scholarly journals Contested Visions: The Value of Systems Theory for Corporate Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Belinfanti ◽  
Lynn Stout
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Shareholder Value ◽  
Corporate Law ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Citizens United ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Many

Despite the dominant role corporations play in our economy, culture, and politics, the nature and purpose of corporations remains hotly contested. This conflict was brought to the fore in the recent Supreme Court opinions in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby. Although the prevailing narrative for the past quarter-century has been that corporations “belong” to shareholders and should pursue “shareholder value,” support for this approach, which has been justified as essential for managerial accountability, is eroding. It persists today primarily in the form of the argument that corporations should seek “long-term” shareholder value. Yet, as this Article shows, when shareholder value is interpreted to mean “long-term” shareholder value, it no longer offers the sought-after managerial accountability.What can? This Article argues that systems theory offers an answer. Systems theory is a well-developed design and performance measuring methodology routinely applied in fields such as engineering, biology, computer science, and environmental science. It provides an approach to understanding the nature and purpose of corporate entities that is not only consistent with elements of the many otherwise-conflicting visions of the corporation that have been developed, but also with important and otherwise difficult-to-explain features of corporate law and practice. It offers proven methods for measuring corporate performance that recognize the possibility of multiple goals and the importance of sustainability. And it cautions that, by ignoring the lessons of systems theory, shareholder value thinking may have encouraged regulatory and policy interventions into corporate governance that are not only ineffective, but destructive.

scholarly journals Contested Visions: The Value of Systems Theory for Corporate Law

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Belinfanti ◽  
Lynn Stout
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Shareholder Value ◽  
Corporate Law ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Many

166 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 579 (2018)Despite the dominant role corporations play in our economy, culture, and politics, the nature and purpose of corporations remains hotly contested. This conflict was brought to the fore in the recent Supreme Court opinions in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby. Although the prevailing narrative for the past quarter-century has been that corporations “belong” to shareholders and should pursue “shareholder value,” support for this approach, which has been justified as essential for managerial accountability, is eroding. It persists today primarily in the form of the argument that corporations should seek “long-term” shareholder value. Yet, as this Article shows, when shareholder value is interpreted to mean “long-term” shareholder value, it no longer offers the sought-after managerial accountability.What can? This Article argues that systems theory offers an answer. Systems theory is a well-developed design and performance measuring methodology routinely applied in fields such as engineering, biology, computer science, and environmental science. It provides an approach to understanding the nature and purpose of corporate entities that is not only consistent with elements of the many otherwise-conflicting visions of the corporation that have been developed, but also with important and otherwise difficult-to-explain features of corporate law and practice. It offers proven methods for measuring corporate performance that recognize the possibility of multiple goals and the importance of sustainability. And it cautions that, by ignoring the lessons of systems theory, shareholder value thinking may have encouraged regulatory and policy interventions into corporate governance that are not only ineffective, but destructive.

scholarly journals Demystifying academics to enhance university–business collaborations in environmental science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Hillier ◽  
Geoffrey Saville ◽  
Mike J. Smith ◽  
Alister J. Scott ◽  
Emma K. Raven ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Science ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Performance Appraisals ◽  
Risk Modelling ◽  
Incentive Structures ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Key Barrier ◽  
Official Status

Abstract. In countries globally (e.g. UK, Australia) there is intense political interest in fostering effective university-business collaborations, but there has been scant attention devoted to exactly how individual scientists' workload (i.e. specified tasks) and incentive structures (i.e. assessment criteria) may act as a key barrier to this. To investigate this an original, empirical dataset is derived from UK job specifications and promotion criteria, which distil universities' varied drivers into requirements upon academics. This reveals the nature of the severe challenge posed by a heavily time-constrained culture; specifically, a tension exists between opportunities presented by working with industry and non-optional duties (e.g. administration, teaching). Thus, to justify the time to work with industry, such work must inspire curiosity and facilitate future novel science in order to mitigate its conflict with the overriding imperative for academics to publish. It must also provide evidence of real-world changes (i.e. impact), and ideally other reportable outcomes (e.g. official status as a business' advisor), to feed back into the scientist's performance appraisals. Indicatively, amid 20–50 key duties, scientists may be able to free up to 0.5 days/week for work with industry. Thus specific, pragmatic actions, including short-term and time-efficient steps, are proposed in a user guide to help initiate and nurture a long-term collaboration between an early- to mid-career environmental scientist and a practitioner in the insurance industry. These actions are mapped back to a tailored typology of impact and newly-created representative set of appraisal criteria to explain how they may be effective, mutually beneficial, and overcome barriers. Throughout, the focus is on environmental science, with illustrative detail provided through the example of natural hazard risk modelling in the insurance industry. However, a new conceptual model is developed, joining perspectives from literatures on academics' motivations and performance assessment, which we tentatively posit is widely applicable. Sector-specific details (e.g. list of relevant impacts, user guide) may serve as templates globally and across sectors.

