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Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University sees stewardship and the awareness of individual responsibility as key to creating sustainable businesses that go beyond being environmentally or socially neutral to being agents for positive change. It uses all of its programmes to develop an appreciation of social and environmental stewardship amongst its students. RSM’s one-year Personal Leadership Development (PLD) programme runs concurrent to the other courses in the MBA programme and is designed to develop individual capabilities for effective and conscious leadership in international business.
In addressing the issue of sustainability, the School recognises its importance as a motivating idea and the concomitant ambiguity in its current usage, and has paid particular attention to the integration of environmental, social and governance issues into teaching and research. This leads to closer examination of the issue, and the School encourages students to be more pro-active in this burgeoning field of study and discourse.
RSM’s own development as a business school has seen the issue of sustainability become inseparable from its philosophy. The school is actively committed to demonstrating and disseminating theories, models and practices that reinforce the connection between sustainable environments and sustainable profit. The School as a whole is a member of associations such as EABIS (European Association for Business in Society) and the UN Global Compact’s PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education). Its ‘Greening the Campus’ initiative to improve the sustainability performance of RSM was started in 2006 and has become a University-wide project.
RSM has always attracted the highest calibre international students, faculty and staff, and so has been engaged in what it means to be ‘global’ from the start. For a long time, the idea of possessing an MBA conveyed a focus on profit. However, RSM’s MBA programme applies itself to creating wealth generators who are also active, empowered citizens of the world – integrated, participatory and open-minded.
RSM invests considerable resources into research activities that support the School’s desire to contribute to society and to business. It has the Department of Business-Society Management as one of its eight academic departments. Among the RSM professors contributing to teaching, research and the wider discussion of sustainability are David De Cremer, professor of Behavioural Business Ethics; Gail Whiteman, Ecorys Chair in Sustainability and Climate Change; Noreena Hertz, Professor of Globalisation, Sustainability and Finance; and Rob van Tulder, Professor of International Business-Society Management.
Research undertaken by the School underpins its objective to create a ‘sustainable supply chain’ of graduates to contribute fresh perspectives, broadened viewpoints and ultimately, better and more conscious business decisions in the interests of all stakeholders.
Equally important is the students’ fuller awareness of broader social and environmental consequences and benefits achieved in part by the creation of an MBA programme environment in which questioning and critique thrive. Students understand that those with narrow functional perspectives of business and its role in society will find it difficult to contribute to the transformation required for sustainable development. In contrast, those with broad experiences and critical perspectives of different groups and sectors of society will be leaders in this transformation. Students therefore recognise that they need to continuously revise their assumptions and practices if they wish to contribute to their businesses and their environment, and if they are to realise their capacity to unlock innovative thinking in others.
Greening RSM aims to achieve lasting commitment to environmentally sustainable business operations through working groups of motivated RSM employees and students.
http://greeningrsm.ning.com/
Within RSM’s academic community, Greening RSM’s activities include infusing the possibilities and constraints of the natural environment into the relevant disciplines of all RSM curricula, creating a hub to facilitate RSM researchers to perform interdisciplinary research in the field of environmental sustainability, and reducing the environmental footprint of RSM to environmentally sustainable levels. Greening RSM has ‘greened up’ six Bachelor courses (IBA and BA) and four Master (MSc) courses, exposing more than 1,500 undergraduate students to key elements of green management, and organised four ‘green bag’ research seminars for RSM researchers from different departments to discuss their environmentally relevant working papers. In addition, student assignments, papers and theses bound in plastic covers are no longer accepted.
Greening RSM is in the process of establishing working partnerships with RSM student associations and where possible, with key external stakeholders which include other institutions with existing academic links to RSM.
Greening RSM is also working with RSM’s general management and facilities management teams. It has recently been agreed that the School will offset all greenhouse gas emissions of business trips by employees, and Greening RSM discussions have been instrumental in the installation of a switch-off protocol in RSM student computer rooms and timed switch-off on all individual printers in its offices. Employees are often provided with reminders to reduce their environmental footprint through car-pooling and using public transport, switch off heaters and other office equipment when not in use and reduce paper consumption.
Ongoing campaigns encourage contractors to increase the proportion of organic and vegetarian products and use less plastic packaging in university canteens. The organisation is also working with university contractors to encourage the installation of sensors for escalators and parking garage, and water-saving buttons on all toilets. Student associations are being encouraged to reduce their unnecessary waste and use of plastic in promotional materials. The whole RSM community is encouraged to correctly separate waste.
Description of course content related to environmental management topics – This course is designed to increase insight into corporate and business strategies in a global context. It considers strategy issues at the micro and macro levels including concepts such as competitiveness of nations (which stresses the political, social, and environmental sides of sustainability) and corporate social responsibility.
Many stakeholders (e.g., investors, shareholders, creditors) make important decisions on the basis of companies’ financial statements. They need to be confident that the information they use is reliable. In other words, they require independent, third-party assurance. There are many types of assurance services, such as environmental audits, software audits, ethics audits). While this course primarily deals with financial statement audits (commonly performed by public accountants), it also addresses the important interaction with other assurance types.
At the end of this course students are able to:
• Clarify the demand for assurance from a societal and agency perspective;
• Differentiate between management and auditor responsibilities with regard to financial reporting and internal control assertions, and their assurance;
• Analyze, differentiate, evaluate and assess strategic, process, and audit risks from an auditor’s perspective;
• Apply fundamental auditing concepts of risk, materiality, and evidence to the audit planning process;
• Determine adequate forms of, and interpret audit evidence with the ultimate goal of forming a reliable audit opinion;
• Identify, clarify and analyze judgmental, ethical, legal and independence-related factors that may influence or even impair audit judgment.
The goal of this course is to identify key psychological and sociological obstacles in corporate financial decision-making, along with steps that managers can take to mitigate the effects of these obstacles. This course complements traditional finance programmes and teaches students to use tools of corporate finance in a real-world setting where behavioural biases influence decision-making. In addition, students learn to evaluate and conduct research in behavioural corporate finance. In basic corporate finance courses tools for optimal decision-making are provided under the assumption that managers are fully rational. Psychologists and sociologists have documented many “behavioural” deviations from rational behavior. In this course we identify the key behavioural concepts associated with every major topic in corporate finance: capital budgeting, mergers and acquisitions, capital structure, valuation, dividend policy, and corporate governance. For each topic we will briefly summarize the traditional approach. Then we identify behavioural pitfalls, which lead to non-optimal decisions and discuss opportunities to improve decision-making.
