Abstract
Recent literature shows an increasing interest in considering alternative sources of information for predicting Small and Medium Enterprises default. The usage of accounting indicators does ...not allow to completely overcome the information opacity that is one of the main barriers preventing these firms from accessing to credit. This complicates matters both for private lenders and for public institutions supporting policies. In this paper we propose corporate websites as an additional source of information, ready to be exploited in real-time. We also explore the joint use of online and offline data for enhancing correct prediction of default through a Kernel Discriminant Analysis, keeping the Logistic Regression and the Random Forests as benchmark. The obtained results shed light on the potentiality of these new data when accounting indicators lead to a wrong prediction.
Information and Communication Technologies provide valuable opportunities for companies to expand their business. In this sense, the availability of a multilingual corporate website can be of great ...help when it comes to reach international targets at a reduced cost. This is especially relevant in countries with remarkable tourism flows and foreign population, which is the case of Spain. The aim of this paper is to analyze the web presence and the multilingual dissemination of their corporate information of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) from the tourist sector located in Andalusia (Spain). To meet this objective, a sample of 160 SMEs has been analyzed. A frequency analysis has been carried out as well as decision trees, the latter in order to identify drivers for influencing companies for having a website and its subsequent translation. Results show that, although around 70% of the companies had a corporate website, less than 40% of them translated their content and, if they do it, they mostly offered only one translated version of the webpage.
Concealing or Revealing the Family? Micelotta, Evelyn R.; Raynard, Mia
Family business review,
09/2011, Letnik:
24, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Although scholars contend that family and corporate heritage can be strategically deployed to gain a competitive advantage, few studies have examined the specific ways in which family firms leverage ...on these distinctive attributes in their marketing activities. The authors’ examination of a sample of official corporate websites reveals that family firms adopt different branding strategies to communicate the familial component of their businesses. The authors labeled these strategic variations as family preservation, family enrichment, and family subordination. This study advances extant research by exploring the various family-based branding strategies that family firms can draw on to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
We examine over 100 top performing Canadian firms in visibly polluting industries as we seek to answer four research questions: What specific environmental issues are firms addressing? How do these ...issues differ between industries? Are both symbolic and substantive actions financially beneficial? Does green-washing, measured as the difference between symbolic and substantive action, and/or green-highlighting, measured as the combined effect of symbolic and substantive actions, pay? We find that substantive actions of environmental issues (green walk) neither harm nor benefit firms financially, but symbolic actions (green talk) are negatively related to financial performance. We also find that green-washing (discrepancy between green talk and green walk) has a negative effect on financial performance and green-highlighting (concentrated efforts of the talk and walk) has no effect on financial performance. In this article, we provide explanations of our findings and put forth future research directions.
ABSTRACT We examine firm decisions to provide listings of sell-side analyst coverage on corporate investor relations (IR) websites. These listings are related to three major areas of financial ...research—voluntary disclosure, investor relations, and analysts. Our hand-collected data permit cross-sectional and time-series analyses. Firms are more likely to have such listings when analysts are more important information intermediaries and when firms are directly involved in managing their IR websites. For firms with listings, the probability of an analyst being included on the listing is increasing in firm awareness of and familiarity with the analyst, how active and favorable the analyst is, and the analyst’s reputation. Additional analysis indicates similar results across self-hosting versus third-party hosting IR websites, with a notable exception that self-hosting firms exhibit a stronger preference for analysts who issue more favorable research about the firm. Decisions to add or drop analysts from listings reinforce the main results. Data Availability: Data are available from public sources identified in the text. JEL Classifications: G17; G24; M41.
