This study aims to analyze whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) report characteristics, including disclosure level and external assurance, and reporting firms’ CSR…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) report characteristics, including disclosure level and external assurance, and reporting firms’ CSR performance, explain variation in cost of equity capital among CSR disclosers.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a propensity score matched sample of CSR reports prepared according to the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G3/G3.1 Reporting Guidelines.
Findings
Overall, there does not appear to be a difference in cost of equity capital among CSR disclosers based on GRI disclosure level. The exception is for poor CSR performers reporting at the highest GRI disclosure levels, but not obtaining assurance. These firms may be suspected of greenwash and therefore have higher cost of equity capital than the reference group. Poor CSR performers, especially those reporting at the highest GRI disclosure levels, obtain the greatest cost of equity capital benefit associated with external assurance.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by showing that the cost of equity capital benefits associated with CSR disclosure and assurance do not accrue equally to all CSR disclosers. Specifically, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence of the cost of equity capital consequences of suspected greenwashing and empirically demonstrate the role of external assurance in mitigating greenwashing concerns among poor performers.
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Power relations affect all aspects of our lives. MacGregor Burns states that “Power is ubiquitous; it permeates human relationships … Power shows many faces and takes many forms”…
Abstract
Power relations affect all aspects of our lives. MacGregor Burns states that “Power is ubiquitous; it permeates human relationships … Power shows many faces and takes many forms”. The purpose of this paper was to explore women principals’ experiences with power relations in the schools during times of increase in decentralization and accountability. The findings of this phenomenological study were that the six principals viewed power as an enabling, and a positive energy for change and growth in schools rather than a source of “top‐down” domination. Their descriptions of power also asserted that “power is not reducible to any one source”, and that an understanding of poststructuralist and structuralist theories of power will be essential for school leaders facing the dilemmas and challenges of the twenty‐first century.
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Corporations and businesses have been a major influence on society since before the industrial revolution, but academic focus on corporate responsibilities is a recent phenomenon…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporations and businesses have been a major influence on society since before the industrial revolution, but academic focus on corporate responsibilities is a recent phenomenon which focuses predominantly on globalised multi-national corporations of the late twentieth century. The purpose of this paper is to consider the evolution of the corporate responsibility and community involvement tracing the development of corporate behaviours in the UK from medieval guilds to the modern form of corporation seen at the end of the last century.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis considers the institutional forces which have shaped responsible business behaviours in a context of changing power and influence.
Findings
Drawing on Weber's notion of the ideal-type, this paper demonstrates that many “modern” corporate social responsibility (CSR) concepts such as codes of conduct, stakeholder consultation, and corporate donations have considerable heritage.
Originality/value
This paper develops an important precedent by examining the evolution of CSR and other aspects of corporate engagement. It develops a long-term instrumental context for corporate donations, whilst revealing that practices such as employee volunteering are considerably more recent, and less institutionally developed.
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Dr Peter Stokes, Dr Neil Moore, Dr Simon Brooks and Paul Caulfield and Jessica Wells
Maria Salete Batista Freitag, Jéssica Borges de Carvalho, Altair Camargo Filho and Fernanda Paula Arantes
The purpose of this study is to investigate how the process of becoming an entrepreneur in the cooperation and poverty contexts takes place.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how the process of becoming an entrepreneur in the cooperation and poverty contexts takes place.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a phenomenological approach for data collection purposes. Autoscopy, which is a methodological device of reflective nature, was herein applied to a group of interlocutors comprising seven representatives of waste pickers’ cooperatives (RC). Data analysis focused on defining the meaning of participants’ speech was conducted in compliance with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis guidelines.
Findings
The current findings have shown that becoming a representative of cooperatives involves mobilization toward empowerment and a sense of collectively doing on behalf of community interests. Moreover, these RCs become entrepreneurs in the poverty context, as they perceive opportunities, are persistent and take risks pursuing alternatives for both the survival and improvement of theirs own living conditions, and of others.
Research limitations/implications
Adopting a reflective approach associated with an ontology of becoming could have led to deeper results if the current research was a longitudinal study, rather than a cross-sectional one.
Practical implications
Training programs provided for waste pickers should take into consideration that their learning process is mainly based on practice.
Social implications
Behaviors disclosed by participants toward fostering collective and entrepreneurial actions in the poverty context may be an inspiration for future changes.
Originality/value
The methodological option for adopting a reflective approach resulted in a contribution device that is barely applied to research in the management field; thus, the current investigation can introduce a new pathway for further research.
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Louise St-Arnaud and Émilie Giguère
This paper aims to examine the experience of women entrepreneurs and the challenges and issues they face in reconciling the work activities of the family sphere with those of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the experience of women entrepreneurs and the challenges and issues they face in reconciling the work activities of the family sphere with those of the entrepreneurial sphere.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a materialist feminist perspective and a theory of living work that take into account the visible and invisible dimensions of the real work performed by women entrepreneurs. The methodology is based on a qualitative research design involving individual and group interviews conducted with 70 women entrepreneurs.
Findings
The results show the various individual and collective strategies deployed by women entrepreneurs to reconcile the work activities of the family and entrepreneurial spheres.
Originality/value
One of the major findings emerging from the results of this study relates to the re-appropriation of the world of work and organization of work by women entrepreneurs and its emancipatory potential for the division of labour. Through the authority and autonomy they possessed as business owners, and with their employees’ cooperation, they integrated and internalized tasks related to the work activities of the family sphere into the organization of work itself. Thus, not only new forms of work organization and cooperation at work but also new ways of conceiving of entrepreneurship as serving women’s life choices and emancipation could be seen to be emerging.
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Jessica Bagger, Jochen Reb and Andrew Li
– The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the role of anticipated regret in time-based work-family conflict decisions.
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the role of anticipated regret in time-based work-family conflict decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 90 working parents responded to a decision making problem describing a time-based conflict between a work event and a family event. Participants' preference for which event to attend constituted the dependent variable. Independent variables were participants' work and family centralities. Anticipated regret for choosing the work option and anticipated regret for choosing the family option were measured as hypothesized mediators.
Findings
Structural equation modeling revealed that anticipated regret for choosing the family option mediated the relationship between work centrality and preference for the family option. Similarly, it was found that anticipated regret for choosing the work option mediated the relationship between family centrality and preference for the family option.
Originality/value
This article contributes to work-family and decision making literatures by studying the intersection of the two fields. Although most work-family research studies ongoing conflict, this study focuses on one decision event. The findings suggest that anticipated regret plays a significant role in how individuals resolve time-based work-family conflict.
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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.