Aligning responsible business practices: A case study

This article offers an in-depth case study of a global high tech manufacturer that aligned its ethics and compliance, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability practices. Few large companies organize their responsible business practices this way, despite conceptual relevance and calls to manage them comprehensively. A communities of practice theoretical lens suggests that intentional effort would be needed to bridge meaning between the relevant managers and practices in order to achieve alignment. The findings call attention to the important role played by employees who broker understanding between managers and practices, and the boundary objects used to create shared meaning and engagement. They also highlight that an organizing logic is necessary but not sufficient to align practices. This study describes the dynamics of alignment and provides a practical road map for scholars and managers interested in understanding how responsible business practices may be collectively organized.     

Organic growth and shareholder value: A case study of the insurance industry

This paper examines organic growth and its impact on shareholder value creation. At a conceptual level, organic and external growth are readily defined; yet, at a practical level, decomposing revenue growth into its constituent elements presents methodological challenges. We develop a method to decompose revenue growth into organic growth, external growth, exchange rate effects, and under- or outperformance. Using extensive data from three insurance companies, AXA, Generali and ING, we analyzed the period from 1995 to 2005. Exchange rate effects were of minor importance, unless companies entered markets at inopportune times. Primarily, the findings indicate that only organic revenue growth enhanced shareholder value. Therefore, managers should focus on marketing as a key driver of organic growth to create value.     

Doing right,investing right: Socially responsible investing and shareholder activism in the financial sector

In this article, we present an overview of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the financial sector. We focus on how socially responsible investment and shareholder activism have been integral parts of corporate social responsibility in the financial sector. We examine how the financial sector and its firms are evaluated and rated via a sustainability index, the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, and show that even leading financial institutions do not employ proactive practices regarding socially responsible investment and shareholder activism. Finally, we provide examples of two companies, UBS AG and the Co-operative Banking Group, that do utilize proactive practices.     

The virtue of participatory governance: a MacIntyrean alternative to shareholder maximization

We draw on Alasdair MacIntyre's virtues, practices, and institutions schema to argue that employee participation in governance practices can play an important role in developing virtue. Whereas MacIntyre's schema has been most widely employed to understand how productive practices can cultivate virtue, we focus instead on the way that meaningful deliberation about the common good can provide experiences requiring employees to exercise the virtues. We then apply this theoretical framework to an analysis of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of participatory governance over employee ownership. Based on this analysis, we draw several implications for increasing participatory governance in a way that will prevent shareholder maximization from crowding out virtue, even in corporate contexts where productive activity itself does not provide a meaningful, virtue-instilling experience.     

The politicisation of whistleblowers: a case study

The focus of this article is on the political nature of whistleblowing. It argues that reprisals by management, rather than silencing the whistleblower, result in the transformation and politicisation of the individual. The process that leads to the transformation of a loyal employee into a political activist is considered through analysing the experiences of a whistleblower in the sphere of financial regulation in South Africa. The article investigates the effect of retaliation by the employer on the employee-organisational relationship. It looks in particular at the nature of the power struggle between the whistleblower and management and suggests explanations why organisations tend to respond in such a harsh fashion to whistleblowing. It concludes that the act of whistleblowing not only displays an expressive dimension, but also a political instrumental dimension that is often neglected in literature on whistleblowing.     

The link between benchmarking and shareholder value

Strategic performance can be linked to shareholder value by measuring the positive spread between a company's return on capital employed and the cost of capital. If managers see a significant performance gap in their spread, compared with that of a premier company, they should redefine their strategic goals.     

Confucian ethics,moral foundations,and shareholder value perspectives: An exploratory study

A survey study was conducted to look into the effect of Confucian ethics and the psychological foundations of morality on business managers' perspectives on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using responses from 393 Chinese managers, we first conducted confirmatory factor analysis to assess the reliability and validity of the measurement model and then employed hierarchical regression to explore the relationships among Confucian ethics, moral foundations, and managers' shareholder value perspectives. The results indicate that both Confucian ethics and managers' moral foundations had significant influence on shareholder value perspectives. In fact, moral foundations and Confucian ethics interacted and jointly affected managers' positions on the shareholder value model of corporate responsibility. This study demonstrates the importance of psychological foundations of morality to managers' CSR orientations and substantiates the persistent impact of Confucian ethics/cultural traditions on today' business practices.     

Reporting on responsible drinking: a study of the major UK pub-owning companies

For much of the 20th century, brewers owned the majority of British public houses. In 1989, the Monopoly and Mergers Commission brought about the dissolution of the brewers' estates, and two types of pub-owning companies emerged. One employed managers, and the other leased their outlets to individual operators. In the present climate of opposition to excessive drinking, their approach to retailing is being brought into question, with public demands for a responsible approach. This article examines the different responses of the major firms within the industry.     

The Oaks Colliery disaster of 1866: a case study in responsibility

This article examines the 1866 Oaks Colliery explosion as a case study for the wider context of coal mining safety. Behaviour within the mine is explored, along with how safety legislation was actually enacted there. Doing so allows the changing attitudes of the state, the owners and management, and the workers to be understood, and combines disparate literatures. It displays the process of establishing state responsibility for industrial workers, and the safety duties understood by other parties. Findings reveal the closeness of the state to the owners that created vague safety laws, and the risks deemed suitable to work under.     

