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1 – 10 of over 1000Halina Waniak-Michalak and Jan Michalak
The study aims to determine whether a relationship exists between the potential significance of corporate controversies for stakeholders and how organisations respond to them in…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to determine whether a relationship exists between the potential significance of corporate controversies for stakeholders and how organisations respond to them in their annual and sustainability reports.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs content analysis on annual and sustainability reports of 48 listed companies from the Refinitiv database. The logit regression was used to estimate the model.
Findings
The study revealed that the main factors increasing the probability of a controversial issue being addressed in a corporate report are the controversy’s potential significance, companies’ financial performance and lawsuits.
Research limitations/implications
Our study has three major limitations. These are a relatively small sample of companies and reports, focusing on disclosures made in corporate reports and omitting other channels of communication, for example, social media, and a certain amount of subjectivity in the process of coding information.
Social implications
Former studies show that corporations face a serious risk of their hypocritical strategies becoming too evident for stakeholder groups. Our findings suggest that the risk is already materialising and may undermine the idea of CSR and sustainability reporting.
Originality/value
Our research focuses on high-profile adverse incidents widely reported in the media, the omission of which from corporate reports seems to constitute a particular case of organised hypocrite. It also demonstrates that companies use an impression management strategy to defuse adverse publicity and that major controversies cause minor ones to be omitted from their reports.
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Paolo Agnese, Massimiliano Cerciello, Emanuela Giacomini and Simone Taddeo
In recent years, European banks have been required to integrate environmental and social objectives into their business practices. At the same time, they have become increasingly…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, European banks have been required to integrate environmental and social objectives into their business practices. At the same time, they have become increasingly exposed to environmental, social and governance (ESG) controversies. This paper empirically examines the relationship between the board characteristics of banks (i.e. size, gender diversity, meeting frequency, sustainability compensation incentives and the presence of a sustainability committee) and exposure to ESG-related controversies.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical analysis focuses on a sample of 61 European banks between 2012 and 2021. Employing generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation, the authors examine the relationship between board characteristics and ESG controversies.
Findings
The results of the study indicate that banks featuring certain board characteristics (i.e. larger and more gender-diverse boards, facing sustainability compensation provisions and having sustainability committees) experience lesser exposure to ESG controversies. Additionally, the authors ascertain that prior instances of ESG controversies play a role in influencing current levels of such controversies. This result highlights the relevance of a bank's historical trajectory.
Research limitations/implications
The authors' sample contains banks based in the European Union (EU). Future research should broaden the analysis to encompass banks operating in other advanced countries, as well as in emerging countries. This expansion would offer more insights into the relationship between board characteristics and ESG controversies under different regulatory frameworks.
Practical implications
The authors' findings provide relevant implications for several stakeholders, including shareholders, regulators and supervisors. Certain board characteristics should be taken into consideration to limit exposure to ESG controversies.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper represents the first attempt to provide evidence of the link between strong corporate governance standards and reduced exposure to ESG controversies.
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Jan Svanberg, Tohid Ardeshiri, Isak Samsten, Peter Öhman, Presha E. Neidermeyer, Tarek Rana, Frank Maisano and Mats Danielson
The purpose of this study is to develop a method to assess social performance. Traditionally, environment, social and governance (ESG) rating providers use subjectively weighted…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a method to assess social performance. Traditionally, environment, social and governance (ESG) rating providers use subjectively weighted arithmetic averages to combine a set of social performance (SP) indicators into one single rating. To overcome this problem, this study investigates the preconditions for a new methodology for rating the SP component of the ESG by applying machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) anchored to social controversies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study proposes the use of a data-driven rating methodology that derives the relative importance of SP features from their contribution to the prediction of social controversies. The authors use the proposed methodology to solve the weighting problem with overall ESG ratings and further investigate whether prediction is possible.
Findings
The authors find that ML models are able to predict controversies with high predictive performance and validity. The findings indicate that the weighting problem with the ESG ratings can be addressed with a data-driven approach. The decisive prerequisite, however, for the proposed rating methodology is that social controversies are predicted by a broad set of SP indicators. The results also suggest that predictively valid ratings can be developed with this ML-based AI method.
Practical implications
This study offers practical solutions to ESG rating problems that have implications for investors, ESG raters and socially responsible investments.
Social implications
The proposed ML-based AI method can help to achieve better ESG ratings, which will in turn help to improve SP, which has implications for organizations and societies through sustainable development.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first studies that offers a unique method to address the ESG rating problem and improve sustainability by focusing on SP indicators.
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Qian Long Kweh, Irene Wei Kiong Ting, Chunya Ren and Jawad Asif
This study investigates how the initiatives and controversies related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) explain firm efficiency.
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how the initiatives and controversies related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) explain firm efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, this study applies data envelopment analysis with the epsilon-based measure to estimate the firm efficiency of 80 companies in the Chinese energy sector in 2022. This approach accounts for the diversity and relative importance of inputs and outputs from a multidimensional perspective. Secondly, this study regresses the variables of ESG initiatives and controversies on the estimated firm efficiency scores through a generalised additive model, which can capture nonlinear patterns.
