Corporate Fault and Consumer Protection: A New Approach for the UK

Many of the prosecutions for consumer protection offences which take place in the UK are against corporations, in particular, limited companies. As the criminal law had originally developed with human defendants in mind, many of its concepts were inappropriate where the defendant was a corporation. Corporations have, it is sometimes said, "no soul to be damned and no body to be kicked." As a result of industrialisation and the rise of the corporation in everyday life, legal principles had to be developed to deal with this new form of legal person. It began to be recognised that as well as having the ability to own property, enter contracts and the like, corporations were also capable of committing criminal offences.The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which a corporation can be convicted of committing consumer protection offences under UK law. This is a topic which has received considerable attention in recent years, and is one which continues to undergo change. In particular, the article will consider the implications of a number of important recent decisions on corporate liability, and will consider their implications for those concerned with the enforcement of consumer law. It will be argued that the recent case law suggests that a new approach has emerged, but that the extent and implications of this approach, although potentially highly significant, are still not entirely clear.     

Long-term care,dependence and the third sector

The demographic changes that have taken place throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first century confirm the increase in the number of older adults. More older adults implicitly entail an increase in the number of people in a situation of dependence. The issue of long-term care has economic, social and health care implications. This article addresses the characteristics of the companies involved in long-term care services and the employment generated. The database of the Spanish Directory of Companies (DIRCE) provided information on the variables used in the analysis: companies created, employment generated, companies by legal status and territorial distribution of the companies. Noteworthy findings were that the long-term care service sector contributes more to creating jobs than other economic sectors and that third sector companies are important in providing long-term care services.     

Internet Jurisdiction for E-commerce

Internet jurisdiction is an area of increasing concern to e-commerce because of the growth in cross-border e-tailing, both within the United States and globally. Therefore, the need for a global solution is also increasing. In response, this article first defines Internet jurisdiction, also known as cyber jurisdiction, and discusses the risks of Internet jurisdiction for retailers and consumers. Drawing from legal research, the authors examine the legal theories for jurisdiction and the application to e-commerce. Their focus is on United States law because both US and foreign businesses must understand US jurisdictional law due to increased globalization from expanding international trade and more frequent contact with US companies and markets brought about by the Internet. Since standards and case law are still developing worldwide, the authors conclude by providing managerial recommendations to reduce the uncertainty of jurisdiction, should legal action be initiated.     

关于提升我国上市公司市值管理水平的探讨

伴随着股权分置改革而出现的市值管理正被我国越来越多的上市公司所认知和实践,但由于市值管理是我国资本市场的新事物,许多上市公司还存在着不少认知和行动上的误区。上市公司应该从诚信、系统性规划、良好的公司治理、管理手段的创新、并购重组、做大做强主业、重视资本市场营销、＂社会责任＂意识、危机管理等方面更新市值管理观念。     

Strategic HRD within companies

This article reports a preliminary survey that was conducted within the framework of the project on strategic human resource development (HRD), in which for various aspects of organisations the effects of strategic HRD are explored. The aim of the survey was to explore some conditions that are important for HRD policymaking in companies, and to investigate the relationship between various specific aspects, and the results of HRD programmes. The study involved 107 large companies in the industrial, financial and public service sectors.     

Corporate governance in Russia: a framework for analysis

In the past several years, the Putin government’s goal of joining the World Trade Organization, as well as the critical shortage of investment funds in the country, have been prime levers in raising the importance of corporate governance in Russia. While most research has addressed relatively discrete aspects of the topic, this article provides an integrative framework for analyzing corporate governance in Russia. With large companies as the focus, the framework is particularly appropriate for companies in transitioning economies whose corporate governance systems are still developing. The framework draws on a cultural-embeddedness model as well as agency and stakeholder theories. Propositions for corporate governance in large Russian companies are developed for exploration in future research.     

Illusions of Corporate Power:Revisiting the Relative Powers of Corporations and Governments

A common opinion is that power has shifted from states to companies. This article discusses quantitative and qualitative aspects of power possessed by companies and by states. A more adequate comparison than that between company sales and gross national product is the one between company value added and GNP. Also more adequate is the comparison between the public sector and company net profit. These rival measures take down company power to about a tenth of the sales measure. Also in qualitative terms the "exit power" of the company gives a low impact compared to governmental action and the article concludes that company power by common measures is overestimated. However, the aggregated long-term effect of the market economy on the development of society is most significant. But it is a mistake to use that judgment as an argument for the opinion that business executives are the major power holders in modern societies. Perceptions of power also have an impact on which expectations and commitments that can be judged as realistic and therefore the issue of power is central for the normative discussion about corporate social responsibility.     

