The Essential Elements of a Risk Governance Framework for Current and Future Nanotechnologies

Societies worldwide are investing considerable resources into the safe development and use of nanomaterials. Although each of these protective efforts is crucial for governing the risks of nanomaterials, they are insufficient in isolation. What is missing is a more integrative governance approach that goes beyond legislation. Development of this approach must be evidence based and involve key stakeholders to ensure acceptance by end users. The challenge is to develop a framework that coordinates the variety of actors involved in nanotechnology and civil society to facilitate consideration of the complex issues that occur in this rapidly evolving research and development area. Here, we propose three sets of essential elements required to generate an effective risk governance framework for nanomaterials. (1) Advanced tools to facilitate risk‐based decision making, including an assessment of the needs of users regarding risk assessment, mitigation, and transfer. (2) An integrated model of predicted human behavior and decision making concerning nanomaterial risks. (3) Legal and other (nano‐specific and general) regulatory requirements to ensure compliance and to stimulate proactive approaches to safety. The implementation of such an approach should facilitate and motivate good practice for the various stakeholders to allow the safe and sustainable future development of nanotechnology.     

Risk Assessment and Risk Governance of Liquefied Natural Gas Development in Gladstone,Australia

This article is a retrospective analysis of liquefied natural gas development (LNG) in Gladstone, Australia by using the structure of the risk governance framework developed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC). Since 2010 the port of Gladstone has undergone extensive expansion to facilitate the increasing coal export as well as the new development of three recently completed LNG facilities. Significant environmental and socio‐economic impacts and concerns have occurred as a result of these developments. The overall aim of the article, therefore, is to identify the risk governance deficits that arose and to formulate processes capable of improving similar decision‐making problems in the future. The structure of the IRGC framework is followed because it represents a broad analytical approach for considering risk assessment and risk governance in Gladstone in ways that include, but also go beyond, the risk approach of the ISO 31000:2009 standard that was employed at the time. The IRGC risk framework is argued to be a consistent and comprehensive risk governance framework that integrates scientific, economic, social, and cultural aspects and advocates the notion of inclusive risk governance through stakeholder communication and involvement. Key aspects related to risk preassessment, risk appraisal, risk tolerability and acceptability, risk management, and stakeholder communication and involvement are considered. The results indicate that the risk governance deficits include aspects related to (i) the risk matrix methodology, (ii) reflecting uncertainties, (iii) cumulative risks, (iv) the regulatory process, and (v) stakeholder communication and involvement.     

On the Risk Management and Risk Governance of Petroleum Operations in the Barents Sea Area

In this article, we discuss issues of risk management and risk governance with respect to petroleum operations in the Barents Sea area. We will focus on the decision problems related to whether or not to open the Barents Sea for petroleum activities in special vulnerable areas. We will explore to what extent the International Risk Governance Council risk governance framework provides valuable insights for and assistance to the decisionmaker and other stakeholders (including the industry and NGOs). The study covers issues related to risk assessment and appraisal, risk acceptance and tolerability, the use of the precautionary principle, risk perception, stakeholder involvement, risk communication, and risk management. The overall aim of the article is to point to areas where the risk governance could have been and can be improved for these and similar decision problems.     

公司治理、控制权性质与审计定价

借鉴Simunic的审计定价模型,构建关于审计定价影响因素的多元线性回归方程,并以沪深两市上市公司2007年数据为研究对象,对股权结构、公司治理与审计定价之间的关系进行实证检验.研究结果表明,总体而言,公司治理因素对中国上市公司审计定价的解释力有限,说明中国会计师事务所在决定审计收费时对被审计单位的公司治理因素考虑较少.具体而言,终极控制人为政府的上市公司审计费用较低,股权集中度、管理层持股比例与审计定价之间大体上呈U型关系,即股权适度集中和管理层适度持股最有利于降低审计定价,进一步的研究发现,管理层持股比例与审计定价的U型关系仅存在于非国有控股公司样本中.研究还发现,中国会计师事务所在确定审计费用时会结合公司控制权的性质考虑风险因素时审计定价的影响.     

经理任期风险和公司治理的实证分析

对公司经理任期的约束应该是公司治理的一个重要方面.本文通过多元线性回归和生存分析的方法检验了内外部治理因素对经理职位变动的影响.这两种方法得出的结果大同小异,相互补充.从结果可以看出,董事长和总经理因为同样处于代理人的位置,所以他们的任期风险影响因素中有几个是共同的:市场业绩、年龄、学历、股权变更.市场业绩的影响作用和理论相反.由于董事长和总经理存在权力的分别,所以领导独立性、内部监事比例和企业规模三个变量对两个职位任期风险的影响作用不同.另外,在检验的变量中,企业的利润率和国有股权比例都没有对经理任期风险产生显著影响,说明经理任期风险并不受企业会计业绩和企业股权性质的影响.     

