Environmental performance and plant closure

This study uses a sample of plant closings as the testing stage to examine the financial consequences of variant environmental performance records and stakeholder pressure levels. It compares 117 manufacturing facilities closing down between 1998 and 2000 to 351 facilities surviving through this period, along four measures of environmental performance. It shows that in the ten years prior to closure, closing facilities reduce their toxics emissions relatively more and incur somewhat stronger community and regulatory pressures than surviving ones. The results persist through alternative versions of the model and suggest that the environmental performance of closing facilities is at least as good as that of surviving ones. The mix of environmental practices of closing facilities differs from that of surviving ones with the former engaging in significantly less recycling of waste than the latter. Closing facilities focus more on end-of-pipe measures while surviving ones engage in more pro-active strategies, consistent with evidence in the literature of a positive relation between pro-active environmental practices and performance. Stakeholder pressures, in some cases (e.g., in pollution intensive industries), may be associated with unrecoverable costs to facilities, including closure, depending on the environmental management choices of the facilities.     

Interaction effects of formal and social controls on business-to-business performance

Marketing and Strategy studies have treated relational governance as a critical factor of business-to-business (B2B) performance. Extant studies offer contrasting views on whether formal or social control is a better control mechanism, with little known about their interaction effect. In this study, the authors aim to investigate the interaction effect of these two control mechanisms by dividing a B2B contract (formal control) into two provisions (transactional and relational) and to examine the specific interaction effect of social control on each provision. The authors also seek to investigate the moderating effects of environmental dynamism, prior ties, and buyer lock-in. The measure of B2B performance reflects relational quality and financial outcome. The results show significantly different interactions between each provision of the contract and social control depending on the level of environmental dynamism and buyer lock-in, and suggest that the environmental condition of the transactions is reflective of managers' optimal control mechanisms.     

Transformational leadership and job performance: A social identity perspective

Drawing on social identity theory, this study provides a model explaining the underlying process through which transformational leadership influences creative behavior and organizational citizenship behaviors. Individual differentiation and group identification are proposed as social identity mechanisms reflecting the characteristics of personal and collective identity orientations that underpin the differential effects of transformational leadership behaviors on performance outcomes. The model is tested with data from a sample of 250 front-line employees and their immediate managers working in five banks in the People's Republic of China. Results of hierarchical linear modeling provide support for the model whereby group-focused and individual-focused transformational leadership behaviors exert differential impacts on individual differentiation and group identification. Furthermore, individual differentiation mediates the relationship between individual-focused transformational leadership and creative behavior, whereas group identification mediates the relationships between group-focused transformational leadership and OCBs toward individuals and groups. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and future research directions are outlined.     

Environmental strategies in spanish hotels: contextual factors and performance

This article is a study of the environmental strategies adopted in the service industry and their impact on a firm's performance. More specifically, we define the environmental strategies of 268 Spanish hotels, based on their environmental protection activities and the use of these as an argument for competition. They have been categorised into four groups. We observed the difference between each of these environmental strategies as regards certain contextual variables and performance. Our findings suggest that firms in the groups with more developed environmental strategies are associated with a higher level of environmental performance but not necessarily with economic performance.     

Reference points for measuring social performance: Case study of a social business venture

We present a longitudinal qualitative case study to elaborate on how a social venture forms reference points for social performance. Although organizations increasingly use various social performance targets to direct their operations, the scholarly knowledge on social performance reference points remains limited. We make use of the prior accounting literature and draw on the idea of compromising accounts to discuss how provisional and performative metrics can have a significant role in how organizations develop new ways to evaluate their social performance. Given that the social performance reference point criteria are ambiguous and the corresponding referents malleable, performative accounts are helpful as they can intervene in the organizational life by making particular things visible, providing space for interpretations, and facilitating discussion, thus creating temporary settlements and enabling opportunities for productive compromises between different organizational groups and evaluative principles. The recursive feedback loops between reference point referents, criteria and accounting artefacts help the organization to make sense of its own social performance and interpret the associated performance feedback, and thereby provide ground for organizational decisions on further action. Moreover, we discuss how imperfect accounts can be useful for social businesses in their pursuit of developing their activities and achieving social impact.     

Organizational attention to corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance: the moderating effects of corporate governance

Many studies have explored the antecedents of corporate social performance (CSP), such as institutional forces and stakeholder pressures. However, few studies examine CSP from a socio‐cognitive perspective. To address this research void, this study adopts an attention‐based approach to examine the relationship between managers' attention to social issues and CSP. More important, this study reports that this relationship will be moderated by governance mechanisms that constrain managerial discretion. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, this study provides empirical support for these arguments. Therefore, our study adds new insights to the literature addressing CSP from a socio‐cognitive perspective and speaks to the structural features, both inside and outside organizations, that guide managers' attention.     

