Sustainability Practices and Corporate Financial Performance: A Study Based on the Top Global Corporations

Sustainability is concerned with the impact of present actions on the ecosystems, societies, and environments of the future. Such concerns should be reflected in the strategic planning of sustainable corporations. Strategic intentions of this nature are operationalized through the adoption of a long-term focus and a more inclusive set of responsibilities focusing on ethical practices, employees, environment, and customers. A central hypothesis, that we test in this paper is that companies which attend to this set of responsibilities under the term superior sustainable practices, have higher financial performance compared to those that do not engage in such practices. The target population of this study consists of the top 100 sustainable global companies in 2008 which have been selected from a universe of 3,000 firms from the developed countries and emerging markets. We find significant higher mean sales growth, return on assets, profit before taxation, and cash flows from operations in some activity sectors of the sample companies compared to the control companies over the period of 2006–2010. Furthermore, our findings show that the higher financial performance of sustainable companies has increased and been sustained over the sample. Notwithstanding sample limitation, causal evidence reported in this paper suggests that, there is bi-directional relationship between corporate social responsibilities practices and corporate financial performance.     

The Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility: United States and European Union Multinational Corporations

This study explores corporate social responsibility (CSR) by conducting a cross-cultural analysis of communication of CSR activities in a total of 16 U.S. and European corporations. Drawing on previous research contrasting two major approaches to CSR initiatives, it was proposed that U.S. companies would tend to communicate about and justify CSR using economic or bottom-line terms and arguments whereas European companies would rely more heavily on language or theories of citizenship, corporate accountability, or moral commitment. Results supported this expectation of difference, with some modification. Specifically, results indicated that EU companies do not value sustainability to the exclusion of financial elements, but instead project sustainability commitments in addition to financial commitments. Further, U.S.-based companies focused more heavily on financial justifications whereas EU-based companies incorporated both financial and sustainability elements in justifying their CSR activities. In addition, wide variance was found in both the prevalence and use of specific CSR-related terminology. Cross-cultural distinctions in this use create implications with regard to measurability and evidence of both strategic and bottom-line impact. Directions for further research are discussed. Laura P. Hartman is a Professor of Business Ethics and Legal Studies in the Management Department in the College of Commerce at DePaul University, as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University and as Research Director of DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. She is also an invited professor at INSEAD (France), HEC (France), the University of Melbourne, the Université Paul Cezanne Aix Marseille III and the Grenoble Graduate School of Business. She has been published in, among other journals, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business & Society Review, Business Ethics: A European Review, and the Journal of Business Ethics. Robert S. Rubin is an Assistant Professor in the Management Department at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. He received his PhD in organizational psychology from Saint Louis University. His current research interests include transformational leadership, leader cynicism, social and emotional individual differences, and management education and development. K. Kathy Dhanda is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management at DePaul University. Her areas of research include sustainable supply chains, environmental networks, marketable permit modeling, sustainable management, and public policy.     

Inter- and Intra-leverage Analyses for Large Firms in the United States and Korea

The study tests the hypothesis that there are country and industry effects on the capital structure of large corporations headquartered in the United States and Korea. So far, very few studies have focused systematically on these issues between developed and less developed countries. For book value–based leverage ratios, Korean firms had higher debt ratios than their U.S. counterparts, while there were no or few significant country effects in the construction and the chemical industries at market value–based leverage ratios. Moreover, there were statistically significant industry differences on the leverage ratios using book value and market value measures across the two countries.     

Social and Environmental Sustainability,Host Country Characteristics,and the Mediating Effect of Improved Working Practices: Evidence from Multinational Corporations in Malaysia

This study argues that improved working practices acquired from intra-firm technology transfers are a crucial source of organizational sustainability. This study used 252 subsidiaries of foreign-based multinational corporations located in Peninsular Malaysia as a quantitative data source. The findings revealed that market environment, cultural factors, and absorptive capacity significantly improved working practices, which in turn significantly and positively affected the social and environmental sustainability of firms. We recommend that the government of Malaysia formulate and adopt more market-friendly policies while simultaneously providing both insight on the various cultural norms of foreign nations and higher education and training for its citizens to maximize knowledge transfer following foreign investment, which is beneficial for both the host country and the organizations involved.     

Supplier Selection Practices among Small Firms in the United States: Testing Three Models

One of the issues investigated in recent studies on small business enterprises involves the role of supply chain management. Supply chain management has become an important part of strategic planning in both large and small businesses in the 1990s as firms increasingly choose outsourcingas an externally-driven strategic growth path. This study examines the supplier selection practices among 78 small business executives in the midwest United States by testing three models: rational/normative, external control, and strategic choice. Although the results show support for all three models, the rational/normative model emerges as the most significant model for predicting the supplier selection practices of small firms.     

CSR,Sustainability and the Meaning of Global Reporting for Latin American Corporations

Although the ethical judgment of consumers in the United States and other industrialized countries has received considerable attention, consumer ethics in Asian-market settings have seldom been explored. The purchase and making of counterfeit products are considered common, but disreputable, attributes of Southeast Asian consumers. According to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia ranks third among the leading countries of counterfeit items in Asia. Retail revenue losses attributed to counterfeiting amounted to US $183 million in 2004. Therefore, elucidating the ethical perspectives of Indonesian consumers is an effective means of clarifying an important cultural influence on consumer behavior. This exploratory study of 230 Indonesians has many meaningful findings. First, certain personal attitudes apparently affect the ethical judgments of Indonesian consumers. Second, Indonesian consumers who exhibited high ethical concern over actively benefiting from illegal actions had high levels of materialism and idealism, as well as low levels of relativism. Third, materialism, idealism, and relativism significantly influenced whether benefits were created from actively engaging in some questionable activities (DELEGAL). Analytical results indicated that Indonesians with high materialism and relativism were more likely to engage in actions that were questionable but legal. Finally, consumer ethics were compared by applying demographic variables such as gender, age, education, religion, and occupation, indicating that all variables significantly varied except for religion.     

