A multivariate study of over‐indebtedness' causes and consequences

This paper proposes a comprehensive explanatory model to explain both causes and consequences of over‐indebtedness. It presents as causes some borrower aspects, such as propensity to indebtedness and low financial literacy. Other causes are borrower circumstances: adverse external shocks, borrower internal problems and financial institutions' pressure. The model incorporates consequences on the borrower, the lender and the society. The model has been tested with a survey filled in by experts and over‐indebted individuals. Results have been analysed using multivariate techniques, including canonical correlations. There are differences in the opinions of experts and individuals: the latter blame external shocks or financial institutions' pressure, while the former find relevant factors the financial illiteracy or the tendency to imitate others. Experts and individuals agree on the consequences: poverty growth in the society and declining borrower's welfare. The paper concludes with the need to improve financial literacy, especially in the risks involved in over‐indebtedness.     

How does social trust affect corporate financial performance? The mediating role of corporate social responsibility

Prior studies assert that social trust may positively influence the economic performance of countries and firms (within those countries). This paper proposes a more nuanced mechanism whereby corporate social responsibility (CSR) mediates the relationship between country-level social trust and firm-level financial performance. Anchored in neo-institutional theory, we theorize that social trust instills norms of trustworthiness and willingness to trust others guiding individual and corporate behaviors. In order to comply with such norms and gain legitimacy, firms in high-trust society are more likely to commit to CSR activities that serve the interests of stakeholders. CSR activities, in turn, can positively influence financial performance by enabling firms to access stakeholders' resources and capabilities and to decrease transactions costs in the stakeholder relationships. We tested our theory by analyzing 9818 firm-year observations across 34 countries, during the 2006 to 2015 period. Our analysis shows the expected CSR mediation in the relationship between social trust and firm-level financial performance. Our findings are robust across different models addressing the concerns of endogeneity, alternative measures, and potential moderators.     

Does financial development reduce income inequality and poverty? Evidence from emerging countries

The objective of this paper is to examine whether bank and stock market development contributes to reducing income inequality and poverty in emerging countries. Using dynamic panel data methods with an updated dataset for the period 1987–2011, we assess the finance–inequality–poverty nexus by taking the separate and simultaneous impacts of banks and stock markets into account. Mixed explanatory findings on panel studies suggest that although financial development promotes economic growth, this does not necessarily benefit those on low-incomes in emerging countries. For the finance–poverty link, we find that neither banks nor stock markets play a significant role in poverty reduction.     

Sustainable banking in Latin American developing countries: Leading to (mutual) prosperity

This article examines multinational banks’ (MNBs) approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries’ subsidiaries, particularly in Latin America. Building on in-depth case studies of two MNBs that are based in Europe and market leaders in Latin America, we analyze their CSR motivations and outcomes in host countries. We examine institutional environments by applying the national business system framework, and we suggest missing categories in its financial and educational dimensions. We theorize how institutional necessity determines MNBs' CSR in developing countries. Finally, we examine the CSR outcomes in Latin America, where banks’ responsible conduct has led to major improvements in educational levels and financial inclusion. These improvements alleviate poverty and enhance both country's social wellbeing and MNBs’ legitimacy, leading to mutual prosperity.     

扶贫的企业力量——来自中国上市公司扶贫效果的证据

随着扶贫攻坚进入新时期,以政府为主导的扶贫攻坚面临诸多约束与局限,亟须广泛动员社会力量,尤其是企业力量共同参与。为回答企业的扶贫参与是否有效,以及地区差异对其是否有影响,本文利用2010—2017年A股上市公司所发布的企业社会责任报告信息,对企业扶贫参与的效果进行了研究。研究发现:(1)西部地区的企业、与消费者直接接触的企业以及规模大、经营业绩好的企业更倾向于参与扶贫攻坚;(2)企业的扶贫参与有助于提高农村居民人均收入,且在欠发达地区,企业参与扶贫的效果更好。这表明以企业为代表的社会力量响应了国家精准扶贫的号召,履行了企业社会责任,确实有助于巩固脱贫成果,实现欠发达地区的脱贫。本文基于企业参与扶贫的视角,拓展了扶贫攻坚另一参与主体——社会力量的相关研究,同时也丰富了企业履行社会责任所带来的社会效益的相关文献。     

