What Makes an Independent Regulator Independent?

As private capital is increasingly invested in utilities across the globe, the issue of regulation and its inferace with different types of government, culture and society has become every more complex. This article focuses on the design of regulatory systems outside the US and the UK. With references to current practice in many countries, the author argues that formal regulatory independence and accountability is not always a necessary condition for effective regulation (though where feasible and effective it carries potential economic benefits). On the other hand, he also argues that an informal or advisory regulatory system may work better in some situations. In all circumstances, informal accountability and a clear understanding of the "rules of the game" are crucial for effective regulation.     

Trust, reputation and corporate accountability to stakeholders

This paper explores the relationship between accountability, trust and corporate reputation building. Increasing numbers of corporations are mobilising themselves to put more and more information out into the public domain as a way of communicating with stakeholders. Corporate social accounting and stakeholder engagement is happening on an unprecedented scale. Rather than welcoming such initiatives, academics have been quick to pick faults with contemporary social auditing and reporting, claiming that in its current form it is not about demonstrating accountability at all, but rather about building corporate reputation. Academics argue that 'accountability should hurt', that if accountability is an enjoyable process, then the organisation isn't doing it right. For organisations that are currently engaging with stakeholders and ostensibly becoming more transparent about their corporate social performance, this kind of critique is likely to be bewildering. This paper argues that central to the notion of accountability and to contemporary social accounting practice is the concept of trust. Accountability is based upon a distrust of corporate management, whereas corporate reputation building is about strategically seeking to establish trust in stakeholder relationships in order to negate formal accountability requirements. Using a split trust continuum, the paper seeks to explain and synthesise what seem to be two very different paradigms of organisational transparency.     

论独立调查机制对多边开发银行公众问责制度的发展

在全球治理进程中,多边开发银行职能不断扩张,其跨国规制也因此直接影响到主权国家内部的个人,然而,现有的国际组织责任制度阻碍了个人向前者直接追责。为此,多边开发银行尝试在组织内部建立独立调查机制,为个人提供问责渠道。作为国际组织公众问责的开创性发展,独立调查制在为个人向国际组织问责提供渠道的同时,也在银行发展职能履行与个人基本权益维护之间找到了一个恰当的平衡点。然而,独立调查机制仍存在不足,表现为:问责实体依据局限于银行内部政策、问责机制忽略问题解决、问责独立性受管理层掣肘。增强决策透明度、以合法审查取代合规审查、强化调查机制问题解决功能、保证调查机制独立决策权是未来多边开发银行公众问责制完善的主要方向。     

European monetary policy: Institutional design and policy experience

The following article examines design issues relevant to European monetary policy: central bank independence, and the accountability and transparency of monetary policy strategy. An empirical approach is then applied which allows a comparison between the ECB and other central banks. It also enables an investigation of whether the ECB simply follows the US Federal Reserve Bank, as is sometimes claimed.     

Responsibility, accountability and governance

'Responsibility', 'accountability' and 'governance' are key terms within business ethics. This paper aims to construct a framework to help us understand the relationships between these terms. I first of all analyse the concept of responsibility to show the place of accountability within it, then move to analyse accountability as a sub–concept of responsibility, then finally attempt to show how accountability along with responsibility in general figures within governance structures. While obviously not as complex as the concept of responsibility of which it is part, the sub–concept of accountability is somewhat more complex than often seems to be supposed. The view taken of governance is that as a concept it is relatively straightforward. It acquires complexity only with the involvement of responsibility along with accountability and other aspects of responsibility. The vexed questions as to how these are to be applied lie at the heart of disputes about corporate governance. Though not offering a solution to those disputes, the fact that they arise from the involvement of responsibility, accountability and related matters means that the analysis of concepts given here does offer a framework for thinking about these disputes more clearly.     

员工当责感、工作满意度与组织公民行为

激发员工的组织公民行为是提升企业运转效率的有效途径之一。文章关注工作满意度对激发组织公民行为的作用机理,提出并证实了只有对高当责感的员工通过提高工作满意度来激发其组织公民行为才是有效的。通过系统的探索性分析和验证性分析,证实了工作满意度与组织公民行为之间存在显著的正相关关系,并且员工当责感在工作满意度和组织公民行为的关系中起中介作用。研究结果显示,中国企业要想通过提高工作满意度来激发组织公民行为进而提升企业效率,必须要关注员工的当责感及其前导影响因素,企业创造当责的文化环境有利于激发组织公民行为。     

The Mediated Influence of a Traceability Label on Consumer’s Willingness to Buy the Labelled Product

Although stakeholder theory is concerned with stakeholder engagement, substantive operational barometers of engagement are lacking in the literature. This theoretical paper attempts to strengthen the accountability aspect of normative stakeholder theory with a more robust notion of stakeholder engagement derived from the concept of good faith. Specifically, it draws from the labor relations field to argue that altered power dynamics are essential underpinnings of a viable stakeholder engagement mechanism. After describing the tenets of substantive engagement, the paper draws from the labor relations and commercial law literatures to describe the characteristics of good faith as dialogue, negotiation, transparency, and totality of conduct; explains how they can be adapted and applied to the stakeholder context; and suggests the use of mediation and non-binding arbitration. The paper concludes by addressing anticipated objections and shortcomings and discussing implications for theory and research.     

