In today's world, the corporate image of the largest companies is closely linked to their performance in the field of corporate social responsibility and the disclosure of information on that topic, ...specifically, on climate change. Since the Board of Directors is the body responsible for this process, the aim of this article is to show the role that companies' Boards of Directors play in the accountability process vis-à-vis stakeholders in relation to one specific aspect which has enormous significance in environmental information: practices used to monitor greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve this, we shall verify certain business characteristics, in addition to the size and activity of the Board of Directors, and we shall take different dependence models into consideration. These models will include variables related to the level of independence and diversity of the Board of Directors, which interact with dummy variables representing the company's litigation risks regarding environmental behavior and the institutional macro-context of the organization's country of origin. The results make it clear that Boards of Directors are basically focused on the traditional responsibility of creating economic value, instead of dealing with today's broader business world concepts, which include social responsibility. This focus, therefore, does not favor the accountability process before other stakeholders, if this makes it more difficult to protect the interests of shareholders.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the bidirectional relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and innovation according to the resource-based theory.Design ...methodology approach - Based on a sample formed by companies with investments in R&D for the 2003-2007 period worldwide, a bidirectional model is defined, one model in which the innovation realized by companies is a function of CSR practices, activity sector, firm size and risk, and another model in which CSR practices are a function of innovation, activity sector, firm size and risk.Findings - The results of both models show that the bidirectional relationship between the two strategic decisions is negative. However, the effect of the sustainable practices undertaken by those companies listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index on innovative efforts is statistically less significant. It was also found that this type of investment takes three years to show its value added in CSR practices and that the relationship between innovation and corporate social responsibility practices is not the same in different sectors.Practical implications - The empirical evidence suggests that, in general, companies do not implement innovations linked to topics of sustainability; at the same time, an incompatibility exists between investment in R&D and the encouragement of corporate sustainable behavior.Originality value - Previous studies have focused more on analyzing the influence of CSR practices on innovation and in this paper the influence of innovation on CSR practices is also analyzed.
Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyse different factors behind the disclosure of corporate information on issues related to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change world-wide.Design ...methodology approach - The empirical analysis carried out was performed in two stages: analysis of the data obtained through content analysis and analysis of the factors that influence the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change using a dependency model, a multiple linear regression. Several variables were introduced to represent the size of the companies, leverage, return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Market-to-Book ratio. Also, other dummy variables have been incorporated: Kyoto Protocol, activity sector in which the company operates and inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.Findings - The results obtained show a direct relationship between corporate size, its market capitalization and the disclosure of information in addition to proposed Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators on greenhouse gas emissions. Conversely, an inverse relationship between ROE and disclosure is detected.Practical implications - The findings emphasize that the main quoted companies operating in industries related to greenhouse gas emissions typically reveal information on almost all the GRI core indicators as well as the additional items specifically proposed for this issue. Moreover, the results suggest a trend for companies to utilize information on greenhouse gas emissions as a mechanism that enables them to legitimise themselves with those groups that can be of benefit to them.Originality value - The paper has analysed the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and other information of importance to climate change in companies from different countries, some of which have ratified, approved, adhered to or accepted the Kyoto Protocol, and some of which have still not accepted it.
The process of raising public awareness around the world concerning the need to apply criteria of sustainable development was basically set in motion at the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 1992. There it ...was decided that the most suitable context for fostering the process is the local level, and the Local Action Plan forms a basic element in this process.
Some preliminary studies have shown the evidence of great advancement in the creation of Local Action Plans in municipalities. However, their execution is frequently paralyzed by a lack of necessary resources and suitable State policies.
The aim of this paper is to verify the effect that different factors might have on the degree of progress made by the Local Action Plan in the municipalities of the European Union.
The results show that the public works policies of the EU and the governments of the member states fail to impact the level of commitment of municipal governments; however, when the supporting policy originates from administrations closer to the municipality and are made concrete in the form of economic support and technical advice, they prove to be relevant. Strictly political factors, such as stability, have a more limited yet significant effect on the execution of Local Action Plans.
The significant relationship between public spending and political system has led to a considerable increase in the studies being carried out to analyze how the latter affects public spending, debt, ...and fiscal pressures. Given the effect that municipal finance has on the quantity and quality of the public services that future generations will enjoy, the aim of this study is to analyze the effect that political ideology and strength have on local government management overall through analysis of the financial condition. With this goal in mind, the study applied panel data methods that allow unobservable heterogeneity to be controlled to a sample of 153 of Spain's largest municipalities for the 1988–2008 period. The results show that the municipalities governed by progressive political parties are worse off financially than those governed by conservatives. Likewise, strong citizen support guarantees greater budgetary solvency.
The implementation of urban sustainability practices is affected by political obstacles, and diverse political ideologies may defend different city models. Sustainable policy design could also be ...affected by several factors that cause the deflection of resources initially allocated to other groups that are contrary to the concerns pursued and have the power to veto sustainable plans by exerting pressure on the party in power.
