The legitimacy of accountants' participation in social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting

This paper discusses the legitimacy of accountants' recent involvement in social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting (SEAAR). Support for accountants' legitimacy is proposed by highlighting some of the technical skills they offer to the SEAAR process as conceived in AA1000. It is argued that the relevance of these skills is strengthened within a conception of SEAAR which principally perceives it as a risk/stakeholder management process focused primarily on the concerns of corporate management as opposed to those of the wider society. However, the paper moves on to maintain that if we wish to promote a conception of SEAAR primarily focused on accountability to stakeholders (denoted as 'true accountability') as opposed to risk/stakeholder management, then, particularly in the domain of external social audit, the legitimacy of accountants' participation may be disputed. The paper therefore concludes by cautioning against facilitating the unquestioned entry of accountants into the realm of SEAAR.     

Peer reporting of unethical behavior: The influence of justice evaluations and social context factors

This field survey in a fast food restaurant setting tested the hypothesized influences of two social context variables (role responsibility and interests of group members) and justice evaluations (distributive, procedural, and retributive) on respondents' inclination to report theft and their theft reporting behavior. The results provided mixed support for the hypotheses. Inclination to report a peer for theft was associated with role responsibility, the interests of group members, and procedural justice perceptions. Actual reporting behavior was associated with the inclination to report and with retributive justice evaluations. Implications for future research and for management are discussed.Bart Victor is Associate Professor of Management in the Kenan Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his Ph.D. in management. His research interests have focused on culture and climates in organizations and problems in organizational design.Linda Klebe Trevino is Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Mary Jean and Frank B. Smeal College of Business Administration, The Pennsylvania State University. She received her Ph.D. in management. Her research focuses on the management of ethical-unethical behavior in organizations and justice in disciplinary situations.Debra L. Shapiro is Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Kenan Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research regards managing conflict in organizations, via procedural justice, interactional justice, negotiation tactics, and grievance procedures.     

Exploring the multi-level processes of legitimacy in transnational social enterprises

Transnational entrepreneurship has emerged as a form of migrants' participation in the social, economic, and political lives of both their countries of origin and of residence. Leveraging increasing evidence about migrants' involvment in transnational social enterprises, we examine the multi-level processes through which organizational legitimacy is molded by transnational entrepreneurs to reflect country-level institutional settings, and how organizational-level legitimacy affects entrepreneurs' social status. We longitudinally examine the multi-level processes of legitimation in a transnational social enterprise operated by Ghanaian migrants across Italy and Ghana. We analyze secondary and ethnographic data for two years, observing how transnational social enterprises harvest moral and pragmatic legitimacy from the institutional contexts in which they operate. We study how entrepreneurs construe their social status through pragmatic legitimacy obtained from their transnational ventures, and their institutional environments inspired by micro- and meso legitimacy reconfigurations. We discuss theoretical implications for social and transnational entrepreneurship and practical contributions for policy-making.     

Trainee perceptions of factors that influence learning transfer

The focus of the study was to assess learning transfer made by HRD professionals from a Korean organization for a training program on performance improvement technologies. Results revealed multiple reasons for high or low transfer and provide insights into the design of highly transferable training programs.     

影响国际市场价格的因素分析

众所周知,国际市场价格会因多方面因素的影响而出现波动,我们分析国际市场价格的运动形态及规律.就要知晓有哪些因素可能招致国际市场价格的变化.在这里.概括性地论述几种常见的因素,以便供大家参考与探讨.     

The moral legitimacy of intellectual property claims: American business and developing country perspectives

Private property forms the bedrock of the business/society relationship in a market economy. In one way or another most societies limitwhat people can claim as property as well as theextent of claims they can make regarding it. In the international arena today intellectual property rights are a focal point of debate. Many developing countries do not recognize the monopoly claims of patents and copyrights asserted by business as legitimate. This paper reviews contemporary areas of dispute and then presents the tasks facing the construction of a fair intellectual property rights regime.Paul Steidlmeier is Associate Professor of business policy at the State University of New York in Binghamton. He is the author of a number of articles on business and society and of a recent book,People and Profits: The Ethics of Capitalism (Prentice Hall).     