The Geographic,Political, and Economic Context for Corporate Social Responsibility in Brazil

This paper provides an overview of corporate social responsibility in Brazil, a country of vast regional and economic differences. Despite abundant natural resources and centers of advanced technology, large numbers of Brazilians live in poverty. Historical factors, which to some extent explain Brazil’s social and economic inequalities – a long period of colonialism, followed by populist reform, repressive military measures, foreign debt, unfair trade agreements, and problems of corruption – have persisted into the current period of democratic reform, marked by economic and political trends toward democratization and corporate social responsibility. This paper considers the civic and business organizations that have been developing strategies to encourage social responsibility and government policies aimed at alleviating poverty. Despite progress, the complexity of the Brazilian context presents challenges for social and economic equality. Margaret Ann Griesse holds a Ph.D. in Education and International Development from the University of Frankfurt. She is currently Coordinator of the Martha Watts Cultural Center at the Methodist University of Piracicaba, Brazil.     

Sustainability Practices and Corporate Financial Performance: A Study Based on the Top Global Corporations

Sustainability is concerned with the impact of present actions on the ecosystems, societies, and environments of the future. Such concerns should be reflected in the strategic planning of sustainable corporations. Strategic intentions of this nature are operationalized through the adoption of a long-term focus and a more inclusive set of responsibilities focusing on ethical practices, employees, environment, and customers. A central hypothesis, that we test in this paper is that companies which attend to this set of responsibilities under the term superior sustainable practices, have higher financial performance compared to those that do not engage in such practices. The target population of this study consists of the top 100 sustainable global companies in 2008 which have been selected from a universe of 3,000 firms from the developed countries and emerging markets. We find significant higher mean sales growth, return on assets, profit before taxation, and cash flows from operations in some activity sectors of the sample companies compared to the control companies over the period of 2006–2010. Furthermore, our findings show that the higher financial performance of sustainable companies has increased and been sustained over the sample. Notwithstanding sample limitation, causal evidence reported in this paper suggests that, there is bi-directional relationship between corporate social responsibilities practices and corporate financial performance.     

中国纺织外贸企业履行社会责任与企业绩效的关系——基于 20家上市公司的面板数据分析

企业履行社会责任与企业绩效的关系一直是社会责任实践和理论研究中的热点问题。纺织行业作为典型的劳动力密集型行业,社会责任问题随着全球社会责任运动备受关注。本文以利益相关者理论为理论基础,以中国20家纺织业上市公司2001～2010年的数据为样本,利用实证的方法,从财务角度分析企业履行社会责任对企业经济效益的影响。从整体分析看,履行对各利益相关者的责任与企业绩效呈现较强的正相关性。     

Responsibility and Informal CSR in Formal Cameroonian SMEs

In this article, we explore the implicit conceptions of business ethics and social responsibility of owners?managers of small and medium enterprises (SME) in Cameroon. While using a hermeneutical approach, our main objective is to clarify how Sub-Saharan African business people themselves understand and define corporate responsibility in their particular economic and political environment. Our aim is not to deliver an empirical study of business practices and management behavior in SMEs. We wish to discuss which responsibilities they themselves judge to be relevant and which can legitimately be attributed to them by third parties. Secondly, we relate our findings to other empirical work on SMEs, in Africa and elsewhere. It is shown that there are similarities with the way in which SMEs in Europe interpret their responsibility, but also striking differences. Further, we relate our findings to some theoretical controversies around corporate social responsibility (CSR) in SMEs, to questions about evaluation tools for CSR in the SME context, and to the role of CSR with respect to poverty alleviation in developing countries.     

Ethics and Law: Guiding the Invisible Hand to Correct Corporate Social Responsibility Externalities

Tokenistic short-term economic success is not good indicia of long-term success. Sustainable business success requires sustained existence in a corporation’s political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental contexts. Far beyond the traditional economic focus, consumers, governments and public interest groups alike increasingly expect the business sector to take on more social and environmental responsibilities. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the model in which economic, social and environmental responsibilities are fulfilled simultaneously. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence that demonstrates genuine widespread adoption of CSR in practice, and its underlying reasons. Though research in CSR has been rapidly growing, its commercial reality and implications need to be further improved if it is to inspire corporations to voluntarily adopt CSR. In the literature, Carroll’s four-dimensional (economic, legal, ethical and discretionary) CSR framework offers a theoretical basis for developing an empirically based model to explain why and how profit-motivated managers take up CSR voluntarily. Our study has developed a structural equation model to identify the key factors and their interactions that influence economically motivated managers to take on voluntary CSR, and validate Carroll’s four-dimensional construct. The results support Carroll’s four-dimensional CSR framework, with the exception of the link pertaining to the relationship between economic and discretionary/voluntary responsibility. This characterises the economic reality that financial market-driven economic responsibility does not automatically translate into social responsibility. Nevertheless, the empirical results demonstrate that corporations can be led to engage in more voluntary CSR activities to achieve social good when appropriate legal and ethical controls are in place.     

Islamic business scorecard and the screening of Islamic businesses in a cross‐country setting

Screening of shari'ah compliant firms is incomplete without the inclusion of ethical and social responsibilities. The existing “activity screen” does not directly capture the ethical and social footprints of firms. The purpose of this study is to create and test an Islamic business scorecard that combines activity, ethical, and social responsibilities that Islamic businesses must comply with. This new Islamic business scorecard replaces the existing activity screens and is added to the financial screens to create an integrated business screening mechanism to identify shari'ah compliant firms. This study utilizes data from a sample of 410 shari'ah compliant companies listed with stock exchanges in Malaysia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Out of the five newly developed constructs of the Islamic business scorecard, the results indicate Islamic firms are less committed to social responsibilities and tend to push forward economic responsibilities that focus on profitability and growth. Of the three countries, this study reports Malaysian firms have the highest compliance scores, while Bangladesh displays characteristics of the “next‐big shari'ah destination”. Financial screens are more important than the Islamic business scorecard for firms in the construction, industrial, technology, and trading/services sectors. Because of its connection with the economic, ethical, and social dimensions, the scorecard helps to identify the true nature of shari'ah compliance as a useful decision tool for investors and policymakers.     

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation: Hong Kong vs. United States Students

This study examined the orientation toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) of 165 U.S. and 157 HongKong business students. Although respondents from both countries viewed CSR as a construct in much the same way, many differences were found in the types of responsibilities considered most important. Specifically, Hong Kong students gave economic responsibilities more weight and non economic responsibilities less weight than did U.S. students.     

社会资本如何提升农户信用?——基于网络、信任与规范三维度的实证分析

基于社会资本的网络、信任与规范三维度研究社会资本对农户还款意愿与还款能力的影响,以浙江省的分散农户为样本,运用结构方程模型进行实证检验.结果显示:社会资本对农户的还款意愿和还款能力均产生正向的直接影响效果.从社会资本的三个维度来看,网络的惩罚机制和声誉机制增强还款意愿,其资源属性提升农户的还款能力;信任与共享规范除了对农户的还款意愿有约束和激励作用之外,还可通过提高经济效率来提升农户的还款能力.因此,充分发挥社会资本在农贷市场的作用,可提高农户的信贷可获得性,增强金融机构为农户提供信贷的意愿和能力.     

