Corporate group

About: Corporate group is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1747 publications have been published within this topic receiving 46868 citations.

Developing Meaning in Action: (Re)constructing the Process of Embedding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Companies

Abstract: Popular management literature in general and contemporary publications on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in particular make us believe that implementing CSR in organisations is mainly based on rational, strategic and linear conceptions. In day-to-day reality quite a different, rather "messy” pattern emerges. A pattern that can be characterised as incremental, customised and less linear than common belief would have it. This contribution after a brief introduction elaborating the backgrounds of the research project it is based upon focuses primarily on the nature of this process. For this purpose it introduces and discusses a four-phase approach to implementing CSR characterised as [1] sensitising, [2] discovering, [3] embedding and [4] routinising. Against the background of this (re)constructed approach two theoretical reflections are made after some preliminary observations. One concerning the uniqueness and thus ontological nature of these kinds of approaches and a second one concerning the nature of the organisational change they create. This contribution ends with outlining possible questions to be answered in the research still to come. The Authors: Jan Jonker is Associate Professor and Research Fellow at the Nijmegen School of Management University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands). He is also Visiting Professor at ICCSR since 2003. Jacqueline Cramer is Professor at the Erasmus Centre for Sustainable Development & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, PO BOX 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Drs. Angela van der Heijden is Junior Researcher at the same centre of EUR. Address for correspondence: Dr. Jan Jonker, Nijmegen School of Management University of Nijmegen PO BOX 9108 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands, [em] ianionker@wxs.nl There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein (1879 1955) [1] Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is more and more considered to be an important "trend” in society, which requires a new way of thinking about the internal and external organisational issues of organisations, in particular companies. CSR can be described as ‘... the overall relationship of the corporation with all of its stakeholders. Elements of social responsibility include investment in community outreach, employee relations, creation and maintenance of employment, environmental responsibility, human rights and financial performance. It is about producing and/ or delivering socially and environmentally responsible products and/ or services in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. And it is about a company’s commitment to being a fair and equitable employer. And it is about strategic social investment.’ (The Conference Board of Canada, 1999). CSR is a trend that reflects changing social attitudes regarding the responsibilities that firms have towards the contexts and societies in which they operate. More than before, firms are now expected to take explicitly into account all aspects of their performance, i.e. not just their financial results, but also their social and ecological performance. Openness, accountability and transparency are some of the new key words covering a vast range of issues. A growing group of companies acknowledges this trend towards corporate social responsibility. However, they are faced with the problem of how to put the concept into practice. What does it really mean for companies to shift their attention from purely financial to sustainable profit? What are the implications of this shift and how is it translated into the going concern of the organisation? NIDO These questions led NIDO (National Initiative for Sustainable Development The Netherlands) to launch a major programme entitled ‘From financial to sustainable profit’. NIDO, established in 1999, is a foundation with the purpose of structurally anchoring sustainable initiatives in society and is financed through special funds of the Dutch government. Several programmes have been developed within this

From Moral Obligation to International Law: Disclosure Systems, Markets and the Regulation of Multinational Corporations

Abstract: It is well known that soft international law has begun to provide incentives for the management of a values-based behavior structure for multinational corporations. This paper will argue that hard international law can serve as a vehicle for the enhancement of a market environment in which corporate stakeholders, and principally consumers and investors, might incorporate information about corporate social behavior in their consumption and investment decisions. Specifically, a mandatory system of transparency and disclosure at the international level may provide an efficient means of creating incentives for moral behavior without the need to incorporate any one version of appropriate manifestations of social responsibility on corporate entities. International law can thus institutionalize, within a rule of law context, important incentives for appropriate behavior without incorporating any particular set of public values and provide a legal framework through which stakeholders can manage the public or social behavior of multinational corporations. The paper starts with a contextualization of the regulatory problem: the extent of the responsibility of corporate actors for the working conditions of indirect employees. Neither domestic nor international law has been much help. Law has taken only some very tentative steps to recognize or further the rise of this moral sense of obligation. The rise of the much-touted corporate social responsibility movement has resulted in the proliferation of a number of responses at every level of governance. Yet, virtually all of these responses have been in the form of soft law, usually voluntary codes that are not enforceable by any political organization, each reflecting the values of their proponents or stakeholders. Still, the obligation can be given legal effect through contract and enforced through regimes of monitoring and disclosure. The paper then considers the way in which hard international law might enhance this framework in which markets determine the substance of appropriate behavior which corporations are willing to embrace. For the purpose, the paper proposes the creation of a global system of disclosure and transparency. The object of these mandates would not be to establish a definitive set of behaviors, but rather to establish a framework within which corporate stakeholders-consumers, investors, labor, and others - could adjust their relationships on the basis of the behavior disclosed. The paper ends by pointing to the sources for such international lawmaking that already exist.

Tax Motivated Income Shifting and Korean Business Groups (Chaebol)

Abstract: This paper examines tax-induced income shifting behavior among affiliated firms in Korean business groups (chaebols). Korean corporate income tax law does not require consolidated tax returns, and business groups with a large number of affiliated member firms have incentives to shift income across member firms to reduce the overall taxes of the group. For a large number of Korean companies that are subject to external audits, we perform univariate and multivariate regression analyses on the income shifting behavior of chaebol firms compared with non-chaebol control firms. Our evidence suggests that tax-motivated income shifting activities exist among chaebol firms, and that the extent of income shifting is found to depend on its effect on non-tax cost factors such as the earnings, leverage, and cash flow rights of the controlling shareholders. We also find that income shifting is more pronounced in chaebol firms where the control-cash flow divergence is relatively large, suggesting that income shifting is affected by the controlling shareholders' opportunism. Our study provides some insights on the intra-group income shifting activities where research is limited.

The Effects of Mergers and Acquisition on Corporate Growth and Profitability: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract: It is a widely held view that a strategic solution to financial distress in corporate organizations is mergers and acquisitions. This view remains a presumption, which has not been empirically tested through a research study. Corporate organizations facing difficulty have in recent times often followed or are compelled by regulators to follow the path of extensive reconstruction through mergers and acquisitions, apparently as the only option to liquidation. This paper fills a gap in the literature by investigating the effects of mergers and acquisitions on the efficiency, growth and profitability of corporate organizations in the post consolidated environment of the Nigerian banking industry. The methodology used is a survey of companies incorporated in Nigeria under the Companies and Allied Matters Act [1990], which have undergone a merger or an acquisition process. The elements of the survey were selected randomly. A total of ten incorporated banks were selected using simple random sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed using key financial ratios. The results support the idea that mergers and acquisitions are not a prima facie solution to the problem of financial distress in corporate organizations. This is especially so when mergers are regulatory imposed than business environment driven. The study further revealed that while mergers and acquisitions can drive growth and profitability in some organizations, operating efficiency suffers at least in the short-term in the post merger and acquisition corporate entity. The evidence also shows that mergers and acquisitions provided only a temporary solution to financial distress and no solution at all to operating indiscipline.