Ethical aspects of an urban catastrophe

As a consequence of the collapse of a building in Barcelona, in December 1990, it was discovered that a large number of dwellings, mainly in Barcelona but also in other towns of Catalonia, were affected by a structural defect known as aluminosis, consisting of a deterioration of the reinforced concrete manufactured using aluminous cement, which considerably reduced its strength and that of the steel embedded in the concrete. This brought to light a series of economic, social, political and also moral problems, such as the use of the aluminous cement itself — a quality product but which requires careful handling —, the lack of regulation concerning the product and its use in construction, the poor state of repair of the buildings affected, the careless manner in which they had been built, the lag in technical knowledge, the financial situation of the people affected by the aluminosis, etc.This document provides a full account of the events and their historical, technical, economic and legal background, paying particular attention to the ethical problems created by the situation.Antonio Argandoña is Professor at IESE, the International Graduate School of Management of the University of Navarra in Barcelona (Spain), where he teaches Economics and Business Ethics. He is a member of the Executive Committee of EBEN (European Business Ethics Network), and of the Organizing Committees of the Second (Barcelona, 1989) and Sixth (Oslo, 1993) European Conferences on Business Ethics. He is also co-editor ofPeople in Corporations: Ethical Responsibilities and Corporate Effectiveness (Kluwer, 1990) and author of many articles on business and economics ethics. This article was presented to the Fifth European Conference on Business Ethics (Paris, October 1992).     

浅谈英语教学改革中对学生英译汉技巧的培养

英语教学改革要求我们要把提高学生的英语应用能力放在第一位，教师要在学生的学习过程中起到引导和辅助的作用。在英译汉的过程中，教师不能只生硬地传授译文，而是要把英译汉的规律进行归粪总结，得出一些象数学公式一样的翻译技巧，将其传授给学生，让学生在学习中加以实践运用，达到以不变应万变的良好效果，进而提高学生的英语应用能力。     

自主创新:"十一五"行业主要任务 许坤元副会长谈如何贯彻中央经济工作会议精神

11月29目至12月1日。中共中央、国务院召开的中央经济工作会议在北京举行。这次关系国民经济发展的重要会议分析了“十五”时期国内经济社会发展工作的成就及取得的重要认识和经验、当前我国的经济形势，阐述了未来经济社会发展主要预期目标和需要解决的重点问题。本刊记者在会后对中国纺织工业协会许坤元副会长进行了专访。许会长在分析纺织产业“十五”期间取得的成就和发展现状的基础上强调指出：自主创新是纺织工业“十一五”时期的主要任务，并对如何实现全面增强自主创新能力、节约能源资源。推动纺织行业协调、健康可持续发展进行了深入浅出地分析。[编者按]     

中央经济工作会议纺织解读 国家发改革委经济运行局张莉纵论宏观经济调控与中国纺织发展

2005年中央经济工作会议为明年的经济工作提出了包括“一个统筹”，“四个着力点”，“八项任务”在内的工作要求，成为各行业下一步发展的指导思想。我们希望了解：明年宏观经济调控的具体方向是什么？中国纺织行业如何在政策框架下谋求更好的发展？政府将对纺织工业采取哪些调整措施？纺织行业及企业如何把握工作的重点？带着这些问题，本刊记者专访了国家发展与改革委员会经济运行局张莉局长，请她从纺织产业的角度全方位解读了2005年中央经济工作会议内容。[编者按]     

The raw material basis of global value chains: allocating environmental responsibility based on value generation

A new approach to allocate environmental responsibility, the ‘value added-based responsibility’ allocation, is presented in this article. This metric allocates total environmental pressures occurring along an international supply chain to the participating sectors and countries according to the share of value added they generate within that specific supply chain. We show that – due to their position in global value chains – certain sectors (e.g. services) and countries (e.g. Germany) receive significantly greater responsibility compared to other allocation approaches. This adds a new perspective to the discussions concerning a fair distribution of mitigation costs among nations, companies and consumers.     

Relationship Between Sustainable Development and Financial Performance: International Empirical Research

The aim of this paper is to clarify the relationship between companies' sustainable behavior and their financial performance (FP), which has been studied for several years without reaching a consensus on the effect and the direction of it. Hypotheses are tested for an unbalanced sample of 1960 multinational non‐financial listed companies from 25 countries and one administrative region for the period between 2002 and 2010. Due to the use of an international database and the differences among countries, it is possible to observe divergence between institutional settings. For this reason, a corporate governance system (Anglo‐Saxon, Germanic, Latin and Asian) is used as characteristic of the macro‐environment. Results obtained via the generalized method of moments estimator allow us to support the existence of a positive bidirectional relationship between corporate social responsibility and FP, evidencing the existence of a synergistic circle. The use of market value indicated that investors are able to identify economic, social and environmental practices generating a positive effect on FP. These relationships differ between corporate governance systems, due to the specific characteristics of each system. Findings are robust for each sustainable sub‐index (society, human rights, environmental and board). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Visual displays: analytical study and applications to graphs and real data

Principal axis methods such as principal component analysis (PCA) and correspondence analysis (CA) are useful for identifying structures in data through interesting planar graphic displays. However, some kinds of data sets can be dealt alternatively with PCA or CA. This paper focuses on methods, such as PCA and CA, and on visual displays. Our aim is to illustrate the implications for a potential user of selecting either method, and its advantages and disadvantages, from an applied point of view. This is a matter covered broadly in textbooks and elsewhere considering theoretical arguments. Our purpose is to contribute to the comparison between these methods, over the same data set, in order to illustrate them for the practitioner. In the first part of this paper we present a novel analytical study of a binary matrix associated with a non-oriented axis-symmetric graph and show that CA outperforms standardized PCA for the reconstitution and visualization of such kind of graphs. In the second part we present a case using real data dealing with the distribution of employees in different economic sectors for the countries of the European Union, analyzed by means of standardized PCA and two-way CA, in order to see the differences between the two methods in practice.     

False Discoveries und Fehlinterpretationen wissenschaftlicher Ergebnisse

High-quality science communication to the public depends to a large extent on the way research findings are translated into comprehensible language and common speech. In this communicative process, a reasonable evaluation of the trustworthiness of empirical findings, based on an adequate interpretation of statistical analyses, is absolutely crucial. This paper’s authors argue that the credibility of science is jeopardised by two compromising developments within science itself: on the one hand, an inflation of ostensible empirical evidence related to misuses and misinterpretations of the concept of statistical significance, and, on the other, a sensationalist overvaluation of the results of single studies instead of an adequate representation of the available body of evidence in a given scientific field.     

ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF PUBLIC SUBSIDIES ON FIRM R&D INVESTMENT: A SURVEY

This survey examines the empirical literature on the relationship between public R&D subsidies and private R&D investment over the past five decades. The survey reveals a considerable heterogeneity of empirical results that cannot be explained fully by methodological issues. We aim to provide further explanations of the possible causes of that heterogeneity. In particular, we emphasise a set of issues that, in our view, are critical to understanding the potential effect of public R&D subsidies on private R&D spending. Special attention is paid to the dynamic aspects and composition of firm R&D, the constraints faced by the firm (such as financial constraints), and the amount and source of public subsidies. None of these issues have been investigated in depth. We formulate a set of research assumptions to guide future empirical research in this field.