Accountability in a Global Economy: The Emergence of International Accountability Standards

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Ulrich Gilbert ◽  
Andreas Rasche ◽  
Sandra Waddock

ABSTRACT:This article assesses the proliferation of international accountability standards (IAS) in the recent past. We provide a comprehensive overview about the different types of standards and discuss their role as part of a new institutional infrastructure for corporate responsibility. Based on this, it is argued that IAS can advance corporate responsibility on a global level because they contribute to the closure of some omnipresent governance gaps. IAS also improve the preparedness of an organization to give an explanation and a justification to relevant stakeholders for its judgments, intentions, acts and omissions when appropriately called upon to do so. However, IAS also face a variety of problems impeding their potential to help address social and environmental issues. The contribution of the four articles in this special section is discussed in the context of standards’ problems and opportunities. The article closes by outlining a research agenda to further develop and extend the scholarly debate around IAS.

Standards have become widespread regulatory tools that promote global trade, innovation, efficiency, and quality. They contribute significantly to the creation of safe, reliable, and high-quality services and technologies to ensure human health, environmental protection, or information security. Yet intentional deviations from standards by organizations are often reported in many sectors, which can either contribute to or challenge the measures of safety and quality they are designed to safeguard. Why then, despite all potential consequences, do organizations choose to deviate from standards in one way or another? This book uses structuration theory—covering aspects of both structure and agency—to explore the organizational conditions and contradictions under which different types of deviance occur. It also provides empirical explanations for deviance in organizations that go beyond an understanding of individual misbehaviour where mainly a single person is held responsible. Case studies of software developing organizations illustrate insightful generalizations on standards as a mechanism of sensemaking, resource allocation, and sanctioning, and provide ground to rethink corporate responsibility when deviating from standards in the ‘audit society’.


Author(s):  
Jan Euteneuer ◽  
Annica Gosch ◽  
Cornelius Courts

AbstractBlank cartridge guns are prevalent especially in countries with laws restricting access to conventional firearms, and it is a common misconception that these weapons are harmless and only used as toys or for intimidation. However, although their harming potential is well-documented by numerous reports of accidents, suicides, and homicides, a systematic molecular biological investigation of traces generated by shots from blank cartridges at biological targets has not been done so far. Herein, we investigate the occurrence and analyzability of backspatter generated by shots of different types of blank cartridge guns firing different types of blank ammunition at ballistic gelatin model cubes doped with human blood and radiological contrast agent soaked into a spongious matrix and covered with three different variants of skin simulants. All skin simulants were penetrated, and backspatter was created in 100% of the shots in amounts sufficient for forensic short tandem repeat (STR) typing that resulted in the correct identification of the respective blood donor. Visible backspatter was documented on the muzzle and/or inside the barrel in all cases, and in 75% of cases also on the outer surfaces and on the shooter’s hand(s). Wound cavities were measured and ranged between 1 and 4.5 cm in depth. Discussing our findings, we provide recommendations for finding, recovering, and analyzing trace material from blank guns, and we demonstrate the considerable hazard potential of these devices, which is further emphasized by the presentation of a comprehensive overview of the pertinent literature on injuries inflicted by blank guns.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 1893
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Mancuso ◽  
Grazia Federica Bencresciuto ◽  
Stevo Lavrnić ◽  
Attilio Toscano

The implementation of nature-based solutions (NBSs) can be a suitable and sustainable approach to coping with environmental issues related to diffuse water pollution from agriculture. NBSs exploit natural mitigation processes that can promote the removal of different contaminants from agricultural wastewater, and they can also enable the recovery of otherwise lost resources (i.e., nutrients). Among these, nitrogen impacts different ecosystems, resulting in serious environmental and human health issues. Recent research activities have investigated the capability of NBS to remove nitrogen from polluted water. However, the regulating mechanisms for nitrogen removal can be complex, since a wide range of decontamination pathways, such as plant uptake, microbial degradation, substrate adsorption and filtration, precipitation, sedimentation, and volatilization, can be involved. Investigating these processes is beneficial for the enhancement of the performance of NBSs. The present study provides a comprehensive review of factors that can influence nitrogen removal in different types of NBSs, and the possible strategies for nitrogen recovery that have been reported in the literature.


