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1 – 10 of over 10000Merve Kılıç, Ali Uyar, Cemil Kuzey and Abdullah S. Karaman
The objective of this study is to investigate whether the institutional environment is associated with the adoption of integrated reporting.
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this study is to investigate whether the institutional environment is associated with the adoption of integrated reporting.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample of the study is based on the firms included in the list of Fortune Global 500. The logistic regression analysis was run to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The findings indicated that the code-law orientation and strength of the institutional quality are significantly associated (i.e. positively and negatively, respectively) with the integrated reporting of Fortune 500 companies. Firms are motivated for more transparency in stakeholder-oriented and weakly regulated contexts. Thus, stakeholder pressure is more influential than shareholder interest in motivating or forcing firms to issue integrated reports. Besides, there appears to be a trade-off between the public sector and the private sector in terms of ensuring an accountable and transparent business environment. If the public sector does not undertake its role in ensuring a transparent business environment, the private sector fills the gap. The results are robust to alternative sampling and methodologies.
Research limitations/implications
This study implied that the stakeholder orientation of countries fosters the transparency and accountability of firms. Corporate behavior is impacted by the institutional strength or weakness of nations. The institutional theory provides an appropriate ground to understand drivers of corporate reporting practices of firms beyond firm-level characteristics.
Practical implications
The adoption of integrated reporting framework by Fortune 500 companies can be leveraged to alleviate concerns about their social and environmental impacts. Policy-makers in the countries which have a weak institutional environment force or encourage their firms to increasingly meet the transparency and accountability demands of society.
Social implications
The research findings might play an encouraging role in that various stakeholders (i.e. customers, public, civil organizations and press) should undertake active roles and responsibilities to encourage firms to behave in socially and environmentally responsible ways.
Originality/value
This study adds to the literature by examining the influence of the institutional environment on the adoption of integrated reporting, using recent international data, and focusing on the largest companies according to the Fortune's annual Global 500 list. This study is one of the first to examine the association between a set of governance characteristics (i.e. board size, board independence and board diversity) and integrated reporting adoption.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of factors that impact global competitiveness for firms in the Fortune Global 500.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of factors that impact global competitiveness for firms in the Fortune Global 500.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses regression analysis to investigate the relationship between relevant competitiveness factors and firm performance for Fortune Global 500 firms, using the time period 1995‐2009.
Findings
The composition of firms on the list has changed over the timeframe. The results indicate that headquarters location and globalization are key indicators of firm performance. Other factors such as chief executive officer tenure have a lesser impact on firm performance.
Research limitations/implications
The timeframe of the study may have impacted the findings. The study included only large firms and thus the findings may not hold for smaller or medium‐sized firms. Additional follow‐up studies are planned.
Practical implications
Managers can identify factors associated with global competitiveness from the paper and pursue those factors in their business strategies.
Originality/value
This study replicates other studies that analyze the relationship between firm situational factors and firm performance. However, this study uses a unique sample, the Fortune Global 500, over a 15‐year period.
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Stephanie Foust, Nancy L. Cassill and David Herr
This study examined the casual workplace in the context of diffusion of innovation. The innovation of the casual workplace, the wearing of casual clothing to the office, has had…
Abstract
This study examined the casual workplace in the context of diffusion of innovation. The innovation of the casual workplace, the wearing of casual clothing to the office, has had positive effects on most aspects of the corporate culture. Rogers' model of innovation‐decision process (1995) provided the conceptual framework for this study. Questionnaires were sent to human resource executives of US Fortune 500 companies, with 189 executives responding to the mailed survey. Respondents were categorised into one of Rogers’ (1995) adopter categories. Chi‐square goodness‐of‐fit test, chi‐square analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test H1, H2 and H3 respectively. The percentages of the companies that are categorised in each of four adopter categories in this study differed from the percentages in each of five adopter categories in Rogers' (1995) model. Human resource executives’ cognisance of the casual workplace differed on two knowledge components and two casual workplace persuasion components, relative advantage and compatibility. Because the number of Fortune 500 companies adopting casual workplace attire appears to be increasing, the need for this attire continues. Therefore, textile marketers, dry‐cleaners and retailers are challenged to provide products and services to meet consumers' casual workplace apparel needs.
