Corporate social responsibility practices of pharmaceutical companies in China: a scale development & empirical study

JEL Classification: M14 - Corporate Culture; Social Responsibility; I11 - Analysis of Health Care MarketsCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a hot topic in literature ever since a couple of decades ago, and it roughly refers to the positive influence that a company’s operations have on its stakeholders. Amongst various industries, the pharmaceutical sector is one of the most debated in that these companies produce disease-curing and even life-saving products in a for-profit manner, thereby involving many CSR-related issues. Now China’s pharmaceutical industry has the second largest output in the world, but various problems have also emerged and led to negative consequences, many of which were caused by failure to abide by CSR norms. In order to assess the CSR practices of pharmaceutical companies in China, a reliable and credible measurement instrument has to be available. However, currently there is still no universally accepted definition of CSR, and existing theoretical models fail to fit either characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry or China’s cultural context. As a result, a new model has to be built that takes both factors into account. The study has two main purposes: one is to design an original and valid scale for measuring the CSR practices of pharmaceutical companies in China, and the other is to use this tool to evaluate their actual CSR performance. Based on a standard scale development process (in-depth interviews, open-ended questionnaire, discussions with experts, reliability and validity evaluation with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses), finally an eight-dimensional and 36-item measurement tool was validated. The eight initial dimensions (Shareholders, Managers, and Employees; Creditors & Suppliers, Patients & Doctors; Government, Environment, and Local Community) were then transformed into three second-order dimensions: CSR for Internal Parties, CSR for External Partners, and CSR for Public Entities. This conceptual model was later applied to reveal the circumstances within China’s pharmaceutical industry. Results show that CSR practices in the pharmaceutical industry in China coexist at very different levels: foreign-owned companies and joint ventures generally outperformed their state-owned and privately owned counterparts, and larger companies also had better CSR citizenship than smaller ones.A Responsabilidade Social das Empresas (RSE) tem sido um tópico recorrente na literatura nas duas últimas décadas e, de forma muito resumida, refere-se à influência positiva que a atividade empresarial pode ter nos seus diversos stakeholders. De entre os múltiplos setores de atividade, a indústria farmacêutica é uma das mais discutidas por produzir medicamentos que curam doenças e salvam vidas mas de forma lucrativa, e por isso, envolvendo muitos problemas relacionados com a RSE. Atualmente, a indústria farmacêutica na China é segunda em termos de produção mundial, mas apresenta problemas variados com consequências negativas, muitas delas resultantes do não cumprimento das normas de resonsabilidade social. Para que se possam avaliar as práticas de RSE na China, é necessário um instrumento de medida fiável e válido. No entanto, até ao momento não existe uma escala de medida da RSE universalmente aceite e os atuais modelos teóricos não incorporam as características da indústria farmacêutica e o contexto cultural específico da China. Daí a necessidade de desenvolvimento de um modelo teórico que possa incluir estas duas dimensões. Este estudo tem como principais objectivos desenhar e validar um instrumento de medida das práticas de RSE na indústria farmacêutica chinesa e, utilizando essa escala de medida, avaliar o atual desempenho das empresas chinesas deste setor em termos de práticas de responsabilidade social. Foi utilizada uma metodologia estandardizada para o desenvolvimento de uma escala de medida (entrevistas em profundidade, perguntas abertas, pré-teste ao questionário, validade e fiabilidade do questionário com análises fatoriais exploratória e confirmatória). Foi validada uma escala com 36 itens e oito dimensões (Acionistas, Gestores e Colaboradores; Credores & Fornecedores, Doentes & Médicos; Governo, Ambiente e Comunidade Local) que, de seguida, foram transformadas em três dimensões de segunda ordem: RSE para as partes internas, RSE para os parceiros externos e RSE para as entidades públicas. Este modelo conceptual foi depois aplicado para identificar as particularidades da indústria farmacêutica na China. Os resultados mostram que as práticas de RSE coexistem a níveis muito diferentes: em geral as empresas de capital estrangeiro ou joint ventures apresentam melhor performance que as empresas públicas ou privadas; as empresas maiores revelam mais práticas de RS que as mais pequena

Metabolic fingerprinting of Angelica sinensis during growth using UPLC-TOFMS and chemometrics data analysis

BACKGROUND: The radix of Angelica sinensis is widely used as a medicinal herbal and metabolomics research of this plant during growth is necessary. RESULTS: Principal component analysis of the UPLC-QTOFMS data showed that these 27 samples could be separated into 4 different groups. The chemical markers accounting for these separations were identified from the PCA loadings plot. These markers were further verified by accurate mass tandem mass and retention times of available reference standards. The study has shown that accumulation of secondary metabolites of Angelica sinensis is closely related to the growth periods. CONCLUSIONS: The UPLC-QTOFMS based metabolomics approach has great potential for analysis of the alterations of secondary metabolites of Angelica sinensis during growth

Large-area, freestanding single-crystal gold of single nanometer thickness

Two-dimensional single-crystal metals are highly sought after for next-generation technologies. Here, we report large-area (>10^4 {\mu}m2), single-crystal two-dimensional gold with thicknesses down to a single-nanometer level, employing an atomic-level-precision chemical etching approach. The ultrathin thickness and single-crystal quality endow two-dimensional gold with unique properties including significantly quantum-confinement-augmented optical nonlinearity, low sheet resistance, high transparency and excellent mechanical flexibility. By patterning the two-dimensional gold into nanoribbon arrays, extremely-confined near-infrared plasmonic resonances are further demonstrated with quality factors up to 5. The freestanding nature of two-dimensional gold allows its straightforward manipulation and transfer-printing for integration with other structures. The developed two-dimensional gold provides an emerging platform for fundamental studies in various disciplines and opens up new opportunities for applications in high-performance ultrathin optoelectronic, photonic and quantum devices

