From Stakeholder Management to Stakeholder Accountability

Confronted with mounting pressure to ensure accountability vis-à-vis customers, citizens and beneficiaries, organizational leaders need to decide how to choose and implement so-called accountability standards. Yet while looking for an appropriate standard, they often base their decisions on cost-benefit calculations, thus neglecting other important spheres of influence pertaining to more broadly defined stakeholder interests. We argue in this paper that, as a part of the strategic decision for a certain standard, management needs to identify and act according to the needs of all stakeholders. We contend that the creation of a dialogical understanding among affected stakeholders cannot be a mere outcome of applying certain accountability standards, but rather must be a necessary precondition for their use. This requires a stakeholder dialogue prior to making a choice. We outline such a discursive decision framework for accountability standards based on the Habermasian concept of communicative action and, in the final section, apply our conceptual framework to one of the most prominent accountability tools (AA 1000). Andreas Rasche is currently working at the chair for Business Administration at the Helmut-Schmidt-University, Hamburg, Germany and is finishing his PhD in strategic management at EUROPEAN BUSINESS SCHOOL, Germany where he is also teaching business ethics. His research interests include the institutionalization of ethics initiatives in multinational corporations (see also www.ethics-in-pratice.org) and reflections about the theory of strategic management. Daniel Esser until recently was a Tutorial Fellow in Development Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is now working for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific where he is involved in the design and management of urban governance programmes and service schemes supporting the poverty reduction agenda for the region.     

The Impact of Occupation on Responses to Positive and Negative Framing

Abstract

Recently, there has been a great deal of controversy around negative advertising. In this paper we examine the impact of negative as compared to positive frames for people in different occupations. For the product category of video cameras, using an experimental design, we found that occupation does indeed moderate the impact of positive and negative frames. While there is no difference in their effect for professionals, positive frames are more effective for social workers and blue collar workers. Here we focused not only on responses to the ads, but also to the brand and on purchase intent. The implications for marketing strategy are discussed.     

负面事件中投资者关系管理的价值效应考察

资本市场上的关系构建和维护是否对上市公司股东利益产生真实效应？这是近年来财务学和管理学交叉研究的热点问题.本文切入危机管理的创新视角,利用中国资本市场上市A股公司的投资者关系管理调查数据,探讨投资者关系管理活动在负面事件中的价值作用及其形成机理.研究结果显示:(1)通过负面事件的市场效应考察,发现企业前期的投资者关系管理质量越高,则企业负面事件下的市场效应越高.这表明高质量的投资者关系管理确实能够抑制股东财富的损失和保护股东利益,起到类“保险效应”的作用.(2)通过对公司特性和事件特性的考察,发现投资者关系管理的保险效应仅在大规模公司、公司违规事件中存在,而在小规模公司、高管违规事件中并不存在,并且相比远期违规,即期违规事件下投资者关系管理的保险效应更加强烈和显著.(3)通过对负面事件后公司可视性的变化程度分析,发现在负面事件当年高质量的投资者关系管理活动能够显著增强危机后机构投资者的持股比例.这表明在中国资本市场,投资者关系管理具有一定的“危机公关效应”.总之,在负面事件发生时,高质量的投资者关系管理能够产生保护股东利益的作用.     

瓶装水的正负效应及对策研究

从瓶装水的正负效应两方面来分析其瓶装水的市场发展。同时建议我国政府应参照国外先进技术和环保措施．对我国的瓶装水市场的发展予以合理引导和调控,加快资源节约型、环境友好型社会的建设。     

知名品牌负面新闻知多少

<正>负面新闻比较集中的行业,主要是媒体及娱乐、交通、金融投资保险、邮电通讯、商业及服务性行业。来自CTR市场研究1、2月的网络监测,商业领域各行业的负面新闻共887条,而这些负面新闻主要集中在产品质量、服务质量和法律诉讼等方面。     

Being Positive about the Negative in Advertising

Four good reasons for avoiding a negative sentence in advertising whenever possible are its relative difficulty of comprehension, its uninformativeness, the fact that it presupposes or implies precisely what it negates and its sheer wastefulness. However, for certain pragmatic reasons, a negative may be useful in cases where the grammatical subject of a sentence presupposes something positive.     

危机之下,城市居民期待更多正面消息

<正>在经济危机全球蔓延这一特殊时期,零点研究咨询集团6月8日刚刚发布的2009零点城市生活调查报告显示:城市居民的生活在经济危机下显示出三有状态:尽管民众表示生活受到了经济危机一定程度的影响,但是,大部分民众对未来美好生活仍保持较高信心度(7.92),并表现出较高的幸福感(7.63)和生活掌控感(7.16)。同时,绝大多数(90.%)民众期待听到更多的正面消息。     

Stakeholder Management, Reciprocity and Stakeholder Responsibility

Stakeholder theory advocates that firms bear responsibility for the implications of their actions. However, while a firm affects or can affect stakeholders, stakeholders can also affect the corporation. Previous stakeholder theorising has neglected the reciprocal nature of responsibility. The question can be asked whether??in a spirit of reciprocity, loyalty and fairness??stakeholders should treat the corporation in a fair and responsible way. This study based on different definitions of stakeholders argues that various stakeholder attributes differ for different categories of stakeholders. This analysis presumes that the attribute of stakeholder reciprocity can probably be restricted to real stakeholders, labelled stakeowners: genuine stakeholders with a legitimate stake, the loyal partners who strive for mutual benefits. Stakeowners own and deserve a stake in the firm. Stakeholder reciprocity could be an innovative criterion in the corporate governance debate as to who should be accorded representation on the board. Corporate social responsibility should imply corporate stakeholder responsibility.     

