Corporate social responsibility in the extractive industries: experiences from developing countries

This paper introduces a special issue on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in the Extractive Industries: Experiences from Developing Countries’. Drawing upon case study analysis from Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, the papers in this issue broaden understanding of how multinational mining and oil and gas companies have embraced the CSR challenge and responded to criticisms of their performance in developing countries. This paper provides an introduction to the debate on CSR in the extractive industries in developing countries, reviewing the key issues examined on this subject to date.

Researching from within: external and internal ethical engagement

This article examines the superficial and deep ethical and moral dilemmas confronting ‘insider’ researchers which we term external and internal ethical engagement. External ethical engagement refers to the traditional, easily identifiable ethical issues that insider researchers attend to by submitting their application for ethical approval to their institution’s internal review board. Internal ethical engagement relates to the deeper level ethical and moral dilemmas that insider researchers have to deal with once ‘in the field’ linked to on-going personal and professional relationships with participants, insider knowledge, conflicting professional and researcher roles, and anonymity. By reviewing the literature in this area and drawing on the authors’ experiences of undertaking interpretive studies at institutions where they were members of staff, we explore these concepts and examine the implications for insider researchers. Keywords: insider research; ethics; professional relationships; anonymity; access

Introduction: special issue on advances in brand management

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research contains 13 articles presented at the Spring 2007 Thought Leaders International Conference on Brand Management. Following a blind reviewing process 69 papers were presented at the conference then authors were invited to revise their papers for inclusion consideration for this special issue. A further round of blind reviewing resulted in the selection of those 13 articles. This introduction presents a review of the research into brand management.

Theoretical insights into bacterial chemotaxis

Research into understanding bacterial chemotactic systems has become a paradigm for Systems Biology. Experimental and theoretical researchers have worked hand-in-hand for over 40 years to understand the intricate behavior driving bacterial species, in particular how such small creatures, usually not more than 5 µm in length, detect and respond to small changes in their extracellular environment. In this review we highlight the importance that theoretical modeling has played in providing new insight and understanding into bacterial chemotaxis. We begin with an overview of the bacterial chemotaxis sensory response, before reviewing the role of theoretical modeling in understanding elements of the system on the single cell scale and features underpinning multiscale extensions to population models. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2012 doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1168 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Science and medicine

This is the first ‘Science and Medicine’ chapter in The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. It is synchronised with the journal’s other chapters in its reviewing of works published in 2010, while it also reads these works in the broader context of rapidly expanding interdisciplinary areas of research. Scientific and medical vocabularies are (to use a scientific metaphor) cross-pollinating within many areas of scholarship in the humanities, and this current period is bringing many exciting developments. This chapter concentrates on literary studies, while forthcoming chapters will also look more squarely at cultural studies.

Rental depreciation and capital expenditure in the UK commercial real estate market, 1993–2009

This paper identifies the long-term rental depreciation rates for UK commercial properties and rates of capital expenditure incurred to offset depreciation over the same period. It starts by reviewing the economic depreciation literature and the rationale for adopting a longitudinal method of measurement, before discussing the data used and results. Data from 1993 to 2009 were sourced from Investment Property Databank and CB Richard Ellis real estate consultants. This is used to compare the change in values of new buildings in different locations with the change in values of individual properties in those locations. The analysis is conducted using observations on 742 assets drawn from all major segments of the commercial real estate market. Overall rental depreciation and capital expenditure rates are similar to those in other recent UK studies. Depreciation rates are 0.8% pa for offices, 0.5% pa for industrial properties and 0.3% pa for standard retail properties. These results hide interesting variations at a segment level, notably in retail where location often dominates value rather than the building. The majority of properties had little (if any) money spent on them over the last 16 years, but those subject to higher rates of expenditure were found to have lower depreciation rates.

Stable isotopes and diet: their contribution to Romano-British research

The study of stable isotopes surviving in human bone is fast becoming a standard response in the analysis of cemeteries. Reviewing the state of the art for Roman Britain, the author shows clear indications of a change in diet (for the better) following the Romanisation of Iron Age Britain—including more seafood, and more nutritional variety in the towns. While samples from the bones report an average of diet over the years leading up to an individual's death, carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures taken from the teeth may have a biographical element—capturing those childhood dinners. In this way migrants have been detected—as in the likely presence of Africans in Roman York. While not unexpected, these results show the increasing power of stable isotopes to comment on populations subject to demographic pressures of every kind.

Role of mammalian lignans in the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is poised to become the most prevalent male cancer in the Western world. In Japan and China, incidence rates are almost 10-fold less those reported in the United States and the European Union. Epidemiological data suggest that environmental factors such as diet can significantly influence the incidence and mortality of prostate cancer. The differences in lifestyle between East and West are one of the major risk factors for developing prostate cancer. Traditional Japanese and Chinese diets are rich in foods containing phytoestrogenic compounds, whereas the Western diet is a poor source of these phytochemicals. The lignan phytoestrogens are the most widely occurring of these compounds. In vitro and in vivo reports in the literature indicate that lignans have the capacity to affect the pathogenesis of prostate cancer. However, their precise mechanism of action in prostate carcinogenesis remains unclear. This article outlines the possible role of lignans in prostate cancer by reviewing the current in vitro and in vivo evidence for their anticancer activities. The intriguing concept that lignans may play a role in the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer over the lifetime of an individual is discussed.

Challenges in identifying factors which determine the placement of children in care? An international review

Placing a child in out-of-home care is one of the most important decisions made by professionals in the child care system, with substantial social, psychological, educational, medical and economic consequences. This paper considers the challenges and difficulties of building statistical models of this decision by reviewing the available international evidence. Despite the large number of empirical investigations over a 50 year period, a consensus on the variables associated with this decision is hard to identify. In addition, the individual models have low explanatory and predictive power and should not be relied on to make placement decisions. A number of reasons for this poor performance are offered, and some ways forwards suggested. This paper also aims to facilitate the emergence of a coherent and integrated international literature from the disconnected and fragmented empirical studies. Rather than one placement problem, there are many slightly different problems, and therefore it is expected that a number of related sub-literatures will emerge, each concentrating on a particular definition of the placement problem.

The tenant as a customer: can good service improve real estate performance?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) theory suggests that good customer service results in satisfied customers, who in turn are more likely to remain loyal and recommend the service provider to others. Proponents of good customer service for tenants claim that landlords should see a return on any investment in their customer service, in the form of enhanced real estate performance. This paper begins by reviewing research on customer service returns in other industries. Through consideration of the characteristics of real estate markets, the paper explains how factors such as (inter alia) lease terms, property market cycles, and property type, might determine the relationship between customer service and real estate performance. The paper concludes that further research is needed to isolate specific aspects of customer service that are most appreciated by customers. It suggests that the financial returns which accrue to landlords adopting a customer-focused approach might indeed be quantified, and suggests an appropriate method for such future research.

Description and process evaluation of pharmacists’ interventions in a pharmacist-led information technology-enabled multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial for reducing medication errors in general practice (PINCER trial)

Objective To undertake a process evaluation of pharmacists' recommendations arising in the context of a complex IT-enabled pharmacist-delivered randomised controlled trial (PINCER trial) to reduce the risk of hazardous medicines management in general practices. Methods PINCER pharmacists manually recorded patients’ demographics, details of interventions recommended, actions undertaken by practice staff and time taken to manage individual cases of hazardous medicines management. Data were coded and double entered into SPSS v15, and then summarised using percentages for categorical data (with 95% CI) and, as appropriate, means (SD) or medians (IQR) for continuous data. Key findings Pharmacists spent a median of 20 minutes (IQR 10, 30) reviewing medical records, recommending interventions and completing actions in each case of hazardous medicines management. Pharmacists judged 72% (95%CI 70, 74) (1463/2026) of cases of hazardous medicines management to be clinically relevant. Pharmacists recommended 2105 interventions in 74% (95%CI 73, 76) (1516/2038) of cases and 1685 actions were taken in 61% (95%CI 59, 63) (1246/2038) of cases; 66% (95%CI 64, 68) (1383/2105) of interventions recommended by pharmacists were completed and 5% (95%CI 4, 6) (104/2105) of recommendations were accepted by general practitioners (GPs), but not completed at the end of the pharmacists’ placement; the remaining recommendations were rejected or considered not relevant by GPs. Conclusions The outcome measures were used to target pharmacist activity in general practice towards patients at risk from hazardous medicines management. Recommendations from trained PINCER pharmacists were found to be broadly acceptable to GPs and led to ameliorative action in the majority of cases. It seems likely that the approach used by the PINCER pharmacists could be employed by other practice pharmacists following appropriate training.

