Foreign Investment in Brazilian Public Offerings: The Role of Board Composition

Recently, foreigners have been responsible for negotiating more than half of the shares issued by the companies listed in the Brazilian Stock Market. In order to understand the characteristics of companies that influence the increase of international financing, the aim of this article was to investigate the relation between foreign investment in public offerings and board composition. We examine data of 183 Brazilian IPOs and subsequent offerings from 2004–2016 using OLS regression. The empirical result suggested that companies that have a foreign director as a board member and are in a special listing segment of B3—bound by rules of corporate governance—tend to attract more foreign investment. This means that foreigners are sensitive to good corporate governance practices when financing Brazilian firms’ IPOs or that issue new shares. Our findings imply that improvements in the corporate governance practice of companies could increase their ability to raise foreign capital.

RESUMERecientemente, más de la mitad de las acciones emitidas por las empresas cotizadas en la Bolsa de Valores brasileña fueron negociadas por extranjeros. El objeto de este estudio consistió en investigar la relación existente entre las inversiones extranjeras en las ofertas públicas y la composición de sus juntas directivas, para entender las características de las empresas que contribuyen a aumentar el financiamiento internacional. Utilizando la regresión de mínimos cuadrados ordinarios dinámicos (MCOD, OLS en inglés), examinamos datos de la Oferta Pública Inicial Brasileña 183 (IPO) así como ofertas subsiguientes del período 2004-2016. El resultado empírico obtenido sugiere que las empresas cuya junta directiva tiene como miembro un director extranjero y constan en un segmento de cotización especial (B3), sujeto a normas de gobernanza corporativa, suelen atraer más inversiones extranjeras. Esto implica que, al financiarlas, los extranjeros son más susceptibles a que las empresas brasileñas que abren su capital o emiten nuevas acciones, usen buenas prácticas de gobernanza corporativa. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que la implementación de mejoras en las prácticas de gobernanza corporativa de las empresas puede aumentar su financiamiento internacional.

RESUMORecentemente os estrangeiros passaram a ser responsáveis pela negociação de mais da metade das ações emitidas pelas empresas listadas na Bolsa de Valores brasileira. Para entender as características das empresas que influenciam o aumento do financiamento internacional, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo o estudo da relação entre o investimento estrangeiro nas ofertas públicas e a composição das diretorias. Examinamos dados de 183 IPOs (Oferta Pública Inicial) e de ofertas subsequentes, de 2004 a 2016, usando a regressão MQO (OLS na sigla em inglês). O resultado empírico sugere que as empresas que têm um diretor estrangeiro na diretoria e que estão no segmento de listagem especial da B3—sujeitas às normas de governança corporativa—tendem a atrair mais investimentos. Isso significa que os estrangeiros estão alerta quanto às boas práticas de governança ao considerar empresas brasileiras que abrem o capital ou que emitem ações novas. Os nossos achados sugerem que melhorias nas práticas de governança corporativa das empresas podem elevar o financiamento internacional das empresas.     

Corporate Social Strategy and the Generation of Benefits: Case Studies in the Brazilian Electricity and Supermarket Industries

In recent years, scholars and executives alike have devoted attention to the implications of Corporate Social Responsibility policies and practices as well as their relationship to strategy. The objectives of the present article are to investigate the interaction between corporate social responsibility and strategy and the benefits that this relationship can yield to companies. For this purpose, a qualitative multiple case study was made of four Brazilian corporations, two in the supermarket sector and two in the energy distribution sector, comparing a competitive and a monopolized sector in Brazil. The data were collected through interviews with executives from social and environmental areas and through secondary sources. The study finds that corporate social strategy provides several benefits, among them attracting and retaining valuable human resources and enhancing company image and reputation     

