Responsabilidade Social Empresarial ( rse ) da autoridade portuária e percepções de empresários e empresas portuárias

Introduction: The Spanish Ports Act of 2010 (33/2010) is one of the ground-breaking laws that obliges Port Authorities, which are public institutions, to pursue sustainable development, justify the actions undertaken and disclose their results in annual Sustainability Reports. Methodology: Structural Equation Models (sem) were used with an unobserved dependent variable: “the values or transmission of the port authority’s values” and two latent explanatory variables: “Relational climate with port authorities” and “Environmental conditions in the port”; the parameters have been estimated by the maximum likelihood procedure. Results: The results of the Structural Equation Model (sem) applied in this study confirm the existence of a direct and positive relationship between the climate of relations and the port authority’s ethical values, and an additional direct effect of the environmental value on the endogenous variable, which produces an unexpected negative value. Conclusions: The results show that the Social Responsibility report is a necessary tool to explain how the Port Authorities carry out Social Responsibility actions, but it is also perceived that they are of little practical use, as they are too technical and non-binding for the stakeholders.Introducción: La Ley de Puertos española de 2010 (Ley 33/2010 de agosto 5) es una de las leyes innovadoras que obligan a las autoridades portuarias, que son instituciones públicas, a buscar el desarrollo sostenible, justificar las acciones emprendidas y divulgar sus resultados en informes anuales de sostenibilidad. Metodología: Se emplearon modelos de ecuaciones estructurales (sem) con una variable dependiente no observada: “los valores o transmisión de los valores de la autoridad portuaria” y dos variables explicativas latentes: “clima relacional con autoridades portuarias” y “condiciones ambientales en el puerto”; los parámetros se estimaron mediante el procedimiento de máxima verosimilitud. Resultados: Los resultados del modelo de ecuación estructural (sem) aplicado en el presente estudio confirman la existencia de una relación directa y positiva entre el clima de las relaciones y los valores éticos de la autoridad portuaria, y un efecto directo adicional del valor ambiental sobre la variable endógena, lo cual produce un valor negativo inesperado. Conclusiones: Los resultados muestran que el informe de responsabilidad social es una herramienta necesaria para explicar cómo realizan acciones de responsabilidad social las autoridades portuarias, pero también se identifica que resultan tener poca utilidad práctica, ya que son demasiado técnicos y no vinculantes para los interesados.Introdução: a Lei de Portos espanhola de 2010 (Lei 33 de 5 de agosto de 2010) é uma das leis inovadoras que obrigam as autoridades portuárias, que são instituições públicas, a buscar o desenvolvimento sustentável, justificar as ações empreendidas e divulgar seus resultados em relatórios anuais de sustentabilidade. Metodologia: foram utilizados modelos de equações estruturais (sem) com uma variável dependente não observada: “os valores ou a transmissão dos valores da autoridade portuária” e duas variáveis explicativas latentes: “clima relacional com autoridades portuárias” e “condições ambientais no porto”; os parâmetros foram estimados mediante o procedimento de máxima verossimilhança. Resultados: os resultados do sem aplicado neste estudo confirmam a existência de uma relação direta e positiva entre o clima das relações e os valores éticos da autoridade portuária, e um efeito direto adicional do valor ambiental sobre a variável endógena, o que produz um valor negativo inesperado. Conclusões: os resultados mostram que o relatório de responsabilidade social é uma ferramenta necessária para explicar como as autoridades portuárias realizam ações de responsabilidade social, mas também se identifica que resultam ter pouca utilidade prática, já que são muito técnicos e não chamativos para os interessados

CSR Report on Chinese Business Overseas Operation

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to corporate behaviour that pro-actively meets the ethical expectations of the public and voluntarily contributes to the society. The global CSR movement yields numerous initiatives, standards and legislation. Owing to the need for development as well as the reform and opening-up policy, mounting Chinese enterprises are “going global” with large amounts of capital. Nevertheless, some foreign governments cast doubt on China’s strategic intent, and the general public is dissatisfied with Chinese CSR performance. Chinese enterprises must strengthen their capacities regarding risk control, internal governance, public communication etc., so as to achieve mutual benefit with multi-stakeholders and build an image of responsible global citizenship

The effectiveness of corporate social investment in addressing social challenges in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan area