Direct Measurements of the Branching Fractions for D0→K−e+νeD^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e and D0→π−e+νeD^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e and Determinations of the Form Factors f+K(0)f_{+}^{K}(0) and f+π(0)f^{\pi}_{+}(0)

The absolute branching fractions for the decays $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ are determined using $7584\pm 198 \pm 341$ singly tagged $\bar D^0$ sample from the data collected around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC. In the system recoiling against the singly tagged $\bar D^0$ meson, $104.0\pm 10.9$ events for $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $9.0 \pm 3.6$ events for $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ decays are observed. Those yield the absolute branching fractions to be $BF(D^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e)=(3.82 \pm 0.40\pm 0.27)$ and $BF(D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e)=(0.33 \pm 0.13\pm 0.03)$. The vector form factors are determined to be $|f^K_+(0)| = 0.78 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.03$ and $|f^{\pi}_+(0)| = 0.73 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.06$. The ratio of the two form factors is measured to be $|f^{\pi}_+(0)/f^K_+(0)|= 0.93 \pm 0.19 \pm 0.07$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Measurements of J/psi Decays into 2(pi+pi-)eta and 3(pi+pi-)eta

Based on a sample of 5.8X 10^7 J/psi events taken with the BESII detector, the branching fractions of J/psi--> 2(pi+pi-)eta and J/psi-->3(pi+pi-)eta are measured for the first time to be (2.26+-0.08+-0.27)X10^{-3} and (7.24+-0.96+-1.11)X10^{-4}, respectively.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

BESII Detector Simulation

A Monte Carlo program based on Geant3 has been developed for BESII detector simulation. The organization of the program is outlined, and the digitization procedure for simulating the response of various sub-detectors is described. Comparisons with data show that the performance of the program is generally satisfactory.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, uses elsart.cls, to be submitted to NIM

Measurement of branching fractions for the inclusive Cabibbo-favored ~K*0(892) and Cabibbo-suppressed K*0(892) decays of neutral and charged D mesons

The branching fractions for the inclusive Cabibbo-favored ~K*0 and Cabibbo-suppressed K*0 decays of D mesons are measured based on a data sample of 33 pb-1 collected at and around the center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider. The branching fractions for the decays D+(0) -> ~K*0(892)X and D0 -> K*0(892)X are determined to be BF(D0 -> \~K*0X) = (8.7 +/- 4.0 +/- 1.2)%, BF(D+ -> ~K*0X) = (23.2 +/- 4.5 +/- 3.0)% and BF(D0 -> K*0X) = (2.8 +/- 1.2 +/- 0.4)%. An upper limit on the branching fraction at 90% C.L. for the decay D+ -> K*0(892)X is set to be BF(D+ -> K*0X) < 6.6%

A Measurement of Psi(2S) Resonance Parameters

Cross sections for e+e- to hadons, pi+pi- J/Psi, and mu+mu- have been measured in the vicinity of the Psi(2S) resonance using the BESII detector operated at the BEPC. The Psi(2S) total width; partial widths to hadrons, pi+pi- J/Psi, muons; and corresponding branching fractions have been determined to be Gamma(total)= (264+-27) keV; Gamma(hadron)= (258+-26) keV, Gamma(mu)= (2.44+-0.21) keV, and Gamma(pi+pi- J/Psi)= (85+-8.7) keV; and Br(hadron)= (97.79+-0.15)%, Br(pi+pi- J/Psi)= (32+-1.4)%, Br(mu)= (0.93+-0.08)%, respectively.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

The σ\sigma pole in J/ψ→ωπ+π−J/\psi \to \omega \pi^+ \pi^-

Using a sample of 58 million $J/\psi$ events recorded in the BESII detector, the decay $J/\psi \to \omega \pi^+ \pi^-$ is studied. There are conspicuous $\omega f_2(1270)$ and $b_1(1235)\pi$ signals. At low $\pi \pi$ mass, a large broad peak due to the $\sigma$ is observed, and its pole position is determined to be $(541 \pm 39)$ - $i$ $(252 \pm 42)$ MeV from the mean of six analyses. The errors are dominated by the systematic errors.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PL

Measurements of the Mass and Full-Width of the ηc\eta_c Meson

In a sample of 58 million $J/\psi$ events collected with the BES II detector, the process J/$\psi\to\gamma\eta_c$ is observed in five different decay channels: $\gamma K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-$, $\gamma\pi^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$, $\gamma K^\pm K^0_S \pi^\mp$ (with $K^0_S\to\pi^+\pi^-$), $\gamma \phi\phi$ (with $\phi\to K^+K^-$) and $\gamma p\bar{p}$. From a combined fit of all five channels, we determine the mass and full-width of $\eta_c$ to be $m_{\eta_c}=2977.5\pm1.0 ({stat.})\pm1.2 ({syst.})$ MeV/$c^2$ and $\Gamma_{\eta_c} = 17.0\pm3.7 ({stat.})\pm7.4 ({syst.})$ MeV/$c^2$.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures and 4 table. Submitted to Phys. Lett.