Corporate Social and Financial Performance: An Extended Stakeholder Theory,and Empirical Test with Accounting Measures

Although agreement on the positive sign of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance is observed in the literature, the mechanisms that constitute this relationship are not yet well-known. We address this issue by extending management’s stakeholder theory by adding insights from psychology’s prospect decision theory and sociology’s resource dependence theory. Empirically, we analyze an extensive panel dataset, including information on disaggregated measures of social performance for the S&P 500 in the 1997–2002 period. In so doing, we enrich the extant literature by focusing on stakeholder heterogeneity, perceptional framing, and disaggregated measures of corporate social performance.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Change in Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: A Stakeholder Theory Perspective

Stakeholder theory provides a framework for investigating the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance. This relationship is investigated by examining how change in CSP is related to change in financial accounting measures. The findings provide some support for a tenet in stakeholder theory which asserts that the dominant stakeholder group, shareholders, financially benefit when management meets the demands of multiple stakeholders. Specifically, change in CSP was positively associated with growth in sales for the current and subsequent year. This indicates that there are short-term benefits from improving CSP. Return on sales was significantly positively related to change in CSP for the third financial period, indicating that long-term financial benefits may exist when CSP is improved.     

企业间关系质量：渠道影响策略的权变模型

文章基于渠道行为与嵌入理论,探讨了营销渠道中的经济型影响策略（组织间强制性影响策略和非强制性影响策略）与社会型影响策略（组织间人际影响策略）对企业间关系质量的影响。通过对152家制造商的调查数据分析发现：企业在治理渠道关系时,使用组织间强制性影响策略会降低它与合作伙伴之间的关系质量;使用组织间非强制性影响策略对它与合作伙伴之间关系质量的影响不显著;使用组织间人际影响策略则有助于提高它与合作伙伴之间的关系质量。此外,组织间人际影响策略还会减弱组织间强制性影响策略对企业间关系质量的负面影响。     

Moral Choice and the Concept of Motivational Typologies: An Extended Stakeholder Perspective in a Western Context

Accountants and auditors are often faced with ethical dilemmas, which they have to process using resources available to them. Although they may be sensitive to the ethicality of the issues and have the cognitive ability to work through a judgment process, the final action they take may be dependent on a number of motivational factors, endogenous to the issue. Agency issues are a continuing area of concern providing accountants with an ability to shirk their responsibilities and hide confidential information, which may affect their career prospects if disclosed. This ongoing study explores these notions within a stakeholder context and uses a post test only field experiment to gain evidence to support the existence of an agency problem and that membership to one of a number of motivational typologies directly affects the way accountants respond to ethical issues. This association causes them to adopt informational heuristics that may result in less than optimal decisions. This study identified two specific endogenous constructs, namely social consensus and venal intent that discriminate between motivational types and which possibly provide psychological underpinnings explaining membership orientation. Gordon Woodbine PhD, FCPA, is a senior lecturer with the School of Accounting, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia involved primarily with research and supervision activities. He has taught in universities in the People’s Republic of China and Papua New Guinea and has been published in a number of local and overseas refereed journals. He is interested in behavioural ethics, auditing, governance issues and ethics in education.     

Why Stakeholder And Stockholder Theories Are Not Necessarily Contradictory: A Knightian Insight

The normative foundations of the investor centered model of corporate governance, represented in mainstream economics by the nexus-of-contracts view of the firm, have come under attack, mainly by proponents of normative stakeholder theory. We argue that the nexusof- contracts view is static and limited due to its assumption of price-output certainty. We attempt a synthesis of the nexus-of-contracts and the Knightian views, which provides novel insights into the normative adequacy of the investor-centered firm. Implications for scholarship and management practice follow from our discussion. S. Ramakrishna (Rama) Velamuri is Assistant Professor at IESE Business School, where he teaches Entrepreneurship and Negotiation in the MBA and executive education programs. He is also a visiting professor at the Indian School of Business in India, the University of Saarland in Germany, and the University of Piura in Peru. His research has been published in both academic and practitioner outlets: Journal of Business Venturing, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance and Business Ventures (forthcoming), Universia Business Review, Financial Times Mastering Management Series, The Hindu, Business Line, Actualidad Economica, La Vanguardia, and Diario Financiero (Chile). He has also contributed several book chapter on enterpreneurship and strategy. He received a B.Com. degree from the University of Madras, an MBA from IESE Business School, and a Ph.D. from the Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia. Sankaran Venkataraman (Venkat) is the MasterCard Professor of Business Administration at the Darden Graduate School of Business Adminstration, University of Virginia, where he teaches MBA and executive level courses in strategy and entrepreneurship. He also serves as the Director of Research of the Batten Institute and is the Editor of the Journal of Business Venturing. He consults with Fortune 500 firms as well as several small companies. He is advisor to firms, universities and government organizations. He is a speaker for and advisor to the Entrepreneurial Forum, a program of the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce aimed at promoting trade through entrepreneurship around the world. He received his M.A. in Economics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India; his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta); and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.     

制造商权力策略对经销商情感承诺的影响研究

权力使用是影响关系承诺的因素之一,但涉及权力使用与情感承诺间关系的研究很少。本文探讨了制造商权力使用与经销商情感承诺间的关系。通过问卷调查,利用因子分析及多元线性回归分析验证了概念模型及假设。研究结果表明,制造商威胁与信息交换策略的使用会降低经销商的情感承诺,制造商建议策略的使用会增加经销商的情感承诺。     

Selective Engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Stakeholder Perspective

This paper attempts to understand selective engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR involves various issues that can meet demands from multiple stakeholders. A firm can focus on certain CSR issues to satisfy a particular stakeholder while ignoring the demands from other stakeholders, or it can take a more balanced approach to CSR by addressing a wider range of social issues. In this paper, I investigate how stakeholder pressures from three types of primary stakeholders (customer, supplier, and employee) shape selective engagement in CSR. The empirical results based on a representative sample of more than 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the early 2000s suggest that firms prioritize their stakeholders based on instrumental considerations. Those stakeholders who have greater power over the focal firm will exert a larger impact on a firm’s CSR engagement. Constrained by limited managerial resources, firms accord attention to a limited range of issues most relevant to salient stakeholders. Specifically, MNCs as major customers pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for product quality, as well as on a wider range of social issues; SOEs as both major customers and major suppliers pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for employee welfare; employees with higher education pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for employee welfare, and for a wider range of social issues. This study contributes to stakeholder theory and research on the CSR of SMEs, and has important implications for CSR practitioners.     

Influence Attempts in the Consumption Domain: Examining the Concept of a Persuade Package and the Sequencing of Influence Strategies used by Young Adults

This research examines the concept of a persuade package and the sequencing of communication strategies designed to exert influence in the consumption domain. Specific research questions examine the sequencing of influence strategies in consumption related influence attempts and the effect that sequencing has on the perceived likelihood of compliance. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used across two studies and results indicate that preferences exist for the specific types of influence strategies used by individuals and the order in which they are sequenced during consumption related influence attempts. Perceived likelihood of compliance is also affected to a certain extent based on how influence strategies are sequenced.     

Theoretical Perspectives on Corporate Social and Environmental Disclosure: Evidence From China

Using a data set of top 56 corporate social and environmental reporting (CSER) disclosing firms with 112 observations on the H-share and Red-chip lists of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, results suggest that charitable donations, firm size, and the Songhua River incident response are positively related to the CSER disclosure, whereas debt–equity ratio, profit margin, and firm age revealed counterdirectional relationships. Other variables including media attention and market risk were found to have no impact. Findings imply that the Chinese government and its agencies need to prescribe CSER guidelines and make them mandatory for listed firms.     