Literature
• Hersh Shefrin, 2007, Behavioral Corporate Finance, McGraw-Hill-Irwin, first edition.
• Selected journal articles and working papers.
The course predominantly focuses on mainstream branding issues. However, I place an emphasis on CSR and environmental issues whenever possible. For example, when discussing the management of brand associations I already discuss the environmental positioning of Whole Foods and M&S. Similarly, I talk about fair-trade during the current issues in retailing session.
Ethical, social and environmental issues are considered in the context of brand management. In particular, students consider how brand value is impacted by poor corporate practices, and how social and environmental responsibility may be a key strategy in building brand value. Several student presentations focused specifically on social and environmental branding issues.
The course Business-Society Management addresses the interaction between companies, stakeholders, governments, international institutions and civil society. The interfaces are studied from normative, institutional, strategic and communicative perspectives. In most of the sessions, a global issue is discussed. An issue is a topic over which ‘expectational gaps’ exist and which often provide reputational risks. The number of issues for which firms have been held accountable since the 1990s has boomed. Whether this is granted or not is part of the discussion of this second part of the session. The extent to which this issue is growing or declining in importance; how various interest groups come to various definitions of the problem; to what extent firms can be considered part of the problem and/or part of the solution; and whether a ‘sustainable corporate story’ is conceivable or already exists.
During this course an overview will be given of the different theories and concepts for understanding and managing the interfaces between state, market and civil society. Some of the key-principles for the style of the course are: inspiring, interactive, integrative and intensive.
This course has six general objectives. It intends to:
1. Give you an introduction in the various interfaces multinational corporations face
2. Consequently explain corporate behavior in terms of relations with governments, civil society and individual stakeholders;
3. Consider the trade-offs firms face with managing an adequate portfolio of ‘risks’ and ‘responsibilities’ across borders
4. Assess the wide range of social issues that impact on corporate operations, and how companies could cope with them in an effective manner.
5. Analyze how regulatory differences across the world impact on international business operations and which dilemma’s this generates for companies; this is also referred to as ‘managing distance’
6. Put you in the position of a strategic advisor to a multinational: what would your advice be?
Description of course content related to environmental management topics – Business, Society and Sustainable Development” is an introductory course on the relationship between a business and its’ goals, and the broader local and global society in which firms operate. The framework of sustainable development will be presented as the orienting mechanism. The course will address conceptual issues, as well as specific thematic areas of priority global interest such as energy, water, and global warming.
Description of course content related to environmental management topics – Reverse Logistics refers to all logistic activities to collect and process returned (used or unused) products or product parts in order to ensure a socio-economically and ecologically sustainable recovery. RSM Erasmus University is one of the leading research institutes in the field of Closed Loop Supply Chains. This means that the lectures will contain the latest innovations in this field.
Contents
Traditionally, supply chain management focuses on the flow of products from supplier to the end customer. Nowadays, with the rise of e-commerce and the growing concern for sustainability (the combination of economical, social and ecological value), increasing flows of product returns have to be managed efficiently and responsibly. This is what we call “closed loop supply chain management”. The need for closed loop supply chain management is abundant in practice, as the following examples show.
Distant selling naturally comes with large volumes of product returns as customers usually have the option to return an order within a certain number of weeks, often without questions asked and without any cost to the customer. The handling of these returns can be very costly, if not handled well.
The growing concern about sustainability (a result of scarcity of resources, pollution and global warming) have increased the pressure on society to put more emphasis on collecting so-called ‘end-of-life’ products for reuse and recycling (‘closing the loop’). As a result, more and more legislation is being installed to enforce original manufacturers to take responsibility for the products they sell. To sustain economically-viable operations one has to thoroughly reconsider supply chain design (collection, recovery, redistribution), develop markets for product and material reuse, and invest in product design for disassembly and recycling.
Important issues in the management of closed loop supply chains that will be discussed in this course are:
• What is the economical, ecological and social impact of closed loop supply chains and what is the role of legislation?
• How can we influence return processes to improve the quality and decrease the uncertainty of return streams?
• What is the impact of information technology, marketing and product design on Closed Loop Supply Chain management?
• How should we organise Closed Loop Supply Chain networks and processes in order to effectively and efficiently integrate forward and reverse logistics activities?
As the above issues show, there is a strong connection to disciplines such as Marketing, ICT, Ecology and Legislation.
RSM Erasmus University is one of the leading research institutes in the field of Closed Loop Supply Chains and Sustainability. This means that the lectures will contain the latest innovations in this field. Students can also expect to get a lot of hands-on experience through (multi-media) cases, guest lectures, company visits, seminars and research projects.
Purpose of the course:
Do you ever wonder about the state of the world’s fresh water? Do you ever wonder about how to cut costs and find the next strategic competitive advantage?
If you do not know much about ecology or sustainability, you might find yourself losing out on critical strategic opportunities in management. Attending this course will make you more competent in ecology and sustainability, teach you new ways to make sense of natural systems, and inspire you to make important decisions in business.
‘Companies in Ecologies’ is a master elective of the Business-Society Management department. This master elective will explore state of the art thinking around corporate sustainability. Unlike traditional business courses, our classroom will not be in the T-Building. Instead, most of the classes will take place in the Arboretum Trompenburg, a botanical garden close to the university http://www.trompenburg.nl/ and The Hub Rotterdam, a unique ecosystem designed to enable individuals ranging from corporate executives to community leaders, from policy-makers to freelance professionals to thrive by pursuing ideas and initiatives for a better world http://rotterdam.the-hub.net/public/ Also, through-out the two month elective, students will visit major multinationals examining ways in which companies are currently incorporating sustainable practice into their existing policies.
This elective will take a provocative stance and utilize a challenging personalized and ecologically embedded format. Designed as a bold initiative to drive home the impact of business on local and global ecology, the course represents the first entirely ‘outdoor elective’ in business education in the Netherlands. In this way, students will begin to “manage outside” from a more ecologically-embedded physical location. Academic research has shown that if you change the physical environment of management learning and practice, then management perceptions can also change.
Former students graded this course with a 4.4 on a scale of 5 and gave the following reasons:
• A very good course that teaches you to think in a different way!
• The only course I ever followed that made you think instead of read and write!
• A lot of time for interaction and questions!
• Out-of-the-box thinking!
• It taught me to understanding the surroundings of the business environment in a very skilled way!
