Improving Sector and Thematic Reporting

{Excerpt} Communities of practice have become an accepted part of organizational development. Learning organizations build and leverage them with effect. To reach their potential, much as other bodies, they stand to gain from healthy reporting. Quality of information and its proper presentation enable stakeholders to make sound and reasonable assessments of performance, and take appropriate action

Climate-Related Investing Across Asset Classes

Responsible investment -- understood as the incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information into investment analysis -- is a discipline that allows investors to:- Better assess long-term risks and opportunities in their portfolios; and- Better align their investment strategies with opportunities to create longterm wealth for investors and society alike.It is a tool for investors who seek to improve long-term financial returns through enhanced ESG analysis. It also appeals to mission or impact investors, who seek to achieve defined social and/or environmental goals while achieving targeted rates of return. In both cases, investors use responsible investment as a tool to improve their ability to achieve their goals.Climate change is among the most important issues addressed by today's responsible investment universe. The physical risks of climate change, the likelihood of major changes in political and regulatory investment environments as a result of climate change, the opportunities associated with a radical global transformation to a low-carbon economy -- these issues create far-reaching implications for investors as they make decisions about their investment strategies, and as they evaluate particular fund managers and investment opportunities. New ideas, products, and methods have entered the market to address the long-term implications of climate change.This short handbook takes as its premise that a climate lens reveals risks and opportunities across all elements of an investor's portfolio. Every asset class offers investors an opportunity to pursue climate-friendly investments, to mitigate exposure to climate risk, and to engage stakeholders to improve climate-related performance across the range of investment opportunities

Responsible corporate governance: An overview of trends, initiatives and state-of-the-art elements. What sort of globalisation is sustainable?

Transnational corporations' (TNCs) economic operations cover numerous countriesand can be diverted between several continents. These units have reached a level ofsignificance, having not only economic, but also social and environmental implications. This justifies that they shall be treated separately as a social phenomenon,when considering strategies for the development towards sustainability.This paper presents the concept of Responsible Corporate Governance (RCG), asa strategy to govern TNCs. RCG is suggested as a stakeholder based policyinstrument, which aims at allocating responsibilities to societal actors aiming atcorporate accountability. RCG recognises that the process of societal change isstrongly based on what can be called as bottom up-processes. Learning processestake place through the interaction of the different societal members, whicheventually leads to macro changes. Therefore, governing TNCs towards sustainability improvements is considered to be a collective process including all stakeholders. Firstly, the paper places the concept of RCG in the ongoing debateof political modernization based on the fact that society develops overtime and thepolitical system must correspondingly modernize. In this context, politicaloverload developed as a consequence of increased resource interdependencies isexplained and as a resolution, network approach is discussed. Secondly, demands on the orientation of the TNCs in terms of accountability and innovative actionare brought forward. Here, the paper also lists down corporate elements (stakeholder empowered corporate governance, management and performanceevaluation systems, transparency enhancement and accountability verification), which need to be in place to attain an accountable orientation in the society.Following, using an analytical framework, the orientation and capabilities of each societal actor (environmental non-governmental organisations, financial institutions, intergovernmental organisations) to affect improvements in the corporateresponsibility elements are investigated and recommendations for their effectiveorientation are listed. --

The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition

Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies. Warming climate is likely to raise this year's temperature to 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era, 60 million people, equivalent to the world's 24th largest country and largest number in recent history, are forcibly displaced, and crimes in cyberspace cost the global economy an estimated US$445 billion, higher than many economies' national incomes. In this context, the Reportcalls for action to build resilience – the "resilience imperative" – and identifies practical examples of how it could be done.The Report also steps back and explores how emerging global risks and major trends, such as climate change, the rise of cyber dependence and income and wealth disparity are impacting already-strained societies by highlighting three clusters of risks as Risks in Focus. As resilience building is helped by the ability to analyse global risks from the perspective of specific stakeholders, the Report also analyses the significance of global risks to the business community at a regional and country-level

Management as a system: creating value

Boston University School of Management publication from the 1990s about the MBA programs at BU, aimed at prospective MBA students

Guiding the next generation of doctoral students in operations management

This paper presents ways for senior researchers to help future doctoral students in Operations Management (OM) to overcome multiple challenges in: (a) conducting relevant research while demonstrating greater rigor, and (b) exploring multi-disciplinary research projects while mastering a single research method. Recognizing that knowledge is generally created in four broad stages ((I) awareness, (II) framing, (III) modeling and (IV) validation), we first argue that different research approaches (analytical, behavioral, case study, or empirical) serve different roles in each of these stages: (1) case study approach for awareness, (2) empirical methods for framing, (3) analytical modeling for modeling and analysis, and (4) behavioral for validation in the real world. Then we discuss ways to enable doctoral students to overcome the aforementioned challenges

