CSR NEWS | csr-literature.net - the online bibliography in business ethics http://csr-news.net/literature/ (c) Wietse Balkema, Arthur van Bunningen, Hendri Hondorp, Dennis Reidsma +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14067 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Some mutual funds not only apply the usual asset management and custodial fees, but also front loads and redemption fees as a kind of 'toll charge' payable on entering and/or leaving the fund. The aim of this work is to examine the implications of the different loads and fees applied to mutual fund investors in the Spanish market. The results show that there is a relationship between the various charges and fees. The fact that load fund companies charge higher management and custody fees proves the potential of the fund companies to impose higher fees on a segment of the clientele. The investors in load funds, which tend to be large in number of shareholders and belonging to banks and savings banks, are small investors who show a low cost sensitivity. A lower level of financial sophistication may be the reason for the apparent lower price awareness. The problem is that the investors in load funds are not financially compensated for the extra cost represented by the front-load and redemption fees. The only beneficiary seems to be the financial institution itself. On this view, the survival of load funds seems to depend on the lack of financial sophistication of their clientele, combined with market inefficiencies. It is worth asking about the ethics of a situation of market segmentation that allows managing institutions to benefit from the segment of the least sophisticated investors. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14066 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Concentrated attention on institutional investors' activism has been perceived in the last few decades and further intensified in the post-Enron era. A new area of particular significance that has emerged is institutional investors' growing awareness and practice of socially responsible investment (SRI). This article starts by reviewing the importance of institutional investor activism and the historical implication of SRI. Significantly, various elements that give rise to the growth of SRI in the modern business world are considered in detail. It is recognized that, although current empirical evidence suggests ambiguous effects of SRI, the positive impact of institutional investors' activism on SRI is likely to have been undermined due to the underdevelopment of evaluation systems, and SRI should stand out as a good investment option for its joint financial and societal concerns. Nevertheless, obstructions still exist in the exercise of investor activism and the pursuit of SRI strategy, which implies that, at least in the near future, SRI strategy will remain as a minor investment trend for institutional investors in Anglo-American countries. Additional regulatory methods and awarding schemes are, therefore, expected to motivate institutional investors' activism on SRI, and subsequently to promote global sustainability. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14065 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This article focuses on the issue of data mining as it relates to the consumer and to the issue of whether the consumer's private information has any proprietary status. A brief review of data mining is provided as a background for a better understanding of the purposes and uses of data mining. Also examined are several issues of the ethics of data mining, including a review of stakeholders, who they are and which may be most seriously affected by unethical data mining practices. Several suggestions for the improvement of data mining as it relates to the consumer are further presented: suggestions that would allow for data mining that would be beneficial to both the business community and the consumer. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14064 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This paper examines how progress on gender equality in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) might contribute to broader EU gender and sustainability objectives. It focuses on corporations and citizenship, and on company stakeholder relations (SR) in particular. While the literature on SR has previously engaged with scholarship on feminist ethics, and in particular the ‚Äòethics of care‚Äô, this paper draws upon the feminist citizenship and feminist ethics literature, and upon gender mainstreaming strategy to suggest a more comprehensive approach to gender equality within SR. The aim is to extend our understanding of CSR as a potential policy instrument to advance gender equality. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14063 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This article investigates conceptual and strategic relationships between corporate identity, organizational identity and ethics, utilizing the Benetton Corporation as an illustrative case study. Although much attention has been given to visual aspects of Benetton's renowned ethical brand building efforts, few studies have looked at how Benetton's employees, retail environments and trade events express ethical aspects of their well-known corporate identity. A multi-method case study, including interviews at retail outlets and trade events, sheds light on several important yet under-studied components of corporate identity, including stakeholders such as retail managers and contract employees. Analysis of Benetton's operations revealed disconnection and inconsistency, as well as a failure to communicate ethical values and socially responsible attributes throughout organizational identity. Operational identity emerged as a useful complement to models of corporate identity. We demonstrate the way in which organizations may fail to capitalize on positive aspects of their organizational identity by neglecting their operational identity. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14062 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST In this paper, the results of an empirical analysis of a set of 416 descriptive case studies published by corporate members of the UN Global Compact are presented. Although these cases cannot be viewed as representative of the Compact itself or of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and development in general, they can illustrate which kinds of projects are deemed appropriate as best practice examples among Compact members, and therefore indicate the direction, in which predominantly voluntary and business-led CSR might at best be evolving. To help contextualize the analysis, the paper starts with a brief overview of recent academic work on the strengths and limitations of CSR in the light of international development, followed by the empirical analysis of Compact case studies. The results raise doubts regarding the general suitability of contemporary CSR initiatives to tackle some of the most pressing developmental challenges. Instead, only certain topics are commonly addressed, while a number of issues such as anti-corruption measures or labour rights are underrepresented in the case study sample. Regarding the target regions of the best practice examples, the majority is reported on activities based in OECD countries and a small number of emerging markets such as South Africa, India or China, while neglecting other regions such as sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa). From a European Union policy perspective, these results indicate that there is a role to play for the state in order to create a better fit between CSR agendas and the actual developmental needs in the South. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14061 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The objective of this paper is to develop and describe a construct of the ethos of the corporate codes of ethics (i.e. an ECCE construct) across three countries, namely Australia, Canada and Sweden. The introduced construct is rather unique as it is based on a cross-cultural sample seldom seen in the literature. While the outcome of statistical analyses indicated a satisfactory factor solution and acceptable estimates of reliability measures, some research limitations have been stressed. They provide a foundation for further research in the field and testing of the ECCE construct in other cultural and corporate settings. We believe that the ECCE construct makes a contribution to theory and practice in the field as it outlines a theoretical construct for the benefit of other researchers. It is also of managerial interest as it provides a grounded framework of areas to be considered in the implementation in organizations of corporate codes of ethics. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14060 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14058 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14057 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14056 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14055 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14054 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14053 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14052 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14051 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14050 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14049 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14048 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This article addresses ethical and legal issues arising from the increasing use of e-mail and other forms of instant written communication in the conduct of business. E-mail communications are often casual and informal. Yet e-mail is a written record that can be more permanent and widely accessible than a paper communication. This article focuses on the implications of this fact, including (1) how individuals compromise their own privacy by the voluntary use of e-mail; (2) how e-mail has complicated the duty of confidentiality of employees to employers, and professionals to clients; (3) whether the use of e-mail affects ethical deliberation and choice; and (4) the use of e-mail as evidence of corporate conduct and intent in civil and criminal litigation. The article suggests that e-mail users think “forensically” about their e-mail—i.e., consider its potential as evidence in the context of other emails and underlying events— before pressing the “send” button. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14047 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Corporate social responsibility encompasses a multiplicity of different concepts, such that its nature is confused, and it remains difficult to operationalize because opening dialogue with and responding to the various expectations of diverse stakeholders is beyond the capacity of many companies. This paper adapts Mayston's normative “information beneficiaries” framework and focuses on intermediaries who might potentially use published financial information to open a restricted form of dialogue with companies, which might benefit unsophisticated stakeholders. The paper examines the Mayston framework using interviews conducted in organizations that might act on behalf of three stakeholder groups associated with gas and electricity suppliers in the United Kingdom, these being: consumers, employees, and the environment. While a long chain of communication exists between utility company and stakeholder, and many organizations do not fulfill their full potential as information intermediaries, there is some evidence that Mayston's framework might well operate in practice. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14046 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Contemporary advances in the fields of globalization and technologies raise the question of the relationship between international business and the global common good. Half of the hundred biggest economies in the world are now corporations. Nation-states were traditionally viewed as the guarantors of the common good; however, the current historical stage is marked by the waning of the role of government, and reveals an emerging situation characterized by a co-responsibility of multiple agents in this respect. Three major evolutions are likely to induce multinational corporations (MNCs) to take the global common good into account: the imperative of the preservation of our biosphere, the rise of an anti-globalization sentiment with all its potential consequences, and the necessity to design a global social contract. Besides, these three phenomena are interconnected, which adds to the pressure on MNCs to change their policies. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14045 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST We examine shareholder initiated social policy proposals' capacity to exert pressure on management to force it to adopt the suggested changes in policy. We show that social proposals, filed under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 14a-8, have a more limited capacity to change corporate social policy than it has been previously reported. However, the capacity to exert pressure on firms can be substantially higher for some types of filers, notably pension funds and mutual funds. The analysis also suggests that the capacity to influence management is higher for some types of issues presented in the resolution, such as those related to board diversity, energy and environment, and international laborand human rights. We also provide suggestions explaining why shareholder activism is a persistent practice despite its limited results. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14044 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The value added statements' (VAS) literature has been overwhelmingly normative and generally strongly suggested companies should produce a VAS, as did the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board in its Statement of Accounting Standards (NASB, 1984). This study investigated whether the perceived usefulness of the Nigerian VAS conformed to what the managers, as preparers, had envisioned the VAS to accomplish. Using methods pioneered in the empirical literature about the effects of information provision on managers, senior managers in two companies were interviewed about their past, current, and future views concerning the VAS. One company produced a VAS while the other did not produce one even when the Nigerian government made it mandatory. Empirical research about VAS is rare, especially the reasons for nonproduction of a VAS. The collection of interview data at the individual manager level enabled the findings to be compared with various aspects of the VAS literature, including emerging economies, finance studies in the United States, and normative literature in South Africa and UK studies. The non-VAS company respondents strongly considered the government to be the main user, compared with the employees as main users in UK studies. Our findings had some strong support for shareholders as did the United Kingdom. The majority of the VAS-producing respondents noted that a VAS might not be useful to employees, but could be used to measure productivity, demonstrating the function of VAS as a complementary performance indicator. The non-VAS company respondents did not know if a VAS measured productivity, as it was merely a rearrangement of the Income Statement and thus similar to UK views. The paper also provides suggestions for further research with both VAS and other financial representatives. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14043 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Political correctness (PC) seems to have exploded beyond all expectations in view of the weight that is currently attributed to this phenomenon in some societies on the globe. Indeed, PC can be considered an important factor in determining the success of an individual or group. At the same time, an "overdose" of PC, as with any other aspect of life, can lead to devastating effects. In this article a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of PC will be presented with the intention of revealing the positive as well as the negative sides of this phenomenon as well as the proper value that should be attributed to PC. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14042 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The article discusses various published within the issue including one by Kira Kristal Reed on firm-regulator exchanges in the banking industry, one by Leena Lankoski on economic impacts of corporate responsibility issues, and one by Paul Capriotti on mass media in Spain. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14041 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Extant literature has noted that traditional paper-based reporting is becoming less timely and less useful to decision makers. Stakeholder pressure is making companies use communication channels other than paper-based reporting, such as the Internet. This article seeks to contribute to the literature by analyzing the extent to which firms are using the Internet to communicate their corporate environmental reporting as a transparency information policy to manage corporate legitimacy. Because utility and resource industries are considered sensitive industries with regard to their impact on the natural environment, these firms are expected to offer corporate environmental reporting on the Web to cope with prevailing stakeholders pressures. This article also explores the environmental online disclosures made by Spanish publicly listed companies. Although sample firms practice corporate environmental reporting on the Web, results indicate differences between sample industries' Internet disclosures and the lack of a standardized framework for corporate environmental reporting. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14040 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The article announces that the journal "Business and Society" is now accepting submissions and proposals for its 50th anniversary volume. It is seeking submissions that will make strong theoretical contributions about business and society studies. It also accepts guest-edited issues and special reviews of literature, topics or reflections on the discipline of business and society. The International Association for Business and Society (IABS) is the official sponsor of the journal. The journal started its publication in late 1960. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14039 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Businesses play an important social role in society that goes beyond their traditional economic role. The way in which these roles are carried out and communicated to the stakeholders can influence the company's corporate reputation. The first step in constructing a corporate reputation is corporate visibility. The mass media plays an important role in developing corporate visibility. Media visibility has a significant influence on public opinion and contributes strongly to forming companies' corporate reputation. The main aim of this article is to test the level of visibility of companies in the media as well as the attributes (economic and/or social) assigned to the companies. The author presents the results of the research done on the media visibility of companies belonging to the Spanish Stock Exchange in the four most important newspapers in Spain. Two basic results were obtained: Larger companies, with good reputations and oriented to mass consumption, have more visibility in newspapers, and companies are basically presented as economic and not social actors in society. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14038 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The study examined whether there are systematic differences in the economic impacts of different corporate responsibility issues and found that the content of corporate responsibility does have an effect on economic impact. Economic impacts were more positive for corporate responsibility issues that reduce negative externalities than for those that generate positive externalities and more positive as well as for issues whose outcome benefits market stakeholders rather than nonmarket stakeholders. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14037 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This article examines the relational characteristics of firm-regulator interactions. Many political economists have focused on the relevance, costs, processes, and beneficiaries of regulation. Alternatively, most management researchers treat regulation as one of many environmental factors firms must consider in developing strategy. This article extends management research by examining the subjective, relational components of firm-regulator interactions. Using social exchange and relational governance theories, hypotheses are developed to examine how firms' interactions with their regulators affect both the frequency with which they are monitored and the evaluation they receive. A within-industry (i.e., banking), within-region (i.e., the Northeast) sample is used to examine the relational characteristics of firm-regulator interactions concerning the Community Reinvestment Act. The results indicate that relational characteristics explain a significant amount of incremental variance in predicting the frequency of monitoring and evaluation, over that explained by objective measures and prior performance. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14036 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This article extends the literature of organizational citizenship behavior in the context of environmental efforts. The authors provide support for the development of the construct, organizational citizenship behavior directed toward the environment (OCBE). They define OCBE as environmental efforts that are discretionary acts, within the organizational setting, not rewarded or required from the organization. This study also identifies key determinants of OCBE, including environmental concern, organizational commitment, perceived supervisory support for environmental efforts, and perceived corporate social performance. Directions for further research and implications for managers are provided. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14035 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST In recent years, the United Nations has taken a lead in advocating public-private partnerships (PPPs), and various UN entities actively seek partnerships and alliances with transnational corporations and other companies. Although there has been a rapid growth of PPPs, relatively little is known about their contribution to basic UN goals associated with inclusive, equitable and sustainable development. In response to this situation, there are increasing calls for impact assessments. This article argues that such assessments need to recognize the range of ideational, institutional, economic and political factors and forces underpinning the turn to PPPs, and the very different logics and agendas involved, some of which seem quite contradictory from the perspective of equitable development and democratic governance. The article examines these different forces and logics, focusing on (a) the institutional turn towards 'good governance', (b) economic contexts that relate to the very mixed 'fortunes' of UN agencies and corporations, (c) structural determinants associated with 'corporate globalisation' and (d) political drivers that relate to the struggle for hegemony and legitimisation. The article ends by reflecting critically on the tendency within mainstream development institutions and some strands of academic literature to highlight logics associated with good governance and pragmatism, and to disregard those associated with the strengthening of corporate interests and the neoliberal policy regime. It is argued that knowledge networks associated with the UN need to go beyond 'best practice learning' and embrace 'critical thinking', which has waned within UN circles since the 1980s. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14034 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This paper examines six cross-sector partnerships in South Africa and Zambia. These partnerships were part of a research study undertaken between 2003 and 2005 and were selected because of their potential to contribute to poverty reduction in their respective countries. This paper examines the context in which the partnerships were established, their governance and accountability mechanisms and the engagement and participation of the partners and the intended beneficiaries in the partnerships. We argue that a partnership approach which has proven successful in one context can be used as a valuable learning resource. However, a partnership's work, which includes all aspects of the partnership and its activities, cannot necessarily be transferred directly to another partnership without a thorough and locally informed analysis of the context in which it is implemented. In addition, we suggest that it is difficult to assess whether the good intentions behind partnerships were translated into real benefits for target groups as effective monitoring and evaluation procedures were not in place in the partnerships studied. Similarly, the absence of regularised governance and accountability systems in partnerships made it difficult to support partner and beneficiary participation and engagement. We conclude that there is a need to move beyond a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to partnerships and that partnership replication should focus more strongly on the transfer of learning about partnership processes instead of simply copying partnership activities. Moreover, the development of stronger mechanisms for assessing and ensuring accountability towards both partners and intended beneficiaries is required if partnerships are to meet their intended objectives. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14033 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Over the last two decades there has been a proliferation of partnerships between business and government, multilateral bodies, and/or social actors such as NGOs and local community organizations engaged in promoting development. While proponents hail these partnerships as an important new approach to engaging business, critics argue that they are not only generally ineffective but also serve to legitimate a neo-liberal, global economic order which inhibits development. In order to understand and evaluate the role of such partnerships, it is necessary to appreciate their diversity with respect to not only the activities that they engage in, but also the degree to which they are subject to social control. This paper distinguishes four different types of business partnerships, based upon differing degrees of social control: conventional business; corporate social responsibility; corporate accountability; and social economy. Each type of partnership is described, their basic forms are noted, and the conditions and prospects for them contributing to development are examined. By way of conclusion, an analysis is offered of how the different types of business partnerships relate to different conceptions of development and function as policy paradigms to promote different globalization agendas. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14032 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This paper makes a contribution to ongoing debates about whether and how we can empirically assess the potential, limitations, and actual impacts of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in developing countries. Several United Nations and bilateral aid agencies have called for the development of impact assessment (IA) methodologies that can help clarify when, how, where, and for whom partnerships work. This paper scrutinizes some of the key assumptions underlying this debate, arguing that no objective 'truth' about the effects of PPPs can be discovered through the use of such methodologies. The paper then investigates what can actually be known about a PPP's effects by testing a PPP IA framework that is recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is done using a case study from Pakistan. The paper shows that IA methodology may provide an indication of how well a PPP has fared, but not why the PPP has turned out the way it has. At the same time, win-win and win-lose outcomes may exist simultaneously, even for the same stakeholder in the PPP. While the importance of ensuring proper design, monitoring, and IA of PPPs cannot be denied, their effects must be seen as an outcome of struggles between a variety of actors over the distribution of social and environmental hazards associated with broader processes of economic development and industrialization. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14031 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The combination of corporate-community conflicts and oil transnational corporations‚Äô (TNCs) rhetoric about being socially responsible has meant that the issue of community development and poverty reduction have recently moved from the periphery to the heart of strategic business thinking within the Nigerian oil industry. As a result, oil TNCs have increasingly responded to this challenge by adopting partnership strategies as a means to contribute to poverty reductions in their host communities as well as secure their social licence to operate. This paper critically examines the strengths and weaknesses of the different community development partnership (CDPs) initiatives employed by Shell, Exxon Mobil and Total to contribute to poverty reduction within their host communities in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Drawing on empirical data and critical analysis, the paper argues that while the CDP initiatives by SPDC, MPN and EPNL have the potential to contribute to community development, the failure to integrate negative injunction duties into existing partnerships means that the partnerships make no difference to how oil TNCs conduct their core business operation. Consequently, CDPs have had limited positive impact on poverty reduction in the Niger Delta. The paper concludes by examining the implications of the emerging issues for partnership and poverty reduction. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14030 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Jeff miller concerning the disclosure of earnings by corporations, an article by Carcello on the role that gatekeeprs play in the functioning of corporate governmance, and an article by Laczniak on marketing to impoverished market segments. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14029 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Paul Bond is a lawyer who overheard two other lawyers at his office discussing the proposed purchase of a company by one of their clients. He proceeds to buy shares of this company. Would you rate Bond‚Äôs behavior completely fair, acceptable, unfair, or very unfair? I posed this vignette to samples of university students in China, Taiwan, and the U.S. Most students in the U.S. and Taiwan samples rated Bond‚Äôs behavior unfair or very unfair while most students in the China rated Bond‚Äôs behavior completely fair or acceptable. Perceptions of fairness are part of the culture of a country and culture affects business practices. I discuss culture, perceptions of fairness, and business practices in China, Taiwan, and the U.S. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14028 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The 'justice of markets' is intricately connected to the treatment of the poor and the disadvantaged in market economies. The increased interest of multinational corporations in low-income market segments affords, on one hand, the opportunity for a more inclusive capitalism, and on the other, the threat of greater exploitation of poor and disadvantaged consumers. This article traces the contributions of Catholic Social Teaching and its basic principles toward providing insight into what constitutes 'justice' in such 'marketing to the impoverished' situations. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14027 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly held US corporations to disclose all information, whether it is positive or negative, that might be relevant to an investor's decision to buy, sell, or hold a company's securities. The decisions made by corporate managers to disclose such information can significantly affect the judgments and decisions of investors. This paper examines academic accounting research on corporate managers' voluntary disclosures of earnings forecasts and non-GAAP earnings measures. Much of the evidence from this research indicates that some managers engage in opportunistic disclosure behavior that often benefits one group (managers and shareholders) at the expense of other groups (often other investors). The paper concludes by discussing the ethical implications of this behavior. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14026 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Insights from contemporary psychology can illuminate the common psychological processes that facilitate unethical decision making. I will illustrate several of these processes and describe steps that may be taken to reduce or eliminate the undesirable consequences of these processes. A generic problem with these processes is that they are totally invisible to decision makers - i.e., decision makers are convinced that their decisions are ethically and managerially sound. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14025 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST We examine the occurrence of ethics- related terms in 10-K annual reports over 1994-2006 and offer empirical observations on the conceptual framework of Erhard et al. ( Integrity: A Positive Model that Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics, and Legality (Harvard Business School, Harvard) ). We use a pre-Sarbanes-Oxley sample subset to compare the occurrence of ethics-related terms in our 10-K data with samples from other studies that consider virtue-related phenomena. We find that firms using ethics-related terms are more likely to be ‚Äúsin‚Äù stocks, are more likely to be the object of class action lawsuits, and are more likely to score poorly on measures of corporate governance. The consistency of our results across these alternative measures of ethical behavior suggests that managers who portray their firm as ‚Äúethical‚Äù in 10-K reports are more likely to be systematically misleading the public. These results are consistent with the integrity-performance paradox. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14024 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Three decades ago, planned obsolescence was a widely discussed ethical issue in marketing classrooms. Planned obsolescence is topical again today because an increasing emphasis on continuous product development promotes shorter durables replacement and disposal cycles with troublesome environmental consequences. This paper offers explanations of why product obsolescence is practiced and why it works. It then examines the ethical responsibilities of product developers and corporate strategists and their differing responses to this problem. Pro-environment product design and marketing practices and innovative government policies may alleviate the problem over time. However, given the current lack of understanding about consumer replacement and disposal behavior, it is questionable as to whether these practices and policies will be sufficiently informed to be effective. Thus, marketing scholars have a significant opportunity to contribute to sustainable durables product development. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14023 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Research from the fields of criminology and social psychology suggests that the deterrent effect of security countermeasures is not uniform across individuals. In this study, we examine whether certain individual characteristics (i.e., computer self-efficacy) or work arrangement (i.e., virtual status) moderate the influence of security policies, security education, training, and awareness (SETA) program, and computer monitoring on information systems misuse. The results suggest that computer savvy individuals are less deterred by SETA programs and computer monitoring, while these countermeasures are also less influential (from a deterrence perspective) on employees that spend more working days outside the office. Implications for both the research and practice of information security are discussed. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14022 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The importance of corporate governance in ensuring reliable financial reporting is examined in this article, and the roles of individuals involved in the governance process are examined from the perspective of ensuring the common good. Initially, adopting the positivist tradition that dominates the academic literature in accounting, the relations between financial reporting quality and the activities of senior management, the board of directors and its audit committee, and external auditors are examined. Unlike much of the academic literature, this article also adopts a normative perspective and offers suggestions as to the proper roles of these parties. Finally, suggestions for future research are offered. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14021 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement against labor abuses has gained momentum globally since the 1990s when many corporations adopted codes of conduct to regulate labor practices in their global supply chains. However, workers' participation in the process is relatively weak until very recently, when new worker empowerment programs are increasingly initiated. Using conceptual tool created by stakeholder theorists, this article examines dynamics and performance of worker participation in implementation process of codes of conduct through a case study of CSR practices of Reebok at one of its footwear supplier factories in south China. Empirical data was collected during 2002-2005 through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document reviews. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14020 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) comprise the sector of society that attempts to hold business and other institutions accountable for their social responsibility. Yet NGOs rarely have established governance mechanisms whereby their members and supporters can hold them accountable for their activities. In contrast, other major actors in the society - notably governments, corporations, and unions - maintain long established albeit imperfect instruments of governance and responsibility. This article presents a variety of ways in which NGOs could voluntarily strengthen their internal governance and thus become more accountable to their members and supporters as well as society at large. In the process, these important civil society organizations would enhance their effectiveness in achieving improvements in key areas of public policy. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14019 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST This paper explores the nature of the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitiveness. We start with the commonly held view that firm competitiveness is defined by the market. That is, the question of what are the critical competitiveness factors is answered by looking at how companies and financial analysts describe and evaluate a firm. To analyze this, we review the current state of the art on the relationship between CSR and competitiveness. Second, CSR criteria used by financial analysts is identified and compared with company valuation methods. Third, the results of a multi-stakeholder dialogue on CSR and competitiveness of the European financial sector are presented. As a conclusion, we argue that CSR and competitiveness relate through a learning and innovation cycle, where corporate values, policies and practices are permanently defined and re-defined. Thus, we propose that learning takes place as CSR is embedded in business processes, and that once it has been integrated, in turn, it generates innovative practices, and finally, competitiveness. At the end of the paper, we propose that CSR in practice consists of managing inherent paradoxes generated by the tension between CSR and business policies. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14018 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST The article discusses various reports published in the issue which focused on globalization, corporate social responsibilities, and corporate performance and accountability. +++ Further information are available at csr-literature.net http://csr-news.net/literature/index.php?page=publication&kind=single&ID=14017 Wed, 05 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EST