• Meeting outdoors was really great and inspiring for our creativity!
• Being outside allowed me to remain more concentrated than during an indoor lecture!
• The guest lecturers and the company visits are great!
Learning objectives
• To develop your understanding of business and sustainability
• To develop greater awareness of the local ecology
In 2010, this was an 8 session elective on consumer behavior, with one session devoted to cause marketing: the pairing of companies with good causes, discussed in theory, but also with a guest speaker from P&G, who discussed the öne pack of pampers = 1 vaccin”campaign
This two-day conference commemorated the founding of the Erasmus Center of Behavioral Ethics at the Rotterdam School of Management. The conference was about the emerging field of behavioral ethics, which seeks to apply insights from the social sciences to understand people's ethical and unethical behavior.
The two-day format consisted of 1) a business day, attended by leading figures in the Dutch business world and from academia, and 2) an academic conference, where leading academics presented cutting-edge research about ethical failures, rooted in the behavioral ethics approach.
The Rotterdam Global Urban Summit focus is to show that each city should balance and measure the 9 key components of sustainable city development based on their situation.
Prof. dr. Gail Whiteman
Professor by special appointment
With special emphasis on
Sustainability and Climate Change
The Rotterdam School of Management has established a new Trust fund endowed chair in the field (1,0 fte) in the field of “Sustainability and Climate Change”. The main purpose of the chair is to explore the management challenges and opportunities of sustainability and climate change. The new chair is in the department of Business-Society Management of the Rotterdam School of Management, where social issues in business have been a core part of research and education.
On 1 April, Prof dr. Whiteman will offer her inaugural lecture on this topic and outline her vision for future research.
Nitte: Justice K.S. Hegde Institute of Management (JKSHIM) will organise its second Nitte International Conference on “Redefining the roles of business, NGOs and governments: A mission for a better global society” here on December 29 and 30.
Changed roles
Addressing presspersons here on Friday, Director of the institute M.S. Moodithaya said the second conference would go a long way in exploring further areas of research on the changed roles of NGOs and governments and businesses in evolving a better global society.
The theme had been chosen considering its relevance at the international level, he said.
The second conference is being organised in association with the School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, USA, Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy, The Netherlands Graduate School of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University, Japan, and Third Sector Research Resource Centre, the University of Mysore.
Thirty-six delegates from China, U.S., Japan, Kenya, Uganda, The Netherlands and Dubai will participate. As many as 136 delegates from India, representing academics, banking, research institutes and NGOs will also take part.
The conference has 18 sub-themes.
There will be 20 parallel technical sessions.
Papers
As many as 120 papers will be presented.
The papers presented will be brought in the form of books.
A colloquium will be held on December 30 as part of the conference. It will be chaired by Femida Handy, professor, University of Pennsylvania, U.S. Panellists at the colloquium include Hisaya Oda of Ritsumekan University, Japan; Lucas Mejis of Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy, The Netherlands; Waswa Balunywa of Makerere University Business School, Uganda; Yashavantha Dongre of Sri Krishna Devaraya University, and G.V. Joshi of JKSHIM.
Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank Narendra M. will inaugurate the conference. Ram A. Cnaan, Associate Dean for Research and Doctoral Education, SP2, University of Pennsylvania, will deliver the keynote address.
Valedictory
Richard Gelles, Dean of School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, will deliver the valedictory address.
G.V. Joshi, Ramesh Karnik, Sudhir Raj K. and Radhakrishna Sharma, professors at the institute, were present.
Speech and panel discussion with/by the 2006 Nobel Prize laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank Professor Muhammed Yunus.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus speaks on "Social Business and New Capitalism" at the CEMS Annual Events on 3rd December 2010 in Rotterdam
Professor Muhammad Yunus wants to meet you – Register now!
Professor Yunus especially enjoys meeting and exchanging ideas with young people. On these occasions, he urges them to implement the change they want to see in the world. Don’t miss an opportunity to meet one of the most inspiring thinkers of our time!
Before the symposium, (starting at 14.30), a selected number of students and alumni will attend a one hour semi-interactive session (11.30 – 12.30) with Professor Yunus. He will listen to concrete proposals to transform capitalism prepared in advance by a group of CEMS students and alumni and discuss them. He will then address the audience and answer questions.
After receiving Professor Yunus’s feedback and input, the students&alumni proposals will be presented to the CEMS academic and corporate partners during the symposium. We hope they will be endorsed by the CEMS Community so that students and alumni can ultimately implement them.
Students and alumni can now register to attend this semi-interactive session. Seats will be allocated on a first come-first serve basis via the registration on www.cems.org (you will need your personal login details).
If you wish to get involved in the preparation of the proposals, or for more information, please contact us at challengeyunus@cems.org
Earth Day - 22nd of April 2010 - Erasmus University Rotterdam
On this special day, World Wide Fund for Nature, the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, Erasmus Podium and GreenEUR will organize an inspiring program called EURth Day.
Dr. Gail Whiteman (Sustainability Management and Climate Change, Rotterdam School of Management) will open the program and explain the crucial role of every business and individual in the transition towards a sustainable society.
Gyzlene Zeroual, master student Management of Change at RSM and member of GreenEUR, will explain the vision and aims of GreenEUR, the student organization for a sustainable Erasmus University.
In a serie of inspiring talks, passionate adventures / environmentalists will speak about their passion for planet earth and the need to preserve every habitat.
FORESTS - Corneille Ewango is a Congolese environmentalist, and was responsible for the Okapi Faunal Reserve's botany program in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1996 to 2003. He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2005 for his efforts to protect the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Ituri Rainforest during the Congo Civil War. The reserve is home to the Mbuti people, and houses animals such as okapis (found nowhere else), elephants and 13 primate species. Ewango has uncovered 270 species of lianas and 600 tree species in the area.
MOUNTAINS - Erik Ravenstijn is the youngest Dutch climber to have climbed Mount Everest. In 2009 he reached the highest peak in the world at the age of 25. While being passionate about climbing and the outdoors, he now has put up a new challenge; to climb Mount Everest with emitting as little CO2 as possible. A 10,000 kilometer journey on his bicycle will bring him to base camp Mount Everest, where he will make his second attempt.
OCEANS - Vincent Kneefel is a a underwater photographer with a passion for marine life, who is committed to conservation of the underwater world. He has done more than 1200 dives in over 30 countries around the world; Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Ocean. In 2009 he initiated Rotterdam World Ocean Day, an event where Fabien Cousteau, David Doubilet and Paul Watson were among the keynote speakers. Vincent has developed a passion for the oceans and everything in it.
