Sustainability Development and the Quality of Assurance Reports: Empirical Evidence

There is a rising trend among companies to publish their sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Assurance of these reports is a valuable voluntary tool to provide them with higher credibility. Nonetheless, the quality of assurance reports differs in practice and the objective of this paper is to provide evidence in this new area of research. Indeed, we are pioneers in developing an index to measure the quality of assurance reports. We choose the Spanish setting because it is the worldwide leading country as regards CSR reporting (KPMG, 2011; Sierra et al., 2012). We have found evidence on the determinants for CSR reporting posited by existing literature that have an impact on (a) the decision of companies to publish their CSR reports, (b) the decision to assure the CSR report or not and (c) the decision to hire the assurance services from an auditor or a consultant and the subsequent quality of the assurance report. Last but not least, our results from a sample of 161 CSR assurance reports evidence that assurance reports are of fairly acceptable quality, according to the index proposed. Furthermore, the value of the quality index is significantly higher if the assurance services are provided by an auditor (as opposed to a consultant) and if the CSR reporting company is larger. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

City Image and Perceived Tourism Impact: Evidence from Port Louis,Mauritius

Research suggests that the images residents hold about their community influence the political support for tourism. Yet, few researchers have investigated the image that local residents have of their own area. Borrowing from the existing literature on place image and residents' perceptions of tourism impacts, a theoretical model incorporating these two lines of research is developed and tested using data collected from residents of the city of Port Louis, Mauritius. It proposes four city image attributes as the independent constructs influencing residents' perceptions toward the overall impact of tourism development. These include social attributes, transport attributes, government services attributes, and shopping attributes. Overall impact of tourism development is considered to be a determinant of the level of support for the industry. Results of the structural equation modeling analysis indicate that residents' perceived levels of shopping attributes, transport attributes, and social attributes of the city influence their level of support for the tourism industry. The hypothesis relating transport attributes to overall impacts of tourism was not supported. The study provides some important considerations for local planners attempting to make tourism more supportive in the city.     

社会保障预算编制分析：公共预算模式比较视角

预算编制模式是社会保障预算编制的基础,直接决定了社会保障预算的基本框架及预算权力配置。合理的预算编制模式有利于确保社会保障财政可持续及提高社会保障事业的绩效表现。文章立足于社会保障预算的公共特性,尝试从不同公共预算模式的分析中探讨其在社会保障计划中的适用性问题,并据此提出中国社会保障预算编制的模式性建议。     

European and Asian resistance to the use of the American case method in management training: possible cultural and systemic incongruencies

In this contribution to the use of the Harvard-style case-style method in the training of managers, a transfer problem is identified. This is manifested in the difficulties presented for many non-American students in the use of traditional case-studies. As a result, an example of a revised case method is proposed which offers more educational flexibility and better acceptability.     

浅议整体治疗模式下住院楼建筑的优化设计策略

随着医院经营模式的转变,医院开始以患者为中心为其提供医疗服务,病者的生理、心理需求、住院舒适性、住院体验日益受到重视,医疗关注点也从以前的局部治疗开始向全方位医治患者的整体治疗模式转换。关怀住院病人,为病人提供优质的住院服务,已成为各医院创造医疗技术和设备以外最主要的竞争策略。为住院者营建舒适、健康、满足患者身心以及社会需求;为医护人员创造舒适、人性化的工作、休憩空间,也成为这一时期建筑师必须积极应对的设计问题。     

股份公司股东表决权限缩的激励分析

在股份公司的多方利益相关主体中,股东拥有表决权。一股一权是表决权行使的基本原则,但在公司实践中还存在股东的表决权由于特定原因被限缩的情形,这一现象蕴藏着深刻的激励因素,其中包括产权的赋予和责任的配置。     

我国民族地区学校教育的社会支持力分析

教育是一种社会活动,教育事业必须必需得到社会支持才能顺利开展。在我国由于民族众多,每个民族所处自然环境和社会环境不尽相同,因此在国家统一的教育体制中下,各民族对教育的社会支持力也各有差异。尤其在自然环境差异和民族语言差异方面,其教育经费的扩大化,制约了社会对学校教育的支持力,严重地影响着民族地区的教育发展。这就需要对民族地区的教育体制进行改革与创新,使我国的民族教育获得长足的发展,以推进少数民族地区的社会经济发展。