Partnership structures and agendas and managers' assessments of stakeholder outcomes

The theory of workplace partnership suggests that partnership structures combining strategic and operational arrangements and addressing substantively significant agendas of broad scope should lead to positive outcomes for the main stakeholder groups: employers, employees and unions. Data from a survey of managers involved in all known partnerships in unionised companies in the Republic of Ireland in 2000 are used to distinguish ‘integrated business partnerships’, where such structures and agendas prevail, and ‘exploratory partnerships’ characterised by operational or strategic structures only and relatively sparse or narrow agendas. Managers involved in integrated business partnerships are shown to assess more positively a range of current and expected outcomes of significance for each stakeholder group. However, managers' assessments and expectations also point towards a bias in favour of employer interests in the outcomes of integrated business partnerships. The theoretical and policy implications of the results are considered.     

社会责任与企业价值创造机理:一个研究框架

目前对企业承担社会责任的经济后果还没有取得一致的结论,在社会责任对企业价值创造的具体影响机理、程度和计量方式等企业关心的重要问题上还缺乏系统的研究。通过构建社会责任对企业价值创造影响的社会责任、信誉资本与企业价值创造的规范性分析框架模型,可以揭示企业承担社会责任对企业长期价值影响的方向、影响机理和影响程度等亟待探索的关键问题。本文提出了社会责任与企业价值研究领域的研究内容与分析方法,为进一步研究社会责任与企业价值的内生决定关系提供了全新分析框架。     

Promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable development through management development: What can be learned from international service learning programs?

In this article, we discuss how the human resource development (HRD) function can support corporate sustainability strategy by designing and implementing leadership development programs incorporating international service learning assignments. We describe “Project Ulysses,” an integrated service learning program that involves sending participants in teams to developing countries to work in cross‐sector partnerships with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and social entrepreneurs, supporting them in their fight against pressing global problems. We present the findings of a narrative analysis of learning stories produced by Ulysses participants. Understanding how participants make sense of, and learn from, their experiences abroad provides us with insights into how service learning programs can help managers to develop the knowledge, skills, and mind‐set that will enable them to successfully support a company's global sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. We conclude by discussing the implications for leadership development, specifically how organizations can incorporate a responsibility and sustainability focus in their management development programs.     

Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainable Corporate Community Investment

This paper presents the findings of research exploring the value and impacts of corporate community investment (CCI) through community partnerships. The research considered the community partners' perceptions of the value and impact of CCI. We adopted an inquiry paradigm utilising constructivist ontology, interpretivist epistemology and a case study method. In dialogue with Wesfarmers Ltd's community partners, the ‘realities’ presented by these beneficiary stakeholders were interpreted and understood (verstehen). While the CCI programmes with each of the not‐for‐profit organisations had different objectives, we were able to classify, under broad headings, the nature of the benefits to the community. One question highlighted is whether all corporate investing is the same? We found two aspects to this: the strategic fit for the community organisation of proposed investment and whether the corporate partner sought a relational as opposed to transactional approach to funding provision. Recommendations can be made for the funding structure deemed to be most effective from the community partners' perspectives. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Asymmetric effects of corporate sustainability strategy on value creation among global automotive firms: A dynamic panel quantile regression approach

This study explores the asymmetric effects of corporate sustainability strategy on firm value at different conditioning quantiles by performing a dynamic panel quantile regression analysis on global automotive firms from 2011 to 2017. Further, this study measures the distinct effects of positive and negative corporate sustainability strategies on firm value, which has remained unconsidered as yet. The findings suggest that low-value and midvalue firms respond more strongly to positive and negative corporate sustainability strategies than high-value firms. This implies that for low-value and midvalue corporations that are in a growth phase, an investment in positive corporate sustainability strategies is essential to increase firm value by enhancing public perception of their efforts. Therefore, positive corporate sustainability strategy contributes substantially to future growth. Conversely, positive corporate sustainability strategy may not be a priority in increasing firm value for high-value corporations, because these strategies do not enhance the public's discernment of their efforts in ethics management and hence do not contribute to a future increase in value. Meanwhile, engagement in negative corporate sustainability strategy worsens firm value in all quantiles, although the effect is somewhat weaker for high-value firms. Nevertheless, however high valued and well established a firm is, it is not immune to crisis.     