DESERTS - Arita Baaijens is an author, a photographer, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She has published several books on her desert journeys. In between travels she lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Twenty years ago she gave up her job as an environmentalist and ever since she has been exploring the deserts of Egypt and the Sudan with a small camel caravan. Lately she directed her attention to Central Asia and Siberia.
POLES - Marc Cornelissen is one of the few explorers reaching both North and South Pole on foot. His love of the Arctic wilderness has led him to undergo real physical endurance on the ice all in the name of climate change research and nature conservation. His expeditions have a mission. In March 2005 he has set out on ski’s together with Doug Stoup and Petter Nyquist to deploy high-tech satellite beacons tracking the movement of sea ice, air temperature and wind patterns on the Arctic Ocean.
MOVIE PREMIERE: OCEANS
Last year the folks at Disneynature brought us the spectacular film, "Earth" on Earth Day. This year the studio releases "Oceans" a chronicle of the mysterious depths in five of the world's oceans, showing in theaters on April 22, Earth Day 2010. Narrated by Pierce Brosnan and directed by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, it captured imagery with the newest underwater technology.
Shot at 50 different locations, and taking three years to complete, Oceans spotlights tons of sea animals including leatherback turtles, wild-looking dugong, spooky deep sea creatures, twirling whales, and swirling giant squid. The immersion camerawork takes viewers through a shoal of tuna, along dolphin stampedes and swimming with a great white.
PROGRAMME
EURth Day - 22nd April 2010
Location: Auditorium Erasmus University
Free entrance, on invitation only. 850 pax.
18h30: Welcome with coffee and tea
19h00: Start program
Opening by Prof. Dr. Gail Whiteman
GreenEUR by Gyzlene Zeroual
Forests: Corneille Ewango
Mountains: Erik Ravenstijn
Oceans: Vincent Kneefel
Deserts: Arita Baaijens
Poles: Marc Cornelissen
20h10 - 20h30 Break
20h30 - 22h30 Premiere OCEANS
http://www.greeneur.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout...
Rotterdam, November 2009 --- Between 7 and 18 December, Copenhagen will host the 15th UN Climate Change Conference. The eyes of the whole world will be on the world leaders in Copenhagen, as they seek to reach a climate agreement.
GreenEUR – a newly created Erasmus University student organisation with over 50% are RSM students – is sending a student delegation to Copenhagen to represent the university. GreenEUR aims to make Erasmus University more sustainable with the help of the students themselves and, as an added bonus, thus imbue “the leaders of tomorrow” with a greener outlook on life. The organisation sees the Climate Summit in Copenhagen as a great source of inspiration for the students to do their bit for the environment at the university and elsewhere.
The student delegation consists of 20-25 students divided into five groups. The first group will leave for Copenhagen on 6 December. The other four will depart on 10, 11, 13 and 16 December, respectively. The modes of transport to be used vary quite a bit, but all are as environmentally responsible as possible. Some students will “truck pool” to Denmark (have previously arranged to a get a lift from a trucker), while others will hitch rides from highway motorists. Another group will take the train to the Danish capital. The eco-travellers will record their “road trip” for benefit of the “home front,” who can follow their every move and thought thanks to YouTube, Twitter, blogs etc.
During the actual conference, the students will attend as many events as possible and again report back to those at home. Moreover, TV Rijnmond (regional TV station) will provide television coverage of the Rotterdam students as they go about their business in Copenhagen. To cap it all, Antenne TV (local multimedia website) will tag along after the students and produce a documentary designed to inspire the whole university’s student population into greater activity. The Copenhagen documentary will be screened at the university in January, together with a GreenEUR presentation about its experiences at the Climate Summit.
http://www.rsm.nl/home/mba/mba_news/detail?p_item_id=5820069
The Net Impact Chapter partnered with the IT club for a discussion with four professional representatives on the subject of Green IT.
Series of seminars with the CEO’s of corporate foundations to discuss how they can improve their social impact. Seminars are organized by the Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy.
Global Values Statement
With the goal of raising the awareness of the values at the heart of the CEMS community the CEMS Global Values Statement has been introduced by our students and will be integrated into this year’s CEMS graduation ceremony.
The aim is to give students the opportunity to formally commit to uphold these values on the day of their graduation. This act strengthens these values that we see as guiding principles for everyday decision making both as a student and as a professional.
Text of The Global Values Statement:
“As a lifelong member of the CEMS community, I hereby commit to uphold and be guided by the following principles:
* The pursuit of excellence with the highest ethical standards, integrity, and humility.
* Professional responsibility and accountability in relation to society and the environment
* Drawing upon the value of cultural diversity with respect and empathy
My decisions and actions, both now and in the future, will reflect this Commitment to Global Citizenship that I make here today.”
The statement will be read out once during the Graduation Ceremony. After receiving their diploma on stage, each graduand will have the option to sign the Global Values Statement book. Since signing of the statement is not compulsory, students also have a choice of crossing out their name or leaving a blank.
The Net Impact Chapter had representatives from the world of consulting to present the big firm view (Atos) and the boutique firm view (Steward Redqueen).
Public address of the new chair in strategic philanthropy established at RSM and the Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy
http://www.rsm.nl/home/sites/2009_inaugural_address/Inaugural_Address_Lu...
On 31 March 2010, Journeys With Erasmus (JWE) – an ongoing series of interactive round-tables designed to get RSM’s alumni, leading researchers and corporate contacts together and contributing to the discussion about the latest topics impacting business – returned to Brussels for the ‘The Societal Consequences of Corporate Governance: Why Corporate Compliance Matters.’ Two distinguished professors from RSM’s Business-Society Management department, Muel Kaptein and department chair Hans van Oosterhout, along with longtime financial practitioner and current anti-money-laundering (AML) consultant Pieter van den Akker, presented different facets of the issue in front of about 50 members of the audience.
‘..The Financial Crisis has demonstrated that managerial decisions have huge effects on parties outside the
firm…Yet these parties are not represented in any way or form within the governance structures of firms.’Professor
Hans van Oosterhout, Chair, Department of Business-Society Management, Rotterdam School of Management,
Erasmus University
Corporate decisions sometimes have profound societal consequences, often negatively affecting parties outside
the firm in both business and society. A quick look at the news shows the ongoing fallout of the ethical and
managerial failures that helped create the financial crisis.
