Determinants and Performance Effects of Social Performance Measurement Systems

This study investigates the performance measurement systems adopted by companies to manage their social responsibility activities, a theme that remains under-researched despite the important role that these mechanisms may play in helping firms control and improve their social performance. An integrative model is developed to examine how the three fundamental drivers of corporate social strategies, i.e., business motivations, perceived stakeholder pressures, and top management’s social commitment, influence the use of social performance indicators for internal decision-making and control and how such use impacts companies’ social and economic performance. The results from a survey of 97 Italian companies suggest that economic motivations and top management’s commitment are associated with a more intensive use of social performance indicators for decision-making and control, whereas perceived pressures from stakeholders do not represent a significant determinant of such use. The use of social performance indicators, in turn, is found to directly influence a firm’s social performance and, indirectly, its bottom line.     

Futures research and global change

Futures research must be carried out on the basis of people having the right to choose their own future. There is thus a need, particularly in the developing countries, for the spread of training in futures to those who will themselves be shaping their own future, and this places responsibilities on futures specialists in the developed North. The global value changes underway must also be confronted if futures research is to retain its relevance. A ‘project approach’ is preferred, which embraces both extrapolative and normative futures methodologies.     

The Persistence of Profits,Sectoral Heterogeneity and Firms’ Characteristics

The analysis of the persistence of profits has long been a controversial issue within empirical industrial organisation literature. The aim of our paper is to provide new empirical findings that may account for patterns of both sectoral and firm profit persistence. The distinctive feature of our study is that we analyse a number of firms’ ergodic distribution in each sector according to their profit level; we then calculate the difference between such a distribution and that prevailing in manufacturing as a whole. Finally, we break down this distribution; the resulting breakdown highlights the impact of each transition probability on inter‐sectoral differences clearly, and it also emphasises the role of intra‐sectoral dynamics in determining different persistence patterns. We then apply this methodology to both innovating and non‐innovating firms, and conclude that among surviving firms innovation is indeed crucial to the persistence of profits. In addition, we set up an econometric test which enables us to estimate the impact of firm and sectoral characteristics on a firm’s profit condition.     

The missing link? Finance,public services,and co-production: The case of social impact bonds (SIBs)

The authors explain why social impact bonds (SIBs) are an excellent—and probably the only—example of the finance–social services–co-production link. They show how SIBs can provide a functional linking mechanism in social service systems. Furthermore, they can help boost the innovation and sustainability of this system. The co-production concept is related to practice by studying two prison SIBs (HMP Peterborough in the UK and Rikers Island in the USA). They explain why co-production is relevant and how it works in SIBs.     

The Relationship between Organizational Culture and Energy Performance: A Municipal Energy Manager Level Study

For energy managers, finding personal meaning in the activities they are engaged in and gaining an identity in connection between energy efficiency and organizational goals is a necessary condition to mobilize passion and commitment, which in turn are fundamental to achieve organizational goals under tight budget constraints. Despite this, little is known about how municipalities, which are typical budget‐constrained organizations, can enhance the empowerment of employees with roles as energy managers. This paper draws from the literature on the person–organization fit in order to adapt and test the hypothesis that multiple dimensions of organizational culture are strong predictors of perceived managerial and technical energy performance. Data from 729 questionnaire responses from energy managers of Italian municipalities show that formalization, team orientation, innovation, centralization and reward systems are the key elements that enable energy managers to act as business partners instead of task managers. Causal relations are discussed and presented along with theoretical and policy implications that can provide inspiration also to private organizations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Risk Sharing and Institutional Quality: Evidence from OECD and Emerging Economies

In this paper, we investigate the impact of institutional quality on risk sharing across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and emerging economies (EMEs). It has been found that the quality of institutions and risk sharing are significantly interrelated among OECD members (mostly through credit market channel), but not for the EMEs. Our results are consistent when we control for pre- and post-GFC periods. The reason why the impact of institutional quality on risk sharing is limited among EMEs might be due to the significant monetary injections from advanced economies in the form of remittances and financial aid which might understate other factors that influence risk sharing.     

Social Capital Accumulation and the Exercise of Power: The Case of P2 in Italy

This article addresses the production of legitimate forms of power in our democracies by framing the rise and fall of “Propaganda 2” (P2) — a masonic lodge active in Italy during the 1970s — in the analysis of social capital proposed by Pierre Bourdieu. This lens emphasizes the role played by networks in the accumulation of symbolic capital and their interaction with the historical and institutional context in the exercise of symbolic violence. The experience of P2 is then analyzed to describe, on one hand, the characteristics of the networks that are critical to its success and, on the other, the lodge’s capacity to interfere with the economic and political systems within the context of the Cold War in Italy. The willingness to control and provoke institutional change expressed by P2’s affiliates also shows to what extent the accumulation of social capital, in combination with other forms of capital, may represent a threat to public welfare. By illustrating the interaction between networks and the normative framework underlying our institutions, this case study suggests that the experience of P2 is not an exception in the functioning of our democracies.     

Wendell Bell, the scholar and the human being: His way of looking towards the future

Since his early professional life, Wendell Bell has sought to understand societies in terms of their changes by identifying the connections between sociology and futures studies. His aim, in my view, has been to use his highly developed intellectual capacity to search for indications of alternative futures, and his writings make a crucial contribution to sociology and futures studies and to their necessary interconnections. His efforts are unique in that they are based on the importance of ethical principles to guide human responsibility in present and future societies. His intellectual, professional capacities, as well as his experience, consist in an endeavour to understand the human being as well as its social context. This constant search emerges very clearly from Bell's writings and lectures, as well as from all his human contacts with colleagues, students and friends.     

A predictability test for a small number of nested models

We introduce quasi-likelihood ratio tests for one sided multivariate hypotheses to evaluate the null that a parsimonious model performs equally well as a small number of models which nest the benchmark. The limiting distributions of the test statistics are non-standard. For critical values we consider: (i) bootstrapping and (ii) simulations assuming normality of the mean square prediction error difference. The proposed tests have good size and power properties compared with existing equal and superior predictive ability tests for multiple model comparison. We apply our tests to study the predictive ability of a Phillips curve type for the US core inflation.