Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

Based on the geographic limitations of previous meta-analysis made about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Financial Performance (FP) and on the evidence found in previous work on the country's influence in this relationship, the aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between these two variables studying the possible moderating effect that the country variable may have on it. By the use of the cultural dimensions of GLOBE (2004), we classify the countries, and test the hypothesis through the statistical technique of meta-analysis. The results show that the country where the companies are home-based moderates the relationship between CSR and FP. In particular from the results, we can conclude that while in Australia, Canada, USA and the United Kingdom the relationship is stronger and larger, in some countries, such as Japan, there is no relationship

The impact of the economic crisis on the environmental responsibility of the companies

The severe economic crisis is affecting significantly to the environment in which companies have to continue with their business. Consequently, academicians and managers are worried about what is going to happen with the Social Responsibility and particularly with the Environmental Responsibility, due to the decrease in the financial performance of the companies. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of the crisis on the environmental behavior of the Spanish companies through an explicative study, deepening in the comparison between the years 2006 and 2010. As a result, Spanish companies continue carrying out behaving in an environmentally friendly way because their Environmental Scores are growing, despite the decline of the Financial Performance. Moreover, it is identified a change in the factors that affect to the environmental behavior due to the identification of less dependence on corporate financial performance

Are Socially Responsible Behaviors Paid Off Equally? A Cross‐cultural Analysis

Based on the strong influence that national culture has on corporate social and responsibility (CSR) actions (institutional theory), it is necessary to study how the financial outcomes of CSR actions could be affected by these cultural characteristics. This fact is particularly interesting for managers whose companies operate in different cultures given that they have to deal with this aspect. The aim of this paper is to analyze the moderator role that national culture could have on the CSR and firm performance (CSR‐FP) relationship through a meta‐analysis, hence helping to clarify the debate existing about this relationship in the literature. The results show that this relationship is greatly affected by national culture. In this sense, countries with a high assertiveness and gender egalitarianism show a very negative relationship. Nevertheless, those with a higher future orientation, institutional collectivism, and a humane orientation reveal a positive correlation which reaches its maximum value in those countries with a high uncertainty avoidance

Gap between country culture and regulation on diversity

There is an extensive debate concerning the application of gender quotas on corporate boards around the world. Since Norway legislated quotas of female directors in 2003, many countries have incorporated some form of legislation about board gender diversity, either as good practice to follow or by imposing mandatory quotas. This debate, which is particularly intense in Europe, is also on the agenda of countries like Nigeria, India, and Malaysia. Based on institutional theory, this study outlines and compares countries that have introduced board gender diversity legislation. Results show common denominators and gaps between countries related to cultural, welfare and regulations, which can be helpful to the regulators

Temporally-aware algorithms for the classification of anuran sounds

Several authors have shown that the sounds of anurans can be used as an indicator of climate change. Hence, the recording, storage and further processing of a huge number of anuran sounds, distributed over time and space, are required in order to obtain this indicator. Furthermore, it is desirable to have algorithms and tools for the automatic classification of the different classes of sounds. In this paper, six classification methods are proposed, all based on the data-mining domain, which strive to take advantage of the temporal character of the sounds. The definition and comparison of these classification methods is undertaken using several approaches. The main conclusions of this paper are that: (i) the sliding window method attained the best results in the experiments presented, and even outperformed the hidden Markov models usually employed in similar applications; (ii) noteworthy overall classification performance has been obtained, which is an especially striking result considering that the sounds analysed were affected by a highly noisy background; (iii) the instance selection for the determination of the sounds in the training dataset offers better results than cross-validation techniques; and (iv) the temporally-aware classifiers have revealed that they can obtain better performance than their nontemporally-aware counterparts.Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa (Junta de Andalucía, Spain): excellence eSAPIENS number TIC 570

Neural network algorithms for fraud detection: a comparison of the complementary techniques in the last five years