Ideally, corporate governance should provide a remedy for this social failure of business. To date, however,
corporate governance has been mostly concerned with the problem of how managers, who make the bulk of
decisions of public firms, can be made to act in the interest of the shareholders who face the consequences of
those decisions. The financial crisis has demonstrated that managerial decisions also have huge effects on parties
outside the first, such as customers, creditors, and even society at large. The interests of these ‘outside’ parties are
often protected by laws and regulations that firms must comply with, therefore compliance with these laws is an
integral part of corporate governance.
This symposium will focus on the question of how compliance can be viewed as, and made to be, a central part
of future corporate governance within the EU. Dean George Yip will host and chair the event, which will include
four distinguished speakers: two from academia and two from the world of business and compliance. You are
invited to join this symposium and actively participate in the debate that follows speaker presentations.
Programme
18.00 Arrival & registration of guests (refreshments will be served)
19.00 Opening by Pauline van der Meer Mohr, President of the Executive Board EUR
19.15 Prof. dr. Hans van Oosterhout: How to understand compliance as an integral part of corporate governance;
Prof. dr. Muel Kaptein: How to effectively organise ethics, integrity and compliance management within
firms;
Pieter van den Akker: The management of external liabilities: hard lessons learned by the financial sector in
organising anti-money laundering controls;
20.30 Dialogue with audience
21.00 Reception
Venue
La Fondation Universitaire
Egmontstraat 11, 1000 Brussels
Brussels, BE
Registration
Please register no later than Wednesday 24 March using our online registration form.
A limited number of places are available. Attendees will receive a confirmation. The registration fee for this event
is 19.50 euro. This includes a light meal prior to the session and a reception afterwards.
About our speakers
Prof. Dr. J. (Hans) van Oosterhout
Hans van Oosterhout (1965) is Professor of Corporate Governance and Responsibility at the Rotterdam School of
Management, Erasmus University. He obtained an MA (Cum Laude) in Political Science from Leiden University, and
a PhD in Management from Erasmus University (2002). His research interests include comparative corporate
governance, business regulation, business ethics, and the role and position of corporations in the global
institutional matrix. He has published in journals like Academy of Management Review, Organisation Studies,
Journal of Management Studies, Business Ethics Quarterly and the Journal of Business Ethics. Hans has held visiting
appointments at Australian National University (2002) and at the department Legal Studies and Business Ethics of
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (2003, 2008), and currently serves as a member of the executive
board of the Erasmus Institute for Monitoring and Compliance.
Prof. Dr. Muel Kaptein
Muel Kaptein (1969) is professor in business ethics and integrity management at Rotterdam School of
Management, Erasmus University and partner at the international assurance and advisory firm KPMG. Muel has
been active as management consultant and scientific researcher in the field of ethics, integrity, social responsibility,
and compliance since the early nineties. Muel co-founded KPMG Integrity in 1995 and became professor at the age
of 32. He has developed different tools and methods for developing and measuring the ethics and integrity of
organisations. For example, as part of his PhD thesis, he developed a questionnaire for measuring the integrity of
organisations, the so-called Integrity Thermometer, which has been used by many organisations around the world.
He has written several books, including ‘Ethics Management’ (Springer, 1998), ‘The Balanced Company’ (Oxford
University Press, 2002), ‘The Six Principles of Managing with Integrity’ (Articulate Press, 2005), and ‘The Living
Code’ (Greenleaf, 2008). He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in a variety of international journals.
Muel is section-editor of the Journal of Business Ethics.
Pie
The Net Impact Chapter had four representatives to discuss the future of biofuels which was moderated by a skeptical presenter.
Looking for a socially responsible internship or job? Or are you just interested in sustainability in general? GreenEUR invites you for the first sustainable career event at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam! On Friday the 16th of April, we offer you the opportunity to start your sustainable career now!
Organizations like van Gansewinkel, ENVIU, Duurzame Vacaturebank and many others will be present. They will challenge you during their workshops, where the company representatives not only tell you about their affinity with sustainability, but also about the challenges they face in order to give a positive contribution to society. Each organization prepares an interesting and exciting casestudy that will bring your closer to the daily business of the organization. After the workshops, you have the opportunity to network with the partnering organizations. Each of them are offering opportunities for a fresh start of your career!
http://www.greeneur.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66&I...
On Wednesday 27 October 2010, the fourth Max Havelaar Lecture will be hosted by Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. This year, this prestigious lecture is entitled ‘With great power, comes great responsibility’. Not only super-heroes like Spiderman wrestle with this challenge movie after movie. Companies are increasingly expected to follow his example in using their substantial powers to do good. The lecture is scheduled to start at 2 pm and conclude at 4.30 pm, and will be conducted in English.
History has shown that trade can cause large-scale disaster to people, animals and the planet. Fortunately, history also increasingly shows the good effects of trade. With the right attitude and resources, trade can contribute to alleviating poverty and sustainable development of developing countries. However, both civilians and authorities are understandably suspicious of the significant power of companies. This results in an unyielding ‘low-trust’ society that achieves less progress than would be desirable and feasible.
The fourth Max Havelaar lecture expands on how the power of companies can be wielded as a positive contributor to key themes such as human rights, combating poverty and sustainable development. The lecture also discusses the issue if it would be better for companies to contribute at their own initiative, or in collaboration with other parties, and the basic requirements for each. In accordance with the lecture’s tradition, this theme will be discussed from various perspectives.
The key themes of the lecture include:
* The power of the diplomat by Jan Pronk, ex-minister of Development and Collaboration; top officer of UNCTAD; ex-UN special emissary to the Sudan.
* The power of the retailer by Sjaak de Korte, CEO of PLUS, the supermarket chain that was the first in the Netherlands to entirely stop selling non-Fairtrade bananas as per January 2010.
* The power of the manufacturer by Joan Karanja, Director of Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa (COFTA).
* The power of the NGO by Rob Cameron, CEO of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), the umbrella organisation of the worldwide Fairtrade certificate.
* The power of the scientist by Prof. George Yip, Dean of RSM
The Max Havelaar Lecture is held during the Fairtrade Week. Organised by the Dutch National Association of World Shops, Fair Trade Original and Max Havelaar Foundation, the Fair Trade Week will take place from 21 through 30 October 2010. During this week, fair trade will be a key theme in many media and places in the Netherlands.
