Social report framing: Evidence from a major Italian bank

This study aims to analyse the development of a social report in a major Italian bank from its formation in 2007 to 2012.The Italian banking sector plays an important role in the Italian economy.Several Italian frameworks for social reports have been published and used by Italian companies.However, an important framework for social reports in Italy is the GRI.The paper aims to answer the following research questions: 1) what international guidelines have been used by the Bank in its social reports, during the period considered? 2) What have been the structural changes in the social report over time? The aim of these questions is to analyse the structure of the Bank’s six social reports.The paper relies on documentary analysis, applied to six social reports. It is based on G3 Guidelines and Performance Indicators (PIs).The paper finds that in the six-year period several changes in social reports are highlighted.We conclude that the Bank has engaged in a process of continuous improvement in the information content of the social report, including recently indicating that a PI is only partially disclosed if not in accordance with the guidelines

Modelling the atomic structure of very high-density amorphous ice

The structure of very high-density amorphous (VHDA) ice has been modelled by positionally disordering three crystalline phases, namely ice IV, VI and XII. These phases were chosen because only they are stable or metastable in the region of the ice phase diagram where VHDA ice is formed, and their densities are comparable to that of VHDA ice. An excellent fit to the medium range of the experimentally observed pair-correlation function g(r) of VHDA ice was obtained by introducing disorder into the positions of the H2O molecules, as well as small amounts of molecular rotational disorder, disorder in the O--H bond lengths and disorder in the H--O--H bond angles. The low-k behaviour of the experimental structure factor, S(k), is also very well reproduced by this disordered-crystal model. The fraction of each phase present in the best-fit disordered model is very close to that observed in the probable crystallization products of VHDA ice. In particular, only negligible amounts of ice IV are predicted, in accordance with experimental observation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, v2: changes made in response to referees' comments, the justification for using certain ice phases is improved, and ice IV is now disordered as wel

[Editorial] Accounting scholarship and management by numbers

There is a plethora of indices ranking universities, departments, and individual researchers based on a variety of indices. These invariably include a measurement of research, usually based on a combination of quantity and quality of journal publications. Informal discussions with accounting researchers invariably turns to the question of journal rankings and performance management indicators. Why is this so

Workplace harassment - a health issue: Anti-discrimination cases and work compensation claims

This article describes the adverse health-related effects of racial and sexual harassment elicited from files held by the Western Australian Equal Opportunity Commission where the complainant has nominated sexual or racial harassment as a ground of discrimination. Those results are compared with publicly available data on work-related stress claims obtained from the Compendium of Workers' Compensation Statistics Australia 2004-06, arising from allegations of harassment. Information gleaned from a survey of unreported court decisions (from publicly available legal data bases, such as www.austlii.edu.au and www.ohs.alert.com) is also reviewed. The purpose of examining this data is to consider the links between various forms of unlawful harassment, workplace stress and the evidence of adverse effect upon worker health. The results of this triangulation of data are consistent with that body of research which shows that workplace harassment can give rise to a range of adverse health outcomes. This paper explores how the inter-relationship of anti-discrimination and workers compensation laws may affect claimant behaviours

Towards a publicly available, map-based regional software tool to estimate unregulated daily streamflow at ungauged rivers

Streamflow information is critical for addressing any number of hydrologic problems. Often, streamflow information is needed at locations that are ungauged and, therefore, have no observations on which to base water management decisions. Furthermore, there has been increasing need for daily streamflow time series to manage rivers for both human and ecological functions. To facilitate negotiation between human and ecological demands for water, this paper presents the first publicly available, map-based, regional software tool to estimate historical, unregulated, daily streamflow time series (streamflow not affected by human alteration such as dams or water withdrawals) at any user-selected ungauged river location. The map interface allows users to locate and click on a river location, which then links to a spreadsheet-based program that computes estimates of daily streamflow for the river location selected. For a demonstration region in the northeast United States, daily streamflow was, in general, shown to be reliably estimated by the software tool. Estimating the highest and lowest streamflows that occurred in the demonstration region over the period from 1960 through 2004 also was accomplished but with more difficulty and limitations. The software tool provides a general framework that can be applied to other regions for which daily streamflow estimates are needed

The impact generated by public and charity-funded research in the UK: A systematic literature review

Objective: To identify, synthesize and critically assess the empirical evidence of the impact generated by public and charity funded health research in the United Kingdom. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review of the empirical evidence published in English in peer-reviewed journals between 2006 and 2017. Studies meeting the inclusion criteria were selected and their findings were analysed using the Payback Framework into five main categories: knowledge, benefits to future research and research use, benefits from informing policy and product development, health and health sector benefits and broader economic benefits. We assessed the studies for risk of selection, reporting and funding bias. Results: Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the studies (10 out of 13) assessed impact at multiple domains including the main 5 key themes of the Payback Framework. All of them showed a positive impact of funded research on outcomes. Of those studies, one presented low risk of bias (8%), 6 studies were classified as presenting moderate risk of bias (46%) and 6 studies presented high risk of bias (46%). Conclusions: Empirical evidence on the impact of public and charity funded research is still limited and subject to funding and selection bias. More work is needed to establish the causal effects of funded research on academic outcomes, policy, practice and the broader economy