跨文化商务谈判中应该注意的一些问题

随着中国对外合作关系的深入发展，中国公司面临的跨国谈判也在日益增加。由于跨国谈判的谈判方都是由来自不同国家和化背景的人组成的，在谈判过程中谈判各利益方就会不可避免地遇到许多单化谈判中不会遇到的挑战。这篇论从7个方面探讨了在跨国谈判中谈判利益方应该注意的一些问题．以推动谈判过程中双赢协议的达成。这7个方面包括谈判前的准备工作、谈判中的化问题以及谈判时的一些细节问题。     

The ten commandments of legal risk management

Effective legal risk management is not a separate field of endeavor. Rather, it is inextricably linked with good management and with ethical management; managers who behave professionally and according to ethically defensible principles of action are quite unlikely to find themselves and their organizations stuck in a legal and/or ethical quagmire. Behavioral decision theory offers some explanations for why those managers who go astray do so, but explaining how basic human tendencies, uncorrected, may incline us to questionable decisions is not to justify such decisions. Managers who follow the guidelines set forth in this article may nonetheless find themselves or their companies under assault in the law courts or the court of public opinion, but should such an unlikely event occur, they will be far more likely to be able to successfully defend themselves.     

The Impact of Perceived Ethical Culture of the Firm and Demographic Variables on Auditors’ Ethical Evaluation and Intention to Act Decisions

Studies into corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have suggested that small businesses are different to the large companies on which CSR research usually focusses. Extending this argument, this article raises the question what differences in approaches to CSR there are within the SME category. Analysing the CSR strategy and performance of a medium-sized fashion retailer in the United Kingdom through manager interviews as well as customer and employee surveys, the article develops an analytical framework of CSR in small, medium and large firms. The argument is developed that medium-sized firms occupy a transition stage, where some CSR features that are reminiscent of small enterprises are still important but get overlaid with aspects that are more typical of large companies.     

技术要素按贡献参与收益分配量化方案深化研究

技术要素参与收益分配是当前重大且具有前沿性的研究课题,而技术要素参与收益分配的量化分配方案研究更是热点及难点问题。文章针对自身此前已研究出的技术要素参与收益分配量化方案在具体应用实施中显露的不足,引入新的变量和方法对量化分配方案进行了重新构建,进一步深化了量化分配方案,同时也弥补了旧量化分配方案存在的不足,对企业实施技术要素参与收益分配具有切实的指导作用。     

Corporate social responsibility: Doing well by doing good

Saving the rain forest from yet another palm oil plantation would certainly garner a company favorable attention from environmentalists, but how would its shareholders react? In this article, we show that by strategically practicing corporate social responsibility (CSR), a company can ‘do well by doing good’; in other words, it can make a profit and make the world a better place at the same time. CSR is regarded as voluntary corporate commitment to exceed the explicit and implicit obligations imposed on a company by society's expectations of conventional corporate behavior. Hence, CSR is a way of promoting social trends in order to enhance society's basic order, which we define as consisting of obligations that cover both the legal framework and social conventions. Due to globalization, companies are now less constrained by society's basic order than they have been in the past. Because different countries have different laws and standards, there are more ways to get away with less than ideal behavior in the quest for greater and greater profits. Nearly everyone agrees that this is not a good thing, but what can be done? Via this article, we offer an understanding of CSR that could be the answer. Herein, we contend that practicing CSR is not altruistic do-gooding, but rather a way for both companies and society to prosper. This is especially true when CSR is conceived of as a long-range plan of action.     

Corporate Motives for Social Initiative: Legitimacy, Sustainability, or the Bottom Line?

This article presents results of exploratory research conducted with managers from over 500 Norwegian companies to examine corporate motives for engaging in social initiatives. Three key questions were addressed. First, what do managers in this sample see as the primary reasons their companies engage in activities that benefit society? Second, do motives for such social initiative vary across the industries represented? Third, can further empirical support be provided for the theoretical classifications of social initiative motives outlined in the literature? Previous research on the topic is reviewed, study methods are described, results are presented, and implications of findings are discussed. The article concludes with the analysis of study limitations and directions for future research.     

‘Excesses of Responsibility? – Reconsidering Company Liability’

Several areas of expanding corporate responsibilities are evident from current practices. This article penetrates one such field, economic compensation through litigation, and discusses the possibility and desirability of reversing the trend. In court, companies are fined increasing amounts for an ever wider range of faults, or they settle out of court under this legal threat. This is not a local American problem, but European companies are increasingly involved because of globalization. The development in Europe is also driven by the same factors as in America – the mechanics of litigation and conventional ethics. The greed of plaintiffs and lawyers can mobilize the perceived virtue of sympathizing with a victim. Therefore it seems likely that a precondition for tort reform is an ethical reevaluation. Is it desirable and politically possible to make the individual more responsible for his own fate?     