The Max Havelaar Lecture is organised by a partnership between Max Havelaar Foundation, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Triodos Bank and the Expert Centre on Sustainable Business and Development Cooperation (ECSAD).
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More information is available from: www.maxhavelaarlecture.org
Max Havelaar Foundation is the organisation behind the well-known Max Havelaar certificate for Fair Trade. If a product has a Max Havelaar certificate (this includes coffee, fruit, rice, cotton, wine and many more products), it means that the producing farmers in developing countries received a fair price for their products, which provides them with an opportunity for autonomous sustainable development. www.maxhavelaar.nl
This is a two day conference with (international) keynote speakers from academia and practice focusing on the Governance, Accountability, Grant Making and Impact of Non-profit Organisations
http://www.erim.eur.nl/ERIM/Research/Centres/Erasmus_Centre_for_Strategi...
“I Will Hug Trees and Do Business” (this was podcast live globally): Professor Gail Whiteman is passionate about her research: the reciprocal relationship between business and climate change. Attend an interactive class about how climate change is already having an impact on global business. Discuss with Gail what business can do to tackle this issue, both for the benefit of the environment and the economy. Do this in a hidden gem of natural splendour close to campus.
This year, RSM launched its new “I Will” marketing campaign on 8 October 2009. Dr. Gail Whiteman was chosen as one of the 4 faculty members to prepare a special class, the only one on sustainability. This class took place at the Arboretum Trompenburg (http://www.trompenburg.nl/)
This class was offered as a bonus class: in order to attend, students needed to submit a motivational “I Will…” essays around their interest in business and sustainability and climate change. See Appendix 2 for an outline of the class and teaching note.
Appendix 2: I WILL: LEARN HOW TO DEAL WITH CLIMATE CHANGE
8 October, 2009 Special Bonus Class
Podcast available at
http://iwill.rsm.nl/static/launch/index/view/seminar/i-will-hug-trees-an...
9.00 Faculty arrive at Arboretum Trompenburg
9.15 Students Arrive at the Arboretum Trompenburg
9.30 Opening by Dr. Gail Whiteman
9.40 Split class into 5 Groups with Team Leaders: Luca Berchicci, LiAn Phoa, Ingrid de Vries, Ismaela Stoteler, Shanti Kalicharan
9.40 – 10.00 Hug a Tree Exercise
10.00 – 10.45 Case Challenge:
The CEO of Stora Enso has just received a press release from the outcome of the Bangkok meeting of The Forests Dialogue on 1 October, 2009. The press release argues that the Conservation of World’s Forests is the Key to Planet’s Survival: “With only 2 months to go before a new climate deal is negotiated in Copenhagen, The Forests Dialogue calls on industrialized nations to ensure robust financial commitments for conservation and sustainable management of forests and on tropical countries to ensure that these new financial streams are fairly shared with forest dependent communities.”
Based upon your pre-reading of Stora Enso’s 2008 Sustainability Report, the CEO asks each team: “Is Stora Enso doing enough? If not, what else can we do to support the Copenhagen Climate Summit?” Discuss the case in teams of 4-5 and prepare a short presentation on your key recommendations to the CEO (total time 25 minutes). Each group will make a 2 minute presentation to the CEO.
10.45 – 11.00 Group Debrief: Full class
Abstract:
Rotterdam, October 2009 --- On 4 November, the third Max Havelaar lecture will take place at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. This year’s motto is ‘Chains for Change’. Speakers with a range of perspectives will give their vision and ambitions about the way that supply chains can change the world. It is with great pleasure that we invite you to participate.
Trade is an important driver in poverty alleviation and empowerment in developing countries. The slogan ‘ Trade. Not aid’ regards to the millions of small producers in developing countries who have something to offer, but have been economically disadvantaged or marginalised by the conventional trading system. Fair access to markets under better trade conditions would help them to overcome barriers to development. This concept, globally known as Fairtrade. Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.
Fairtrade is a classic example of sustainable chain management. Lots of other sustainable initiatives originated after its introduction in the Netherlands in 1988. Sustainable chain management, and especially Fairtrade, proved to be an effective way in which companies can make a big contribution to global sustainability. But it’s not easy. What choices does a multinational have? What are the most effective methods in sustainable chain management? What are current trends? What are opportunities in sustainable chain management? Is there a limit in responsibilities for multinationals? What are the roles of government, NGOs, and science?
The third Max Havelaar lecture will be hosted by Prof.dr. Rob van Tulder, Professor of Business-Society Management at RSM. Introductions will be given by: ISS, Triodos Bank, and Max Havelaar Foundation. Speakers will be Gary Gereffi, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Markets and Management Studies Program at Duke University; Hans van Bochove, Director Public Affairs, Communications and CSR at Starbucks Coffee Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Jack van Ham, CEO ICCO and Bert Koenders, Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation.
To read the full programme and to register, or learn more about previous lectures, go to
http://www.erim.eur.nl/ERIM/events/Event_Details?event_id=1776
The current study examines the outcomes of three fraud brainstorming procedures¿nominal group, round robin, and open discussion¿via a randomized between-participant field experiment involving 150 audit clients and 2,614 auditors who participated in natural, hierarchical audit teams. The results indicate that nominal group and round robin brainstorming resulted in equivalent numbers of unique fraud risks and comparable increases in planned audit hours, while open discussion brainstorming yielded the least number of unique ideas and the smallest increase in planned audit hours. Furthermore, nominal group and round robin brainstorming yielded more changes/additions to the nature and timing of substantive testing than open discussion brainstorming. Study findings offer theoretical and practical insight into fraud brainstorming.
Recent literature on sustainable logistics networks points to two important questions: (i) How to spot the preferred solution(s) balancing environmental and business concerns? (ii) How to improve the understanding of the trade-offs between these two dimensions? We posit that a visual exploration of the efficient frontier and trade-offs between profitability and environmental impacts are particularly suitable to answer these two questions. The visual representation of the efficient frontier, however, presents two challenges. The first is to obtain a good approximation for such frontier without enumerating all extreme efficient solutions. The second is to obtain a good visual representation of the efficient frontier. We propose a two-phased heuristic to handle these two problems. The algorithm is designed for the multi-objective linear problem with three objectives: minimize costs, cumulative energy demand and waste in a reverse logistics network. We illustrate our approach by designing a complex recycling logistics network in Germany.