Findings
This study finds that a) the samples have i) about 49% room for improvement in efficiently optimising their resources and business outcomes and ii) the highest scores in governance initiatives, followed by social initiative. b) 69% of them have controversy scores that are greater than the average value. c) A cluster analysis indicates that companies with higher social initiatives have higher firm efficiency than their counterparts. d) ESG initiatives and controversies are nonlinearly related to firm efficiency.
Research limitations/implications
The findings have practical implications for policy makers and managers who prioritise ESG, particularly regarding (i) the need to examine firm performance from a multidimensional perspective, that is, to measure multiple inputs and outputs simultaneously, (ii) the nonlinearity of the nexus between ESG and efficiency in graphical forms, and (iii) the need to balance ESG initiatives and address ESG controversies.
Originality/value
This study integrates statistical approaches in examining and ensuring sustainable growth and efficiency within the Chinese energy sector and beyond.
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This paper contains a theoretically inspired discussion of recent Norwegian controversies related to the management of public library space as a civil public sphere.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper contains a theoretically inspired discussion of recent Norwegian controversies related to the management of public library space as a civil public sphere.
Design/methodology/approach
This study engages with theories of civil public spheres and their application within a Nordic context. The theories are applied in discussions of recent controversies related to the management of Norwegian public libraries as civil public spheres, as represented in professional journals and press articles.
Findings
Through the discussion, it becomes apparent that the value of neutrality and librarians' inclusive practices on the part of societal minorities might be conflicting when managing public libraries as civil public spheres.
Originality/value
This paper engages with recent library controversies in Norway and discusses them in light of recent scholarly work on library activism in a Nordic context, as well as recent theorizations of civil public spheres in the Nordic countries. It thus connects ongoing discussions among Norwegian librarians with recent library research and ongoing theorization of civil public spheres within the Nordic model.
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INDIA/US: Plot controversy will not derail partnership
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-ES284186
ISSN: 2633-304X
Keywords
Geographic
Topical
Foster B. Roberts, Milorad M. Novicevic and John H. Humphreys
The purpose of this study is to present ANTi-microhistory of social innovation in education within Robert Owen’s communal experiment at New Harmony, Indiana. The authors zoom out…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to present ANTi-microhistory of social innovation in education within Robert Owen’s communal experiment at New Harmony, Indiana. The authors zoom out in the historical context of social innovation before zooming into the New Harmony case.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used ANTi-microhistory approach to unpack the controversy around social innovation using the five-step procedure recently proposed by Mills et al. (2022), a version of the five-step procedure originally proposed by Tureta et al. (2021).
Findings
The authors found that the educational leaders of the New Harmony community preceded proponents of innovation, such as Drucker (1957) and Fairweather (1967), who viewed education as a form of social innovation.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the history of social innovation in education by exploring the New Harmony community’s education society to uncover the enactment of sustainable social innovation and the origin story of humanistic management education.
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Francesco Baldi and Neophytos Lambertides
This study investigates the relation between ESG-driven investment strategies and the performance of infrastructure funds. More specifically, this study examines the impact of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the relation between ESG-driven investment strategies and the performance of infrastructure funds. More specifically, this study examines the impact of the different dimensions – environmental (E), social (S) and governance (G) – of the ESG profile of infrastructure funds on their performance.
Design/methodology/approach
To study the risk-return properties of infrastructure funds and the relationship with their ESG profiles, an econometric analysis is conducted, based on a sample of 180 listed, ESG-oriented infrastructure funds identified through Refinitiv Eikon.
Findings
The results show that infrastructure funds with more solid environmental investment policies experience a lower performance, while those with a stronger social orientation yield a superior performance. Governance-related investment policies seem trivial in determining the performance of these funds. Further analysis shows that ESG controversies have a negative impact on infrastructure funds' performance, whereas Emissions and Resource Use scores, both proxying for different elements under the environmental pillar, have opposite signs. Finally, the Community score has a positive impact on funds' performance consistent with the positive impact of the social pillar score. The study also provides a number of sub-sample analyses to shed light on the conditions under which each pillar has significant impact on funds’ performance.
Practical implications
First, infrastructure funds should choose the composition of their portfolio holdings in a way that the total return is not penalized by the prevalence of the tricky E aspects (compliance with environmental regulations) over the main benefits of the S dimension. Second, fund managers need to bet on infrastructures with an expected impact on the social pillar dimension such as those aimed at promoting the wealth of the local communities (e.g. hospitals, schools). Third, to strengthen the fund's social dimension, fund managers must increase the dollar amount of the assets under management to count on a higher firepower.
Originality/value
This study makes three contributions to literature. First, the ESG profiles of the infrastructure funds operating both at local and global level and their relationship with annual performance are studied. Second, the different dimensions of the ESG profile of infrastructure funds are investigated by measuring their impact on performance. Third, the study sheds light on some detailed but relevant aspects of this phenomenon by analyzing the breakdown of the ESG profile of infrastructure funds into four sustainability sub-scores capturing their efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, the use of polluting materials and to influence local communities as well their exposure to the risk of litigation due to the occurrence of ESG controversies. This study addresses the extent to which the adoption of ESG investment policies by the infrastructure funds have an impact on their performances.
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IRAN: Nuclear controversies may regain salience
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-ES286671
ISSN: 2633-304X
Keywords
Geographic
Topical
MOROCCO: Family code reforms will raise controversy