Sustainability Practices and Corporate Financial Performance: A Study Based on the Top Global Corporations

Sustainability is concerned with the impact of present actions on the ecosystems, societies, and environments of the future. Such concerns should be reflected in the strategic planning of sustainable corporations. Strategic intentions of this nature are operationalized through the adoption of a long-term focus and a more inclusive set of responsibilities focusing on ethical practices, employees, environment, and customers. A central hypothesis, that we test in this paper is that companies which attend to this set of responsibilities under the term superior sustainable practices, have higher financial performance compared to those that do not engage in such practices. The target population of this study consists of the top 100 sustainable global companies in 2008 which have been selected from a universe of 3,000 firms from the developed countries and emerging markets. We find significant higher mean sales growth, return on assets, profit before taxation, and cash flows from operations in some activity sectors of the sample companies compared to the control companies over the period of 2006–2010. Furthermore, our findings show that the higher financial performance of sustainable companies has increased and been sustained over the sample. Notwithstanding sample limitation, causal evidence reported in this paper suggests that, there is bi-directional relationship between corporate social responsibilities practices and corporate financial performance.     

The mediation effects of consumers’ need recognition and pre-purchase evaluation in consumers’ decision-making on purchasing safe street food: The case in Nakhon Si Thammarat,Thailand

Nakhon Si Thammarat province is one of the largest cities in Thailand and offers various types of street foods in the city. However, the number of street vendors that pass food safety certification is very low. Nevertheless, there are many consumers who still purchase street food because of their lifestyle who are exposed to food safety risks. Therefore, this research aims to evaluate how consumers make their decisions about the safety of the street food. This study investigates the importance of the need recognition and pre-purchase evaluation stages in consumers’ decision-making in relation to their purchasing of safe street food. The results from the structural equation modeling analysis found that, at 95%, the confidential need recognition would act as a partial mediator between consumers’ motivation → pre-purchase evaluation on purchasing safe food and consumers’ food safety knowledge → pre-purchase evaluation. In turn, pre-purchase evaluation would act as a full mediator between consumers’ motivation and safe street food purchasing. The findings signify that the stages of need recognition and pre-purchase evaluation in the decision-making process are important in order to reduce consumers' food risk while purchasing street food. Therefore, encouraging consumers to recognize the importance of purchasing safe food and convincing them to be concerned when selecting food is necessary to prevent consumers from unsafe food consumption.     

Impact of organizational justice on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry of Pakistan: The moderating role of uncertainty avoidance

This study investigates the impact of distributive justice, procedural justice, interactional justice, and informational justice on customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry of Pakistan, also the study investigates the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance on all relationships. Data were collected from 309 consumers from all provinces of Pakistan. A significant positive impact of dimensions of organizational justice on customer satisfaction is found; however, contrary to expectations, no moderating role of uncertainty avoidance is proved for any of the relationships. At the end of the article, the results of the study are discussed. This study shows potential implications for service providers.     

We are who we are: Incorporation of individual culture in customer satisfaction models

Despite the increasing recognition that cultural values have a major impact on consumer behavior, few studies have investigated the effect of individual culture on customer satisfaction in the global banking sector. This study designs a model of customer satisfaction that incorporates Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), and tests it among a sample of 227 Arab customers in the UAE banking sector through structural equation modeling using LISREL. Arab customers are reported to have a high UA, and it would thus be pertinent to determine how this cultural trait affects their consumer satisfaction. It was determined that perceived value and UA are direct antecedents of corporate reputation that in turn has a strong effect on satisfaction. Unexpectedly, service quality was not found to affect satisfaction. Various theoretical and managerial implications arising from the study findings are discussed, as well as potential avenues for further research in this important area.     

Does the Management's Forecast of Merger Synergies Explain the Premium Paid,the Method of Payment,and Merger Motives?

I study a sample of 336 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals to investigate the effect of managements’ estimate of synergy on the reservation price and the payment method. I find that synergy does not explain the premium paid implying that it may have been announced to induce shareholders to endorse the deal. Acquiring firms are more likely to overpay if they have low growth potential, while the target firm is large, has higher premerger operating performance, and high growth potential. Acquirers may be serving their own self‐interests as they are more likely to exceed their reservation price if they receive low compensation and if entrenchment provisions are in place. I also find that these acquisitions lead to postmerger shareholders’ wealth destruction, which is more pronounced when acquirers overpay. I document that the greater the synergy and the acquirer firm‐specific overvaluation, the higher the likelihood of settling the deal with more shares.     

Iterated Kalai–Smorodinsky–Nash compromise

In this paper, we introduce a new two-person bargaining solution, which we call iterated Kalai–Smorodinsky–Nash compromise (IKSNC). For its characterization, we present an axiom called \(\varGamma \)-Decomposability which is satisfied by any solution that is decomposable with respect to a given reference solution \(\varGamma \). We show that the IKSNC solution is uniquely characterized by \(\varGamma \)-Decomposability whenever \(\varGamma \) satisfies the standard axioms of Independence of Equivalent Utility Representations and Symmetry, along with three additional axioms, namely Restricted Monotonicity of Individually Best Extensions, Weak Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives, and Weak Pareto Optimality under Symmetry.     

The role of change agent as mediator in the relationship between HR competencies and organizational performance

Human resource (HR) practitioners, as change agents, are responsible for easing the impact of changes in their organization and to protect employees against the side effects of these inevitable changes. Sometimes, the change helps to produce a significant increase in performance and the company can boost sales and production without additional cost. Several vital competencies that are reviewed in this paper include business knowledge culture management, effective relationship and human resource development skills. Based on the findings of this study, not all competencies are related to the role of change agent. HR practitioners who are unable to function as change agents will inevitably create a barrier against their becoming a well-integrated strategic partner. Therefore, the role of change agent also mediates the relationship between certain HR competencies and organizational performance.     

An analysis of the relationship between HR professionals' competencies and firms' performance in Malaysia

This study examines the competencies of human resource professionals in the manufacturing companies of Malaysia. The competencies that are examined in this study are business knowledge, strategic contribution, HR delivery, personal credibility, HR technology and internal consultation. All these competencies will be tested whether or not they are significantly related to a firms' performance. The sample employed here consists of HR professionals from Malaysian manufacturing companies in the southernmost state of Malaysia, Johor.A total of 89 firms responded to the survey exercise. This study uses quantitative methods such as spearmen ρ correlation and multiple regression analysis to test the variables. The finding shows that the top nine ranking HR competency factors are from the domain of personal credibility and HR delivery. The respondents' self-rated competency shows that personal communication, legal compliance, effective relationship and performance management rank above all other factors. Competencies such as strategic contribution, business knowledge, HR technology and internal consultation have significant correlation with firms' performance. Furthermore, it is found that out of all HR competencies, the highest contributions to a firm's performance are strategic contribution and internal consultation.     

The Gates Hillman prediction market

The Gates Hillman prediction market (GHPM) was an internet prediction market designed to predict the opening day of the Gates and Hillman Centers, the new computer science complex at Carnegie Mellon University. Unlike a traditional continuous double auction format, the GHPM was mediated by an automated market maker, a central agent responsible for pricing transactions with traders over the possible opening days. The GHPM’s event partition was, at the time, the largest ever elicited in any prediction market by an order of magnitude, and dealing with the market’s size required new advances, including a novel span-based elicitation interface that simplified interactions with the market maker. We use the large set of identity-linked trades generated by the GHPM to examine issues of trader performance and market microstructure, including how the market both reacted to and anticipated official news releases about the building’s opening day.