The relationship between environmental information disclosure and firm valuation: the role of corporate governance

Hopwood argued that accounting has become associated with environmental concerns, and that environmental concerns will be further integrated into accounting practices in the near future. The McKinsey Company discovered that environmental information affects a firm’s value, and that investors in firms with good corporate governance in Asian countries are willing to pay a price premium of 20 % or greater. The increasing need for environmental protection and responsibility to the community on the part of firms have led to environmental protection becoming a critical focal concern of governments, public welfare associations, and the public. Effective implementation of corporate governance has been reported to enhance operating performance and increase firm value. This study applies the Ohlson valuation model to examine the value relevance of environmental information disclosure and corporate governance, and investigate their on firms in Taiwan. The results indicate relationships between total disclosure of environmental information, mandatory disclosure of environmental information, and voluntary disclosure of environmental information and firm value. Corporate governance is positively correlated with the valuation of total disclosure of environmental information and mandatory disclosure of environmental information.     

Investor visits to corporate sites and cost stickiness

A corporate site visit is an effective way to obtain information on a firm. Most studies focus on the information advantages of corporate site visits, but evidence of their impact on firm operations is limited. In this paper, we investigate whether investors’ corporate site visits affect cost stickiness. Using data on investor corporate site visits to Chinese listed firms from 2013 to 2018, we find that these visits can inhibit cost stickiness. This finding holds in robustness tests and when controlling for endogeneity, including firm fixed effects, and using the Heckman selection model and the instrumental variables method. Further analyses reveal this inhibition is more pronounced for nonstate-owned enterprises and the results are more significant regarding cost stickiness in firms consuming nonlabor materials and firms visited by institutional investors. Moreover, we explore plausible mechanisms through which corporate site visits inhibit cost stickiness, such as through a monitoring channel and a learning channel. Our study contributes to academic evidence on the benefit and value of corporate site visits to firm operations, showing these visits can be a useful way to build connections between investors and firms.     

Can businesses move beyond efficiency? The shift toward effectiveness and equity in the corporate sustainability debate

The aim of this paper is to articulate to a wider practitioner and academic audience the value and importance of moving the sustainable business agenda beyond the notion of eco‐ and socio‐efficiency. This in itself is not a new development in the sustainable business literature. What are emerging are integrated models of corporate sustainability that link together the six criteria that a sustainable business will need to satisfy, namely eco‐efficiency, socio‐efficiency, eco‐effectiveness, socio‐effectiveness, sufficiency and ecological equity. At this stage these new models of corporate sustainability need further theoretical development, taking corporate sustainability beyond the business case (eco‐efficiency) towards an integrated approach that links in the social and natural cases. A new model for sustainable entrepreneurship is presented and discussed in the context of a social entrepreneur case study. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Knowledge interests in corporate environmental management

We know from earlier studies that corporate environmental management is a young discipline, not yet integrated in general management and organization studies, but that researchers take an increasing part in the ongoing scientific conversation. However, the underlying knowledge interests characterizing the field of corporate environmental management is yet empirically unsubstantiated. One way to find out what elements make up the field is to analyse the contents of the most influential writings in the field. The present article identifies the 10 most cited works in Business Strategy and the Environment in 1992–2000 and explores the content of these texts. We conceptualise a typology for analysing corporate environmental management theory and formulate a characterization of the dominating knowledge interests. Our findings show that the theoretical fundament of corporate environmental management lacks a hermeneutic knowledge interest. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Corporate funding: A necessary evil?

Earthwatch has a highly successful track record of fundraising from the corporate sector, and developing corporate donors into long-term partners. This paper examines how this has happened in an environment that favours publicity-driven programmes run by large charities, and questions whether the long-term health of the voluntary sector will be better served by such partnerships rather than by high-value transactions.     