2001 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Goggin ◽  
Catherine Griff

Much of the present debate about content on the internet revolves around how to control the distribution of different sorts of harmful or undesirable material. Yet there are considerable issues about whether sufficient sorts of desired cultural content will be available, such as ‘national’, ‘Australian’ content. In traditional broadcasting, regulation has been devised to encourage or mandate different types of content, where it is believed that the market will not do so by itself. At present, such regulatory arrangements are under threat in television, as the Productivity Commission Broadcasting Inquiry final report has noted. But what of the future for certain types of content on the internet? Do we need specific regulation and policy to promote the availability of content on the internet? Or is such a project simply irrelevant in the context of gradual but inexorable media convergence? Is regulating for content just as quixotic and fraught with peril as regulating of content from a censorship perspective often appears to be? In this article, we consider the case of Australian content for broadband technologies, especially in relation to film and video, and make some preliminary observations on the promotion and regulation of internet content.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 262-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alona Mykhaylenko ◽  
Ágnes Motika ◽  
Brian Vejrum Waehrens ◽  
Dmitrij Slepniov

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of factors that affect offshoring performance results. To do so, this paper focuses on the access to location-specific advantages, rather than solely on the properties of the offshoring company, its strategy or environment. Assuming that different levels of synergy may exist between particular offshoring strategic decisions (choosing offshore outsourcing or captive offshoring and the type of function) and different offshoring advantages, this work advocates that the actual fact of realization of certain offshoring advantages (getting or not getting access to them) is a more reliable predictor of offshoring success. Design/methodology/approach – A set of hypotheses derived from the extant literature is tested on the data from a quantitative survey of 1,143 Scandinavian firms. Findings – The paper demonstrates that different governance modes and types of offshored function indeed provide different levels of access to different types of location-specific offshoring advantages. This difference may help to explain the ambiguity of offshoring initiatives performance results. Research limitations/implications – Limitations of the work include using only the offshoring strategy elements and only their limited variety as factors potentially influencing access to offshoring advantages. Also, the findings are limited to Scandinavian companies. Originality/value – The paper introduces a new concept of access, which can help to more reliably predict performance outcomes of offshoring initiatives. Recommendations are also provided to practitioners dealing with offshoring initiatives.


1982 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Alty

In his ‘Essay on the value of applying the ethnic criterion to the study of Greek history and civilisation’, Edouard Will examined the two most numerous and politically important ethnic divisions of the Greek race in Classical times, the Dorians and the Ionians, and came to the conclusion that they inspired no true ethnic feeling amongst the Greeks. Other historians have tended towards a similar view. Although some writers have felt unconvinced of the thesis, no one has analysed the sources used by Will and his supporters to suggest why they may not after all imply the conclusions which Will drew. This article will attempt to do so. In particular I shall try to show first that there is good evidence for the importance of ethnic feeling at the time of the Peloponnesian war, and, secondly, that we should not regard Peloponnesian war propaganda as the sole cause of this feeling. The article will concentrate upon the treatment of this subject by Thucydides and Herodotus, the interpretation of which is, I think, most in need of revaluation. Their evidence seems to me most important because they frequently document and in some cases give their own analysis of occasions where ethnic feeling seems to play a part, many of which are either contemporaneous with them or lie in the fairly recent past. I shall, however, also consider to what extent their evidence is supported by other sources.


2009 ◽  
pp. 81-102
Author(s):  
Patrizia Patrizi ◽  
Filippo Petruccelli ◽  
Irene Petruccelli ◽  
Chiara Simonelli ◽  
Alfredo De Risio ◽  
...  

