Corporate governance: from accountability to enterprise

This paper discusses the development of the corporate governance debate in the UK since the formation of the Cadbury Committee to the recent reports of the Hampel Committee within the context of a general corporate governance framework. It identifies the changing emphasis in this period between accountability and enterprise aspects of governance. The literature relating to accountability and enterprise is reviewed in terms of the key areas of governance (board structure, directors' remuneration, directors' ownership, institutional shareholders; auditors, auditing and accounting information; and the market for corporate control). Issues of substitutability and complementarity of governance mechanisms are also examined. The paper argues that although there has been a shift in emphasis towards enterprise, there is a need for further rigorous UK-based research to underpin this development. Areas for future research are identified.     

Analysis of the effect of risk management practices on the performance of new product development programs

Risk management is receiving much attention, as it is seen as a method to improve cost, schedule, and technical performance of new product development programs. However, there is a lack of empirical research that investigates the effective integration of specific risk management practices proposed by various standards with new product development programs and their association with various dimensions of risk management success. Based on a survey of 291 product development programs, this paper investigates the association of risk management practices with five categories of product development program performance: (A) Quality Decision Making; (B) High Program Stability; (C) Open, problem solving organization; (D) Overall new product development project success; and (E) overall product success. The results show that six categories of risk management practices are most effective: (1) Develop risk management skills and resources; (2) Tailor risk management to and integrate it with new product development; (3) Quantify impacts of risks on your main objectives; (4) Support all critical decisions with risk management results; (5) Monitor and review your risks, risk mitigation actions, and risk management process; and (6) Create transparency regarding new product development risks. The data shows that the risk management practices are directly associated with outcome measures in the first three categories (improved decision making, program stability and problem solving). There is also evidence that the risk management practices indirectly associate with the remaining two categories of outcome measures (project and product success). Additional research is needed to describe the exact mechanisms through which risk management practices influence NPD program success.     

What are ‘unpopular causes’ and how can they achieve fundraising success?

• Recent efforts to grow and strengthen the culture of philanthropy in the UK have largely focused on two dimensions: the total amount of money donated and the effectiveness of philanthropic spending. This paper explores a third dimension: the destination and distribution of donations. A defining characteristic of charitable giving is that it is voluntary rather than coerced, and the resulting respect for donor autonomy makes people wary of promoting one cause above another or implying that any beneficiary group is more or less ‘worthy’ of support. However, the absence of much comment on, or significant research into, the destination of donations does not alter the fact that some groups succeed in attracting significant philanthropic funds whilst others struggle to secure many—or any—donations. This paper explores the concept of ‘unpopularity’ in the charity sector, especially in relation to its impact on fundraising. We unpack what this loaded phrase means, identify good practice by those seeking support and present case studies of charities that have overcome perceived unpopularity to achieve success in raising voluntary income. We suggest that by investing organisational resources and effort in fundraising, by framing the cause to maximise the arousal of sympathy and minimise concerns about beneficiary culpability and by avoiding the unintended negative consequences of self‐labelling as ‘unpopular’ no charity need assume it is their destiny to languish at the bottom of the fundraising league tables.

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An investigation of the stability of returns in Western European equity markets

This paper investigates the temporal stability of various dimensions of the returns of 16 European stock markets that are relevant to an analysis of international portfolio diversification. The basic data consist of daily stock market price indices for these markets. This group of indices comprehends a wide range of stock markets differentiated by size, age and technological sophistication, but in each case located in Western Europe. Two main tests were conducted: (a) ANOVA to identify inter-temporal variability and inter-market variability over 24 three-month sub-periods from January 1989 to December 1994, and (b) cluster analysis to identify groups of markets that exhibit similar behaviour patterns. The findings suggest that, while the potential gains from an internationally diversified portfolio restricted to the equities of Western European markets appear to be substantial, the lack of inter-temporal stability in the composition of the optimal portfolio from one period to another makes these gains difficult to achieve in practice.     

MCDA Framework for Fishing Rights Allocation in South Africa

The work discussed in this paper relates to the allocation of fishing rights within the Western Cape province of South Africa. Many of these fisheries are under threat through over-exploitation, and yet are a traditional source of livelihood in many communities. We describe a sequence of interventions during which principles and processes of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) formed the framework for structuring the problems, for facilitating group consensus on the decision making process, and for designing a decision support template for use in future allocations. Interactions with community representatives and with the the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism revealed a high degree of consistency in perceptions of the management goals that need to be taken into consideration. These goals could be structured and summarized in the form of an integrated value tree, which in turn formed the basis for a formalized decision support structure that could provide a transparent, coherent and auditable basis for the allocation of fishing rights in a fully goal-directed manner.     

‘If I Should Fall From Grace…’: Stories of Change and Organizational Ethics

Although studies in organizational storytelling have dealt extensively with the relationship between narrative, power and organizational change, little attention has been paid to the implications of this for ethics within organizations. This article addresses this by presenting an analysis of narrative and ethics as it relates to the practice of organizational downsizing. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s theories of narrative and ethics, we analyze stories of organizational change reported by employees and managers in an organization that had undergone persistent downsizing. Our analysis maintains that the presence of a dominant story that seeks to legitimate organizational change also serves to normalize it, and that this, in turn, diminishes the capacity for organizations to scrutinize the ethics of their actions. We argue that when organizational change narratives become singularized through dominant forms of emplotment, ethical deliberation and responsibility in organizations are diminished. More generally, we contend that the narrative closure achieved by the presence of a dominant narrative amongst employees undergoing organizational change is antithetical to the openness required for ethical questioning.     

The impact of work‐life programs on firm productivity

This research examined the adoption of work‐life programs and the impact of work‐life programs on firm productivity. Human resource executives in a national sample of 658 organizations provided survey data on firm characteristics and work‐life programs. In these 658 organizations, the percentage of professionals and the percentage of women employed were positively related to the development of more extensive work‐life programs. Productivity data were obtained from CD Disclosure for 195 public, for‐profit firms. Significant interaction effects indicated that in these 195 firms work‐life programs had a stronger positive impact on productivity when women comprised a larger percentage of the workforce and when a higher percentage of professionals were employed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.