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1 – 10 of over 5000Qingliang Tang and Le Luo
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firm- and country-level determinants affect corporate ecological transparency.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firm- and country-level determinants affect corporate ecological transparency.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilizes multiple theories that are commonly used by corporate social responsibility studies to explain the corporate ecological transparency. Based on a sample of 243 Global 500 firms, the authors examine the impact of shareholders’ interest in ecological information, creditors’ concern, firm size, industry membership, the presence of emission trading scheme (ETS), stringency of environmental regulations on corporate ecological transparency.
Findings
The paper documents evidence that larger firms, firms in GHG-intensive sectors, and highly leveraged firms tend to produce more ecological disclosures. In addition, ecological transparency is higher in countries with an ETS and increases with more stringent environmental regulation. Finally, the authors find little evidence that shareholders of these firms are concerned with this information.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is restricted to the largest firms with relevant carbon profile information. Thus, caution should be exercised when generalizing the inferences.
Practical implications
Sustainability has become one of the most importance topics in business agenda. Firms’ attitude and decision about the ecological transparency will affect internal firm performance, external stakeholder engagement, and policy makers’ attention. It determines the firms’ long-term operation and development.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature by utilizing multiple theories to explain ecological transparency. Each of the theories provided only a partial explanation for ecological transparency. Thus, we need to consider the firms’ behaviors from multiple dimensions. In particular, stakeholder theory and institutional theory are the dominant perspectives accounting for managers’ propensity to disclose a firm’s ecological footprint.
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The purpose of the study is to reviewing community empowerment in ecological conservation through the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program (COREMAP). This research is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to reviewing community empowerment in ecological conservation through the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program (COREMAP). This research is under a governance perspective, namely transparency, accountability and community participation in Bahari Village, South Buton District, Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in three ways: they are interviews, observation and documentation. Data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive methods.
Findings
The empowerment of coastal village communities through the COREMAP program is not fully managed properly referring to the principles of transparency, accountability and participatory. In addition, the role of stakeholders is not maximal, where the government and the companion are not able to provide solutions to the problem of community empowerment while the apathetic community in the implementation of empowerment program. So that empowerment does not fully have a positive impact on coastal communities. While the sustainability of the empowerment program is threatened with failure, which has an impact on COREMAP's environmental damage and coastal communities.
Originality/value
The originality of this research is that the study was conducted on coastal communities in ecological conservation through the COREMAP program in Bahari Village, South Buton Regency.
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China has become a most dominant player in the global economy with immense political repercussions, for instance in Africa. The extremely rapid Chinese economic transformation has…
Abstract
Purpose
China has become a most dominant player in the global economy with immense political repercussions, for instance in Africa. The extremely rapid Chinese economic transformation has been accomplished through strong globalisation with, for example, entrance into the WTO framework. Now it faces the challenges of accepting the other side of the globalisation coin, namely institutional transparency, ecological sustainability and foreign policy integration into the international community. The purpose of this paper is to explore this.
Design/methodology/approach
Macro approach using country indicators on economic growth, institutional transparency, rule of law and ecology pressure. It relates these index scores to the overall social transformation of the country.
Findings
China has performed well on economic globalisation but lags on political modernisation, i.e. institutional transparency as well as on ecological sustainability for a post‐modern society.
Research limitations/implications
China must address the challenges of the post‐modern society with its call for transparency, sustainability and peaceful accommodation with neighbours.
Social implications
Modernisation has two sides, not only economic growth. As China is set to become the world leader economically, it will embark upon the post‐modern society, with its demands for peace, rule of law and environmental protection.
Originality/value
The paper puts economic globalisation against political modernisation and ecological globalisation in a clear manner for China.
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The World Bank report Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 is only the most recent reminder of how much poorer Africa is becoming, losing more than US$100 billion annually from…
Abstract
The World Bank report Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 is only the most recent reminder of how much poorer Africa is becoming, losing more than US$100 billion annually from minerals, oil, and gas extraction, according to (quite conservatively framed) environmentally sensitive adjustments of wealth. With popular opposition to socioeconomic, political, and ecological abuses rising rapidly in Africa, a robust debate may be useful: between those practicing anti-extractivist resistance, and those technocrats in states and international agencies who promote “ecological modernization” strategies. The latter typically aim to generate full-cost environmental accounting, and to do so they typically utilize market-related techniques to value, measure, and price nature. Between the grassroots and technocratic standpoints, a layer of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) do not yet appear capable of grappling with anti-extractivist politics with either sufficient intellectual tools or political courage. They instead revert to easier terrains within ecological modernization: revenue transparency, project damage mitigation, Free Prior and Informed Consent (community consultation and permission), and other assimilationist reforms. More attention to political-economic and political-ecological trends – including the end of the commodity super-cycle, worsening climate change, financial turbulence and the potential end of a 40-year long globalization process – might assist anti-extractivist activists and NGO reformers alike. Both could then gravitate to broader, more effective ways of conceptualizing extraction and unequal ecological exchange, especially in Africa’s hardest hit and most extreme sites of devastation.