Fraud: who polices Europe?

Fraud in Europe is complex and well organised: it crosses organisational and geographic boundaries. The policing of fraud, on the other hand, is characterised both at national and transnational levels by fragmentation and divided accountability. This paper considers the issues involved in combating fraud in European institutions and spending programmes. It discusses the roles of those bodies with transnational responsibilities such as UCLAF (now OLAF), the European Fraud Prevention Office and the European Court of Auditors. The paper considers the difficulties associated with the Corpus Juris proposals for a single European legal area to facilitate the fight against fraud related to the European Budget. It concludes that the task of policing Europe is hampered not only by the diversity of national political and jurisprudential systems, but also by the weakness and lack of independence of the transnational institutions.     

The Role of the Board of Directors in Disseminating Relevant Information on Greenhouse Gases

In today’s world, the corporate image of the largest companies is closely linked to their performance in the field of corporate social responsibility and the disclosure of information on that topic, specifically, on climate change. Since the Board of Directors is the body responsible for this process, the aim of this article is to show the role that companies’ Boards of Directors play in the accountability process vis-à-vis stakeholders in relation to one specific aspect which has enormous significance in environmental information: practices used to monitor greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve this, we shall verify certain business characteristics, in addition to the size and activity of the Board of Directors, and we shall take different dependence models into consideration. These models will include variables related to the level of independence and diversity of the Board of Directors, which interact with dummy variables representing the company’s litigation risks regarding environmental behavior and the institutional macro-context of the organization’s country of origin. The results make it clear that Boards of Directors are basically focused on the traditional responsibility of creating economic value, instead of dealing with today’s broader business world concepts, which include social responsibility. This focus, therefore, does not favor the accountability process before other stakeholders, if this makes it more difficult to protect the interests of shareholders.     

特许经营与其他商业形式的区别

特许经营与其他许多商业形式有着千丝万缕的联系,相互之间界限模糊,经常被人们误解和误用。特许经营也经常和其他商业形式进行交叉融合,产生出许多复合商业形式,致使人们对特许经营概念的理解更加难以统一。必须从产品分销、模式复制、资源配置等三个角度,来了解特许经营与经销、直销、代理、传销、直营连锁、自由连锁、委托管理、许可证交易、集团化经营、战略联盟等商业形式之间的关系,以及他们之间的交叉融合现象。     

知识产权保护的负面效应与发展中国家的回应性政策研究

文章立足于知识产权保护的负面效应,探究知识产权保护的中观基础,指出产业结构是决定知识产权保护效应的决定力量,有力地解释了不同经济发展水平下知识产权保护体现不同效应的原因,并从制度层面和产业层面指出了发展中国家的回应性策略。     

我国行政问责制的背景标志及其内涵

本文试图侧重研究行政问责领域的一些最基本问题,包括背景、标志及其内涵等等,其中背景研究提供了问责理论和实践的大框架,为问责制度发展指明了方向、拓宽了视野、揭示了走向、体现了价值追求;标志研究是问责实践的逻辑起点;内涵研究是问责理论的逻辑起点.通过对这些行政问责本源性问题的研究,必将有益于进一步推进我国行政问责制的深入研究和广泛实践.     

The Dilemma of Accountability for Professionals: A Challenge for Mainstream Management Theories

Professional institutions are increasingly confronted by fiscal constraints and political pressures to improve and increase their accountability in a competitive consumer-driven market. Accordingly, the need to ensure efficiency and accountability is of strategic importance. This article reports on a qualitative study of medical professionals that assessed the utility of financial incentives and external control methods derived from agency theory to ensure accountability of professionals. The authors argue that approaches derived from stewardship and institutional theories can extend the principal–agent perspective to sustain greater social and ethical accountability.     

Cognitive process differences between discrete and relational exchange

Recent research has placed greater emphasis on relational as opposed to discrete marketing exchanges. Much of this research has focused on the affective aspects of relationships. We assert that relational exchange also has a cognitive side to it. Specifically, we address two fundamental questions: (1) does a relational perspective involve different cognitive processes, which may lead to different decision outcomes? and (2) does the social context (i.e., accountability) in which decisions are made, alter decision processes and outcomes? The results of an exploratory study suggest differences in cognitive processes between discrete and relational exchange and that accountability has a strong influence on decision outcomes.     

