Understanding Communication of Sustainability Reporting: Application of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies that are implicit in the standalone sustainability reporting of the top 24 companies of the Fortune 500 Global. We adopt Bormann’s (Q J Speech 58(4):396–407, 1972) SCT framework to study the rhetorical situation and how corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) messages can be communicated to the audience (public). The SCT concepts in the sustainability reporting’s communication are subject to different types of legitimacy strategies that are used by corporations as a validity and legitimacy claim in the reports. A content analysis has been conducted and structural coding schemes have been developed based on the literature. The schemes are applied to the SCT model which recognizes the symbolic convergent processes of fantasy among communicators in a Society. The study reveals that most of the sample companies communicate fantasy type and rhetorical vision in their corporate sustainability reporting. However, the disclosure or messages are different across locations and other taxonomies of the SCT framework. This study contributes to the current CSR literature about how symbolic or fantasy understandings can be interpreted by the users. It also discusses the persuasion styles that are adopted by the companies for communication purposes. This study is the theoretical extension of the SCT. Researchers may be interested in further investigating other online communication paths, such as human rights reports and director’s reports

International Alliance Strategies: A Case Study of the Indonesian Medical Device Industry

This study aims to investigate how the multinational corporations form alliance strategies with local businesses under the dynamic institutional environment in the Indonesian context. We used a qualitative approach with a case study of the medical device industry to examine how the institutional environment affects the choice of the strategic alliance. By collecting the qualitative data, including interviews, observations and archival data, the interpretive approach was adopted to understand social worlds from the point of view of participants. We identified five types of alliance strategies: the wholly owned subsidiary with contractual collaboration, the wholly owned subsidiary with the licence agreement, the international trade with the licence agreement, joint venture and outsourcing. There are also two main issues of the institutional environments that determine the choice of alliance strategic: the restriction for foreign companies to carry out direct selling and the new policy that introduces the electronic procurement system. This study provides evidence of the role of the institutional environment on collaboration strategies between the multinational enterprises from the developed countries and the local distributors from Indonesia. The results extend the concept of international business in the Asian context

Fostering the Citizen Participation Models for Public Value Creation in Cooperative Environment of Smart Cities

Part 3: Smart Governance (Government, Cities and Regions)International audienceThe growth of smart cities is forcing governments to focus their efforts on the increase of public value creation. Based on prior research, on the perception of smart city practitioners and on an empirical observation, this paper seeks to analyse the public value creation under the context of the smart cities, examining the model of citizen participation and the use of new technologies by city governments in smart cities with the aim at improving e-participation of the citizenry in the public arena. Findings indicate the need for using new technologies to adopt a more participative model of governance, although, nowadays, sample smart cities are not putting available technological tools or promoting citizens to be involved in online public consultations, discussions and petitions

Demographic Profile of Citizens’ Interest, Evaluation and Opinions of Local Government Apps in Smart Cities

Part 5: Smart CitiesInternational audienceSmart cities are fostering the interaction, collaboration and involvement of citizens in the city management models. To achieve this aim, technological tools like city mobile apps are being used for redefining the way citizens interact with smart cities. This paper seeks to analyse the demographic profile of citizens regarding the use of local government Apps for participation in public affairs and the digital divide through the evaluation, opinions and interest of citizens in these Apps in European smart cities. To achieve this aim, this paper focuses on an empirical research on Apps created by European smart cities included in the IESE Business School project. Findings indicate that the education level, gender and ages of the citizens can be factors to download, evaluate and opine about local government Apps, although its influence depend on the smart dimension in which the Apps are running

Identifying Strategic Planning Patterns of Smart Initiatives. An Empirical Research in Spanish Smart Cities

The Smart Cities’ projects favor the improvement and efficiency in public services, as well as the dis-closure and access more information, offering extraordinary opportunities for cities to spark a new wave of wealth creation. However, despite the relevance and complexity of designing strategic planning for smart city development, it continues to be ignored. This research contributes to prior research through the analysis of the demographical and citizens profile of SCs, identifying key patterns in the strategic planning processes of the smart initiatives in city governments in order to ensure the success of SCs initiative implementation. To achieve this aim, this paper has sought to analyze strategic planning process in a number of Spanish SCs under the microscope examining a total of 1,635 smart initiatives with the aim at identifying patterns in the strategic planning design. Findings show that smaller-size cities with a higher proportion of older people usually perform formal strategic planning processes

Digital by Default: The Use of Service Channels by Citizens

Part 5: Smart CitiesInternational audienceThe use of information and communication technologies by governments is increasing, in many cases to establish new channels of interaction with citizens; and digital by default has been presented as a guide for the development of electronic services. This article discusses the possibility of creating new exclusion forms and is based on the analysis of the profile of use of service channels SP156 of the São Paulo City. To do so, it uses databases of service requests, made available through the City’s Open Data Portal, as well as sociodemographic data from the city’s districts. It was verified that there is a statistically significant correlation between the average monthly income level of the districts and the type of channel used by the citizen to make the requests. It is concluded that it is important to provide multiple channels for citizens to interact with governments so as not to lead to further social exclusion

E-Government Research Domain: Comparing the International and Russian Research Agenda

Part 1: E-Government FoundationsInternational audiencePositioning e-government as a discipline is a matter of continuous discussion, and it remains topical to estimate its conceptual integrity and explore the interconnection between the main research contexts, especially due to the emergence of new areas like e-participation. The analysis of the national research programs and their comparison to the global agenda is also becoming more salient. Addressing these two issues by means of a scientometrics approach, we explore the extended e-government domain on the global scale and in the Russian Federation. Findings suggest that the global e-government represents a coherent field, although further integration between research contexts is important. At the same time, the Russian e-government research is lagging behind, due to low internationalization and few stimuli for knowledge production