Corporate Community Contributions in the United Kingdom and the United States

We address the issue of UK firms relatively poor record of corporate community contributions (CCCs) by subjecting them to formal comparison with those of US firms. To this end, we employ data on the top 100 UK, and top 100 US, contributors in 2001. Cross-country differences are described and discussed with reference to a stakeholder perspective on corporate social responsibility, and CCCs in particular. In this connection, we evaluate the role played by the sectoral composition of activities, as well as national, cultural and institutional factors. Our findings highlight a number of significant cross-country differences in the pattern of CCCs and suggest that UK and US firms operate within significantly different stakeholder environments.JEL Classification: M14Stephen Brammer is a Lecturer in Business Economics at University of Bath, with research interests in the area of corporate social responsibility. Much of his recent research has examined the stimuli for corporate socially responsive behaviour, the management of business social responsibilities, and the relationships between firm social performance and other dimensions of corporate performance. Recent publications include articles in the Journal of Management Studies, the European Management Journal and Business Ethics: A European Review.Stephen Pavelin is a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Reading, with research interests in foreign direct investment and corporate social responsibility. His current research agenda seeks to address: the effect of corporate social performance on the reputations and financial performance of firms; the incidence and quality of social and environmental reporting; demographic diversity (regarding gender and ethnicity) among corporate boards; and the effect of firms geographical diversification on their social performance. Recent publications include articles in the International Journal of Industrial Organisation, the Open Economies Review, the European Management Journal and Business Ethics: A European Review.     

Economics in Europe and the United States

Abstract

Business disciplines, including international business, are influenced by economics. This paper examines the facilitating role played by the English language in the dissemination of works in economics and attempts to show that authors who use English gain significant advantage over others. A look into the backgrounds of Nobel Prize winning economists and the predominance of American and British journals lend support to this view. Also, the overwhelming influence of quantitative neo-classical economics, which has gained great strength in the United States, seems to spread to the rest of the world. Still, international business is markedly different from economics not only in content but also in its relationship with other social sciences.     

Proprietorship and unemployment in the United States

Unemployment and proprietorship can be related in several ways. As unemployment increases, individuals with fewer job alternatives may choose to start their own business resulting in an increase in proprietorship. Alternatively, if an increase in unemployment is the result of a depressed economy, higher unemployment may lead to less demand for the products and services of proprietors, thus reducing proprietorship. Finally, greater proprietorship may lead to future increases in employment as these businesses grow. This can potentially reduce unemployment in the long run. We apply a panel vector autoregressive model to unemployment and proprietorship data from the U.S. states for the years 1976 to 2009 to examine if these effects are apparent in the data. We find that unemployment Granger causes proprietorship, but proprietorship does not Granger cause unemployment.     

中国律师美国之行

熟悉WTO规则的八都知道这一点:WTO表面上看起来是政府间的协议,实际上在很大程度上体现的是各成员方企业和行业的利益,很多WTO纠纷实质就是成员方的企业之间对市场的争夺。所以,关于中国入世的话题,不应再停留在挑战、机遇及应对这些宏观层面的探讨上,而应进入指导企业如何实际操作中。而企业,尤其是大中型企业,有进出口业务的企业,在中国入世之后更需要WTO法律专家或律师的帮助。鉴于此,国家司法部、国家外国专家局于年前在10多万律师从业大军中,选拔出10名律师和7名法学院教师,首次赴美研修WTO争端解决机制。中国律师此行情况如何,他们给中国企业带来了哪些实质性东西成了业界关注焦点。     

Industrial Policy in the United States

Does US government policy purposefully benefit particular industries or is industrial policy absent in the USA? Based on a review of recent US policies this paper argues that the USA applies many policies with an industry-specific impact. But these policies do not differ significantly from those in other countries and the process in which US industrial policies emerge severely limits their consistency. What differentiates the USA is a microeconomic business environment that enables a high degree of regional specialization, benefits especially knowledge-driven industries, and raises the impact of innovation and entrepreneurship policies.     

Ethics and financial reporting in the United States

The purpose of this paper is to describe briefly the institutional arrangements which condition the activities of accountants in the United States; to heighten an awareness of the values which are embodied in the existing structures of accountability; to appraise the consistency with which the established ideals of society have been actualised in financial reporting, and to discern the shape of the emerging history of financial reporting in the light of new values and possibilities. I suggest that the tradition of fair presentation in financial reporting is in danger of being eliminated by a purely political response to previous abuses. Mandatory accounting standards do have a role in preventing these abuses, but they can also be seen as instruments of distributive justice. To promote an awareness and discussion of the issues, I point out some of the goals and values underlying a few of the major structures designed for the distribution of economic costs and benefits.I. C. Stewart is Associate Professor of Accountancy at the University of Auckland. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington. He is the author of several articles which have been published in various business journals.     

Cultural and recreational industries in the United States

This article focuses on cultural and recreational industries in the United States. Cultural industries are defined as arts, entertainment, and recreation, as well as components of education, the information sector, wholesaling and retailing, manufacturing (for example, musical instruments), and accommodation and food services. Consumption patterns of cultural industries are shown to have changed significantly over the past 40 years in the United States. This change has been associated in part with changing information technologies, and in part by changes in policies permitting new types of recreation, especially gambling. The study documents the changing level of employment in these industries by state, using data for both employers and proprietors. Some sectors are highly concentrated spatially, while others are distributed widely.