Sustainable business has become a global phenomenon in recent decades. An increasing number of banks and financial institutions are implementing the concept of social responsibility in their operations. Banks in the domestic banking market lag behind international banking institutions in applying the concept of sustainability and realizing economic, environmental and social goals. Accordingly, this paper deals with analyzing of the concept of sustainable business in the banking sector with special reference to the practice of Banca Intesa a.d. Belgrade. The goal is to determine to what extent the realization of environmental and social goals through socially responsible, sustainable business contributes to the realization of economic goals. The activities of Banca Intesa in the field of environmental protection, social responsibility and management (ESG), as well as the effects of these activities on the bank's reputation and competitiveness, are presented. The research is based on the analysis of basic indicators of sustainability, in regard to the economic value realized by the bank for the observed period. Special emphasis is placed on green financial products, credit policy and social inclusion. The paper concludes that sustainable business is not only ethics but also a long-term competitiveness strategy.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is a key indicator of a firm’s long-term value and competitiveness. This study combined internal management dynamics (TMT diversity and absorptive capacity) and external social responsibility (ESG) to provide a more holistic perspective that explores the relationship between ESG performance and corporate value at multiple levels. In this study, Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2022 were selected and analyzed using a quantitative approach. The findings are as follows: (1) There is a positive correlation between ESG performance and firm value. (2) This relationship is particularly accentuated within non-high-polluting industries, the eastern and middle region, and non-state-owned firms. (3) The age, gender, financial background, and absorptive capacity of TMTs significantly moderate the relationship between corporate ESG performance and firm value. These findings will help business leaders and policymakers understand how effective management and responsibility practices can drive long-term business success and social impact. These findings not only help academics deepen their theoretical constructs but also provide operational guidance for business practices.
Sania Sarwar, Khalid Hussian, Mian M. Niaz Shakir
et al.
Purpose: This study explores the impact of external auditors' ethical behavior on audit quality, with a particular focus on the perspectives of internal auditors in publicly listed Pakistani companies. It aims to address the gap in literature concerning the interplay between ethical behavior, corporate ethical values, and perceived audit quality.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the study examines the direct and indirect effects of external auditors' ethics on audit quality, with corporate ethical values as a moderating factor. Data were collected via a mail survey and Google Forms from auditors in listed Pakistani firms, yielding 232 usable responses (61% response rate). The analysis utilized SPSS and AMOS for reliability, validity, factor analysis, regression, and correlation.
Findings: Results reveal a positive relationship between ethical behavior and perceived audit quality, amplified by strong corporate ethical values. Companies prioritizing ethics reported enhanced audit quality, providing valuable insights for regulators and auditors.
Implications/Originality/Value: This research contributes to the understanding of ethical behavior in audit quality, offering actionable insights for improving ethical standards in audit practices. The findings are pertinent for regulatory bodies, auditors, and policymakers aiming to strengthen financial disclosure integrity in Pakistan
During the early 2020s, business leaders have been faced with the confluence of multiple challenges, the likes of which they had never seen before: the Covid-19 pandemic, systemic racism and the continued escalation of the climate crisis. These challenges forced companies to search for new ways to create value for their investors and other stakeholders; these challenges forced business leaders to think differently about the role that their companies play in the broader society. As we think about how business leaders balance these short-term opportunities and long-term strategies, it is critical that they realize that he level of social responsibility expected by society has risen significantly in recent years. Companies need to move beyond seeing social dynamics as short-term opportunities and incorporate them into long-term strategies. In this study, we offer 6 rules for moving forward and for turning short-term social opportunities into long-term strategic value creations. Business leaders need to focus on offering products, services and relationships that help their stakeholders improve their lives. In doing this, we rely on both academic studies and case studies to show how moving beyond corporate social opportunity and towards value creation through social responsibility is the key to long-term corporate success.
