Search results

This article is the text of remarks delivered to students beginning their studies in the two‐year Executive Master of International Business program sponsored by the Boeing Institute of International Business at the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University on August 6, 2004.

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.

This paper aims to detail the evolution of accounting controls conveyed as written rules at the Society of Jesus from the middle of the 17th century to the present day.

An analytically structured history approach is adopted. Four “Instructions” are analysed in detail and institutional theory is used as a lens to examine influences on accounting control rules over time.

The analysis reveals that accounting control rules maintained a core stability over time but were adapted and extended according to internal and external factors. Changes to the rules were thus mostly evolutionary. Influenced by mainly external factors, over the years the rules have become more detailed and accompanied by more practical guidance.

This study provides an analysis of the evolution of accounting control rules at the Society of Jesus, which thus far has not been presented. It provides insights on how the rules introduced more clarity and highlights the increasing recognition of secular management control and development within the Jesuit rules.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the suitability of using gross domestic product (GDP) as a proper indicator for sustainability in a given national economy and to identify the main features that a proper measure of sustainability (composed by a set of indicators) should incorporate. After showing the inconveniences of using GDP as an indicator of sustainability for national economies, the authors aim to present complementary indicators to GDP per capita to do this task. They also aim to calculate and discuss the efficiency of OECD countries in terms of achieving sustainable development.

A theoretical framework is proposed based on recent economic studies about sustainability and also on the principles of Catholic social thought. Once complementary indicators to GDP in order to measure sustainability have been proposed, the econometric method data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to perform an efficiency analysis of the three dimensions of sustainability (social, economic and environmental).

GDP alone is not a proper indicator of sustainability for national economies. Relevant economic literature and also specific documents from Catholic social thought can help when identifying complementary indicators to GDP in order to assess sustainability. Developed economies are able to be efficient in achieving the three dimensions of sustainability at the same time.

The three dimensions of sustainability considered in this paper are the fundamental ones, and can be complemented with new ones. A comparison with other sustainability indices could bring new insights for further research.

In this paper the authors combine recent economic literature with Papal encyclicals and documents from the General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, in order to provide a comprehensive set of indicators to measure sustainability. A DEA analysis has been carried out to calculate efficiency in achieving sustainability for OECD countries.

Spirituality in general, and in the workplace in particular, has become an important topic in recent years. Spirituality in the workplace is more than a passing fancy; it is changing the fundamental nature of work. Individuals are searching for meaning in their work, a meaning that transcends mere economic gain. These individuals are looking to their organizational leaders to help them in their search, and organizations in turn are being challenged to maintain a spirituality. A study of the mission statements of the 28 US Jesuit universities reveals that maintaining an organizational spirituality is no easy task.

The paper explores the process of construction of the “accountable self”, particularly as this process engages with the spirituality of the self. This study examines the “space of accountability” within which the accountable self constructs itself as such and investigates how different accounts of the self are drawn upon in the making of this space, both defining and transcending it.

The paper relies upon archival material concerning accounting and accountability practices about the project for building the altar of St. Ignatius in the Church of Gesù, Rome, Italy (1691–1706). This study examines calculative and narrative accounts about the project from the perspective of the superintendent, who was the sole person accountable for the building works.

Whereas calculative accounts enabled the self to account for actions within the specific space of accountability of the project, narrative accounts opened up this space, providing for a testimony of actions and a gift of accountability towards future indefinite others. This process was prompted by the spirituality of the self and the narcissistic gratification of fulfilling this spirituality.

The paper adds to the literature on the accountable self and to theological perspectives into accountability. This study suggests exploring how different accounts of the self engage with each other through testimony, gift, narcissism and spirituality in the construction of the accountable self, providing for a “transcendent” space of accountability. This research also adds to studies on narrative accounts by showing that they are drawn upon alongside calculative accounts in the construction of the transcendent, accountable self.

Microfoundations of institutions are central to constructing place – the interplay of location, meaning, and material form. Since only a few institutional studies bring materiality to the fore to examine the processes of place-making, how material forms interact with people to institutionalize or de-institutionalize the meaning of place remains a black box. Through an inductive and historical study of Boston’s North End neighborhood, the authors show how material practices shaped place-making and institutionalized, or de-institutionalized, the meaning of the North End. When material practices symbolically encoded meanings of diverse audiences into the church, it created resonance and enabled the building’s meanings to withstand environmental change and become institutionalized as part of the North End’s meaning as a place. In contrast, when the material practices restricted meaning to a specific audience, it limited resonance when the environment changed, was more likely to be demolished and, thus, erased rather than institutionalized into the meaning of the North End as a place.