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to analyse the complementary updates and techniques in the optimization of the results of neural network algorithms (NNA) in order to detect financial fraud, providing a comparison of the trend, addressed field and efficiency of the models developed in current research. Design/Methodology/Approach: The author performed a qualitative study where a compilation and selection of literature was carried out, in terms of defining the conceptual analysis, database and search strategy, consequently selecting 32 documents. Subsequently, the comparative analysis was carried out, in turn being able to determine the most used and efficient complementary technique in the last five years. Findings: The results of the comparative analysis depicted that in 2019 there was a greater impact of research based on NNA with 11 studies. 27 complementary updates and techniques were identified related to NNA, where deep neural network algorithms (DNN), convolutional neural network (CNN) and SMOTE neural network. Finally, the evaluation of effectiveness in the collected techniques achieved an average accuracy ranging between 79% and 98.74% with an overall accuracy value of 91.32%. Originality/Value: Being a technique which is applied and compared in diverse studies, ANNs uses a wide range of mechanisms concerning training and classification of data. According to the findings of this research, the complementary techniques contribute to the progress and optimization of algorithms regarding financial fraud detection, having a high degree of effectiveness concerning on-line and credit card fraud

Discusión crítica sobre la valoración de los activos mas relevanters en los clubesde futbol: Visión de auditores

This paper proves that under current international accounting standards, the most relevant assets of all professional soccer clubs at year-end, players’ transfer fees, can be measured and disclosed at fair value. Research was based on a triangulation approach. Firstly, a theoretical discussion regarding the feasibility of Fair Value Accounting as opposed to Historical Cost Accounting as currently applied was carried out. Secondly, an extra-accounting assessment technique occasionally used by clubs was analysed in depth. Thirdly, qualitative research work was undertaken which included surveys and interviews with soccer clubs financial auditors. This work shows how unreliable the financial statements figures of these intangible assets in soccer clubs are, and consequently points to the lack of transparency generated by applying the inadequate currently accounting valuation. It also demonstrates the need to apply a valid and feasible ex-ternal valuation technique at fair value complying with IFRS requirements. A new contribution is made using a valuation and disclosure proposal which could avoid current accounting misreporting, thus helping not only the football clubs’ stakeholders in their decision-making process, but also the UEFA with their "Financial Fair Play"1regulation which monitors clubs finances.Este artículo demuestra que, según las NIC/NIIF actuales, los activos más relevantes de todos los clubes de fútbol profesionales al final del año, los denominados "Derechos de Traspaso de Jugadores", pueden medirse y divulgarse a su valor razonable. La investigación se basó en un enfoque de triangulación. En primer lugar, se realizó una discusión teórica sobre la viabilidad de la contabilidad a valor razonable en comparación con la contabilidad a coste histórico, que actualmente se aplica. En segundo lugar, se analizó en profundidad una técnica de evaluación extracontable, utilizada esporádicamente por los clubes. En tercer lugar, se realizó un trabajo de investigación cualitativa, que incluyó encuestas y entrevistas a auditores externos de estados financieros de los clubes de fútbol. El trabajo realizado evidencia cuán poco fiables son las cifras de estos intangibles de los clubes de fútbol en sus estados financieros y, en consecuencia, la falta de transparencia generada al aplicar la inadecuada valoración contable actual. También evidencia la necesidad de aplicar una técnica de valoración externa válida y factible a valor razonable, que cumpla con los requisitos de las NIIF. Como contribución novedosa, se sugiere una propuesta de valoración y divulgación, que podría resolver esta deficiencia contable actual, ayudando no sólo al proceso de toma de decisiones de las partes interesadas en los clubes de fútbol, ​​sino también a la UEFA en su regulación "Financial Fair Play"1 para controlar las finanzas de los clubes

Cultural differences across countries and access of woman to boards of directors

Nuestro estudio pretende comparar el nivel de representación de las mujeres en los consejos de administración de cinco países, analizando especialmente si la cultura que prevalece en el país puede estar afectando a la capacidad de la mujer de acceder a los puestos, tradicionalmente reservados a los hombres, de los consejos de administración. Sirviéndonos de las dimensiones culturales de Hofstede (1980) y de GLOBE (House et al., 2004) nuestro estudio revela que la cultura del país, con independencia de la métrica que se utilice, tiene capacidad para explicar el diferente nivel de representación de las mujeres en los consejos de administración. En particular, tres de las cuatro dimensiones culturales se revelan como significativas: distancia en el poder, aversión a la incertidumbre y masculinidad.The purpose of this paper is to compare the levels of representation of women on boards of directors in five countries, and especially to determine if the culture of a country is a factor that influences the possibility of women achieving positions on boards of directors. We use the cultural dimensions of Hofstede (1980) and GLOBE (House et al., 2004), and the results show that the culture of a country can be a factor in explaining the different levels of representation of women at board of directors. In particular, three of the four cultural dimensions are seen to be significant: power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación ECO2010-21627, Junta de Andalucía Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa PO8-SJ-0395