The distinction of "Corporate Equality": a new certification governing equal opportunities

Objeto: Analizar la presencia de la igualdad de oportunidades en las normas y modelos relacionados con la gestión empresarial y caracterizar al distintivo “Igualdad en la Empresa” como una nueva certificación de la igualdad de oportunidades. Diseño/metodología/enfoque: Se ha estudiado la presencia de la igualdad de oportunidades en los diferentes modelos y normas y se ha caracterizado al distintivo “Igualdad en la Empresa” atendiendo a distintos criterios. Aportaciones y resultados: Tras el análisis de la presencia de la igualdad de oportunidades en las distintas normas y modelos relacionados con la gestión empresarial, hemos visto que no es algo que suceda en la práctica. Ante esta situación el distintivo “Igualdad en la Empresa” se impondría como una nueva certificación que regula específicamente la gestión de la igualdad de oportunidades en la empresa. Sin embargo, la escasa comunicación que del mismo están haciendo las empresas que lo han obtenido hasta este momento, dificulta su conocimiento y valoración por parte de los distintos grupos de interés con los que la empresa se relaciona. Valor añadido: El artículo realiza una contribución teórica a la caracterización del distintivo “Igualdad en la Empresa” como una nueva certificación en igualdad de oportunidades.Purpose: Analyse the existence of equal opportunities in rules and standards related to business management and typify the "Corporate Equality" distinction as a new equal opportunities certification. Design/methodology: The existing equal opportunities principles established in different standards and rules have been studied and the "Corporate Equality" distinction has been typified according to different criteria. Findings: Having analysed the existing equal opportunities principles established in different rules and standards concerning business management, it is obvious that these principles are not put into practice. Therefore, the distinction of “Corporate Equality" would indeed stand for a new certification that specifically controls how equal opportunities principles within the company are implemented. However, the lack of information about what these companies have actually achieved up to now limits the knowledge, awareness and appreciation of the different interest groups which deal with aforesaid firms on such matter. Originality/value: The article makes a theoretical contribution to typify the "Corporate Equality" distinction as a new equal opportunities certification.Peer Reviewe

Safeguarding Health at the Workplace: A Study of Work Engagement, Authenticity and Subjective Wellbeing among Religious Workers

: Research in work and organizational psychology has paid little attention to religious workers, something certainly surprising as faith-based organizations play a key role in the welfare state of many countries. This research shows that religious workers in a Catholic order present a high degree of subjective wellbeing, both in terms of flourishing and satisfaction with life in general, and a positive balance of positive and negative feelings. More specifically, this study examines the relationship between authenticity and wellbeing amongst religious workers. Survey responses from 142 religious workers in Spain were analyzed using partial least squares path modelling. The results reveal that subjective wellbeing at work is positively related to authenticity. In addition, this relationship is mediated by their level of work engagement

A Guarantee Systems Classification: The Latin American Experience

Guarantee systems are financial tools designed to mitigate the dysfunctions, within credit operations, generated from the entrepreneurs’ demand for collaterals. The present work diagnoses the unwanted effects, triggered by international rules, on the access to funds by micro, small, and medium enterprises; it posits as well the guarantee systems as solutions to these specific circumstances. Thus, it examines their legal configurations, their operational features, their relation to the financial system, and the performance levels they have achieved in Latin America. This paper has deemed virtually all the existing systems so that the results are highly significant, providing an outstanding contribution of knowledge to this field of study. This work purposes and introduces an original compilation of guarantee financial schemes, unveiling a new reality from the perspective of an empirical classification for Latin America. The set has been sorted by the different forms in which they have operated and supported the guarantee coverage on its assets or whether they have merely acted as operators and managers of an autonomous and liquid resource known as guarantee trust or fund –which is predominant within public participation schemes that not often bear the collateral coverage on their own financial equity. This classification defines and establishes diverse operational and administrative situations

La influencia del modelo de sucesión en el género del sucesor

La relevancia de la Empresa Familiar es indiscutible, desempeñando una significativa contribución a la economía y la sociedad de un país. Debido a ello se ha convertido en un tema de investigación de gran importancia. Y puesto que uno de sus objetivos más importantes es la transmisión a la siguiente generación numerosos estudios se han centrado en este ámbito. Muchos de ellos tienen como objetivo el análisis del impacto de la variable género en la sucesión. El propósito de este trabajo es identificar los modelos de sucesión que predominan y los rasgos del sucesor asociados a cada uno de esos modelos, comprobando si el género del sucesor es determinante a la hora de ser elegido como tal

