A Study of Codes of Ethics for Mexican Microfinance Institutions

Most scholarly interest in codes of ethics or conduct has focused on traditional companies. Little is known about the codes of social enterprises or hybrid organizations such as microfinance institutions (MFIs). Our paper provides a comparative case study of the codes of a Mexican microfinance network and seven MFIs. Using the corporate integrity model, we analyze the content of MFIs’ codes compared to those of traditional organizations. We then examine to what extent some specific features of MFIs such as their mission, target group, and applied credit methodologies, are factors that determine the content of their code. We find that MFIs’ codes, like those of traditional companies, include traditional stakeholder principles. Nevertheless, they put greater emphasis on ‘socially-oriented’ principles or on terms such as ‘people’ and ‘common good’. MFIs’ codes differ with respect to the items they include and exclude and the size of the covered sections. We also find that these codes attempt to address prevailing concerns in microfinance but rarely tackle two critical debates, namely levels of interest rates and of profitability. We finally argue that it is difficult to move toward a global code, owing to regional disparities and the variety of organizational models and missions.     

印度小额信贷的发展及启示

印度小额信贷的发展主要是以自助团体为基础的联系银行计划(LBP)所推动。小额信贷联系银行计划(LBP)的运作关键在于组建自助团体,建立自助团体与银行的联系。经过十多年的发展,印度拥有了发展中国家最大和成长最快的小额信贷项目。中国与印度都是发展中的人口大国,剖析印度小额信贷的经验可以为我国小额信贷的发展提供重要启示。     

Putting Responsible Finance to Work for Citi Microfinance

This paper develops an ethical framework for responsible finance and then applies it to Citigroup (Citi), a major financial actor in the microfinance sector, to see whether it meets with such obligations. The framework consists of two categories of responsibility. The first category is the special social responsibility of financial institutions; and the second is the fundamental principles of ethical behavior in financial services. From Citigroup’s microfinance model, scope of business, and multiple roles in the market, the company seems to be fulfilling its responsibility in inclusive finance. However, judged in term of the principles of integrity, objectivity, fairness, professionalism, and diligence, it falls short of its ethical responsibility. In view of this shortcoming, Citigroup should recall its obligation to avoid conflicts of interest, to provide responsible advice, to protect clients from over-indebtedness, and most importantly, to act with integrity.     

小额信贷机构目标偏离影响因素实证研究——基于固定效应模型的检验与比较

小额信贷一直被联合国、世界银行等国际组织看作减缓贫困的有效工具.然而,以服务低收入人群、小微企业为宗旨的小额信贷机构近年来却出现了“嫌贫爱富”、“垒大户”等目标偏离问题,这对国际小额信贷的可持续发展形成了严峻的挑战,找到小额信贷机构目标偏离的影响因素无疑是应对这一挑战的重要举措.为此,基于中外488家小额信贷机构的面板数据,本文建立固定效应模型进行了实证检验和比较分析,发现机构类型、风险水平以及经营年限是导致目标偏离的主要因素,其中,机构类型和风险水平对中国小额信贷机构目标偏离影响显著.最后,本文指出了上述结论对治理我国小额信贷机构目标偏离问题的政策启示.     

The Uptake of Sustainability Reporting in Australia

In this paper, we identify and discuss how sustainability reporting has spread throughout the Australian business community over the past twenty years or so. We identified all Australian business organisations that have produced a sustainability report since 1995, and we undertook an interview survey with managers of reporting companies. By incorporating a wide range and large number of reporting companies, we offer insights beyond those obtained from traditional report content analysis and from close analyses of singular case-study organisations. We reveal that sustainability reporting has deepened in a few high-impact industries, and it has spread to a small number of firms in a wide range of low-impact industries. We tested whether there were any relationships between the drivers of reporting and the experiences of different types of reporting firms. Many of the relationships we observed were not as clear or as consistent as expected. Sustainability reporting is, however, of strategic importance to reporting companies. Given the small number of reporters in Australia, we raise the possibility of strategic differentiation as a key driver of reporting behaviour and suggest further studies to explore institutional fields that may be shaping sustainability reporting practice.     

