Managerial Perceptions of Firms’ Corporate Sustainability Strategies: Insights from Croatia

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing academic attention, we lack a solid understanding of how managerial perceptions underpin firms’ sustainability practices. This study interprets and sheds light on managers’ perceptions of sustainability activities under various stakeholder domains in Croatia through a multi-theoretical approach. Using 21 semi-structured interviews with managers, the study reveals that sustainability activities in the research context tend to focus more on environmental issues and customer service, as well as employees and supplier domains. The study further establishes three distinct levels of sustainability commitments by firms. These stages include sustainability as a minimal response, corporate culture-driven, and committed response. These findings, as a whole, are insightful and enable us to advance research on sustainability by elucidating how managerial perceptions underpin firms’ strategic sustainability activities. The contributions to theory and practice are also discussed

Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Fact or fiction? A look at Ghanaian banks

This article examined the impact of corporate social responsibility on financial performance using empirical evidence from the Ghanaian banking sector. Although corporate social responsibility is a hot topic in Ghana and banks do practise it, no detailed study has been conducted to ascertain whether banks derive any benefits therefrom. A sample size of 22 banks was involved. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data whilst archival records were used to gather the secondary data. Main findings: The findings revealed that banks in Ghana view corporate social responsibility practices to be a strategic tool; banks are motivated to practise corporate social responsibility by legitimate reasons as much as they are motivated by profitability and sustainability reasons. Also, although there is a positive relationship between corporate social responsibility practices and financial performance, the financial performance of banks in Ghana does not depend significantly on their corporate social responsibility practices but rather on other control variables, such as growth, origin, debt ratio, and size

Unlocking the potential barriers on SMEs’ uptake of scenario planning

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the value of scenario planning to small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), and further examine the challenges constraining the uptake of scenario planning by SMEs. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual review of the literature on scenario planning in SMEs intended to unpack and capture the possible underlying reasons accounting for the limited uptake of scenario planning by managers/owners of SMEs has informed the formulation of this paper. Findings: The study uncovered that SMEs’ managerial mental models, SMEs’ managerial time orientation, severe resource constraints, and industry complexity are some of the salient factors inhibiting the use of scenario planning among managers/owners of SMEs. The author develops a framework of propositions that account for the complexity and challenges of scenario planning by SMEs for future empirical examination and validation. Originality/value: The conventional wisdom is that scenario planning is carried out by large and established firms, and that SMEs are unable to adopt and practice the technique. This paper uncovers that SME have substantial needs for scenario planning, but are only able to engage in simple foresight activities such as brainstorming, desk research, networking and expert interviews to monitor their external environment. They are unable to effectively use scenario planning in its purest form as in large firms. By bringing together the reasons accounting for the difficulty of SMEs to practice scenario planning in its purest form as large firms do, the study therefore extends the limited discourse on scenario planning among SMEs. Implications are discussed and areas for future empirical studies provided

Review of the literature on board committees: taking stock and looking ahead

Committees on a board of directors are now subject to recommendations by regulations in practically all jurisdictions. At the same time, scholarly work on the topic has escalated since the mid-1990s. In this review article, we examine relevant literature on board committees of audit, compensation and nomination, as part of corporate governance research in general, over the period of 1988 to 2011. We observed an exponential growth in contributions over time, the majority of which can be attributed to management and accounting scholars. The audit committee is the most researched of all three committees, with the nomination committee being the least researched. An analysis of the literature generated a picture that included the following features: 1) the dominance of the agency theory; 2) a lack of other unifying theoretical frameworks; 3) a strong US-centrism; 4) the prevalence of quantitative research methods

An integrated perspective on foreign ethical divestment

Much of the existing literature on foreign ethical divestment has been developed in isolation and scattered across multiple disciplines. This paper reviews the existing literature on foreign ethical divestment to extract emerging themes and outline new directions for future research. Our review uncovered that foreign ethical divestment decisions can be attributed to macro, firm and individual level factors. We therefore develop an integrated model to link the dynamics of ethical foreign divestment. The study identified a number of unanswered questions and implications for future research

The Moderating Effect of Perceived Effectiveness of Marketing Function on Network Ties – Strategic Adaptiveness Relationship

This study examines the critical role of perceived effectiveness of the Marketing function (MF) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in leveraging entrepreneurial network ties to improve strategic adaptiveness (SA). The study tests whether a MF perceived as effective by SMEs’ managers/owners moderates the relationship between SMEs network ties and SA required for improved performance. Findings of a moderated regression analysis on a sample of 263 Croatian SMEs indicate that network ties contribute significantly to their SA, and that a MF perceived as effective only moderates the impact of customer and competitor ties on SMEs’ SA. Research and practical implications are discussed