This article continues a series of publications on the issues of accounting, analysis and assessment of the corporate social responsibility in a rapidly changing environment when society and business face new challenges. The authors provide methodological solutions to the problem of studying the social responsibility of Russian public companies based on the analysis of data disclosed in their financial and non-financial statements. The research uses abduction methods; logical analysis; logical content analysis of financial and non-financial reporting standards in terms of requirements for disclosure of social aspects; expert analysis of social reporting of Russian companies; linguistic analysis in order to identify the practice of using certain terms and concepts in the financial and non-financial reporting. The analysis of corporate reporting standards made it possible to propose a new model for analyzing disclosures in the field of corporate social responsibility. The authors reveal the most important issues of the corporate social responsibility by assessing the trends in the social sphere, identifying opportunities and threats for its further development connected with the evolution of society, economy and ecology, ongoing digitalization processes. Procedures of researching business social responsibility are developed and fully described. The documentary base of the research includes International Financial Reporting Standards, Sustainable Development Reporting Standards, Basic Performance Indicators of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) as well as financial and non-financial reports of Russian companies operating in production industries. The results of the research are the proposals to apply the multi-stage approach, which makes it possible to assess the social responsibility of certain economic entities through the prism of global tasks the country and the world community face with. The analysis of the complex problems of business and civilization allows us to identify five top problems in the light of which the social responsibility of large companies should be assessed, as well as to build a logical connection between these top problems and the key topics of disclosures in corporate reports.
Natapol Thongplew, Jariyaporn Onwong, Ratchawut Kotlakome
et al.
Fresh markets play crucial roles in everyday life in emerging economies such as Thailand. Operated by local governments or small companies, these facilities are regarded as less equipped actors for utilizing resources and handling environmental problems, including solid waste. Therefore, the operations of fresh markets are considered as a linear business model where materials and wastes are not efficiently utilized in the economic system. Taking the case of the Don Klang Market, Thailand, this research investigated how a strategic environmentally motivated corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative on solid waste can transform a linear flow of solid waste for realizing circular economy (CE). Through a society-wide social return on investment analysis, the results reveal that the strategic environmental CSR on solid waste creates impacts toward CE benefiting the company and stakeholders. Moreover, the study reveals that assistance is essential for small companies to take up a role in promoting CE. This research contributes to the improvement of solid-waste management and sheds some light on CE realization through CSR in the context of emerging economies.
Aim and Introduction: The main purpose of this study is the meta-synthesis of effective signaling to internal and external stakeholders. Signaling theory is trying to determine the important role of signaling by different players in changing the economic results through making more information asymmetry (Connelly et al., 2011). On the other hand, a stakeholder is an entity whose decisions affect the company and vice versa (Beringer et al., 2013). In this study, two types of stakeholders are considered: internal and external. The study is developmental, qualitative in terms of data nature, and documentary-meta-synthesis in terms of data collection.Methodology: In this research CASP- Critical Assessment Skills Program is used for evaluating articles. For 72 selected articles from valid scientific databases from 1996 to 2021, the process of extracting information was performed from the results and analysis of these articles. After evaluating each of them, finally, 48 articles were approved and screened by 10 qualitative criteria (Sandelowski & Barroso, 2006). By examining the backgrounds and models of the approved articles, a conceptual model is resulted based on the achieved codes and categories.In this part, there are three different phases: combining the findings, quality control, and reporting the final results. The purpose of meta-synthesis is to build the cohere and new interpretation for results. This method has been used for clearing up the concepts and patterns in accepted references (Kant, 2006); because of that, all findings in this process are considered as codes and themes which are mentioned totally in the paper.Findings: The result of the analysis of approved papers’ models and contents, based on the methodology above, appears in 4 categories and 27 codes. The main categories are signal, effective signal attributes, internal stakeholders, and external stakeholders. Social responsibility, product quality, and product innovation are the most repetitive signals, which mentioned in researches. Other signals can be set to receivers like process innovation, marketing innovation, consequence, commitment, and intent. In the signaling attribute category, signal observability is the main code, which can define the effectiveness of signal and signaling in general. On the other hand, in the internal stakeholder category, staff and in external stakeholders, competitors, business partners, and customers are the main signal receivers. Signal and signaling attributes impact signaling