Alignment of an organization's performance measurement system with its strategy is widely advocated as a guiding principle in management control system design. Despite its importance, it is far from clear what strategic alignment of performance measures entails, whether and how organizations achieve it. In this article we explore the alignment of performance measures focusing on firms' use of environmental performance indicators as the consequence of pursuing an environmental strategy. Based on the economic and contingency literatures on management control system design and performance measurement, we propose that the use of such performance measures is a consequence of changing the design of the performance measurement system to accommodate the strategy, and by increasing the informativeness of performance metrics. We test these propositions in a sample of financial managers in manufacturing firms in The Netherlands. We find that alignment to environmental strategy is mostly achieved through the increased quantification of environmental performance measures and via their increased sensitivity to managerial actions.
Research on organizational justice typically investigates how perceptions of justice affect encounters between internal organizational actors, with few studies analyzing perceptions between firms and external stakeholders. In addition to a narrow focus on employer-employee relations, the organizational justice literature is dominated by western and European cultural perspectives. My paper addresses these gaps by exploring how justice theory may be useful in understanding conflicts between local Indigenous Peoples and multinational firms from the natural resource sector. I argue that this applied research problem can make a number of conceptual contributions to organization studies of justice. I illustrate how organizational justice theory applies within this new context, and also how indigenous cultural visions of justice enrich and challenge our very notion of organizational justice.
The present research examined across two experimental studies the impact of how fairly one's partner was treated on the experience of one's own negative emotions and intentions to display antisocial behaviours. Experiment 1 revealed that one's own feelings of anger and frustration were significantly higher when one's partner was treated fairly (i.e. receiving voice in the decision-making procedure) relative to when one's partner was treated unfairly (i.e. receiving no voice), but only so when the interaction between oneself and the other was characterized by competitive interdependence (i.e. a zero-sum gain in which a good performance by the other is negative for oneself and vice versa). The opposite pattern of results emerged in the cooperative interdependence condition (i.e. a good performance by the other is positive for oneself and vice versa). Experiment 2 (in which also the fairness of one's own treatment was manipulated) further showed that in the competitive interdependence condition own anger and frustration were higher when one's partner received voice and oneself did not relative to when the partner did not receive voice and oneself did. A similar effect was also obtained for intentions to display antisocial behaviour, which was mediated by negative emotions. These findings thus reveal that the other's procedurally fair treatment affects own responses differently as a function of the given goal interdependence and own treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Manuscript Type: Review Research Question/Issue: Over the last four decades, research on the relationship between boards of directors and strategy has proliferated. Yet to date there is little theoretical and empirical agreement regarding the question of how boards of directors contribute to strategy. This review assesses the extant literature by highlighting emerging trends and identifying several avenues for future research. Research Findings/Results: Using a content-analysis of 150 articles published in 23 management journals up to 2007, we describe and analyze how research on boards of directors and strategy has evolved over time. We illustrate how topics, theories, settings, and sources of data interact and influence insights about board¿strategy relationships during three specific periods. Theoretical Implications: Our study illustrates that research on boards of directors and strategy evolved from normative and structural approaches to behavioral and cognitive approaches. Our results encourage future studies to examine the impact of institutional and context-specific factors on the (expected) contribution of boards to strategy, and to apply alternative methods to fully capture the impact of board processes and dynamics on strategy making. Practical Implications: The increasing interest in boards of directors' contribution to strategy echoes a movement towards more strategic involvement of boards of directors. However, best governance practices and the emphasis on board independence and control may hinder the board contribution to the strategic decision making. Our study invites investors and policy-makers to consider the requirements for an effective strategic task when they nominate board members and develop new regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
An increasing number of companies voluntary disclose information about their social and environment performance in sustainability reports. This study investigates the causes and consequences of choosing different assurance providers for companies seeking independent verification of their sustainability reports. We employ a logistical regression analysis from an international sample of 136 companies to document that companies domiciled in countries with a weaker governance system are more likely to choose a big-4 accounting firm as assurance provider. We additionally examine the association between the type of assurance provider and the quality of a sustainability assurance statement. Using a content analysis based on an existing framework (O'Dwyer and Owen, 2005), we provide evidence that big-4 accounting firms positively affect assurance quality in terms of reporting format and assurance procedures. In contrast, the quality of the recommendations and opinions in a sustainability assurance statement is positively associated with non-accounting assurance providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
We developed a model predicting that leaders are most effective in stimulating follower cooperation when they consistently treat all group members in a fair manner and are prototypical (i.e., representative of the group's values and norms). In support of this idea, we consistently found that group members cooperated most when prototypical leaders treated themselves as well as their coworkers fairly across a laboratory experiment and 3 cross-sectional field studies. These findings highlight the important role of others' fairness experiences and perceptions in influencing one's own reactions and also the role of leaders as representing the group's values and norms. We discuss implications for fairness theory and the leader prototypicality literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) encompasses a wide array of activities. While previous studies have suggested that companies increasingly take CSR into account in their buying decisions, little is known about the conditions under which buying companies choose one particular type of socially responsible supplier over another. This study addresses this issue and finds that when a company focuses on improving its own transformation processes (which we label ‘congruous’ CSR), the company's buyers prefer suppliers that also practice a congruous type of CSR over suppliers that practice CSR activities without a connection to their transformation processes (‘incongruous’ CSR). In addition, this preference is found to be stronger when the supplier's product constitutes a relatively large share of the buying company's end product.
Research on work values shows that respectful leadership is highly desired by employees. On the applied side, however, the extant research does not offer many insights as to which concrete leadership behaviors are perceived by employees as indications of respectful leadership. Thus, to offer such insights, we collected and content analyzed employees¿ narrations of encounters with respectful leadership (N1 = 426). The coding process resulted in 19 categories of respectful leadership spanning 149 leadership behaviors. Furthermore, to also harness this comprehensive repertoire for quantitative organizational research, we undertook two more studies (N2a = 228; N2b = 412) to empirically derive a feasible item-based measurement of respectful leadership and assess its psychometric qualities. In these studies, we additionally investigated the relationships between respectful leadership as assessed with this new measurement and employees¿ vertical and contextual followership as assessed via subordinates¿ identification with their leaders, their appraisal respect for their leaders, their feeling of self-determination, and their job satisfaction.
