Sustainable Development and Corporate Performance: A Study Based on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming a mainstream issue for many organizations, most of the research to date addresses CSR in large businesses rather than in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), because it is too often considered a prerogative of large businesses only. The role of SMEs in an increasingly dynamic context is now being questioned, including what factors might affect their socially responsible behaviour. The goal of this paper is to make a comparison of SME and large firm CSR strategies. Furthermore, size of the firm is analyzed as a factor that influences specific choices in the CSR field, and studied by means of a sample of 3,680 Italian firms. Based on a multi-stakeholder framework, the analysis provides evidence that large firms are more likely to identify relevant stakeholders and meet their requirements through specific and formal CSR strategies.     

Corporate Governance and Sustainability Performance: Analysis of Triple Bottom Line Performance

Given the potential that environmentally oriented anti-consumption (EOA) has in achieving environmental sustainability, the authors draw upon marketing, management, environmental, and psychology studies to conceptualize and delimit EOA, differentiating it from other (related but distinct) phenomena. In addition, the authors review the available literature at the individual (micro) level and summarize research on the antecedents and meanings of broad and specific/strict EOA practices with different targets. Furthermore, the authors propose an agenda for future research, which reflects on EOA not only at the individual (micro) level, but also lays out new opportunities for EOA work at organizational (meso), industry, and national (macro) levels. The work presented here hopes to spark multilevel research on EOA, its antecedents and consequences, and reactions to EOA phenomena.     

湖北固定资产投资可持续性研究

本文从固定资产投资的总量增长、结构优化、效益提升和影响因素几个方面对湖北固定资产投资可持续性问题进行分析。研究结果显示：投资对湖北经济增长的贡献率不断提高,而湖北投资总量增速相对较慢,且缺乏稳定性;投资结构不尽合理,投资的资金来源渠道相对较少,过多地依赖国家预算内资金,投资资金的投向结构与全国整体情况严重趋同,缺乏个性和特色;投资宏观经济效益递减的速度相对高于全国平均水平;政府财政支出增长率是影响湖北固定资产投资的最重要的因素,其次是工业化和城市化水平、经济增长率,利率对投资的影响并不明显。     

Assessing the Economic Worth of Corporate Event Sponsorships: A Stock Market Perspective

Sponsorships of events represent a significant and growingcomponent of firms overall investment in marketing and promotions.While the marketing literature suggests that sponsorships maybe a potential communications tool, relatively little empiricalresearch has been devoted to studying efficiency issues in sponsorships.To understand if sponsorships are efficient investments, we assesstheir economic worth via the event study methodology. Specifically,we hypothesize that a corporate sponsorship announcement providesinformation to market analysts who evaluate the potential profitabilityof a firm. This evaluation of a companys potential profitability,in turn, affects the firms stock price. Announcements of 76sponsorship events were analyzed using the event-study method.Results indicate that on average, corporate sponsorship announcementsimpact the stock market positively and that sponsorships areviewed as worthwhile investments by the financial community.The findings of this study contribute to a better understandingof performance issues surrounding sponsorship investments, andextend recent literature which examines the financial impactof marketing decisions.     

Instability in the dividend policy of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) corporations: evidence from an emerging market

Dividend policy behaviour of corporations operating in emerging markets is significantly different from the widely accepted dividend policy behaviour of corporations operating in developed markets. This study provides evidence from the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE), an emerging European stock market, and analyses empirically whether the ISE corporations follow stable cash dividend policies in a regulatory environment that imposed mandatory dividend policies. Unlike the empirical results supporting the stable dividend policy behaviour of corporations operating in developed markets, the empirical results show that the ISE corporations follow unstable cash dividend policies and the main factor that determines the amount of cash dividends is the earnings of the corporation in that year.     

