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This longitudinal research paper is based on a case study analysis of two Danish life science companies. The general purpose of the paper is to uncover changes in the reporting practices of experienced integrated reporting (IR) reporters. In order to meet that objective, a pragmatic constructivist paradigm was applied to make a better understanding of factors affecting disclosure decisions in the integrated reports.

The research uses a qualitative methodological approach. It is based on content and discourse analyses of the written documents, including the integrated reports, auditors' statements and independent assurance reports.

The model developed in this study reflects a real phenomenon related to the development of IR practices. The pragmatic constructivist paradigm explains how practitioners perceive business reality, act in the face of changing facts and values and make decisions regarding material disclosures.

The investigation of only two companies may be perceived as a limitation of this study. However, a small number of life science companies have prepared integrated reports for a long time. The selected organisations are the pioneers in that field and have drawn up integrated reports since 2002 or 2004.

This paper develops an original model of IR “concept in practice”. It considers the regulatory framework regarding materiality in IR through the prism of facts that form a basis for practical work. It also emphasises an impact of a value system and social context on disclosure decisions in integrated reports. In that way, a link between the constructivist paradigm and IR is created.

There is growing interest in corporate values but where do they come from? What factors determine corporate values? This paper argues that they are determined by corporate governance in a broad sense of the word. Three governance mechanisms are emphasized: ownership structure, board composition and stakeholder influence. In smaller companies founder‐owners often play a pivotal role in shaping corporate value systems that influence companies for years to come. In larger companies that separate ownership and control, managers and boards come to play a powerful role. In both cases repeated interaction with customers, employees and other stakeholders shape corporate values by way of corporate reputation and corporate culture.

This paper aims to address the evolution of corporate governance in Germany with a particular regard to whether there can be observed a gradual convergence to a shareholder primacy corporate governance system.

To investigate a potential shift of the German corporate governance system to an Anglo-American tiled corporate governance system, the authors have empirically assessed on a polynomial base 52 separate company and corporate governance variables for 20 years (1995-2014).

This research suggests that a gradual convergence has taken place prior to the global financial crisis. However, the results suggest that the convergence process experienced a slowdown in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, which may be linked to the stability of the German corporate governance system during the global financial crisis and the political environment during this time.

This paper contributes to the research by not only analysing the development of the German corporate governance system but also identifying new reasons for this development and explaining why a new convergence process may be observed in the future again.

Engaging corporate social responsibility (CSR) is essential to attain corporate sustainability. This paper aims to take the CSR from the viewpoints of a believing system, Christianity in an attempt to bridge a gap in the existing literature.

Through related literature reviews, research questions asked and grounding in the Christians' sacred text, the author seek to explore the Christians' social responsibilities and their relatedness to the CSR.

This paper highlights the interlocking principles – honoring God, one's neighbor, God's creation, great commissions and eternality concept – that shape the Christians' fundamental approaches toward their social responsibilities. These collective faith driven principles would redefine the existing CSR conceptions in a refined form that the author call a faith‐based CSR.

The paper discusses the applications of the faith‐based CSR in the areas of corporate philanthropy, environmental preservation and social reporting. The faith‐based CSR is inherently beneficial to the firms and their stakeholders. It refines the organizational paradigms on the business competition, and uncovers a corporate sustainability paradigm otherwise hidden to managers and scholars.

The Christians have significant presence in both developed and emerging nations. Their worldviews on the social responsibility, consequently, would have influenced the CSR practices of firms. Given the scant attentions paid to explore the intersection between a believing system and the business ethics, this paper can make a unique contribution to the area of CSR literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the basic problem of ingroup favoritism in a setting of high task interdependence is addressed through an intervention strategy combining different approaches.

This paper reports on evidence from extensive field-based case research. It focuses on the holistic description of a single high-performance logistics setting and discusses the distinct but interrelated managerial approaches against the backdrop of behavioral theory.

Most notably, the authors examine how culturally specific factors such as people’s social ingroup-outgroup categorization is reduced through a continual rotation of jobs. Work relationships are purposefully depersonalized and consequently socially reframed through reference to the corporate philosophy. Likewise, behaviors, roles and responsibilities are redefined based on a purposeful reinterpretation of the corporate philosophy. The authors evaluate these desired behaviors against the background of the perceptions of work group members and describe how these guide actual behaviors.

The insights of this study exemplify how adverse behavioral effects that may occur in some socio-cultural contexts may be avoided through the appropriate design of operations.

This study employs a holistic approach to provide valuable insights into both practitioners and academics in the field of OM to counteract detrimental behavioral effects in real-world operations.