This paper explores the factors associated with the voluntary decisions to assure social, environmental and sustainability reports. Since the market for assurance services in this area is in its formative stages, there is a limited understanding of the demand for this emergent non-financial auditing practice, which is evolving rapidly across different countries. Drawing from extant literature in international auditing and environmental accounting, we focus on a set of country-level institutional factors to explain the adoption of sustainability assurances statements among an international panel of 212 Fortune Global 250 companies for the years 1999, 2002 and 2005. Consistently with our expectations, our results provide evidence that companies operating in countries that are more stakeholder-oriented and have a weaker governance enforcement regime are more likely to adopt a sustainability assurance statement. Further, the demand for assurance is higher in countries where sustainable corporate practices are better enabled by market and institutional mechanisms. Our exploratory findings also indicate that the likelihood to choose a large accounting firm as assurance provider increases for companies domiciled in countries that are shareholder-oriented and have a lower level of litigation. We conclude the paper suggesting three directions of research in the area of sustainability assurance that have relevant academic and practical implications.
Purpose ¿ The purpose of this paper is first, to test the validity of a new scale measuring the construct of meaning-making, defined as the ability to integrate challenging or ambiguous situations into a framework of personal meaning using conscious, value-based reflection. Second, to explore whether meaning-making is distinct from other personal resources (self-efficacy, optimism, mastery, meaning in life), and coping (positive reinterpretation, acceptance). Third, to explore whether meaning-making facilitates work engagement, willingness to change, and performance during organizational change.
Design/methodology/approach ¿ Cross-sectional survey-data were collected from 238 employees in a variety of both public and private organizations.
Findings ¿ Confirmatory factor analyses showed that meaning-making can be distinguished from other personal resources, coping and meaning in life. Regression analyses showed that meaning-making is positively related to in-role performance and willingness to change, but not to work engagement, thereby partly supporting the hypotheses.
Originality/value ¿ The paper focuses on meaning-making that has not yet been studied empirically in organizational change settings. It shows that the new construct of psychological meaning-making is related to valuable employee outcomes including in-role performance and willingness to change. Meaning-making explains variance over and above other personal resources such as self-efficacy, optimism, mastery, coping and meaning in life.
In this paper, we exploit the open nature of conference calls to explore whether managers withhold information from the investing public. Our evidence suggests that managers regularly leave participants on the conference call in the dark by not answering their questions. We find that the best predictors of such an event are firm size, a CEO's stock price¿based incentives, company age, firm performance, litigation risk, and whether analysts are actively involved during the call's Q&A section. Finally, we document strong support for the assumption maintained in the literature that investors interpret silence negatively. That is, investors seem to interpret no news as bad news.
Unfair offers in bargaining may have disruptive effects because they may reduce interpersonal trust. In such situations future trust may be strongly affected by social accounts (i.e., apologies vs. denials). In the current paper we investigate when people are most likely to demand social accounts for the unfair offer (Experiment 1 ), and when social account, will have the highest impact (Experiment 2). We hypothesized that the need for and impact of social accounts will be highest when the intentions of the other party are uncertain. The results provided support for this reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
In recent years, major disasters have figured prominently in the media. While corporate response to disasters may have raised corporate philanthropy to a new level, it remains an understudied phenomenon. This article draws on comparative research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate philanthropy to explore the geography of corporate philanthropic disaster response. The study analyzes donation announcements made by Fortune Global 500 firms from North America, Europe and Asia to look for regional patterns across three recent disasters: the South Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the Kashmiri earthquake. The results reveal inter-regional differences in the overall likelihood of donations and in their cash value, in addition to the identification of home-region- and local presence effects. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.
The notion of extant social contracts (ESC), which was the original contribution that Tom Dunfee provided to contractualist business ethics (CBE) and Integrated Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) more specifically, has commanded less research attention to date than one would expect based on its apparent empirical face validity and its disciplinary spanning potential. This article attempts to revive the ESC concept in both normative and positive research at the intersection of business, management, and ethics and law. After identifying three features that positively distinguish ESC from ISCT, this article argues that the yet unrealized conceptual potential of ESC is most likely to be cashed out when it is applied to the field of private international business regulation and when it is conceptually connected to the legitimizing perspective of institutional theory.
Two large online surveys were conducted among employees in Germany to explore the importance employees and organizations place on aspects of interpersonal respect in relation to other work values. The first study (n = 589) extracted a general ranking of work values, showing that employees rate issues of respect involving supervisors particularly high. The second study (n = 318) replicated the previous value ranking. Additionally, it is shown that the value priorities indicated by employees do not always match their perceptions of actual organizational practices. Particularly, interpersonal respect issues that involve employees¿ supervisors diverge strongly negative. Consequences and potentials for change in organizations are discussed.
This article examines whether the involvement of stakeholders in the design of corporate codes of conduct leads to a higher implementation likelihood of the code. The empirical focus is on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). The article compares the inclusion of OSH issues in the codes of conduct of 30 companies involved in International Framework Agreements (IFAs), agreed upon by trade unions and multinational enterprises, with those of a benchmark sample of 38 leading Multinational Enterprises in comparable industries. It is found that codes of the IFA group have a higher implementation likelihood in OSH than the codes of the benchmark group. Further, European firms, culturally more used to stakeholder involvement, score higher than their US and Japanese competitors, and hence are more capable of addressing the safety and health issues in international supply chains. The implementation likelihood of codes seems closely related to the type of corporate CSR approach.
The primary objective of closed-loop supply chains (CLSC) is to improve the maximum economic benefit from end-of-use products. Nevertheless, the literature within this stream of research advocates that closing the loop also helps to mitigate the undesirable environmental footprint of supply chains. Therefore, closed-loop supply chains are assumed to be sustainable supply chains almost by definition. In this paper we analyse if and when this assumption holds. We illustrate our findings based on the Electric and Electronic Equipment (EEE) supply chain. For all phases of the supply chain, i.e. manufacturing, usage, transportation and end-of-life activities, we assess the magnitude of the environmental impacts, based on a single environmental metric, namely the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED). Given the environmental hot-spots in the Electric and Electronic Equipment supply chain, we propose useful extensions for existing CLSC optimisation models to ensure that closed-loop supply chains are at the same time sustainable supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
We investigate the funding modes of German banks and the implications for lending and profitability during 1992-2002. We find that at many banks, deposits from customers decrease in relative terms while interbank liabilities increase as a source of funding. We cannot detect a negative impact of the relative decline in deposits on lending. The decreasing ability of banks to collect deposits and the substitution of deposits by interbank liabilities unfavorably affects the net interest result of banks that exhibit a deposit deficit, especially savings banks. Our findings indicate a structural lengthening of the intermediation chain, which has broader implications for the functioning and stability of the financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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