- A large number of studies have aimed at outlining the personality profile of sex offenders; however, due to the heterogenousness of such crime and their perpetrators, this task is very difficult. This study attempts to highlight the different types of sex offenders, their personality profiles, their possible defence mechanisms. Methods: Subjects of this study are male prisoners detained in a special section of the district penitentiary in Velletri (Rome, Italy). All subjects (N=8) were convicted of sexual crimes towards children and/or women. Their mean age is 51. Prisoners on remand were not included in this study. The adopted tools are: a Grid for collecting the anamnesis and the information regarding the crime; the Big Five Questionnaire; the Sesamo. Results and conclusions: Results proved the difficulties to outline a personality profile of sex offenders, but pointed out some common psycho-sexual aspects. These aspects were probably related to the prison situation of the subjects. Key words: sex offenders; personality profile; district penitentiary.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parth Malik ◽  
Varun Katyal ◽  
Vibhuti Malik ◽  
Archana Asatkar ◽  
Gajendra Inwati ◽  
...  

Biosensing has been one of the hottest topic attracting scientific minds since long back. It is so as biological entities are very complex and are directly associated with the existence of a healthy environment. The design of biosensors also has witnessed significant changes in the recent past. Biosensors for applications as diverse as food quality estimation, environmental monitoring, and diagnosis of clinical and metabolic complications have come to the fore. Nanotechnology has bestowed some highly exciting ingredients for the improvement of sensing phenomenon. The use of diverse nanomaterials ranging from nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanorods, and nanowires has enabled faster detection and its reproducibility in a much better way. The unique properties of nanomaterials such as high electrical conductivity, better shock bearing ability, and the sensitive responses such as piezoelectric and versatile color based detection mechanisms are only the results of congregation of nanomaterial properties. This paper highlights the different types of biosensors based on different types of nanomaterials and their developmental and implicational aspects.


2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rev Dave Bookless

AbstractIt remains true that an objective overview of Christian environmentalism – both theologically and practically – would see the contribution of evangelical mission agencies as fairly peripheral (a notable exception being an organisation called A Rocha). However, this paper argues that in terms both of a biblical theology of "five acts" (creation, fall, Israel, Jesus, and the present and future age) and also of evangelical culture (characterised by the "Bebbington quadrilateral" of biblicism, crucicentrism, conversionism and activism) there are good reasons why evangelicalism should engage with environment, and growing evidence that it is beginning to do so. Some of the most significant thinkers and some of the largest mission agencies have begun asking key questions about God's mission towards the whole creation and ours. The next few years will be critical as to whether evangelicals accept the challenge to rethink and rework mission to take God's creation seriously, or whether they choose to remain in an other-worldly sub-culture. Il est vrai qu'un survol objectif du point de vue chrétien sur l'environnement – à la fois théologique et pratique – considérerait l'apport des organismes missionnaires évangéliques comme assez périphérique (à l'exception notable de celui de l'Association A Rocha). Cet article soutient cependant que du point de vue des « cinq actes » (la création, la chute, Israël, Jésus et l'âge présent et à venir) comme de celui de la culture évangélique (caractérisée par le « quadrilatère de Bebbington » que sont l'axe biblique, l'axe de la Croix, l'axe de la conversion et celui de l'engagement) il y aurait de bonnes raisons pour que les évangéliques s'engagent dans les questions d'environnement et des preuves que c'est en fait de plus en plus le cas. Quelques-uns des principaux penseurs et certains des organismes les plus importants ont commencé à poser des questions cruciales sur la mission de Dieu pour la création tout entière et la nôtre. Les années à venir vont être décisives pour voir si les évangéliques acceptent ce défi de repenser et de refaire la mission en prenant au sérieux la création de Dieu, ou s'ils choisissent de se cantonner dans une subculture de l'autre monde. Es ist immer noch richtig, dass ein objektiver Überblick über das christliche Engagement in Umweltfragen – sowohl theologisch wie auch praktisch – den Beitrag der evangelikalen Missionsgesellschaften für ziemlich unbedeutend einschätzen würde (eine Organisation, die A Rocha heißt, ist eine bemerkenswerte Ausnahme). Dieser Artikel behauptet, dass es sowohl von Seiten der biblischen Theologie der "fünf Akte" (Schöpfung, Sündenfall, Israel, Jesus, Gegenwart und Zukunft) als auch der evangelikalen Kultur (die sich im ,,Bebbington Ring" von Biblizismus, Konzentration auf das Kreuz, Bekehrung und Aktivismus ausdrückt) gute Gründe gibt, warum sich der Evangelikalismus in Umweltfragen engagieren sollte; es gibt auch immer mehr Anzeichen, dass das tatsächlich schon geschieht. Einige der bedeutendsten Denker und der größten Missionsgesellschaften haben begonnen, grundlegende Fragen über die Mission Gottes der ganzen Schöpfung gegenüber und unsere Mission zu stellen. Die nächsten paar Jahre werden bedeutend sein für die Akzeptanz der Evangelikalen, diese Herausforderung anzunehmen, die Mission neu zu überdenken und auszuarbeiten, um so die Schöpfung Gottes ernstzunehmen – oder sich dafür zu entscheiden, eine Subkultur zu bleiben, die auf die andere Welt ausgerichtet ist. Sigue siendo cierto que un resumen objetivo de una ecología cristiana – tanto teológica como prácticamente – vería el aporte de agencias misioneras evangelicales como bastante marginales (una excepción importante sería una organización que se llama A Rocha [La Roca]). Sin embargo, este artículo propone que en términos tanto de la teología bíblica de los "cinco hechos" (creación, pecado, Israel, Jesús, el tiempo presente y el futuro) como de una cultura evangelical (caracterizada por el "cuadrilátero de Bebbington": centrado en la Biblia, en la cruz, en la conversión y el activismo) existen buenas razones por qué el evangelicalismo debería comprometerse con el ambiente, y que hay crecientes pruebas de que esto comienza a ser realidad. Algunos de los pensadores más significativos y algunas de las agencias misioneras más grandes han comenzado a plantearse preguntas claves sobre la misión de Dios hacia la creación entera y nuestra misión. Los próximos años serán decisivos para que los evangelicales acepten la tarea de repensar y retrabajar la misión para tomar en serio la creación de Dios, o para que opten a quedarse como una subcultura orientada hacia el otro mundo.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Saborio

