Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Value: Recent Developments

We provide a synthesized introduction to recent findings in the link between corporate social responsibility and firm value. The focus is on how and why profit-maximizing firms engage in socially responsible actions, and how such activities can increase product demand and shareholder value. Recent studies in empirical evidences, theoretical models, and trends in practice are discussed. This chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive survey but rather an introduction to bring future research interest in this field. Empirical studies show evidences of a positive impact of corporate giving on indicators of firm value such as shareholder value and financial performance. Theoretical models provide mechanisms and economic foundations for the demand increase leading to profits in different market structures. Socially responsible actions can be induced by external activists for fear of boycotts. Investors may prefer to hold shares of responsible firms when corporate giving can substitute for personal giving. A public good may be produced jointly with a private good. Models of general industry equilibrium find that demand increases due to the public good may come from the endogenous market effect. Companies in industries with entry barriers make the top list of corporate giving. Using examples in the pharmaceutical, finance, and high-tech industries, we discuss how corporate social responsibility is conducted in practice

Activated O2 dissociation and formation of oxide islands on the Be(0001) surface: Another atomistic model for metal oxidation

By simulating the dissociation of O2 molecules on the Be(0001) surface using the first-principles molecular dynamics approach, we propose a new atomistic model for the surface oxidation of sp metals. In our model, only the dissociation of the first oxygen molecule needs to overcome an energy barrier, while the subsequent oxygen molecules dissociate barrierlessly around the adsorption area. Consequently, oxide islands form on the metal surface, and grow up in a lateral way. We also discover that the firstly dissociated oxygen atoms are not so mobile on the Be(0001) surface, as on the Al(111) surface. Our atomistic model enlarges the knowledge on metal surface oxidations by perfectly explaining the initial stage during the surface oxidation of Be, and might be applicable to some other sp metal surfaces.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Topological Constraints at the Theta Point: Closed Loops at Two Loops

We map the problem of self-avoiding random walks in a Theta solvent with a chemical potential for writhe to the three-dimensional symmetric U(N)-Chern-Simons theory as N goes to 0. We find a new scaling regime of topologically constrained polymers, with critical exponents that depend on the chemical potential for writhe, which gives way to a fluctuation-induced first-order transition.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX, typo

Secure Vehicular Communication Systems: Implementation, Performance, and Research Challenges

Vehicular Communication (VC) systems are on the verge of practical deployment. Nonetheless, their security and privacy protection is one of the problems that have been addressed only recently. In order to show the feasibility of secure VC, certain implementations are required. In [1] we discuss the design of a VC security system that has emerged as a result of the European SeVeCom project. In this second paper, we discuss various issues related to the implementation and deployment aspects of secure VC systems. Moreover, we provide an outlook on open security research issues that will arise as VC systems develop from today's simple prototypes to full-fledged systems

Hydrodynamics of polar liquid crystals

Starting from a microscopic definition of an alignment vector proportional to the polarization, we discuss the hydrodynamics of polar liquid crystals with local $C_{\infty v}$-symmetry. The free energy for polar liquid crystals differs from that of nematic liquid crystals ($D_{\infty h}$) in that it contains terms violating the ${\bf{n}}\to -{\bf{n}}$ symmetry. First we show that these $\mathcal{Z}_2$-odd terms induce a general splay instability of a uniform polarized state in a range of parameters. Next we use the general Poisson-bracket formalism to derive the hydrodynamic equations of the system in the polarized state. The structure of the linear hydrodynamic modes confirms the existence of the splay instability.Comment: 9 pages, corrected typos, added references, revised content, to appear in PR