A glimpse of the complexity of factors that influence financial literacy

Financial literacy has been recognised as a vital life skill, but there is little evidence of the factors behind the differences in managing personal finance. Socio‐economic factors and the provision of financial education do explain the variance in financial literacy in some countries, but not in all. In the PISA 2012 financial literacy test, Estonian students ranked very highly in international comparison; although only a few had received financial education at school. Compared with other countries, socio‐economic factors explained the smallest proportion of variance in the test score. There was, however, a significant difference between the mean financial literacy scores of Estonian‐ and Russian‐language communities. The aim of the article is to analyse the factors behind the differences in financial literacy when financial education is not provided. It also offers insight into how students in a similar education system in two different cultural and language frameworks achieve different financial literacy scores. Moreover, the results demonstrate how indicators, such as family background can work through different channels as opposed to the usual parental education or occupation based socio‐economic indicators. The latter implies that unexplained factors remain, such as cultural, developmental and societal indicators, which most researchers pay little attention to when explaining efficient policies for improving financial literacy. Multivariate regression models show that the level of financial literacy in Estonia is correlated with gender, language of the school, the number of books at home, mathematics and reading scores. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition explains less than half of the gap between the two communities. The only variable significantly explaining the gap is the number of books at home. Books can be interpreted as a symbol of social status, evidence of cultural background or source of influence for broader picture and better problem solving skills.     

An exploration of the factors that influence employee participation in Europe

The goal of this study was to identify the determinants of direct employee participation in organizations across Europe. Some factors were predicted to be related to levels of participation in general, namely, competition, sector, the pursuit of a differentiation strategy based on either quality or service, and indirect participation. Two additional factors were expected to be differentially related to two forms of direct participation: consultation and delegation. These factors were organizational size and the pursuit of a cost leadership business strategy. The hypothesized relationships were contrasted using data from the EPOC survey, a representative survey of over 5,700 organizations located in 10 European Union countries. The results supported 11 of the 14 predicted relationships.     

影响企业财务管理目标的内外因素

要实现企业的财务管理目标,首先必须考虑影响企业财务管理目标的各种因素,企业的财务管理目标不仅要受到企业本身管理决策的各种因素的影响,同时还要受到企业外部环境因素的影响.     

影响企业财务管理目标的内外因素

要实现企业的财务管理目标,首先必须考虑影响企业财务管理目标的各种因素,企业的财务管理目标不仅要受到企业本身管理决策的各种因素的影响,同时还要受到企业外部环境因素的影响.     

Gender and ethnic differences in factors that influence food intake

Abstract The objective of this research was to ascertain the gender-and ethnic-related factors that influence what one eats. This survey was conducted using a validated, pilot-tested questionnaire in 11 states and the District of Columbia, which were participating in the W-182 Western Regional Research project. The results indicated that the factors that influence what one eats differ by gender and ethnicity. Men were very much influenced by likes and dislikes, and by their spouse or significant other. Women were influenced by likes and dislikes, and health. Food likes/dislikes and concerns about health and weight were among the leading four factors for all ethnic groups. Food likes/dislikes were the top factor influencing what is eaten by 51% or more of Asians, Pacific Islanders, Caucasians and Hispanics. Concern about health was the top factor for 62% and 58%, respectively, of African Americans and Native Americans.     

Identifying the factors that influence eWOM in SNSs: the case of Chile

ABSTRACT

The factors that influence electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites (SNSs) in Latin American countries still need to be understood. This paper looks at factors included by prior research, as well as two new factors that have the power to influence eWOM in SNSs in the region. The study is conducted in Chile, a country which already has high Internet and SNSs penetration rates and Hofstede's scores close to the average for Latin America. The results show that tie strength, normative influence, informational influence, self-presentation, and voluntary self-disclosure are all positively directly associated with eWOM in SNSs. The results also show that homophily exerts a positive indirect influence on eWOM through the mediators of tie strength, normative influence, informational influence, and self-presentation. Additionally, the results show that trust exerts a positive indirect influence on eWOM through the mediators of tie strength, normative influence, and voluntary self-disclosure.     

The link between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty: Empirical evidence from the Islamic banking industry

Increased support from customers for Islamic financial services is very important to create resilience and competitiveness in the Islamic banking industry. By highlighting certain social activities, this paper estimates the role of Islamic banks’ CSR in influencing customer loyalty, both individually and through the integrated roles of image, trust, satisfaction, and reputation. These paths explore how CSR makes customers impressed, convinced, satisfied, amazed, and ultimately loyal to Islamic banks. The empirical analysis of partial least square structural equation modeling (n = 283) has shown that CSR directly and positively impacts loyalty. Indirectly, these two aspects have an insignificant relationship through the serial roles of image-reputation and satisfaction-reputation, but significant through the single role of reputation and the serial role of trust-reputation. This study has resulted in an updated prediction model of Islamic banking customer loyalty. The practical implication lies in the importance of developing CSR to generate trust and reputation which ultimately increase customer loyalty toward Islamic banks.     