The Hypothesized Relationship Between Accountability and Ethical Behavior

Unethical behavior is important to study because it may have an adverse influence on organizational performance. This paper is an attempt to better understand why individuals behave as they do when faced with ethical dilemmas. We first explore the definition, theories and models of ethical behaviors and accountability. This discussion of societal ethics and accountability as forms of social control segues into a discussion of how accountability may influence ethical behaviors. Based on the business ethics and accountability literatures, we suggest a number of research questions and hypotheses that need to be tested, as well as an appropriate research strategy.     

公司治理、董事会独立性与公司绩效

通过利用215家上市公司2001-2003年的数据,对董事会的独立性与公司业绩的关系进行实证分析发现:我国上市公司董事会的独立性较差,独立董事对公司业绩的影响很小,独立董事在很大程度上只起到“装饰”性的作用。因此,不断完善我国的独立董事制度,努力提高董事会的独立性,建立董事会的约束机制,对改善上市公司治理绩效有重要意义。     

General motors corporation,its constituencies and the public interest

This article about the social responsibility of the large corporation is not a paper about stewardship in general. If it were, it would have to focus primarily on the principle of long-term market accountability and the related principle of fidelity to long-term stockholder interests. Most of management's stewardship responsibilities can be subsumed under those two principles.This paper will deal with areas in which those two principles alone are not adequate to define management's stewardship responsibilities. These areas of social accountability occur chiefly where the interests of employees or the general public are at stake — where their human and social purposes sometimes collide with the more limited commercial purposes of the large corporation.Elmer W. Johnson is currently Group Vice President for Operating Staffs and General Counsel at General Motors. He left the private practice of law in Chicago to join General Motors.     

信用评级利益冲突行为及其规制策略

信用评级机构的利益冲突行为会影响评级独立性,致使评级结果准确性较差。收费模式偏差、评级机构治理管理存在缺陷,法律责任追究不力、监管不当和市场声誉机制缺乏约束力等是问题的主要原因。国际金融危机以来,国际社会制定了许多措施以规制评级利益冲突行为。为达到好的效果,规制策略应具有系统性,涉及修正收费模式、建立法律责任追究机制、加强监管等一系列内容。     

Defining the gap between research and practice in public relations programme evaluation – towards a new research agenda

The current situation in public relations programme evaluation is neatly summarized by McCoy who commented that ‘probably the most common buzzwords in public relations in the last ten years have been evaluation and accountability’ (McCoy 2005, 3). This paper examines the academic and practitioner‐based literature and research on programme evaluation and it detects different priorities and approaches that may partly explain why the debate on acceptable and agreed evaluation methods continues. It analyses those differences and proposes a research agenda to bridge the gap and move the debate forward.     

A dynamic perspective of internal fit in corporate venturing

Managers of corporate parents and their ventures have long been faced with the question of how closely to tie the parent and venture. A close connection may enable a venture to capitalize on the competencies and resources of the parent. However, venture autonomy could prevent corporate inertia and bureaucracy from constraining venture growth.The lack of consensus on this issue leads us to the first of two complementary research questions that we address in this paper: “What is the effect of internal strategic fit between a corporate parent and its venture on venture performance?” We suggest that a tight fit is positively associated with venture performance because of the venture's access to its parent's resources.Managers and researchers alike have often observed that growing enterprises are dynamic entities. In the case of corporate ventures, this implies that the relationship between parent and venture evolves over time. Our second research question directly addresses this issue by asking: “Does the relationship between a corporate parent and its venture(s) evolve over time, and if so, how?”We identify two dimensions of the fit between corporate parents and their ventures: relational and economic. A relational fit reflects organizational culture and structure, while an economic fit is a function of the needs of the venture and the resources of the parent. We develop a series of hypotheses and test them with survey data from 97 Canadian corporate ventures. For the purposes of this study, we define success as the ability of a firm to meet internal milestones on schedule.We find that the degree of fit between a corporate parent and its venture does affect the success of a venture, and that success is associated with high levels of awareness, commitment, and connection. Further, the relational dimension of the parent-venture interface appears to have a greater association with venture success than does the economic dimension.Our data support the idea that the parent-venture relationship is dynamic in nature as ventures in our sample generally lessened their economic connections with their parents as they matured (or vice-versa). We did find, however, that the relational bonds remained more or less intact. The exceptions to these general trends were an increasing emphasis on financial targets along with decreasing CEO involvement as ventures matured. Both of these findings make intuitive sense. Greater financial independence is accompanied by greater financial accountability. And, as a venture gains in both independence and accountability, there is less need for the CEO to provide “air cover.” These two issues aside, the basic model of enduring relational ties and diminishing economic ties was supported. As well, the increasing accountability is consistent with our expectation that a close connection is preferable to high venture autonomy.