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In this chapter I outline different theories of ascent to and decline from hegemony. In particular, I discuss Arrighi's finance-based theory of cycles of accumulation and Stephen Bunker's materio-spatial theory of hegemonic ascent and decline. Then, I ask whether the different explanations of ascent and decline can be reconciled and/or how we can begin to adjudicate between them in terms of their relative explanatory powers throughout the history of the world-system or at different times in history. Finally, I discuss the implications of theories of hegemonic change for our understanding of local economic change, and particularly the relationship between path dependencies and points of exit from them.

The paper is a viewpoint about Thorstein Bunde Veblen (1857‐1929) a known yet misunderstood author, as much appreciated as criticised. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of Veblen's work whilst providing a few keys to his writing and showing the interest of his work for the business and society field of researches.

It starts by presenting Veblen's body of work. Then it turns to a general evaluation of Veblen's work. It finishes with a discussion of Veblen's possible contributions to the business and society field.

Finds that Veblen's work is an attempt to understand the fundamentals of the functioning and evolution of societies and economies and that in many respects he placed great emphasis on the relations between the work of business and society.

The implications may be theoretical since this paper is an invitation to renew the standard way of studying the business and society field.

This may be seen as a new approach to Veblen's work.

Communication systems are structured by economic forces which use them to optimise sales, and politicians who increasingly live by slogans and repeated sound bites. Both want people to act without much reflection, and may threaten to turn human beings into imitiations of the computers they use. Theorists first noticed that communication systems channeled goods and services, structured political geography, and created their own pictures of the world. They went on to describe communications devices which act as extensions of human senses. Now communication systems try to structure our inner lives. This paper examines reflective consciousness and its relation to civilisation. It suggests countervailing forces which make for thought and turn the ordinary aspects of life into art.

The purpose of this paper is to present an in‐depth, context rich, and stakeholder‐focused perspective on the legitimation dynamics surrounding the initiation and evolution of one of the key financial sector environmental and social responsibility initiatives in recent years, the Equator Principles.

The paper draws on a combination of in‐depth interviews with non‐governmental organization (NGO) leaders, extensive documentary analysis and participant observation in order to understand and explain, from an NGO perspective, the use of the Equator Principles as a central element in an attempt to legitimise financial institutions' project finance activities. Key aspects of legitimacy theory are used to theoretically frame the analysis.

The paper reveals and analyses the process through which campaigning NGOs conferred a nominal level of legitimacy on financial institutions' project finance activities. It proceeds to unveil how and why this attained legitimacy unravelled. A perceived lack of accountability at an institutional, organisational and individual project level is identified as a central reason for this reduction in legitimacy.

The paper primarily focuses on one side of the story of the dynamics of the legitimation process underpinning the evolution of the Equator Principles until 2006. Future research could focus on obtaining and theorising financial institution perspectives on the Equator Principles' development, implementation, and progression as well as analysing developments beyond 2006.

The paper advances our understanding of the dynamics of legitimation processes. These dynamics are studied from the perspective of a key “relevant public” thereby prioritising perceptions that are largely absent from corporate social accountability research seeking to empirically inform legitimacy theory.

The global biofuels sector has expanded rapidly in the past decade, with feedstock expansion penetrating many tropical areas. While the emerging demand for biofuels represents an opportunity for developing countries, it also poses a host of social and environmental risks. Large investments are needed to finance expansion of biofuel and feedstock production, suggesting that the financial sector may have a crucial role to play in mitigating these risks. This paper seeks to explore the role of financiers in expanding biofuel feedstock production and refining in tropical forest‐rich countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America to better understand the role and future potential of responsible finance in the biofuel sector.

The analysis draws on published data and reports from academia, industry, governments, civil society and the press, to quantify the magnitude and source of investments made from 2000‐2010 in 16 countries sampled from “ecoregions” subject to high rates of forest conversion, weak land tenure institutions, and vulnerable communities.

It is found that the case study countries received USD 5.3‐7.3 billion for feedstock production and USD 5.7‐6.7 billion for biofuel refining between 2000 and 2009. This was financed by a mix of entrepreneurs, private banks, investors, governments and multilateral banks. While no clear patterns emerge, foreign banks and institutional investors rank as “important” for most feedstocks and regions. Multilateral banks and domestic institutional investors seem to be the least important. Few financiers have criteria in place in order to ensure sustainable investing practices, and those who do tend to have policies of limited quality.