事业单位财务管理的新思路

在经济改革的不断深化和社会主义市场经济建立的过程中,事业单位的内外环境发生了根本变化,特别是原有资产、技术和人力的作用方面已不同于过去,因此,事业单位的财务管理也应适应更广泛的市场经济需要,本文将具体探讨如何创新事业单位财务管理的思路.     

The Promotion of Renewable Energies and Sustainability

The Renewable Energies Act (Erneuerbare–Energien–Gesetz – EEG) is the German governments main instrument for implementing the energy objectives of its sustainability strategy. Is the EEG really an adequate instrument for this purpose? Does it consider both effectiveness and efficiency? Are the different aspects of sustainability evenly addressed? What possible alternatives are there regarding changes towards other promotional systems or shifting from a national to a European framework?

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Verena Leïla Holzer, Research Assistant, Department of Economic Policy, University of Potsdam, Germany.     

Eco-Enterprise Strategy: Standing for Sustainability

Enterprise strategy provides an accepted theoretical framework for integrating the moral responsibilities of organizations into their strategy formulation and implementation processes. We argue that, when extended to the ecological level of analysis, enterprise strategy provides a sound theoretical framework for ethically and strategically accounting for the ultimate stakeholder, planet Earth. Within the framework of enterprise strategy, a value system based on sustainability can provide a sound ethical basis for developing ecologically sensitive strategic management systems which allow organizations to satisfy the demands of the myriad green stakeholders that represent the planet in the immediate business arena. This provides a new "flavor" of enterprise strategy in which organizations "stand for sustainability." We call this new flavor "eco-enterprise strategy."     

Preparing Students to Work for Sustainability

Preparing students to contribute to the development of a sustainable economy is proposed as the fundamental goal of business- environment courses. This requires attention to the principles of sustainable development, organizational responsibility, and personal responsibility. Development of associated knowledge, attitudes and skills will enable students to contribute to sustainable development by successfully engaging in environmental problem recognition and problem analysis, developing proposals for improving organizations' environmental performance, and participating in efforts to implement such proposals. Specific concepts consistent with these goals are identified, involving students in projects in which they attempt to affect the environmental performance of an organization, and one such assignment is described.     

Before Microfinance: The Social Value of Microsavings in Vincentian Poverty Reduction

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss the values and limits of microfinance within the context of poverty reduction, international development, and community empowerment. The main thesis is that microfinance requires a more complex strategy than simply the provision of credits. The development of financial capital depends on the increase in human capacity and social capital. Microfinance is revisited under the ethical lenses of global responsibility for alleviating poverty and developing community sustainability. Through a critical review of the literature and case studies from the Philippines, the author suggests a value-based Vincentian approach to integrate microfinance into community empowerment. In connection with the main thesis the author argues that the achievement of economic self-reliance through microfinance is contingent upon the development of capacity building, social capital, and empowerment at the individual, collective, and systemic levels.     

小额贷款公司的绩效问题研究述评

对小额贷款公司绩效问题的研究,主要包括经济绩效、社会绩效、制度绩效等。关于小额贷款公司经济绩效问题的研究,主要集中在小额贷款公司的经济绩效水平、经济绩效影响因素等问题上。对小额贷款公司社会绩效问题的研究,主要集中在小额贷款公司的社会绩效评估体系构建、社会绩效水平及社会绩效影响因素等问题上。对小额贷款制度绩效问题的研究,主要有两种相反的看法。关于小额贷款公司经济绩效问题的研究,成果较为丰富,而关于小额贷款公司的社会绩效、制度绩效的研究,则相对较为薄弱。     

《价值发现之旅2010—中国企业可持续发展报告研究》发布

综合报告成全球领先企业信息披露新趋势2011年7月25日,《价值发现之旅2010——中国企业可持续发展报告研究》在北京发布。这是企业社会责任咨询机构商道纵横连续第四年发布中国可持续发展报告研究。     

The Role of Institutional Uncertainty for Social Sustainability of Companies and Supply Chains

