Unintended Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Corporate Reputation: When is Doing Good Not Good for Business?

Companies often consider corporate social responsibility as a means of contributing to the public good, while simultaneously improving their image and reputation among its stakeholders. While the literature is replete with examples of CSR leading to improved corporate reputation, there are some notable and striking exceptions. This study examines the unintended consequences of CSR and proffers three possible explanations for why corporate social responsibility sometimes leads to negative reputation targeting. A content analysis of purposively sampled Internet websites was conducted to empirically examine reputation targeting by certain outside influencer stakeholder groups toward the companies identified as the top 100 Corporate Citizens in 2006 by the journal Business Ethics. Multiple and simple regression analyses on the results supported basic CSR theory, that is, doing well by doing good. However, the results also revealed the unintended negative effects of CSR, and suggest that other motivations may be at play between corporations and their outside influencer stakeholders when it comes to socially responsible corporate behavior. The results also suggest that certain CSR strategies are more likely to bring on negative reputation targeting from the outside influencer groups than others. The study found that the CSR categories environment and product were significant explanatory variables for both positive and negative reputation targeting. The results also indicated that the top 100 companies tended to favor CSR strategies related to the community, and its internal stakeholders (diversity and employee relations), while the outside influencer groups tended to focus on CSR issues more closely associated with external stakeholders (\u27product, human rights, and environment). The significance of the productvariable suggests that companies should pay close attention to the quality of their products if they want to avoid negative reputation targeting campaigns. Another practical implication of the study pertains to environmental CSR strategies. The findings of the study suggest that companies which rely heavily on CSR strategies focusing on environmental issues, should be cognizant of the two edged sword attribute of the environment variable. It is in this realm that the unintended consequences of corporate social responsibility appear to be most evident

Home mobility hazards detected via object recognition in augmented reality

We present an Environmental Analysis and Safety Advisor system capable of identify the environmental barriers and hazards found in the homes of elderly people. This augmented reality tool runs on a portable computing device and can be used by informal and formal caregivers without specific knowledge of Accessible Design, to evaluate the safeness of an elderly home environment, ensuring that potential fall hazards are detected and corrected. The system recognizes specific indoor elements of the house (e.g. arm-chair, bed, chair), and then computes and analyses their mutual distances in the environment so that a warning of hazard is emitted in case of need (e.g. loose cable, not enough space to pass a wheelchair). In this context, we implemented object recognition at the category level of miniature versions of real sized furniture and the determination of the distance between neighboring objects, signaling if it is below a certain threshold value. Environmental Analysis tool can then recognize furniture and measure the distance between two furniture elements enabling the system to pop up an alert sign if the space left does not guarantee good accessibility.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Built environment perceptions: How older people decode outdoor public spaces

When UN released the “Global Age Friendly Cities: A Guide” in 2007, the concern around ageing people and their needs was evident. As the world ages, the built environment requires special attention in order to assist this growing part of the society. An age-friendly city demands an inclusive design that includes e.g. green spaces, safe pavements and safe pedestrian crossings. Also, mobility in cities and new forms of transport as bicycles and electrical scooters demand the update of urban design guidelines and urban policies. The goals of this study are to provide an overview of existing literature regarding emotions and perception from older people related to the exterior built environment by mapping these publications according to several criteria.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Older people perceptions on the built environment: A scoping review

As the world ages, the built environment requires special attention to assist this growing part of society and therefore the update of urban design guidelines and urban policies is required. The goal of this study is to provide an overview of existing literature regarding emotions and perceptions from older people related to the outdoor built environment. A scoping review was performed using empirical studies in 12 scientific databases in a fourteen-year period (2007–2021) involving people at least 60 years old and outdoor built environment perceptions. Collected evidence identified 52 papers following the PRISMA procedure. Studies reported basic emotions (e.g., fear, joy) and space perceptions (e.g., walkability, accessibility) regarding the outdoor built environment as sidewalks, streets, and greenery. Our study reinforces the importance of analyzing older people perceptions regarding the outdoor built environment so that architects, urban planners, and decision makers have information to design solutions that fit older people needs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multimodal interaction with BIM data in immersive virtual reality

In this paper, we combine the potential brought by BIM standards to AEC processes, with the recent trends and results taken from human-computer interaction (HCI). As a result, our system supports the visualization and interaction with 3D BIM models of buildings, at full scale in an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment, using natural and multimodal HCI, namely, combining gesture with speech. We´ve carried usability and user satisfaction evaluation with a panel of architects, engineers and architect students and our research shows that such an environment allows a deeper understanding of the work throughout the design process and improve the communication between AEC specialties, during design briefs. We have concluded also, that our technology offers great benefits during all the stages of design, from the initial phase of conceptual design until the detailed stages up to the construction work. The practical experimentation of our in-house developed system, was possible by taking advantage of the virtual reality facilities of ISCTE-IUL, namely, its PocketCAVE lab.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The impact of sound in people's behaviour in outdoor settings: A study using virtual reality and eye-tracking

This paper presents an analysis of space perception and how visual cues, such as landmarks and sound, are perceived and impact people's behaviour while exploring a given outdoor space. The primary goal of the research is to investigate how auditory sensations and visual stimuli influence people's behaviour in outdoor built environments. Our technique compares people's perception of the built environment in different conditions: the real world and a replicated virtual world. As a case study, a university campus was used, and four experimental conditions were designed. The study followed a between-subjects design, and the data collection included gaze data acquired from an eye-tracking device as well as self-reports. The study concludes that sound influences human behaviour in such settings. More specifically conclusions are that: i) human behaviour in virtual replications of the real space, including both visual and sound stimuli, is tendentially more similar to human behaviour in the real world than in simulations omitting sound; and ii) there is a difference in human behaviour when people explore the same virtually replicated outdoor space, by varying the presence of sound. This study is particularly useful for researchers working on the comparison between human behaviour in virtual and real environments, related to visual and sound stimuli.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How present am I: three virtual reality facilities testing the fear of falling

Virtual reality environments have long been used in studies related to architecture simulation. The main objective of this paper is to measure the sense of presence that different virtual reality devices provide to users so as to evaluate their effectiveness when used to simulate real environments and draw conclusions of people’s behaviours when using them. The study also aims at investigating, in a quantitative way, the influence of architectural elements on the comfort of use of a built environment, namely considering the fear of falling reported by adults while using these architectural elements. Using a between-subjects design randomly distributed between two experimental conditions (safe and unsafe), a set of three studies were conducted in three different virtual reality environments using a 5-sided-CAVE, a Powerwall or a Head Mounted Display. The study shows that immersive virtual reality devices give users a higher sense of presence than semi-immersive ones. One of the conclusions of the study is that a higher sense of presence helps to enhance the building spaces perceived impacts on users (in this case the fear of falling).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio