Insights on corporate sustainability and share value: an event study for Brazilian market

Em meio ao crescente volume de publicações sobre sustentabilidade e finanças, diversas pesquisas internacionais e brasileiras têm abordado a relação entre empresas classificadas como sustentáveis e o retorno de suas ações. Nesta mesma linha, este trabalho utilizou o método de estudos de eventos para verificar se entre 2005 e 2013 houve retornos anormais quando as empresas entraram e saíram do Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE). Além de contemplar um período mais atualizado do que seus precedentes, este estudo difere-se dos demais ao analisar o as observações individualmente e ao buscar estabelecer uma relação dos retornos anormais acumulados com as variáveis governança corporativa, tamanho, rentabilidade e alavancagem. Os resultados mostraram que embora não haja evidências conclusivas quando os casos são tomados individualmente, em conjunto eles indicam que a inclusão e a exclusão do ISE geram retornos anormais significativos, positivos e negativos respectivamente, em linha com a teoria dos stakeholders. Quanto às variáveis de controle, nenhuma apresentou relação com os retornos anormais acumulados.

The impact of negative social environmental events on the market value of supply chain partners

The present work analyzes the impact of negative social / environmental events on the market value of supply chain partners. The study offers a contextualized discussion around important concepts which are largely employed on the Operations Management and Management literature in general. Among them, the developments of the literature around supply chains, supply chain management, corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and sustainable supply chain management are particularly addressed, beyond the links they share with competitive advantage. As for the theoretical bases, the study rests on the Stakeholder Theory, on the discussion of the efficient-market hypothesis and on the discussion of the adjustment of stock prices to new information. In face of such literature review negative social / environmental events are then hypothesized as causing negative impact in the market value of supply chain partners. Through the documental analysis of publicly available information around 15 different cases (i.e. 15 events), 82 supply chain partners were identified. Event studies for seven different event windows were conducted on the variation of the stock price of each supply chain partner, valuing the market reaction to the stock price of a firm due to triggering events occurred in another. The results show that, in general, the market value of supply chain partners was not penalized in response to such announcements. In that sense, the hypothesis derived from the literature review is not confirmed. Beyond that, the study also provides a critical description of the 15 cases, identifying the companies that have originated such events and their supply chain partners involved.

Performance Financeira Corporativa e Performance Social Corporativa: desenvolvimento metodológico e contribuição teórica dos estudos empíricos

Um dos papéis da contabilidade é prover informações sobre o desempenho empresarial, quer seja por indicadores contábil-financeiros ou não. Dentro deste escopo do interesse da contabilidade, observa-se que a publicação de estudos teórico-empíricos sobre as relações entre Performance Corporativa Financeira (CFP) e a Performance Social Corporativa (CSP) vem crescendo nos últimos anos, sintoma do desenvolvimento deste campo de pesquisa. Entretanto, a contribuição à teoria pelos trabalhos empíricos se faz de forma pontual, uma vez que normalmente cada estudo foca um aspecto particular da teoria. Periodicamente, portanto, é necessária uma análise que avalie como, de forma agregada, os estudos empíricos contribuíram para a evolução da teoria, e elaborar essa análise constituiu o objetivo do presente estudo. O referencial teórico abrangeu: teoria dos stakeholders, relação entre CSP e CFP, good management theory e slack resource theory. Esta pesquisa abrangeu um período de 15 anos (1996 a 2010) e a coleta de dados empregou a ferramenta de busca das bases de dados: Ebsco, Proquest e ISI. O processo de amostragem obteve um conjunto de 58 artigos exclusivamente teórico-empíricos quantitativos que testam a relação CSP-CFP. Os principais resultados no campo teórico demonstram um reforço da proposição de relação positiva entre CSP e CFP e da good management theory, uma deficiência na explicação na defasagem de tempo (lag) na relação de causalidade entre CSP e CFP, e deficiências na descrição do constructo de CSP. Isto sugere estudos futuros para investigar a defasagem de tempo na relação de causalidade entre CSP e CFP e as possíveis razões que levaram diversos estudos empíricos a não atestarem uma associação positiva entre CSP e CFP.

The Dual Ownership Structure: a Model to Connect the Cooperative Model With Financial Markets

In business literature, the conflicts among workers, shareholders and the management have been studied mostly in the frame of stakeholder theory. The stakeholder theory recognizes this issue as an agency problem, and tries to solve the problem by establishing a contractual relationship between the agent and principals. However, as Marcoux pointed out, the appropriateness of the contract as a medium to reduce the agency problem should be questioned. As an alternative, the cooperative model minimizes the agency costs by integrating the concept of workers, owners and management. Mondragon Corporation is a successful example of the cooperative model which grew into the sixth largest corporation in Spain. However, the cooperative model has long been ignored in discussions of corporate governance, mainly because the success of the cooperative model is extremely difficult to duplicate in reality. This thesis hopes to revitalize the scholarly examination of cooperatives by developing a new model that overcomes the fundamental problem in the cooperative model: the limited access to capital markets. By dividing the ownership interest into financial and control interest, the dual ownership structure allows cooperatives to issue stock in the capital market by making a financial product out of financial interest.

The role of authenticity in tourism planning: empirical findings from southeast Spain

Tourism is the main economic activity in many towns in the province of Alicante in southeast Spain and has turned this area into a paradigmatic example of mass tourism on the Mediterranean coast. Since the 1960s, the province's coastal towns have opted for a development model centred on what is known as 'residential tourism' or 'second-home tourism', with few exceptions, such as Benidorm. We wish to put forward the argument that the main social agents in the tourism sector have not perceived the 'search for authenticity' as a factor that may attract tourists to this area. To this end, we will start by reviewing critically the theoretical discourse about the role played by authenticity in the motivation of tourists. Then we will discuss some of the results obtained from empirical, qualitative research that included 37 in-depth interviews. As a guide for our empirical research, we use a model based on the stakeholder theory. The epistemological difficulties faced by researchers do not justify certain critical arguments that try to highlight the impossibility of operationalising essential concepts and approaches such as that of authenticity. Therefore, it is necessary that empirical research continues to delve into the sociological keys that determine the 'search for authenticity' in the tourists' experience.

A comparative analysis of entrepreneurial approaches within public healthcare organisations

This article examines the development of two distinct models of organising allied health professionals within two public sector health service organisations in Australia. The first case illustrated a mode of organising that facilitated a culture that focused on asset protection and whose external orientation was threat oriented because its disparate multiple identities operated as a fractured, fragmented and competitive set of profession disciplines. In this milieu, there was no evidence of entrepreneurial approaches being used. In contrast, the second case study illustrated a mode of organising that facilitated an entrepreneurial culture that focused on asset growth and an external orientation that was opportunity oriented because of the evolution of a strong superordinate allied health identity that operated as a single united health services stakeholder. This evolution was coupled with the emergence of a corporate boardroom model of management that is consonant with Savage et al. (1997) IDS/N model of management. Once this structure and strategy were in place, corporate entrepreneur ship became the modus operandi. Consequently, because the case study was a situation where corporate entrepreneurship existed in the public sector, it was possible to compare the factors that stimulate corporate entrepreneurship in Sadler's (2000) study with factors that were observed in our study.

Corporate social responsibility reporting in developing countries:the case of Bangladesh

Historically, the study of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting has largely been within the context of Western economies. However, in the wake of highly publicized incidents such as Bhopal and the struggle of the Ogoni people in Nigeria, many large corporations now claim to be taking steps to improve their environmental and social performance within developing countries. Using the lens of stakeholder theory, this book examines whether the current practice of CSR reporting in developing countries is motivated by a desire to discharge accountability to all relevant stakeholders or whether it is being driven by the imperative of advancing corporate economic interests. While concepts like CSR reporting have become more fashionable, they vary widely in different national contexts; this book therefore clarifies the types and roles of CSR reporting and the underlying corporate motivations. The author considers the current CSR reporting practices in a number of developing countries, with particular attention given to illuminating a case study of Bangladesh.

Stakeholders' perceptions of corporate social reporting in Bangladesh

Recent calls in the corporate social reporting (CSRep) literature have emphasized the importance of giving voice to non-managerial stakeholder groups in the social reporting process. The research, presented in this paper, employs recent work in stakeholder theory and CSRep to examine the perceptions of a diverse set of non-managerial stakeholders in the context of a developing country, Bangladesh. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who identify with various non-managerial stakeholder groups. Interviewees generally believed that the motivation and practice of CSRep in Bangladesh is developing in response to pressures from international markets and is producing largely cosmetic responses. Also, they expressed concerns that, given the economic, political, and social conditions in Bangladesh, premature adoption of strict CSRep standards may lead to increased corruption and other unintended consequences. Whilst some of the interviewees sharply criticized the current process of imposing social accounting codes/standards on developing countries which fail to consider the important local socio-economic context, the findings suggest that there is overwhelming support for mandatory externally verified CSRep based on the principles of peoples' right to know, full disclosure/completeness, and relevance, which are anchored in the broader principles of transparency and stakeholder accountability. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Business relationships and relationships with stakeholders – Perception of Hungarian executives.