Disparate association between alliance social capital and the global pharmaceutical firm's performance

Some literature suggests that three dimensions of social capital—such as information volume, diversity and richness—have positive association with the firm's performance. However, these constructs and their implications cannot be taken for granted because they may not produce similar results in all contextual settings. The article develops and tests associations between dimensions of social capital and organizational performance in a multidimensional network system. This study provides an analysis on 252 pharmaceutical firms. The analysis shows disparate but insightful results. First, there is a positive association between information volume and the firm's performance. Second, there is a negative association between information diversity and the firm's performance. Third, there is no significant association between information richness and the firm's performance. Therefore, different dimensions of social capital had different links with the firm's performance. The paper provides some explanation and implications of these findings.     

The Chief Executive Officer and corporate social performance: An interdisciplinary examination

This paper attempts to cross the disciplinary boundaries of strategic management and social issues management to demonstrate the relationship between managerial characteristics and corporate social performance (CSP). Drawing on studies in strategic leadership research we develop and test hypotheses about linkages between top management attributes and different levels of CSP. Our results add credence to the argument that organizations are a reflection of their top managers, and encourage further systematic research of the influence of key executives in developing and implementing socially responsible policies and programs.Dr Anisya S. Thomas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and International Business at Florida International University. She received her Ph.D in Strategic Management. She has published in a variety of journals includingStrategic Management Journal, the Journal of Management and theJournal of Strategic Change. Dr Thomas's research interests include social responsibility, strategic leadership and international management.Dr Roy Simerly is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at East Carolina University. His research focuses on network organizations and corporate social responsibility. Dr. Simerly is an active member of the Academy of Management and has published in journals such as theJournal of Business Strategy.     

Acceptability of operations as an indicator of corporate social performance

There has been much theoretical debate on issues of business ethics during the last decades, but there has been little research which could concretise the content of these issues in terms of practical business. Although business life must frequently deal with concepts such as corporate social performance, business ethics and the acceptability of operations, the content and meaning of these concepts has remained flexible. In addition, rapid internationalisation and globalisation have introduced a number of new phenomena related to corporate social performance. An attempt at defining the concepts more precisely and searching for a potential indicator was considered necessary in order to concretise the business environment facing corporations engaged in internationalisation and globalisation. The connection between corporate social performance and stakeholder theory provides a basis for the proposal put forward here that acceptability of operation could be employed as an indicator of corporate social performance. This approach was then applied to developing a model which could be used to assess corporate social performance.     

The UK supermarket industry: an analysis of corporate social and financial performance

In a previous paper (Moore, 2001), the headline findings from a study of social and financial performance over three years of eight firms in the UK supermarket industry were reported. These were based on the derivation of a 16‐measure social performance index and a 4‐measure financial performance index. This paper discusses the formulationof the indices and then reports on: discussions with two supermarket firms concerning the overall results; inter‐relationships between individual financial performance measures; inter‐relationships between individual social performance measures; stakeholder group analysis; and inter‐relationships between turnover, age and gearing with social performance measures. The paper discusses these inter‐relationships, incorporating comments from the interviews with the two supermarket firms, and reports on both factor and cluster analysis. The interviews lend support for Preston and O’Bannon’s (1997) Available Funding Hypothesis in both its positive and negative form. The findings show that there are individual or combinations of related measures that could be used as surrogate measures for social and financial performance, instead of deriving a full index. However, the recommendation is that a full index continues to be used until there is further corroboration of these results. The findings also provide statistically significant support for the Negative Synergy Hypothesis (Preston and O’Bannon, 1997), show a statistically significant association between pre‐tax profits (both lagged and contemporaneous) with community contributions, and show that all statistically significant associations between individual social performance measures are positive – suggesting that they are mutually reinforcing. The association of size with social performance, noted in the previous paper, is also reinforced. Findings in relation to the proportion of women managers and the number of women on the Board and positive associations with other social and environmental performance measures raise interesting gender issues for business ethics. Factor analysis leads to no clear conclusions but cluster does show two or three clear clusters of firms, where size would seem to be the main but not sole factor. Further areas of research are noted.     

Firm performance,corporate ownership,and corporate social responsibility disclosure in China

The existing literature provides conflicting results on the association between firm performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. This paper empirically examines the effect of firm performance on CSR disclosure in terms of disclosure frequency and quality among Chinese listed firms and the possible mediating effect of corporate ownership on the relationship between firm performance and CSR disclosure. Our findings show that better‐performing firms are more likely than worse‐performing ones to disclose CSR information and to produce higher quality CSR reports. In addition, the link between firm performance and CSR disclosure is found to be weaker among state‐owned enterprises compared with non‐state‐owned ones.     

Institutional ownership of stock and dimensions of corporate social performance: An empirical examination

Collectively, institutions own an increasing proportion of outstanding corporate equities. As an emergent force in shaping corporate America, the linkages between institutional ownership and corporate social performance (CSP) require empirical examination. Not only do corporate policy makers need to know those areas where social performance may lure or inhibit capital infusions, lawmakers also need a better understanding of the social forces guiding corporate policy. As anticipated, this study found a positive relationship between the amount of institutional ownership of corporate stock and a company's social responsiveness as measured by the representation of women on its board of directors; however, no statistically significant relationship with social responsibility as measured by charitable giving was found. The exemplar of social issues management — compliance with the Sullivan principles — showed an unexpected, negative relationship with the level of institutional ownership.Betty S. Coffey's research interests are in the area of strategic management, organizational change, and social issues.Gerald E. Fryxell is Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His current research interests are in the area of corporate culture, innovation, and strategic management.     