公司治理与公司管理的关系研究

理顺公司治理与公司管理的关系是企业保持持久生命力的关键。两者相互依存,又互有区别。公司治理与公司管理的相互依存来自两者之间的匹配协调,两者的区别根源在于现代企业所有权与经营权的分离。公司治理与公司管理之间的匹配协调是动态的,随着企业内外部环境的变化,两者需经适时调整,以达到新的平衡。     

The Corporate Side of the Blogosphere: Examining the Variations of Design and Engagement Among Fortune 500 Blogs

Using design and communication principles, this study uses a content analysis design to evaluate all active blogs from the 2011 Fortune 500 list (n = 125). The results indicate that corporate America has only modestly incorporated the dialogic principles into their blogs. Current corporate blogs are well-designed as far as making them searchable and easy to navigate; however, the blogs are mostly being used to provide information in a one-way manner rather than creating an open dialogue with consumers. While blogging can enhance relationships with stakeholders, corporate communicators must strive to develop legitimate conversations with their blog readers.     

The Multinational Corporation and Global Governance: Modelling Global Public Policy Networks

Globalization has increased the economic power of the multinational corporation (MNC), engendering calls for greater corporate social responsibility (CSR) from these companies. However, the current mechanisms of global governance are inadequate to codify and enforce recognized CSR standards. One method by which companies can impact positively on global governance is through the mechanism of Global Public Policy Networks (GPPN). These networks build on the individual strength of MNCs, domestic governments, and non-governmental organizations to create expected standards of behaviour in such areas as labour rights, environmental standards, and working conditions. This article models GPPN in the issue area of CSR. The potential benefits of GPPN include better overall coordination among industry and government in establishing what social expectations the modern MNC will be expected to fill. David Detomasi is an assistant professor of international business at the School of Business, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario Canada. His research areas include corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, and business and society.     

Dialogic Communication and Thought Leadership: Twitter Use by Public Relations Agencies in the United States

Abstract

This study examined how the 117 Twitter profiles maintained by U.S. headquartered agencies appearing in the 2017 Global Top 250 PR Agencies list from the Holmes Report are using this platform to communicate with their publics. Guided by the dialogic communication theory, a content analysis of 1,120 tweets (from the 112 agencies identified as having public active accounts) published between January and October 2017 were analyzed to better understand the content strategies implemented by these agencies as well as the relationship between levels of public engagement and the implementation of dialogic principles. Additionally, this study placed a special emphasis on thought leadership and the means being employed by agencies to introduce and promote their ideas. The study’s results suggest that while media vividness increases the public’s levels of engagement, interactivity has an inverse effect. At the same time, the findings indicate that agencies are not fully employing the dialogic capacity of Twitter. From a strategic point of view, this study provides significant implications for social media communication practices by public relations agencies.     

The Theoretical Ground for Public Relations Practice and Ethics: A Koehnian Analysis

Public relations literature laments the lack of a theoretical base for the practice and ethics of public relations. Drawing primarily upon Koehn (The Ground of Professional Ethics, 1994) and Hutton (Public Relations Review, 1999), this paper proposes such a theoretical ground.The paper adopts Hutton's assertion that "the central organizing theme of public relations theory and practice" is relationships(Hutton, 1999, p. 209). It also relies upon Koehn (1994) to provide a theoretical discussion of the nature of professions, and the ground upon which professional ethics and public trust in the professions are based. It concludes, from a Koehnian perspective, that for public relations to move from the expertise and contractual models of practice into a covenantal model as a profession worthy of public trust, the field must devote itself to a defined human good (relationships), and must be grounded in a public pledge to serve this good.     