An empirical analysis of factors that influence retail website visit types

Consumers may have a variety of reasons for using a retail brand's website, including browsing, purchasing, or browsing followed by purchasing. In this study we examine visits to three different retail websites to develop a typology of website visit behaviors and reveal factors that are associated with each visit type. We find four visit types that are consistent across all brands, which we label “touching base,” “search/deliberation,” “goal-directed,” and online shopping “cart-only” visits. One of the brands has an additional visit type we term “considered visits.” The type of visit a consumer makes is influenced by a combination of marketing channels, and their visit and purchase history with the brand. For example, shoppers that are directed to a retailer's website by clicking on a search engine link (paid or organic) are more likely to make visits that are associated with a purchase goal, while visits generated by an email are more likely to be just touching base. These findings provide marketers with a more refined understanding of the different ways consumers use their websites, and the factors associated with these visit behaviors.     

试论电子商务对社会经济的影响

电子商务对社会经济产生巨大影响表现是:在知识经济的发展过程中起着关键的促进作用;对全球经济一体化的形成产生巨大影响;促进世界经济的发展;加快世界经济结构的调整和重组;催化许多新行业的产生;改变商务活动和企业的经营运作方式;形成全新的金融业。     

The microstructures of rhetorical strategy in social entrepreneurship: Building legitimacy through heroes and villains

For social entrepreneurs who seek to change existing community practices, the difficulties in building legitimacy may pose a challenge that compromises their ability to create sustainable institutional change. Case studies of 10 social enterprises reveal that rhetorical strategy aims to overcome this barrier. The findings suggest that the rhetorical strategy used by these enterprises casts the organization as protagonist and those that challenge the change as antagonists. The microstructures underlying this strategy include vocabulary sets that invoke socially accepted meta-narratives, and rhetorical devices that heighten the positive of the protagonist meta-narratives and the negative of the antagonist meta-narratives. The rhetorical strategy weaves together these protagonist and antagonist themes to create tension and persuade the audience of the organization's legitimacy.     

Triple bottom-line reporting as social grammar: integrating corporate social responsibility and corporate codes of conduct

This paper argues that many objections against, and limitations of, corporate codes of conduct can be addressed if a meaningful integration can be established between CSR and ethics management practices within corporations. It is proposed that the notion of the triple bottom-line finally presents corporations with a mechanism to establish this integration. The paper draws on the second South African King Report on Corporate Governance, which succeeded in integrating corporate governance, ethics management and triple bottom-line reporting by advocating what it called 'Integrated Sustainability'. The paper argues that this is an example of how ethics management initiatives like code development become more meaningful, if they can be related to the corporation's CSR initiatives and reporting practices. Integration between ethics management and CSR in the context of triple bottom-line reporting reframes corporate success in a way that makes both ethics management and CSR activities more meaningful. In fact, it is argued that in the absence of a social grammar that establishes this integration, neither codes nor CSR can foster meaningful organizational integrity.     

C2C电子商务平台下消费者购买行为的影响因素分析

在互联网强大的通讯能力下,利用专业网站提供的大型电子商务平台,进行商品销售的C2C交易模式正在迅猛发展。然而,在庞大的互联网用户中真正发生在线购买行为的消费者数目却相对较少。为此,本文以C2C交易平台为研究背景,试图通过文献搜集、问卷调查与分析,提出若干个影响消费者在线购买行为的关键因素,分析并解释C2C交易平台下消费者购买行为的影响因子及影响程度,为C2C交易平台经营者提供参考。     

The hunt for international legitimacy: Examining the relationship between internationalization,state ownership,location and CSR reporting of Russian firms

This paper explores the relationship between internationalization and corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in Russian firms. Our baseline argument is that internationalization positively affects CSR reporting, as it is expected to enhance the legitimacy of Russian firms abroad. We examine the role of state ownership, and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) vs. non-CIS location, as two boundary conditions on the relationship between internationalization and CSR reporting. We test our hypotheses on panel data of 223 large Russian firms for the period 2012–2017, collected from company annual reports, databases, and official company websites. Our data include financial and non-financial indicators, and firm-level organizational characteristics. The results reveal the context specificity of CSR reporting. We find that state ownership moderates the relationship between internationalization and CSR reporting in CIS and non-CIS markets differently, and the positive effect is stronger for non-CIS locations. Our study goes beyond the traditional approach, treating CSR reporting as a unidimensional construct. We show that the effect of internationalization, both direct and moderated, differs for the different types of CSR activity.     

In search of the right fusion recipe: the role of legitimacy in building a social enterprise model

Social enterprises, as typical hybrid organisations, are embedded in a plural institutional environment in which some stakeholders regard achieving social goals as fundamental, while others see economic profit as the priority. A great challenge for social enterprises is dealing with the conflicts resulting from the diverse expectations of stakeholders. Based on the existing works on organisational legitimacy and the social business model, we propose a legitimacy‐based social enterprise model composed of three main phases, namely, legitimacy proposition, legitimacy strategy planning, and legitimacy strategy implementation. Our model is meant to serve as an effective legitimacy‐building tool for social enterprises of various kinds.