公益诉讼的现状与完善

本文阐述了我国公益诉讼现状及对个案诉讼公益保护的作用,并提出相关对策,认为建立公益诉讼制度是建设社会主义法治国家的必然要求.     

Corporate social responsibility and stock price informativeness: The public interest perspective

In this paper, we propose a new theory that sheds a different light on the potential relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Stock Price Informativeness (PI). More specifically, we explain why a neutral association between CSR and PI can be an indicator of high economic and social welfare, while a positive association can be an indicator of both markets and governments failure. Under a neutral relationship, we argue that mandatory disclosure is getting firms to disclose near their optimal level. Therefore, any voluntary disclosure beyond the mandatory regime (such as CSR disclosure) should not improve PI. We base our hypothesis on public interest theory that suggests that regulators promote the public interest when a market failure is identified. On the other hand, under a positive association between CSR and PI, we argue that regulators do not offer adequate incentives for firms to disclose at their socially optimal levels because the level of voluntary disclosure by socially responsible firms is optimal in comparison to the level of mandatory disclosure provided by other firms with weak CSR engagement.     

Public relations,professionalism, and the public interest

The public interest statement contained in the PRSA Code of Professional Standards is unduly vague and provides neither a working definition of public interest nor any guidance for the performance of what most professions consider to be a primary value. This paper addresses the question of what might constitute public relations service in the public interest, and calls for more stringent guidelines to be developed whereby the profession may advance its service goals more clearly.Thomas H. Bivins, is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon where he teaches public relations and mass media ethics. He received his Ph.D. in 1982 in telecommunication and taught for three years at the University of Delaware before returning to the U of O. Bivins received a B.A. in English and an M.F.A. in creative writing and has nearly twenty years of professional media experience, including work in radio, television, advertising, public relations and editorial cartooning.     

Trade marks,the consumer,and the public interest

In order to create a Common Market for branded products the European Commission is presently promoting a regulation for a Community Trade Mark backed by a directive to approximate Member States' trade mark laws. A consumer working group studying these two initiatives found a common interest with the Commission not only in freeing the flow of competing goods but also in specific proposals which to some extent acknowledge a consumer interest. However, the consumer interest in market transparency is not a major theme in either proposal nor do the drafters adopt the consumer oriented certification mark system. Above all there is no promise of effective, continuing consumer representation in the operation of the laws and this threatens to perpetuate the distortion of the public interest towards that of proprietors that has been allowed to develop, particularly since registration systems were introduced about a century ago.

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Zusammenfassung Zum Zweck der Schaffung eines gemeinsamen Marktes für Markenartikel hat die Kommission der EG zwei Vorschläge auf dem Gebiet des Warenzeichenrechts unterbreitet: einen Verordnungsentwurf über die Schaffung einer Gemeinschaftsmarke und einen Richtlinienentwurf über die Rechtsangleichung des Markenrechts der Mitgliedstaaten. Diese Vorschläge sind von einer Expertengruppe einer genaueren Prüfung dahingehend unterzogen worden, wieweit sie dem im EG-Vertrag auch verankerten Verbraucherinteresse dienen. Die Gruppe, der die Autorin angehörte, fand zwar in den Vorschlägen einige bemerkenswerte Verbesserungen zur Beseitigung von Handelshemmnissen, die von unterschiedlichen Markenrechten ausgehen können. Das Verbraucherinteresse and Produkt- und Markttransparenz, an Vermeidung künstlicher Produktdifferenzierung, an Garantiemarken und an Verbrauchervertretung hat jedoch in die Vorschläge kaum Eingang gefunden. Zur Bestimmung des Verbraucherinteresses im Markenrecht arbeitet die Autorin Problembereiche heraus, die teilweise der Rechtsprechung des Europäischen Gerichtshofes zugrunde liegen (Parallelimporte, «inter-brand»-Wettbewerb, konfligierende herkunftsgleiche oder verwechslungsfähige Marken), sich teilweise auch erst ergeben, wenn eine Gemeinschaftsmarke neben die (bestehenbleibenden) nationalen Markensysteme tritt. Zum Schluß ihres Beitrages macht die Autorin Vorschläge zur Einführung von Garantiemarken auf EG-Ebene nach englischem Vorbild und zur Schaffung einer Verbrauchervertretung in einem künftigen EG-Markenamt.