Green marketing in housing: reality or rhetoric?

All new homes in the UK will be required to be zero carbon from 2016. Housing sector bodies and individual housing developers are championing a transition from traditional marketing to green marketing approaches to raise consumer awareness of the benefits of low and zero carbon homes. On-site sales teams on housing developments form a central interface between the developer and potential buyers. These teams, then, have a critical role in the success or otherwise of the developers’ green marketing strategies. However, there is a dearth of empirical research that explores the actual attitudes and practices of these teams. An exploratory case study approach was adopted. The data collection consisted of reviewing relevant company documentation and semi-structure interviews with the on-site sales teams from six housing developments. The findings from two case studies suggest that the sales teams do have potential to forge a bridge between the design / production and consumption spheres in the way that consumers understand and appreciate, but further work is required. The sales teams’ practices were constrained by the incumbent, traditional marketing logic that rotates around issues such as location and selling price. The sales teams appeared to adopt a strategy of a restriction of information about the benefits of low and zero carbon homes to not disturb the prevailing logic. Further, the sales teams justify this insulating mechanism by the argument that consumers are not interested in those benefits. This rhetoric may be driving a real wedge between the design / production and consumption spheres to the detriment of the consumer and, in the longer term, the house builder itself.

Glaciodynamics of the central sector of the last British–Irish ice sheet in Northern England

The central sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) was characterised by considerable complexity, both in terms of its glacial stratigraphy and geomorphological signature. This complexity is reflected by the large number and long history of papers that have attempted to decipher the glaciodynamic history of the region. Despite significant advances in our understanding, reconstructions remain hotly debated and relatively local, thereby hindering attempts to piece together BIIS dynamics. This paper seeks to address these issues by reviewing geomorphological mapping evidence of palimpsest flow signatures and providing an up-to-date stratigraphy of the region. Reconciling geomorphological and sedimentological evidence with relative and absolute dating constraints has allowed us to develop a new six-stage glacial model of ice-flow history and behaviour in the central sector of the last BIIS, with three major phases of glacial advance. This includes: I. Eastwards ice flow through prominent topographic corridors of the north Pennines; II. Cessation of the Stainmore ice flow pathway and northwards migration of the North Irish Sea Basin ice divide; III. Stagnation and retreat of the Tyne Gap Ice Stream; IV. Blackhall Wood–Gosforth Oscillation; V. Deglaciation of the Solway Lowlands; and VI. Scottish Re-advance and subsequent final retreat of ice out of the central sector of the last BIIS. The ice sheet was characterised by considerable dynamism, with flow switches, initiation (and termination) of ice streams, draw-down of ice into marine ice streams, repeated ice-marginal fluctuations and the production of large volumes of meltwater, locally impounded to form ice-dammed glacial lakes. Significantly, we tie this reconstruction to work carried out and models developed for the entire ice sheet. This therefore situates research in the central sector within contemporary understanding of how the last BIIS evolved over time.

The four pillars of corporate responsibility: ethics, leadership, personal responsibility and trust

Purpose – This paper aims to examine how to further embed CSR thinking and practice into corporations, particularly in emerging markets, by reviewing and drawing similarities between key issues faced by all senior managers, namely ethics, leadership, personal responsibility and trust. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a conceptual exploration of global CSR practices using social psychology and overlays this concept with strategic and institutional theory in order to encourage new ways of thinking about CSR adoption, especially in emerging markets. Findings – The paper reveals the importance of shareholder needs on global corporate decision making and applies alternative conceptual models to help businesses to devise better CSR practices and individuals to align their actions to their own values. Originality/value – This paper strongly argues for blending different theoretical foundations from the management and organization literature in order to draw comparisons between current global CSR practice and the potential for its further adoption in emerging markets.