Resource efficiency and Circular Economy in European SMEs: Investigating the role of green jobs and skills

08/26/2021
by   Francesca Bassi, et al.
0

Purpose of the paper: This paper explores size and potential of green employment for Circular Economy (CE) in SMEs in the European Union and investigates the role of green jobs and skills for the implementation of CE practices. Design/methodology/approach: The data are collected in a Eurobarometer survey, and refer to resource efficiency, green markets, and CE practices. Lack of environmental expertise is one of the factors that might be perceived as an obstacle when trying to implement resource efficiency actions. Previous research shows that, although resource efficiency practices are adopted by firms in all European countries, there are differences both within and between countries. The analysis of the determinants of green behavior by European SMEs is completed by a study of heterogeneity across firms and within countries with a multilevel latent class model, a hierarchical clustering method. Findings: A general important evidence is that having no workers dedicated to green jobs is strongly correlated to the probability of adopting resource efficiency practices, while perceiving the need of extra environmental skills has a positive effect on the intention to implement actions in the future. Other characteristics of the firms play a significant impact on resource efficiency: in general, older and bigger firms, with larger yearly turnover, are more prone to implement actions. The type of chosen action varies across activity sectors. What is original/value of paper: In the reference literature, the relationship between green jobs, environmental skills, workers employed in CE practices, and resource efficiency has received limited attention so far.

READ FULL TEXT

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

research
12/15/2021

Enhancing operations management through smart sensors: measuring and improving well-being, interaction and performance of logistics workers

Purpose The purpose of the research is to conduct an exploratory investi...
research
03/21/2019

Mediating role of managing information technology and its impact on firm performance: insight from China

Purpose: Managing IT with firm performance has always been a debatable t...
research
07/18/2018

Socio-Material Network Analysis: A Mixed Method Study of Five European Artistic Collectives

In this paper, I argue that we can better understand the relationship be...
research
05/05/2020

Bayesian longitudinal models for exploring European sardine fishing in the Mediterranean Sea

In the Mediterranean Sea, catches are dominated by small pelagic fish, r...

Please sign up or login with your details

Forgot password? Click here to reset