Although establishing gender equality in board and managerial positions has recently become more important for organizations, companies with low levels of gender diversity seem to perceive an ethical ...dilemma regarding the ways, in which they attempt to attain it. One way that organizations try to move toward gender equality is through the use of their corporate websites to manage potential applicants' impressions of their current levels of, and actions to improve, gender diversity. The dilemma is whether to truthfully communicate their low level of gender diversity, conceal it, or exaggerate it. On the one hand, organizations that are truthful may find it difficult to achieve equality because women are less attracted to companies that lack diversity. On the other hand, organizations that are untruthful risk their moral legitimacy. The present work investigates gender diversity-related communication on the corporate websites of 99 major German companies. Based on theoretical work on minority attraction, we apply an organizational impression management taxonomy to guide our in-depth content analysis. With this approach, we hope to advance the understanding of how the issue of gender diversity is presented on corporate websites, which is useful for both organizational decision makers as well as diversity researchers. We found that although gender diversity-related communications on corporate websites contain both assertive and defensive organizational impression management tactics, as well as a third type of tactic we refer to as "acknowledgement," assertive tactics were used more frequently. We argue the existence of a paradox whereby organizations use assertive impression management tactics to maintain pragmatic legitimacy but compromise their moral legitimacy by doing so. Furthermore, we argue that moral legitimacy can be maintained or restored through the sincere use of defensive impression management tactics and acknowledgement.
•U.S. organizations are more active communicator of sustainability practices.•Korean companies emphasized collectivism and power distance values more.•U.S companies displayed more values related to ...uncertainty avoidance.•Korean companies communicate more about process and outside org. movement.
As stakeholders most frequently access Web sites to learn about environmental issues, it would be effective to display messages addressing sustainability on organizational Web sites. This study aimed to compare and contrast the content of organization sustainability communication (OSC) displayed on the Web sites of the top 100 companies in South Korea and the United States. U.S. organizations are significantly more active in communicating their values or practices regarding organizational sustainability to their stakeholders through their Web sites. Data indicated that the Web sites of South Korean companies emphasized collectivism (‘harmony,’ ‘environmental heritage,’ ‘enterprise management,’ ‘performance for community,’ and ‘family theme’ values) and power distance values (‘hierarchy information,’ ‘vision statement,’ and ‘proper titles of executives’) more so than their U.S. counterparts. However, U.S. companies displayed more values related to uncertainty avoidance (‘customer service,’ ‘guided navigation,’ and ‘link to more specific information’).
Despite the fact that culture is central in globalized and digitalized contexts, few studies have investigated how organizations are influenced by cultural dimensions in communicating their social ...responsibility efforts. Through the lens of cultural dimensions, this study aims at comparing communication displayed on corporate websites of top sustainable organizations. The aim is reached evaluating how Hofstede's cultural dimensions, reflected in corporate social responsibility (CSR) content, vary between companies in Asian context and other organizations worldwide. A coding scheme to analyze cultural impact on CSR communication content disclosed on websites was carried out. Findings show that Hofstede's cultural dimensions and online CSR communication belong to different levels of analysis: One is innate and diffusive, whereas the other one is intentional and rational. Differently from extant studies on cultural dimensions, results suggest that cultural dimensions are factors that should be analyzed as social aspects, whereas online CSR communication should instead be explored as strategic feature.
PurposeIncreased public scrutiny and stakeholder pressure have given more importance to strategic corporate social responsibility (SCSR) and its three dimensions – orientation, process and value ...creation. At the same time, they provide banks the inspiration needed to pursue business goals, attain positive performances and communicate their social responsibility efforts. This paper analyses whether and how companies in the banking sector use corporate websites to communicate SCSR dimensions.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis was performed based on the corporate websites of leading banks included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Index to assess the prominence of SCSR communication.FindingsThe study shows that banks give less prominence to SCSR on corporate websites differently from companies belonging to other sectors, as they are less likely to expose their orientation to SCSR and pay slightly less attention to value creation than other companies.Practical implicationsThe paper provides theoretical insights into SCSR dimensions and how they are communicated on corporate websites. From a practical standpoint, the study provides guidance for managers in the banking sector aimed at improving their communication efforts, avoiding decoupling issues and adopting a consistent value creation perspective.Originality/valueFew studies have used a value creation perspective to differentiate between the dimensions of a SCSR approach. The paper fills this gap by assessing the communication efforts adopted by banks and insurance companies in this area.
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