Suchergebnisse

AbstractCorporate social responsibility has become a strategic asset for food firms to demonstrate their good environmental conduct. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of the implementation of corporate social responsibility activities on the reorganization of vertical relationships within food supply chains. Applying content analysis techniques to the Global Reporting Initiative reports, we collected qualitative data on investments in environmentally friendly options, the adoption of standards, stakeholder engagement, information searches, impact‐monitoring activities, and chain coordination to transform it into quali‐quantitative data. We find that the variables affecting chain coordination relate to the presence of sourcing standards, effort in discussing with chain partners ways to prevent and manage chain environmental impacts, and costs related to stakeholder feedback collection. The results of the analysis confirm corporate social responsibility as a strategic tool to improve supply chain relationships through an augmented vertical coordination and to integrate environmental policy.

AbstractThe definition of the association between ovarian cancer and endometriosis was first reported by Sampson in 1925. He identified the following criteria: (a) clear evidence of endometriosis in proximity to the tumour, (b) exclusion of a metastatic tumour to the ovary, (c) presence of tissue resembling endometrial stroma surrounding epithelial glands. The naming of these cancers is "endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer" (EAOC). Scott proposed an additional stringent criterion: evidence of histological transition from endometriosis to cancer is to define "ovarian cancer arising in endometriosis" (OCAE). The aim of this systematic review is to analyse the distribution of different ovarian cancer histotypes in EAOC and OCAE to understand their similarities and differences. A total of 31 studies were included. Four studies added data for both EAOC and OCAE. Twenty-three studies were selected for EAOC, with a total of 800 patients, and 12 studies were selected for OCAE, with a total of 375 patients. The results show no significant differences in the distribution of histotypes in the two populations analysed. Clear cell carcinoma (CCC) and endometrioid carcinoma (EC) were the most common subtypes and were less frequent in EAOC compared to OCAE; the odd ratios were 0.58 (0.26–1.29) and 0.65 (0.33–1.26) respectively, although the difference was not statistically significant. The other histotypes were present in small proportions. This analysis shows that the histological profiles of EAOC and OCAE are similar, suggesting a similar aetiopathological mechanism, which requires further research to investigate whether EAOC and OCAE may be in the same way but at different points of the process to malignancy or have different pathways of progression to malignancy.

A substantial amount of literature has revealed gender gaps in political participation. However, little is known about such gaps when using more comprehensive measures of civic and political participation including online participation. In the present study, we recruited a sample (n = 1792) of young people living in Italy. Controlling for age, majority/minority status, socioeconomic status, respondents' educational attainment, and parents' educational attainment, we found that female participants reported higher scores on online and civic participation, while male participants were more likely to report political and activist participation. The effect size for these gender differences was small. In addition, we did not find any gender differences in voting behavior in the last European parliamentary elections, national parliamentary elections, and local elections. These findings highlight the need to move toward a more comprehensive and detailed picture of gender gaps in political engagement and participation including different types of participation. ; peerReviewed ; publishedVersion

AbstractMeso‐institutions offer a promising theoretical approach for assessing the way in which firms govern their activities and transactions while embedded in the macro‐institutional environment. The concept of meso‐institutions also offers theoretical support when evaluating a wide variety of voluntary standards that have been introduced within value chains in recent decades. Such tools can be considered meso‐institutions because of their features, and because of their role in translating general normative rules into specific mechanisms that delineate the domain of activities of supply chain agents. While various aspects of meso‐institutions have been investigated, little is known about their relationship with micro‐level structures and the determinants of firm's voluntary participation. The present paper investigates the association between a private standard, different forms of transaction governance in the supply chain, and the role that internal and external risks play in voluntary participation in the standard. The analysis draws upon secondary data taken from a representative sample of firms that form part of the European soybean supply chain. Our findings show that firms that participate in this standard have fewer hybrid forms and higher levels of spot markets. This suggests that some of the functions of hybrid forms are fulfilled by the meso‐institution. The results also show that risks associated with firm's behavioral uncertainty are more conducive to the participation in the standard than environmental‐related risks.