The Performance Implications of Fit Among Environment, Strategy, Structure, Control System and Social Performance

Purpose – The paper examined concept of corporate performance. The paper seeks to examine the impact of corporate social performance on the relationship among business environment, strategy, organization, and control system and corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a synthesis of the existing literatures in strategic management and accounting filed. Findings – The paper finds that corporate social performance defined as stakeholder relationship become one important dimension of the strategic behaviors that an organization can set to improve corporate performance. Research implication – the contextual variables as discussed in strategic management and accounting domain will be contingent upon strategic behaviors, which are behaviors of members in an organization. Originality/value – The paper integrates the contextual variables including business environment, strategy, organization structure, and control system with corporate performance by using corporate social performance as moderating variable by means of a recent literatures study from strategic management and accounting field. Keywords Contextual variable, strategic behavior, corporate social performance, corporate performanc

The Determinants of the Relationship of Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: Conceptual Framework

The objective of this paper is to investigate relationship between CSP and CFP using contingency perspective derived from the strategic management domain. The investigation will be done using lens of slack resource and good management theory. This study is expected to provide a new insight on the link between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance using contingency perspective as suggested in the strategic management and accounting literature, an area has not been examined in the prior studies. The result of this study can resolve the existing conflict in the literatures by developing an integrated model of the link between CSP and CFP and the notion of corporate performance which, in strategic management, is highly affected by four factors: business environment, strategy, organization structure, and control system. The model will explain in what condition the relationship of CSP and CFP is valid Keywords: Corporate social performance, corporate financial performance, slack resource theory, good management theory, contingency theory, and moderating effect

Towards a business model for sustainable supply chain management

Designers make decisions that ultimately impact on both the economic, environmental and social performance of the products and process, and many of these costs and impacts occur across the supply chain. This paper aims to show initials elements of a research which aims to develop an integrated business model for sustainable supply chain management in order to facilitate the business management process in terms of assessment of suppliers and collaboration addressed to the sustainable improvements across supply chain. It is noteworthy that it is an imperative in the current competitive market that companies must be able to manage their entire production chain taking into account sustainable issues as an important factor in their decision processes. Therefore, it is believed that this model can integrate and strengthen a company’s functions and assist its decision processes as well as implement improvements within its supply chain

What is Product-Service Systems (PSS)? A Review on PSS Researches and Relevant Policies

In order to achieve sustainable society, it is necessary to transform industrial structure to the one that does not reduce the Earth's resources. Under this circumstance, a business model of "not selling goods, but selling services" has been expected as a measure of co-existence of business and the environment. This idea, which is called as "Product-Service Systems: PSS" or "Servicizing" etc., has been studied in Europe, the United States and international organisations, and is now studied in Japan. However, the idea of PSS is still not effectively used for policy development.One of the major reasons is that PSS concept itself is under-developed. Under the unclear concept of PSS, researchers are working towards more scientific understanding while policy makers are trying to develop new policy measures, and there is confusion in those communities. In order to develop policy measures, it is necessary to make clear the position of PSS in socio-economic system. This paper overviews previous PSS researches and relevant policy measures conducted in Japan, the US and EU, and tries to grasp the context of researches and policy activities and to find out the agenda of the current status. The characteristics of PSS rest on the innovative relationship between producer and consumer. However, PSS researches are stuck at measurement of environmental loads, and relevant policies tend to be rest on the ones targeting producers. In order to get out of this situation, it is necessary to ask question what is PSS and to make it clear where PSS can be positioned in socio-economic system. PSS is important, because PSS has an element of creating sufficiency as well as eco-efficiency. It is recommended that PSS concept needs to be examined as a research effort, and environmentally sound product policy needs to be systematically organised

“Triple Bottom Line” as “Sustainable Corporate Performance”: A Proposition for the Future

Based upon a review of corporate performance, corporate financial performance and corporate social performance, we propose that the concept of ―triple bottom line‖ (TBL) as ―sustainable corporate performance‖ (SCP) should consist of three measurement elements, namely: (i) financial, (ii) social and (iii) environmental. TBL as SCP is proposed to be derived from the interface between them. We also propose that the content of each of these measurement elements may vary across contexts and over time. Furthermore, TBL as SCR should be interpreted to be a relative concept that is dynamic and iterative. Continuous monitoring needs to be performed, adapting the content of the measurement elements to changes that evolve across contexts and over time in the marketplace and society. TBL as SCP may be seen as a function of time and context. Keywords: triple bottom line; sustainable corporate performance; corporate social performance; financial performanc

