Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Developing and Transitional Countries: Botswana and Malawi

This research empirically investigated the CSR practices of 84 Botswana and Malawi organizations. The findings revealed that the extent and type of CSR practices in these countries did not significantly differ from that proposed by a U.S. model of CSR, nor did they significantly differ between Botswana and Malawi. There were, however, differences between the sampled organizations that clustered into a stakeholder perspective and traditional capitalist model groups. In the latter group, the board of directors, owners, and shareholders were important stakeholders that appeared to be restricting extended stakeholder CSR activities in the Malawi and Botswana organizations. The sampled managers recognized the economic benefits of CSR practices and were not at odds with social objectives.     

HOW A UNIQUE CULTURE PROPOSITION BECAME A USP

How can you transform the way you do things into a compelling sales proposition? Zurich Insurance has created a Unique Culture Proposition which may well be its Unique Selling Point. Adam Kingl tells the story.     

Distortionary fiscal policy and monetary policy goals

We reconsider the role of an inflation conservative central banker in a setting with distortionary taxation. To do so, we assume monetary and fiscal policy are decided by independent authorities that do not abide to past commitments. If the two authorities make policy decisions simultaneously, inflation conservatism causes fiscal overspending. But if fiscal policy is determined before monetary policy, inflation conservatism imposes fiscal discipline. These results clarify that in our setting the value of inflation conservatism depends crucially on the timing of policy decisions.     

Examining the differential use of global integration mechanisms across HRM practices: Evidence from China

This paper examines how multinational corporations use different mechanisms to integrate four HRM practices in their foreign subsidiaries: financial compensation, performance appraisal, training and development, and recruitment and selection. Our analysis of 76 European-owned subsidiaries located in China reveal systematic differences in the use of integration mechanisms across the four HRM practices. The findings suggest that the usage of global integration mechanisms is contingent on the purposes of integration – headquarters control, and inter-unit coordination – as well as on the degree to which the mechanism is capable of responding to needs for local adaptation of the individual HRM practice in question.     

Interorganizational Favour Exchange and the Relationship Between Doing Well and Doing Good

This article examines whether ethical business practice enhances financial performance with respect to interorganizational favour exchange. We argue that the link between the ethicality and economic utility of interorganizational favour exchange is governed by: (1) organizational–individual interest alignment/conflict and (2) the fairness or justifiability of favour exchanges from the perspective of third parties. We classify interorganizational (IO) favour exchange into four types (Business–Personal, Personal–Business, Personal–Personal and Business–Business favour exchange). Our analysis shows that the first three types of favour exchange are unethical as they involve conflicts between organizational and individual interests in one or both participating organizations that negatively affect organizational value creation. The last type of favour exchange involves organizational–individual interest alignment in both participating organizations and positively affects the capacity of those involved in the exchange to create value. Favour exchanges of this fourth variety are ethically justifiable unless they unfairly damage the legitimate interests of third parties. In the latter case, these favour exchanges create the risk of negative third party reactions, which in turn affect the sustainability of the benefits of the favour exchanges to the focal group (the dyad). Our research results advance understanding of the ethical and economic implications of IO favour exchange, counter the prejudice against this behaviour in organizations, provide ethical guidance for management and business practice, and have implications for the relationship between doing well and doing good.     

Can historical returns-earnings relations predict price responses to earnings news?

The main purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness of pooled and firm-specific returns-earnings models in predicting price responses to future earnings news. The question addresses whether earnings response coefficients (ERCs) (i.e., slope coefficients obtained from regressions of market-adjusted returns on earnings surprises) are helpful in predicting price responses to future earnings surprises. In other words, are historical returns-earnings relations (as captured by ERCs) useful in predicting future returns-earnings relations? Surprisingly, we find that ERCs from firm-specific regressions provide less accurate predictions of price responses to future earnings surprises than ERCs from pooled regressions. In addition, out-of-sample predictions from actual-firm-specific regressions are no more accurate than those from pseudo-firm-specific regressions. This is despite the fact that our pseudo firms are created through random draws of returns-earnings data. Therefore, they have no economic characteristics that extend beyond the period over which the coefficients are estimated.     

Determining long-term parking needs at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg

The economic growth and arrival of low-cost airlines in South Africa has led to a boom in air passenger travel. The OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg has seen increased passenger numbers of around 10% per annum. This, combined with FIFA requirements for the Soccer World Cup 2010, has sparked various investments.During the planning of the investment a knowledge gap was identified. A research study by the University of Cape Town has resulted in the development of a long-term sketch planning tool that can assist in exploring future scenarios. This paper summarises the development and application of the tool.