Environmental and Social Matters in Mandatory Corporate Reporting: An Academic Note

This note provides an overview of mandatory corporate reporting for environmental and social matters in Canada, the United States and the EU. When researchers and educators consider reporting on these matters, they often look to voluntary corporate reporting. However, we argue that a lot of related information exists in companies’ mandatory reports, either in the disclosures dictated by securities regulators, or via other required channels. Our objective is threefold. First, to describe what currently exists regarding mandatory reporting on environmental and social matters (to inform). Second, to discuss several of the current ongoing debates regarding such reporting (to encourage discourse). Third, to encourage research into the mandatory reporting of environmental and social matters.     

What’s new in female entrepreneurship research? Answers from the literature

Female entrepreneurship to date represents a key component of the business sector worldwide as, in 2012 more than 187 million out of 400 million entrepreneurs were women (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2013). In academia the gender factor in entrepreneurship emerged in the late 1970s Schwartz (Journal of Contemporary Business, 5(1), 47–76, 1976) and especially since the beginning of the new millennium a substantial growth in the investigation of this topic has been registered. Thus, the time has come to systematize the academic progress on this issue and to reflect on future research directions in order to gain deeper insights into the female entrepreneurship domain. In this vein, our paper aims to enrich the conversation on female entrepreneurship by reviewing 248 papers published in the last 14 years. In doing so, we identify and analyze the new insights that have emerged in the literature from both a managerial and a sociological perspective, thus responding to the numerous calls for a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of this topic.     

Ageing and consumption in Finland: The effect of age and life course stage on ecological,economical and self‐indulgent consumption among late middle‐agers and young adults between 1999 and 2014

Previous studies on ageing consumers have mainly focused on chronological age and generational values or studied ageing and consumption with cross‐sectional data. Few quantitative studies exist that examine the effect of age together with life course on consumption using longitudinal data. To bridge this gap, the article examines ageing and attitudes towards consumption in Finland, focusing particularly on late middle‐agers (46–60 year‐olds) in comparison with young adults (18–30 year‐olds) between 1999 and 2014. The article explores three consumption patterns based on attitudinal statements: ecological, economical and self‐indulgent consumption. Through analysis of a nationally representative survey study in Finland (N = 8,543), the article reveals that in all years under examination, late middle‐agers reported more ecological attitudes towards consumption than young adults. In 1999 and 2004, the attitudes of late middle‐agers appeared more economical, but age‐related differences in economical attitudes disappeared between 2009 and 2014. In each year, late middle‐agers reported less self‐indulgent attitudes than young adults, and these age‐related differences did not remarkably change between 1999 and 2014. The results indicate that in 1999 and 2004, ecological and economical attitudes towards consumption were best predicted by age at the year of the study. In later years, ecological attitudes were more closely determined by life course stage, that is household type and other socio‐demographic determinants. Regarding economical attitudes, generational or cohort effects were pronounced among late middle‐agers in 1999. In contrast, the significance of age remained throughout the years for self‐indulgent attitudes, indicating the absence of generational or cohort effects.     

The shortened Corporate Ethical Virtues scale: Measurement invariance and mean differences across two occupational groups

So far, the field of business ethics lacks validated measures for assessing virtues at the organizational level. The aim of this study is to investigate the measurement invariance of a shortened Corporate Ethical Virtues scale. In this manner, we contribute to validating an instrument that is both psychometrically sound and efficient to use. We conducted two survey studies of two independent groups (managers and school psychologists). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the eight‐factor model of the scale, and we found it to be invariant in two different occupational groups. The managers gave higher appraisals of ethical culture than the psychologists did in seven out of the eight dimensions. We found that despite the contextual differences, the shortened scale measures the eight dimensions of organizational ethical virtues, as intended. Thus, the use of this more compact scale can be recommended for future studies, which will hopefully stimulate more research on ethical culture in various work contexts.     

Ethical Organisational Culture as a Context for Managers’ Personal Work Goals

The aims of this study were to investigate what kinds of personal work goals managers have and whether ethical organisational culture is related to these goals. The sample consisted of 811 Finnish managers from different organisations, in middle and upper management levels, aged 25–68 years. Eight work-related goal content categories were found based on the managers self-reported goals: (1) organisational goals (35.4 %), (2) competence goals (26.1 %), (3) well-being goals (12.1 %), (4) career-ending goals (7.3 %), (5) progression goals (6.8 %), (6) prestige/influence goals (4.2 %), (7) job change goals (4.2 %) and (8) employment contract goals (3.9 %). Ethical organisational culture operated as a context for personal goal setting: Those managers who evaluated their organisational culture as more ethical were more likely to report organisational goals (e.g. goals toward the success or performance of the organisation). However, if managers gave lower ratings regarding ethical culture, then they named job change and career-ending goals in more cases. Therefore, investing into ethical virtues of the organisational culture can promote managers’ personal work goals, which also benefit the organisation.     

