Testing social and environmental disclosure-reputation relationship: a longitudinal two-way analysis

Purpose: This paper reviews sustainability reporting understood as any type of social and environmental disclosures (SED) in its relationship with corporate reputation within the most reputed companies in Spain according to MERCO Business Monitor Ranking (2014-2016). Design/methodology/approach: To shed light on the relationship reputation-SED, two alternative models were tested, thought the use of Structural Equation Model (SEM) and Partial Least Squares (PLS), with longitudinal data. Findings: Both models supported the hypotheses although the model linking reputation to SED was slightly better, questioning the use of SED by reputation leader companies. Research limitations/implications: Our paper study the linkage, sign and causality, between reputation and SED by introducing two alternative models. SED and reputation are receiving considerable attention into the business scope, although their relationship is not agreed by previous literature. There are contradictory evidences that lead us to question the sense of this relation. Practical implications: Our contribution will be of interest to managers in terms of the value of this type of reporting from a strategic point of view. If reputation favours this type of disclosures, these will be issues to be considered in order to obtain a better competitive advantage through market differentiation. Social implications: The results will be of interest for future studies and actions aimed at regulating the improvement of this type of reporting in the hands of academics and practitioners but also investors and regulators. Originality/value: This study is an advance in the description of the SED-reputation relationship and contributes to this new line of research with new insights. Another contribution is the way to understand sustainability reporting. This paper analyses SED from the twofold point of view of the quantity of information and, the existing references about its quality, and adding the lag effect between both variables

Cross-disciplinary skills in the European Higher Education Area: the importance and dominance of a foreign language

La adaptación al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) conlleva el fomento de la movilidad de docentes y estudiantes. A los profesores les corresponde el importante papel de incentivar a los futuros graduados hacia el dominio de otras lenguas europeas con el fin de que puedan aumentar su competitividad en el mundo laboral. La literatura y la evidencia práctica indican que el nivel de nuestros estudiantes en competencias idiomáticas no alcanza los estándares adecuados para competir. Así, nuestro objetivo ha sido conocer su opinión sobre el dominio que actualmente tienen de una o más lenguas extranjeras así como la importancia que le atribuyen al hecho de conocerla y dominarla. La metodología seguida ha supuesto la realización de varias experiencias y la triangulación de los resultados obtenidos de las mismas, las cuales han consistido en: 1º. Sensibilización a través de una conferencia sobre la importancia del dominio de otras lenguas y su relevancia para la empleabilidad del egresado; 2º. Acercamiento a las impresiones del estudiante que recibe una clase en inglés con un focus group; y, 3º. Análisis de un cuestionario de percepciones sobre dominio e importancia de los idiomas que analiza la opinión del estudiante sobre estos aspectos. Precisamente la evidencia empírica de este estudio proviene de la opinión de los estudiantes de las titulaciones que se impartían en la Facultad de CC.EE.EE. de nuestra Universidad contando con una muestra final de 540 cuestionarios. Los resultados muestran una brecha entre dominio e importancia atribuida que se refuerza cuando se analizan los datos según la movilidad del estudiante. El estudio lleva, finalmente, a realizar un análisis DAFO de debilidades y fortalezas internas, y amenazas y oportunidades externas que determine qué medidas se podrían adoptar para acercar el grado de importancia al grado de dominio.Adaptation to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) implies the promotion of mobility of teachers and students. The teachers have an important role to encourage future graduates to the mastery of other European languages so that they can increase their competitiveness in the workplace. Literature and practical evidence show that the level of our students in language skills does not achieve the appropriate standards to compete. Thus, our goal has been to know their opinion on the domain that they have about of one or more foreign languages and the importance attributed to the fact of knowing and mastering them. The methodology used has supposed to carry out several experiences and the triangulation of the obtained results of such ones that have consisted of: 1º. Awareness through a conference on the importance of mastering other languages and their relevance for employability of graduates; 2º. Approach of the student's impressions receiving a class in English with a focus group; and, 3º. A questionnaire analysis of students’ opinions about the dominance and importance of languages. In fact, the empiric evidence of this study comes from the opinion of the students from all degree programs that were given in the Faculty of Economic and Business of our University. We have worked with a final sample of 540 questionnaires. The results show a gap between domain and attributed importance that it is reinforced when the data are analyzed according to the student's mobility. The study takes, finally, to carry out a SWOT analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses and external threats and opportunities, to determine what measures could be taken to bring the level of importance to the degree of dominance. The teaching experience has shown that this active methodology involves a continuous workflow, and the development of teaching strategies of constant interaction between teacher and students. Therefore, despite the acceptance that had this teaching innovation, the load in terms of working time was the main problem highlighted

Changes in Subjective Well‑Being Over Time: Economic and Social Resources do Matter

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Government of Spain through grant ECO2015-63734-P (MINECO/FEDER), the FPU2014/1123 fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and the Fortalecimiento Program of the University of Granada (SEJ-340, SEJ-393). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada/CBUA.This article analyzes the main determinants of changes in subjective well-being over time in Germany distinguishing between long-term and short-term changes. Our findings for the long term indicate that social capital and values and cultural dimensions have the greatest capacity to predict changes in subjective well-being. Likewise, the correlation between economic resources and subjective well-being is weaker due to the small increase registered in household income and because people compare their income with those who are better off and feel envy. In the short term, economic resources have the highest capacity to predict both improvements (ups) and declines (downs) in subjective well-being. Finally, we also suggest that, whenever information is available, personality traits should be taken into account in the analysis of changes in subjective well-being over time in order to achieve more reliable estimates.Government of Spain (MINECO/FEDER) ECO2015-63734-PSpanish Government FPU2014/1123Fortalecimiento Program of the University of Granada SEJ-340 SEJ-393Universidad de Granada/CBU

