Search results
1 – 10 of over 4000Anna Melinda and Ratna Wardhani
With the increasing understanding of stakeholders on sustainability aspects for the business, companies are nowadays paying more attention to environmental and social issues. This…
Abstract
With the increasing understanding of stakeholders on sustainability aspects for the business, companies are nowadays paying more attention to environmental and social issues. This study aims to examine the relationship between Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Index and firms’ value. Moreover, this study also examines how the controversy score influences the company’s value. The authors employ a dataset of 1.356 companies from 22 countries in Asia which representing the Asian market from 2014 to 2018. This study shows that ESG index score and controversy score are statistically significant, affecting the firms’ value, measured by Tobin’s Q. From the individual tests, the findings of this study indicate that ESG-environmental, ESG-social, and ESG-governance, individually affect the firms’ value. This study suggests that providing disclosure on ESG aspects is essential, not only to increase company value but also to show the company resilience and sustainability. On the other hand, ESG controversy score surprisingly indicates a positive relationship with the company value. The result implies that controversies provide a positive signal to the investor because controversies could provide a signal to the public of companies’ willingness to have transparency and accountability.
Details
Keywords
Corporate foundations – entities established to regularize corporate giving at an arm’s length removed from the firm – command substantial resources, root companies in the…
Abstract
Corporate foundations – entities established to regularize corporate giving at an arm’s length removed from the firm – command substantial resources, root companies in the nonprofit sectors of their host communities, indirectly augment perceptions of corporate responsibility, and help firms to deflect controversies in an attentive global media environment. Despite these important roles, relatively little research has examined the institutional and strategic factors that influence such proximate charitable giving by firms. Using systematic data on foundations linked to S&P 3000 firms in the health sector – a growing domain in which public trust in high-stakes products and services is critical – fixed-effects models illustrate the primary role of network influences on giving: corporate foundations give substantially more in years following higher contributions by other (noncorporate) foundations in the health sector in a firm’s headquarters locality and also following increased contributions by industry peers through their corporate foundations. Giving also appears to reflect strategic reputational concerns, in that foundation contributions increase significantly following controversies associated with the corporate parent’s products and/or services. By contrast, giving tends to decline as the presence of outside directors on a firm’s board increases, as well as when firms carry heavier debt loads. Combined, these findings suggest that corporate foundations serve as a strategic proxy for the firm, reflecting both a company's position in community and interfirm networks while also mitigating the threat of reputational challenges.
Grégory Schneider-Maunoury and Alexis Gouin
This chapter furnishes empirical evidence on CSR rating used by socially responsible investment (SRI). It analyzes data provided by CSR rating agencies as well as raw data, raw…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter furnishes empirical evidence on CSR rating used by socially responsible investment (SRI). It analyzes data provided by CSR rating agencies as well as raw data, raw information disclosed. It thus suggests a new definition of CSR, based on the CSR measurement attempts and pitfalls generated for and by socially responsible investors.
Methodology/approach
This chapter presents two sets of empirical data analysis. The first set of data is drawn from the WBCSD best case studies from 1992 to 2005 and focuses on the good practices of companies. The aim is to analyze the motivations of companies and their set of stakeholders. The second data set is drawn from the Sustainalytics controversy database and focuses on the bad practices of companies. The aim is to analyze the set of stakeholders of companies.
Research findings
The first empirical research clearly shows that the main strategic target is license to operate, including compliance. The second empirical research shows that the main stakeholder is the government. These empirical works confirm the many examples provided and the philosophical backgrounds reminded in the chapter.
Research implications
This chapter also draws some conclusions on corporate social responsibility and suggest a reframing of the concept on a set of two agency relationships: shareholder–manager (for private goods) government–manager (for public goods). This enables to define the way to optimize the agency relationship according to the different conditions of information and technology, as described in the case of environmental regulation and corporate strategies (Schneider-Maunoury, 1999).
Practically this chapter incites stakeholders to focus CSR issues on public policy definition (goal setting and implementation) in order to define corporate targets to achieve. Socially responsible investors could therefore define the impact they want to finance (as it already happens for green or “social business” funds).
Practical/social implications
This scheme enables a better understanding of CSR related issues by focusing on the main players. Other stakeholders, such as NGOs and employees are considered as elements of a political process with government. This scheme identifies more clearly the pitfalls of environmental and social policies.
Originality/value
This chapter is a unique attempt to go beyond usual criticisms of CSR ratings and other socially responsible investment methods. Drawing the consequences of these problematic measurements of CSR enables to reframe and redefine CSR, by identifying the key players and a theoretical framework to analyze their relationships.
Details
Keywords
Charlot Cassar, Ida Oosterheert and Paulien C. Meijer
Controversial issues characterize life in democratic societies, and they often arise unexpectedly in the classroom, without being planned for by the teacher. However…
Abstract
Controversial issues characterize life in democratic societies, and they often arise unexpectedly in the classroom, without being planned for by the teacher. However, controversial issues are rarely addressed beyond a mandatory curriculum and are often avoided. The aim of this exploratory study is to investigate what teachers identify and address as unplanned controversial issues in the classroom and the content of such issues. Unplanned controversial issues identified fell into three categories (1) mainstream controversy, (2) teacher-initiated controversy, and (3) controversial pedagogy. The findings suggest that more attention needs to be paid, among other things, to the political dimension of education, teacher vulnerability, and who the person in teaching is.
Details
Keywords
In a field stirred by controversy one who attempts to take a “scientific” attitude characteristically finds himself between two fires: the dispassionate seeker after truth is…
Abstract
In a field stirred by controversy one who attempts to take a “scientific” attitude characteristically finds himself between two fires: the dispassionate seeker after truth is despised and abused by both sides. For in a controversy both sides cannot be right and in general both sides are wrong. So it has been with economists. The matter with which they deal is the subject of political controversy; the conservative views with alarm many scientific commonplaces of economics as dangerous radicalism, while the labor leader and social reform propagandist be-rates them as the corrupt expression of a scion and dependent of the privileged classes; and both sides scorn them as theoretical and academic.
This chapter provides a theoretical framework of dispute settlement to explain the surge in blocking incidence of GATT panel reports during the 1980s and the variations in…
Abstract
This chapter provides a theoretical framework of dispute settlement to explain the surge in blocking incidence of GATT panel reports during the 1980s and the variations in withdrawn incidence versus total disputes across different decades of the GATT regime. The study first suggests the role of the degree of legal controversy over a panel ruling in determining countries' incentives to block (appeal) a panel report under the GATT (WTO) regime. The study then analyzes the effects of political power on countries' incentives to use, and their interactions in using, the dispute settlement mechanism, given two-sided asymmetric information regarding panel judgement.
Details
Keywords
Alexandre F. S. Andrada and Mauro Boianovsky
This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the…
Abstract
This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the most important economic debate that took place under the military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985. The perceived sharp increase in income inequality posed a challenge to the economic legitimation of the military regime, which had by the early 1970s achieved high rates of economic growth. This chapter discusses the apparent paradox of relatively open economic debate during a period of political repression, as well as its international dimension as reflected in the role played by institutions such as the World Bank.
Details