The Disclosure Practices of Islamic Equity Funds

We investigate the disclosure practices of screening and compliance information of Islamic equity funds around the world. Disclosures on Sharia advisors and screening information are quite high, but they are lower for compliance information such as Sharia advisory report (SAR) and holdings data. The results show that younger funds with better Sharia advisory board (SAB) governance which are domiciled in countries belonging to an Islamic international standard-setter body have the highest disclosure levels. However, funds domiciled in countries with a central SAB and following common law disclose less Sharia-related information. These findings are important for the effectiveness of disclosure framework.     

Using scenarios to explore UK upland futures

Uplands around the world are facing significant social, economic and environmental changes, and decision-makers need to better understand what the future may hold if they are to adapt and maintain upland goods and services. This paper draws together all major research comprising eight studies that have used scenarios to describe possible futures for UK uplands. The paper evaluates which scenarios are perceived by stakeholders to be most likely and desirable, and assesses the benefits and drawbacks of the scenario methods used in UK uplands to date. Stakeholders agreed that the most desirable and likely scenario would be a continuation of hill farming (albeit at reduced levels) based on cross-compliance with environmental measures. The least desirable scenario is a withdrawal of government financial support for hill farming. Although this was deemed by stakeholders to be the least likely scenario, the loss of government support warrants close attention due to its potential implications for the local economy. Stakeholders noted that the environmental implications of this scenario are much less clear-cut. As such, there is an urgent need to understand the full implications of this scenario, so that upland stakeholders can adequately prepare, and policy-makers can better evaluate the likely implications of different policy options. The paper concludes that in future, upland scenario research needs to: (1) better integrate in-depth and representative participation from stakeholders during both scenario development and evaluation; and (2) make more effective use of visualisation techniques and simulation models.     

Ethical Screening and Financial Performance: The Case of Islamic Equity Funds

Poor working conditions remain a serious problem in supplier facilities in developing countries. While previous research has explored this from the developed buyers’ side, we examine this phenomenon from the perspective of developing countries’ suppliers and subcontractors. Utilizing qualitative data from a major knitwear exporting cluster in India and a stakeholder management lens, we develop a framework that shows how the assumptions of conventional, buyer-driven voluntary governance break down in the dilution of buyer power and in the web of factors rooted in suppliers’ traditions, beliefs, local demands and resource dependency. We reveal out how success in governing collaborative global supply chains often falls short within the subcontracting stage, where a stakeholder management mindset is elusive to most participants. We suggest that success in governing collaborative global supply chains is dependent on concepts of stakeholder utility and the presence of shared value that is often at odds with the realities of power, information asymmetry and compliance/reward systems inherent in the non-market coordination of global supply chains. Our findings offer important insights for delineating the concepts of value creation from CSR concepts and practices, and for modifying the basic assumptions of conventional supply chain governance.     

How emotional,politically civil and local aspects affect young adults’ sustainable consumption in transition economies

Sustainable consumption manifolds and mobilizes one’s conscious choice to express a politically implied stance on environmental/cultural/social issues, to address social and/or ecological injustices, to reproduce or restore order and justice, as well as to fulfill responsibilities of a citizen consumer. Based on this premise, this paper attempts to explore what sustainable consumption means to young adults in Hong Kong. Findings from three focus groups and six follow-up interviews reveal that Hong Kong young adults’ sustainable consumption embeds their political ideals to construct collective civil power to fight against the structural inequalities, market hegemonies, imperial dominance and social/ecological injustice locally. The findings point to the need to further define and refine the unspecified concept of “reflexivity” in existing literature. The paper also unveils how the concept of “sustainable consumption” has evolved from the “individual,” “global,” “rational,” “remotely moral” and “ideological” to the “communal,” “local,” “emotional,” “politically civil” and “actional.”     

An Analysis of U.S. Aggregate Output Response by Farm Size

Past empirical evidence on supply response by size of farm in the U.S.A. provides no clear basis to conclude that supply elasticities vary systematically with farm size. In this paper, the central hypothesis that no systematic relationship exists between production response to price and size of farm is rejected. U.S. farms are disaggregated into nine economic size categories and own-price supply elasticities are measured for per farm and total agricultural output. Empirical results from this study suggest that supply response does vary systematically by farm size, with smaller farms exhibiting greater elasticities than midsized farms.