Sustainability-oriented management in the SMEs. A multilevel analysis in the European Union.

This research focuses on SMEs in the EU and their acceptance of circular economy practices, with a special attention to the structural characteristics that might be significant drivers. Eight indicators of environmentally friendly practices are studied: water saving, energy saving, renewable energy, material saving, waste reduction, sale of waste materials, waste recycling, and eco-designed products. A sample of European SMEs from EU-28 data (countries at the time of the survey) is used to test hypotheses through eight multilevel probit regression models. Company- and country-level covariates are added to the multilevel models. The results showed that the number of employees, the business sector and the type of products/services sold have an impact on environmentally friendly practices. On the other hand, at the national level, per capita GDP and greenhouse gas emissions are the most relevant factors in the eight models. These findings are relevant for the implementation of the European Green Deal, which aims to increase resource efficiency through the transition to a cleaner EU and circular economy.

Exploring unobserved household living conditions in multilevel choice modeling: An application to contraceptive adoption by Indian women.

This research analyzes the effect of the poverty-wealth dimension on contraceptive adoption by Indian women when no direct measures of income/expenditures are available to use as covariates. The index-Household Living Conditions (HLC)-is based on household assets and dwelling characteristics and is computed by an item response model simultaneously with the choice model in a new single-step approach. That is, the HLC indicator is treated as a latent covariate measured by a set of items, it depends on a set of concomitant variables, and explains contraceptive choices in a probit regression. Additionally, the model accounts for complex survey design and sample weights in a multilevel framework. Regarding our case study on contraceptive adoption by Indian women, results show that women with better household living conditions tend to adopt contraception more often than their counterparts. This effect is significant after controlling other factors such as education, caste, and religion. The external validation of the indicator shows that it can also be used at aggregate levels of analysis (e.g., county or state) whenever no other indicators of household living conditions are available.

Multilevel effects of wealth on women's contraceptive use in Mozambique.

OBJECTIVE: This paper analyzes the impact of wealth on the use of contraception in Mozambique unmixing the contextual effects due to community wealth from the individual effects associated with the women's situation within the community of residence. METHODS: Data from the 2011 Mozambican Demographic and Health Survey on women who are married or living together are analyzed for the entire country and also for the rural and urban areas separately. We used single level and multilevel probit regression models. FINDINGS: A single level probit regression reveals that region, religion, age, previous fertility, education, and wealth impact contraceptive behavior. The multilevel analysis shows that average community wealth and the women's relative socioeconomic position within the community have significant positive effects on the use of modern contraceptives. The multilevel framework proved to be necessary in rural settings but not relevant in urban areas. Moreover, the contextual effects due to community wealth are greater in rural than in urban areas and this feature is associated with the higher socioeconomic heterogeneity within the richest communities. CONCLUSION: This analysis highlights the need for the studies on contraceptive behavior to specifically address the individual and contextual effects arising from the poverty-wealth dimension in rural and urban areas separately. The inclusion in a particular community of residence is not relevant in urban areas, but it is an important feature in rural areas. Although the women's individual position within the community of residence has a similar effect on contraceptive adoption in rural and urban settings, the impact of community wealth is greater in rural areas and smaller in urban areas.

Clusters of abusive parenting: a latent class analysis of families referred to Child Protective Services in Portugal.

From the perspective of ecological models, it is suggested that a thorough behavior analysis of parental mistreatment and neglect is undertaken from a general approach to a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional perspective. Hence, the main goal of the present study was to determine if meaningful groups or clusters of abusive parenting in Portugal could be identified based on the characterization of the children and adolescents, their parents and context variables. An instrument was developed to assess variables of the children or adolescents, the family and the social context, all of which have been shown to be important in the literature. Child and Youth Protection Commissions from the whole of Portugal participated in the study, a total of 504 cases. Latent class analysis was applied in order to identify distinct parenting abusing behavior. The results showed four distinct clusters of families which are clearly defined in light of the types of risk and associated variables. The four groups are probabilistic and propose the composition of clusters with socio-demographic variables related to the types of risk. The significant interrelationships of different profiling characteristics are directly related to parenting abusing behavior. The results of this study confirmed our hypothesis of heterogeneous abusive parenting in Portugal. The findings yield useful policy-oriented results. Meaningfully organizing abusive parenting may be an important step not only in understanding the origins of abuse and neglect, but also in integrating this information into intervention models with children, young people and their families.

Dominance of sterilization and alternative choices of contraception in India: an appraisal of the socioeconomic impact.

BACKGROUND: The recent decline in fertility in India has been unprecedented especially in southern India, where fertility is almost exclusively controlled by means of permanent contraceptive methods, mainly female sterilization, which constitutes about two-thirds of overall contraceptive use. Many Indian women undergo sterilization at relatively young ages as a consequence of early marriage and childbearing in short birth intervals. This research aims to investigate the socioeconomic factors determining the choices for alternative contraceptive choices against the dominant preference for sterilization among married women in India. METHODS: Data for this study are drawn from the 2005-06 National Family Health Surveys focusing on a sample of married women who reported having used a method of contraception in the five years preceding the survey. A multilevel multinomial logit regression is used to estimate the impact of socioeconomic factors on contraceptive choices, differentiating temporary modern or traditional methods versus sterilization. FINDINGS: Religious affiliation, women's education and occupation had overarching influence on method choices amongst recent users. Muslim women were at higher odds of choosing a traditional or modern temporary method than sterilization. Higher level of women's education increased the odds of modern temporary method choices but the education effect on traditional method choices was only marginally significant. Recent users belonging to wealthier households had higher odds of choosing modern methods over sterilization. Exposure to family planning messages through radio had a positive effect on modern and traditional method choices. Community variations in method choices were highly significant. CONCLUSION: The persistent dominance of sterilization in the Indian family planning programme is largely determined by socioeconomic conditions. Reproductive health programmes should address the socioeconomic barriers and consider multiple cost-effective strategies such as mass media to promote awareness of modern temporary methods.

Disentangling women's responses on complex dietary intake patterns from an Indian cross-sectional survey: a latent class analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the degree of individual heterogeneity related to complex dietary behaviour and to further examine the associations of different dietary compositions with selected characteristics. DESIGN: Latent class analysis was applied to data from the recent cross-sectional National Family Health Survey that collected information on the intake frequency of selected foods. Different responses regarding intake frequency were condensed into a set of five meaningful latent clusters representing different dietary patterns and these clusters were then labelled based on the reported degree of diet mixing. SETTING: Indian states. Subjects In total, 90,180 women aged 15-49 years. RESULTS: Three clusters were predominantly non-vegetarian and two were vegetarian. A very high or high mixed-diet pattern was observed particularly in the southern and a few north-eastern states. Many women in the very high mixed-diet cluster consumed mostly non-green/leafy vegetables on a daily basis, and fruits and other non-vegetarian diet on a weekly basis. In contrast, those in the low mixed-diet cluster consumed more than three-fifths of the major vegetarian diet ingredients alone on a daily basis. The affluent group that represented the low mixed-diet cluster were primarily vegetarians and those who represented the very high mixed-diet cluster were mostly non-vegetarians. The significant interrelationships of different characteristics highlight not only socio-economic, spatial and cultural disparities related to dietary practices, but also the substantial heterogeneity in diet mixing behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study confirmed our hypothesis of heterogeneous dietary behaviour of Indian women and yielded useful policy-oriented results which might be difficult to establish otherwise.