Search results

To demonstrate how the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in the United States through the “National Jesuit Committee on Investment Responsibility” played a significant role as a socially conscious institutional and religious investor in influencing Chevron’s Human Rights Policy 520 and to analyze the factors that contributed to a successful shareholder engagement with the company.

Case study based on firsthand information.

1. Our conclusion offers support for Allen et al.’s (2012) conclusion of legitimacy (credibility) being the dominant force in a successful engagement.

2. We found that coalition-building is a significant moderating variable in increasing shareholder salience. This finding contradicts the study by Gifford (2010).

Our conclusion offers support for Allen et al.’s (2012) conclusion of legitimacy (credibility) being the dominant force in a successful engagement.

We found that coalition-building is a significant moderating variable in increasing shareholder salience. This finding contradicts the study by Gifford (2010).

The chapter is based on the actual process of shareholder engagement with Chevron Corporation that led to the human rights policy and is written mainly based on firsthand information.

Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s have the activities of individual corporations come under as much scrutiny as they have over the past decade. With daily headlines about the savings and loan crisis, insider trading, layoffs and plant closures, green marketing, ingredient labeling practices, and influence‐peddling political contributions, the new watchwords in the business world are ethics, accountability, and social responsibility.

This purpose of this chapter is to explore the political significance of modern socially responsible investing, specifically the emergence of investor governance networks (IGNs) and the collective activism of investors.

The research for this analysis is based upon insights and methodologies from political science, specifically within international relations and the constructivist theoretical approach. Investor networks are explored as social phenomena, an expression of changing values, and the contested realm of contrasting norms within the financial sector.

The chapter shows that the development of investor networks have followed a three-stage historical progression of emergence, transformation, and expansion. The increasing collective action by investors manifest in the creation of IGNs reflects the political nature of socially responsible investment in a world where governments are reluctant to lead and act on issues of importance to all citizens, not just investors. As such, these networks are part of the emerging global public domain, a transnational arena of discourse, contestation, and action where investors play a crucial role in articulating what is acceptable behavior by corporations.

The research in this chapter explores a particular aspect of socially responsible investment – the mobilization of collective action by investors – as a political phenomena, not just as an economic one, that has evolved over time. Very little research into SRI has been done from a political science perspective, contextualizing the rise of such investment as the confluence of collective action by increasingly powerful political actors in society. As such, the chapter has value to both scholars and observers of SRI because it emphasizes that the mobilization of investor networks results from broader societal dynamics that should not be underestimated by financial specialists and citizens alike.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the compatibility between the religious investing criteria of some Christian mutual funds and the “ Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility” (ICCR) shareholder resolutions about corporate unethical/illegal practices.

Among all ICCR 2007‐2008 shareholder resolutions, the paper analyze unethical practices that could lead to corporate illegalities for business corporations that are included in the portfolios of Christian mutual funds. It will determines to what extent such companies have codes of ethics that clearly explained the expected behaviour from their employees, managers, or directors about given ethical issues: sexual orientation discrimination, conflicts of interest on the board and slave labour in the supply chain.

About the issue of slave labour in the supply chain, managers of Christian mutual funds could not invoke ignorance since in the code of ethics of one company, there is no provision dealing with slave labour. Concerning conflicts of interest on the board, managers of Christian mutual funds could not identify potential risks related to those companies, since the problem is the applicability of their codes of ethics. Finally, companies have very different ways to address or not the issue of sexual orientation discrimination in their codes of ethics.

The originality of the paper is twofold: first to compare companies Christian mutual funds are investing in (on the basis of Christian selection criteria) and companies for which there are ICCR resolutions (the aim of such resolutions is to change some questionable or unethical aspect of a given business corporation), and second to see to what extent corporate codes of ethics are written in a way to reduce or increase the potentiality of ethical conflicts.

The aim of this chapter is to determine the need for water management and accounting.

This chapter first gives an overview of water-related business risks and exposes the need for sound corporate water management and accounting; it then critically examines water-related issues from an accountability perspective. Furthermore, it gives an overview of Australian Standardised Water Accounting (SWA) and General Purpose Water Accounting (GPWA) as possible practices to strengthen water disclosure.

The present study confirms the need for, and the importance of, transparent, high-quality, credible and comparable water disclosure. Water is considered a public good and involves a public interest and, consequently, public responsibility for its usage, management and protection. Following this line of reasoning, the chapter draws attention to the need for accountability to be ‘public’ or at least shared between crucial stakeholders (government – at national and international levels, water industries, communities, environmentalists, NGOs, etc.).

