Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting and Climate Change

This article aims to investigate the extent of carbon emissions disclosures in Portuguese companies operating in environmentally sensitive industries, from 2008 to 2012. Additionally, the chapter aims to explore the factors that explain the extent of such disclosures. The research sample is based upon Portuguese companies that had been continuously integrating in the PNALE I and II, over the twelve-year period. A content analysis of their annual/sustainability reports was conducted to explore the carbon emissions-related disclosures. The study also uses a disclosure index to investigate the extent of disclosure and a panel data regression model was performed to determine the factors that influence carbon emissions reporting. The results show a relatively high level of disclosure and the influence of size, activity sector, concentration of capital and economic period on the level of disclosure presented.

Integrated Reports and Board Diversity

Organizations currently must report to a broader audience, capturing the attention of several categories of stakeholders, who want to know why, where, and how companies create and add value, and how they deal with responsibility and sustainability issues, contributing to the emerging of integrated reporting (IR). IR is as an innovation in promoting a holistic and integrated vision of the business, where the Board of Directors must play an important role. This chapter covers diversity of directors seated on the board of integrated reporters, comparing two groups: those who are IR references and those that are IR regular reporters. The results show that organizations with larger boards, higher proportions of non-executive directors, and a higher proportion of women on the board have an higher probability of preparing IR reference reports, while the duality role of CEO inverts the probability, and no relationship is found with board experience.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is conceptualized as a voluntary activity of organizations, which evidence the inclusion of environmental and social objectives in the interactions with stakeholders, as well as in their operational activities. Thus, the general objective was to analyze the characteristics of the publications related to the topic corporate social responsibility in the last three decades, in the Web of Science and in Scopus databases. There was an increase in the number of articles published per year with the “boom” in the years 2013 to 2018, in both databases. The authors at the Copenhagen Business School (79; 129) and York University (92; 104) were where the most scientific articles published on the subject on both databases. Regarding the main research areas in publications on corporate social responsibility, there seems to be a convergence in the main research areas of most published articles.

CEO Duality and Firm Performance

Two divergent theories emerge from the literature on CEO duality. The agency theory advocates that a dual CEO negatively affects corporate performance, because it compromises the monitoring and control of the CEO, whilst the stewardship theory suggests the contrary effect due to the unity of command it presents. For a sample of 26 non-financial listed Portuguese firms from 2002 to 2016, this study draws on agency and stewardship theories to evaluate the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance, proxied by Tobin's Q. Using ordinary least square (OLS) and two stage least squares (2SLS) techniques to control potential problems simultaneity between CEO duality and firm performance, the author finds a negative relationship between CEO duality and Tobin's Q. This suggests that investors perceive no value in having a concentration of power with a dual leadership structure. Therefore, this study recommends that the positions of chairman and CEO should be separated for listed Portuguese firms.

An Exploratory Study About Corporate Governance and Integrated Reporting in the Mozambican Context

This article gives an overview of corporate governance in Mozambique. The mandatory disclosure of sustainability information leads to an increase in the social responsibility of managers. In this sense, the measure can possibly improve the ethical behaviour of the companies, while at the same time allowing for the reduction of the levels of corruption. The reputation in the business world creates a good image and can be transmitted in a reduction of risks to shareholders, and attraction of investments. This work contributes to the literature, and a greater understanding of sustainability in developing countries, particularly in Mozambique.

Anything Goes in Cause Related Marketing?

Cause-related marketing (CRM) is currently considered one of the main initiatives of corporate social responsibility (CSR). CRM programs offer numerous advantages for all the parties involved: companies, non-profit organizations, and consumers. Examples of CRM programs can be found in virtually every country in the world. Although most CRM campaigns succeeded, several of them were involved in some scandals. In Spain, an example of the controversy caused by CRM campaigns resurfaced with the installation of the so-called “solidarity traffic radar.” The aim of this chapter is to offer a case study about this campaign, where a private company managed this traffic radar. Half of the money that was raised in fines was given to the Town Council, which in turn decided to donate it to needy local families, that is, it was allocated to social aid. Thus, this case study discusses if anything goes in CRM, or there is sometimes a trivialization of solidarity.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a current important strategy in organizations today. Numerous factors that affect the global functioning of organizations have determined the need to incorporate a look towards sustainable development. This implies considering the integration of not only economic, but also social and environmental concerns in the day-to-day of the companies. We move, therefore, under the perspective of the Triple Bottom Line. In addition, the exercise of CSR will motivate the achievement of competitive advantages for organizations. Given this, this article seeks to analyze the numerous benefits derived from the implementation of socially responsible actions in companies. These are structured from different organizational approaches: personal sphere, organizational field, personal and organizational fields and financial area. Together with them, the implementation of the CSR may entail the need to incur certain costs, which are also referred to in the study. Finally, we propose some future lines of research

Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Information

The importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been increasing especially in the last decade, due to the positive pressure exerted by society in general. This chapter analyses the relevance of CSR, associated theories and studies carried out in the last decade related to financial information and consequently accounting quality. The strong link between CSR and financial information that is directed towards knowledge of mitigation of asymmetry information is evident. We aim to contribute to the development of sustainability accounting, presenting assumptions that mitigate the blocks of practice of CRS acts that make the return of positive elements possible, namely the image of entities and their financial economic improvement.

The Relationship Between CSR, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance

Research has been conducted to extend our understanding of CSR by revealing CG mechanism antecedent effects on firm social engagements. In spite of this, few studies aimed to understand the impact of the performance of those mechanisms on CSR. To our knowledge, our study is the first to measure CG performance and its role in the expansion of CSR in an emerging country. We also analyze some component of firm performance that could potentially affect a firm's social commitment. Using a data survey questionnaire consisting of 37 items assessing CSR engagement measured by a self- constructed index and firm level data of 76 listed Moroccan firms, empirical results underline the impact of corporate governance performance and firm's performance on CSR. These results suggest that governance mechanism performance and firm performance are principal drivers of CSR particularly for big business. Debts have shown a reducing effect. Thus, our study of CSR commitment index allows for a clearer and more robust assessment of CG on Moroccan firm CSR activities.

Which Local Governments Provide Suitable Promotion of Entrepreneurship?

The main objective of this final degree project is to analyze the information that the city councils of the 50 capitals of Spanish provinces offer to entrepreneurs through their institutional pages, using the content analysis technique. The results obtained corroborate the existence of an implication, although still modest, of the municipalities of the Spanish provincial capitals in relation to the promotion of entrepreneurship and business ecosystems. These results should help the municipalities to reflect on the important work they perform, and in the future these studies will serve to reflect the deficiencies observed in order to improve the information offered.