Relationships are crucial concepts in numerous management theoretical frameworks. Both stakeholder theory and IMP’s business network approach put business and non-business relations in the forefront. However, the two theories – stakeholder and business network – are seldom discussed together, and stakeholder theory rarely appears in the IMP literature. In this paper although we want to focus on supply chain relations we strive to conduct our analysis within a more general framework of stakeholder theory. In our research we observed and analyzed the mutual expectations related to various stakeholder groups – business partners (suppliers and buyers) among them.

Integrated Reporting in OMXS30 companies - An Analysis of Human Capital Disclosures

Background and Problem: Sustainability reporting is a growing interest in today’s organizations and it is essential to report on non-financial matters. Many of the existing frameworks have been criticized for being used only of symbolical reasons which is why the concept of integrated reporting and the <IR> framework have been developed. One of the cornerstones in the <IR> framework is human capital which is one of the most valuable assets in an organization. Traditionally, employee costs have only been treated as an expense and there have been limited disclosures in corporate reports. In the current business world it is instead seen as an investment in human resources. Since previous studies have shown an increase of human capital disclosures when corporate reports become integrated, integrated reporting might be the solution to this problem. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine if there are differences in human capital disclosures between integrated reports and separate annual and sustainability reports in companies listed at OMXS30. Delimitations: This study’s empirical examination is limited to include the companies listed at Stockholm OMX30. Only corporate reports issued for the year 2014 are treated. Methodology: For this study a self-constructed disclosure scoreboard with human capital- related items has been used to collect data from the companies’ corporate reports. Also additional information beyond the pre-determined items has been collected to extend the data collection. Empirical Results and Conclusion: The results show that human capital seems to be a subject that is relatively little reported about. The integrated reporting companies do not disclose more information compared to non-integrated reporting companies. However, the results show that integrated reporting companies seem to have a more future-oriented focus and that the disclosures are more dispersed throughout the reports. It can be concluded that company sector and size do not affect the amount or type of information. 

Strategic Information Disclosure through Integrated Reporting : A study on OMXS30-listed companies’ compliance with the <IR> Framework content element Strategy and Resource Allocation

Background and problem – As a result of financial crises and the realization of a broader stakeholder network, recent decades have seen an increase in stakeholder demand for non- financial information in corporate reporting. This has led to a situation of information overload where separate financial and sustainability reports have developed in length and complexity interdependent of each other. Integrated reporting has been presented as a solution to this problematic situation. The question is whether the corporate world believe this to be the solution and if the development of corporate reporting is heading in this direction. Purpose - This thesis aims to examine and assess to what extent companies listed on the OMX Stockholm 30 (OMXS30), as per 2016-02-28, comply with the Strategic content element of the <IR> Framework and how this disclosure has developed since the framework’s pilot project and official release by using a self-constructed disclosure index based on its specific items. Methodology – The purpose was fulfilled through an analysis of 104 annual reports comprising 26 companies during the period of 2011-2014. The annual reports were assessed using a self-constructed disclosure index based on the <IR> Framework content element Strategy and Resource Allocation, where one point was given for each disclosed item. Analysis and conclusions – The study found that the OMXS30-listed companies to a large extent complies with the strategic content element of the <IR> Framework and that this compliance has seen a steady growth throughout the researched time span. There is still room for improvement however with a total average framework compliance of 84% for 2014. Although many items are being reported on, there are indications that companies generally miss out on the core values of Integrated reporting. 

Reestructuración de la gerencia en Colombia: la educación superior necesita un nuevo perfil profesional del administrador para aminorar las externalidades del contexto actual (Aportes del mercadeo relacional, la teoría de creación de valor compartido y la inteligencia emocional)

El objetivo general de esta revisión es explicar que la educación superior en Colombia necesita integrar al campo administrativo el reconocimiento y manejo de las emociones, para que la gerencia contribuya al verdadero desarrollo social sostenible. Como el campo de interés está centrado en la gerencia, se hizo uso de los aportes del marketing relacional, la teoría de creación de valor compartido y la inteligencia emocional, así como otras aproximaciones teóricas y bibliográficas que sirvieron de soporte durante el desarrollo del seminario de gerencia. Consecuentemente, los aportes de los autores soportan las razones por las cuales se requiere de una reestructuración de la gerencia para mitigar las externalidades del medio y promover el desarrollo social y económico. Finalmente, se pretendió proporcionar la información adecuada al lector acerca del tema, de forma tal que facilite la comprensión y promueva la discusión acerca de los diferentes aportes de los autores.