scholarly journals Demystifying academics to enhance university–business collaborations in environmental science

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Hillier ◽  
Geoffrey R. Saville ◽  
Mike J. Smith ◽  
Alister J. Scott ◽  
Emma K. Raven ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Science ◽  
Performance Appraisals ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Incentive Structures ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Key Barrier ◽  
Official Status

Abstract. In countries globally there is intense political interest in fostering effective university–business collaborations, but there has been scant attention devoted to exactly how an individual scientist's workload (i.e. specified tasks) and incentive structures (i.e. assessment criteria) may act as a key barrier to this. To investigate this an original, empirical dataset is derived from UK job specifications and promotion criteria, which distil universities' varied drivers into requirements upon academics. This work reveals the nature of the severe challenge posed by a heavily time-constrained culture; specifically, tension exists between opportunities presented by working with business and non-optional duties (e.g. administration and teaching). Thus, to justify the time to work with business, such work must inspire curiosity and facilitate future novel science in order to mitigate its conflict with the overriding imperative for academics to publish. It must also provide evidence of real-world changes (i.e. impact), and ideally other reportable outcomes (e.g. official status as a business' advisor), to feed back into the scientist's performance appraisals. Indicatively, amid 20–50 key duties, typical full-time scientists may be able to free up to 0.5 day per week for work with business. Thus specific, pragmatic actions, including short-term and time-efficient steps, are proposed in a “user guide” to help initiate and nurture a long-term collaboration between an early- to mid-career environmental scientist and a practitioner in the insurance sector. These actions are mapped back to a tailored typology of impact and a newly created representative set of appraisal criteria to explain how they may be effective, mutually beneficial and overcome barriers. Throughout, the focus is on environmental science, with illustrative detail provided through the example of natural hazard risk modelling in the insurance sector. However, a new conceptual model of academics' behaviour is developed, fusing perspectives from literature on academics' motivations and performance assessment, which we propose is internationally applicable and transferable between sectors. Sector-specific details (e.g. list of relevant impacts and user guide) may serve as templates for how people may act differently to work more effectively together.

scholarly journals Testing properties governing the durability of lime-based repair mortars

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 135-139
Author(s):  
Ioanna Papayianni ◽  
John Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Dominant Role ◽  
Test Methods ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Historic Structures ◽  
Phd Theses ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Repair Mortars ◽  
Long Term Performance ◽  
Term Performance

Lime-based mortars (LM(s)) seem to be preferred in repairing historic structures. The long-term performance of repair LM(s) is closely related to durability issues concerning the old structure substrate, the new repair mortars and interface between the two aforementioned materials, which is also much influenced by the technique of mortars application. Durability is a multifunctional property affected by a number of parameters, including local environmental conditions. However, experience showed that some of the characteristics of materials play a dominant role in assessing the durability of repair LM(s) and have a direct impact on longevity of the repaired structure. This paper presents review of research/case studies papers and Master/PhD theses supervised by the members of RILEM TC 277 LHS. Through the review and evaluation of research and common practice concerning durability challenges, we anticipate to find answers to questions arising in assessing durability of repair LM(s), such as: The most often encountered failures due to mortar durability inadequacy The mortar properties/characteristics that seem to be influential on durability The test methods used for testing the durability of LM(s) and comments related to their applicability and performance The importance of quality control and on site execution practices

ARTISTIC AND AESTHETIC EDUCATION AND MUSICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A SPECIALIST’S TRAINING

2020 ◽  
Vol 384 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-232
Author(s):  
P. V. Menshikov ◽  
G. K. Kassymova ◽  
R. R. Gasanova ◽  
Y. V. Zaichikov ◽  
V. A. Berezovskaya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Practice ◽  
Piano Music ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Native Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Many ◽  
Special Meaning

