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1 – 10 of 372Olivier Boiral, Marie-Christine Brotherton and David Talbot
The purpose of this paper is to shed more light on the motivations for environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk management by agri-food companies and the neutralization…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shed more light on the motivations for environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk management by agri-food companies and the neutralization techniques used to legitimize the measures taken in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an analysis of the sustainability reporting of 135 companies, this study shows the interdependence between the main motivations for ESG risk management and the neutralization techniques used in disclosing information about their exposure to threats or negative events that could damage their image.
Findings
The results of the study allow us to understand the four main complementary neutralization techniques used to obfuscate the negative consequences of risks related to agri-food activities: mitigating ESG threats, addressing global risks through corporate leadership, taking advantage of sustainability trends and turning risks into opportunities.
Practical implications
Managers can use the results of this paper to identify the best management approaches to take ESG risks into account more substantially in their company.
Social implications
Ultimately, this study is important to improve the practices of agri-food companies and therefore their social legitimacy.
Originality/value
The examination of these neutralization techniques and their underlying motivations makes important contributions to the emerging literature on ESG risk management. The study also contributes to research on the disclosure of negative information that can damage a company’s reputation and on the strategies that companies use to promote the social acceptability of their activities.
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Olivier Boiral, David Talbot, Marie-Christine Brotherton and Iñaki Heras-Saizarbitoria
The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices, challenges and ethical issues underlying the fabric and dissemination of corporate sustainability ratings.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices, challenges and ethical issues underlying the fabric and dissemination of corporate sustainability ratings.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 36 semi-structured interviews with sustainability rating practitioners, the study shows the trade-offs, ethical judgments and customizable aspects involved in rating practices, which cannot rely only on formal and predefined methods.
Findings
In contrast with the official optimistic rhetoric about the rationality and rigor of sustainability rating methods, agencies face serious challenges in the measurement and comparison of performance in this area, particularly in terms of the aggregation of scattered and fuzzy indicators, commercial pressures and the availability, materiality and reliability of the information collected. Despite these concerns, sustainability ratings do appear to be useful in improving corporate responsiveness and increasing investor awareness of the complex and difficult-to-measure aspects of nonfinancial reports.
Practical implications
Rating agencies should collaborate to set up common indicators that would be easier for firms to produce and should better separate their sustainability rating production activities from other services they offer to companies (e.g. consultancy).
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on the measurement and promotion of corporate sustainability by analyzing rating practices through the lens of moral fictionalism, which here refers to the human tendency to build ethical judgments on fictional but convenient and useful representations.
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I DO not know whether the love for reading is inherited, but both my parents were voracious readers and, besides possessing a good collection of their own books, borrowed freely…
Abstract
I DO not know whether the love for reading is inherited, but both my parents were voracious readers and, besides possessing a good collection of their own books, borrowed freely from a subscription library. My earliest recollections include being read to by one or other of my parents, and my mother's proneness for falling asleep in the reading spurred me on to learn to read on my own account. I well remember that it was David Copperfield that especially interested me at that period. I soon became a good reader and read almost anything that came my way. Besides the many volumes for children in the home collection, I dipped extensively into those intended more especially for adults, including the works of Dickens, Scott, and even that now forgotten but one‐time popular Victorian work, Proverbial Philosophy by Martin Farquhar Tupper.
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THE Report of the Committee on Libraries, which was issued by the University Grants Committee in the summer of 1967, had for long been called the Parry Report after its Chairman…
Abstract
THE Report of the Committee on Libraries, which was issued by the University Grants Committee in the summer of 1967, had for long been called the Parry Report after its Chairman, Dr. Thomas Parry, formerly Librarian of the National Library of Wales and at the time the Principal of University College of Wales in Aberystwyth. When it was first set up in June 1963 the terms of reference were as follows: