'The Grass is always Greener: Reflecting on Global Disparity in CSR'

The corporate landscape is ever changing. From the idea that the social responsibility of business was solely profit maximisation, toward the approach today, encompassing the inter-relationships of business, state and voluntary sectors through sets of relationships that transcend the nation state, the role of the corporation in society is being constantly remoulded to incorporate changes in said society. This evolution has benefitted many through the various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes that have been promoted by various Multinational Corporations (MNCs).

This article argues that whereas many have benefitted from these policies, social responsibility can only be a by-product of the corporation. CSR exists as a powerful marketing tool and merely represents the repackaging of profit maximisation. This article will track the development of CSR in recent years. Noting that there is some disparity in regional trends for CSR, the article will then focus on how governments have enhanced the development of CSR practise within their nation states. This highlights a significant issue: if corporations are truly global in nature, why is there such a disparity over the level and intensity of CSR in differing nation states? As this article suggests, the role of government, the rise in power of the multinational corporation, together with the “strength” of that economy, the size of the population in that region, all impact on how robust, or otherwise, CSR is. What this highlights therefore is that CSR cannot be a form of regulation in its own right, and instead is a tool for profit maximisation, with social good being a by-product.

Climate change, Hans Jonas and indirect investors

This article considers how corporate behaviour in relation to climate change might be reconfigured and the role that indirect investors might play in this reconfiguring. The article suggests that the consequences of climate change are serious enough that indirect investors might be prevailed upon, using a model of behaviour suggested by the work of Hans Jonas, to pressure institutional investors into demanding changes in corporate policy towards climate change. Jonas' work represents a plea for the recognition and acceptance of responsibility in the face of nature's vulnerability and humanity's power over technology. The article suggests that this ethic can be operationalised in relation to corporate governance by building on the changes in the pattern of investment holdings that have taken place in large public companies in the preceding two decades or so. The idea is to appeal to individuals who may perceive themselves as currently being outsiders – or at least only distant stakeholders in relation to the corporation – to realise the responsibility vested in them as beneficiaries through their interest in pension funds, life assurance policies, annuities and other arm's-length financial arrangements with corporations. The hope is that these individuals may, through the influence of a model of responsibility, become active investors and beneficiaries interested in corporate practices that impact on climate change and, encourage others to do likewise.

Corporate Co-evolution: A Political Perspective

Corporate Co–Evolution is one of the first major works in Blackwell’s Organization and Strategy research series of business texts. By tracing the history and growth of Telemig, a major Brazilian telecommunications company, Corporate Co–Evolution develops broader macro–economic principles that can be applied to today’s international corporate environment. After a general introduction to political regulations and other domains of the corporate environment that impact the growth of companies, Corporate Co–Evolution delves deeply into Telemig’s past. The text closely documents and analyzes the dramatic changes over the course of 30 years that transformed Telemig from a “lumbering dinosaur to a soaring eagle” as privatization takes the corporation into the 21st century. The authors skillfully draw out the practical and policy implications of the Telemig experience to develop a broader systematic theory of corporate evolution that is highly relevant to the contemporary business world.

Corporate Governance as a School of Social Reform

In this paper, I present a vision of the corporation as a moral person. I point to “the separation of ownership and control” as a moment when the corporation broke away from the moral lives of ownermanagers. I then draw out the manner in which we can speak of the company as a moral person. Finally, through a discussion of social reporting in two British banks, I point to a shift in how this moral personhood is articulated, with the rise of corporate governance—or doing business well—as its own foundation of corporate responsibility. I propose a view of corporate responsibility as a “transmission mechanism” for the company’s role in moral life, situated in the broader social conception of “moral economy.” This viewpoint sets out landscapes of legitimation and justification through which the ties that underpin economic life are founded

Investment and Capitalization of Firms in the USA

In the USA today, the precipitous rise of new financial mechanisms for capitalisation of firms as well as the merger and acquisition of others, especially risk equity capital through venture capitalist and investment banking, has sparked growth and helped to bring the economy out of the 1990s recession into a robust continuous growth pattern well positioned for the next century. The scenario is not new. For the venture capitalists of ''Silicon Valley'' in California, the experience is not new. They have seen the new industries arise before, like a phoenix from ashes of ruin, despair and even failure. Venture capital poured into high tech start-up companies has been an enormous source of financial support for the entrepreneurs who head new and growing companies. The mid-1990s marked the most dramatic increase yet recorded. Indicators, such as the NASDAQ document, outlined the solid and continuous growth in high tech industries. The paper discusses investment in US corporations within the context of governance and management of the company. Discussion about the various forms of finance are related to the organisation and management of the US corporation. Critical to any firm today are its ability to find innovative, new products or services. A growing literature on resource-base framework for analysis will be discussed as part of the firm's development of research for commercialisation. The results of a recent survey further shed light on the relationship between corporate financial management and allocated resources for research and development as the ''engine'' for new product development and therefore corporate market share and growth. The conclusion is that more financial mechanisms will be created and changed within US corporate systems to adjust, grow, and expand companies in the global economic arena, as the inevitable economic pattern leads to mergers, consolidations, and increasing cooperation and alliances among firms.