Social Marketing and Privately Held Companies: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Activities on Romanian Consumers

The notion of corporate social responsibility has evolved into a fairly complex concept that can influence the very world we live in. Today's society is interested not only in companies' financial results but also in the way they conduct their businesses. Corporations everywhere try to respond to new environmental challenges by actively engaging in the life of the community and by developing relationships based on mutual trust with consumers. This article introduces the corporate social responsibility domain by underlining the importance of this concept to the later development of a company. The article denounces the results of research conducted on Romanian consumers regarding corporate social responsibility campaigns undergone by firms in Romania. Its purpose is to bring insight into Romanian consumers' perceptions of recent social campaigns, reviewing the extent to which these consumers are willing to become involved in society's well-being. The survey conducted here attempts to provide answers to issues that concern the companies' involvement type, their purview, the reasons for participating in society's welfare, as well as the social campaigns' most common action areas. The results gathered show that corporate social responsibility is not only a promotion method, but a method that implies the effective involvement in the life of the community and in its subsequent issues, therefore representing a real means of support for the economic development of the community in question. In conclusion, companies must put their social conscience into use when dealing with their clients and stakeholders, by offering solutions to environmental concerns, resource management, mutual aid, and welfare rising from corporate support.     

虚拟物流企业构建和谐的“外部公共关系”分析

当今时代,虚拟物流企业以其较强的市场适应能力正在被越来越多的社会组织所认识和采纳。虚拟物流企业为获取竞争优势必须构建和谐的"外部公共关系",以便促进各参与企业在激烈的竞争中有效地合理配置自己的资源,达到企业整体资源的充分利用。     

企业社会责任与财务绩效关系研究综述

20世纪90年代起,企业社会责任与利益相关者在理论与实证检验方面呈现出相互整合的趋势。本文通过探析企业社会责任与利益相关者缘何走向理论结合,分别基于利益相关者整体视角与利益相关者分维度视角,对国内外企业社会责任与财务绩效关系的实证研究进行回顾与总结,并在此基础上提出了未来的研究方向。     

The Social Commitment of Brazilian Managers: The Concept,a Scale,and an Empirical Study of Corporate Social Responsibility

The purpose of this study is to analyze the attitudes of Brazilian managers toward Corporate Social Responsibility, defined as their willingness to simultaneously meet the economic, legal, and ethical commitments that bind business companies to society. A Managers' Social Commitment Index (SCI) is proposed and a new scale is presented and confirmed as a reliable research instrument in a field study involving 252 Brazilian business managers. Results revealed that managers prioritize economic commitment, even though as they get older and more experienced they tend to sacrifice this commitment to comply with the law. Women showed greater willingness to integrate ethical interests in management decision making, revealing a higher degree of social commitment.     

我国ST上市公司治理缺陷与董事问责制关系的实证研究

我国ST公司治理的缺陷主要外化表现在关联交易的增加,公司业绩持续恶化,资产空心化状态不断加剧。董事问责机制的缺乏是我国上市公司治理结构的制度缺陷。董事问责制缺乏与上市公司治理缺陷之间具有较高的相关性,非公允关联交易是导致我国上市公司业绩持续恶化和资产空心化的主要原因之一。     

The Relationship Between Stock Price Changes and Trading Volume:

This study tests Karpoff's (1987) cosUy short sales hypothesis that attempts to explain the asymmetric relationship be- tween stock price changes and trading volume. Since short sales are disallowed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore, the data set offers a polar case of costly short sales. We document an asymmetric price change-volume relationship that is consistent with previous empiri- cal evidence based on US. data sets. More importantly we find a polar case of the asymmetric price change-volume relationship that supports Karpoff's (1987) costly short sales hypothesis: a positive correlation between positive price change and volume, but no signif- icant relationship between negative price change and volume.     

