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China adopted an independent director system in 1997 in order to perfect company management structure in the country. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of that system.

This paper starts from the current status of the independent director system in the country and gives comments on the independent nature and designation procedure of the independent directors, rationalization of the incentive system and completion of responsibility mechanism.

The unique function of the independent director system plays a decisive role in preventing control by people within a public company, minimizing power abuse by shareholders and best maintaining the interests of medium and small shareholders. But there still exists certain shortcomings in independent director system in China such as unclear of the independence nature, irrationality of designation method, incomplete incentive system and short of relative responsibility mechanism which restrict independent director system to be brought into full play.

Management of a company is always a hot topic in the company law and an independent director system is a very important aspect. On the basis of learning from advanced experience from the western world, China imported the independent director system to improve the management system of its companies. This paper analyses defects of the current independent director system in China and puts forward improvement measures.

The purpose of this study is to examine and interpret the characteristics of social responsibility in general, and business responsibility in particular, that were evident during a period in European history that was plagued by widespread social problems and change. Based on that interpretation, the authors explore the lessons those characteristics may have for social responsibility in a contemporary world that is facing similar conditions.

The paper presents a qualitative analysis of the proceedings of the Bienfaisance Congress held in Frankfurt in 1857, where societal leaders from different nations met to answer the question, who has responsibility for whom, and for what? The authors use grounded theory, as it is operationalized in what is known as the “Gioia template,” to conduct a structured analysis of this particular text, and to in turn produce a theoretical interpretation of how that question was answered.

The interpretation from this study is that congress participants articulated certain established dimensions of responsibility (individual, organizational, national), as well as one new dimension (international), and did so by differentiating boundaries of responsibility; in turn, the authors suggest that these dimensions and boundaries work together to form a nested system of responsibilities.

There is limited empirical evidence available that documents the variety of responsibility-based initiatives that were being conducted during the 19th century. An analysis of the congress proceedings allows us to gain a better understanding of how the 19th-century world, particularly the upper echelons of European society, approached the question of under what conditions actors in different domains have responsibility for another. While the implications are limited by the analysis of the proceedings of one congress that was attended by elites, they do provide a snapshot of how Europe sought to articulate a system of bounded responsibilities during a time of widespread social problems and change.

Although the nested system of responsibilities framework that emerged from the grounded theory analysis is not applicable to all situations, it should sensitize policymakers and business leaders to the need to address social problems in a systemic way.

The authors both present a systems-based framework for understanding how responsibility is differentiated among actors (individual, organizational, state and international) and demonstrate how a theoretical interpretation of historical documents can be accomplished through the use of grounded theory, as operationalized through the Gioia template.

An investigation of 133 job advertisements for systems librarians in American Libraries in 1996‐1997 was conducted to examine the increasingly important role that systems librarians play in the ever‐changing information environment, and to identify the knowledge, skills and qualifications of systems librarians expected by employers in various types of libraries. The results show that although systems librarians in different types of libraries may play different roles and have different emphases in their duties, the responsibility and knowledge requirements for them are generally expanding. Systems librarians are not only technology experts but also managers and coordinators. Positions for systems librarians in most academic and public libraries require at least one year of work experience. Employers expect systems librarians to have a strong computer and network background. Over two‐thirds of the position in public and academic libraries and more than half of the openings in other libraries require MLIS/MLS degrees.

Based on the perspective of stakeholders, this paper aims to construct the corporate social responsibility (CSR) evaluation system, aiming at encouraging enterprises to actively undertake social responsibility, formulating targeted countermeasures to improve the performance level of social responsibility and realizing its sustainable development.

The study uses data from 2014 to 2018 of pharmaceutical companies in China to estimate the CSR system. Based on the analytic hierarchy process, the coefficient of variation uses to determine the weight of each index. Moreover, the cloud model uses for empirical evaluation.

The results reveal that social responsibility evaluation of pharmaceutical companies is poor to average to good and it maintains a good development trend. The order of the weight of corporate stakeholders is shareholders, employees, consumers, creditors, suppliers and government. The importance of internal stakeholders is higher than that of external stakeholders. The comprehensive cloud evaluation value of the social responsibility evaluation of pharmaceutical companies are “ordinary,” and the effect of comprehensive social responsibility performance is not good.

The current study not only considers the uncertainty of the concept of CSR but also reflects the connection between the randomness of pharmaceutical companies and the ambiguity of CSR. Moreover, this study develops a three-dimensional evaluation of “enterprise-year-indicator” by studying the data of multiple companies in different years. In terms of the modeling concept, the two-way cognition between the connotation and conceptual extension of the cloud model is fully used to realize the uncertainty mapping between the evaluation set and the indicator set.

