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Despite the increasing demand for socially responsible investments (SRIs) and the importance of information intermediaries in providing corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance information through SRI screens, relatively little is known about the relationship between nonprofessional investors’ views regarding SRI, their use of SRI screens and their actual SRI behavior. This study aims to distinguish between investor views about the importance of corporate environmental responsibility (environmental performance importance views) and whether they view environmentally responsible firms as yielding higher returns (environmental performance return views). It examines the association between these views, SRI screen use and reported SRI holdings.

Nonprofessional investor participants completed an online survey about their SRI investment views, screen use and investment behavior. The survey yielded 201 usable responses.

The strength of participants’ environmental performance importance and environmental performance return views is positively associated with their use of SRI screens and the proportion of their portfolios held in SRIs. SRI screen use only partially mediates the association between investors’ environmental performance importance and return views and their SRI holdings.

The study does not precisely address what types of SRI screens nonprofessional investors may be using. It does not control for investors’ specific experience with SRIs, nor does it examine how or why investors come to believe that environmental responsibility may improve a company’s return potential.

The fact that SRI screen use only partially mediates the association between investors’ views and their SRI holdings suggests that either reliable, unfiltered CSR information is important for nonprofessional investors or some investors are choosing SRIs without obtaining adequate relevant information.

The study’s findings confirm earlier research findings which show an association between investors’ pro-environmental views and their decision to invest in SRIs (Williams, 2007; Nilsson, 2008) and suggest that nonprofessional investors are becoming aware of the positive relation between environmental performance and firm value (Dhaliwal et al., 2011; Clarkson et al., 2013; Hawn et al., 2014; Matsumura et al., 2014).

This study simultaneously examines the influence of environmental performance importance (an “alternative” investment perspective) and environmental performance return (a “traditional” investment perspective) on investors’ SRI behavior.

This paper aims to examine the influence of sustainability assurance report format (separate versus combined with financial information assurance) and level (limited versus reasonable) on nonprofessional investors’ judgments.

This study uses a 2 × 2 between-participants experiment with 436 US nonprofessional investors. The authors manipulate sustainability assurance report format and level to identify differences in judgments of information credibility, investment desirability and investment amount.

This study finds that sustainability assurance level influences participants’ judgments only when the financial and sustainability assurance reports are presented separately. Specifically, participants assess sustainability performance information as more credible and make higher investment judgments when presented with a separate limited, as opposed to reasonable, assurance sustainability report.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board expressed concerns regarding whether assurance reports accompanying emerging forms of extended external reporting (EER) effectively communicate the level of assurance provided by the independent practitioner. The result that assurance level does not influence investor judgments in the combined reporting format appears contrary to the idea that integrated reporting should provide connectivity between financial and sustainability information. The finding that investors make higher investment and credibility judgments with limited assurance is inconsistent with the intent of sustainability assurance professional guidance and recent research results. Together, the findings suggest that investors may not be able to distinguish between differing levels of sustainability assurance when this information is presented in a combined report format.

Standard setters should consider how sustainability assurance report format and assurance level impact nonprofessional investor judgments.

Research on the effects of EER assurance report format is sparse. The results indicate that even slight changes in assurance report wording may cause investors to perceive that a limited assurance report conveys a higher assurance level than a reasonable assurance report.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether investor views regarding the benefits of corporate environmental responsibility moderate the influence of environmental performance and assurance information on their judgments. Specifically, the authors examine the effects of two broad views: environmental responsibility is more important than financial performance, regardless of investment returns (i.e. environmental responsibility importance) and positive environmental performance will increase investment returns (i.e. environmental performance return).

Nonprofessional investors completed an online study where environmental performance (high or low) and assurance on environmental performance information (present or absent) were varied. Participants’ corporate environmental responsibility views were assessed using a series of questions adapted from Cheah et al.’s (2011) study.

Environmental performance and assurance information had a greater influence on the investment judgments of investors with strong environmental responsibility views. In contrast, participants’ environmental performance return views did not moderate the influence of environmental performance and assurance information on their judgments. Supplemental analysis indicates that these contrasting results are due to the fact that the two investor views have differing influences on the relative importance that investors place on financial vs environmental performance information.

