Financial materiality in the informativeness of sustainability reporting

This study examines whether financial materiality in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure benefits the stock market by increasing the amount of accessible and relevant firm-specific information. Based on the value relevance of information and the principle of financial materiality, we demonstrate that disclosing material ESG information increases stock price informativeness. We conduct an automated content analysis of 150,000 electronic documents filed by firms listed on the S&P/TSX Composite Index from 1999 to the end of 2014. Our findings show that ESG disclosure is indeed value relevant for investors and that financial materiality in ESG disclosure leads to more informative stock prices. In addition, the effect of ESG disclosure on stock price informativeness differs across the ESG components, being more sensitive to the social component. This study contributes to the literature on sustainability reporting, and in particular to the ongoing discussion about whether the financial materiality of ESG issues matters. This study also deepens the understanding of agency theory predictions about the economic effects of ESG disclosure.     

A UNIFIED PRESENTATION OF COMPETITION ANALYSIS IN TWO-SIDED MARKETS

The goal of this paper is to present quantitative tools to manage competition policy analysis in two-sided platforms, based on a common framework for transaction and non-transaction platforms. We explore tools for relevant market definition [Critical Loss Analysis and a small but significant non-transitory increase in price (SSNIP) test], unilateral effects indicators [Upward Pricing Pressure (UPP) and Gross Upward Pricing Pressure Index (GUPPI)] and tests for exclusionary practices. We review dispersed results in the literature and fill the gaps where appropriate. We highlight the required changes from the usual one-sided market framework and tools. While discussions of antitrust tools can be found in specialized forums devoted to advances in competition policy analysis, we organize the material in an integrated framework.     

Can proactive environmental strategy improve Multilatinas' level of internationalization? The moderating role of board independence

This paper explores the relationships between proactive environmental strategy (PES) and internationalization in emerging markets multinationals from Latin America (Multilatinas). Drawing on the resource‐based view and institutional theory and using a sample of 86 listed firms during the period 2013–2017, we find that Multilatinas with higher tiers of PES are associated with higher degrees of geographic international diversification. Because adopting PES is directly conditioned by institutional pressures to comply with stakeholders' regulations and expectations, Multilatinas that implement advanced PES will be able to achieve a higher level of international presence in foreign markets. Our results also reveal that board independence positively moderates the relationship between PES and geographic international diversification. Specifically, board independence provides Multilatinas with the opportunity to integrate valuable knowledge and expertise and thus to take advantage of implementing advanced PES to achieve even greater levels of internationalization. This study expands understanding of how environmental strategies influence internationalization of firms in the Latin American business context.     

Using clustering ensemble to identify banking business models

The business models of banks are often seen as the result of a variety of simultaneously determined managerial choices, such as those regarding the types of activities, funding sources, level of diversification, and size. Moreover, owing to the fuzziness of data and the possibility that some banks may combine features of different business models, the use of hard clustering methods has often led to poorly identified business models. In this paper we propose a framework to deal with these challenges based on an ensemble of three unsupervised clustering methods to identify banking business models: fuzzy c‐means (which allows us to handle fuzzy clustering), self‐organizing maps (which yield intuitive visual representations of the clusters), and partitioning around medoids (which circumvents the presence of data outliers). We set up our analysis in the context of the European banking sector, which has seen its regulators increasingly focused on examining the business models of supervised entities in the aftermath of the twin financial crises. In our empirical application, we find evidence of four distinct banking business models and further distinguish between banks with a clearly defined business model (core banks) and others (non‐core banks), as well as banks with a stable business model over time (persistent banks) and others (non‐persistent banks). Our proposed framework performs well under several robustness checks related with the sample, clustering methods, and variables used.     

Trade liberalization,tariff redundancy and inflation: A methodological exploration applied to Argentina

