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The purpose of this paper is to explore emerging trends in the content of codes of ethics of US Fortune 100 and Global 100 corporate web sites through a longitudinal study.

The web sites of the 200 companies were surfed and the relevant documents of the codes of ethics were extracted to separate text files. The computer files were then mined using the customized developed software and each ethical keyword was counted. The number of filed codes of ethics was 95 for both the 100 US‐based and the 100 Global‐based companies.

In addition to the content analysis of the ethic codes of the studied groups and finding high‐frequency ethical keywords, the results of this study indicate a convergence of the contents. Moreover, the results also show that the ethical codes are now more readily available on corporations’ web sites; that is a sign of higher level of disclosure of ethical codes compared to that in 2006. Finally, this research proposes some hypotheses to explain the changes from 2006 to 2009.

Many smaller corporations and start‐up companies can benefit from the results of this study by comparing their codes of ethics with those of the major US and global companies, using key ethical phrases that are discussed here. Moreover, US companies wanting to establish new subsidiaries in other countries can also take advantage of the results of this study. They can find out what are the common dissimilarities between American corporates and other international firms, from ethical point of view, when they want to reach a uniform code of ethics.

Longitudinal study of the content of codes of ethics can help in encouraging firms to give consideration to ethical issues. This research is the first attempt to study the ethical standards adopted by the major US and global corporations, before and after the global financial crisis.

This study analyses the content of codes of ethics of the world's top firms and compares Fortune 500 and global 500 companies, considering the frequency of ethical keywords on their codes. It also compares the similarities and differences and indicates whether the content is divergent or convergent. The study also shows how the disclosure of codes of ethics has changed in the time‐span of research.

This paper aims to examine how the Master of Business Administration (MBA) curricula of top-ranked business schools are offering stand-alone courses on ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). To provide additional evidence, this study tests some hypotheses to contrast the effect of different variables on the inclusion of stand-alone courses on ethics and CSR. Also, the paper provides a comparative analysis in two ways: one comparison aims to analyse how the presence of ethics and CSR stand-alone courses in the MBA programmes over the past 10 years has evolved, and the other comparison seeks to explore whether there are differences between different rankings with regard to the inclusion of ethics and CSR stand-alone courses in the MBA curricula.

A Web content analysis was conducted on the curricula of 92 of the top 100 global MBA programmes ranked by the Financial Times in their 2013 ratings.

The findings show that there is a trend towards the inclusion of stand-alone courses on CSR and ethics as electives. Empirically, the findings suggest that the presence of ethics and CSR elective stand-alone subjects in the MBA programmes is explained by the following variables: public/private, business school’s accreditation and cultural influence. Comparatively, the findings suggest that requiring CSR and business ethics stand-alone courses in the MBA programmes ranked by the Financial Times have not increased over the past 10 years. In addition, when we have compared the results of this study with other rankings, we have appreciated that there are important differences between top MBA programmes in accordance with the aims and scope of rankings.

The findings of this study seem to suggest that business schools included in the Financial Times ranking have not changed their view based on a shareholder approach, which is focused on providing an economics-centred training.

With the increasing convergence of international markets, a greater number of firms are entering the global arena. As these firms compete in the global marketplace, they utilize information technology to formulate and implement strategies and to control and coordinate their resources. This increased dependence on information technology by the firm leads to the following question: how do firms measure the value of a global information system to the performance of the firm? Ideally, information technology would be evaluated based on its degree of strategic use through a firm’s performance. However, the resulting benefits of IT as a utility in performance are generally difficult to identify. First, this paper attempts to conceptualize the intensity of global information technology usage by constructing a new instrument measuring IT investment, strategic importance of the IT and degree of IT training. Second, the paper formulates and submits a pilot test of a holistic model of the relationship between the intensity of global information technology usage and a firm’s global strategy and performance.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Among the rubble following the global financial crisis from 2008 onwards, several commentators believed that the behaviour, and perceived behaviour, of banks and other financial institutions would kick start the process of moving towards enhanced ethical standards. Business schools, the media, politicians and high profile members of the finance community all came were all at the receiving end of huge amounts of opprobrium from the public, and it was thought it would be in all of their interest to win that four our back in order to prop up the creaking financial systems.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the channels companies use to communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages and to test the effectiveness of those channels – specifically, press releases, corporate websites, CSR reports, corporate Facebook pages, and TV advertising – on forming companies’ CSR reputations.

The two primary methods used in this study were secondary analysis of existing data and content analysis. The study sample was the 101 companies in the Reputation Institute’s 2014 CSR ranking of the 100 most highly regarded companies (two companies were tied) across 15 countries.

Corporate websites and CSR reports were the most common channels for CSR communications, but press releases – through their impact on news articles – and general corporate Facebook pages were the only effective channels in forming CSR reputation.

This study provides empirical evidence of the effectiveness of various CSR communication channels; it not only focuses on CSR reputation, a specific aspect of corporate reputation which has not been studied in this context before, but also examines several different channels simultaneously, in contrast to previous studies which have only investigated one or two channels at a time.