While much has been written on biofuel sustainability and governance, there is little research that delineates the nature of investment and finance in the sector.

The problem in alleviating homeowner mortgage distress through refinance is how to achieve meaningful alleviation without prospectively harming the financier. The problem revolves around two parameters from real estate finance – the probability that the distress leads to foreclosure and resulting foreclosure loss severity for the financier if foreclosure does occur. Previous analysis focuses on reducing the probability that homeowner distress leads to foreclosure. By contrast, the purpose of this paper is to focus on reducing foreclosure loss severity.

The study develops a new intuitive formula for foreclosure loss severity to quantify its dependence on transaction costs. The study shows that foreclosure loss severity reduction is feasible by introducing a new refinancing instrument that lowers foreclosure transaction costs and applying property law to derive the structure of the refinancing instrument.

Foreclosure loss severity reduction can subsidize concessions on scheduled payments for homeowners with arbitrarily poor credit without prospective harm to the financier.

Quantification of mortgage distress relief is limited to distressed mortgages described by representative parameter values from various government studies.

For most distressed homeowners, payment and principal reductions could exceed those available from the recent government programs.

Implementation should significantly enlarge the pool of homeowners eligible for mortgage distress relief.

The mortgage refinance is qualitatively different from that available under existing government refinance programs because it is based on an arms-length exchange of property rights that makes market sense regardless of whether the refinancing results in subsequent homeowner default.

A major challenge for foreign lenders in financing public private partnerships (PPP) infrastructure projects in an emerging market (EM) is the bankability of country-related risks. Despite existing studies on country risks in international project financing, perspectives of foreign lenders on bankability of country-specific risks in an EM is yet to be explored. Hence, using a mixed methodology approach, three private finance initiatives/PPP projects in Sub Saharan Africa (Nigeria) were used to investigate political risk, sponsor, concession and legal risks in PPP loan applications. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The study adopted mixed methodological approach comprising focus group discussions and analysis of loan documents obtained from foreign project lenders, in addition to the questionnaire survey distributed to local and international project financiers with experiences in PPPs within Nigeria.

Results identified seven topmost bankability criteria for evaluating country-related risks (political risk, sponsor, concession and legal risks) in EM PPPs. In addition, a “Risk and Bankability Framework Model” was developed from the study presenting critical parameters for gaining foreign funding approval for EM’s PPP loan applications.

Since the study only explored bankability of PPPs in Sub Saharan Africa with the exclusion of other geographical regions, the proposed framework model should be taken in context of EMs as a mind-map for foreign lenders and local private investors seeking to finance PPPs in an EM.

Results from the study represent critical parameters for winning foreign loan approval for PPP infrastructure projects within an EM context.

Study proposed “Risk and Bankability Framework Model” relevant for evaluating PPP loan applications at the pre-approval stage for EM PPPs.

Several tests have been conducted to determine which valuation model best fits stock price data. Given very little success, those studies suggest the need for a clear understanding of the market process of stock price determination. This paper advances the concepts of product costing and product pricing, which pertain to financial accounting valuation and the stock market price determination, respectively. This research effort presents a workable hypothesis of stock price determination.

This study applies social identity theory (SIT) to explore the perceptual differences among various stakeholder groups regarding the relevance of social and environmental accounting (SEA), SEA education and mandatory disclosure of SEA.

The study adopts a mixed method applying a qualitative and quantitative approach. In total, 325 structured questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively, using ANOVA and group comparison methods. Responses from 18 interviews were analyzed qualitatively to provide complementary evidence for the quantitative study.

There were significant differences between various stakeholder groups regarding the relevance of SEA practice and SEA education. Regulators were mostly affected by considerations about the external perception of work quality, followed by financiers. Practitioners and shareholders were influenced by the ability of SEA in its current state to affect actual work quality. This possibly indicates that academic qualifications have marginal effects on predicting considerations about SEA compared to social identity.

This is the first application of SIT to SEA research and contributes to the effort to improve SEA within emerging economies, highlighting that a one-size-fits-all approach may be ineffective.