Have labour practices and human rights disclosures enhanced corporate accountability? The case of the GRI framework

This paper critically evaluates Transnational Corporations’ (TNCs) claimed adherence to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s ‘labour’ and ‘human rights’ reporting guidelines and examines how successful the GRI has been in enhancing comparability and transparency. We found limited evidence of TNCs discharging their accountability to their workforce and, rather, we found evidence to suggest that disclosure was motivated more by enhancing their legitimacy. TNCs failed to adhere to the guidelines, which meant that material information items were often missing, rendering comparability of information meaningless. Instead, TNCs reported large volumes of generic/anecdotal information without acknowledging the impediments they faced in practice.     

Estudio de los factores de compra de productos retro y segmentación del mercado potencial retro

This paper aims to analyze the behavior of potential retro products buyers. A bibliographical review has allowed defining the motives to buy this type of products. However, it should be emphasized that there is scarcely any quantitative information on the reasons to purchase and the segmentation of the potential retro product market. Using the data collected by means of a survey, a factor analysis and a cluster analysis have been performed. As a result, there are three factors of retro product purchase: characteristics of product, present differentiation feelings and past feelings. Furthermore, the existence of two differentiated segments has been detected: emotive consumer and commercial consumer.     

Spontaneous duodenal fistula due to hepatic hydatid cyst

Connunication of a hepatic hydatid cyst to the duodenum appears to be extremely rare. This is the first case described in the imaging literature of hepatic echinococcosis fistulized to the duodenum studied by computed tomography.     

Harmonization of financial reporting of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic

A current problem of the present-day accounting and financial reporting consists in aligning the accounting in small and medium enterprises. In July 2009 the International Financial Reporting Standard for small and medium-sized enterprises was issued, which extended the aligning possibilities also to small and medium enterprises considerably. If the standard is adopted by the national legislation, problems connected with the standard implementation in the national legislation will have to be solved as well as practical issues connected with making financial statements. At present the yields and the problems which can arise in connection with the standard application have to be focused on. A contribution of the standard application will be a better informative ability of financial statements on the international level. At small and medium enterprises this can contribute to better comanunication with banks, with investors, rating application are： parallel reporting according to national agencies etc. The problems connected with the standard regulations, differences between the national legislation and the standard, wide practice at keeping accounts and making financial statements and limited approach of small and medium enterprises to obtaining information and to training of their employees. Another problem can be a tight link between the trading income and the tax base, when small companies prefer rather the tax point of view.     

Yahoo!骑虎难下

唐骏认为。雅虎再次复兴的机会不大,虽然它有很多现金和很好的资源。但是它缺乏了创新的文化和动力,现在更像一个投资公司.     

The role of the physical work environment for creative employees – a case study of digital artists

The purpose of the study was to explore the role of the physical environment for creative employees. The results are based on interviews with office-working digital artists. The physical work environment was considered to offer three types of support for creative work for the participants: functional, psychosocial and inspirational. Creative processes would find better breeding ground if functional support, such as adequate lighting and tools, and psychosocial support, such as spatial possibilities for both privacy and communication, were provided. Without inspirational support, such as brainstorming rooms, dynamic planning and imaginative interior design, the work outcome was believed to become less creative. The physical environmental support model can be used by companies with an interest to provide creativity supportive workplaces.     

A Cautionary Tale About Control Variables in IV Estimation

Many instrumental variable (IV) regressions include control variables to justify (conditional) independence of the instrument and the potential outcomes. The plausibility of conditional IV independence crucially depends on the timing when the control variables are determined. This paper works through different IV models and discusses the (conditions for the) satisfaction of conditional IV independence depending on whether the control variables are measured prior to or after instrument assignment. To illustrate the identification issues, we consider the Vietnam War draft risk as instrument either for veteran status or education to evaluate the effects of these variables on labour market and health outcomes. Our empirical analysis based on the ‘Young Men in High School and Beyond’ survey suggests that commonly used conditional IV strategies to estimate the impact of draft induced military service or education may be severely biased due to the use of improper controls.