Global sourcing largely occurs from so-called emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). In these contexts, substantial leverage effects for sustainability in supply chains (SCs) can be expected by reducing adverse impacts on society and minimising related risks. For this ethical end, an adequate understanding of the respective sourcing contexts is fundamental. This case study of South Africa’s (SA) mining sector uses institutional theory and the notion of institutional uncertainty to empirically analyse the challenges associated with establishing social sustainability. The case study research is informed by 39 semi-structured interviews with top management representatives and various state and non-state decision makers in SA. Our findings suggest that (social) sustainability in the institutional field is mainly shaped by the Social and Labour Plan institution, induced by state actors and mining companies’ practices. However, four weakening factors were identified that adversely affect this regulative institution, drive institutional uncertainty and allow for mining companies’ gradual decoupling. Contrastingly, complementing pressures of non-state actors limit institutional uncertainty and push toward mainstreaming the stipulations of the institution. This study contributes to the business ethics literature by providing an in-depth exploration of institutional uncertainty’s drivers and barriers within an upstream SC setting and shedding light on multiple actors’ interplay and relevance in sector-wide sustainability. The findings are condensed into three main propositions as well as an analytical framework as a basis for follow-up research. This case study helps practitioners understand and manage complexity that results from actor plurality and institutional uncertainty in EMDEs.

     

The Stakeholder Approach: A Sustainability Perspective

This article considers the stakeholder approach (SHA) to organisational management through the lens of what it means for humans to live sustainably on the Earth (that is, for there to be a sustainable world). In particular, the article considers if the SHA, as it is presented in mainstream academic and management literature, is supportive of corporate practices that advance the achievement of a sustainable world. The analysis shows the SHA to have significant failings in this regard when viewed against key sustainable world criteria, with issues of concern evident from the normative core of the SHA through to is practical application in the management setting.     

The Economics of Fiscal Rules and Debt Sustainability

Intereconomics - Because they exert cross-border spillover effects, fiscal policies of individual EU member states are a common concern for the entire EU.     

The Sustainability of Social Capital within Ethnic Networks

This paper examines informal networks that support the British Asianbusiness community. Ethnic communities have been crucial to facilitatingthe economic development of their migrant members, as they make thetransition from economic refugees to citizens. The basis of thisinformal support is the notion of social capital offered to kinsmen whoarrived with finite resources. However, as successive generations havebecome more integrated with the wider community reliance on theseresources is forecast to decrease. Research has shown that subsequentAsian generations are developing complex relations in their attitudesand reliance towards their ethnic community (Janjuha-Jivraj and Woods,2002) it is still an area that is very active in providing crucialinformal business support. There is however, a distinct difference inattitudes between first and second generations in terms of acceptingbusiness support from the ethnic community. This issue is furthercompounded by difficulties among external support agencies inpenetrating ethnic businesses. This leads to the following questions: ? What forms of social capital are evident and how important are they in sustaining relationships within the religious-ethnic community? ? How crucial is the ethnic community in providing an infrastructure to offer support. This paper is based on a network of businesses that are members of a sub-group across Greater London. It is anticipated that the findings will help to unravel the impact of migratory bonds on community members. This in turn will provide useful information for service providers when considering how to successfully target ethnic businesses.     

可持续发展报告:可持续发展的催化剂

可持续发展报告,是指一个组织向公众披露它的经济、环境和社会业绩,正在迅速成为世界上的领袖企业和组织的标准实践,它有利于企业和组织提高内部管理和改善外部关系。全球报告倡议组织(GRI)可持续发展报告指南越     

浅谈事业单位的财务预算

财务预算贯穿于事业单位经济活动的全过程,它是事业单位开展各项工作的前提和费用支付的依据建立合理、有效的预算管理模式,实现内部资源的全面整合,有效地考评业绩,最终控制事业单位的经济活动,才能促进事业的健康发展,事业单位的性质决定了其财务管理既要满足公共财政的要求,又要适应市场变化的需求.事业单位财务预算管理,必须要有创新,要同先进的管理模式相结合;必须树立和落实科学发展现,以科学发展观的理念,创新财务管理工作.下面结合工作实践就如何做好事业单位财务预算管理谈几点看法.