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She is a member of working groups of the Consumers Consultive Committee on trade marks and on patents.     

General motors corporation,its constituencies and the public interest

This article about the social responsibility of the large corporation is not a paper about stewardship in general. If it were, it would have to focus primarily on the principle of long-term market accountability and the related principle of fidelity to long-term stockholder interests. Most of management's stewardship responsibilities can be subsumed under those two principles.This paper will deal with areas in which those two principles alone are not adequate to define management's stewardship responsibilities. These areas of social accountability occur chiefly where the interests of employees or the general public are at stake — where their human and social purposes sometimes collide with the more limited commercial purposes of the large corporation.Elmer W. Johnson is currently Group Vice President for Operating Staffs and General Counsel at General Motors. He left the private practice of law in Chicago to join General Motors.     

Recommended prices,the consumer's economic interest,and public policy in Britain

The role of recommended prices, especially when used as a basis from which traders may claim price reductions, has received unfavourable comment from several sources in Britain in recent years. It has been claimed that they are likely to cause economic detriment to consumers. Proposals have been made to prohibit the use of recommended prices either generally or on specific products. This paper reviews the general issues concerning the role of recommended prices and the major official reports produced on this question. The author argues that, contrary to the proposals at present under consideration, the economic interests of consumers are, on balance, more likely to be enhanced by the continuation of the use of recommended prices rather than their prohibition. However some controls on the use of recommended prices may be required and suggestions for policy developments are made.

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Empfohlene Richtpreise, Verbraucherinteresse und öffentliche Verbraucherpolitik

Zusammenfassung In Großbritannien sind Preisempfehlungen in den letzten Jahren von verschiedener Seite kritisch beurteilt worden, insbesondere wenn der Handel mit ihrer Hilfe vorgibt, Presinachlässe zu bieten. Dabei wurde behauptet, daß Preisempfehlungen für den Verbraucher mit wirtschaftlichen Nachteilen verbunden sind. Entsprechende Vorschläge zielen darauf ab, den Gebrauch von Preisempfehlungen entweder generell oder aber für bestimmte Produkte zu verbieten.Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die mit Preisempfehlungen verbundenen Probleme und über die wichtigsten öffentlichen Stellungnahmen zu dieser Frage.Im Gegensatz zu den augenblicklich diskutierten Vorschlägen glaubt der Autor, daß das Weiterbestehen von Preisempfehlungen eher im Verbraucherinteresse liegt als ihr Verbot. Er warnt davor, ihre Informationsfunktion zu unterschätzen, und zweifelt daran, daß ein Verbot von Presiempfehlungen tatsächlich zu anderen Preisverteilungen führt. Bei einem Verbot von Preisvergleichen (mit empfohlenen Preisen) sieht er darüber hinaus die Gefahr, daß der Preiswettbewerb behindert werden kann.Die Verwendung von Preisempfehlungen sollte nach seiner Meinung jedoch unter bestimmten Bedingungen überwacht werden, beispielsweise wenn die empfohlenen Preise überhaupt nicht unterboten werden, wenn sie durch den Handel statt durch die Hersteller festgelegt werden, wenn für ein einzelnes Produkt mehrere Preisempfehlungen angegeben werden oder wenn Preisvergleiche mit empfohlenen Preisen angestellt werden.

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J. F. Pickering is Professor of Industrial Economics, Department of Management Sciences, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 88, Manchester M60/QD, England. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a Consumer Economics seminar held by the Office of Fair Trading.     

构建和谐社会背景下的公益诉讼制度分析

本文界定了公益诉讼的概念,分析了公益诉讼的实质,运用当事人适格的基本理论,结合我国现行诉讼法的相关规定,指出了在目前构建和谐社会的背景下我国公益诉讼的原告应包括公民个人、公益团体和检察机关,限于篇幅的原因,就受案范围、举证责任分配、诉讼时效、管辖、诉讼保障措施等公益诉讼制度的其他组成部分仅作了简要的分析.     

The interest group theory of financial development in China: Openness and the role of interest groups

The interest group theory of financial development predicts that the incumbents' opposition to financial development will be weaker when an economy is open to both trade and capital flows. Based on regressions of financial development on trade and financial openness, existing studies only provide indirect tests of the hypothesis and deliver mixed findings. This paper proposes models for direct tests of interest group theory for China. Using Chinese cross-province data, we define and measure interest groups based on the close tie between state-owned enterprises and local government in China. The empirical results show that the opposition from interest groups to financial development cannot be weakened in provinces with high trade or financial openness alone. However, the opposition is indeed weakened in provinces with high levels of both trade and financial openness. These results provide robust support for interest group theory in accounting for cross-province differences and time-series variation in financial development in China.     

