement durable, pour les deux raisons. D'une part, l'expansion inconsidérée des installations touristiques et la lourde infrastructure (surtout les transports) nuisent à l'environnement même, alors qu'elles visent à l'exploiter et à le valoriser. D'autre part, le tourisme ne parvient souvent pas à déclencher des effets d'entraînement positifs en matière de développement durable sur les secteurs situés en amont et en aval. Sur la base de ces deux remarques, l'article a pour ambition de présenter les conditions sous lesquelles le développement touristique en Europe peut adopter les caractéristiques du développement durable et proposer des mesures politiques qui iraient dans cette direction. ; Tourism is considered as one of the most environmentally friendly sectors of economic activity among services, since the environment and cultural and physical monuments are considered as inputs and comparative advantage elements for the tourist development of a region. Tourist development however, is usually far away from being considered a sustainable development factor for two main reasons. On the one hand, the overexpansion of tourist establishments and heavy infrastructure (mainly transportation) are degrading the very natural environment they are supposed to exploit. On the other hand, tourism often fails to draw through backward and forward linkages sectors which are not positively related to sustainable development. On the basis of these two observations this paper aims at highlighting the conditions under which tourism development in Europe could take sustainable characteristics and propose measures that could contribute to this end.

Post Tender Negotiation (PTN) procedure is part of the tendering process in procurement of goods and services. The procedure could be triggered if the initial tendering activity does not result in the selection of a supplier. This could be due to a lack of clear Value for Money (VfM) bidder. The PTN procedure is sparingly applied in the UK public sector procurement and the reasons adduced for this are based on ethical considerations. The UK Office of Government Procurement (OGP), formerly known as the Office for Government Commerce (OGC) and the European Union (EU) are the chief proponents of restricting the use of PTN to exceptional cases. The premise of their argument is that the buyer could unethically tilt her/his actions in the process of applying the PTN procedure to favor certain suppliers. It is the argument of this paper that buyers from the public sector in UK are being deprived of the procedure's benefit and therefore, the restrictions should be relaxed. Evidence from this study suggests that the procedure could offer the opportunity for further clarifications of supplier's bid. The study also identifies that, for PTN to be successful, factors ensuring success in negotiations including cooperation should be present.

Given the international efforts in tackling climate change as well as the potential dependence on conventional energy imports and the adverse economic environment, countries in the European Union face significant challenges in the critical task of enhancing energy efficiency. Approaches exclusively oriented on detailed quantitative modelling tools like energy system and climate-economy models, however, tend to exclude certain policy instruments and risks, and be too formalised or complex for policymakers to participate, understand and trust. Several decision support frameworks have been proposed for bridging the policy-model gap and helping policymakers confidently select among a number of alternative strategies. This paper employs the expert-driven method of fuzzy cognitive mapping, a semi-quantitative modelling technique in which system dynamics are captured and simulated against different scenarios. To this end, an innovative decision support tool for building and simulating complex fuzzy cognitive maps for assessing policy strategies with the help of experts, ESQAPE, is introduced and presented. An application in Greece shows that long-term energy efficiency measures focusing mainly on behavioural change in the residential sector – as opposed to services in the private and public sectors – are perceived to be more sustainable in a socio-economically optimistic future; this is not the case when challenges across the mitigation and adaptation axes are expected to be higher.

"The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429458781, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license." This book examines the uncertainties underlying various strategies for a low-carbon future. Most prominently, such strategies relate to transitions in the energy sector, on both the supply and the demand side. At the same time they interact with other sectors, such as industrial production, transport, and building, and ultimately require new behaviour patterns at household and individual levels. Currently, much research is available on the effectiveness of these strategies but, in order to successfully implement comprehensive transition pathways, it is crucial not only to understand the benefits but also the risks. Filling this gap, this volume provides an interdisciplinary, conceptual framework to assess risks and uncertainties associated with low-carbon policies and applies this consistently across 11 country cases from around the world, illustrating alternative transition pathways in various contexts. The cases are presented as narratives, drawing on stakeholder-drivenresearch efforts. They showcase diverse empirical evidence reflecting the complex challenges to and potential negative consequences of such pathways. Together, they enable the reader to draw valuable lessons on the risks and uncertainties associated with choosing the envisaged transition pathways, as well as ways to manage the implementation of these pathways and ultimately enable sustainable and lasting social and environmental effects. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of environmental and energy policy, low-carbon transitions, renewable energy technologies, climate change action, and sustainability in general.