Legitimizing Negative Aspects in GRI-Oriented Sustainability Reporting: A Qualitative Analysis of Corporate Disclosure Strategies

Corporate sustainability reports are supposed to provide a complete and balanced picture of corporate sustainability performance. They are, however, usually voluntary and thus prone to interpretation and even greenwashing tendencies. To overcome this problem, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides standardized reporting guidelines challenging companies to report positive and negative aspects of an organization’s sustainability performance. However, the reporting of “negative aspects” in particular can endanger corporate legitimacy if perceived by the stakeholders as not being in line with societal norms and values. Starting from the theoretical lenses of economics-based disclosure theories and socio-political theories of disclosure, the focus of this study therefore was to analyze the communicative legitimation strategies companies use to report “negative aspects,” i.e., negative ecological and social impact caused by corporate activity. Using qualitative content analysis of GRI-oriented sustainability reports from companies listed on the US Dow Jones Industrial Average Index and on the German DAX Index, we identified six legitimation strategies. We discuss these strategies regarding to symbolic and substantial management of legitimacy. We show that symbolic legitimation strategies aiming at modifying the perception of legitimizing stakeholders dominate in the reports at hand. Such persuasion, however, does not meet the requirement of impartiality as postulated by the GRI guidelines. Building upon this conclusion we propose a concise characterization of “negative aspects” and develop a GRI-compliant schema of reporting about them. In doing so, we offer a way to improve the overall “balance” of sustainability reporting contributing to a true and fair view in sustainability disclosure.     

Global Standards and Ethical Stock Indexes: The Case of the Dow Jones Sustainability Stoxx Index

The increased scrutiny of investors regarding the non-financial aspects of corporate performance has placed portfolio managers in the position of having to weigh the benefits of ‘holding the market’ against the cost of having positions in companies that are subsequently found to have questionable business practices. The availability of stock indexes based on sustainability screening makes increasingly viable for institutional investors the transition to a portfolio based on a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) benchmark at relatively low cost. The increasing share of socially responsible investments may play a role in providing incentives towards a continuous upgrading of sustainability standards to the extent that their performance is not systematically inferior to that of the other funds. This article examines whether these incentives have been so far detectable with particular reference to the Dow Jones Sustainability Stoxx Index (DJSSI) that focuses on the European corporations with the highest CSR scores among those included in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index. The aim of the article is twofold. First, we analyse the performance of the DJSSI over the period 2001–2006 compared to that of the Surrogate Complementary Index (SCI), a new benchmark that includes only the components of the DJ Stoxx 600 that do not belong to the ethical index to evaluate more correctly the size of possible divergent performances. Second, we perform an event study on the same data set to analyse whether the stock market evaluation reacts to the inclusion (deletion) in the DJSSI. In both cases, the results suggest that the evaluation of the CSR performance of a firm is a significant criterion for asset allocation activities.     

Global Standards and Ethical Stock Indexes: The Case of the Dow Jones Sustainability Stoxx Index

The increased scrutiny of investors regarding the non-financial aspects of corporate performance has placed portfolio managers in the position of having to weigh the benefits of ‘holding the market’ against the cost of having positions in companies that are subsequently found to have questionable business practices. The availability of stock indexes based on sustainability screening makes increasingly viable for institutional investors the transition to a portfolio based on a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) benchmark at relatively low cost. The increasing share of socially responsible investments may play a role in providing incentives towards a continuous upgrading of sustainability standards to the extent that their performance is not systematically inferior to that of the other funds. This article examines whether these incentives have been so far detectable with particular reference to the Dow Jones Sustainability Stoxx Index (DJSSI) that focuses on the European corporations with the highest CSR scores among those included in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index. The aim of the article is twofold. First, we analyse the performance of the DJSSI over the period 2001–2006 compared to that of the Surrogate Complementary Index (SCI), a new benchmark that includes only the components of the DJ Stoxx 600 that do not belong to the ethical index to evaluate more correctly the size of possible divergent performances. Second, we perform an event study on the same data set to analyse whether the stock market evaluation reacts to the inclusion (deletion) in the DJSSI. In both cases, the results suggest that the evaluation of the CSR performance of a firm is a significant criterion for asset allocation activities.     