再论我国国际贸易学阐述体系的若干缺失——一个简明的实例分析

从本文所选的60个样本来看,我国国际贸易学阐述体系存在着如下的明显缺失:(1)国际贸易政策阐述不当的问题相当严重;(2)不能弘扬正确经济理念的现象比较广泛;(3)国际贸易理论梳理依然存在一些共同不足;(4)国际贸易环境分析还有待进一步深化;(5)经济实践所急需的知识增补相当薄弱。因此,现在是认真变革我国国际贸易学阐述体系的时候了。     

热点难点问题分析与高校思想政治理论课教学对策

高校思想政治理论课教学过程中存在着一些热点难点问题,可大致分为三类：教材热点难点问题、社会热点难点问题和大学生关注的热点难点问题。通过对这三类热点难点问题进行梳理、分析,总结出其特征,根据其在教学中的不同地位和作用,探讨相应的教学对策。     

Information Technology Professionals’ Perceived Organizational Values and Managerial Ethics: An Empirical Study

This paper summarizes the results of an analysis of empirical data on ethical attitudes of professionals and managers in relation to organizational core values in the Information Technology (IT) industry. This study investigates the association between key organizational values as independent variables and the ethical attitudes of IT managers as dependent variables. The study also delves into differences among IT non-managerial professionals, mid-level managers, and upper-level managers in their ethical attitudes and perceptions. Research results indicated that IT professionals from mechanistic organizations were much more likely to report – compared to those from organic organizations – that managers in their corporate environment engage in behaviors considered unethical and that successful managers were more unethical relative to unsuccessful managers. There were significant differences between the upper-level managers and the mid-level managers and between the mid-level managers and the IT non-managerial professionals on certain key ethical issues. This paper discusses the conceptual framework, hypotheses, research methodology, data analysis, implications of the findings, and suggested areas of further research. K. Gregory Jin, D.B.A, is Professor of the MIS Department, Ancell School of Business, Western, Connecticut State University. He has published numerous conference papers, chapters, and articles in such areas as MIS professional ideology and ethics, communication and control, behavioral issues in information systems development, role of IT and human factors in business process reengineering, service learning in database design, systems theory, MIS participant action research strategy, and political factors in IT management. He has more than twenty years of MIS administrative and professional experiences. He holds a D.B.A. in Information Technology Management from George Washington University. He is a member of the Association of Information Technology Professionals and a former member of DSI. Ronald G. Drozdenko, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Marketing Department, Ancell School of Business, Western Connecticut State University. He is also the founding Director of the Center for Business Research at the Ancell School. Dr. Drozdenko has co-directed more than 100 proprietary research projects since 1978 for the marketing and research and development departments of several corporations, including major multinationals. These projects were in the areas of strategic planning, marketing research, product development, direct marketing, and marketing database analysis. Dr. Drozdenko co-authored Optimal Database Marketing: Strategy, Development and Data Mining and also has published professional and academic articles and book chapters. He holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Missouri and is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Society for Consumer Psychology, and the Academy of Marketing Sciences. Richard A. Bassett, D.P.S, is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at Western Connecticut State University. He was founder and CEO of Bassett Computer Systems, Inc. for 17 years where he was involved with the design and implementation of information systems for hundreds for small and midsized businesses. He has authored several papers and articles in such areas as web-design as a web-master, web-based course design, the security threats and concerns faced by telecommuters, minimal steps required to secure a Local Area Network and the technology decision challenges which growing companies face. He is actively involved with technology endeavors of numerous nonprofit organizations including: The Children’s Center, Bridges of Milford, North Haven Rotary, Communicare, and the Amber Alert System. He holds a D.P.S. in Computing from Pace University.     

A dynamic stakeholder model: An Other‐oriented ethical approach

In this paper, we reflect on the role of the Other in ethical decision‐making in corporations. The Other, in the form of a corporation's stakeholders, has already been discussed in the scientific literature, but there are still some Others that remain unconsidered and that call on corporations to be responsible. Drawing on the philosophy of Levinas, we wish to highlight a green earth and future generations as two non‐immediate Others within a corporation's group of stakeholders whose voices are silenced. We argue that Levinasian ethics can be used as a framework to extend traditional stakeholder theory in a dynamic sphere. With this model, corporations can understand the vital role that both a green earth and future generations play in their existence and can respond to contingencies by considering delays. We enrich our paper with illustrative cases to present some serious environmental disasters that have occurred as a result of ignoring the Other. Finally, we show that understanding the Other as a part of a corporation's identity can create new avenues for “infinite responsibility” towards Others. We contribute to the relevant literature by highlighting that both a green earth and future generations are important but ignored stakeholder parties whose claims urgently need to be addressed.     

Do Firms Spend More on Suppliers That Have Environmental Expertise? An Empirical Study of U.S. Manufacturers’ Procurement Spend

Stakeholders expect focal firms to improve their environmental performance. While firms may be able to accumulate the environmental expertise needed to achieve this goal internally, doing so may require significant time and resource commitments. Alternatively, buyer firms can leverage their suppliers’ existing environmental expertise and gain access to such expertise when they purchase products and services from these suppliers. The purpose of this study was to develop and test theory regarding under what conditions suppliers’ environmental expertise influences a buying firms’ procurement spend with these suppliers. We ground our study in transaction cost economics and agency theories and empirically test our hypotheses using a unique buyer–supplier dyadic data set. We find that buyer firms are willing to increase their overall business spend with suppliers that have strong environmental expertise, particularly when the buyer firms are more profitable and have higher levels of absorptive capacity. However, we find the opposite effect when the buyer firm’s executive compensation is linked to the firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Likewise, we also find that the buyer firm’s environmental concern ratings negatively moderate the relationship between the supplier’s environmental expertise and the buyer’s procurement spend with the supplier.     

Online Purchase Intentions: An Empirical Testing of a Multiple-Theory Model

Manufacturing is a complex application domain, traditionally a realm of engineers and factory workers. As we are in the information age, the manufacturing domain has become more dependent on information through the use of computers and computer‐controlled machines. In the arena of advanced manufacturing, a number of concepts such as the “virtual corporation”; and “virtual factory”; have emerged, requiring that manufacturing be highly information‐intensive and knowledge‐based.

This article examines the role of the information infrastructure and explores the use of intelligent agents in its implementation for advanced manufacturing enterprises. The information infrastructure forms a complex hierarchy of distributed, heterogeneous information systems. Intelligent agents play various roles at different levels of the hierarchy to provide interoperability, reliability, programma‐bility, and controllability.     

Mobile technologies for police tasks: An Australian study

Mobile technologies are increasingly adopted by information intensive organizations such as public police corporations to support the tasks of its employees, for information management and innovation. However, because police organizations are government organizations, technology decisions are largely made by managers and politicians with budget being a key factor. Therefore, whether the technologies adopted are suitable for police tasks, and if they enhance performance, is generally not assessed. The aim of this research is to establish if mobile technologies support police tasks, and if Tablet PCs especially are suitable for specialist police tasks of the Criminal Investigators and Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Units. Guided by an interpretive paradigm and the theory of task technology fit, this research explores the use of Tablet PCs by the two police units for improved performance. Because information is critical for police tasks, data collected via focus groups establishes the impact of these technologies on case investigations, information management, and the performance of these units with the use of Tablet PCs. The contribution this study makes to mobile information systems is that if technology dimensions are suitable for information based tasks, the outcome is virtualization of processes through which improved performance is achieved due to reduced costs, transparency, teamwork, and quick and informed decisions. The findings of this research can be used by police organizations, as well as by other organizations, for effective implementation of mobile technologies.     

包容性增长:基于相对贫困视角下的探析

包容性增长致力于解决相对贫困的三个维度,即收入不平等、人的发展和人的脆弱性问题,与此相对应,包容性增长的内涵也可概括为可持续的与平等的增长、社会包容和赋予权能及安全。包容性增长在中国实现的三个关键因素是,坚持公有制的主体地位,不断完善市场机制,坚持以人为本。第一,坚持公有制的主体地位,实行初次分配改革,提高劳动报酬在初次分配中的比重;第二,完善社会主义市场经济体制,使国民待遇逐步趋同;第三,以人本发展观取代物本发展观,加强发展中对人的关注,提高人的发展水平,保障人的安全。     

中国对外直接投资与本国碳排放量关系研究 ——基于中国省级面板数据的实证分析

本文选用2003~2011年中国30个省市自治区(除西藏外)的省级面板数据,对我国对外直接投资与本国CO2排放量的关系进行了实证研究。结论显示:我国对外直接投资的增长会增加本国的碳排放量,但此种正效应存在明显的地区差异,即对外直接投资对我国中部地区的碳排放的增加效应明显高于西部,而在东部地区这种效应并不显著;与此同时,研发水平和受教育程度能显著降低我国的CO2排放量,而能源结构和环境治理方面的投资则会增加我国的碳排放量。