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Antonio Mastrogiorgio and Nicola Lattanzi
Many decision rules are rational but opaque, and many others are irrational but transparent. This paper aims to propose a theoretical framework to operationalize opacity in…
Abstract
Purpose
Many decision rules are rational but opaque, and many others are irrational but transparent. This paper aims to propose a theoretical framework to operationalize opacity in decision-making – the degree to which a decision rule is intelligible to the decision maker.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors operationalize opacity and discuss the implication of opaque decision-making in organizational settings through a typology, where decision rules can be rational or irrational and opaque or transparent.
Findings
The authors show that opacity is asymmetric as different organizational actors possess different degrees of knowledge about how the decision rules work. Organizational actors often opacify the decision rules to increase their power (based on asymmetric knowledge). Opacity also presents a significant impact on organizational accountability, as transparent organizations are more reputable.
Originality/value
This contribution represents the first theoretical and methodological articulation of opacity in decision-making, within a bounded and ecological rationality framework; it also sheds new light on the role of cognitive biases in organizational settings.
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Adela J.W. Chen, Marie‐Claude Boudreau and Richard T. Watson
There is a growing awareness by researchers and practitioners of organizations' ecological responsibilities. Past research in management suggests that it is important to develop…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a growing awareness by researchers and practitioners of organizations' ecological responsibilities. Past research in management suggests that it is important to develop ecological sustainability, a long‐missing piece of the sustainability puzzle, together with economic sustainability and social sustainability. However, little research has been conducted to explore how information systems (IS), as one of the defining technologies in human society, can help organizations develop ecological sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a conceptual model and propositions with regard to the roles of IS in the pursuit of ecological sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper focuses on how organizations are motivated to act in the same legitimate way (i.e. eco‐friendly way) and proposes institutional theory as a lens to better understand how IS can be leveraged to achieve the three milestones of ecological sustainability, i.e. eco‐efficiency, eco‐equity and eco‐effectiveness.
Findings
The model advocates that under different institutional pressures, IS can be leveraged to achieve eco‐efficiency, eco‐equity and eco‐effectiveness through automating, informating (up and down) and transforming organizations, respectively. Research limitations/implications – The paper calls for the incorporation of the dimension of natural environment into our framework for future investigation of the IS roles in organizations.
Practical implications
The paper highlights the importance for practitioners to understand the environmental impact of the IS that they design or use, and the roles that IS can play in facilitating the large‐scale learning about ecological sustainability.
Originality/value
The implications of this research for both practice and academia are discussed, with a brief outlook towards future research.
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Seleshi Sisaye and Jacob G. Birnberg
The primary objective of this research is to chronicle how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other United States Federal Government Agencies (USFGA) agencies have…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary objective of this research is to chronicle how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other United States Federal Government Agencies (USFGA) agencies have played a role in shaping the trajectory of financial reporting for sustainability, with a particular emphasis on triple bottom line (TBL). This exploration extends to other indexes reporting sustainability data encompassed within financial, social and environmental reporting.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts an illustrative methodology, utilizing data sourced from governmental, business and international organizational documents.
Findings
Sustainability accounting predominantly finds its place within the framework of TBL. However, it is crucial to note that sustainability reporting remains voluntary rather than mandatory. Nevertheless, accounting firms and professional accounting societies have embraced it as a supplementary facet of financial accounting reporting.
Originality/value
The research highlights the historical evolution of sustainability within the USFGA and corporate entities. Corporations’ interest in accounting for sustainability performances has significantly contributed to the emergence of voluntary sustainability accounting rules, as embodied by the TBL.
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Andreas H. Glas, Markus Schaupp and Michael Essig
In the EU and especially in Germany, public procurement is bound to a tight legislation that also sets and enforces strategic goals such as innovation or sustainability. The…
Abstract
In the EU and especially in Germany, public procurement is bound to a tight legislation that also sets and enforces strategic goals such as innovation or sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether different archetypes of public procurement organizations (centralized or decentralized; state-level or local-level) perceive and implement strategic goals differently. A survey with data from 104 entities is used for this purpose. The findings reveal that the implementation of strategy is different in centralized or state-level organizations compared with decentralized or local organizations. Centralized organizations give goals such as innovation, transparency, and sustainability a high priority, while local ones highlight regional development and SME support