Market Reactions to Corporate Environmental Performance Related Events: A Meta-analytic Consolidation of the Empirical Evidence

Research on the relationship between corporate environmental performance (CEP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) has consistently grown and is gaining widespread attention. Given the vast body of CEP–CFP studies, recently scholars have begun to take stock of the cumulative results. However, no study so far has meta-analyzed the findings yielded by event studies assessing the stock market reactions to corporate environmental performance-related events (CEP-related events). This paper sets out to close this gap by synthesizing previous empirical results regarding the stock market impact of positive and negative CEP-related events. Results indicate a positive relationship across studies in terms of positive market reactions to positive events and negative reactions to negative events. Furthermore, the findings show that the market reactions are stronger for negative events than for positive events (i.e., asymmetry in the stock market reaction). Finally, this study examines whether methodological artifacts (i.e., differences in the study designs) may explain the differences in the findings of the analyzed event studies.     

A Multi-level Perspective for the Integration of Ethics,Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability (ECSRS) in Management Education

In recent years, much discussion has taken place regarding the social role of firms and their responsibilities to society. In this context, the role of universities is crucial, as it may shape management students’ attitudes and provide them with the necessary knowledge, skills and critical analysis to make decisions as consumers and future professionals. We emphasise that universities are multi-level learning environments, so there is a need to look beyond formal curricular content and pay more attention to implicit dimensions of the learning process in order to create significant learning. With this in mind, we propose an integrative and holistic approach to guide the integration of ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability in management education that aims to improve students’ knowledge and attitudes. In this model, we consider three interdependent levels of analysis–the institutional level, the curricular level and the instrumental level–which together produce a leverage effect on student learning. For each level, we identify the main issues and aspects that need to be considered, based on an extensive literature review in this field.     

我国股市作用消费的传导机制研究

基于拓宽消费领域和改善消费环境的需要,本文探讨我国股市作用消费的传导机制。研究表明,股市作用消费的传导机制主要有财富效应、q效应和流动性效应;股市作用消费的效果不仅有正负之分,而且有短期和长期之别。股市作用消费的乘数效应的大小,取决于边际消费倾向、证券需求的收入弹性和GDP的证券化比率;短期乘数效应,主要取决于证券市场的规模和发育程度;长期乘数效应,由居民的消费偏好、风险偏好与资本市场发育水平共同决定。实证发现,我国股市作用消费的乘数效应不仅存在,而且显著;但牛市作用消费的正效应小于熊市作用消费的负效应。     

股权质押比例限制与股票市场稳定——基于“质押新规”的自然实验

股权质押给股票市场带来较大风险,那么限制股权质押比例能否起到稳定股票市场的作用呢?本文基于"质押新规"这一自然实验,采用倾向得分匹配法和双重差分模型,从股票收益率、波动率、停牌交易日占比和非流动性四个方面研究股权质押比例限制对股票市场的影响,从公司治理和股东持股角度进行了机制分析,并进一步考察了质押比例限制对低质押比例企业造成的溢出影响。研究发现,短期看,设定质押比例上限对个股的收益率和流动性存在负向冲击,对个股的波动率存在正向冲击,股权质押比例限制总体上降低了股票市场稳定性。"质押新规"对控制权转移风险较大的企业的个股收益率产生了负向冲击,对控制权转移风险较小的企业的个股非流动性存在正向冲击;尽管"质押新规"针对的是高质押比例企业,但对低质押比例企业也产生了冲击。"质押新规"的负向冲击主要通过盈余管理和股东持股比例变动向市场传递。因此,应对股权质押风险,需要关注企业的盈余管理等经营状况和股东持股比例的变动,并防范溢出效应造成的风险传染。     

Measuring Corporate Social Performance in France: A Critical and Empirical Analysis of ARESE Data

This article studies the idea of Corporate Social Performance (CSP) from a critical perspective using empirical elements derived from analysis of year 2000 ARESE data. ARESE is the French first mover social rating agency providing quantified data about the Social Performance of French companies. The paper starts out by reviewing leading CSP models and discussing problems inherent to the measurement of this construct before going on to present and analyse ARESE data - whose suitability for existing models will be discussed.     