公司治理与公司绩效关系的实证分析——以竞争性行业上市公司为例

运用深沪两市126家竞争性行业上市公司2002年的数据,从股权结构、董事会结构和高管激励等内外两种治理机制综合考虑了我国公司治理与公司绩效之间的关系。认为多元化股东、外部董事比例和高管激励是公司治理最为重要的三个因素,是影响公司绩效最为显著的变量;第一大股东是否为法人股、独立董事的作用、是否在国外上市对公司绩效没有显著的影响作用。     

Significant Choice and Crisis Decision Making: MeritCare’s Public Communication in the Fen–Phen Case

This study examines the communication strategies employed by MeritCare’s public relations staff during the fen–phen case. The ethic of significant choice was the primary lens for the study. The study revealed that MeritCare’s public relations staff members believed they did, in fact, follow the ethic of significant choice. Specifically, they perceived that the biases held by staff helped maintain the public’s safety as the primary issue during the fen–phen events. They also believed that their communication strategies allowed them to avoid ambiguity and emotionalized language. Finally, the staff members felt that teaming with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota enabled them to influence the marketplace of ideas by capitalizing on the credible standing of Mayo Clinic.Renae A. Streifel (M.A., North Dakota State University) is a public relations specialist for the MeritCare Hospital group in Fargo, North Dakota. She studied the MeritCare case for her Master’s thesis.Bethany L. Beebe (M.A., Purdue University) studies crisis communication from an organizational perspective. Shari R. Veil (Ph.D., North Dakota State University) is an assistant professor in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma. She studies crisis communication from a public relations perspective.Timothy L. Sellnow (Ph.D., Wayne State University) is professor of communication, North Dakota State University. Along with an extensive publication record, he has worked with several US government grants which provide some of the context for his study of crisis communication from an organizational perspective.     

eWOM across channels: comparing the impact of self-enhancement,positivity bias and vengeance on Facebook and Twitter

Abstract

When sharing personal details, versus talking about others, consumers tend to accentuate the positive experiences they have with brands in order to self-enhance amongst friends. Consumers also take vengeance on brands in public venues. Turning to social network sites (SNSs), it is unclear which is dominant. Here historical Facebook and Twitter eWOM (n = 47,907) is analyzed for a static group of 783 active US consumers. Self-enhancement is found on both SNSs. The majority of eWOM is positive Vengeance was rare, occurring only in 10.3% of all eWOM. eWOM appears to mirror a consumer's non-eWOM sentiment valence across SNSs. In this cross-platform comparison we suggest that SNS affordances alter eWOM creation Facebook has privacy expectations and limits direct brand interactions. Twitter is a public platform with less privacy expectations and a larger customer service component. Here eWOM is more prevalent on Twitter but contrary to our expectations is more positive.     

董事会特征与公司成长性关系的实证研究——基于创业板上市公司经验数据

以创业板上市公司2010-2013年为研究区间,以主营业务收入增长率为公司成长性指标,选择董事会规模、独立董事比例、董事长与总经理两职设置、董事学历水平、董事薪酬变量作为反映董事会特征的变量,建立多元线性回归模型,对创业板上市公司董事会特征与公司成长性惯性进行实证分析。研究表明:创业板上市公司董事会规模与公司成长性线性负相关,董事薪酬与公司成长性正相关,而独立董事比例、董事长与总经理两职合一、董事学历水平与成长性没有相关性。为进一步完善创业板上市公司董事会治理机制,提高董事会治理效率,我国应控制董事会规模,进一步完善薪酬体系和激励制度,持续完善独立董事制度,以期提高创业板上市公司的成长能力。     

Public Policies on Corporate Social Responsibility: The Role of Governments in Europe

Over the last decade, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been defined first as a concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and cleaner environment and, second, as a process by which companies manage their relationship␣with stakeholders (European Commission, 2001. Nowadays, CSR has become a priority issue on governments’ agendas. This has changed governments’ capacity to act and impact on social and environmental issues in their relationship with companies, but has also affected the framework in which CSR public policies are designed: governments are incorporating multi-stakeholder strategies. This article analyzes the CSR public policies in European advanced democracies, and more specifically the EU-15 countries, and provides explanatory keys on how governments have understood, designed and implemented their CSR public policies. The analysis has entailed the classification of CSR public policies taking into consideration the actor to which the governments’ policies were addressed. This approach to the analysis of CSR public policies in the EU-15 countries leads us to observe coinciding lines of action among the different countries analyzed, which has enabled us to propose a ‹four ideal’ typology model for governmental action on CSR in Europe: Partnership, Business in the Community, Sustainability, and Citizenship, and Agora. The main contribution of this article is to propose an analytical framework to analyze CSR public policies, which provide a perspective on the relationships between governments, businesses, and civil society stakeholders, and enable us to incorporate the analysis of CSR public policies into a broader approach focused on social governance. Laura Albareda is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Innovation, ESADE, Universidad Ramon Llull-URL. She is principal researcher and manager of the Observatory on Socially Responsible Investment in Spain. Her areas of research and academic interest are Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics, Global Governance and Public Authorites, Governments and Public Policies on Corporate Social Responsibility and Socially Responsible Investment. Josep M. Lozano is currently Professor & Senior Researcher at the Institute for Social Innovation, ESADE Business School (URL). He is Co-founder of ética, Economía y Dirección (Spanish branch of the EBEN) and member of the editorial board of Ethical Perspectives and Society and Business Review. He was member of the Catalan Government’s Commission on Values, and is member of the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs’ Commission of Experts on CSR. He has been a highly commended runner-up in the European Faculty Pioneer Awards of the Beyond Grey Pinstripes and is author of Ethics and Organizations. Understanding Business Ethics as a Learning Process (Kluwer). Tamyko Ysa is an Assistant Professor of the Institute of Public Management, and the Department of Business Policy at ESADE. Her areas of interest are the management of partnerships and their impact on the creation of public value; the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies, and the relations between companies and governments. She is the Principal Researcher of the Research Group for Leadership and Innovation in Public Management (GLIGP). She is coauthor of Governments and Corporate Social Responsibility (Palgrave MacMillan).     

Indulgence versus Restraint: The Moderating Role of Cultural Differences on the Relationship between Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance

Adapting to the cultural environment surrounding, a firm is of paramount importance in international marketing practices. Extant marketing literature provides meager guidance to marketers on how to adapt to cultural factors to turn corporate social responsibility strategies into financial outcomes. To address this gap, we utilize the instrumental stakeholder theory and Hofstede's cultural framework to investigate the moderating effect of indulgence versus restraint culture on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Applying a panel data regression analysis to a dataset of CSP and CFP data for 3753 firms from 43 different countries, we demonstrate that CSP has a positive effect on CFP. However, we show that CSP has a weaker effect on CFP in firms located in indulgent countries. Therefore, to generate financial outcomes, we recommend managers to allocate more resources to CSP initiatives if the firm is operating in a culturally restrained country.     

Corporate Social Reporting in the European Context and Human Resource Disclosures: An Analysis of Finnish Companies

This paper explores by means of content analysis the extent to which the Finnish biggest companies have adapted socially responsible reporting practices. The research focuses on Human Resource (HR) reporting and covers corporate annual reports. The criteria has been set on the basis of the analysis of the documents published at the European level in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR), paying special attention to the European Council appeal on CSR in March 2000. As CSR is a relatively new concept in Finland, the paper also contributes to the discussion on interface between HR reporting (especially as based on measurements such as Human Resource Accounting and Intellectual Capital schools) and corporate social reporting practices. The results of the content analysis indicate that social reporting practices are still at an early stage of development in Finland. The most reported theme was ‘training and staff development’. A positive sign was that the majority also disclosed themes ‘participation and staff involvement’ and ‘employee health and well-being’. Furthermore, nearly one-third made references to their work atmosphere or job satisfaction survey. However, disclosures lacked overall consistency and comparability with each other and especially quantitative indicators were disclosed by few. Further concern was lack of information related to the theme equal opportunities and going beyond a sheer disclosure of age or gender structure. The other issues rarely disclosed were those related to employee work–life balance and integration of disadvantaged groups in the labour markets.