Predispositions as determinants of the future

Futures studies has been dominated by the concerns of forecasting and control. This paper suggests that predispositions held by people, especially attitudes and assumptions, have a significant impact on the future and thus constitute an important field of research in futures studies. It discusses three major types of predisposition, and outlines two mechanisms by which they affect the future, especially as it relates to technology. Three examples drawn from real life are then analysed to illustrate the variety of impacts that predispositions have on the future. It is not the intention of this paper to provide a full treatment of the topic, but rather to make an initial proposal. So, finally, the simplifications made in the paper are discussed, and suggestions made about fruitful avenues of further research.     

The Long‐Term Effects of Legalizing Divorce on Children

We estimate the effect of divorce legalization on the long‐term well‐being of children, by exploiting the different timing of divorce legalization across Europe. We compare the adult outcomes of cohorts raised when divorce was banned with those of cohorts raised after divorce was legalized in the same country. We also have ‘control’ countries where all cohorts were exposed (or not exposed) to legal divorce as children. We find that women who grew up under legal divorce have lower earnings and income and worse health as adults compared with women who grew up under illegal divorce. These negative effects are not found for men.     

Child care voucher and labour market behaviour: experimental evidence from Finland

This article provides experimental estimates of the impact of a voucher for private care on labour force participation and use of private and public child care within the Nordic system of universal provision of public care. In a market that was providing high-quality, low-cost public child care, a voucher is nevertheless found to have a significant, positive effect for the use of private child care with zero effects on either use of public care or labour force participation. The use of private increased by five percentage points in the whole country and by five to seven percentage points in areas that suffer from excess demand for child care as a result of the introduction of the private child care voucher.     

Corporate Responsibility and Identity: from a Stakeholder to an Awareness Approach

Firms are encouraged to manage their corporate responsibility and identity in accordance with the popular stakeholder theory. Managers are, however, confronted with the complexity of the praxis and related ethical dilemmas, as the expectations of their external stakeholders may be myriad, ambiguous and self‐contradictory, or even non‐existent in the global and dynamic business contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to (a) review and critically discuss the stakeholder approach in striving for a responsible identity and (b) introduce an alternative approach that can address its inadequacies and shortcomings. The study outlines an alternative theorem, the awareness approach to responsible identity. In the conclusions, the article proposes how firms can adopt a responsible identity that leads to a desired image and reputation, and maps out further research opportunities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

A Holistic Corporate Responsibility Model: Integrating Values,Discourses and Actions

The corporate responsibility (CR) discussion has so far been rather fragmented as academics tackle it from their own areas of expertise, which guarantees in-depth analyses, but leaves room for broader syntheses. This research is a synthetic, interdisciplinary exercise: it integrates philosophical, psychological and managerial perspectives of corporate responsibility into a more holistic CR-model for the benefit of academics, companies and their interest groups. CR usually comprises three areas: environmental, social and economic responsibilities. In all these areas there should be a match between corporate values, discourses and actions. The aim of this multidisciplinary research is to build a CR-model by integrating (1) utilitarian/egoistic, duty/rights/justice and virtue ethical corporate values with (2) increased consciousness of psychological defences in corporate discourses, in order to achieve (3) responsible environmental, social and economic corporate actions. The resulting CR-model can be tested in companies and executed through corporate strategic and operational management. This paper was presented at the European Academy of Management (EURAM) Conference in Munich, 4–7 May 2005 (Ketola, 2005a). I would like to thank professor Stephan Laske for his insightful comments at the conference, which enabled me to revise the paper. Many thanks also for the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their further advice on finalizing the article. Tarja Ketola is Associate Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Vaasa, Finland, and Adjunct Professor of Environmental Management at the Turku School of Economics, Finland. She took her Ph.D. at Imperial College, University of London, and worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Management Studies at Brunel University before returning to Finland. Her research interests include eco-psychological leadership, strategic environmental management and corporate responsiblity. She has written books and published articles in many journals, including Business Strategy and the Environment, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Sustainable Development and Long Range Planning.     

The effect of divorce laws on divorce rates in Europe

We analyze the effect on divorce rates of the legal reforms leading to “easier divorce” that took place in Europe during the last four decades. We construct a 54-year-long panel and exploit the different timing and nature of the reforms in divorce laws across countries. The reforms range from countries that legalized divorce to the introduction of no-fault grounds and unilateral divorce. We estimate that the introduction of no-fault, unilateral divorce increased the divorce rate by about 0.6, a sizeable effect given the average rate of 2 divorces per 1000 people in 2002.     

A Map of Neverland: The role of policy in strategic environmental management

Emerging environmental management system standards and environmentally conscious academics promote the strategic planning role of environmental policies, but frequently ignore their strategic visioning role. It is argued in this paper that an environmental policy should based on strategic visioning and act as a starting point of strategic planning. Thus an environmental policy could link strategic visioning and planning. The policy should also communicate the environmental goals of a company and the means to reach those goals. To contribute to the fulfilment of the company's mission, the environmental goals and means (strategies) need to be integrated into and co-ordinated with general business goals and strategies. It is claimed here that an environmental policy has multiple strategic roles: strategic visioning, communicating, strategic planning, linking strategic visioning and planning, and integrating and co-ordinating. To support this claim, these five potential roles of an environmental policy are explored at the corporate, divisional and operating unit levels of Shell and Texaco. It is maintained that environmental policies have an enormous inherent strategic potential which can be released by building, maintaining and implementing the policies in such a way that they can fulfil all their strategic roles. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Ten years later: where is our common future now?

In 1996 a paper entitled ‘Where is our common future?’ in Sustainable Development maintained that the world's largest oil companies, the Seven Sisters, were two giant steps away from sustainable development in their 1993 environmental values, visions and policies. These factors matched the level of their business environment; hence, the Sisters had positioned themselves to meet the needs of their business environment, but not the needs of the ecological environment. This is a 10‐year follow‐up study of these findings. The analysis of the 2003 environmental values, visions, business environment, general strategic management and environmental policies of the current Four Sisters – BP(Amoco), ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil and Shell – indicates that these companies have moved one step towards sustainable development. However, their business environment has moved two steps, firmly rooting itself in ecocentric sustainable development – and now runs ahead of the Sisters in principle but not yet in practice. In the long run, the Four Sisters need to exchange their technocentric values, traditional visions and conventional policies for ecocentric values, progressive visions and entrepreneurial policies to be able to participate in Our Common Future. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Consumer influence on new technology — Real potential or false hopes?

Consumer influence on new technology is not only a question of consumers organizing themselves, but also a question of how one perceives the relationship between technology and society. Is technology an autonomous power in society or just a tool at the service of mankind? In this paper, the conditions for and limits of consumer influence on technology are scrutinized against the background of different views on the interaction between technology and society. It is held that traditional consumer policy instruments are not sufficient if consumers want to influence new technology, its uses and consequences. There is a need for new instruments; in particular, more attention must be directed towards the social organization within which the technology is put to use.