The association between corporate social-responsibility and financial performance: The paradox of social cost

It is generally assumed that common stock investors are exclusively interested in earning the highest level of future cash-flow for a given amount of risk. This view suggests that investors select a well-diversified portfolio of securities to achieve this goal. Accordingly, it is often assumed that investors are unwilling to pay a premium for corporate behavior which can be described as socially-responsible.Recently, this view has been under increasing attack. According to the Social Investment Forum, at least 538 institutional investors now allocate funds using social screens or criteria. In addition, Alice Tepper Marlin, president of the New York-based Council on Economic Priorities has recently estimated that about $600 billion of invested funds are socially-screened (1992). MOSES L. PAVA is Associate Professor of Accounting and the Alvin Einbender Chair in Business Ethics at the Sy Syms School of Business, Yeshiva University. His research interests include financial reporting and business ethics. He has recently published articles in the Journal of Accountancy, Management Accounting, The Financial Executive, and Journal of Applied Business Research. His first book, The Shareholder's Use of Corporate Annual Reports, was published in 1993. JOSHUA KRAUSZ is Gershon and Merle Stern Professor of Banking and Finance at the Sy Syms School of Business, Yeshiva University. His research interests are in the areas of financial analysis, ethics and social responsibility, financial accounting, options and derivatives, price behavior, capital budgeting and taxation. He has published in The Review of Economics and Statistics, The Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Accounting Horizons, Applied Economics, The Journal of Extractive Industries Accounting, and The Mid-Atlantic Journal of Business.     

The practice of corporate social performance in minority- versus nonminority-owned small businesses

This study compares corporate social performance in terms of charitable contributions of minority-owned and nonminority-owned small businesses. In this sample, minority-owned small businesses are younger, have less full-time employees, and lower annual sales. Minority-owned small businesses donate more funds to religious organizations than nonminority-owned small businesses. When annual sales are accounted for, minority-owned businesses contribute more total dollars to all charitable organizations than nonminority-owned firms. Suggestions for future research in this area are delineated.Judith Kenner Thompson is an Assistant Professor of Business and Society at the University of New Mexico. Her work has appeared inResearch in Corporate Social Performance and Policy, Business Forum, and theJournal of Small Business Management.Jacqueline N. Hood is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of New Mexico. Her current research interests include gender issues in business, small business and entrepreneurship, and corporate social performance.     

Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM

This study examines how social media technology usage and customer-centric management systems contribute to a firm-level capability of social customer relationship management (CRM). Drawing from the literature in marketing, information systems, and strategic management, the first contribution of this study is the conceptualization and measurement of social CRM capability. The second key contribution is the examination of how social CRM capability is influenced by both customer-centric management systems and social media technologies. These two resources are found to have an interactive effect on the formation of a firm-level capability that is shown to positively relate to customer relationship performance. The study analyzes data from 308 organizations using a structural equation modeling approach.     

Managing international joint ventures to improve performance: The role of structural and social mechanisms

Poor performance has been a major concern in research on international joint ventures (IJVs). This study integrates the IJV management mechanisms from transaction cost theory (TCT) and social exchange theory (SET) in order to gain insights into management mechanisms that improve IJV performance. The framework consists of three structural (i.e., symmetric dependence, symmetric equity share and resource complementarity) and three social (i.e., trust, communication and cultural adaptation) IJV management mechanisms, which are considered as potential determinants of IJV performance. Based on the analysis of data collected from 89 IJVs established by Nordic firms in Asia, Europe and the USA, results indicate that TCT-based symmetric dependence and resource complementarity on the one hand and SET-based trust, communication and cultural adaptation on another significantly improve IJV performance. However, impact of symmetric equity share on IJV performance remains negative and non-significant, explaining that IJV partners may consider it rather a safeguard to their own stake and interests in IJVs. In addition, SET-based IJV management mechanisms are found to be more effective than the TCT-based IJV mechanisms in improving IJV performance.     

Upstream internationalization process: Roles of social capital in creating exploratory capability and market performance

This paper investigates to what extent resource governance of international ventures affects dynamic capability and market performance in the high-tech firms’ internationalization process. We examine the non-equity-based international network collaborations of high-tech firms as forms of strategic resource seeking within the internationalization process. Within the context of upstream technology collaborations by international software and hardware firms, this paper proposes and empirically examines the impact of resource governance mechanisms (i.e. trust-building and behavioral monitoring) on the exploratory capabilities of firms. The findings indicate that building trust in the internationalization process of network ventures contributes to the firm-level exploratory capabilities and, in turn, market performance. Furthermore, this paper tests the moderating effects of structural capital on the capability–performance relationship. The relationship is stronger when network relationships existed before the inception of the international technology alliance. We also find a negative moderating effect from the existence of an actual alliance and from network duration on the relationship between exploratory capability and market performance. To this end, the longevity of the alliance may not always be something firms should aim for. The paper highlights the criticality of relational and structural capital in the internationalization process and the importance of exploratory capability for creating radical innovation in high-tech industries.