In this sense, the aim of this paper is to show the impact that political factors have on cities’ sustainability, and the effect of both on cities’ economic development. To do so, we used the 78 Spanish cities with a population over 100,000 studied by MERCO (Spanish Corporate Reputation Monitor) as regards their levels of sustainability for the fiscal years 2008 and 2009. Both relationships have been tested empirically through two dependence models using linear regression techniques.
The results obtained show that political competition improves cities’ sustainability, while a leftist ideology has an inverse impact. On the other hand, a significant direct relationship has been observed between urban sustainability and municipal economic activity.
The factors most commonly used to measure the quality of life of a population are related to the public services available. In Spain, processes of functional decentralisation and externalisation are ...implemented by numerous local governments to deliver these services more efficiently, and there may be a relationship between the mode of public services delivery and the quality of life of the local population. Therefore, this paper seeks empirical evidence, using panel data models, of the effects of the functional decentralisation and externalisation of public services on the quality of life of the inhabitants of Spanish municipalities. The results obtained show that this quality of life is higher where the local government makes use of functional decentralisation. However, the results when the private sector is included in the analysis (in the form of externalisation and mixed companies) are ambiguous. More concretely, the quality of life is higher in municipalities where urban services are provided through foundations or autonomous organisations, where public companies provide public transport and health care services, and where trade services are provided by public companies, autonomous organisations or public business entities. The quality of life of inhabitants is enhanced when water services are provided by externalisation or by mixed companies.
Pósitos were institutions established in Spain from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries onwards to ensure continuity in the supply of grain (at reasonable prices) to sectors of the rural ...population of modest means, for whom they provided a vitally important subsistence lifeline in years of bad harvests. They were funded by a mixture of contributions from local municipal councils, from the Church and from wealthy individuals, and each pósito was governed by its own individual foundation documents until 1584, when a Royal Pragmatic (a type of legislation particular to Spain) introduced a common system of regulation to be followed by all pósitos. The main purpose of this article is to describe and analyse the development of the operational and accounting regulations applicable to pósitos and to contextualise the issuance of new or updated regulations against a range of background political, social and economic developments, beginning with the standardisation of the pósitos in 1584 and ending with their virtual disappearance in 1998. Although the bookkeeping employed in the administration of the pósitos continued to be in single-entry form, in association with related internal controls it was adequate to record the transactions undertaken by the pósitos.
Public debt has traditionally been explained mainly by two political factors: a progressive ideology and the electoral cycle. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how these two factors influence ...the behavior of Spanish local governments as regards indebtedness, and also how indebtedness is influenced by the interaction of ideology and the electoral cycle.
Different dependence models were estimated using panel data methodology based on a sample comprised of Spanish provincial capitals and towns with populations over 50,000, for a total of 148 town councils. The time frame corresponds to the fiscal years 1988 to 2008, inclusive.
The results show that in an electoral year all politicians behave opportunistically, giving rise to an important increase in public debt in relation to municipal revenue, although progressive incumbents incur three times more debt than those of the opposite ideology. Moreover, the presence of conservative parties in government has tended to significantly attenuate this behavior in years prior to elections, whereas progressive or left-wing parties have not. It must also be noted that partisan and electoral business cycles have been mitigated since 2002, when the Budgetary Stability Law came into effect, imposing limits on the debt of subnational administrations.
The empirical evidence obtained points to the need to perfect internal and external control mechanisms in order to avoid a breakdown in the stability policy and the risk of debt becoming untenable, thus achieving greater budgetary discipline.
El nivel de endeudamiento público ha sido explicado mediante dos factores políticos, principalmente, la ideología progresista y el ciclo electoral. El objetivo de este trabajo es evidenciar como influyen ambos factores en el comportamiento de los municipios españoles en relación con la deuda que estos asumen dada su capacidad, y como este esfuerzo se ve influenciado por la interacción entre los ciclos partidista y electoral.
Se han estimado diversos modelos de dependencia, mediante metodologías de datos de panel, a partir de una muestra integrada por las capitales de provincia y los municipios españoles con una población superior a 50.000 habitantes, incluyendo un total de 148 ayuntamientos. El ámbito temporal analizado es el correspondiente a los ejercicios 1988 a 2008, ambos inclusive.
Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que durante el año electoral, los políticos se comportan de manera oportunista, lo que conlleva un importante incremento de la deuda pública en relación con los ingresos municipales, aunque los partidos de ideología progresista realizan un esfuerzo tres veces mayor que los conservadores. Además, los gobiernos locales conservadores tienden a atenuar significativamente este comportamiento en los años previos a los comicios, mientras que los partidos de izquierdas no. Igualmente, se ha observado que los ciclos partidista y electoral han sido mitigados desde 2002 con la entrada en vigor de la Ley de estabilidad presupuestaria que impuso límites al endeudamiento que pueden asumir las administraciones subnacionales.
La evidencia empírica obtenida pone de manifiesto la necesidad de perfeccionar los mecanismos de control internos y externos con el objetivo de evitar la ruptura de la política de estabilidad y el riesgo de insostenibilidad de la deuda, logrando una mayor disciplina presupuestaria.
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