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Ongoing environmental threats have intensified the need for firms to take big leaps forward to operate in a manner that is both ecologically sustainable and socially responsible…
Abstract
Purpose
Ongoing environmental threats have intensified the need for firms to take big leaps forward to operate in a manner that is both ecologically sustainable and socially responsible. This paper aims to assess the degree to which firms are adopting citizen science as a tool to achieve sustainability and social responsibility targets.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies a qualitative content analysis approach to assess the current presence of citizen science in sustainability and social responsibility reports issued by Globescan sustainability leaders and by firms ranked by the Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500.
Findings
While the term itself is mostly absent from reports, firms are reporting on a range of activities that could be classified as a form of “citizen science.”
Practical implications
Citizen science can help firms achieve their corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility goals and targets. Linking sustainability and social responsibility efforts to this existing framework can help triangulate corporate efforts to engage with stakeholders, collect data about the state of the environment and promote better stewardship of natural resources.
Social implications
Supporting citizen science can help firms work toward meeting UN Sustainable Development Goals, which have highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts that can engage a broad range of stakeholders in the transition to more sustainable business models.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to examine citizen science in a corporate sustainability and social responsibility context. The findings present information to support improvements to the development of locally relevant science-based indicators; real-time monitoring of natural resources and supply chain sustainability; and participatory forums for stakeholders including suppliers, end users and the broader community.
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Michael C Porter, Betsy Anderson and Mary Nhotsavang
The purpose of this paper is to take the results of two studies to hypothesize about practice and recommend research/debate on business leaders’ use and perceptions of social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to take the results of two studies to hypothesize about practice and recommend research/debate on business leaders’ use and perceptions of social media. Data were considered under the umbrella of current senior management practice, with the purpose to make suggestions for better practice, but primarily to theorize about the probable evolution of social media value and credibility for executives.
Design/methodology/approach
The first study presents results from a qualitative content analysis of Fortune and Inc. 500 CEOs’ use of Twitter in terms of: activity and engagement; tweet subject matter; frequency of opinions expressed; and level of formality. The second considers the credibility of social media against traditional media and personal information sources within one quantitative survey.
Findings
Senior executives using social media (Twitter) tend to engage in one-sided conversations in a two-way medium. Further, most CEOs appear to be using more formal language than general Twitter users. These factors, combined with the low credibility and value of social media by senior managers, may indicate the best future hope for social media credibility with executives will be neutral.
Practical implications
In examining a combination of current literature and the data from these separate studies, the authors posit a number of underlying challenges in realizing the potential of the evolving social media environment that may deserve specific research.
Originality/value
Discussion touches on implications for future adoption of social media tools by business leaders, as well as one-way vs two-way communication tendencies. This paper proposes a starting-point for theory development regarding this significant emerging area of communication.
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James P. Neelankavil and Debra R. Comer
To derive and apply a new composite performance metric to top performing US companies in order to identify consistently excellent performers and explain their success over the…
Abstract
Purpose
To derive and apply a new composite performance metric to top performing US companies in order to identify consistently excellent performers and explain their success over the last half‐century. The ten firms topping the list for this new composite performance metric represent the “best of the best” of American corporations during the fifty‐one years of Fortune magazine listings.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for this analysis were gleaned from the annual lists of the top 500 companies reported by Fortune from 1954 to 2005. Using Fortune's annual rankings of companies according to the four performance criteria of return on investment/equity, net profits, total assets, and revenues dimensions, the authors firstly computed, for each of these four performance dimensions, an average ranking based on a company's particular rank each year and its total number of appearances during the 51‐year period; and then, secondly, by assigning each of the four performance criteria a weight reflecting its importance, derived a composite (total) score based on a company's average ranking on all four criteria.
Findings
For a modern US based company to be successful year after year it must consistently achieve two of four performance criteria included in the composite metric. The results of the longitudinal analysis illustrate the significance of using a variety of metrics, or a composite metric, to gauge corporate performance.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of the findings are that assigning different weights to the four performance criteria would yield a somewhat different composite ranking.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to derive and present a composite performance metric, compiled from Fortune's annual rankings of four critical performance variables and representing an aggregated weighted ranking of American companies over a half‐century.