<p>Rio de Janeiro is preparing to host two major sporting events in the coming years: the 2014 FIFA World Football Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Local authorities are promoting these mega events as an opportunity to increase the global competitiveness of the city. But in order to attract private capital from the global economy it is not enough for Rio to showcase the city as capable of organizing and implementing these events. Rather, the authorities must also demonstrate that what has been considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world can now become a safe place for business. To do so, what has been promoted as a new model of &lsquo;community policing&rsquo; the UPP (Pacifying Police Units) has been implemented since 2008 in 107 favelas. The majority of the favelas involved in the program are situated around the sites where these mega events will take place and around other wealthy areas of the city. This article analyses the relation between mega events, global competitiveness and the neutralization of local marginality.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Rio de Janeiro se pr&eacute;pare &agrave; accueillir les plus grands &eacute;v&eacute;nement sportifs des prochaines ann&eacute;es: la coupe du monde de football en 2014 et les jeux olympiques en 2016. Les autorit&eacute;s locales valorisent ces &eacute;v&eacute;nements mondiaux comme autant d&rsquo;opportunit&eacute;s pour augmenter la comp&eacute;titivit&eacute; de la ville.&nbsp; Cependant, il n&rsquo;est pas suffisant pour attirer les capitaux priv&eacute;s de l&rsquo;&eacute;conomie mondiale que Rio soit valoris&eacute;e comme une ville capable d&rsquo;organiser et de g&eacute;rer ces &eacute;v&eacute;nements. Les autorit&eacute;s doivent aussi d&eacute;montrer que, ce qui auparavant &eacute;tait consid&eacute;r&eacute; comme une des plus dangereuses villes du monde, peut maintenant devenir un endroit s&ucirc;r pour les entreprises. Dans ce but, l&rsquo; UPP (Pacifying Police Units) a &eacute;t&eacute; mis en place en 2008 dans 107 favelas et est d&eacute;crit comme le nouveau mod&egrave;le de la police communitarian. La plupart des favelas int&eacute;gr&eacute;es dans le programme sont situ&eacute;es autour des lieux qui accueilleront les &eacute;v&eacute;nements et dans d&rsquo;autres endroits confortables de la ville. Pour cette raisons, cette article analyse les relations entre les &eacute;v&eacute;nements mondiaux, la comp&eacute;titivit&eacute; mondiale et la neutralisation de la marginalit&eacute; locale.</p>


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