Who or What Really Counts in a Firm’s Stakeholder Environment: An Investigation of Stakeholder Prioritization and Reporting

Following the line of thinking that a firm is a nexus of contracts between stakeholders, with managers as “the central node” (Hills and Jones, 1992), this study examined how managers prioritize stakeholder relationships and to what extent firms engage in voluntary disclosure with the stakeholder group they deem to be important. Data was simultaneously collected from two different national business contexts, Italy and the US. Results of the study show that the power, legitimacy, and urgency that managers associate with various stakeholder groups cumulatively determine how they go about prioritizing competing stakeholder claims. The results also provide evidence to the effect that the more importance a firm attaches to a stakeholder group, the greater the level of interaction between the firm and the stakeholder group, as evidenced in the information reported by the firm in its disclosures.Stakeholder management, voluntary disclosures, cross-cultural differences, stakeholder engagement, prioritizing stakeholder claims, stakeholder dialogue

Spectral-Domain Computation of Fields Radiated by Sources in Non-Birefringent Anisotropic Media

We derive the key expressions to robustly address the eigenfunction expansion-based analysis of electromagnetic (EM) fields produced by current sources within planar non-birefringent anisotropic medium (NBAM) layers. In NBAM, the highly symmetric permeability and permittivity tensors can induce directionally-dependent, but polarization independent, propagation properties supporting "degenerate" characteristic polarizations, i.e. four linearly-independent eigenvectors associated with only two (rather than four) unique, non-defective eigenvalues. We first explain problems that can arise when the source(s) specifically reside within NBAM planar layers when using canonical field expressions. To remedy these problems, we exhibit alternative spectral-domain field expressions, immune to such problems, that form the foundation for a robust eigenfunction expansion-based analysis of time-harmonic EM radiation and scattering within such type of planar-layered media. Numerical results demonstrate the high accuracy and stability achievable using this algorithm.Comment: The official (preliminary) published version of this manuscript, along with copyright information, can be found using the provided DOI. IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., 201

Gauging the Path of Private Canadian Pensions: 2010 Update on the State of Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Pension Plans

The issue of under-funded defined benefit (DB) pension plans has become one of the most perplexing financial issues facing business executives, legislators and Canadian pensioners who are or will in the future be reliant on pension income as an important component of their overall retirement incomes. In 2004, CGA-Canada issued a comprehensive paper on defined benefit pension plans titled “Addressing the Pensions Dilemma in Canada”. The goal of that release was to advance understanding of DB pension plans and to impart a reasonable estimate of the standing of DB pension plans at December 31, 2003. In 2009, this analysis was further advanced by examining the funding status of private DB pension plans at December 31, 2008. The results of the analysis show that funding deficits have intensified with funding ratios eroding to unsustainable levels. The vast majority (92%) of private DB pension plans were in a deficit position as at December 31, 2008. The average funding ratio has decreased from 112% to 77% on a ‘without indexation’ basis and from 71% to 57% on a ‘with indexation’ basis. The aggregate funding shortfall is expected to exceed $350 billion.defined benefit pension plan, defined contribution pension plan, funding postion of pension plans, household savings, retirement savings, retirement income, household finance, pension accounting