Exploring service design in the context of architecture

Development of services is a demanding task and requires new perspectives as well as appropriate tools and techniques. This paper forms an overview of the concept of service design, which has recently gained ground. This concept is applied to an empirical study, which explores how professional designers develop services. The main method of the study is participant observation taking place in an architect's office. As a result, the study describes in detail how services are designed in the context of architecture. The study suggests that professional designers apply several methods, which could increase our understanding of service design and service development.     

Globalisation and its discontents: an Indonesian perspective

It is indeed a great honour for me to give the 2011 Heinz Arndt Memorial Lecture. The first time I met the great Professor Heinz Arndt was as a nine‐year‐old back in 1966 when our family first came to Canberra and Heinz was my father's (Panglaykim) new boss. I recall that he picked us up at the airport and within the first week we had visited his house in Deakin, where he gave me and my two brothers games such as Chinese checkers and books that his own kids had outgrown. So my first thought was: what a kind and thoughtful man. Little did I know that I would end up being what he often termed his ‘academic grandchild’. I never took a class from Heinz or was fortunate enough to be supervised by him. However, I had many interactions with him when I was a student at the Australian National University (ANU) and, upon graduation, as an aspiring young academic. He had an important influence on the course of my life. First, he encouraged me to do my PhD in the USA. After I completed my masters at the ANU under Peter Drysdale, I toyed with the idea of continuing with a PhD at the Research School of Pacific Studies. However, Heinz convinced me to go to the USA because he thought it would widen my horizons. He was right. Second, there was the importance of being disciplined and thorough in undertaking country or regional research. One of the most important initiation exercises for an academic working on Indonesia was to do a ‘Survey of Recent Developments’ for the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies. I recall being given a yellowed document that had been formulated by Heinz with precise guidelines on topics, structure, and people to see and interview. We found similar guidelines on regional surveys when we did economic surveys of all the provinces a few years later. I found that doing the research and interviews for the survey was the easy part. The hard part was the two weeks spent in Canberra writing up the survey and being subjected to peer review. The draft was presented to the ‘editorial team’ and others, including, of course, the venerable Professor Arndt. I am glad to say that I passed in terms of substance; but of course there were lots of edits to do following Heniz's traditional typed‐up comments, both general and specific! Third, despite being a formidable figure and someone with a reputation for strong opinions, Heinz was the same kind and thoughtful man I remembered as a nine‐year‐old. He always had the time of day for the young academics, especially those from Indonesia. I had many cups of tea with him as a student and later as an aspiring academic. I still recall his room in University House filled with his books and the filing cabinet near the bathroom, where he would inevitably pull out the right references and reading materials that one needed. I learned a lot about the importance of mentoring and encouraging the young—many of whom have succeeded and are in the room today. This lecture is to honour Professor Heinz Arndt. I believe Professor Arndt was a true internationalist and therefore he would tackle with gusto the rumblings of discontent on globalisation. He would be thorough in trying to understand the manifestations of globalisation and its sources of discontent. He would also be of the firm belief that the benefits of globalisation outweigh its costs and come up with strategic ideas on how to best manage globalisation to counter ‘globaphobia’. I hope I do justice to this topic in the Heinz Arndt tradition.     

Co‐creating nonprofit brand equity

• The concept of brand equity (BE) has been the subject of much recent discussion in the field of nonprofit branding and also has been the concept of brand co‐creation in the field of branding. This study combines these aspects and examines the BE co‐creation of a nonprofit entity, the Finnish Defence Forces military driving school. Empirical data were collected from industrial logistics service providers and military recruits. A theoretical BE model was further developed using structural equation modeling in an exploratory manner to reveal whether the BE model of the military driving school is similar from both viewpoints. Similar workable models were found, indicating strong BE co‐creation and thereby contributing to the field. To support the future co‐creation of BE of the military driving school, it is important to ensure that the recruits take positive experiences from the school and industrial logistics service providers carefully consider how they relay their experiences about the school to other truck drivers. The attitudes of recruits towards the military driving school are likely eventually to conform to those of civilian truck drivers. Finding workable models required omitting some BE dimensions and measures of earlier models. Moreover, using data from one country alone may be a limitation of the study. Therefore, nonprofit BE measures should be further developed and tested with data from further afield.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Services Sector as a Driver of Change: Indonesia’s Experience in the ASEAN Context

By various performance indicators, the Indonesian services sector ranks below those of its main ASEAN neighbours. This is concerning for Indonesia, given the the increased attention worldwide on the services sector as a likely source of growth, the contribution of the services sector to the competitiveness of other sectors, and the opportunities available for capturing the gains from innovation and change in services. There is scope, we argue, to increase the number of formal jobs in the sector and to dispel its reputation as the employer of last resort. We find that a restrictive policy regime contributes to the sector’s poor performance, leading to an argument for reform. We discuss a potential strategy for such reform, focusing on four factors: increasing transparency and policy information; capturing the opportunities from international commitments; and exploring the potential of, one, new technology, and, two, urbanisation.