66 research outputs found
Corporate reporting on corruption: an international comparison
Building on an institutionalist framework of the various organizational field-level pressures on firms to engage with the challenge of corruption, we analyse anti-corruption disclosures across a sample of 933 sustainability reports. Such reporting complements anti-corruption initiatives, as it allows the company to demonstrate its commitment. Our results show clear country- and sector-level differences in the extent to which companies communicate their anti-corruption engagement. However, the more a company is exposed to corruption, the less likely it appears to openly communicate its anti-corruption engagement. Hence, our results cast doubt on the effectiveness of anti-corruption disclosures as part of wider sustainability reporting
Energy-time entanglement from a resonantly driven quantum dot three-level system
Entanglement is a major resource in advanced quantum technology, where it can
enable secure exchange of information over large distances. Energy-time
entanglement is particularly attractive for its beneficial robustness in
fiber-based quantum communication and can be demonstrated in the Franson
interferometer. We report on Franson-type interference from a resonantly driven
biexciton cascade under continuous wave excitation. Our measurements yield a
maximum visibility of (73 2)% surpassing the limit of violation of Bell's
inequality (70.7%) by more than one standard deviation. Despite being unable to
satisfy a loophole free violation, our work demonstrates promising results
concerning future works on such a system. Furthermore, our systematical studies
on the impact of driving strength indicate that dephasing mechanisms and
deviations from the cascaded emission have major impact on the degree of the
measured energy-time entanglement
From Corporate Social Responsibility to Accountability Mechanisms:The Role of the Convention on Biological Diversity
This paper traces the progressive shift at the international level from purely voluntary approaches (corporate social responsibility or CSR) towards accountability mechanisms to ensure the environmentally sound conduct of private entities. It examines whether the most recent international discussion on human rights and corporate accountability have adequately considered environmental protection concerns. It then concentrates on the growing number of international oversight mechanisms that provide a readily-available and impartial avenue for addressing complaints against private companies..
Media coverage of climate change: an international comparison
We present an international comparison of broadsheet newspaper coverage of climate change. We employ two complementary theoretical lenses, multiple streams theory and institutional theory, to explore why climate change has become headline news in some countries but has received comparatively little coverage in others. The study utilises a worldwide sample across 41 different countries for the year 2008, covering 113 leading national broadsheet newspapers. A cross-sectional regression model is used to identify whether and how a range of contextual factors impact coverage of climate change. To a certain extent, a countryâs direct exposure to climate change and the measures that have been taken to combat global warming influence the position of climate change on the media agenda. Crucially, however, we identify a number of contextual factors that impact climate change-related media coverage in different national contexts. In particular, we find a significantly positive relationship between regulatory quality and levels of media coverage. At the same time, unemployment trends are significantly negatively related to media attention to climate change. Gross domestic product per capita does not help to explain levels of climate change-related media coverage. In other words, climate change appears to have moved beyond simply being a ârich country issueâ
Exploring the scienceâpolicy interface on climate change: The role of the IPCC in informing local decision-making in the UK
Building on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changeâs (IPCC) review of
how to make its Assessment Reports (ARs) more accessible in the future, the research
reported here assesses the extent to which the ARs are a useful tool through which scientific
advice informs local decision-making on climate change in the United Kingdom. Results from
interviews with local policy representatives and three workshops with UK academics, practitioners
and local decision makers are presented. Drawing on these data, we outline three
key recommendations made by participants on how the IPCC ARs can be better utilized as a
form of scientific advice to inform local decision-making on climate change. First, to provide
more succinct summaries of the reports paying close attention to the language, content,
clarity, context and length of these summaries; second, to better target and frame the reports
from a local perspective to maximize engagement with local stakeholders; and third, to work
with local decision makers to better understand how scientific advice on climate change is
being incorporated in local decision-making. By adopting these, the IPCC would facilitate local
decision-making on climate change and provide a systematic review of how its reports are
being used locally. We discuss implications of these recommendations and their relevance to
the wider debate within and outside the IPCC as to the most effective way the IPCC can more
effectively tailor its products to user needs without endangering the robustness of its scientific
findings. This article is published as part of a collection on scientific advice to government
Strongly hyperpolarized gas from parahydrogen by rational design of ligand-capped nanoparticles
The production of hyperpolarized fluids in continuous mode would broaden substantially the range of applications in chemistry, materials science, and biomedicine. Here we show that the rational design of a heterogeneous catalyst based on a judicious choice of metal type, nanoparticle size and surface decoration with appropriate ligands leads to highly efficient pairwise addition of dihydrogen across an unsaturated bond. This is demonstrated in a parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) experiment by a 508-fold enhancement (±78) of a CH3 proton signal and a corresponding 1219-fold enhancement (±187) of a CH2 proton signal using nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR). In contrast, bulk metal catalyst does not show this effect due to randomization of reacting dihydrogen. Our approach results in the largest gas-phase NMR signal enhancement by PHIP known to date. Sensitivity-enhanced NMR with this technique could be used to image microfluidic reactions in-situ, to probe nonequilibrium thermodynamics or for the study of metabolic reactions
What does security culture look like for small organizations?