制度环境、风险感知对供应链网络治理模式选择的影响研究

本文以新制度理论与交易成本理论进行对话,从合法性视角构建中国情境下制度环境、风险感知与供应链网络治理模式选择之间影响机理的理论模型。通过问卷调查的方式收集117份有效问卷,并采用结构方程模型方法实证检验制度环境、风险感知对供应链网络治理模式的"形塑"作用。研究结果表明,制度环境是影响供应链网络治理模式选择的重要因素,强制制度对供应链网络治理模式选择具有显著影响,规范制度的影响作用不显著。在供应链网络治理模式选择过程中关系风险感知具有完全中介作用,而绩效风险感知具有部分中介作用。     

Risk Governance for Mobile Phones,Power Lines,and Other EMF Technologies

Power‐frequency electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) have been present in industrialized countries since the late 19th century and a considerable amount of knowledge has been accumulated as to potential health effects. The mainstream scientific view is that even if there is a risk, it is unlikely to be of major public‐health significance. EMFs from cellular communications and other radio‐frequency technologies have increased rapidly in the last decade. This technology is constantly changing, which makes continued research both more urgent and more challenging. While there are no persuasive data suggesting a health risk, research and particularly exposure assessment is still immature. The principal risk‐governance issue with power frequencies is how to respond to weak and uncertain scientific evidence that nonetheless causes public concern. For radio‐frequency electromagnetic fields, the issue is how to respond to large potential consequences and large public concern where only limited scientific evidence exists. We survey these issues and identify deficits in risk governance. Deficits in problem framing include both overstatement and understatement of the scientific evidence and of the consequences of taking protective measures, limited ability to detect early warnings of risk, and attempted reassurance that has sometimes been counterproductive. Other deficits relate to the limited public involvement mechanisms, and flaws in the identification and evaluation of tradeoffs in the selection of appropriate management strategies. We conclude that risk management of EMFs has certainly not been perfect, but for power frequencies it has evolved and now displays many successful features. Lessons from the power‐frequency experience can benefit risk governance of the radio‐frequency EMFs and other emerging technologies.     

一种混合建模方法及其在ETF期权定价中的应用

科学合理的交易型开放式指数基金(ETF)期权定价有利于充分发挥其风险对冲功能,也是一个需要准确掌握市场规律并兼顾经济学意义的复杂建模过程。本文提出了一种新的混合建模方法,将嵌套长短时记忆神经网络模型(NLSTM)与Heston模型结合,实现ETF期权定价偏差的动态修正,并基于华夏上证50ETF、嘉实沪深300ETF和华泰柏瑞沪深300ETF的高频期权数据,实验验证了所提方法的有效性。研究结果表明,不同类型ETF期权价格的波动特征差异显著,无论是基于BS定价模型还是Heston定价模型都难以准确刻画ETF期权价格的复杂变化规律。通过将NLSTM神经网络模型与Heston模型结合,能够有效地捕捉不同类型ETF期权的动态变化规律,从而提升ETF期权定价的准确性。     

基于风险视角的董事会相对权力与产品市场竞争力关系研究

利用2004~2012年928家深沪上市公司9年8 352个年度样本的大样本面板数据,从董事会治理风险的角度,验证了董事会相对管理层权力对公司产品市场竞争力的影响,检验了股权集中度和控股股东性质对两者关系的调节作用。研究发现,在不考虑股权集中度和控股股东性质的调节作用时,董事会相对权力同产品市场竞争力存在显著正相关关系;在考虑股权集中度和控股股东性质的情况下,股权集中度对董事会相对权力与公司产品市场竞争力之间关系有显著负向调节作用,控股股东性质对董事会相对权力与公司产品市场竞争力之间关系有显著负向调节作用。     

The European Commission''s White Paper "Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy": A Review

The European Commission has proposed a radical new policy for the regulation of chemicals in the EU in the form of a White Paper. The current system has separate regulatory provisions for "new" chemicals (introduced to the market since September 18, 1981) and "existing" chemicals (on the market before September 18,1981). The proposed future policy will have a single unified regulatory system for all chemicals, which should result in better regulation of chemicals in the EU single market. It will be better because risk assessments will be targeted at the chemicals of greatest concern. Furthermore, the system will be streamlined, making regulatory decisions faster, and thus reducing the so-called burden of the past (the large number of chemicals that have never been assessed for their risks to human health or the environment). The new system incorporates the precautionary principle, which will be applied where there is an early indication of unacceptable risk or where there is undue delay in the regulatory process. Moreover, the new strategy is intended to promote greater transparency for all stakeholders.     

