Cherry picking or depth-oriented strategic investing? Evidence from SRI activity

Today, socially responsible investing (SRI) represents the youngest financial-services industry that investors can exploit to implement their investment strategies. Although literature in this field is growing, additional research is needed to disentangle the factors affecting the performance of SRI funds. This paper focuses on the analysis of the influence that the depth of investment strategy by SRI funds may have on the investment performance, whereas larger SRI funds have a stronger capacity to address their investment choices. We used a sample of 149 USA SRI funds referring to the Social Investment Forum (SIF) Foundation in the period 2005-2010. We found that depth of investment strategy decreases the capacity of large SRI funds to reach positive financial returns if a broad sustainability investment strategy is pursued. On the other hand, SRI funds able to focus the attention on specific environmental, social, governance, or product criteria do increase their capacity to reach positive financial performance. This paper contributes to the existing literature by examining the depth of the sustainability investment strategy by SRI funds and investigating the moderating effect that peculiar investment strategies have on the well-known relation between size and performance of SRI funds. major-bidi;mso-bidi-theme-font:major-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA'>This paper analyzes the wealth distribution taking into account the reaction of the market to the alliance as an indicator of a successful strategy. It explores the case of the automobile industry, which is characterised by a high use of inter-firm cooperation, such as strategic alliances and mergers & acquisitions, to effectively compete in the global market and face the global crisis

Alliance management capabilities in sustainability‐oriented collaboration: problematization and new research directions

Sustainability-oriented collaboration, a heterogeneous set of formal interorganizational arrangements that vary considerably in size, membership, focus and functioning, but share the same interest in addressing sustainability challenges of public concern, is becoming a mainstay of corporate agenda setting. Yet, the more firms interact on social and environmental issues, the more the burdens and tensions of collaborating for sustainability become apparent. Research and practice increasingly question whether an alliance management capability (AMC) perspective can be adopted to explain variability in collaboration effectiveness. With the aim to investigate whether, and to what extent, existing sustainability-oriented collaboration research integrates or challenges mainstream theory on AMC, we adopt a problematization method to unpack the root assumptions underlying the AMC construct. We find that self-interest in economic value creation and capture, the need for homogeneity to favour knowledge accumulation and learning on alliance management, and predictable patterns of AMC deployment are consistently assumed by scholars to predict success in alliance management. Accordingly, we analyse AMC assumptions’ current integration in the study of sustainability-oriented collaboration, conducting a systematic literature review on collaborative capabilities developed for, during and in response to sustainability challenges. In so doing, we identify what distinguishes sustainability-oriented collaboration from mainstream strategic alliances and the related implications on the collaborative capabilities firms should develop and deploy when dealing with sustainability challenges. We elaborate on these and their implications for AMC constructs to provide a future research agenda, which integrates further theoretical perspectives and broadens the scope of existing ones

Il Belgio

Il testo presenta i risultati della prima ricerca annuale svolta dal Forum sull'industria del riciclo, diretta da Andrea Gilardoni, organizzata da SPACE dell'Università Bocconi e CONAI. In una fase in cui, a livello comunitario, si sta discutendo la revisione della Direttiva 94/62/CE sugli imballaggi, il confronto internazionale appare essenziale. L'obiettivo è mettere a confronto, attraverso una forma di benchmarking internazionale mirato, i sistemi di gestione e recupero degli imballaggi e dei rifiuti di imballaggio realizzati in dieci Paesi europei

Il Regno Unito

Il testo presenta i risultati della prima ricerca annuale svolta dal Forum sull'industria del riciclo, diretta da Andrea Gilardoni, organizzata da SPACE dell'Università Bocconi e CONAI. In una fase in cui, a livello comunitario, si sta discutendo la revisione della Direttiva 94/62/CE sugli imballaggi, il confronto internazionale appare essenziale. L'obiettivo è mettere a confronto, attraverso una forma di benchmarking internazionale mirato, i sistemi di gestione e recupero degli imballaggi e dei rifiuti di imballaggio realizzati in dieci Paesi europei

illycaffè: Innovation and Knowledge Transfer in the Responsible Supply Chain Management

This case encourages readers to think about the responsible strategic concept developed by illycaffè and implemented throughout its interactions with Brazilian coffee producers since 1991. The challenge that illycaffè is faced with relates to the sustainability of its responsible business model within the coffee industry and along the supply chain, and to the management of its supply chain as a source of competitive advantage. Readers are encouraged to think about this alternative sustainable concept based on innovation and networking as well as assess its potential in the coffee industry as well as its viability in other industrial settings

The Real Cost of M&A Advice

How does the use of external advisors influence the value generated in complex acquisition processes? The greater the complexity, the higher the likelihood that managers seek outside advice to manage complex acquisitions, but they must be conscientious in their dealings with them. We argue and show that any outsourcing of this nature does add to the expense of the acquisition and requires a different approach to the engagement of expert advice in these contexts.Acquisition process Value of the deal Complexity of the acquisition External advisor

The roots of corporate sustainability: the art of managing innovation and relationships by illycaffè

Innovation translated into quality and networking translated into knowledge transfer became, in fact, the main drivers of sustainability, enabling illycaffè to incorporate environmental and social concerns within a strategy of corporate sustainability (CS). This strategy produced interesting results in Brazil in terms of company growth, but now management had to assess illycaffè’s sustainable strategy against the impact of several factors, including the CS strategies of competitors and market reaction in the long-term. They also had to determine whether their own strategy was robust. Was illycaffè’s CS strategy really a key differentiator in the coffee industry supply chain

Shaping Sustainable Value Chains: Network Determinants of Supply Chain Governance Models

collaborative governance, network theory, supply chain, sustainability,

Paving the road toward eco-effectiveness: exploring the link between greenhouse gas emissions and firm performance

Climate change has increasingly attracted business attention over the last decade, focusing particularly on the eco-efficiency debate. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we contribute to the ongoing debate on the effects of environmental strategies on firm performance. We investigate this relationship by considering the relative greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as a predictor of the eco-efficiency of firms' environmental strategies. GHG emissions are a direct indicator of the environmental performance and effectively measure the firm's efforts in mitigating the impacts related to its processes and products. Second, we investigate the drivers that lead to an increase in the firm's environmental impact under the conditions of increasing market performance by the firm, therefore paving the road to the concept of eco-effectiveness of corporate environmental strategies. To test our hypotheses, we use a sample of worldwide listed companies derived from the S&P 1200 list. A longitudinal analysis is run through generalized least squares regression models over the period 2004–2016. Results offer evidence of the direct relationship between the level of absolute emissions and market performance of the firm. Therefore, the findings have significant implications on the way we conceptualize corporate environmental sustainability and environmental strategies, shedding new light on the relation between environmental pressures and corporate growth