How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?

Ratings of corporations' environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of "socially responsible" investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. In one of the first studies to assess these ratings, we examine how well the most widely used ratings—those of Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Research & Analytics (KLD)—provide transparency about past and likely future environmental performance. We find KLD "concern" ratings to be fairly good summaries of past environmental performance. In addition, firms with more KLD concerns have slightly, but statistically significantly, more pollution and regulatory compliance violations in later years. KLD environmental strengths, in contrast, do not accurately predict pollution levels or compliance violations. Moreover, we find evidence that KLD's ratings are not optimally using publicly available data. We discuss the implications of our findings for advocates and skeptics of corporate social responsibility as well as for studies that relate social responsibility ratings to financial performance.     

Social Income Distribution Reform

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1995 Social Security System Reform

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Defining the ‘Social’ in ‘Social Entrepreneurship’: Altruism and Entrepreneurship

What is social entrepreneurship? In, particular, what’s so social about it? Understanding what social entrepreneurship is enables researchers to study the phenomenon and policy-makers to design measures to encourage it. However, such an understanding is lacking partly because there is no universally accepted definition of entrepreneurship as yet. In this paper, we suggest a definition of social entrepreneurship that intuitively accords with what is generally accepted as entrepreneurship and that captures the way in which entrepreneurship may be altruistic. Based on this we provide a taxonomy of social entrepreneurship and identify a number of real cases from Asia illustrating the different forms it could take.     

Business Success Through Social Networks? A Comment on Social Networks and Business Success

In the literature on entrepreneurship in developing countries, the argument that social networks are an essential factor for entrepreneurial success has been given considerable attention. This article challenges this one-sided view by pointing out negative and restrictive effects of social networks on entrepreneurial success in particular, and on economic development in general. The article is structured as a comment on Kristiansen (2004 ), who worked on social networks and conducted field research in the city of Tanga, Tanzania, similar to the author, who had done the same two years previously. The findings from a six-month field research are used in order to articulate important aspects left out in Kristiansen's discussion.     

Banking Employees’ Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility,Value-Fit Commitment,and Turnover Intentions: Ethics as Social Glue and Attachment

Evidence suggests that efforts to improve corporate ethics and social responsibility are associated with enhanced work attitudes, but the nature of these relationships is still subject to investigation. Consequently, this study determines the degree to which perceptions of corporate social responsibility are related to individuals’ value-fit commitment and turnover intentions (both employee-reported and manager-reported). Information was obtained from subjects employed in a southern regional branch of a national banking and financial services institution. Two unique self-report questionnaires were developed to collect information from managers and employees, resulting in ninety-two matched pairs of forms. Mediation analysis indicated that perceived corporate social responsibility was associated with increased value-fit commitment, and that value-fit commitment was negatively related to employee-reported and manager-reported turnover intentions. The presence of full mediation was identified in both frameworks. These findings present a number of important managerial and research implications, which are discussed in this study.     

Bandit Heroes: Social,Mythical, or Rational?*

Bandits steal from their fellow men. Yet they are regularly subjects of folksongs, novels, and movies. In these outlets they are presented as folk heroes despite their crimes. Sociological explanations for this phenomenon based upon Eric Hobsbawm's concept of the “social bandit” and psychological explanations based upon myth building have been brought forth to explain the seeming contradiction. We propose an alternative explanation for the bandit hero phenomenon. We argue that bandits, acting solely in their own self‐interest, unintentionally provide valuable services to societies under the rule of a predatory government. We identify three separate mechanisms by which bandits benefit society that do not necessarily hinge upon class struggles or historical dialectics. The social benefits that bandits generate form the foundation for their positive reception.     

Assessing Trust Through Social Capital? A Possible Experimental Answer

Trust is important in economics: several transactions are based on it; unfortunately it is difficult to measure. The recent economic literature on social capital shows a positive association between this concept and trust. As social capital is easier to measure than trust, this paper analyzes the possibility of assessing trust using a measure of social capital. A basic trust game is played in three Western European countries with undergraduate students; a questionnaire measures their level of social capital as time spent within social networks. This measure is stronger and more precise than the ones generally used. The use of an experiment instead of a questionnaire allows for constructing a measure of trust that is continuous in principle. Moreover, to play an experiment allows for observing the behavior of the participants better than by the means of a survey. The results are supportive of the fact that trust can be assessed through social capital, although the presence of a strong geographical effect has to be accounted for.     

Slowing down Social Europe? The struggle over work and employment regulation

The present article discusses whether the strengthening of the regulation‐sceptical actors during the 2000s has affected the scope and content of EU‐level regulation in two work‐and‐employment‐related areas, and the role coalitions have played in the decision‐making processes. In the employee involvement area, the pro‐regulation forces still appeared able to get new regulation adopted and to prevent unwanted regulation from being adopted. In the employment policy area, a few examples of successful attempts by the regulation‐sceptical actors to slow down Social Europe were found, but these were fewer than could be expected. One explanation for this relatively weak impact might be that the Commission's search for legitimacy in order to be re‐elected functions as an ‘automatic stabiliser’. Contrary to studies of previous processes, no solid coalitions were found in any of the cases analysed, although several actors took positions as expected.     

Social responsibility: U.S. power plants 1985–1998

This study introduces an Environmental Performance Index (EPI) to assess the performance of firms that produce both good and bad outputs. In the one good output one bad output case, the EPI simplifies to the ratio of good–bad output for period t + 1 and period t. After deriving the index, data for U.S. coal-fired power plants from 1985 to 1998 are used to demonstrate insights that the EPI can provide. We find that power plants with units participating in Phase I of the Acid Rain Program experience a dramatic improvement in their EPI during 1994–1995.

Do Hybrid Goals Pay off? Social and Economic Goals in Academic Spin-Offs

New ventures often pursue both economic and social goals, known as goal hybridity. Yet, we know less about how organizational goal hybridity influences the performance and governance of new ventures. Goal hybridity is common among academic spin-offs (ASOs) seeking to commercialize scientific research from universities. We hypothesize that ASOs’ goal hybridity influences their subsequent performance and their governance structure. We also hypothesize that ASOs who enrol multiple stakeholders with investment goals aligned with their hybrid goals outperform the ASOs who do not. By combining several data sources, we follow Norwegian ASOs longitudinally and find that goal hybridity explains their subsequent performance differences, such that ASOs relying on both economic and social aspects of their business when formulating their goals outperform those who rely purely on economic or social goals. We also find that ASOs with hybrid goals outperform when they enrol multiple stakeholders who are aligned with their hybrid goals. Our findings have implications for theorizing in hybridity, stakeholder enrolment, and the organizational goals literatures. We also provide a fuller understanding on performance heterogeneity of ASOs, and we offer a set of practice and policy implications to academic entrepreneurship and public-private partnership literatures.     

What Governance Roles do Municipalities use in Dutch Local Social Support Networks?

Abstract

Until now, there is no consensus about variations in governance roles. This consensus is necessary to enable researchers to examine how network are governed well. In this article, the governance roles are considered to be clusters of consistent choices on a top-down versus bottom-up continuum, regarding nine governance activities. Our results reveal that three governance roles can be discerned: top-down, intermediate and bottom-up governance roles. Furthermore, these roles are applied by municipalities with specific (network) characteristics. Our results open the black box of network governance and might facilitate municipalities to make choices regarding their role in the new network era.     

Evaluating Board Roles Performance in Adopting Corporate Social Responsibility （CSR） Practices

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the board roles that make a board effective in the performance of adopting corporate social responsibility （CSR） practices. This paper examines directors＇ perceptions of the three main roles： monitoring, service, and strategic, which provide tools for critically understanding how the board adds the value in moving the organization towards more CSR practices. The stakeholder theory is used to distinguish the influence of the three main roles on the adoption of CSR practices. Primary data were collected for this research by conducting structured questionnaires with a sample of 461 directors from Saudi listed companies for study purpose. The results show that an appropriate mix of directors＇ roles and the development of sound board monitoring and service roles are the most crucial determinants of CSR adoption in Saudi listed companies. As the extant corporate governance and CSR literatures do not provide a clear perspective with contradictory outcomes about board roles in influencing CSR practices, the originality of this research is its contribution by evaluating the directors＇ perceptions of developing a direct relationship between the board roles and the adoption of CSR practices. Furthermore, the use of the stakeholder theory provides additional insights into identifying the most influential board role factors enhancing stakeholders＇ expectations of CSR practices.     

How Do Social Networks Influence the Employment Prospects of People with Disabilities?

We explore the role of social networks used by people with disabilities for finding employment. In addition, we outline obstacles to network building for those with a disability. We contend that this group is often constrained and they underutilize their networks during job searches. Both factors are likely to result in negative employment outcomes and contribute to the employment gap between those with and without a disability. We outline how key network characteristics such as homophily, tie strength, and centrality influence job search outcomes for those with a disability differently than for those without a disability. Furthermore, we propose that although individuals with disabilities develop and rely upon networks that are comprised of close bonds with similar individuals that are either unemployed or underemployed in lower status positions, optimal networks for employment purposes should consist of diverse acquaintances that occupy central positions and higher status jobs within organizations. Finally, we outline propositions to guide future research on this neglected topic and also suggest practical implications.