The Role of the Global Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in the Social Screening of Investments

Social screening of investments calls not only for investment policy and criteria, but also for information about companies, their policies, practices and performance. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its June 2000 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines have the potential to significantly improve the usefulness and quality of information reported by companies about their environmental, social and economic impacts and performance. The GRI aims to develop a voluntary reporting framework that will elevate sustainability reporting practices to a level equivalent to that of financial reporting in rigour, comparability, auditability and general acceptance. This will be a welcome and efficient supplement to the questionnaires, interviews, press releases, media reports and other sources of information traditionally used for screening in investment decision making – social/ethical and mainstream. The Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index, the Jantzi Social Index and the Innovest EcoValue'21 analytical platform, together with the SRI community, are all likely to benefit from GRI-style sustainability reports. One of the GRI's key challenges is to accommodate the broad variety of disclosure needs and expectations of a wide range of report users and company stakeholders. To maximize the usefulness of the GRI Guidelines, report users, including the SRI community, need to be engaged in the process of developing and refining the Guidelines over time. The GRI Guidelines are emerging as an important instrument in enabling companies to communicate with their stakeholders about performance and accountability beyond just the financial bottom line.     

The evolution of tourist arts

Tourist arts with ethnic content are at the nexus of changing tourism, ethnicity and art in the modern world. This paper explores the range of varieties of tourist arts, the dynamics of change between various types of artifacts, and the interaction between tourist arts and notions of ethnic self-perception. The analogy between language and art is pursued to illuminate the nature of the various communication codes embodied in tourist and ethnic arts. The paper concludes by stressing that tourist arts are not an end-point, but one possibility within the fluid relationships between material symbols, outsiders' demand, and the defense and reformulation of ethnicity. It also concludes that the evolution of ethnic awareness, combined with increased education and travel opportunities, is bringing a uniformity of attitudes towards tourism, material heritage, and museums among the middle classes of all nations. Thus minority ethnic symbols have become the manipulated “totems” of touristic identity.     

Empirical Findings on Business–Society Relations in Europe

Based on a theoretical exploration in a previous article, this paper empirically analyzes which issues of SD are taken into account by corporations and stakeholders in what way, and to what extent the concept of sustainable development (SD) can be achieved through stakeholder relations management (SRM) on the corporate level. An important basis for this empirical analysis is a referential framework, which specifies 14 issues of SD. In a first empirical step, the literature-based framework has been operationalized for the business world by analyzing sustainability reports. In a second empirical step, the operationalized framework served as the basis for a survey of selected MNCs. The analyses of the sustainability reports and the survey show how MNCs deal with particular issues of SD and what role they perceive particular stakeholders play. A key conclusion of the article is that SRM indeed promotes SD, but that it is no alternative to predictable government regulation.     

我国与“一带一路”沿线国家贸易合作现状、存在问题和提升策略研究

“一带一路”倡议提出以来,我国与沿线国家贸易合作得到很大改善,但依然存在基础设施比较落后、贸易模式和贸易结构比较单一固化等问题。同时,考虑到当前全球贸易保护主义抬头、国际贸易规则加速重构、全球贸易投资环境日益严峻、全球经济增长动能减弱和中美贸易摩擦影响加剧等,应加强政府间沟通,构建健全的政策制度体系,加快基础设施建设,实现更高水平的互联互通,坚持以重点产业合作带动贸易合作,加快自贸区网络建设,争取早日开始“一带一路”自贸协定谈判,不断提升我国与沿线国家贸易合作水平。     

“丝绸之路经济带”建设中新疆对外开放与经济发展的关系研究

在共建“丝绸之路经济带”的战略提出后,新疆经济开放度及其对经济发展的贡献程度的研究,对于我国向西开放及把新疆建设成为“丝绸之路经济带”的核心区具有重要的意义。从直观数据上看,经济开放促进了新疆经济的快速发展,但实际上,并没有体现出两者的数量关系和因果关系。因此,文章将对新疆国内生产总值与各经济开放度指标进行实证分析,通过计量模型来判断经济开放度与经济发展的关系,并提出相应的对策建议。     

制度变迁、国际货币改革与中国的选择

文章认为国家经济价值的提高产生了对制度创新的需求,国际货币制度不均衡的关键原因是国家的经济价值。作为公共产品,由集体行动所供给的国际货币制度由于搭便车和外部性产生滞后效应。在陷入集体行动困境的现实国际货币体系中,由单个国家（中国）或自愿合作的国家集团（欧盟或亚洲货币区）所主导的诱致性的制度变迁是一种有效的边际改革,将会带来由美元主导的不稳定的国际货币体系变迁到多元的稳定的国家货币体系。由于中国的国家经济价值不断提升,国际货币制度的稳定需要人民币国际化。中国应该内外兼修,使人民币成为亚洲货币联盟的“锚”货币。     

环境规制的技术进步效应：基于省级面板数据的经验分析

利用2000—2010年中国内地30个省市面板数据,对环境规制与技术进步的关系进行实证研究。结果表明,基于全国层面的分析,环境规制对技术进步有正向影响;基于地区层面的分析,环境规制对技术进步的影响具有明显的区域差异,东部地区为正面效应,中部和西部地区为负面效应。在此基础上,验证环境规制对于技术进步的影响呈现倒“N”型曲线特征。针对研究结果,提出相应的政策建议。     

身份“差序格局”的测量及其效应研究

文章以文献研究和深度访谈为基础,结合问卷调查所获的数据资料,编制了员工身份“差序格局”问卷。274份有效问卷的探索性因子分析表明,身份“差序格局”包括经济剥夺感、差序对待感和权力偏移感3个维度。为了进一步验证身份“差序格局”的构想效度,并考察问卷的信度与校标效度,对74家企事业单位进行了调查,获得了519份有效问卷。验证性因子分析结果支持身份“差序格局”问卷的结构,信度和多元回归分析的结果显示,身份“差序格局”问卷具有较好的信度和效度。最后,结合本土文化情境,围绕身份“差序格局”对组织不公正、组织负向认同、伤感度和反生产行为的差异化效应及其诱因进行分类梳理,强化了身份“差序格局”结构的说服力和解释力。     

网络经济的“马太效应”与企业对策

网络经济是知识经济的主要特征,企业传统的运作模式在网络经济中受到强烈的冲击,因特网使不同市场的界限变得模糊,使竞争变得更加激烈,更加难以控制,也使“马太效应”具有普遍性及合理性。企业要想成为“马太效应”中的赢家,就要不断地采取对策占有先发优势,培育核心竞争力,运用标杆管理进行分类比较,不断地进行调整与创新。     

Does the Connectivity of the Belt and Road Initiative Contribute to the Economic Growth of the Belt and Road Countries?

ABSTRACT

Since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been implemented for five years, it is time to ask whether the BRI contributes to Belt and Road (BR) countries’ economic growth, and how are the five elements of connectivity implemented between China and its partner countries since the BRI was proposed. This study focuses on the development of the five elements of connectivity between China and the BR countries from 2008 to 2017 using a comprehensive connectivity index extracted from principle component analysis, and then investigating if the connectivity has contributed to the economic growth of the BR countries with quantitative analysis of the fixed effect econometrical model. It is found that Russia, South Korea, and Singapore presented the top three levels of connectivity with China with regard to the overall connectivity index, varying from 1.4 to 2.4. Madagascar and Panama have the lowest level of connectivity with China, with values of ?0.8 to ?1.1. The result of the fixed effect model shows that the connectivity of the BR countries with China contributes to their economic growth. This provides quantitative evidence that the connectivity between BR countries and China has a significant influence on the economic growth of those countries.