企业社会责任与企业财务绩效关联性分析——基于浙江纺织企业的调查数据

企业社会责任与企业财务绩效的关联性决定企业的社会责任态度和行为。通过对浙江纺织行业样本企业数据的计量分析发现,前期企业财务绩效和后期企业的社会责任状况显著正相关;而前期企业社会责任和后期企业财务绩效之间、同期企业社会责任和企业财务绩效之间呈负相关趋势,但统计不显著。出现这种结果的原因可能在于当前中国社会责任市场缺乏,企业社会责任行为的推动力是行政力量而非市场力量,企业社会责任不能顺利转化或提升企业绩效。构建社会责任市场以实现企业和社会的双赢,将有效改善中国企业社会责任状况并促使持久的企业社会责任行为。     

Online food delivery companies' performance and consumers expectations during Covid-19: An investigation using machine learning approach

Online food delivery (OFD) businesses flourished during COVID-19; however, OFD companies experienced different challenges and customers' expectations. This paper uses social media data to explore OFD companies' performance and customers' expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most important topics in developed and developing countries are identified using machine learning. Results show that customers in India are more concerned about social responsibility, while financial aspects are more important in the US. Overall, customers in India are more satisfied with OFD companies during the COVID-19 pandemic than the US customers. We further find that factors such as OFD companies' brand, market size, country, and COVID-19 waves play a crucial role in moderating customer sentiment. The results of the study offer several managerial insights.     

The Moderating Effect of Environmental Munificence and Dynamism on the Relationship Between Discretionary Social Responsibility and Firm Performance

This study examines the relationships between a company's emphasis on discretionary social responsibility, environment, and firm performance. It tests the proposition that environmental munificence and dynamism moderate the relationship between discretionary social responsibility and financial performance. Social responsibility was measured with a three-item scale in a sample of 62 firms using a questionnaire. Environmental munificence and dynamism were measured using archival sources as was financial performance (return on assets and return on sales). The results of moderated regression analyses and subgroup analyses found a significant moderating effect of environment on the social responsibility-firm performance relationship. Discretionary social responsibility contributes to firm performance in environments that are dynamic and munificent.     

Human Rights and Business Ethics: Fashioning a New Social Contract

This paper argues that widely accepted understanding of the respective responsibilities of business and government in the post war industrialized world can be traced back to a tacit social contract that emerged following the second world war. The effect of this contract was to assign responsibility for generating wealth to business and responsibility for ensuring the equitable sharing of wealth to governments. Without question, this arrangement has resulted in substantial improvements in the quality of life in the industrialized world in the intervening period. I argue that with advance of economic globalization and the growing power and influence of multi national corporations, this division of responsibilities is not longer viable or defensible. What is needed, fifty years after the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, is a new social contract that shares responsibilities for human rights and related ethical responsibilities in a manner more in keeping with the vision captured by the post war Declaration. I conclude by suggesting some reasons for thinking that a new social contract may be emerging.     

“一带一路”倡议下投资母国的监管义务与法律对策

随着"一带一路"倡议全面、深入推进,中国企业海外投资进入新时期。然而,"一带一路"沿线国家投资环境复杂,中国企业面临社会责任风险以及沿线国腐败程度较高等新问题。现有国际规则无法有效处理东道国经济发展与这些问题之间的冲突和矛盾,不仅威胁中国企业的经济安全,更影响"一带一路"倡议的顺利实施。实践中,东道国宽松的法律环境、负责任的主权和维护国家形象的需要为母国监管提供了现实基础。因此,中国应以"自我约束"和"规则导向"为前提,在充分借鉴国际经验的基础上强化国内投资法律体系,从企业社会责任和海外反腐败两个方面积极承担投资母国的监管义务,主动规制中国企业的海外投资行为,实现国内法治与国际法治的良性互动。在企业社会责任方面,中国应针对海外投资者企业社会责任问题专项立法,提高中国企业承担社会责任的标准,区分企业性质、承担不同的社会责任标准以及建立社会责任评估体系;在海外反腐败方面,中国应完善惩治海外投资腐败行为的立法并加大执法力度,同时增强"一带一路"沿线国的刑事司法协助以及提高惩治海外投资腐败活动的力度。