This study investigated the effectiveness of corporate social investment in addressing social challenges in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Area. The study findings indicate that Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) conducts corporate social investment programmes in the Uitenhage and Kwanobuhle communities. The study discovered that VWSA CSI programmes contribute to education, youth development, and enterprise development. Participants in this study gave responses that indicated their perceptions on the existence of these social programmes. The community also indicated its involvement and benefit in the VWSA CSI programmes

Achieving Developmental and Pro-Poor Trade in Africa: the Mauritian Transition-Emerging-Economy: Success Case Study-Initiatives, Innovations and Incentives

In a contextualized approach the author explores development achievements in terms of propoor trade in Mauritius and to its transition-economy. Indeed, Mauritius is very notorious for its aggressive economic and financial lobbying specially on the African continent coupled to its openness strategy, easy-doing business with implementation of various national and strategic policies (development of its Freeport harbours and Export Processing Zone (EPZ), offshore sectors with massive foreign direct investment (FDI), development of the BPO and ICT sector in the Cyber City, diversification of the Mauritian export from sugar to industrial goods with major development in some emerging sectors such as trade in services through the tourism industry which is now contributing up to 8% of its GDP with massive employment in its hotels and construction, and Mauritius is actually targeting to exploit its exclusive economic zone) to increase both its imports of raw materials and exports of goods. Furthermore, it is a member of various regional economic blocks in the region (COMESA, SADC, IOR) to attract African investors and to bridge China and India to the African continent. All these strategies, factors and polices including strategic importance of Mauritius have contributed to trade diversification which in turn has created jobs to combat poverty eradication in a wealthier nation so far. Data to reflect and/or to prove same are borrowed mainly from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Mauritius, the Board of Investment in Mauritius (BOI), UNCTAD and the Bank of Mauritius Annual Reports principally during the period 2001-2012. The paper, with facts and figures, reflects to what extent achieving developmental and poor-trade is possible on the African continent. Is the Mauritian economy a reliable model? Why is it so wealthy actually or whether its economic miracle has been a mere luck up to now

Contributions of a minerals industry cluster to sustainable development: A case study on human and social capital in Richards Bay, South Africa

The South African economy has developed with its strong connection to the minerals extraction and processing industries. Rich endowments of coal and a well-established mining sector in the country enabled the generation and supply of competitively priced electricity to energy and capital intensive processing and chemical industries. Although the minerals industry cluster remains globally competitive at the present time, whether it can be a catalyst for sustainable development, economically, socially and environmentally is in question. Field work was carried out in Richards Bay to analyse the development contributions of the local aluminium industry cluster in terms of two of the five capitals essential for sustainable development, viz. human and social capital. This town is the host of world class aluminium smelters as well as mineral sands mining and smelting, amongst other energy intensive industries such as paper pulp and phosphate production. The analysis interrogates the importance of skills development and of collective action between various stakeholders centred on the Hillside smelter of South 32, and including interviews with representatives of ten further stakeholders. Evidence found shows that the minerals industry cluster has contributed to human capital development, and continues to do so, through well-established in-house training and mentorship programmes as well as their corporate social investment into enterprise and supplier development, education and primary health care. However, a more competitive and environmentally responsible industrial cluster would require continuous improvement through institutional and individual capabilities. Research and training institutions and government intervention have important roles to play in this regard. One of the major challenges is rooted in the lack of social capital development in the past. Although no single accepted definition nor standard for measuring exists, social capital can be defined as the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively. The racially segregated development pattern in the region had left residents with huge disparities and a trust deficit. This mitigated against collective actions within the community except in the few cases of natural disaster responses and crime prevention. This is evidenced in the free-riding of skilled labourers by some companies in the region and the failure of socio-economic development programmes in the past due to the low level of community buy-in. The research highlights that the significance of the local minerals industry cluster remains undoubtedly high; however, a facilitative process of social capital development is necessary to promote collective actions. The process requires accountable formal institutions who can mitigate social distrust, create dialogue and a cooperative environment between different interest groups. This is particularly important as the government resource-based industrialisation policy is centralised in developing linkages from extractive sector (downstream, upstream, and side-stream) but little attention has been paid to the aspect of social capital development. It is expected that the study itself contributes to social capital development and works as a communication platform to further promote studies in applying multidisciplinary learning-by-doing process across academia, policymakers, and practitioners