A special role in the development of a pianist as a musician, composer and performer, as shown by the examples of the well-known, included in the history of art, and the most ordinary pianists, their listeners and admirers, lovers of piano music and music in general, are played by moments associated with psychotherapeutic abilities and music features. The purpose of the study is to comprehend the psychotherapeutic aspects of performing activities (using pianists as an example). The research method is a theoretical analysis of the psychotherapeutic aspects of performing activities: the study of the possibilities and functions of musical psychotherapy in the life of a musician as a “(self) psychotherapist” and “patient”. For almost any person, music acts as a way of self-understanding and understanding of the world, a way of self-realization, rethinking and overcoming life's difficulties - internal and external "blockages" of development, a way of saturating life with universal meanings, including a person in the richness of his native culture and universal culture as a whole. Art and, above all, its metaphorical nature help to bring out and realize internal experiences, provide an opportunity to look at one’s own experiences, problems and injuries from another perspective, to see a different meaning in them. In essence, we are talking about art therapy, including the art of writing and performing music - musical psychotherapy. However, for a musician, music has a special meaning, special significance. Musician - produces music, and, therefore, is not only an “object”, but also the subject of musical psychotherapy. The musician’s training includes preparing him as an individual and as a professional to perform functions that can be called psychotherapeutic: in the works of the most famous performers, as well as in the work of ordinary teachers, psychotherapeutic moments sometimes become key. Piano music and performance practice sets a certain “viewing angle” of life, and, in the case of traumatic experiences, a new way of understanding a difficult, traumatic and continuing to excite a person event, changing his attitude towards him. It helps to see something that was hidden in the hustle and bustle of everyday life or in the patterns of relationships familiar to a given culture. At the same time, while playing music or learning to play music, a person teaches to see the hidden and understand the many secrets of the human soul, the relationships of people.

The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Toye
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Face ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
The Many ◽  
Century Development

This book provides a survey of different ways in which economic sociocultural and political aspects of human progress have been studied since the time of Adam Smith. Inevitably, over such a long time span, it has been necessary to concentrate on highlighting the most significant contributions, rather than attempting an exhaustive treatment. The aim has been to bring into focus an outline of the main long-term changes in the way that socioeconomic development has been envisaged. The argument presented is that the idea of socioeconomic development emerged with the creation of grand evolutionary sequences of social progress that were the products of Enlightenment and mid-Victorian thinkers. By the middle of the twentieth century, when interest in the accelerating development gave the topic a new impetus, its scope narrowed to a set of economically based strategies. After 1960, however, faith in such strategies began to wane, in the face of indifferent results and general faltering of confidence in economists’ boasts of scientific expertise. In the twenty-first century, development research is being pursued using a research method that generates disconnected results. As a result, it seems unlikely that any grand narrative will be created in the future and that neo-liberalism will be the last of this particular kind of socioeconomic theory.

Design and planning of the balanced scorecard: A case study

2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-227
Author(s):  
Ming-Hon Hwang ◽  
Hsin Rau
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Balanced Scorecard ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Company Performance ◽  
Correct Process ◽  
The Balanced Scorecard ◽  
Strategy Planning ◽  
And Performance

In the industrial economy, evaluating company performance based on financial results was good enough. However, in the current globalized and highly competitive environment, maintaining long term competitiveness requires companies to engage in overall strategic planning and performance evaluation. The balanced scorecard is a tool or method for balancing an organization's performance and can react to situations where a company's direction becomes disoriented. This approach assists in strategy planning, process management, and performance evaluation from four perspectives, including financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. Good strategy planning provides companies with a correct management direction, correct process management ensures the efficient execution of plans, and correct performance evaluation illustrates the execution results. This study mainly focuses on how a large rubber company in Taiwan utilizes the balanced scorecard in its organization. As the technical perspective is important in the rubber keypad industry, besides the four above perspectives, this company has added the technical perspective. By introducing this company and its progress in implementing the balanced scorecard, this study hopes to provide other companies, especially rubber companies, with a planning direction and reference for the future implementation of the balanced scorecard.

Optimal adaptive inspection and maintenance for redundant systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 1748006X2110201
Author(s):  
Chaochao Lin ◽  
Matteo Pozzi
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Discounted Cost ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Inspection And Maintenance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Partially Observable ◽  
Series Systems ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Redundant Systems

Optimal exploration of engineering systems can be guided by the principle of Value of Information (VoI), which accounts for the topological important of components, their reliability and the management costs. For series systems, in most cases higher inspection priority should be given to unreliable components. For redundant systems such as parallel systems, analysis of one-shot decision problems shows that higher inspection priority should be given to more reliable components. This paper investigates the optimal exploration of redundant systems in long-term decision making with sequential inspection and repairing. When the expected, cumulated, discounted cost is considered, it may become more efficient to give higher inspection priority to less reliable components, in order to preserve system redundancy. To investigate this problem, we develop a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) framework for sequential inspection and maintenance of redundant systems, where the VoI analysis is embedded in the optimal selection of exploratory actions. We investigate the use of alternative approximate POMDP solvers for parallel and more general systems, compare their computation complexities and performance, and show how the inspection priorities depend on the economic discount factor, the degradation rate, the inspection precision, and the repair cost.

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