effectiveness: signal cost, observability, fit, frequency, validity, and consistency. Among these attributes, observability has a major impact on signaling effectiveness. Finally, the conceptual model which contains signals, their attributes, and their main receivers is formed based on analysis.Discussion and Conclusion: The company gives different signals to its target audience with its different actions and chosen signaling mix. Depending on the company's signaling goals and the company’s signaling mix, the receivers of the signals can be a group of internal and external stakeholders of the company. According to research articles, the focus is more on some kind of signals and also some stakeholders as receivers; For example, companies generally target their external stakeholders, especially the customer and competitor (Talke & O'Connor,2011). On the other hand, the repetition of signaling to internal stakeholders is less among the studies. By reviewing the contents of the company’s signaling portfolio, the most emphasis in studies is on social responsibility, reliability, innovativeness, and quality of the company and its products.The emphasis of this study is on effective signaling to stakeholders, because the company tries to signal the true quality of it and the next reason is decreasing the gap between perceived signals and intended ones to get to its signaling goals. The characteristics of the signals and the signaling process, in general, can determine the effectiveness of the signals and signaling itself. That group of characteristics includes transparency pf signal, the validity of signal, stability of the signal, signal cost (Certo & et al.,2003), signal fit, and signal frequency (Carter, 2006) which the signal transparency and observability have got the most weight between others (Ramaswami et al., 2010).For further researches, researchers can consider some suggested subjects by authors in this very area: identifying other elements affecting the effectiveness of signals and signaling besides the mentioned elements like the characteristics of the signal sender, the characteristics of signal receivers, signaling environment, chosen signaling mix, framing the proper signaling mix for sending to specific receiver for specific goals, comparing the main aim of signaler of sending signals with the probable perception of the signal receiver, the probable reaction of signal receivers to signals based on their perception and the dimension of reactions(Debruyne et al.,2002).
Abstract The topic of financial sustainability in microfinance institutions has become more important as an increasing number of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) seek operational self-sufficiency, which translates into financial sustainability. This study aims to identify factors that drive operational self-sufficiency in microfinance institutions. To accomplish this, 416 MFIs in sub-Saharan Africa are studied and several drivers for operational self-sufficiency are empirically analyzed. Results indicate that these drivers are return on assets, and the ratios total expenses/assets and financial revenues/assets. The results imply that MFIs should encourage cost-management measures. They also reveal that there may not be a significant tradeoff in self-sufficiency and outreach. These findings will enable microfinance institutions worldwide to sharpen their institutional capabilities to achieve operational self-sufficiency and also provide policymakers with more focused tools to assist industry development.
Social responsibility of business, Business ethics
Following the strategic decisions of business managers in the community, issues have been raised that lead to changes in the community. One of these issues, which is becoming increasingly important, is consideration of corporate social responsibility. Therefore, the focus of this study was the effect of corporate social responsibility on brand performance with the mediating role of corporate reputation, resource commitment and green creativity. The research method was survey. The statistical population was employees of private banks, 507 of whom participated in the study. Structural equation modelling with SMARTPLS software was used to analyse the data. The results showed the effect of corporate social responsibility is positive and significant on resource commitment, green creativity, corporate reputation and brand performance. The effect of resource commitment, green creativity and corporate reputation is positive and significant on brand performance. Brand performance will be improved if the company supports employee higher education, encourages employees to develop their skills and abilities, implements flexible policies to provide work-life balance for employees, prioritizes employee needs and demands, has plans to reduce the negative effects of the company on the environment, and participates in activities aimed at protecting and improving the quality of the environment.
Gede Adi Yuniarta, Made Suyana Utama, Ida Ayu Nyoman Saskara
et al.
This study aims to analyze the influence of contextual factors, government role, implementation of corporate social responsibility, and competency on competitiveness of wood craft Small Medium Industries (SMI) in Bali Province, Indonesia. The renewal of this research is to include the implementation of CSR in order to improve business competencies and competitiveness of SMIs. A sample of 152 respondents from the wood crafts SMIs in Bali Province. The research approach used is quantitative (positivist) and the type of research is exploratory with a questionnaire as a method of data collection. Partial Least Square as a data analysis tool is used. The results of the study show that: contextual factors, government role, and CSR implementation had positive and significant effects on competencies and competitiveness of SMIs. Contextual factors have the smallest influence on business competencies and competitiveness when compared with other variables in the study.
