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.
翻译:本文的目的:本文件探讨了欧洲联盟中小企业循环经济绿色就业的规模和潜力,探讨了欧洲联盟中小企业循环经济绿色就业的规模和潜力,并调查了绿色就业和技能对实施循环经济做法的作用。设计/方法/做法:数据是在欧洲气压计调查中收集的,并提到资源效率、绿色市场和循环经济做法。缺乏环境专门知识是在执行资源效率行动时可能被视为障碍的因素之一。以前的研究表明,尽管所有欧洲国家的公司都采用了资源效率做法,但各国内部和国家之间都存在差异。通过对具有多层次潜伏阶级模式、等级分组方法的公司和国内的异质性进行研究,完成了对欧洲中小企业绿色行为决定因素的分析。结果:一项一般性的重要证据表明,没有专门从事绿色工作的工人与采用资源效率做法的可能性密切相关,同时认识到需要额外的环境技能对今后采取行动的意向产生了积极影响。 公司的其他特征对资源效率产生重大影响:在一般的、老年的和较大的企业中,采用高层次的集群组合方法,以及高层次的行业活动。