产业集群效应的辩证思考

产业集群已经成为经济全球化时代区域经济发展的主流,在产业集群发挥正效应的同时,其负效应也不能忽视。产业集群的正效应体现在成本和收益两方面,可以产生外部经济效应、降低交易费用、分享分工的好处,并可产生集群超额利润;产业集群在集群发展的初期、成熟期和衰退期都有可能产生负效应,包括管理混乱、过度竞争、创新惰性、路径依赖、空洞集群等,对各个时期的负效应可以采取提供良好的硬环境和公平竞争的软环境、鼓励持续创新、创建品牌、促进产品升级换代等措施进行规避。如果能采取适当的负效应规避措施,对产业集群的健康发展会起到较好的促进作用。     

Investor reaction to women directors

Existing studies on women directorships present equivocal results on the association between appointing women directors and firm performance. These studies tend to focus on western countries and largely ignore investors' reactions to such appointments. This paper applies the financial event study method and finds that investors generally respond positively to the appointment of women directors in Singaporean firms. Regression analyses also reveal that investors are most receptive when the women are independent directors and are least receptive when the directors assume the CEO role. This study not only tests the theory of gender diversity in an Asian context but also examines whether investors react systematically to the different positions that women directors hold on corporate boards, a question that has received little attention in prior studies.     

环境对国际贸易的积极作用和消极影响

环境和贸易之间有着复杂的关系和相互影响,一个领域的政策措施会不断地对另一个领域产生显著而重要的影响。环境对贸易既有积极影响又有消极作用。一方面环境为贸易的可持续发展提供了基础,另一方面,严格的环境保护政策,会给发展中国家的贸易带来不利影响。我国要保持贸易利益和促使经济持续发展,就必须认识到环境和贸易的密切关系,趋利避害,采取必要的应对和发展措施。     

我国对外直接投资主体的选择和构建

目前,我国对外直接投资主体存在一些问题,能与大型跨国公司竞争的大型企业非常少,且结构不合理;企业研发投入少,科技创新能力弱,知识产权保护意识不强;国有大企业的公司治理结构还不完善,缺乏激励机制,而产权较明晰的中小企业和私营企业的对外直接投资未能受到应有的重视。从产权约束角度看,在对外直接投资主体的选择上应着重考虑具有市场竞争力,已真正完成现代企业制度建设的国有中小企业和私营企业;从内部化优势角度看,构建我国对外直接投资主体,首先应从规模上着手,其次应培育我国企业跨国经营的比较优势。     

Positive and Negative Corporate Social Responsibility, Financial Leverage, and Idiosyncratic Risk

Existing research on the financial implications of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for firms has predominantly focused on positive aspects of CSR, overlooking that firms also undertake actions and initiatives that qualify as negative CSR. Moreover, studies in this area have not investigated how both positive and negative CSR affect the financial risk of firms. As such, in this research, the authors provide a framework linking both positive and negative CSR to idiosyncratic risk of firms. While investigating these relationships, the authors also analyze the moderating role of financial leverage of firms. Overall, analysis of secondary information for firms from multiple industries over the years 2000–2009 shows that CSR has a significant effect on the idiosyncratic risk of firms, with positive CSR reducing risk and negative CSR increasing it. Results also show that the reduction in risk from positive CSR is not guaranteed, with firms having high levels of financial leverage witnessing lower idiosyncratic risk reduction.     

利益相关者与公司治理

企业是一系列不完全契约的集合体,企业不仅是股东的企业,也应成为全体利益相关者的企业。利益相关者理论在逐渐完善的过程中,对传统股东至上的治理模式提出了挑战和质疑,并相应地提出了利益相关者治理模式。但利益相关者治理模式也并非完美的治理模式,依然存在着一些不足和改进的必要。     

In Advertising,a Double Negative Does Not Equal a Positive

This research investigates the effectiveness of double negative ads relative to positive, self-promoting ads as it relates to impression formation. The study was conducted using a 3 (ad valence/intensity: extreme double negative, moderate double negative, positive) x 2 (impression type: incidental, intentional) repeated measures design study using print ads designed for fictitious brands. Overall, brands in double negative ads received less positive impression ratings and the double negative ad format was less memorable. These effects were even more pronounced as the valence of the double negative ads became more extreme.     

Stakeholder Theory and Managerial Decision-Making: Constraints and Implications of Balancing Stakeholder Interests

Stakeholder theory is widely recognized as a management theory, yet very little research has considered its implications for individual managerial decision-making. In the two studies reported here, we used stakeholder theory to examine managerial decisions about balancing stakeholder interests. Results of Study 1 suggest that indivisible resources and unequal levels of stakeholder saliency constrain managers’ efforts to balance stakeholder interests. Resource divisibility also influenced whether managers used a within-decision or an across-decision approach to balance stakeholder interests. In Study 2 we examined instrumental and normative implications of these two approaches. We conclude by considering the contributions of this research.     

菲律宾电子产品出口的“飞地”效应:经验与教训

菲律宾电子产品的出口在“飞地”效应的作用下,曾经获得了高速增长,成为菲律宾出口贸易的支柱。然而,由于受到世界电子业周期衰退的影响,以及在菲律宾经营电子行业的跨国公司投资区位的转移,从本世纪初开始,菲律宾电子产品的出口出现了全面衰退,对其出口贸易与经济发展带来严重的负面影响。菲律宾电子产品出口的兴衰表明,发展中国家在选择自己的贸易模式时,不能忽视自身要素禀赋的客观情况。在努力发展换汇率高的高科技产业的同时,同样要重视发展本国具有“联系效应”的资源密集型制造业的生产与出口。