This article proposes to get acquainted with a study that, as a first approximation, assesses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on a shift in emphasis in accounting and analytical work. Economic actors once again found themselves in the conditions of a “new normalcy”, now it is a global coronavirus crisis. Now society and business are faced with new risks, threats, disasters, opportunities, unforeseen consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, the management of the companies is expected to provide the creative solutions, an economically sound strategy or a policy of working in a new environment. The new complex context of decision-making caused by the pandemic needs to keep information and analytical support up to date. Therefore, this article proposes to pay attention to some aspects of information and analytical work that are of particular importance during the period of the impact of the pandemic and its consequences. The list of such aspects includes the mechanisms for ensuring business transparency, the application of stakeholder theory and change management theory, the organization of a systematic business analysis, the concept of social responsibility and ESG criteria. This approach will make it possible to “reveal” the problems caused by the pandemic and its consequences, find the best solutions therefor, implement them correctly and update the business development strategy. The research results based on the analysis of current business needs will help build an adequate system of accounting and analytical support.
The necessity of social responsibility of business in the field of culture giving it additional means for development is considered in the article, and also the possibility of enrichment of both parties as a result of these contacts is shown.
The purpose of the study is to identify the ways to increase social responsibility in the modern management of industrial enterprises on the example of corporation “Arterium”. The basic principles that have been used in the research are historical, systematic and comparative methods, institutional and structural-functional approaches. In the paper the theoretical foundations of corporate social responsibility were considered, foreign and domestic practices were analyzed, in particular, based on “Arterium” corporation. The urgency of the work is to study the current state of corporate social responsibility in Ukraine, and, in particular, at the “Arterium” enterprise. More and more companies are introducing CSR into their business, business standards are changing, and socially responsible behavior becomes an essential element of successful entrepreneurship. It was found that the corporation, implementing the principles of social responsibility of business towards society, focuses on the following areas: business ethics and ethical marketing, innovation and product development, patient health and safety, protection against fraud, investment in employee training, environmental policy and Green office, support for health, sports and education programs, community care.
According to the results of the conducted research:
- the situation and effectiveness of corporate social responsibility at the specified enterprise have been substantiated;
- the algorithm for developing a social report for “Arterium” corporation has been proposed as a method of increasing social responsibility.
To achieve the goal, the following tasks have been solved:
- the essence of the concept of corporate social responsibility and the state of CSR in the world have been investigated;
- the activity of “Arterium” corporation has been analyzed;
- the state of corporate social responsibility in Ukraine has been assessed;
- the experience of foreign companies in the field has been studied.
Ali Abdullah Alnodel, Dirar Elmahi Elobaid, Sally Ibrahim Elawady
et al.
This research aims to explore the practices of business colleges in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to reveal their engagement with the society and the factors affecting their engagement with the community. The study utilized a content analysis approach in collecting data from the websites of business colleges in 2016. The sample size comprised 142 business colleges from 20 countries in the MENA region. A regression model was established for the relationship between the independent variables (age, type and academic accreditation of business school and income level, population density and Internet user rate in the country of the college) and the dependent variable (behavior of business schools in disclosing their societal role on their websites). The results indicate that situation and economic stability are central factors influencing the level of disclosure about the business schools’ engagement with the community. This gives an impression that university practices of social responsibilities come as a result of economic and social development, not as a result of the needs of the society itself. Accordingly, the study recommends that business schools in less developed societies reemphasize their roles according to their community needs and facilitate technology in the process of fulfilling this responsibility.
Paul Agu Igwe, Afam Icha-Ituma, Nnamdi O. Madichie
Objective:The purpose of this article is to evaluate the scope of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ‘Social Value Initiatives’ (SVIs) among corporations. Nowadays, CSR provides firms with an opportunity to provide community social need through discretionary corporate practices. This article contributes to knowledge on how firms approach social and environmental sustainability while maintaining economic responsibility.
Research Design & Methods: This article adopts analysis based on secondary data from UK based companies. Fifty companies’ websites and policy documents (30 commercial enterprises and 20 social enterprises) were researched to identify the patterns of practices of SVIs and factors that influence the practices among companies.
Findings: The findings suggest that both social and commercial enterprises focus on the adoption of the ‘CSR’ practices based on the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ (TBL) as defined in the ‘Elkington, 1997 framework’ of economic, environmental and social sustainability. The difference is that while the ‘SVIs’ of commercial enterprises develop as an operational strategy at the later stages of the business, the ‘SVIs’ of social enterprises are embedded during the enterprise creation stage.