Accountant ethics: A brief examination of neglected sociological dimensions

Traditional treatments of accountant ethics make implicit assumptions inconsistent with a sociological perspective. This paper identifies the ways in which accountant ethics have been approached both in literature pertaining to practice and the classroom. The boundaries of the topic, when its definitions are left tacit, systematically preclude many important features of ethics. Included in these are sociological treatments of the accounting profession as a group, extra-personal aspects of decision making, the stratification of accounting practice, and a sense of ethical action. The paper concludes with an illustration of how institutional theory has the potential to create a systematic sociological interpretation of accountant ethics.Timothy J. Fogarty is an assistant professor at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. His research interests include accounting professionalism, public accounting organizations and accounting education. He has published articles in the accounting, sociology, management, legal and education literatures.     

Fraud,Enforcement Action,and the Role of Corporate Governance: Evidence from China

We examine enforcement action in China’s emerging markets by focusing on (1) the agents that impose this action and (2) the role played by supervisory boards. Using newly available databases, we find that supervisory boards play an active role when Chinese listed companies face enforcement action. Listed firms with larger supervisory boards are more likely to have more severe sanctions imposed upon them by the China Security Regulatory Commission, and listed companies that face more severe enforcement actions have more supervisory board meetings. Our findings are of interest, as supervisory boards in China are generally perceived to be dysfunctional. This study contributes to the existing literature in three ways. First, we shed light on the effects of supervisory boards whose role in a fraud setting has not yet been examined. Second, the study has important policy implications for governance reform. Finally, our analyses provide the most up-to-date picture of fraud and governance issues in China’s ever-growing markets.     

The Pragmatic and Ethical Barriers to Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: The Nike Case

Numerous studies have documented the demand for information regarding corporations’ relationships to society. Much recent research has demonstrated why stakeholders need this information, and how it benefits both companies and the public. These studies suggest numerous methods by which companies can effectively disclose corporate social responsibility (CSR) information to the public, but in practice, reporting this type of information is fraught with legal and ethical uncertainty often unexplored in most literature. This article represents a fresh analysis of the numerous pragmatic consequences and legal and ethical complications inherent in CSR reporting, using Nike Corporation as a case example. The article discusses the theoretical viewpoints surrounding the ethics of CSR disclosure, and presents the case of Nike and the complications it encountered while advertising CSR information. The article ends with an analysis of CSR auditing as a possible solution to companies seeking to improve the method and transparency of social responsibility reporting.     

Employee References: Between the Legal Devil and the Ethical Deep Blue Sea

An employer asked to provide a reference for a former or departing employee is confronted with a number of complex legal and ethical concerns. The issue of references is always controversial, involving a balance of employers' fears of legal liability, interests in providing relevant information to prospective employers, and concerns for fairness to former employees. Recently this topic has been the focus of new attention as the result of a court decision holding a former employer legally liable for wrongs committed by a former employee in a new job. In that case, the former employer had provided a positive reference while neglecting to note certain negative aspects of the former employee'sperformance. This paper addresses legal and ethical aspects of the reference dilemma and incorporates responses of human resource professionals to the question of ethical reference policies and practices.     

The double bottom line: Profit and social benefit

There is an important shift in business focus in the United States that is empowering companies to not only declare their intent to be ethical firms which do good while making a profit, but also to submit proof of that commitment for annual review by outside evaluators. A new business model is providing structure for non-profits that wish to grow, for for-profits that wish to be socially responsible, and for individuals who wish to invest in companies with a commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainability. B Lab has taken the lead in providing the models necessary for this shift to a focus on the double bottom line: profit and social benefit. It has created the legal documents for state legislatures to use to pass a new corporate structure called the ‘benefit corporation.’ In the 3 years of its existence, legislatures in 19 states and the District of Columbia have ratified the new corporate structure. Likewise, B Lab offers a performance assessment program to become a Certified B Corporation, independent of legal corporate status, which also serves as an evaluation program for benefit corporations. Additionally, it has created a ratings agency and analytics platform, the Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS), to help institutional investors evaluate the impact of companies’ corporate social responsibility initiatives. This article discusses the requirements and benefits of the new models and addresses the issues that have been raised about them. It also identifies companies that are incorporating the benefit corporation structure and are becoming Certified B Corporations.     

Socially Responsible Investing: Is Your Fiduciary Duty at Risk?

Socially responsible investing identifies the fiduciary duty and liability for financial advisors serving individual and institutional clients when consulting in the SRI space. This article first discusses the role of a fiduciary emerging from both a legal and an ethical basis. Further, the special aspects of maintaining fiduciary duty and minimizing fiduciary liability are described as they relate to SRI. A number of recommendations are discussed: legal, ethical, and practice. This study argues that prudence focuses more on the process of decisions rather than their outcomes, as measured exclusively by rate of return.