多元化经营对公司绩效的影响研究

本文假设企业规模在多元化经营与企业绩效的影响关系中具有中介作用,提出"多元化程度—公司规模—公司绩效"的变量模型;利用中国制造业上市公司2008～2010年的数据,通过横截面分析和面板数据分析对该模型进行实证检验。横截面分析结果表明,多元化经营对公司会计绩效产生负向影响,并且公司规模在其中具有部分中介作用,但对公司市场价值并不产生显著影响;面板数据分析结果显示,多元化经营对公司会计绩效和市场价值的影响都不显著。     

Determinants of Traditional Sustainability Reporting Versus Integrated Reporting. An Institutionalist Approach

The aim of this study is to analyze similarities and differences between companies with traditional sustainability reporting (TSR) and those that publish integrated reports. Based on institutional theory we identify potential determinants of integrated reporting (IR) and test their relevance empirically in a sample of 309 companies. Our analysis shows that IR companies are different from TSR companies with regard to several country‐level determinants. In particular, investor and employment protection laws, the intensity of market coordination and ownership concentration, the level of economic, environmental and social development, the degree of national corporate responsibility and the value system of the country of origin proved to be relevant. Based on these results, both implications for practice and future studies are derived. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Corporate environmentalism: tracing the links between policies and performance using corporate reports and public registers

Within this paper, we consider whether it is possible to trace the links between the procedural and the substantive dimensions of corporate environmentalism using information that is in the public domain – most notably in corporate reports and in pollutant releases and transfer registers (PRTRs) such as the US Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and the EU Polluting Emissions Register (EPER). Based on an analysis of firms in the oil and gas sector, and specifically of the environmental performance of oil refineries, we find that corporate reports are of very limited value when seeking to compare and contrast levels of environmental performance at the site level, but that a significant body of useful information is provided by public registers such as the US TRI and the EU EPER. Drawing upon these data, we find significant variations in corporate environmental performance across the US and the EU, and we note the existence of significant correlations between higher levels of emissions and lower levels of employment and income in the areas where industrial facilities are located. We then discuss the relevance of our findings to broader debates on corporate environmentalism and corporate social responsibility. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Corporate Governance und Unternehmenswerteffekte bei Leveraged Buyouts – State of the Art der empirischen Forschung

This state-of-the-art paper systematizes and discusses the results of numerous empirical studies that deal with the effects of corporate governance on the value of leveraged buyouts. Moreover, additional need for research is derived. The article shows that leveraged buyouts share three common characteristics: significant management participation, the use of debt to discipline the management, and intensive monitoring of the private equity firm. Positive wealth effects through leveraged buyouts are beneficial for both the previous owners and the private equity firm. The studies yield evidence that the specific corporate governance of leveraged buyouts contributes to these positive value effects. Studies on reverse leveraged buyouts provide further evidence for this stream of thought. Main areas for future research comprise methodological issues of measuring wealth effects, its link to corporate governance in leveraged buyouts and the different types of buyouts. Alternative explanations of the wealth development as well as macroeconomic effects constitute further avenues for future research.     

The impact of national culture on integrated reporting quality. A stakeholder theory approach

Integrated reporting (IR) is a new corporate‐reporting system that aims to represent the firm's value creation in the short, medium, and long term. In contrast to other disclosure systems focusing on non‐financial dimensions, including social and environmental aspects, IR is characterized by information connectivity. In recent years, integrated reporting has received increasing interest, both academic and professional. However, report quality is still a critical aspect of IR. Although several studies investigate IR, few focus on quality and its determinants. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the impact of national culture, an external determinant, from a stakeholder theory perspective. The results show that IR quality is related to five dimensions of Hofstede—power distance, individualism, masculinity, and indulgence negatively and uncertainty avoidance positively. This study contributes to the relevant literature by analysing an additional factor that influences the quality of corporate reports, namely, national culture. This is the first study that investigates national culture as a determinant of integrated‐reporting quality.     

Firm value and investment in R&D

This paper employs Canadian stock market and corporate financial data to test the hypothesis that the market places a positive value on reported research and development spending of firms as an indicator of expected profitability and growth. The empirical results show a positive, statistically significant relationship between R&D spending and market value. The magnitudes of estimated coefficients are consistent with those reported in several published US studies. These results suggest that investment in R&D is a rational allocation of resources, contrary to the undervaluation hypothesis.     

The Visible Hands of Hierarchy within the M‐Form: An Empirical Test of Corporate Parenting of Internal Product Exchanges*

ABSTRACT In this paper, we dismiss the traditional contingency argument that corporate staff should have minimal involvement with the decisions that its divisions make, because predictability, which underlies this contingency logic, is erroneous for most large corporations at this time. We offer an alternative theory of corporate involvement for the M‐form: under unpredictable environments greater interdependence of corporate staff with divisional operating decisions may be necessary to create value for the corporation. Since corporate staff cannot be involved in all divisional affairs, we empirically explore when corporate involvement is most likely. Building on transaction cost economics and the strategy literature, we reason that corporate staff may selectively involve itself in business level strategy and operating decisions when product characteristics signal threats to effective inter‐divisional coordination as well as opportunities for value creation. To explore this topic, we surveyed corporate managers of Fortune 500 companies. The results suggest some initial support for our theoretical argument: corporate staff is more likely to involve itself in business‐level decisions for uncertain products. We further find that when corporate staff is responsible for the capital investments used for the divisional venture, it is more likely to guide and influence product strategy decisions and inter‐divisional conflicts. We do not find, however, consistent evidence that specialized assets or brand‐name reputation trigger corporate involvement. Implications and limitations are further discussed.     

现金流量与应计利润在企业债券市场中的有用性——来自沪市的经验证据

文章选取了截止到2005年底在上交所上市的企业债券39支,一共79个公司/年度样本,计算债券年度持有收益率,进而根据面板数据估计了一个横截面回归模型。经验证据表明,债券持有人对会计盈余的两个组成部分都作出正面的估价,并且估价的方式有些类似。这表明会计数字在中国企业债券市场中是有用的,但是应当继续加强发债主体财务信息披露。     

人力资本的价值分配与企业创新

本文以2009~2017年沪深A股上市公司为样本,研究了企业价值分配结构中员工的分享比例对企业创新产出的影响。研究发现:价值分配结构中员工分享的比例(包括全部员工分享比例和剔除高管后的普通员工分享比例)越高,越有助于企业的创新产出,对发明专利、实用新型专利和外观设计专利均有促进作用。相对于国有企业,人力资本价值分配比例对企业创新产出的促进作用在非国有企业中更加显著。相对于低内控质量的企业,人力资本价值分配比例对企业创新产出的促进作用在高内部控制质量的企业中更加显著。进一步研究发现,人力资本价值分配比例的提高不仅对企业创新产出有促进作用,而且对企业创新效率也有促进作用。本文揭示了价值分配过程中对于员工的薪酬激励如何影响企业创新,为上市公司要素分配体系的设计提供了参考。     

管理者过度自信、企业价值与企业财务困境的关系——基于东星集团的案例研究

实证研究表明,管理者过度自信与企业财务困境之间存在一定的关系,但现有文献并未清晰地回答管理者过度自信对企业财务困境形成的影响机理。本文通过理论分析和案例研究建立了管理者过度自信与企业价值之间相互影响、递进上升,最后导致企业陷入财务困境的分析模型。文章提出了用OC系数来衡量管理者过度自信,是对管理者过度自信研究方法的一个贡献;建立了管理者过度自信、企业价值与企业财务困境之间的关系模型,能够比较清晰地解释管理者过度自信对企业财务困境形成的影响机理,丰富了管理者过度自信和企业财务困境的理论研究成果。