This study presented participants with summarized financial and environmental performance information to maintain scale compatibility between financial and environmental measures. However, the information was presented in a format similar to those used by online brokerages.

This study suggests that financial statement preparers should consider investors’ views regarding the importance and value of environmental performance information when making decisions to disclose and obtain assurance on this information.

Standard setters should consider individual differences among investors when developing guidance regarding the disclosure and assurance of environmental performance information.

There is limited prior research which examines how investors’ views of the importance of environmental performance information may influence investment judgments. This research indicates that the strength of investors’ environmental responsibility importance moderates the previously reported influence of environmental performance and assurance information on investment judgments.

As more companies choose to disclose corporate social responsibility (CSR) information, it is important to gain an understanding of the quality of disclosures and factors that influence quality. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of culture as a determinant of the quality of voluntary carbon emission disclosures.

This study uses regression analysis to test the influence of culture on the quality of carbon disclosures. The sample of this study comes from companies who voluntarily report to the carbon disclosure project. The authors operationalize the quality of disclosure using the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. The authors operationalize cultural values using both Hofstede’s metrics (Hofstede, 1980) and Project GLOBE (House et al., 2004).

This study predicts and finds a negative relationship between quality of disclosure and high individualism scores. This study also finds that the quality of disclosure is lower for companies located in countries with high power distance scores. The authors find that the quality of disclosure is higher for companies located in countries with gender/assertiveness scores that indicate a higher value on the environment than on the importance of economic growth. While quality is marginally related to uncertainty avoidance using Hofstede's measure, quality is not related to uncertainty avoidance using the Project GLOBE metric. The authors did not find a hypothesized negative significant relationship between quality and long-term orientation.

Quality is a measure of importance to users and regulators of disclosures.

National culture is an important determinant of CSR disclosure quality.

This study extends the previous research by using a metric for quality based on an independent evaluation of disclosures and by the role of culture in a multi-country study.

New product “time to market” in the information technology (IT) industry is increasingly critical to a company′s competitiveness. Early product release into the marketplace will ensure higher profit margins, quicker returns on investment and therefore greater opportunity for a company to retain its market leadership in that product area. ICL Manufacturing Division is in the process of implementing information systems which support concurrent engineering concepts and facilitate automated processing of information from design to manufacturing. These integrated systems are based on distributed relational database technologies and open system standards. Provides an overview of the facilities and topology of the implemented environments within the engineering planning areas.

The authors determine the effectiveness of the Rainfall Index Annual Forage Program (RIAFP) in offsetting yield risk of winter annual forage growers. The authors also evaluate the effectiveness in reducing risk of potential alternative weather indices.

The RIAFP is designed to compensate forage producers when yield losses occur. Prior research found weak correlation between the rainfall index and actual winter annual forage yields. The authors use long-term small-plot variety trials of rye, ryegrass, wheat, triticale and oats with rainfall recorded on site and measure the correlation of the index with actual rainfall and actual yields. The alternative indices include frequency of precipitation events and of days with temperature below freezing.

The correlation between actual rainfall and the current RMA index was strongly positive as in previous research. Correlations between forage yields and monthly intervals of the current RMA index were mostly statistically insignificant, and many had an unexpected sign. All indices had some correlations that were inconsistent across time intervals and forage variety. The inconsistent signs suggest a nonlinear relationship with weather and forage yield, indicating that rainfall can be too much or too little. The number of days below freezing has the most potential of the three measures examined.

Producers should view the winter forage RIAFP as a risk-increasing income-transfer farm program. A product to reduce the risk for forage producers may need to use a crop growth simulation model or another approach that can capture the nonlinearity.

Considerably more data were considered than in past research. Past research did not consider alternative weather indices. The program should be continued if its goal is to serve as disguised income transfer, but it should be discontinued if its goal is to reduce risk.

This paper aims to draw on Seamon’s(2012a, 2012b, 2014, 2015, 2018) theories on the “processes of place attachment” to understand the influence of place attachment on community leadership and the management of four towns in the Barossa region of South Australia.

The research methodology combines photo-elicitation, participant observation and in-depth interviews with 12 community leaders across four town groups. Scannell and Gifford’s(2010) tripartite model for place attachment is used to segment qualitative interview data to understand the nature of place attachment of community leaders. This was followed by thematic analysis using Seamon’s(2012a, 2014, 2018) six processes of place attachment to understand how the dynamics of place attachment as a series of processes interact to influence community leadership and place-based action.

