Men and Women of the Corporation

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

The Political Consciousness of Post-Industrialism@@@The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics.

In this innovative approach to the practice of social science, Charles Ragin explores the use of fuzzy sets to bridge the divide between quantitative and qualitative methods. Paradoxically, the fuzzy set is a powerful tool because it replaces an unwieldy, "fuzzy" instrument—the variable, which establishes only the positions of cases relative to each other, with a precise one—degree of membership in a well-defined set. Ragin argues that fuzzy sets allow a far richer dialogue between ideas and evidence in social research than previously possible. They let quantitative researchers abandon "homogenizing assumptions" about cases and causes, they extend diversity-oriented research strategies, and they provide a powerful connection between theory and data analysis. Most important, fuzzy sets can be carefully tailored to fit evolving theoretical concepts, sharpening quantitative tools with in-depth knowledge gained through qualitative, case-oriented inquiry. This book will revolutionize research methods not only in sociology, political science, and anthropology but in any field of inquiry dealing with complex patterns of causation.

Fuzzy-Set Social Science

This study examines whether socially responsible firms behave differently from other firms in their financial reporting. Specifically, we question whether firms that exhibit corporate social responsibility (CSR) also behave in a responsible manner to constrain earnings management, thereby delivering more transparent and reliable financial information to investors as compared to firms that do not meet the same social criteria. We find that socially responsible firms are less likely (1) to manage earnings through discretionary accruals, (2) to manipulate real operating activities, and (3) to be the subject of SEC investigations, as evidenced by Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases against top executives. Our results are robust to (1) controlling for various incentives for CSR and earnings management, (2) considering various CSR dimensions and components, and (3) using alternative proxies for CSR and accruals quality. To the extent that we control for the potential effects of reputation and financial performance, our findings suggest that ethical concerns are likely to drive managers to produce high-quality financial reports.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Benson_Wier/publication/228133769_Is_Earnings_Quality_Associated_with_Corporate_Social_Responsibility/links/0deec530caf0ff0c3a000000.pdf

Is Earnings Quality Associated with Corporate Social Responsibility

Numerous studies have investigated the factors that drive or curb greenwashing activities, but few have discussed the other side of the coin, brownwashing, the underreporting of environmental achievements, another form of corporate decoupling that is harmful for stakeholders. Using a sample of 5459 firm–year observations over the period 2007–2017, this study tests and finds that industry leaders brownwash their environmental performance to avoid peer pressure and excessive stakeholder attention, and to preserve their firm's leadership. Consequently, legitimate firms tend to converge toward informal industry standards that engender standardized environmental disclosures. Nevertheless, this phenomenon can be curbed by adopting sound environmental governance mechanisms aimed at improving corporate transparency and environmental practices. 

What drives and curbs brownwashing?

Purpose – The paper's aim is to analyze excess returns generated by Canadian sell‐offs and their links to changes in firms' internal capital allocation efficiency to test the efficiency of internal capital markets after assets divestitures.Design/methodology/approach – This study investigates the relationship between the level of the excess returns subsequent to sell‐offs and changes in the capital allocated through internal capital markets. The authors measure excess returns by calculating buy‐and‐hold abnormal (BHAR) returns up to three years after divestitures and test whether changes in value are related to changes in investment efficiency. The paper uses the relative value added by allocation (RVA) as developed by Rajan et al. to measure the variation in allocational efficiency of the internal capital market.Findings – The study reveals that on average assets divestitures enable Canadian firms to keep up with the performance of their peers of the same industrial sector during the long‐run post divest...

Sell‐offs, internal capital markets, and long run performance: Canadian evidence

In the above-mentioned article an error was overlooked by the authors during proofreading. The word ‘negative’ was used where it should read ‘positive’. Page 1, line 14 of the abstract should read: ‘As expected, a positive relation between corporate DM development and financial reporting quality is found while controlling for other factors known in the literatures on governance and accounting choices to affect earnings quality.’

/pdf/erratum-to-ethics-diversity-management-and-financial-19sar5b99t.pdf

Erratum to: Ethics, Diversity Management, and Financial Reporting Quality.

This study examines the effects of Canadian divestitures announcements on selling companies’ shareholder wealth. Using a non parametric bootstrap approach to test for significance, our results show that the sell-off announcement produces significant positive average abnormal returns of 0.92% over a two day announcement period. Gains arise predominantly from divestitures that focus firm’s activities. A cross sectional regression shows that private lender monitoring and focused operations have a positive and significant wealth effect on the divesting firms.

Stock Market Reaction to Sell-Offs Announcements: Canadian Evidence

As evidence of the continuing interest raised by "board gender diversity", major studies (Catalyst, 2008; World Economic Forum, 2010; European Board Diversity Analysis, 2010) were recently carried out and have all led to reports confirming the imbalance of women on boards and the need to address this issue. Moreover, our analysis of these reports indicates that the low proportion of women observed on corporate boards varies across countries, which raises the question as to why? Based on institutional theory and the two sets of cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede (1980) and House (2004), this study hypothesizes and tests whether this variation can be attributed to differences in the cultural settings. Our analysis of the representation of women on board for 5 European countries during 2006 reveals that the culture of a country indeed explains the observed differences. Of the cultural dimensions examined, power distance or a tolerance of inequality, uncertainty avoidance or a lack of tolerance for ambiguity, and masculinity or a preference for domination versus cooperation in superior/subordinate relationships have the highest explicative power for the differences in representation of women on boards that are observed around the world.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00937923/document

Claude Francoeur

Papers

What drives and curbs brownwashing?

Sell‐offs, internal capital markets, and long run performance: Canadian evidence

Erratum to: Ethics, Diversity Management, and Financial Reporting Quality.

Stock Market Reaction to Sell-Offs Announcements: Canadian Evidence

Cultural differences and board gender diversity