Design against nature

The process of disinfecting pits technology against nature. This issue is considered through examination of the design and development of a microwave disinfecting system for contact lenses. Here, technology intervenes to remedy a naturally occurring deficiency in human sight and the design solution requires indiscriminate annihilation of ‘lesser’ forms of life. With the march of science transforming our ethical and theological visions, questions are raised about the justifications for this strategy and the senses in which it may be seen to be responsible. The competing discourses of responsibility reveal the attraction of seeking to develop such technologies through multidisciplinary teams

The stewardship of things: Property and responsibility in the management of manufactured goods

In the context of broad-based concerns about the need to move towards a more sustainable materials economy, particularly as they are expressed in debates around ecological modernisation (EM), we argue that product stewardship has radical potential as a means to promote significant change in the relationship between society and the material world. We focus on two important dimensions that have been neglected in approaches to product stewardship to date. Firstly, we argue that immanent within the basic concept of stewardship is a problematisation of dominant understandings of property ownership in neoliberal market economies. In the space opened up by notions of stewardship, different ways of enacting both rights and responsibilities to products and materials emerge which have potential to advance the sustainability of material economies. Secondly, through exploration of existing expressions of product stewardship, we uncover a neglected scale of action. Both policy and dominant articulations of EM focus primarily on the efficiency of production processes; and secondarily, the attitudes and behaviours of individual consumers. Missing from this is the 'meso-scale' of social collectives including households, neighbourhoods, more distributed communities and small scale social enterprises. Based on a review of existing research from Australia and the UK, including our own, we argue that understanding of embedded practices of material responsibility at the household scale can both reinvigorate the concept of product stewardship as a potentially radical intervention, and reveal the potential of the meso-scale as a challenging but worthwhile realm of policy intervention

Formalising responsibility modelling for automatic analysis

Modelling the structure of social-technical systems as a basis for informing software system design is a difficult compromise. Formal methods struggle to capture the scale and complexity of the heterogeneous organisations that use technical systems. Conversely, informal approaches lack the rigour needed to inform the software design and construction process or enable automated analysis. We revisit the concept of responsibility modelling, which models social technical systems as a collection of actors who discharge their responsibilities, whilst using and producing resources in the process. Responsibility modelling is formalised as a structured approach for socio-technical system requirements specification and modelling, with well-defined semantics and support for automated structure and validity analysis. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated by two case studies of software engineering methodologies

Crime reduction through design: insights from ecodesign

The recognition for humankind to act in more sustainable ways has evolved new theory and practice within design. This new type of design is commonly described as ecodesign. This paper describes the different approaches to ecodesign and places them within a framework illustrating a broad range of initiatives. Approaches to crime are explored in relation to the ecodesign framework and conceptual links are made between these two fields of study. To ascertain how such initiatives may inform design and development in decreasing the number of crime and disorder events, an overview of ecodesign policies, tools and drivers is presented, and the transferability of these discussed

Systematic review of therapeutic leave in inpatient mental health services

AimTo identify, critically evaluate, and synthesise the empirical evidence about therapeutic leave from mental health inpatient settings.Background“Leave” occurs when a mental health inpatient exits the hospital ward with the appropriate authorisation alone, or accompanied by staff, family, or friends. Limited research has previously addressed therapeutic as opposed to unauthorised leave, and the evidence-base has not been systematically evaluated.DesignSystematic review methodology following relevant Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement guidance.Data SourcesMultiple electronic databases (CINAHL; Criminal Justice database; PsycARTICLES; Scopus; OpenGrey; Cochrane; GoogleScholar) for papers published from January 1967 to July 2017.Review MethodsInformation was extracted under the following headings: study, purpose/aims, sample, country, setting, design and data collection method(s), data collection instrument, and results. Papers were assessed, as per the hierarchy of scientific evidence, and where there was sufficient data, we calculated a range of standardised rates of leave incidence.ResultsStandardised leave rates in forensic settings reflect security level. There was little meaningful information on which to base calculation of rates for civil settings. The strongest evidence supports leave used for supervised discharge; other forms of leave lack an evidence base and decisions appear to be made on the basis of heuristic rules and unsupported assumptions. Clinical decision making about therapeutic leave cannot claim to be evidence-based.ConclusionResearch is urgently needed to provide information about how leave is managed, the best ways to support leave, and what happens on leave