How the ship of fools was ship-wrecked - The Irish crisis and response

For a decade and half the Irish economy was the poster-boy of Europe. With substantial growth rates, an open economy, flexible labour markets and low levels of taxation, Ireland was seen as evidence of the success of neoliberal policies. Yet in the matter of a few short years Ireland has turned into a one of the peripheral black-holes (along with Greece and Portugal) that are threatening to bring down the whole Eurozone project. Given this context the paper will address two key questions. Firstly how did the much eulogised Celtic Tiger fall so far and so fast? And, secondly, what has been the government’s response to the fall and crash of the Irish economy? These two questions will be addressed through both a general historical analysis of the developments of Irish society up to the crash in 2008 and then the responses to it. Secondly by an analysis of two specific elements of that development; namely the much discussed low corporation tax rate and the failure of social housing to deliver decent affordable homes for those at the bottom of society. The third element is a review of the banking and sovereign debt crisis that led to the IMF/EU deal in November 2010 and a brief outlining of its implications for public finances, especially the question of default. The paper concludes by placing the Irish crisis in a global context.

Parenting advantage in the MNC: An embeddedness perspective on the value added by headquarters

What determines the value an MNC’s headquarters adds to its own affiliates? In this paper, we shed light on this question by linking the embeddedness view of the multinational corporation to the literature on parenting advantage. We test our hypotheses on an original dataset of 124 manufacturing subsidiaries located in Europe. Our results indicate that the external embeddedness of the MNC is an antecedent to headquarters’ value creation. We find that headquarters’ investments into their own relationships with the subsidiaries’ contexts are positively related to the value added by headquarters. Furthermore, this relationship is stronger when the subsidiary itself is strongly embedded. We discuss implications for the MNC literature, embeddedness research, and the literature on parenting and headquarters’ roles. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Corruption and subsidiary profitability: US MNC subsidiaries in the Asia Pacific region

Would multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries be more profitable in host countries where corruption is less severe? Would MNC subsidiaries be more profitable in less corrupt countries if they focus on local sales? This paper examines the impact of the level of corruption on the profitability of US MNCs in the Asia Pacific region. Using foreign direct investment (FDI) data archived by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and corruption data reported by the World Bank, we find that MNC subsidiaries located in countries with a lower level of corruption are more profitable. In addition, MNC subsidiaries with a greater focus on local sales are more profitable when the corruption level is low. This study contributes to the literature by showing that when local sales are important to MNC subsidiaries, a lower level of corruption by host countries positively affects the profitability of the MNC subsidiaries.

Public Service Broadcasting, Creative Industries and Innovation Infrastructure: The Case of ABC's Pool

The proliferation of media services enabled by digital technologies poses a serious challenge to public service broadcasting rationales based on media scarcity. Looking to the past and future, we articulate an important role that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) might play in the digital age. We argue that historically the ABC has acted beyond its institutional broadcasting remit to facilitate cultural development and, drawing on the example of Pool (an online community of creative practitioners established and maintained by the ABC), point to a key role it might play in fostering network innovation in what are now conceptualised as the creative industries.

The lip:A histologic and analytical approach of relevance to esthetic plastic surgery

This is a study done for the first time to understand the histologic features of the lip deeply, quantitatively, and analytically and identify the differences between the outer, intermediate, and inner parts of the lips. Previous researchers did not tackle the histologic features of the lip from this point of view. Half lip was obtained from different well-preserved cadavers where the upper lip, lower lip, and lip angle were evaluated by coronal histologic sections. A total of 43 slides were studied and photographed using light and digital microscopes (Nikon COOLSCOPE, Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, Japan), respectively. The cadavers (26 men and 17 women) were in the age group of 45 to 65 years old, and older than 65 years. Data were entered on a study pro forma and statistically analyzed. Normal histologic features of the upper lip, intermediate, and the inner lip sections were observed. Fibrous septations that sometimes had muscular components inserting into them could be identified. In between these septations, there were loose areas (chambers). The mean numbers of chambers identified in the upper and lower lips were higher in the red areas, and more septations and chambers were identified in the lower lip. New histologic observations were classified into types 1 to 7. Significant relations were identified between the total number of septations and chambers in relation to age group and sex. Higher means of septations and chambers were detected in the age group older than 65 years, and in women as a whole. In conclusion, the findings detected in this work could explain the congenital lip pits that are familial or syndromic and many post-lip augmentation complications. © 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.