The human component is a significant factor in information security, with a large numbers of breaches occurring due to unintentional user error. Technical solutions can only protect information so far and thus the human aspect of security has become a major focus for discussion. Therefore, it is important for organisations to create a security conscious culture. However, currently there is no established representation of security culture from which to assess how it can be manoeuvred to improve the overall information security of an organization. This is of particular importance for small organizations who lack the resources in information security and for whom the culture of the organization exerts a strong influence. A review of multiple definitions and descriptions of security culture was made to assess and analyse the drivers and influences that exist for security culture in small organizations. An initial representation of the factors that should drive security culture, together with those that should only influence it, was constructed. At a fundamental level these drivers are related to a formulated response to security issues rather than a reaction to it, and should reflect the responsibility allocated in a secure environment. In contrast, the influences on security culture can be grouped by communities of practice, individual awareness and organizational management. The encapsulation of potential driving and influencing factors couched in information security terms rather than behavioural science terms, will allow security researchers to investigate how a security culture can be fostered to improve information security in small organizations
The impact of changes in stakeholder salience on CSR activities in Russian energy firms: a contribution to the divergence / convergence debate
This empirical paper examines the drivers underpinning changes to socially-responsible behaviours in the Russian energy sector. Responding to recent requests to contextualise CSR research, we focus on the changing set of stakeholders and developments in their saliency as reflected in corporationsâ CSR activities. Based on interviews with more than thirty industry professionals, our findings suggest that Russian energy companiesâ CSR is strongly stakeholder driven, and organisations adapt their activities according to their dependence on the resources that these salient stakeholders possess.
We challenge the proposition that CSR in Russia arises from purely endogenous, historical, paternalism or neo-paternalism. We identify stakeholders that now shape CSR in the Russian energy sector, both endogenous (institutional and contextual forces relevant to the national business system) and exogenous (relating to the organisational field of the energy industry - international by nature). We thereby contribute to the convergence / divergence debate within CSR theory by demonstrating that both national business systems and the organisational field must be taken into account when analysing the forces that shape CSR strategies in any one country
Cognitive and psychological science insights to improve climate change data visualization
Visualization of climate data plays an integral role in the communication of climate change findings to both expert and non-expert audiences. The cognitive and psychological sciences can provide valuable insights into how to improve visualization of climate data based on knowledge of how the human brain processes visual and linguistic information. We review four key research areas to demonstrate their potential to make data more accessible to diverse audiences: directing visual attention, visual complexity, making inferences from visuals, and the mapping between visuals and language. We present evidence-informed guidelines to help climate scientists increase the accessibility of graphics to non-experts, and illustrate how the guidelines can work in practice in the context of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change graphics
Politicising government engagement with corporate social responsibility: âCSRâ as an empty signifier
Governments are widely viewed by academics and practitioners (and society more generally) as the key societal actors who are capable of compelling businesses to practice corporate social responsibility (CSR). Arguably, such government involvement could be seen as a technocratic device for encouraging ethical business behaviour. In this paper, we offer a more politicised interpretation of government engagement with CSR where âCSRâ is not a desired form of business conduct but an element of discourse that governments can deploy in structuring their relationships with other social actors. We build our argument through a historical analysis of government CSR discourse in the Russian Federation. Laclau and Mouffe's (Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics,Verso Books, London, 1985) social theory of hegemony underpins our research. We find that âCSRâ in the Russian governmentâs discourse served to legitimise its power over large businesses. Using this case, we contribute to wider academic debates by providing fresh empirical evidence that allows the development of critical evaluation tools in relation to governmentsâ engagement with âCSRâ. We find that governments are capable of hijacking CSR for their own self-interested gain. We close the paper by reflecting on the merit of exploring the case of the Russian Federation. As a ânon-coreâ, non-western exemplar, it provides a useful âmirrorâ with which to reflect on the more widely used test-bed of Western industrial democracies when scrutinising CSR. Based on our findings, we invite other scholars to adopt a more critical, politicised stance when researching the role of governments in relation to CSR in other parts of the world
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