The administration of the Parliamentary Budget Office

This audit assessed the effectiveness of the Parliamentary Budget Office in conducting its role since being established in July 2012. Audit objective, criteria and scope The audit objective was to assess the effectiveness of the Parliamentary Budget Office in conducting its role since being established in July 2012. In order to form a conclusion against this audit objective, the ANAO adopted the following high level criteria: effective governance and administrative arrangements were established, to support the delivery of services to the Parliament; sound and timely processes facilitated the conduct of the PBO’s key functions within and outside of the caretaker period; and performance was monitored, reviewed and reported. The audit focused on the functions of the PBO including arrangements in place to prepare costings, and whether these arrangements had been consistently followed. The audit did not independently cost any of the policies, or other work costed by the PBO but did consider the views of Treasury and Finance in relation to PBO policy costings that were subsequently prepared for the 2014 Budget process. This audit has been conducted under subsection 15(1) of the Auditor‑General Act 1997. In conducting this audit, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) was mindful of the Parliamentary Service Act, which allows the JCPAA to request an independent review of the operations of the PBO, to be completed within nine months after a general election. The ANAO briefed the JCPAA on the planning for this audit—its objective, criteria and expected tabling date (planned for completion within nine months of the general election held on 7 September 2013). In conducting the audit, the ANAO was aware of the Government’s National Commission of Audit and its terms of reference, which included identifying options for strengthening Commonwealth budgeting arrangements, incorporating an examination of the role of the PBO. The Commission’s report was released publicly on 1 May 2014. The report contained a recommendation for the Government to adopt a high‑level fiscal strategy with fiscal rules which set out how a fiscal strategy will be achieved (Recommendation 1). With reference to the PBO, the Commission recommended that the PBO reports the Government’s progress against the fiscal rules following the release of the Final Budget Outcome each year (Recommendation 2). The Government has not yet responded to these recommendations, however, the additional function for the PBO suggested in Recommendation 2 would be consistent with one of the four key features of effective IFIs identified by the IMF, and with the functions performed by 11 of the 17 OECD countries’ IFIs. Overall conclusion Prior to the establishment of the PBO in July 2012, there was no independent body in Australia that specialised in the research and analysis of fiscal policy for the Federal Parliament. At this time, there were also limited resources for non‑government political parties, individual and independent members of parliament to have policies costed outside of the caretaker period for a general election. The establishment of the PBO was expected to: help level the playing field for all parliamentarians by providing non‑partisan access to policy costings (outside of and during the caretaker period), budgetary and fiscal policy analysis; and improve the transparency of Australia’s budgetary frameworks. Since commencing operation in July 2012, the PBO has effectively undertaken its statutory role and is already well regarded as an authoritative, trusted and independent source of budgetary and fiscal policy analysis. The PBO has made a significant contribution to levelling the playing field for all parliamentarians. Stakeholders consulted during the course of this audit all agreed that, for the first time, all parliamentarians have access to independent policy costing and information request services during all periods of the parliamentary cycle. In addition, parliamentary and peer group stakeholders viewed the costings prepared by the PBO as being of high quality, and those involved in the costing process agreed that the PBO was professional to deal with. These stakeholders also agreed that the PBO’s work has improved the transparency around election commitments, and facilitated a more informed public debate about budgetary matters that has the potential to increase as the PBO releases further information and the public becomes better educated about these topics

The impact of the University of Strathclyde on the economy of Scotland and the City of Glasgow

The interest in the economic impact of higher education has led to the early studies of both Scottish and UK Higher Education being updated and extended. However it is now 12 years since the very first study of Strathclyde University (which arguably set the core policy agenda for subsequent work)10 was undertaken. It is timely to take a fresh look at the University of Strathclyde's impact on Scotland. The current study was undertaken in Spring 2004 and focuses primarily on those aspects of the University of Strathclyde's contribution to the economy that can currently be quantified and measured in conventional economic terms such as output, employment and export earnings. Modelled estimates are made of the economic activity generated in other sectors of the economy, both throughout Scotland and also within the City of Glasgow, through the secondary or 'knock-on' effects of the expenditure of the University, its staff and its students. Overall the study presents an up-to-date and detailed examination of the University of Strathclyde's quantifiable economic contribution to both the City of Glasgow and to Scotland as a whole. The study was conducted by Ursula Kelly and Donald McLellan of the Information Resources Directorate of the University of Strathclyde working with Emeritus Professor Iain McNicoll, who served as Technical Adviser on the study