Informal information flows in organizations: The role of the Italian coffee break

Research on information flows within companies has focused on codified formalized information management tools. In practice, it is questionable whether IT-based management systems for storing and disseminating internal information in organizations are sufficiently used by the staff. As an alternative to centralized forms and instruments of information management, there are also informal and dialogic forms, such as the “coffee break” well known in Latin companies: employees come together spontaneously and thus contribute to “natural” internal fluid information circulation. Based on an empirical study conducted in Italian companies, this paper describes essential functions of the coffee break – as a dynamic inter-divisional and heterarchic organizational practice: these include coordination of work processes, confidence building, networking, problem solving, and extension of the meta-knowledge on organizational processes and structures. The paper contributes to the literature on information management by taking into account contextual elements.     

Stakeholder engagement through empowerment: The case of coffee farmers

While most studies on stakeholder engagement focus on high‐power stakeholders (typically, employees), limited attention has been devoted to the engagement of low‐power stakeholders. These have been defined as vulnerable stakeholders for their low capacity to influence corporations. Our research is framed around the engagement of low‐power stakeholders in the coffee industry who are, paradoxically, critical resource providers for the major roasters. Through the case study of Lavazza—the leading Italian roaster—we investigate empowerment actions addressed to smallholder farmers located in Brazil, India, East Africa, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. We contribute to the theoretical discussion around engagement and empowerment by developing a framework linking together areas of empowerment (defined in the literature) and specific empowerment actions (emerging from our interviews). Our insights shed light on how organizations can design empowerment strategies leading to more effective stakeholder engagement and how empowerment actions can contribute to turn low‐power stakeholders into active business partners. We demonstrate that moving from a traditional competitive view of corporate–stakeholder relationships to a stakeholder theory view based on a logic of cooperative partnerships reinforces the idea that stakeholder engagement and empowerment are both entangled with the value creation process.     

星巴克演绎文化魅力

“管理品牌是一项终身的事业。品牌其实是很脆弱的。你不得不承认，墨巴克或任何一种品牌的成功不是一种一次性授予的封号和爵位，它必须以每一天的努力来保持和维护。”     

The Manipulation of Voting Systems

In this paper we consider several ways in which voting systems can be manipulated and we pose some related ethical questions. Our focus is on the recent phenomenon of vote trading or vote swapping that was invented in 2000 and used in the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Presidential elections. Vote trading is an Internet-based technique that sought to allow Democrats in heavily Republican states (like Texas) to effectively vote in swing states (like Florida), where their votes would have more impact. We also look at some other new ways that voting systems can be manipulated and we consider the general question of whether there exist voting systems that cannot be manipulated. David Hartvigsen is a professor in the Management Department of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. He has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University and his research is in the areas of Operations Research, Optimization, and Algorithms.     

论公共政策分析中的公共原则

本文对论公共政策分析中的公共原则进行了论述.     

The scientific management of the consumer interest

Beginning in the late 1980s, the widely held assumption that scientific management (Taylorism) was an authoritarian and mechanical body of thought and practice began to be subjected to sustained challenge. Underpinning this contest was a growing understanding that, in his last years, Frederick Winslow Taylor became acutely aware that the ability of business interests to dominate enterprise governance was a major barrier to the development of forms of management in which scientific knowledge, rather than vested interests, dictate decision making. Building on this new understanding, scholars have subsequently uncovered a number of the ways by which Taylor and his colleagues and heirs sought to broaden access to management knowledge and assist the creation of a democratic social and intellectual space within which a science of management could flourish. One aspect of this history not previously brought to light is the fact that Taylor and a number of his disciples utilized their technical and political skills to assist consumers to gain access to the knowledge they required if they were to adequately defend themselves against the interests of business and the state. In this article, we seek to correct this omission by detailing the three major ways in which Taylor and his colleagues sought to increase the ability of the consumer to make informed decisions. In so doing, we also explain why their efforts attracted a level of business hostility that in the 1930s became vitriolic and subsequently drew the attention of the House of Representatives' Un-American Activities Committee.