Main determinants of efficiency and implications on banking concentration in the European Union

AbstractThis study aims to measure the main determinants influencing bank efficiency. We suggest that the bank efficiency ratio, obtained from the income statement, is positively related to the size of a bank in terms of total assets. However, we believe that such a relationship cannot be maintained for banks over a certain size. By the use of the regression analysis method, we analyze the link between bank efficiency and bank size, using a sample of 3952 banks in the European Union. Our results show that the efficiency ratio stops improving for banks with total assets over $25 billion. Previous literature, using different analysis techniques, does not reach an agreement on this point. Furthermore, our study identifies further variables which negatively affect the efficiency of banks, such as competition and lending diversification, or affect them positively, such as the wholesale funding ratio and income diversification. Our findings imply the need for different bank policies depending on total assets, in order to limit the size and activities of banks

La asimetría de la información en la crisis financiera, el racionamiento del crédito y la garantía como mecanismo simbiótico del sistema

Tras la caída de Lehman brothers y el inicio de la crisis financiera se produce un parón en la actividad económica y se evidencia una falta de financiación atribuible a la asimetría de información que sufre el sistema financiero, en este trabajo veremos como ha sido analizado por distintos economistas este fenómeno que produce el racionamiento del crédito y el riesgo moral. Realizamos un recorrido por la economía española demostrando esta falta de financiación y el endurecimiento de las condiciones financieras con datos actuales, y como, a través de la garantía se puede salvar dicho racionamiento del crédito en la pequeña empresa. No obstante, comprobamos como no se desarrolla el sistema de garantía en la economía española para alcanzar los volúmenes deseable

Authenticity and Subjective Wellbeing within the Context of a Religious Organization

Although authenticity has a long history as a philosophical and psychological idea, this concept has received scarce attention in the business literature until very lately. Nevertheless, scholars belonging to a broad array of disciplines have pointed out the escalation in the individuals’ search for authenticity within developed societies. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to assess the link between authenticity and subjective wellbeing within the rarely explored context of faith-driven organizations, where the management of emotions attains a particular significance. Specifically, this study links authenticity with subjective wellbeing among the distinct groups that shape a large international Catholic organization. This study uses Partial Least Squares (PLS) to test our research model and hypotheses. This paper covers two noteworthy research gaps. On the one hand, it provides evidence of the relationship between authenticity and subjective wellbeing within the context of religious organizations. On the other hand, our results suggest that this relationship is not homogeneous among the distinct groups that shape the organization. Implications of the research are finally discussed

Work Engagement and Flourishing at Work Among Nuns: The Moderating Role of Human Values

Faith-based organizations are a key player in major sectors of activity for maintaining the welfare state, including health, education, and social services. This paper uses a multivariate regression model in an attempt to identify the factors that affect the relationship between work engagement and flourishing. The paper also discusses the empirical research gap that has been identified in the literature about the moderated effect of human values on this relationship. This study is based on a sample of 142 nuns of a congregation belonging to a religious organization with an international scope and a Catholic inspiration. The case of religious women who have chosen to live a life consistent with the charism of the congregation constitutes a paradigmatic and unique environment to investigate the potential alignment of personal values with professional activity. This work unveils two main findings. First, the more engaged nuns are in their work (social action to serve the poorest and most disadvantaged people), the more they flourish in their working environment and in their personal lives. Second, Schwartz’s values reinforce the relationship between the professional role (work engagement) and the personal role (flourishing at work). In conclusion, flourishing at work could be improved through work engagement and this relationship is moderated by human values. These results add insights to better know the relationship among life and work domains

Accounting choice for measuring investment properties. Data mining techniques contribution to determine decision patterns

International Accounting Standard 40 (IAS 40 - Investment properties) offers an ideal setting for research on accounting choice as it represents a paradigmatic case choosing between the fair value and the historical cost as the measurement criteria. In this paper, we take the opportunity of this standard to provide additional evidence in a multinational and multi-context on the determinants that explain the accounting choice. Furthermore, in this paper, we introduce and compare the use of artificial neural networks and decision trees in order to assess the predictive capability of these methodologies, compared to other techniques commonly used to solve classification problems in this area such as the logistic regression. The classification results indicate that both neural networks and decision trees can be an interesting alternative to classical statistical methods such as the logistic regression. In particular, both methods outperformed the logistic regression in terms of predictive ability, although no significant differences were found between both