专业市场价格指数编制理论初探

专业市场在商品经济中的地位越来越重要,专业市场价格指数作为一种反映市场价格变动情况的指标工具,其作用日渐被人们所认可,价格指数的编制工作越来越受到重视。通过对当前我国的专业市场及其价格指数编制理论的探述,为指数编制实践和运用提供支持。     

A Global Analysis of Corporate Social Performance: The Effects of Cultural and Geographic Environments

As more and more multi-national companies expand their operations globally, their responsibilities extend beyond not only the economic motive of profitability but also other social and environmental factors. The objective of this article is to examine the impact of national culture and geographic environment on firms’ corporate social performance (CSP). Empirical tests are based on a global CSP database of companies from 49 countries. Results show that the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are significantly associated with CSP. In addition, European companies are found to out-perform other regions and countries in CSP.     

A Study of the Ethical Performance of Foreign-Investment Enterprises in the China Labor Market

This paper analyses the ethical performance of foreign-investment enterprises operating in China in comparison to that of the indigenous state-owned enterprises, collectives and private enterprises. It uses both the deontological approach and the utilitarian approach in conceptualization, and applies quantitative and econometric techniques to ethical evaluations of empirical evidences. It shows that according to various ethical performance indicators, foreign-investment enterprises have fared well in comparison with local firms. This paper also tries to unravel the effect of a difference in business culture and competitive market forces on ethical performance by comparing the behavior of foreign-investment enterprises with that of the indigenous state-owned enterprises and collectives on the one hand, and with that of the indigenous private enterprises on the other.     

柔性战略与企业绩效:人力资源管理战略职能中介效应研究

文章以上海、江苏和广东三地462家企业为样本,采用结构方程模型对人力资源管理战略职能在柔性战略与企业绩效的关系中起中介作用进行了实证研究.研究发现,柔性战略对人力资源管理战略职能具有显著的正向影响,人力资源管理战略职能对企业绩效具有显著的正向影响,而柔性战略对企业绩效也具有显著的正向影响.进一步研究还发现,人力资源管理战略职能在柔性战略和企业绩效关系中起部分中介作用.换言之,柔性战略对企业绩效的影响既有直接的,又可通过人力资源管理战略职能来间接实现.     

Ethics and Disclosure: A Study of the Financial Performance of Firms in the Seasoned Equity Offerings Market

In this article, we examine the association between ethics and disclosure and the impact of this association on the long-term, post-issue performance of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). We argue that firms with extensive disclosure are less likely to face information problems, and more likely to lead to an active shareholder monitoring, and therefore, engage in fewer unethical activities, such as aggressive earnings manipulation, and have better long-term, post-issue performance. Consistent with these predictions, this study presents evidence that disclosure is negatively related to unethical earnings manipulation and positively associated with long-term, post-issue performance. In particular, we find that long-term, post-issue SEO underperformance is significantly less for firms with extensive disclosure and conservative earnings management than firms with less disclosure and aggressive earnings management. We interpret this evidence to mean that over the long run, the capital market values ethical financial reporting and corporate efforts to incorporate social responsibility into their decision-making processes, for example, by enhancing information transparency through voluntary disclosure.      

公司治理与公司绩效关系的实证分析——以竞争性行业上市公司为例

运用深沪两市126家竞争性行业上市公司2002年的数据,从股权结构、董事会结构和高管激励等内外两种治理机制综合考虑了我国公司治理与公司绩效之间的关系。认为多元化股东、外部董事比例和高管激励是公司治理最为重要的三个因素,是影响公司绩效最为显著的变量;第一大股东是否为法人股、独立董事的作用、是否在国外上市对公司绩效没有显著的影响作用。