The Financial Services Sector and Economic Growth in SSA: Insights from Ghana

This paper examines the role of financial services sector in the economic development of sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries and the myriad of factors inhibiting the sectors contribution to economic growth. It unpacks how regulatory inconsistencies and restrictions in West Africa have curtailed capital formation in Ghana and less than optimum contribution of the sector to economic growth. The paper suggests that excessive regulations and weak enforcement of rules, government bureaucracy and corruption, negatively affects a country's financial system. It is, therefore, necessary to balance the need for stronger regulation with appropriate levels of sector involvement in the regulatory process that supports the growth of the financial system. Participatory regulation requires that regulators proposing regulatory changes should hold consultative forums involving individuals from the private sector, corporate and private users of financial services, experts and service providers (including accountants, auditors, consultants, commercial lawyers) who can add value to the regulatory process. These issues present a number of implications that are discussed

Leveraging inter-industry spillovers through DIY laboratories: entrepreneurship and innovation in the global bicycle industry

DIY laboratories have the potential to advance new technologies, products and services through the leveraging of low-cost facilities by entrepreneurial individuals. We add to this emerging understanding of the DIY phenomenon by investigating the prevalence, operations and contextual factors that impact the use of DIY laboratories in the bicycle industry. We find two contexts in which DIY laboratories are utilised to develop component-level innovations: first, DIY laboratories are utilised as a low-cost way to enter an industry where the entrepreneur lacks the necessary financial resources and rely upon bootstrapping to build their enterprise. Second, and more frequently, DIY laboratories were used for the integration of diversified technical knowledge originating in other industries. Our study highlights the important role that DIY laboratories may play in leveraging inter-industry knowledge spillovers whereby DIY laboratories operate as incubators in the repurposing of diversified knowledge from high-technology sectors to lower-technology sectors to generate incremental innovation. Further, the modular product architecture of the bicycle helped facilitate the co-opting of technical knowledge prevalent in other industries by allowing entrepreneurs to focus their product development and subsequent commercialisation activities at the component level of the product artefact

Attracting and retaining foreign direct investment: A critical assessment of government policies in Ghana.

This thesis explored the critical role of government policies in attracting and retaining Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Ghana. The study was motivated by the dearth of research on how government policies influence the attraction and retention of FDI in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The paucity of studies on this issue is surprising in light of the active role that government policies and agencies have assumed in the last three decades in attracting inward FDI to Africa. This study attempted to fill this gap by using Ghana as a case study to analyse the extent to which government policies have been successful in attracting and retaining FDI in the country. In setting the conceptual and theoretical background of the study, the international business literature on FDI and corporate strategies that guides the activities and decision making of multinational firms in investing abroad was explored and conceptualised, '.;fhe study adopted a mixed method of enquiry. This involvedthe use of questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews to collect data from foreign investors in Ghana and government policymakers. Both the quantitative and qualitative data collected was analysed using a variety of methods, including an independent sample t-test, ANOVA, factor analysis, correlations, multiple regression and content analysis. This approach yielded some novel and interesting findings, and provided deeper insights into the role of government in the attraction and retention of FDI. The principal finding of the study was that government policies such as tax, privatization, investment promotion policy, free zone, entry and operations, and the standard of treatment of foreign firms play a critical role in attracting and retaining FDI. In essence, SSA governments have attempted to create an attractive and conducive environment for FDI, but the study revealed that the existence of favourable FDI policies alone is not sufficient in attracting and retaining substantial FDI. It is argued that the policies have to be supported by efficient business facilitation factors, as well as generous incentives. All of these, it is further argued, are necessary for the country to meet the minimum requirement of being competitive enough to attract and retain substantial FDI. The study also revealed that in SSA countries in particular, political and social stability is seen as absolutely crucial to the country's ability to attract and retain FDI. The study also underscored the importance of a marketing strategy, such as the direct targeting of particular investors with specialist expertise to invest in sectors in which Ghana possesses competitive advantage. It is argued that this is the best way for Ghana to attract the right type and amount of FDI into the country. The study thus postulates that such a strategy is more likely to fully reward Ghana with a substantial inflow of FDI that is commensurate with the country's potential. Essentially, a successful inward FDI approach requires the creation of a favourable investment environment that is boosted by direct targeting of investors, and luring them into the important sectors of the SSA nation's economy. The theoretical, methodological and policy contributions and implications of the study are discussed, along with the limitations and areas for future research