Public Policy and Enterprise Development in Kenya

This book is a collection of studies about the Kenyan economy undertaken by Kenyan researchers with funding from the Investment Climate and Business Environment (ICBE) Research Fund. The ICBE Research Fund is a partnership between TrustAfrica and IDRC of Canada, initiated in 2006. The overall goal of the Fund is to promote reform of the business and investment climate in African so as to enhance the performance of private enterprises and their impact on livelihoods. The ICBE uses competitive research grant mechanisms, capacity strengthening and policy dialogues to enhance evidence- informed policy making on the African continent

Academic Aspect of the Leather Industry: An Interpretation from the Perspective of Business Science

In the leather industry, a production process that is the subject of many different disciplines is dominant. Many studies on these branches of science have examined the sector in detail in terms of production. On the other hand, studies dealing with the sector in terms of business administration department and sub-disciplines are not common. In this study, academic publications examining the relationship between the leather industry and the business administration department are the subjects. 98 scientific studies obtained after the search in the Web of Science database were examined in terms of the form of publication, the year of publication, the country where the publication was made and the sub-disciplines of the business department

The Ethical Dilemma of Information Asymmetry in Innovation: Reputation, Investors and Noise in the Innovation Channel.

A sufficient and steady stream of innovations is widely seen as a basis for healthy modern economies. Governments divert substantial resources from other purposes in society to increase innovation. Yet the failure rate among innovative SMEs is high, suggesting that resources are wasted. Avoiding such waste is a challenge for both governments and investors, but also raises a question for the innovative company, namely how to build and fund the\ud enterprise on an ethical basis. The dilemma of giving in to temptations to ‘cut corners’ clearly exists, for example to exploit the inevitable asymmetry of information arising in innovation and potentially deploy this in support of misleading claims about specific capabilities and/or the unjustified creation and exploitation of reputation. This is consistent with Olaf Fisscher’s finding that entrepreneurs starting new ventures tend to exhibit an inherent bias towards compromising their own values in order to succeed at any cost. When the innoSME’s aspirations are unrealistic or the proposed innovations are of marginal value, the ethical issues are broader and extend also to those who are potential financiers. Noting this as a gap in the ethics literature, we argue that the current situation fails to match economic and ethical ideals and that work is needed to develop tools which allow those who provide finance and support for innovation to target it more effectively at those who have a prospect of successfully launching genuine innovations and thus reduce the ‘noise’ in the innovation field

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Performances: bridging innovation and financial outcomes to stakeholder theory

This thesis aims to investigate if and how the attention towards stakeholder groups affects ability and strategy of firms and corporates on innovation and performances. The framework of the Stakeholder Theory is assumed as reference for the origin and concept of Corporate Social Responsibility. On this basis, specific attention is dedicated to empirical studies on a database created by the research group at the University of Genoa in cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. The data of the firms are analysed by means of clustering techniques and bivariate probit model Results offer implications from both theoretical and practical points of views. In particular, the links between practices in Corporate Social Responsibility and corporate innovation are empirically confirmed and economically addressed, also putting into evidence how commitment in Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives increase the probability to innovate in product and in process. The results outlined in the thesis show that a holistic approach towards Corporate Social Responsibility is the key factor in order to the achieve effective performance of innovation and to foster product and process innovations. Firms are expected to implement Corporate Social Responsibility practices in all Corporate Social Responsibility areas, without neglecting any stakeholder and, in the ideal situation, the innovation outcomes and the firm performances results closely linked to the ability of firms to anticipate and meet the stakeholder needs. Finally, beside the insights to corporate strategies, the thesis offers a methodology to support banks in the calculation of default probability of firms by exploiting the positive inter-linkage between Corporate Social Responsibility and finance and risk. Based on Basel Standards and including fields monitored through Corporate Social Responsibility indicators, the proposed approach allows understanding of corporates\u2019 capabilities to create value and demonstrate low risk of claims, fines and default

Social Investment Landscape in Asia: Insights from Southeast Asia

AVPN has identified the need for a comprehensive overview of the Asian philanthropy and social investment landscape to offer social investors a guide to the opportunities for social investment in Asia. The Social Investment Landscape in Asia will be an invaluable resource for funders and resource providers as they assess the opportunities and challenges for philanthropy and social investment in the region. It is designed to be a guide for both new social investors looking toenter the Asian market and existing social investors exploring cross-border or cross-sector opportunities within the region. The Landscape is another way to further AVPN's mission to increase the flow of financial, human and intellectual capital to the Asian social sector