Social capital in theory and practice

The purpose of this paper is to do a thorough literature review to assess the current status of corporate sustainability (CS) practices, issues and challenges in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and based on literature suggest a model that can improve and strategically manage their sustainability practices in the emerging market context of Asia.,After setting the theoretical background on why the corporations need to shoulder the responsibility of sustainable development, the authors did a high level literature review to estimate the gap area and based on the findings formulated some research questions on why the SMEs, more specifically those in Asian emerging market, are lagging behind in terms of CS practices. Next, using the “literature survey” as the methodology the authors did a thorough in-depth literature review to answer the above research questions and organised the findings in light of those research questions. Considering the research gap and the crucial role of SMEs in a country’s economic progress the authors restricted the literature search on CS in the case of SMEs only.,CS is a well-practiced area in big organisations. However, the literature suggests that in the case of SMEs the situation is different. Social and environmental practices are grossly neglected in SMEs more specifically in emerging markets. Existing literature mentions that collaborative mode of operation, government policy and facilitation, supporting organisation culture can positively influence SME’s sustainability performance, and hence, improve their financial performance.,The conceptual model has been developed based on suggestions and recommendations in western countries context. To establish the validity of the model in the Asian business scenario it needs to be tested with a sizable sample of SMEs in the Asian market.,The current paper has practical implications both for academic research on sustainable development and also in business development. The proposed model in the current form is based on the literature survey only. Once such a model is empirically established this can be proved beneficial for providing guidance to SMEs to enhance the sustainability of their business operations. Moreover, environmental and social best practices adopted by SMEs will also have a positive influence on society and the environment in the long run.,This paper had done a country-wise comparison of sustainable practices in SMEs and based on the recommendations and suggestions of different scholars as found in the detailed literature review, the authors developed few research propositions and also presented a conceptual model. Finally, to address the gap it mentions some future research possibilities to test and validate the proposed model in the context of SMEs in emerging markets of Asia.

Corporate sustainability in SMEs: an Asian perspective

This article contributes to the study of migrant ‘illegality’ and deportability by focusing on informal regimes of citizenship and regulation between state and society. It sheds light, in particula...

From expulsion to extortion: deportability, predatory policing and West African migrants in Angola

Auditory, acoustic and limited physiological data are presented, together with audio, to describe different types of interaction between citation tone pitch and breathy, whispery, growly and creaky phonation type in three varieties of Wu 吳 Chinese: Lóngyóu 龍游, Yŏngjiāng 甬江 and Jìnyún 縉雲. Interaction in both lexical and verb-object tone sandhi is briefly described for the last two varieties.

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Tonation in three Chinese Wu dialects.

Business actors from the global South have traditionally been marginalized in global private governance But this may be changing A growing number of business actors in China have become involved 

Aspiring rule-makers: Chinese business actors in global governance

NGO–firm partnerships have been well studied in the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Marano and Tashman 2012; Dahan et al. 2010; Oetzel and Doh 2009). However, these studies have generally limited their focus to Western multinationals and Western NGOs and, moreover, not by-and-large examine in depth the institutional settings under which either the firm or the NGO operates Building on recent institutional approaches to CSR (Brammer, Jackson, and Matten 2012; Kang and Moon 2012; Matten and Moon 2008), this paper examines how the institutional dynamics of several partnerships between Chinese firms and NGOs affect the manifestation of CSR (e.g. “implicit” vs. “explicit”). The paper also looks into how CSR and NGO–firm collaboration plays out within a changing state-corporatist framework in Chinese context (Unger and Chan 1995, 2008; Hsu and Hasmath forthcoming). The paper then argues 1) that the involvement of an NGO in the partnership reflects a changing institutional setting in China, and 2) that type and level of involvement of Chinese government institutions affects whether a given firm takes an “implicit” or an “explicit” approach to CSR.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/186810261404300403

Chinese NGO–Firm Partnerships and CSR from an Institutional Perspective

Recent phonetic studies have shown Wu dialects to have breathy voicing (Cao and Maddieson 1992, Ren 1992) and whispery voicing (Rose 1989) in Yang tone syllables. Cao and Maddieson confirmed that spectral slope values were key in differentiating the "voiced" series of initials in four Wu dialects, and Rose shows that high percentages of jitter and shimmer in Yang tone syllables shows evidence of whispery voicing and "growl" in the Zhenhai variety of Wu Chinese. These phonation types are also reported in nasal and sonorant initials in several Wu dialects (Qian 1992, 2005; VanNess Simmons 1998; Zhu 1999, 2005) Acoustic cues for breathy voicing vary cross-linguistically, with some emphasizing spectral slope differences and others emphasizing differences in additive noise. What's more, different cues may be emphasized by speakers within the same language (Dart 1987). This study examines the prominence of spectral slope, additive noise among other acoustic cues in Yang and Yin tone syllables in Ningbo Chinese and how these cues vary across speakers. It examines the phonetic evidence for the presence or absence of breathy nasals, and whether the same acoustic cues for oral stops are equally salient for nasal stops. Finally, it examines the timing properties of non-modal phonation throughout the syllable. Keywords: Ningbo Chinese, Breathy Voicing, Whispery Voicing, Pre-glottalization, Speaker Variation.

Douglas Fraser Whitehead

Papers

Chinese NGO–Firm Partnerships and CSR from an Institutional Perspective

Phonation types and speaker variation in Ningbo Chinese