The research revealed that community leaders in the Barossa region regularly confront a tension between the “Being” and “Becoming” of Place. It also suggests that place attachment for new residents is accelerated by engaging multiple place attachment processes; these can be measured using the research methodology in this study. The result is a tipping point where place leadership from new residents can accelerate towards the “Being of Place” showing a tendency towards protectionist behaviour commonly seen amongst long-term residents.

Testing the findings in this paper in other rural regions and other cultural contexts will add further insight and validation of these findings. It is recommended that future research could further develop this approach through engaging multiple place-based community groups in the same town and across different locations to understand the pattern language of communities with more accuracy.

This study has enabled a deeper understanding of place-based community groups and their motivations to protect the status quo or promote change in the development and management of the place. Each community requires a tailored approach to place management and development to activate community resources and partnerships successfully. This research also provides knowledge on how to accelerate place attachment for new residents to improve their sense of belonging, value and purpose by engaging programs that engage all six place attachment processes.

The research reveals that place relations are dynamic, complex and often political. Rural towns display a pattern language for how they engage networks and resources that government needs to understand to engage community stewardship of place – its social, environmental and economic setting. This research offers a method to better understand the pattern language of place attachment that drives community leadership and place management to help communities sustain themselves and adapt to change.

The research explores the inter-relationship between the place attachment of community leaders and their response to change from different types of community impacts such as bushfires or the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding these processes is valuable in informing place management partnerships between community, business and government.

This study identifies the various governance dimensions for environmental, social and governance (ESG) implementations, including reporting. Subsequently, it investigates the governance structures in place to steer these dimensions in project-based and project-oriented organizations.

A systematic literature review identifies 11 organizational governance dimensions for ESG implementations, followed by a conceptual mapping of these dimensions to the most likely governance structures being set up for their implementation (i.e. single-level, multi-level and polycentric governance).

Eleven governance dimensions are identified and categorized under (1) organizational settings, (2) ESG strategy and (3) implementation. The conceptual mapping of these dimensions against the governance structures for their implementation identifies an inverse relationship between the governance level in the organizational hierarchy and the complexity of governance structures needed for steering these dimensions. The paper suggests a variety of context-dependent governance structures and contributes to the governance literature on the interface between projects and their parent organizations.

Academics benefit from an organization-wide model and the first taxonomy on the relevant governance dimensions for ESG implementation and reporting projects, thus a first approach to theorizing the governance of ESG implementations.

The results are of value for practitioners by allowing them to understand the diversity of dimensions and the structural implementation of ESG and its reporting.

One of the first studies to address governance of ESG implementation and reporting across intra-organizational boundaries between the permanent and the project-based parts of the organization. This provides for organization-wide improvements in the governance toward the UN Sustainability Goals.

The paper investigates the under-researched link of governance implementations from the corporate level to individual projects in the context of ESG implementations, including reporting.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse ratings data from the recently developed Learning Disability Needs Assessment Tool (LDNAT) to identify factors associated with specialist intellectual disability (ID) hospital admissions.

Ratings from 1,692 individuals were analysed and the LDNAT items differing significantly between inpatients and non-inpatients were identified. Statistical analyses on total scores derived from these items were used to calculate an optimal cut-off. This LDNAT inpatient index score was also confirmed via an alternative statistical technique.

On average, 18 of the 23 LDNAT item ratings were significantly higher in people with ID assessed as inpatients compared to those rated in community settings. Using the total of these items, the resulting LDNAT inpatient index was analysed. A cut-off score of 22.5 was calculated to be the optimal balance between sensitivity (0.833) and specificity (0.750). This was confirmed by calculating the Youden index (j=0.583). At this level 68 per cent of inpatients and 81 per cent of non-inpatient cases were correctly identified.

Currently there is a national (UK) programme to radically reduce the amount of specialist inpatient care for people ID. This will necessitate early identification of individuals most at risk of admission together with investment in improved, proactive community services if admissions to a diminishing bed-base are to remain manageable.

This study confirms the associations between mental health difficulties, challenging behaviour and specialist hospital admissions for people with ID, extending existing research by translating these findings into a clinically usable risk index.