This project explores tensions at the heart of the fair-trade organization Ten Thousand Villages. I investigate the ways in which this organization attempts to balance concerns of North American staff and volunteers, to care for artisans abroad, and to incorporate expansion plans in the face of challenges raised by the recession.

This chapter draws on fieldwork with stores in Toronto (2011–2012) and ongoing fieldwork (summer 2014 and 2015) with the flagship store in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

Members express continuing tension between the organization’s founding Mennonite values and the more recent orientation chosen by leadership, to compete successfully in “regular” retail space against non-fair-trade brands. Store staff and volunteers perceive Villages’ buying practices, meant to provide “fairness” to producers in the developing world, as somewhat inconsistent with the treatment of North American store employees. Corporate leadership is mainly focused on ameliorating poverty abroad, rather than framing the organization’s work in a broader social justice context, which store staff and volunteers expect.

At a time of increasing dialogue about alternative value systems that expand notions of economic worth, the fair-trade movement offers a useful model for one attempt to work within the market system to ameliorate its damages. Understanding how one organization negotiates its own competing value systems can provide useful perspective on other revaluation projects.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential of Web 2.0 technologies for knowledge management and to explore how corporate governance models influence the adoption of Web 2.0 for organisational learning and knowledge exchange.

The paper begins with a literature review to understand the phenomenon of Web 2.0. It introduces the opposing governance models of hierarchical pyramids and flat pancakes to assess barriers and leverage factors for the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies as a knowledge management system which is based on collaboration and the flow of information in networks; this discourse includes concepts for the nature of knowledge and decision‐making processes. Finally, the potential of Web 2.0 to drive empowerment of knowledge workers is discussed.

The potential of Web 2.0 technologies to act as a lever for organisational learning and knowledge exchange depends on the degree of openness, freedom, and employee empowerment in corporate environments. Work structures and communication processes differ between employees in corporate settings and peers in web communities. Peers enjoy a high degree of personal freedom and autonomy in their participative behaviour. Employees are on the contrary tied to policies of power, control, and interdependencies within business units.

This article links a discussion of Web 2.0 to ideas for corporate governance and the nature of knowledge. Particular attention is paid to decision‐making policies and organisational structures which pre‐determine the successful application of Web 2.0 technologies for knowledge management.

Applying Sekhar’s system of values that governs ethical choices in business, this study examines two sets of data. The first is Regulation S‐P, recently instituted by the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the use of confidential client information by providers of financial services in the USA. The second set consists of the resulting corporate communications that were issued by ten organizations in compliance with the regulation. Findings indicate that dominant values expressed explicitly in the regulation itself differ from those that dominate corporate communications. In Regulation S‐P itself, the right to privacy and the right of individual choice dominate, while the tests of universalisability and the greatest good for the greatest number, as well as the values of truth, transparency and honesty, trust and cooperation, and respect for law are implied. In corporate communications, consumer protection, trust and confidence, value, respect, and satisfaction are dominant themes and values.

Four distinct stages can be recognised in a company’s operation. These “stages of development” in the life cycle of a company presage a turnaround situation for that company over the course of time. The quality of communicative interaction in these stages determines the effectiveness of the modus operandi of a company, resulting in its market position within any given stage. The internal and external communication integrates a company in the process of utilising its internal resources to the optimum through the recognition and transfer of values from the environment and by strengthening a company through the integration of the new values into its attitude, either consolidating or changing the corporate culture. The value‐creating functions of appropriate corporate communication in each of the stages is discussed.

This article aims to investigate young people's opinions and attitudes towards companies' engagement and communication about corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The study employs a survey designed to uncover the underlying attitudes and values guiding young consumers' perception and evaluation of companies' engagement in and communication about CSR. The respondents are Danish students enrolled in eight different types of further or higher education.

The survey shows that consumers are interested in and expect more explicit CSR communication than currently assumed by corporations and academics alike. They favour communication that is personally relevant and factually based, and consumer scepticism is not as high as suggested by current literature. The findings reflect that the value system guiding CSR evaluation and perception is not based on moral aspects and social, society‐centred values. On the contrary, consumers' focus tends to be on competence and personal, self‐centred values, which has implications for the challenge of communicating CSR.

The findings provide new insights that can inform corporations in their planning and execution of CSR communication aimed at young consumers.

This paper provides empirical evidence that corporations communicating CSR should have a much more externally oriented and explicit approach focusing on competence and self‐centred values instead of on morality and society‐centred values. This will allow them to create a healthy balance between what they can offer and what consumers demand.