构建我国责任型政府的路径选择

构建责任型政府是当今社会各国政府的必要选择.本文就责任型政府的内涵、特色等做了分析,提出了我国政府应如何承担好自己的责任、构建好自己的高效责任型政府的路径选择.     

Strategically astute contracting: The Ticketmaster case study

This case study of strategic contracting at Ticketmaster results in a process model for the execution of legally astute contracting. The findings are drawn from a qualitative case study of Ticketmaster led by its legally astute attorney-CEO Fred Rosen. The study offers a novel portrait of strategic legal decision-making and connects the private aspects of contracting with the legal, regulatory, and strategic environment.     

Whistleblowing and media logic: a case study

Most analyses of whistleblowing are concerned with the whistleblower as an actor or with the act of whistleblowing itself. However, as soon as the whistleblower enters the public arena, a social dynamic emerges of interdependent actors with different responsibilities and different interests.Such a dynamic demands a more comprehensive approach in which the motives of the different actors in the public debate are taken into account.This approach is developed here using an exemplary case of whistleblowing that took place in a Dutch research institute.The intensive media attention damaged both the institute and the whistleblower.In retrospect this could have been avoided.In our analysis we give extra attention to the motives involved and to the inevitability of media logic.In order to avoid unnecessary damage we recommend guidelines to the three basic actors:the whistleblower, the organization and the media.     

Evaluating guided reflection: a US case study

This study examines the effects of guided reflection on thelearners’ ability to recall, explain and apply newly acquired principles of instructional design and to investigate their attitude toward the reflection. The results of the regression analysis revealed that the guided reflection had no significant impact on the learners’ posttest performance. Despite these results, eighty-three percent of the learners perceived a positive impact from the reflections on their ability to recall, understand and apply the covered principles. Continued research is needed to measure the presence and complexity of reflective thinking on learning principles of instructional design.     

The impact of title event sponsorship announcements on shareholder wealth

Title sponsorships are often considered the crown jewels of sports sponsorship programs. Garnering top media coverage, title sponsorships are prized for both generating brand/product awareness and building image for their sponsors. Not surprisingly, the rising cost of title sponsorships has led some managers to question their underlying value. Accordingly, this study presents an analysis of the impact of 114 title sponsorship announcements of professional tennis and golf tournaments (both men’s and women’s), auto racing (NASCAR), and college bowl games on the stock prices of sponsoring firms. Overall, the results of the study suggest that title sponsorships are generally signed at market-clearing prices. Thus, companies undertaking title sponsorships typically receive exactly what they pay for—except in the case of NASCAR races (which show evidence of increases in share prices). Splitting the sample into new and renewing sponsorships generates results which differ dramatically by sport. Finally, a cross-sectional regression finds congruence of sport and sponsor, sponsorship by high tech firms and sponsorships by large firms all correlated with perceived sponsorship success.     

The effect of customer service on retailers’ shareholder wealth: The role of availability and reputation cues

Retailer customer service has been shown to lead to increases in consumer attraction and retention, but what is less apparent is whether shareholders are fully rewarded for retailers’ customer service efforts. Results from an event study on 48 retailer announcements of customer service strategies indicate that customer service increases retailer market values by 1.09 percent on average. The magnitude of this abnormal return suggests that customer service is one of the more effective ways for firms to create shareholder wealth. Further, analysis of the abnormal returns suggests that the shareholder value created by the retailer's customer service is affected by the heuristics and cues used to judge the likelihood of service delivery. Consistent with the availability heuristic, we find that services that are difficult to bring to mind and non-vivid services create significantly less shareholder value. Results further show that the retailer's reputation can also significantly inhibit the customer service's shareholder wealth creation.     

The wild side of the lodging and food-service industry: a case study in Pennsylvania

Although the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is bounded east and west by major metropolitan areas, much of the central and northern portion of the state is forested recreation land. Consequently, the state offers considerable opportunity for hunting and fishing. In turn, hunters and anglers offer considerable opportunity for hospitality organizations. A 1996 study of over 2,600 hunters and nearly 1,000 anglers attempted to quantify the size of Pennsylvania's hunting and fishing market. Hunters reported taking more than 17,000 hunting trips, most of them in November and December, and had spent an average of over $100 per hunter on their most recent trip. Extending that figure to the 1.1 million hunters registered in Pennsylvania yields an estimated expenditure of over $113 million on food and lodging. The numbers for fishing trips were even more impressive, in part since anglers are less likely to camp out than hunters (and therefore spend more for lodging). The per-person expenditure for the respondents' most recent fishing trip was $228. Extended to the one-million-plus anglers licensed in Pennsylvania, that figure exceeds $252 million for their most recent fishing trip. The authors suggest that tourism authorities could do more to tap into this immense market.     

Asia-pacific finance and investment: a case study of taiwan

The present research design adopts the dual instruments of the mail-survey questionnaire and the interview. The research was aimed at deriving an objective function of an Asia-Pacific finance and investment model of the Republic of China in the twenty-first century. The objective function consists of three types of policy or strategic variables pertinent to economic achievement, global finance and investment strategy, the macro-impact on international finance and investment. Another purpose of this study was to confirm three hypotheses qualitatively through empirical findings.