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Sang Lee, Taewon Hwang and Hong‐Hee Lee
This study aims to investigate the emerging new phenomenon of corporate blogging and its objectives. In particular, this study focuses on how Fortune 500 firms attempt to maintain…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the emerging new phenomenon of corporate blogging and its objectives. In particular, this study focuses on how Fortune 500 firms attempt to maintain control, while supporting employee autonomy in corporate blogging.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the framework of corporate blogging strategies proposed in this study, corporate blogging practices of the 2005 Fortune 500 companies were analysed.
Findings
Most organisations maintain high levels of control by implementing top‐down blogging strategies, while few support employee autonomy by applying a bottom‐up blogging strategy. Because of the inherent limitation of each strategy, many organisations attempt to take advantage of the complementary mechanism that balances autonomy and control. Organisations emphasising bottom‐up blogging tend to focus on product development and customer service content strategy, while those practising top‐down blogging focus on thought leadership or promotional content strategy.
Research limitations/implications
This study reports leading blogging firms among the Fortune 500 companies. However, the study sample accounts for only 3.6 percent of the 500 firms. The results of the study shed insights on newly emerging corporate blogging in terms of its trends, issues, and possible future direction.
Practical implications
Companies that adopt blogs must realise that developing a candid dialogue with customers is the best way to build a meaningful customer relationship.
Originality/value
This study is the first attempt to systematically investigate the corporate blogging phenomenon.
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Chia Yu Hung, Eddie Jeng and Li Chen Cheng
This study explores the career trajectories of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to uncover unique characteristics that contribute to their success. By utilizing web scraping and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the career trajectories of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to uncover unique characteristics that contribute to their success. By utilizing web scraping and machine learning techniques, over two thousand CEO profiles from LinkedIn are analyzed to understand patterns in their career paths. This study offers an alternative approach compared to the predominantly qualitative research methods employed in previous research.
Design/methodology/approach
This study proposes a framework for analyzing CEO career patterns. Job titles and company information are encoded using the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) scheme. The study employs the Needleman-Wunsch optimal matching algorithm and an agglomerative approach to construct distance matrices and cluster CEO career paths.
Findings
This study gathered data on the career transition processes of graduates from several renowned public and private universities in the United States via LinkedIn. Employing machine learning techniques, the analysis revealed diverse career trajectories. The findings offer career guidance for individuals from various academic backgrounds aspiring to become CEOs.
Research limitations/implications
The building of a career sequence that takes into account the number of years requires integers. Numbers that are not integers have been rounded up to facilitate the optimal matching process but this approach prevents a perfectly accurate representation of time worked.
Practical implications
This study makes an original contribution to the field of career pattern analysis by disclosing the distinct career path groups of CEOs using the rich LinkedIn online dataset. Note that our CEO profiles are not restricted in any industry or specific career paths followed to becoming CEOs. In light of the fact that individuals who hold CEO positions are usually perceived by society as successful, we are interested in finding the characteristics behind their success and whether either the title held or the company they remain at show patterns in making them who they are today.
Originality/value
As a matter of fact, nearly all CEOs had previous experience working for a non-Fortune organization before joining a Fortune company. Of those who have worked for Fortune firms, the number of CEOs with experience in Fortune 500 forms exceeded those with experience in Fortune 1,000 firms.
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C.S. Agnes Cheng, D. Kite and R. Radtke
Capital budgeting plays an essential role in a firm's long‐term viability and survival. The capital budgeting process includes: identification of potential projects, prediction of…
Abstract
Capital budgeting plays an essential role in a firm's long‐term viability and survival. The capital budgeting process includes: identification of potential projects, prediction of possible outcomes, project selection, financing and implementation of the chosen project, and monitoring project performance (Mukherjee and Henderson, 1987). Although economic considerations should govern the capital budgeting decision, individual opinions and preferences often become primary factors affecting project selection.
Stephen K. Keiser, James R. Krum and Pradeep A. Rau
The incidence of US corporate marketing research departments peaked in the early 1970s; marketing research is increasingly involved in marketing planning and the two functions are…
Abstract
The incidence of US corporate marketing research departments peaked in the early 1970s; marketing research is increasingly involved in marketing planning and the two functions are sometimes merged, while the establishment of computerised marketing information systems is increasing. Questionnaire survey results of Fortune 500 companies are compared for 1965, 1975 and 1985, and the implications for the organisation of the marketing research function findings discussed.
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