Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries

Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries PDF Author: Allen Blackman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136525920
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Small firms - including 'microenterprises' and 'small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) - play a vital economic role in developing countries. They typically provide half of all jobs. In addition, they foster entrepreneurship and help key sectors adapt to changing market conditions. In light of these benefits, programs promoting small firms have become a cornerstone of economic development policy. Increasingly, however, scholars and policymakers are also exploring the link between small firms and the environment. The first compendium of research and policy analysis on this topic, this book is organized around three questions: How important is small firm pollution? Will forcing small firms to comply with environmental regulations exacerbate unemployment and poverty? And what policy options are available to control small firm pollution? Eleven case studies from China, Ecuador, Honduras, India, Malaysia, and Mexico address these questions. They compare the environmental damages caused by small firms and large ones. They explore the positive and negative economic consequences of pollution control strategies focusing on small firms, the administrative challenges of regulating thousands of firms which are often unregistered and unknown to the government, and they describe innovative approaches for persuading small firms to implement effective pollution controls. The case studies cover a variety of industrial sectors including ceramics, leather tanning, textiles, and agro-industry, and evaluate a wide range of environmental management strategies that include encouraging collective action among small firms, creating economic incentives for pollution control, and helping small firms adopt clean technologies and environmental management systems. Many of the chapters are groundbreaking, addressing topics new to the literature?for example, the role of international trade in greening small firms, and funding small firm pollution control projects by linking them to efforts to stem global warming. Highly readable, Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries is a valuable text for courses in development policy and economics that have an environmental component or focus. It will also prove of interest to development workers, policymakers in developing countries, and students and scholars of environmental policy and law.

Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries

Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries PDF Author: Allen Blackman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136525920
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
Small firms - including 'microenterprises' and 'small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) - play a vital economic role in developing countries. They typically provide half of all jobs. In addition, they foster entrepreneurship and help key sectors adapt to changing market conditions. In light of these benefits, programs promoting small firms have become a cornerstone of economic development policy. Increasingly, however, scholars and policymakers are also exploring the link between small firms and the environment. The first compendium of research and policy analysis on this topic, this book is organized around three questions: How important is small firm pollution? Will forcing small firms to comply with environmental regulations exacerbate unemployment and poverty? And what policy options are available to control small firm pollution? Eleven case studies from China, Ecuador, Honduras, India, Malaysia, and Mexico address these questions. They compare the environmental damages caused by small firms and large ones. They explore the positive and negative economic consequences of pollution control strategies focusing on small firms, the administrative challenges of regulating thousands of firms which are often unregistered and unknown to the government, and they describe innovative approaches for persuading small firms to implement effective pollution controls. The case studies cover a variety of industrial sectors including ceramics, leather tanning, textiles, and agro-industry, and evaluate a wide range of environmental management strategies that include encouraging collective action among small firms, creating economic incentives for pollution control, and helping small firms adopt clean technologies and environmental management systems. Many of the chapters are groundbreaking, addressing topics new to the literature?for example, the role of international trade in greening small firms, and funding small firm pollution control projects by linking them to efforts to stem global warming. Highly readable, Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries is a valuable text for courses in development policy and economics that have an environmental component or focus. It will also prove of interest to development workers, policymakers in developing countries, and students and scholars of environmental policy and law.

Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries

Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries PDF Author: Allen Blackman
Publisher: Resources for the Future
ISBN: 1933115289
Category : Industries
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Environment

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Environment PDF Author: Ruth Hillary
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351282824
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
This book tackles a largely neglected topic: small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their environmental impact. Over 90% of all firms are SMEs. Their importance to the health of national and international economies is recognized. But what of their environmental impact? Individually, this may be small but, collectively, they pose a huge and largely unregulated threat to national and indeed the global environment. There have been many failed attempts to engage SMEs in environmental stewardship. Why is this? And where are the success stories needed to set best-practice examples? Environmental protection is widely touted as being a win-win scenario for business with economic spin-offs in terms of energy and waste reduction quickly producing payback for capital expenditures. Why is the "good environmental management equals good business management" message not getting through? In Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Environment Dr Ruth Hillary brings together an outstanding international collection of experts from government, international and national support agencies, academics and the business community to present arguments about the key environmental business imperatives facing the small-firm sector. The book is divided into four sections:Attitudes and Perceptions of Small Firms to the Environment and SustainabilityEnvironmental Management in the Smaller FirmPractical Strategies for Reaching SMEsCase Studies from around the World. In these sections, the book examines the threats – such as trade, supply chain issues and legislative compliance – but is also solution-oriented, with considerable discussion of the management tools smaller firms can use to improve their environmental performance. It aims to provide practical strategies for smaller firms and to that end includes a range of informative case studies from around the world. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Environment is the most comprehensive book on the subject available and will prove invaluable not only to SMEs themselves, seeking to understand a rapidly changing world, but to consultants and small-business advisors, local and central government and to all those in academia looking for ways to improve the environmental performance of small businesses.

Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries

Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries PDF Author: Allen Blackman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136525912
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Small firms - including 'microenterprises' and 'small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) - play a vital economic role in developing countries. They typically provide half of all jobs. In addition, they foster entrepreneurship and help key sectors adapt to changing market conditions. In light of these benefits, programs promoting small firms have become a cornerstone of economic development policy. Increasingly, however, scholars and policymakers are also exploring the link between small firms and the environment. The first compendium of research and policy analysis on this topic, this book is organized around three questions: How important is small firm pollution? Will forcing small firms to comply with environmental regulations exacerbate unemployment and poverty? And what policy options are available to control small firm pollution? Eleven case studies from China, Ecuador, Honduras, India, Malaysia, and Mexico address these questions. They compare the environmental damages caused by small firms and large ones. They explore the positive and negative economic consequences of pollution control strategies focusing on small firms, the administrative challenges of regulating thousands of firms which are often unregistered and unknown to the government, and they describe innovative approaches for persuading small firms to implement effective pollution controls. The case studies cover a variety of industrial sectors including ceramics, leather tanning, textiles, and agro-industry, and evaluate a wide range of environmental management strategies that include encouraging collective action among small firms, creating economic incentives for pollution control, and helping small firms adopt clean technologies and environmental management systems. Many of the chapters are groundbreaking, addressing topics new to the literature?for example, the role of international trade in greening small firms, and funding small firm pollution control projects by linking them to efforts to stem global warming. Highly readable, Small Firms and the Environment in Developing Countries is a valuable text for courses in development policy and economics that have an environmental component or focus. It will also prove of interest to development workers, policymakers in developing countries, and students and scholars of environmental policy and law.

Upgrading Clusters and Small Enterprises in Developing Countries

Upgrading Clusters and Small Enterprises in Developing Countries PDF Author: Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317004116
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
SME's are acknowledged as effective sources of jobs and incomes, gaining an important position in the development agenda, subsequently 'cluster' policies were conceived as a framework to augment the effects of SMEs and to optimize resources used to support them. Based on case studies from Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, this volume examines SME clusters and argues that unless they counteract common problems such as very low wages, poor working conditions, poor quality products and lack or environmental regulation, they will be pushed out of the market and so become unsustainable. This book suggests that the SME clusters currently being stretched should react by 'socially upgrading' in order to improve their innovation capacity, as well as social, environmental and labour standards. It puts forward conceptual frameworks which explain the way firms can upgrade: through markets, interaction among cluster members, through Corporate Social Responsibility and other such public policy, and through the better enforcement of regulation.

Small Firms and Economic Development in Developed and Transition Economies

Small Firms and Economic Development in Developed and Transition Economies PDF Author: David A. Kirby
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351755137
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
This title was first published in 2003. Since the late 1970s there has been considerable interest in the role of small firms in economic development in general and employment generation in particular. Throughout the developed world, governments have introduced a range of measures to encourage small firm growth and development in an attempt to stimulate economic growth, generate employment and foster innovation. Though not all measures have been successful many policies have transferred to the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe where, since 1989, small firm growth and development has achieved considerable importance in economic restructuring. Accordingly, this volume presents the leading research on the role of small firms in economic development and employment generation in both transition and developed countries. Setting itself in a wider theoretical context, the book also considers the implications for both policy and theory and suggests directions for future research.

Upgrading Clusters and Small Enterprises in Developing Countries

Upgrading Clusters and Small Enterprises in Developing Countries PDF Author: Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317004124
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
SME's are acknowledged as effective sources of jobs and incomes, gaining an important position in the development agenda, subsequently 'cluster' policies were conceived as a framework to augment the effects of SMEs and to optimize resources used to support them. Based on case studies from Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, this volume examines SME clusters and argues that unless they counteract common problems such as very low wages, poor working conditions, poor quality products and lack or environmental regulation, they will be pushed out of the market and so become unsustainable. This book suggests that the SME clusters currently being stretched should react by 'socially upgrading' in order to improve their innovation capacity, as well as social, environmental and labour standards. It puts forward conceptual frameworks which explain the way firms can upgrade: through markets, interaction among cluster members, through Corporate Social Responsibility and other such public policy, and through the better enforcement of regulation.

Firm Size and the Business Environment

Firm Size and the Business Environment PDF Author: Mirjam Schiffer
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821350034
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
The development of the small and medium enterprise sector is deemed crucial for economic growth and poverty alleviation. Such firms are often though to be at a disadvantage when compared with larger enterprises, but the reverse can apply, for example in the more flexible approach of the smaller firm. This paper draws on a private sector survey in 80 countries examining whether business obstacles are related to firm size. It finds a bias against small firms, which experience significantly greater problems than large firms with financing, taxes and regulations, inflation, corruption and street crime. These problems should be the prime targets of policies aimed at reducing inequity.

Policies for Small Enterprises

Policies for Small Enterprises PDF Author: Gerhard Reinecke
Publisher: International Labour Organization
ISBN: 9789221137245
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Many governments in developing countries are making efforts to support the development of micro- and small enterprises (MSEs), as they recognise their important role in employment creation and poverty reduction. However, millions of people who work in MSEs are paid low incomes, have little or no social protection and are exposed to dangerous working conditions. This paradox stems from a policy and regulatory environment that should help the development of MSEs and improve the quality of jobs provided by them, but in practice often establishes biases and stifles growth. Based on studies carried out in Chile, Guinea, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania and Vietnam, this book looks beyond MSE promotion initiatives to analyse the overall policy and regulatory environment. It examines the impact of national business laws and taxation, labour regulations, trade and finance policies; identifies common problems and presents major principles for reform. More than simply helping to create more jobs, this approach aims to help to create more jobs of better quality.

Agents of Change

Agents of Change PDF Author: International Development Research Centre (Canada)
Publisher: IDRC
ISBN: 0889367264
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
Discusses the process of designing and implementing national policies that give priority to small enterprise development. Deals with regulatory reforms, agents of change in financial services, and innovations to improve the competitive potential of small enterprises.