Implications & Recommendations:Based on the findings, this article develops a conceptual ‘Social Value Initiatives’ framework which forms the domain of social value practices. We suggest that future studies should focus on adopting qualitative-oriented primary research to explore CSR approaches, which will capture the views of management, customers, employees and shareholders.
Contribution & Value Added:Despite its limitations, this article contributes to the knowledge on CSR and social value practices among social and commercial enterprises.
Corporate social responsibility practices are increasingly being adopted and legitimized in business and they impact the strategic and operational levels in various areas. The integration of these criteria and practices in the strategic management involves many factors, and human resource management is an essential aspect for the accomplishment of such initiative. Thus, this paper associates the relationship among corporate social responsibility (CSR) various dimensions (strategic, ethical, social and environmental) and strategic human resource management (SHRM) in companies operating in Brazil. We also aim to identify whether there is impact of other aspects on this relationship, namely: size, industry and company internationalization level (if national or multinational). Results show evidence that ethical CSR can be associated to SHRM. Environmental CSR showed marginal relation, and social and strategic CSR presented no significant association. Those results emphasize the need to further develop strategic actions of CSR into human resource management in emerging markets. Managers can also benefit from those findings, as it is possible to have a broad view of limitations and opportunities regarding the role played by human resource management in CSR.
This article examines how the fundamental right of freedom of expression for news media in Pakistan continues to be threatened both by the government and conflicting parties, an issue that is compounded by the threat to the journalists’ safety and survival. Giving examples of three Pakistani journalists who lost their lives after their investigations during the America’s so called ‘War on Terror’, the article gives an account of the nature of the dangers and threats that are faced by the journalists in Pakistan who report on armed political conflicts. Drawing on the experiences of five other journalists, who were interviewed during research visits to Pakistan in 2012 and 2014, the author also reflects on the role of journalists in the light of the social responsibility theory and explores some of the factors that contribute towards making conflict reporting a dangerous business in Pakistan.
Pictured: Figure 1: The Press in Stress report in 2012. Shown in the cover image is a curbside radio-seller in Quetta. FM radio is hugely popular in Balochistan. Image: Aurangzazib Khan
Communication. Mass media, Journalism. The periodical press, etc.
Gabriela Ţigu, Claudia-Elena Ţuclea, Diana-Maria Vrânceanu
et al.
Retailers’ social responsibility is treated in the literature in association with such topics as
trade justice, ethics, or fairness. The concept can be defined according to various
dimensions, involving characteristics such as quality products, price fairness, honesty, and
ethical interactions with consumers. This paper aims to evaluate students' attitude towards
retailers’ social responsibility in implementing the strategic and tactical decisions about
product, price, distribution and promotion. It is based on a qualitative research exploring
the opinions of the students in business administration about this issue, both as consumers
and prospective decision makers in the retail sector. The research was conducted in two
focus groups, where the students played the roles of “consumers”, respectively “managers”.
It was found out that there were differences in the responses of the two groups. The
members of the “consumers” group were emotionally involved and they preferred a
demand driven approach that focuses on finding solutions to their needs, while the
members of the “managers” group have adopted a more detached attitude and they were
concerned with the identification of gain as a consequence of social responsibility actions.
Siu Hing Lo, Gerard J.P. van Breukelen, Gjalt-Jorn Y. Peters
et al.
From a corporate social responsibility perspective, there are many reasons to promote teleconference use as an alternative to business travel. The present study examines psychosocial and organizational factors relevant to teleconference use. We tested an extended Theory of Planned Behavior model of teleconference use among office workers of four organizations. Results indicate that intention was the strongest direct predictor of teleconference use. Habit and perceived norm, in turn, were the strongest predictors of intention to use teleconference. In contrast, attitude was only weakly predictive and perceived control not predictive at all of intention to use teleconference. We also examined how this model was influenced by the organizational context by comparing organizations from two different regions, and organizations from the private vs. the public sector. Most teleconference-related beliefs differed between regions and organizational sectors. The relevance of specific attitudinal and normative beliefs to the overall attitude and perceived norm also differed between organizational sectors. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
Political institutions and public administration (General)