Students’ perception of CSR and its influence on business performance. A multiple mediation analysis

Firm managers play an important role in the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. Education is emerging as the key factor in developing a sense of moral responsibility amongst the business students who will eventually become company managers and decision makers. The aim of this research is, thus, twofold. First, to analyze the existence of a direct positive correlation between university students’ perception of CSR and its impact on business performance; and second, to examine the extent to which two factors (advantages brought by CSR and responsibilities toward stakeholders) act as mediation variables in the aforementioned correlation. The analysis was performed with a sample of 390 business‐related university students. Amongst the potential contributions made by this study we can highlight the possibility of knowing future managers’ way of thinking and of knowing the aspects where educational centers might improve their CSR teaching.     

Analyzing social media,analyzing the social? A methodological discussion about the demoscopic and predictive potential of social media

Quality & Quantity - The impact of computational technologies and the worldwide use of Internet entails a theoretical and methodological challenge for social scientists, considering the purpose...     

Measuring the financial sustainability and its influential factors in local governments

The economic crisis has led international organizations and previous research to point out the need for measuring and controlling financial sustainability in governments. Based on the main international pronouncements, this article seeks to contribute to the measurement and management of the financial sustainability, analysing the income statement evolution and identifying its influential factors. An empirical study of Spanish municipalities is then undertaken to test the relationship between the measure of the financial sustainability and three dimensions proposed by International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (revenues, debt and services). Our findings indicate that the income statement is a good approach for the financial sustainability assessment, because it reveals relevant information about its three dimensions, allowing to identify the specific factors which could provoke sustainability problems on public services.     

Towards ��An Intellectual Capital-Based View of the Firm��: Origins and Nature

Economic and social activities are undergoing radical changes, which can be labelled as ??knowledge economy and/or society??. In this sense, intellectual capital (IC), or knowledge assets, as the fourth factor of production, is replacing the other ones ?C job, land and capital. This article tries to offer the origins and nature of the firm??s IC that can be labelled as ??An Intellectual Capital-Based View of the Firm Competition??. This framework tries to highlight the strategic role of different intangible assets like talented and committed workers, cultural values, or long-term relationships among the firm and its stakeholders ?C customers, allies, suppliers and society in general ?C in gaining and sustaining competitive advantages, being the management of IC a key issue in the management agenda.     

Store brand and national brand promotion attitudes antecedents

Retailers compete against national manufacturers by launching store brands. National manufactures regularly use brand promotions to fight store brands back. The purpose of this article is to find out whether attitudes toward national brand promotions and store brands have similar or different conceptual antecedents. The study presents and tests a model of the effects of shoppers´ characteristics (price and non-price-related) on attitudes toward store brand and national brand promotions. The results support that constructs relating to price impact both store brand attitude and national brand promotion attitude, but the strength of some of these relationships differ. Other shopper characteristics like brand loyalty and store loyalty, have similar negative and positive effects, respectively. These slight differences suggest that promotions of national brands might be a good tool for fighting back store brands, but manufacturers need to design and target these promotions carefully in order to avoid head-to-head competition.     

Sportsbooks and politicians: Place your bet!: Teaching note

This case exposes students to strategy issues for an electronic business that is subject to a particularly complex set of laws and regulations. This note explains the teaching objectives of the case and how to use the case in class. Instructors can organize its discussion around four questions which guide the students from the analysis of the industry and a characterization of different forms of competition in sports gambling, to the strategy of BetonSports and the political calculations that serve as basis for this strategy. A more complete teaching guide is available from the authors upon request.     

Working capital management,corporate performance,and financial constraints

This paper examines the linkage between working capital management and corporate performance for a sample of non-financial UK companies. In contrast to previous studies, the findings provide strong support for an inverted U-shaped relation between investment in working capital and firm performance, which implies the existence of an optimal level of investment in working capital that balances costs and benefits and maximizes a firm's value. The results suggest that managers should avoid negative effects on firm performance because of lost sales and lost discounts for early payments or additional financing expenses. The paper also analyzes whether the optimal working capital level is sensitive to alternative measures of financial constraints. The findings show that this optimum is lower for firms more likely to be financially constrained.     

Ownership Structure and the Cost of Debt

This paper examines the impact on the cost of debt by ownership concentration and shareholder identity; that is, whether the shareholders are banks, non-financial firms, the state, institutional investors or the board of directors. Our analysis suggests that directors who own shares tend to be aligned with external shareholders, that firms with government ownership enjoy lower cost of debt and that banks effectively monitor management, so reducing the agency costs of debt.