https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/download/14795/13847

Men and Women of the Corporation

Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution

Corporate Governance, Board Diversity, and Firm Value

Integrated reporting is the latest novelty in the corporate reporting field. It is a tool capable of better representing the capacity of companies to create value over time. In recent years, attention to this new reporting tool has grown in both professional and academic fields. However, despite past research that has analysed many aspects of integrated reporting, the integrated reporting quality and its determinants are still little explored. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the effect of board characteristics on integrated reporting quality according to an agency theory approach. The findings, based on a sample of 134 international firms, show a positive relationship between the size, independence, diversity, and activity of a board with integrated reporting quality. This study contributes to enriching literature in this area in various ways. First, it broadens the scope of application of agency theory; second, it identifies further internal determinants of integrated reporting quality. This is the first study that analyses the impact of the characteristics of a board as a determining factor of integrated reporting quality.

Board characteristics and integrated reporting quality: an agency theory perspective

Purpose – This paper seeks to analyse the nature of the communication process involving stakeholders in a working relationship with organisations. While most research has been undertaken to identify who or what these stakeholders are and what the patterns of relationships look like, very little attention has been given to the ways in which the organisation actually engages with them.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on qualitative research conducted into a controversial issue concerning protected area management in Victoria, Australia, which was conducted within a framework built around Habermas' concept of communicative action.Findings – The lessons learned from what Stake would call an “instrumental” case study, provided the insight to clarify what form organisational communication with stakeholders should take if it is to result in significant and positive outcomes. It is argued that the basis of any constructive engagement between an organisation and its stakeholders should be communicatio...

stakeholder relationships: the dialogue of engagement

The purpose of this paper is to focus on food truck phenomenon, a particular kind of street food service, identifying two categories of performers: “Traditional Food Truck” (TFT) and “Gourmet Food Truck” (GFT). This paper evaluates and compares the efficiency performance of the main actors.,A sample of 41 food trucks in the Northwest of Italy was identified. A survey was carried out to determine the characteristics of the food truck and evaluate the efficiency performance of an output-oriented data envelopment analysis.,The two kinds of food trucks provide different levels of efficacy: the data showed that 22 per cent of the food trucks operate efficiently with an average efficiency score of 0.80. The results demonstrate that GFT are more efficient than TFT and confirm that innovation is an important key to competitive advantage in this sector.,The data collected were related only to the food truckers that operate in the Turin area and the number of variables analysed is limited to certain aspects of production and selling processes.,The results provided some managerial indicators to improve the level of corporate efficiency, operating on technical decisions.,This is a pioneer study that analyses how a business based on the combination of tradition and innovation can offer a competitive advantage and strengthen a strong connection to its territory, improving corporate performance.

https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1649781/4/BFJ-03-2017-0179_post-print.pdf

Street food and innovation: the food truck phenomenon

Digital and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and, consequently, remote working have increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, workers' economic-financial perception of remote working conditions, such as digital technology and its implementation, has scarcely been researched. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the economic-financial impacts of remote working on labourers. Using a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design, a sample of 976 workers is investigated. This study highlights that the majority of workers experience a negative economic-financial impact due to the additional costs incurred for digital technology and platforms and for utilities as well as the non-payment of overtime and meal vouchers, which are higher than the savings in commuting costs and out-of-pocket expenses. Furthermore, this research emphasizes that psychological-behavioural variables, specifically job satisfaction and technostress, are essential in the choice to continue working remotely after the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, our results have important theoretical implications related to the existing literature both on the managerial issues connected to digital transformation, with interdisciplinary elements linked to psychological aspects, and on corporate finance topics associated to the economic-financial impacts of remote working. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9186428

Remote working and digital transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic: Economic–financial impacts and psychological drivers for employees

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Comparative Efficiency Studies

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how food waste management can affect both retail and distribution operators’ efficiency performance and their ability to create value. In particular, the paper shows how optimizing food waste management characterizes best practices and favors the development of sustainability.,Based on a survey of 196 outdoor market operators (including farmers and street food traders) from 27 outdoor markets, the authors analyzed unsold food/food wastage processes vis-a-vis the operators’ behavior and attitude. To provide accurate definitions of the satisfaction levels, a consumer perception survey was carried out, with a usable sample of 2,107 questionnaires. The efficiency performance was evaluated according to data envelopment analysis.,The results showed that farmers operate more efficiently than street food traders and that the traditional management of unsold food/food waste is an important competitive element in this sector.,The sample represents the Greater Turin Area in Italy, i.e., thus, limiting generalizability of the results. In addition, the variables analyzed were limited to certain aspects of selling processes and food waste management.,The results provide some indicators on how a more rational style of unsold food management can improve an operators’ performance and help make a social impact.,To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyses outdoor market operators’ efficiency, based on the use of food waste as a variable affecting their performance.

Street food traders, farmers and sustainable practice to reduce food waste in the italian context

Firms are obliged to disclose certain information in their annual reports in accordance with laws, regulations, and adopted accounting standards (Cheng and Courtenay, 2006). This is the minimum level of disclosure required by the market so that any possible investor can formally assess the company. Voluntary disclosure, on the other hand, includes additional information that a company communicates beyond what is legally required (Ariff, 2013). It gives investors a clear idea of a company’s economic viability (Boesso and Kumar, 2007) and reduces the so-called information asymmetry problem (Healy and Palepu, 2001). Disclosure is seen as the best way to communicate with investors (Ho and Wong, 2001) and transparency via disclosure and board monitoring are possible solutions to easing agency and asymmetric communication problems (Baumol and Bowman, 1965; Healy and Palepu, 2001; Quagli, 2004; Corsi et al., 2016). Nowadays, stakeholders manifest implicit and explicit information needs. Firstly, they need to understand what the new dynamics for value Abstract

/pdf/board-configuration-and-ir-adoption-empirical-evidence-from-5bj4xnk10k.pdf

Simona Alfiero

Papers

Street food and innovation: the food truck phenomenon

Remote working and digital transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic: Economic–financial impacts and psychological drivers for employees

Comparative Efficiency Studies

Street food traders, farmers and sustainable practice to reduce food waste in the italian context

Board configuration and IR adoption. Empirical evidence from European companies