Shareholders and Corporate Community Involvement in Britain

Corporate community involvement is attracting increasing interest in Britain, but what do shareholders feel about this use of company assets? This timely survey of top UK corporate donors provides interesting data on current practice and explores the degree to which shareholders are consulted. The author is a member of the Department of Business Studies in the Faculty of Management and Business of The Manchester Metropolitan University, Aytoun Building, Aytoun Street, Manchester M1 3GH; e–mail j.clarke@mmu.ac.uk.     

Nonf arm Labor Market Participation of Farm Women

Structural changes in Saskatchewan agriculture have led to significant changes in the time allocation of labor of farm women. This paper analyzes the nonfarm labor market participation and labor supply of farm women in the theoretical context of a household production function and contrasts them with those of men. Participation is analyzed using probit models, and nonfarm labor supply functions are estimated using tobit models. Personal characteristics such as age, education, number of children and nonfarm labor participation of the spouse are significantly related to the nonfarm labor market participation and labor supply of farm women, and the direction of influence is as expected. Farm characteristics such as farm size and type are significant in the case of males but not for females. Labor market characteristics are represented only by distance to the nearest center of Complete Shopping Center status or higher and, while this variable is negatively significant for males as expected, it is not significant for females Les changements structurels qui on frappé l'agriculture de la Saskatchewan ont entraîné des modifications significatives à la répartition du temps des agricultrices en matière de travail. L'article présente une analyse de la participation au marché du travail non agricole, ainsi que de l'offre de main-d'oeuvre des agricultrices, dans le contexte théorique d'une fonction de production de ménage, en comparaison avec la situation observée chez les hommes. Le degré de participation e'tait analysé à partir de modèles probit et les fonctions d'offre de main-d'oeuvre non agricole étaient estimées à partir de modéles tobit. Les caractères personnels comme l'âge, I'instruction, le nombre d'enfants et la participation du conjoint à un travail non agricole étaient significativement reliés, dans le sens attendu, à la participation des femmes au marché du travail non agricole et au temps qu'elles pouvaient y consacrer. Les caractères de l'exploitation, superficie et type, n'étaient significatifs que pour les hommes mais pas pour les femmes. Le seul caractére du marché de main-d'oeuvre considéré était la distance entre la ferme et l'agglomération la plus proche de niveau de centre commercial complet ou de niveau supérieur. Bien que, comme on pouvait s'y attendre, cette variable était significativement négative dans le cas des hommes, elle n'avait pas de valeur significative pour les femmes     

Duell oder Berichterstattung?

Televised debates between the German Chancellor and his challenger were held for the first time in the election campaign in 2002. Hence we had the opportunity to examine the effects of debates as well as the impact of the follow-up news coverage of the debate. By combining a content analysis of debate coverage and a representative survey, we explored how voters’ reception of the first TV debate and their reception of the debate coverage interacted. Voters were influenced both by the impression they formed by directly viewing the debate and by the indirect impression they gained from follow-up media coverage. On the one hand we found an impact on voters’ views of the candidates’ appearance and of who won the debate. On the other hand we found an impact on voters’ general notions of the candidates’ personalities and competences. Furthermore there were — probably rather short-lived — shifts of candidate and party preferences.     

Organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting

New empirical evidence is presented on organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting in three types of organisations: private sector companies, the National Health Service and Local Authorities. Spearman rank correlations are used to examine three propositions: that (i) change in organisational form exists and may be related to an increased use of outsourcing or subcontracting; (ii) outsourcing is expected to improve organisational flexibility and/or the service of an activity, to lead to cost savings, or to allow the organisation to focus more clearly on its core business; and (iii) outsourcing promotes change in management accounting. Statistical support is found for each of our three propositions. This is further supported by reference to three illustrative case studies. Overall, we conclude that organisational change, as effected by the use of outsourcing, is related to specific changes in the organisations' management accounting systems.     

The Corporate Governance Premium,Returns, and Mutual Funds

Mutual funds with a preference for strong corporate governance (CG) have performance similar to mutual funds with a preference for weak CG. We find a direct relation between overall mutual fund CG preference and the corporate governance premium (CGP). Furthermore, the investment preferences of mutual funds forecast the change in the CGP. We provide evidence that the investment activities of institutional investors can affect stock performance, and that shifts by institutional investors in CG preference impact the appearance of the CGP.     

Correlates of Narrow Bracketing

Behavior often deviates from standard predictions because individuals evaluate the consequences of choices separately (i.e., narrow bracketing) rather than jointly. The main existing theories classify different narrow bracketing phenomena as either (i) choice errors caused by cognitive limitations, or (ii) strategies to achieve self‐control. Using an online experiment, we find consistent evidence for theory (ii): mental budgets and narrow goals are related to each other and to measures of self‐control, but are distinct from other forms of narrow bracketing. Evidence for the complementary theory (i) is less consistent: few choice bracketing phenomena are related to each other and to cognitive skills.     

Representatives of future generations as promoters of sustainability in corporate decision processes

Current protests of the young generation emphasize that interests of future generations should be taken more into account by policy makers and in corporate decision processes. As organizations contribute to enduring environmental and social problems, they are required to promote sustainability in order to preserve options for the well-being of future generations. However, organizational decision makers often take a short-term perspective and neglect investments in intergenerational justice. Previous theoretical work has acknowledged the importance of representing future generations in today's decision-making processes to adopt a long-term perspective in order to promote intergenerational justice. In a laboratory experiment, we show that appointing representatives of future generations at the organizational level can foster investments in intergenerational justice. Although this outcome is more pronounced when aligned with the representatives' individual incentives, it even persists for a representative who is monetarily penalized for advocating the interests of future generations.     

Socio-emotional wealth and corporate responses to environmental hostility: Are family firms more stakeholder oriented?

Do family firms care more for different stakeholders than nonfamily firms when operating in a hostile business environment? This study addresses this question and fills the existing void in family business research. It shows that family-controlled firms adopt corporate social responsibility strategies and balance the demands of internal and external interest groups to preserve their socio-emotional wealth while facing fierce competition, resource scarcity, and penurious economic conditions. More specifically, our analysis of an international sample of 956 listed firms from 2006 to 2014 reveals that family firms show a higher level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and better stakeholder orientation than nonfamily firms. Our findings are useful for managers, policymakers, and responsible investors.