DNA damage response-related alterations define the genetic background of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and chromosomal gains

[EN]The presence of chromosomal gains other than trisomy 12 suggesting a hyperdiploid karyotype is extremely rare in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and is associated with a dismal prognosis. However, the genetic mechanisms and mutational background of these patients have not been fully explored. To improve our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of this subgroup of CLL, seven CLL patients with several chromosomal gains were sequenced using a next-generation sequencing (NGS)-targeted approach. The mutational status of 54 genes was evaluated using a custom-designed gene panel including recurrent mutated genes observed in CLL and widely associated with CLL pathogenesis. A total of 21 mutations were detected; TP53 (42.8%), ATM (28.5%), SF3B1 (28.5%), and BRAF (28.5%) were the most recurrently mutated genes. Of these mutations, 61.9% were detected in genes previously associated with a poor prognosis in CLL. Interestingly, five of the seven patients exhibited alterations in TP53 or ATM (deletion and/or mutation), genes involved in the DNA damage response (DDR), which could be related to a high genetic instability in this subgroup of patients. In conclusion, CLL patients with several chromosomal gains exhibit high genetic instability, with mutations in CLL driver genes and high-risk genetic alterations involving ATM and/or TP53 genes

Social Responsibility and competitive success of firms in the Lisbon Metropolitan Region

Social Responsibility is considered a crucial issue to enhance a long-term competiveness in firms because it has been demonstrated the causal relationship with several strategic business variables. This paper develops a conceptual model and applies Structural Equations Modeling technique to a sample of 91 firms from the Lisbon Metropolitan Region in order to understand the link between Social Responsibility and competitive success. The model provides a simple guidance for upgrading competitive success in firms operating in Portugal. We consider this work as a starting point to develop a more accurate model for Portuguese economic reality in the near future

The effect of the internal side of social responsibility on firm competitive success in the business services industry

Este trabajo se centra en el lado interno de la responsabilidad social de las empresas en un contexto regional. Mediante una encuesta realizada a 590 directores de servicios empresariales (clásico-intensiva en capital humano) y representante de la economía productiva de la región de Extremadura (España), se realiza un análisis empírico. En primer lugar, se realizó un análisis factorial a explorar las principales dimensiones de la cara interna de la responsabilidad social y, en segundo lugar, un modelo estructural de ecuaciones se desarrollaron para buscar una relación con la competitividad de las empresas. El rendimiento de la empresa y la innovación también son considerados en el modelo. La principal contribución del artículo es el establecimiento de un conjunto de indicadores que ayudarán a construir un diálogo constante y sustancial con los empleados, mejorando su calidad de vida en el trabajo, que también servirá como una importante orientación para el incremento de la competitividad de la empresa a través de prácticas responsables de recursos humanos. Algunas sugerencias para un programa de investigación surgen de este primer intento de acercarse a la parte interna de la responsabilidad en los negocios.This work focuses on the internal side of social responsibility of organizations in a regional context. Through a survey of 590 managers in classical business services (human-capital intensive) and representative of the productive economy of the Region of Extremadura (Spain), an empirical analysis is conducted. First, a factor analysis is conducted to explore the main dimensions of the internal face of Social Responsibility and second, a structural equations model is developed to look for a relationship with business competitiveness. Business performance and innovation are also considered in the model. The main contribution of the article is the establishment of a set of indicators that will help to build an ongoing and meaningful dialogue with employees improving their quality of life at work that will also serve as important guidance for the increasing of the firm’s competitiveness through responsible human resources practices. Some suggestions for a research agenda emerge from this first attempt to approach the internal side of responsibility in business.peerReviewe

Validation of a measurement scale for the relationship between the orientation to corporate social responsibility and other business strategic variables

The importance of Social Responsibility (SR) is higher if this business variable is related with other ones of strategic nature in business activity (competitive success that the company achieved, performance that the firms develop and innovations that they carries out). The hypothesis is that organizations that focus on SR are those who get higher outputs and innovate more, achieving greater competitive success. A scale for measuring the orientation to SR has defined in order to determine the degree of relationship between above elements. This instrument is original because previous scales do not exist in the literature which could measure, on the one hand, the three classics sub-constructs theoretically accepted that SR is made up and, on the other hand, the relationship between SR and the other variables. As a result of causal relationships analysis we conclude with a scale of 21 indicators, validated scale with a sample of firms belonging to the Autonomous Community of Extremadura and it is the first empirical validation of these dimensions we know so far, in this context

New Insights in Prognosis and Therapy of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is a heterogeneous disease with a very variable clinical outcome. New biological markers, such as cytogenetic abnormalities or mutation status, have become important prognostic factors. Whole-genome sequencing studies have revealed novel genomic mutations, NOTCH1, SF3B1, BIRC3, TP53 and MYD88 being the most important. All these mutations have also been associated with the disease outcome. The treatment of CLL has evolved favourably in recent years. However, adverse events or chemorefractoriness occurs in some cases. Luckily, an increasing number of compounds are under development with promising results. Some of these new targeted therapies include B-cell receptor inhibitors, new anti-CD20 antibodies, Bcl-2 inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs or chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). In this chapter, we will conduct a review of the new prognostic markers of CLL, the relationship they have with each other to build prognostic scores, the role they have in guiding treatment decisions and the novel therapies that have emerged recently with immunologic, biochemical and genetic targets