The Performance Implications of Ownership-driven Governance Reform

This paper explores the performance impact of recent changes in foreign shareholdings and boardroom reforms in Japan. Empirical research on the impact of reform on the Japanese corporate governance system could provide useful lessons for their European counterparts who are themselves facing similar pressures to reform. We found that although participation of outside directors in strategic decision-making was associated with positive stock returns, the increase in the ratio of outside directors, the separation of the board members and executive officers, and the reduction of board size were not related to firm performance.     

Desired Risk: Broadening the Social Amplification of Risk Framework1

Recently Kasperson et al.⁽⁶⁾ have proposed a conceptual framework, “The Social Amplification of Risk,” as a beginning step in developing a comprehensive theory of public experience of risk. A central goal of their effort is to systematically link technical assessments of risk with the growing findings from social scientific research. A key and growing domain of public risk experience is “desired” risk, but this is virtually neglected in the framework. This paper evaluates the scope of the “Social Amplification of Risk Framework,” asking whether it is applicable to desired risks, such as risk recreation (hang gliding, mountain climbing, and so forth). The analysis is supportive of the framework's applicability to the domain of desired risk.     

A Framework for Understanding Risk Perception,Explored from the Perspective of the Water Practitioner

Sustainable urban water systems are likely to be hybrids of centralized and decentralized infrastructure, managed as an integrated system in water‐sensitive cities. The technology for many of these systems is available. However, social and institutional barriers, which can be understood as deeply embedded risk perceptions, have impeded their implementation. Risk perceptions within the water sector are often unrecognized or unacknowledged, despite their role in risk management generally in informing value judgments and specifically in ranking risks to achieve management objectives. There has been very little examination of the role of these risk perceptions in advancing more sustainable water supply management through the adoption of alternative sources. To address this gap, this article presents a framework that can be used as a tool for understanding risk perceptions. The framework is built on the relational theory of risk and presents the range of human phenomena that might influence the perception of an “object at risk” in relation to a “risk object.” It has been synthesized from a critical review of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical studies of perception broadly and risk perception specifically, and interpreted in relation to water practitioners. For a water practitioner, the risk object might be an alternative water system, a component, a process, or a technology, and the object at risk could be public or environmental health, profitability, or professional reputation. This framework has two important functions: to allow practitioners to understand their own and others’ risk perceptions, which might differ, and to inform further empirical research.     

The Development of Risk Analysis: A Personal Perspective

This article reflects on my experiences observing and participating in the development of risk analysis for environmental and health hazards since the 1970s with emphasis on its critical role in informing decisions with potentially high consequences, even for very low probability events once ignored or simply viewed as “acts of God.” I discuss how modern society wants to protect itself from hazards with limited or no immediate historical precedent such that prediction and protective actions must depend on models that offer varying degrees of reliability. I believe that we must invest in understanding risks and risk models to ensure health in the future and protect ourselves from large challenges, including climate change, whether anthropogenic or otherwise, terrorism, and perhaps even cosmic change.     

中国公司治理理论与实证研究——国家杰出青年基金项目(70525005)回溯

回顾了国家杰出青年基金资助项目"企业理论"(70525005)的研究情况,分析了该项目的研究背景及意义,介绍了该项目的主要研究内容与主要成果,列举了该项目的代表性论文和著作.     

Foresight Study on the Risk Governance of New Technologies: The Case of Nanotechnology

Technology‐led innovation represents an important driver of European economic and industrial competitiveness and offers solutions to societal challenges. In order to facilitate responsible innovation and public acceptance, a need exists to identify and implement oversight approaches focused on the effective risk governance of emerging technologies. This article describes a foresight study on the governance of new technologies, using nanotechnology as a case example. Following a mapping of the governance landscape, four plausible foresight scenarios were developed, capturing critical uncertainties for nanotechnology governance. Key governance elements were then stress tested within these scenarios to see how well they might perform in a range of possible futures and to inform identification of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for nanotechnology governance in Europe. Based on the study outcomes, recommendations are proposed regarding the development of governance associated with the responsible development of new technologies.