Purpose
This study aims to explain how socially responsible investing (SRI) has evolved in the past few decades and sheds light on its latest developments. It describes different forms of SRI in the ...financial markets, and deliberates on the rationale for the utilization of positive and negative screenings of listed businesses and public organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review suggests that the providers of financial capital are increasingly allocating funds toward positive impact and sustainable investments. Therefore, this descriptive paper provides a factual summary of the proliferation of SRI products in financial markets. Afterwards, it presents the opportunities and challenges facing the stakeholders of SRI.
Findings
This research presents a historic overview on the growth of SRI products in the financial services industry. It clarifies that the market for responsible investing has recently led to an increase in a number of stakeholders, including contractors, non-governmental organizations and research firms who are involved in the scrutinization of the businesses’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) behaviors.
Originality/value
This discursive contribution raises awareness on the screenings of positive impact and sustainable investments. The researcher contends that today’s socially responsible investors are increasingly analyzing the businesses’ non-financial performance, including their ESG credentials. In conclusion, this paper puts forward future research avenues in this promising field of study.
This paper explores the nature of the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitiveness. We start with the commonly held view that firm competitiveness is defined by the ...market. That is, the question of what are the critical competitiveness factors is answered by looking at how companies and financial analysts describe and evaluate a firm. To analyze this, we review the current state of the art on the relationship between CSR and competitiveness. Second, CSR criteria used by financial analysts is identified and compared with company valuation methods. Third, the results of a multi-stakeholder dialogue on CSR and competitiveness of the European financial sector are presented. As a conclusion, we argue that CSR and competitiveness relate through a learning and innovation cycle, where corporate values, policies and practices are permanently defined and re-defined. Thus, we propose that learning takes place as CSR is embedded in business processes, and that once it has been integrated, in turn, it generates innovative practices, and finally, competitiveness. At the end of the paper, we propose that CSR in practice consists of managing inherent paradoxes generated by the tension between CSR and business policies.
ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to analyze applications of real options theory for increasing the productivity of Mantiqueira ecotype dairy cows kept in guinea grass pastures with different ...sources of bulky supplementation (black oats, fodder cane, or sorghum silage), because the traditional methodologies do not consider the uncertainties related to this activity. Real options theory, an investment evaluation method, fills this gap as its most significant feature is its flexibility to act on uncertain events. Based on the results obtained for two economic indicators, the net present value and internal rate of return, and considering the production items identified in the sensitivity analysis, this study evaluated the expansion flexibility of each system using the real options theory methodology in discrete time as proposed by Copeland and Antikarov (2001). The analysis of the expansion options showed that the values of the production systems increased by 6.73%, 1.21%, and 19.49% for the systems supplemented with sorghum silage, black oats, and fodder cane, respectively. The expanded net present values were R$ 141,642.39, R$ 64,211.08, and R$ 58,013.07 for the systems that adopted bulky supplementation with black oats, fodder cane, and sorghum silage, respectively.
RESUMO Objetivou-se analisar a aplicação da Teoria das Opções Reais para expansão da produtividade de vacas leiteiras do ecótipo Mantiqueira, mantidas em pastagem de capim-Mombaça com fornecimento de diferentes fontes de suplementação volumosa (aveia-preta, cana-forrageira ou silagem de sorgo), uma vez que as metodologias tradicionais não consideram as incertezas presentes na atividade. A Teoria de Opções Reais é um método de avaliação de investimento que possui como maior característica a valoração da flexibilidade de agir a eventos incertos, preenchendo, assim, a lacuna deixada pelo método tradicional. A partir dos resultados obtidos pelos indicadores econômicos valor presente líquido e taxa interna de retorno, em conjunto com os itens de produção identificados na análise de sensibilidade, foi possível avaliar o valor da flexibilidade de expansão que cada sistema apresentou. A flexibilidade de expansão foi avaliada utilizando-se a metodologia Teoria das Opções Reais, proposta por Copeland e Antikarov (2001), em tempo discreto. O resultado da análise da opção de expansão apresentou aumento nos valores dos sistemas de produção, na ordem de 6,73%, 1,21% e 19,49%, para os sistemas suplementados com silagem de sorgo, aveia-preta e cana-forrageira, respectivamente. Os resultados obtidos para os valores presentes líquidos expandidos foram de R$ 141.642,39, R$ 64.211,08 e R$ 58.013,07, para os sistemas que adotaram a suplementação volumosa com aveia-preta, cana-forrageira e silagem de sorgo, respectivamente.
Are Competitive Banking Systems More Stable? SCHAECK, KLAUS; CIHAK, MARTIN; WOLFE, SIMON
Journal of money, credit and banking,
June 2009, Letnik:
41, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Using the Panzar and Rosse H-statistic as a measure of competition in 45 countries, we find that more competitive banking systems are less prone to experience a systemic crisis and exhibit increased ...time to crisis. This result holds even when we control for banking system concentration, which is associated with higher probability of a crisis and shorter time to crisis. Our results indicate that competition and concentration capture different characteristics of banking systems, meaning that concentration is an inappropriate proxy for competition. The findings suggest that policies promoting competition among banks, if well executed, have the potential to improve systemic stability.