Under the Illinois Library System Act, the head librarians of the University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, Chicago Public, and Illinois State Libraries, with the Chairman, Illinois State Library Advisory Committee, serve as the Research and Reference Center Committee. The R & R Committee's first duty in encouraging and in making available adequate library research and reference facilities for the residents of Illinois is “to develop long range acquisition policies to strengthen the existing collections and to avoid unnecessary duplication.” To this end, a subcommittee, broadly representative of the Illinois library community, was appointed late in 1975 with specific charge to identify unmet needs of the Illinois library and information network and to make recommendations to identify or to develop collections to meet these needs. The Subcommittee's report, accepted by the parent committee in February, 1977, follows. The R & R Committee directed that the report be distributed widely to library systems and to other appropriate groups in the state and that their consideration and response be aggressively sought, supported, and encouraged before the casting and adoption of the plan, the determination of priorities, and the implementation of the grand design. This plan is now before the Illinois library community for preview, with the anticipation that it will provoke the thought, reaction, and action vitally necessary to make it a vehicle for the continuance of the state's record of dynamic library development.

This follow‐up report of 133 job advertisements for systems librarians in American Libraries during 1996‐1997 compares the results of a content analysis of job advertisements and a survey of employers and newly hired systems librarians. The report shows that, although a majority of employers are satisfied with their newly hired systems librarians, they indeed have higher expectations for the positions in terms of qualifications and responsibilities. There is a great gap between job advertisements and reality in regard to systems librarians’ education requirements, work experience, job responsibilities, and areas of knowledge and skills. The types of libraries, to a certain extent, influence systems librarians’ actual qualifications and job responsibilities.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the need to revitalize the systemic nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and offer some suggestions about how this might be accomplished. The authors introduce the concept of systemic CSR and associate it with micro-to-macro transitions, the need to make systemic objectives explicit and the responsibility of system participants to regulate their behavior to contribute to these outcomes.

The authors comment, from a systemic perspective, on four different management approaches to CSR – shareholder value, corporate social performance, stakeholder theory and corporate citizenship. Three general systemic principles that participants can use as decision-making guides are a focus on value creation, ongoing assessment of collective outcomes and reflective engagement in the aggregation process.

The authors observe that businesses routinely demonstrate their ability to think in systemic terms in strategic contexts that require it. If businesses can address systemic issues in these contexts, then they can also apply systemic logic in furtherance of collective (or system-level) objectives.

The authors propose an approach to CSR that emphasizes micro-to-macro transitions, the need to make systemic objectives explicit and the responsibility of system participants to regulate their behavior to contribute to these desired objectives. Systemic CSR is unique in its explicit focus on the micro-to-macro transition (i.e. the process of aggregation), systemic objectives and the need to actively insource responsibility for contribution to the realization of those objectives.

Facing the widely spread malaise in and through irresponsible practices of and by modern organizations, phenomenology can provide an approach that is helpful for assessing this situation as well as getting a renewed perception concerning work and life (Fay & Riot, 2007). In particular, it can contribute to a renewal of understanding and enacting responsibility in the lifeworld of business. Practically, it may also provide reflexive practitioners with clues that can trigger new and more responsible practices. The following phenomenological perspective on responsiveness is a kind of application of phenomenology (Harmon, 1990) for reevaluating the constitution of responsibility as capacity to respond adequately in and of organizations and its members. Part of the organizational realities for its members is that it is challenging them to act, speak, and express, that is, they are provoked to give answers. A corresponding responsiveness as an answering behavior can be defined specifically as one, in which there is openness for the points of view of both (or various) parties involved, and by which the setting of pattern and standards coevolve.³

The automotive industry in North America is experiencing a period of far‐reaching reorganization. Part of that change is in the automotive supply chain, including firms in the industry, such as Ford or General Motors, that assemble the vehicles and firms that are their suppliers. The particular emphasis in the research reported below is on the new relationships among these firms in the automotive supply chain. Some of the data come from in‐depth interviews with twenty‐six senior executives in North American automotive companies, from a survey of 175 firms in the North American automotive industry, and from sessions with an advisory board of representatives of leading industry companies. Additional data derive from historical accounts of the industry. This paper briefly summarizes the differentiation of the supply chain into four types of firms, and the reallocation of tasks within the supply chain. This has meant a transfer of responsibilities from the assemblers (such as Ford) to various kinds of suppliers, and a resultant shift in the system of responsibility and authority in the supply chain. The paper then explores in detail changes in the nature of relationships among firms in the supply chain from a type termed the market model to a type termed the commitment model. Additional topics include changes in the way relationships among firms are initiated and reasons for the new type of relationship. The changes are interpreted in terms of both firm‐level and industry level‐factors. The changes and their underlying causes allow certain predictions: the process of change to the new type of relationship will continue at least until 2005; and it is uncertain how far the new mode of relationship, the commitment model, will extend through the supply chain.