Company efforts are commonly focused on internal and self-referred operations. The different and conflicting uses that may be made of water, and the fact that water is geographically and temporally sensitive, necessitate a search for more flexible and more extended forms of accountability. An implication of these findings is the need and opportunity to switch focus from a single/private perspective to a more general/public one, with benefits for all the stakeholders.

This research enhances our understanding of water management and accounting and may serve as a sound base for future studies on this challenging topic.

Applying universal ownership theory and drawing on a multiplecase study design, this study aims to analyze what drives institutional investors to engage with government entities and what challenges they find in the process.

The authors relied on document analysis and conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with representatives from asset owners, asset managers, investor associations and academia.

The authors identify a trend where investors conduct policy engagement to fulfill their fiduciary duty, improve investment risk management and create an enabling environment for sustainable investments. As for engagement challenges, investors report the longer-term horizon, a perceived limited influence toward governments, the need for capacity building for investors and governments, as well as the difficulty in accessing government representatives.

This research contributes to filling a gap in the literature on this new form of investor activism, as a growing number of investors engage with sovereign entities on environmental, social and governance issues.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issues surrounding “say‐on‐pay” legislation in the USA; evaluate the corporate governance alternatives to “say‐on‐pay” legislation; recommend a policy encouraging enhanced executive accountability; and suggest research questions pertaining to “say‐on‐pay” proposals and executive compensation for scholars to pursue.

The paper takes an exploratory approach to discussing and analyzing the issues surrounding “say‐on‐pay” legislation in the USA and offering an alternative corporate governance approach to enhancing executive performance.

The paper finds that whether an annual non‐binding “say‐on‐pay” policy is instituted or not within a company is not the crux of the executive compensation issue. What is important is whether concerned shareholders have the ability to have proxy access and successfully pass such a resolution, thereby exercising shareholder pressure on the board of directors to implement a corporate policy of equating appropriate executive compensation with managerial performance. Moreover, this improvement in board‐shareowner engagement, along with expanded disclosure of executive compensation packages, will assist in obviating the need for the exercise of a draconian shareholder resolution to remove directors.

This paper offers an in‐depth review of the “say‐on‐pay” legislative and corporate governance controversy; places the issue in the context of effective corporate governance; recommends a reasoned approach to executive compensation accountability; and offers a list of research questions for corporate governance and human resource management scholars to pursue.

Promoting a “Culture of Peace” has always been one of the ultimate goals in the provision of education around the world, including Thailand. The concept of Education for International Understanding (EIU) has thus been developed since the “Peace Movements” following the 20th century’s world wars. Initially, the field encompassed peace education, international education, human rights education, citizenship education, and development education. Gradually, it has become an interdisciplinary, and multidimensional field of study encompassing other related themes including disarmament education, nonviolence education, education for conflict resolution, antidiscrimination education, gender equity education, multicultural education, global education, education for international cooperation, education for dialogue of civilizations, education for interfaith dialogue, values education, environmental education, education for sustainable development, and education for inner or personal peace. Moreover EIU, which formerly focused on the “international” dimension, is now concerned just as much with issues and problems “within” (intra) societies. This chapter examines the development of the concept and the implementation of EIU-related themes in Thai policies and curriculum. Survey research was conducted before and after the major political crisis starting in 2008. Survey questions include ability to identify national policy relating to EIU, perceptions concerning the objectives in implementing EIU and values highlighted within an EIU framework, teaching methods, experiences in studying/participating in EIU-related courses/activities, and problems in studying/participating in EIU activities. Some results from the study in 2007 are presented and compared with findings from following studies in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

The internationalisation of business and the process of globalisation raise many ethical issues about acceptable norms of conduct on the part of corporations. This article aims to evaluate whether there is progress in establishing standards for international business ethics.

The paper explores whether the case for a global standard of business conduct can be grounded and justified in rational argument.

As a moral minimum, corporate ethical codes need to rule out what the management believes to be clearly unacceptable behaviour. The distinction between thick and thin moral rules is particularly important in wrestling with the rights and wrongs of international business ethics. A good deal of room needs to exist for the local interpretation of these codes, but there are a number of situations where universal standards have to be enforced in the host country.

This paper summarises the progress made in establishing the field of international business ethics. And it identifies and discusses the evidence on the effectiveness of ethical codes in improving international business practice.