Purpose This study aims to explore how management accounting practices act as drivers of organizational change in situations of institutional complexity. Design/methodology/approach A case study was ...carried out in a small company with a strongly rooted social culture, which was acquired by a large conglomerate and underwent a process of strategic change as part of a new control logic. Based on this, the study analyzes the evolution of this change, with a particular focus on the efforts to construct the meaning of the performance through the inscription of objects from the cultural system to which it is attached and the “situated rationality” of the managers who are involved in its production. Findings The authors show how managers link their own concepts of performance to accounting practices. At the same time, the authors show how accounting practices unfold through representational gaps that their production generates. Research limitations/implications This study acknowledges that bias may arise from reliance on retrospective views of past processes and events, gathered primarily through interviews, documentation and observations. Practical implications This study highlights that the way in which the performance concept is presented by accounting practices can have a constructive effect on the organization through the aspirations that its representations entail, thus having the potential to stimulate change in organizations. Originality/value This study contributes to the organizational literature by clarifying that accounting practices drive change by providing spaces for debates and questions that affect the way organizations understand and report their performance.
The paper deals with the evaluation of economy of forestry companies. The evaluation stems from the results of economic analyses of enterprises that are further monitored in the context of forestry ...and development of economic financial ratios of evaluated companies. Furthermore, the evaluation is based on real possibilities of companies stemming from resources which they have at their disposal and on the facts that occurred in the selected companies in the monitored period. The development of important factors influencing the whole branch of forestry and their real state are introduced in the first part of the paper. After that, methods used in financial analysis of enterprises are described. The fact that forest land in the Czech Republic covered 2.66 million hectares in 2014 and its proportion in the total area of the country is 34% adds importance to the topic (Czech Statistical Yearbook 2015).
PurposeThe study aims to examine the joint effect of service design (SD), information and analysis (IA) and organizational performance through the mechanism of organizational ...excellence.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the goal of this study through the hypothesized model, a survey questionnaire research design was employed. The data were collected from Dubai Police organization. Out of 550 questionnaires, 320 questionnaires were returned. The partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to analyze the data for measurement and structural models.FindingsThe statistical results confirmed the positive and significant effects of IA on organizational excellence and excellence on organizational performance. The mediation role of organizational excellence between IA and organizational performance was also confirmed.Research limitations/implicationsThroughout this study, further details and valuable implications have been discussed. Findings provide several practical implications. Findings also help practitioners and managers make proper decisions when implementing SD, IA and excellence practices in their organizations. With the joint effect of SD, IA and organizational excellence, organizations can achieve maximum strong performance and remain in a competitive market.Originality/valueThis study is a unique empirical research study that examines the joint effect of SD, IA and excellence on performance relationships within the public sector in general and police organization in particular, which is limited especially in research of Middle East countries.
This paper proposes a generic algorithm for industries with degrading and/or failing equipment with significant consequences. Based on the specifications and the real-time status of the production ...line, the algorithm provides decision support to machinery operators and manufacturers about the appropriate lifetime extension strategies to apply, the optimal time-frame for the implementation of each and the relevant machine components. The relevant recommendations of the algorithm are selected by comparing smartly chosen alternatives after simulation-based life cycle evaluation of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), considering the short-term and long-term impact of decisions on these economic and environmental KPIs. This algorithm requires various inputs, some of which may be calculated by third-party algorithms, so it may be viewed as the ultimate algorithm of an overall Decision Support Framework (DSF). Thus, it is called "DSF Core". The algorithm was applied successfully to three heterogeneous industrial pilots. The results indicate that compared to the lightest possible corrective strategy application policy, following the optimal preventive strategy application policy proposed by this algorithm can reduce the KPI penalties due to stops (i.e., failures and strategies) and production inefficiency by 30-40%.
This paper investigates whether executives who evidence a propensity for personal tax evasion (suspect executives) are associated with tax sheltering at the firm level. I adapt recent research to ...identify the presence of these executives and examine associations between suspect executive presence and firm-level measures of tax sheltering. The results indicate that the presence of suspect executives is positively associated with proxies for corporate tax sheltering. In addition, firm-years with suspect executive presence have significantly higher cash tax savings relative to firm-years without suspect executive presence. I also investigate the firm value implications of suspect executive presence and find that increases in tax sheltering are incrementally more valuable for firms that have suspect executives than similar increments made by firms that do not have suspect executives.
•I identify the presence of personally tax aggressive (“suspect”) executives.•I examine corporate tax sheltering probability with and without their presence.•Suspect executives are positively associated with corporate tax sheltering.•The results are robust to counter-factual testing.•Suspect executives also play a role in the relation between sheltering and firm value.
PDF
