Real effects of financial reporting and disclosure on innovation

This paper reviews the literature on the real effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate innovation, highlighting both the possible channels of influence and the potential challenges that researchers face when attributing causal effects. We discuss the concept of innovation, emphasising the specific characteristics that make investments in innovation difficult to report. We then provide a review of the nascent work relating disclosure to innovation, which we organise around three channels: financing, compensation and learning. Finally, we discuss recent efforts aimed at increasing the quality of corporate disclosures, including disclosures of firms’ innovative activities. Throughout the paper, we highlight the trade-offs of disclosure (reduced information asymmetry and increased proprietary costs), which are particularly exacerbated in the context of corporate innovation.     

Credit risk,owner liability,and bank loan maturities during the global financial crisis

We relate credit risk and owners’ personal guarantees to bank loan maturities during the global financial crisis. The findings, which remain robust to reverse causality, show that firms rated as low risk, with a strong relationship with the bank, whose owners provided personal guarantees and with large loan sizes obtained longer maturities. Banks with larger nonperforming loans provided loans with shorter maturities. Firms with low‐ and high‐risk ratings that provided owners’ personal guarantees obtained longer maturities. These findings shed additional light on the relationship between risk and loan maturities and the role of personal guarantees in reducing information asymmetries.     

Impact of Market Orientation and ICT on the Performance of Rural Smaller Service Enterprises*

Market orientation (MO) is considered as a competitive strategy for the smaller service enterprises based in rural locations. A model is proposed and validated for the rural tourism sector that encompasses the effects of MO and of the use of information and communications technology (ICT) on business activity, taking into account the business's financial results, improvements to the rural location, and the more personal, intangible impact on the local entrepreneur. ICT is found to have a positive impact on MO and outcomes, whereas, similarly, the adoption of MO is found to have a positive effect on outcomes.     

New Approaches to Evaluating the Performance of Corporate–Community Partnerships: A Case Study from the Minerals Sector

A continuing challenge for researchers and practitioners alike is the lack of data on the effectiveness of corporate–community investment programmes. The focus of this article is on the minerals industry, where companies currently face the challenge of matching corporate drivers for strategic partnership with community needs for programmes that contribute to local and regional sustainability. While many global mining companies advocate a strategic approach to partnerships, there is no evidence currently available that suggests companies are monitoring these partnerships to see if they do, in fact, represent ‘strategic’ investments. This article argues that applying the management concept of ‘investment performance’ to corporate–community partnerships requires questioning traditional evaluation methods that focus on the results of programmes or activities. We adopt a case study approach to introduce an evaluation framework that considers performance from both corporate and community perspectives and that conceptualises partnership performance as comprising four aspects: (1) the contribution of the partnership to the overall portfolio of a company’s community investment programmes, (2) the appropriateness of the partnership model, (3) the effectiveness of the partnering relationship and (4) the ability of the partners to achieve programme goals. The application of this evaluation framework to an established corporate–community partnership programme provided some useful insights as to how partnership performance can be improved.     

Key service innovation drivers in the tourism sector: empirical evidence and managerial implications

This study highlights the importance of market orientation and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) as determinants of service innovation activity for companies in the tourism sector. In doing so, the study provides a means to classify companies as innovative or not. Using a sample of 100 Spanish firms from different branches of the tourism sector, we confirm and extend prior research. In particular, market orientation??especially a customer orientation??is critical for developing new services that lead to competitive advantages. In addition, ICT have a dual, direct, and indirect influence on service innovation.     

The private provision of public environment: Consumer preferences for organic production systems

This paper analyses individual preferences regarding environmental and health improvement technologies in organic food production systems. The impure public model is applied to explore the implications of organic food preferences for environmental market provision. Empirical results from a survey reveal that consumers are willing to pay for both health gains and environmental friendly technologies in organic milk production, although the valuation of the health aspects is higher. Prior information about organic production systems and shopping convenience are key variables in interpersonal comparisons of willingness to pay. The perceived overall value of organic production systems was higher among individuals with stronger environmental preferences than among those who prioritise health concerns. The conclusions of this study may have implications for the analysis of efficiency in the organic produce market.     

Ethics in Global Business and in a Plural Society

The contemporary confluence of globalization and ethical pluralism is at the origin of many ethical challenges that confront business nowadays, both in practice and in theory. One of the challenges arising from the development of globalization has to do with respect for cultural diversity. It is often said that the success of economic globalization tends towards social and cultural homogeneity. To the extent that cultural diversity is usually seen as a valuable reality, that global trend seems to contradict our efforts to respect ethical pluralism, both personal and cultural, within society. In this paper I argue that (a) ethical minimalism, despite its emphasis on tolerance and justice, does not take pluralism seriously into account in present-day society, and (b) ethical minimalism is not suited to balancing the homogenizing trend of globalization. Certainly ethical norms are necessary, but by no means are they sufficient in themselves to encourage either justice or tolerance; nor are they sufficient to inspire and encourage good practices and sound regulations. Instead, virtue-based ethics has the capacity of inspiring and encouraging good practices. Particularly, virtue-based ethics is able to inspire a serious dialogue about ethical and legal issues both in the public arena and within organizations.     

The Optimal Timing of Adoption of a Green Technology

We study the optimal timing of adoption of a cleaner technology and its effects on the rate of growth of an economy in the context of an AK endogenous growth model. We show that the results depend upon the behavior of the marginal utility of environmental quality with respect to consumption. When it is increasing, we derive the capital level at the optimal timing of adoption. We show that this capital threshold is independent of the initial conditions on the stock of capital, implying that capital-poor countries tend to take longer to adopt. Also, country-specific characteristics, as the existence of high barriers to adoption, may lead to different capital thresholds for different countries. If the marginal utility of environmental quality decreases with consumption, a country should never delay adoption; the optimal policy is either to adopt immediately or, if adoption costs are “too high”, to never adopt. The policy implications of these results are discussed in the context of the international debate surrounding the environmental political agenda.      

The BoP business paradigm: what it promotes and what it conceals

The Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) is a popular paradigm within management circles concerning those in poverty. In this paper, we develop a critical analysis of BoP discourse and practice, drawing particularly on the works of Laclau and Mouffe, and enriched by post-development thinking as expressed in the works of Esteva and Escobar, among others. We argue that the BoP paradigm functions to reinforce market capitalist hegemony and – vitally – to conceal economic alternatives. Using the concepts of ‘discourse’, ‘hegemony’ and ‘performativity’, we analyse the politics of language and representation in the BoP discourse. Finally, we point to modes of scholarship that contribute to the nurturing and performance of diverse, non-capitalist economic worlds.     

The effects of perceived value on loyalty: the moderating effect of market orientation adoption

This paper aims to identify the moderating effect of service firms’ adoption of market orientation on key variables of consumer behavior, namely perceived value and loyalty. The study took a business-to-customer perspective. First, the adoption of market orientation was measured, from the firm’s point of view. Second, customer perceptions were analyzed, using the two variables perceived value and loyalty. The sample comprised 100 service firms and 572 of their customers. The present work provides original insights, identifying that the effect of perceived value on loyalty depends on other variables external to the consumer, such as the market orientation approach.