Zusammenfassung Handelsliberalisierung, Zollredundanz und Inflation: Eine auf Argentinien angewandte methodologische Untersuchung. — Der Hauptzweck dieser Arbeit besteht darin, einen einfachen Rahmen für die Analyse der Auswirkungen verschiedener Ma\nahmen der Importliberalisierung auf die Wettbewerbsf?higkeit des gewerblichen Sektors zu entwickeln. Im Fall von Argentinien wird gezeigt, da\ das Hauptinstrument zur Beseitigung der Zollredundanz die Wechselkurspolitik der Regierung war. Zollsenkungen waren von zweitrangiger Bedeutung. Die Zollredundanz scheint bis Anfang 1979 beseitigt gewesen zu sein, zu einer Zeit, in der die Beh?rden begannen, diskriminierende Zollsenkungen vorzunehmen. Aus der Redundanzanalyse ergeben sich Hinweise auf das Ausmaβ der m?glichen Abschw?chung der Preissteigerungsrate, die bei langfristiger Konvergenz der in- und ausl?ndischen Preise erwartet werden kann. Konvergenzberechnungen, die auf der Kaufkraftparit?ten-these basieren, k?nnen anscheinend nur dann korrekt verwendet werden, wenn die Preise einzelner Produkte auf den in- und ausl?ndischen M?rkten verglichen werden. Die dargestellten Methoden k?nnen zwar verbessert werden, aber die wichtigsten Folgerungen für die Politik dürften sich bereits aus der durchgefìhrten Analyse klar ergeben.

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Résumé La libéralisation du commerce, l’excédent tarifaire, et l’inflation: une exploration méthodologique appliquée à l’Argentine. — Le but principal de cet article est présenter un cadre simple pour analyser l’impacte des plusieurs mesures de libéralisation d’importation sur la capacité de concurrence potentielle du secteur industriel. Pour l’Argentine, les auteurs démontrent que l’instrument clef pour éliminer l’excédent tarifaire était la politique de taux de change des autorités. Les réductions des tarifs externes étaient moins importantes. Il semble clair que les autorités avaient éliminé l’excédent tarifaire au début de 1979, au moment où ils commen?aient à réduire les tarifs d’une manière discriminatoire. L’analyse de l’excédent indique la mesure possible de la décélération de prix qui peut être attendue sous la condition d’une convergence de prix à long terme. Actuellement il para?t que les calculs de convergence qui basent sur la thèse de PPA peuvent être appliqués correctement seulement si les prix des biens individuels sur les marchés internationaux et locaux sont comparés. En effet la méthodologie présentée ici peut être perfectionnée, mais cette analyse devrait déjà avoir montré les principales implications politiques.

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Resumen Liberalization del comercio, redundancia tarifaria e inflación: una exploration metodológica aplicada a la Argentina. — El propósito principal de este artículo es presentar un marco simple para analizar el impacto de varias medidas de liberalización de importaciones sobre la competitividad potencial del sector industrial. En el caso de Argentina se demuestra que el instrumenta clave al eliminar la redundancia tarifaria fue la política cambiaria de las autoridades. Las reducciones en las tarifas extemas fueron de importancia secundaria. Parece claro que la redundancia tarifaria había sido eliminada ya a principios de 1979, en una época en que las autoridades comenzaron a aplicar reducciones tarifarias discriminatorias. El análisis de redundancia indica el posible monte de desaceleracion de precios que puede esperarse bajo una convergencia de precios de largo plazo. En verdad pareciera que los cálculos de convergencia basados en la tesis PPP pueden ser utilizados correctamente solo cuando se comparan precios de productos individuates en los mercados international y doméstico. La metodología presentada aquí puede ser refinada de varias maneras, pero las principales implicaciones de política deberian quedar claras de acuerdo al análisis precedente.

     

An ethical argument for host country workforce training and development in the expatriate management assignment

This paper seeks to establish the ethical foundation of MNCs' responsibility for providing host country workforce (HCW) preparation and training attendant to the new expatriate management assignment. It argues that such moral responsibility arises from a set of correlative duties which MNCs acquire as business institutions. They include duties involving the expatriate manager, the HCW, and the host nation to (1) assist all employees, including the expatriate manager, in the successful execution of their assignments; (2) avoid the semblance of discriminatory treatment; (3) encourage full status integration into a global economy; (4) foster personal enlightenment and self-enrichment; (5) help individuals develop useful, marketable skills; (6) contribute to the development of a greater and more functional national labor skill base; and (7) encourage a long-term focus on creating enduring value for a maximum number of stakeholders, rather than upon short-term and shortsighted profit for only a few. Some important cautions and considerations related to HCW training implementation are then discussed.Charles M. Vance, associate professor of management at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, has both a domestic and international focus on human resource management and learning system design to enhance organizational performance. He has several publications, and his new book,Mastering Management Education (Sage Publications), is to be published in 1993.Eduardo S. Paderon is the Associate Dean of the Hagan School of Business of Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. He teaches graduate courses on Business Policy and Business and Society. His writings and other scholarly activities, including presentations at national and international conferences, focus on business ethics and cross-cultural value studies.