In 2009, Newsweek published a report in which they ranked the 500 largest US companies and the 100 largest global companies based on its environmental performance measures (http://greenrankings2009.newsweek.com/). This ranking is referred to as Newsweek’s Green Ranking. Included in this ranking is information about water and air pollution, solid waste disposal, toxic wastes, carbon emissions, and enforcement actions. The question we are addressing in this study is how well it measures pollution performance? The question is relevant to environmental accounting/reporting since it is part of a dilemma yet to be answered: Aggregated environmental indices/scores are easy for average information users to percept, while specific information may not be preserved when it is aggregated into the overall score(s).

Specifically, we examine whether Newsweek’s Green Ranking is correlated with pollution measures based on Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in order to determine how valid or reliable Newsweek’s Green Ranking is – in other words, how much Newsweek’s Green Ranking can explain the pollution by the toxic releases. We find that there is no significant correlation between Newsweek’s Green Ranking and the TRI measures except for the firms in the utilities industry. Concluding that on one measure, which we consider a very important one, there is no justification for the overall Green Ranking Score presented by Newsweek. However, in Newsweek’s three-part score the element that is termed the Environmental Impact Score captures pollution performance measured based on TRI. The contrast between the overall ranking and performance ranking indicates that a composite index that incorporates hard performance and soft measures can dilute the information carried by performance data.

Business development, sustainable business practices, corporate social responsibility.

Executive education, postgraduate, undergraduate.

City Developments Limited (CDL) is one of Singapore's leading international property and hotel conglomerates, involved in real estate development and investment, hotel ownership and management, facilities management and the provision of hospitality solutions. The group has developed over 22,000 luxurious and quality homes in Singapore, catering to a wide range of market segments. CDL is widely recognised as a champion of sustainable practices in Singapore. It was the first company honoured with the President's Social Service Award and President's Award for the Environment in 2007. It was also the only developer to be accorded the Built Environment Leadership Platinum Award in 2009 and Green Mark Platinum Champion Award in 2011 by the Building and Construction Authority, the governing authority for Singapore's built environment. CDL was the first Singaporean company to be listed on all three of the world's top sustainability benchmarks – FTSE4Good Index Series since 2002, Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World since 2010 and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes since 2011. This case discusses the many factors that have enabled CDL to successfully manage its journey in sustainable business development. It also creates an opportunity for students to discuss other steps or measures the company could take to further increase stakeholders' awareness and adoption of their sustainability vision.

This case discusses the concepts of sustainability and the reasons why companies believe in following sustainable practices. Through this case, students would get an opportunity to discuss the sustainable practices adopted by one of the well-known Singapore companies, CDL. They would understand the costs and benefits of being a champion of CSR, the benefits to the stakeholders of CDL, and the ways CSR provides a competitive advantage.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

The increasing engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) potentially indicates an attempt to “re‐embed” the economy in a wider societal context, following a period of neoliberal market exposure, deregulation, and separation of commercial and societal concerns. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between this new social embedding of the economy and older traditions of social embeddedness, such as the welfare state, neocorporatist arrangements, and other socio‐political and labour market arrangements.

The paper explores the relationship between old and new embeddedness by examining how 17 West European nations and the USA are ranked on “old” embeddedness dimensions and comparing this ranking with “new” CSR rankings of nationally aggregated industrial performance.

The overall findings at an aggregate level provides some support for the idea of a symmetric relationship between the “old”, politically‐driven embeddedness and the “new”, industry‐driven embeddedness. However, a finer inspection of the results reveals interesting diversity and variation between countries and between scores, indicating more complex national story lines.

Despite the limited set of countries and some measurement challenges, the analysis illustrates that the patterns of national industrial adaptation to the CSR agenda is strongly shaped by regional and national institutional contexts. While some of the institutional patterns shaping CSR in the “old” EU 15++ have been analysed in this paper, much work still remains to be done in extending and deepening our knowledge in this field.

The findings may help understand how a general framework like CSR interplays with political and institutional contexts as it trickles down into different West European political economies.

The systematic analysis of old political and new corporate social embeddedness of the economy based on a broad set of indicators is new and sheds light on the institutional preconditions for‐ and shaping of CSR.

The chapter focuses on two interrelated research questions: why are museums so popular? and what can commercial enterprises learn from them? The chapter explains the popularity of museums by elaborating on the special characteristics of the cultural and economic roles of these institutions in society based on evidence in academic research and in policy documents. The chapter then provides data from a survey of 6,419 visitors and 5,065 non-visitors of the 18 most well-known (art) museums spread among 10 countries around the world. It provides evidence regarding what factors differentiate the reputations of the most reputed museums from those that are less appreciated based on museum-related factors, along with factors related to the country and city where the museum resides. The chapter concludes by examining reputation management lessons, the business can draw from the way museums operate and how they are perceived.