THE LANGUAGE OF CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURE: A RESEARCH NOTE

We investigate different language techniques used in corporate environmental disclosures and test whether the impression management (see Neu et al., 1998) hypothesis holds when disclosures are measured as such. We argue that the way information is presented (i.e., the language and verbal tone of narratives) in environmental disclosure is equally or perhaps more important than its amount or thematic content, and that such narrative choice is not neutral to firm environmental performance. We use a computer-based measurement approach to evaluate the extent of language bias contained in corporate environmental disclosures for a cross-sectional sample of U.S. firms' 10-K reports. This study contributes to the social and environmental literature by (1) systematically analyzing the language used in environmental disclosures, (2) examining whether corporations attempt to manage impressions by writing such disclosures, and (3) further exploring the characteristics of impression management.Environmental disclosure; language tone; impression management

Alternative scenarios utilizing nonterrestrial resources

A collection of alternative scenarios that are enabled or substantially enhanced by the utilization of nonterrestrial resources is provided. We take a generalized approach to scenario building so that our report will have value in the context of whatever goals are eventually chosen. Some of the topics covered include the following: lunar materials processing; asteroid mining; lunar resources; construction of a large solar power station; solar dynamic power for the space station; reduced gravity; mission characteristics and options; and tourism

Developing Essential Learning and Study Skills Among Students in STEM Courses at Higher Education Institutions

To prepare students for success in STEM courses it is often necessary to implement measures that assist them with the development of necessary concomitant learning and study skills. Fully engaging students in performance enhancing problem solving activities that promote the sound development of essential critical thinking and logical reasoning skills/abilities is a must. Getting them to incorporate a myriad of high impact learning and study strategies into their daily routines is equally urgent In this session a tried and effective method of accomplishing those objectives is explored and illustrated. Furthermore, post-secondary STEM instructors will be engaged in a cooperative learning activity that simulates desired pedagogical strategies that lead to successfully preparing students for performance excellence in STEM courses. Through an exploration of, and engagement with, suitable assessment methods, participants will also gain an understanding of ways of effectively performing both formative and summative evaluation of the overall process

Evaluation of the toxicity of contaminated sediments in the James River, Virginia

The Virginia State Water Control.Board, in cooperation with the Department of Chemical Oceanography of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has recently conducted periodic chemical surveys of organic pollutants in the sediments of the upper James River. The August 1983 survey showed elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) at Stations ·4 and 7 (Figure 1 and Table 1). Although the reported concentrations were approximately one order· of magnitude lower than those reported in contaminated areas of the Elizabeth River, they were deemed high enough to warrant_ further study based on reported toxicity of Elizabeth River sediments (Hargis et al. 1984; Roberts et al. 1985). The purpose of the present-study was to determine if the sediments from these two sites were contaminated to the extent that they would be acutely toxic to fish

Bringing Entrepreneurial Ideas to Life

Organizational design in the context of new venture development is particularly challenging due to initially severe resource constraints. Deepening our understanding of differential productivity in the startup resource assembly process is therefore important. We address the twin questions of what assets are important to venture performance, and under what conditions are those assets especially important? We do so by considering initial venture idea assets and founder contracting experience. The resource-based view of the firm stresses developing the right assets, which accords with idea assets. Firm boundary theories of the firm emphasize structuring relationships in the right way given a set of organizational assets, which accords with founder contracting experience. Using unique survey data, we find that neither view by itself is as important as both theories taken together. We therefore advance an integrated perspective by showing that new ventures perform better when they both identify valuable resources and also assemble human assets with expertise in structuring organizational arrangements to commercialize those ideas. An important implication is that organizational resources have a range of potential values, and that realizing the upper range of value capture involves the additional ability to structure organizational relationships.We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the M.I.T. Entrepreneurship Center, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation under the Industry Studies Program

The Contingent Effects of Top Management Teams on Venture Performance: Aligning Founding Team Composition With Innovation Strategy and Commercialization Environment

How does the relationship between founding team composition and venture performance depend on the venture\u27s strategy and business environment? Using data from a novel survey of 2,067 firms, we show that while diverse founding teams tend to exhibit higher performance, this is not universally true. We find that founding teams that are diverse are likely to achieve high performance in a competitive commercialization environment. On the other hand, technically focused founding teams are aligned with a cooperative commercialization environment and when the enterprise pursues an innovation strategy. These results are robust to corrections for endogenous team formation concerns. The findings suggest that ventures cannot ignore founding team composition and expect to later professionalize their top management teams to align with their strategy and environment

Dynamical age of solar wind turbulence in the outer heliosphere

In an evolving turbulent medium, a natural timescale can be defined in terms of the energy decay time. The time evolution may be complicated by other effects such as energy supply due to driving, and spatial inhomogeneity. In the solar wind the turbulence appears not to be simply engaging in free decay, but rather the energy level observed at a particular position in the heliosphere is affected by expansion, “mixing,” and driving by stream shear. Here we discuss a new approach for estimating the “age” of solar wind turbulence as a function of heliocentric distance, using the local turbulent decay rate as the natural clock, but taking into account expansion and driving effects. The simplified formalism presented here is appropriate to low cross helicity (non-Alfvénic) turbulence in the outer heliosphere especially at low helio-latitudes. We employ Voyager data to illustrate our method, which improves upon the familiar estimates in terms of local eddy turnover times

CSR disclosure: The more things change…?

This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/ Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Purpose: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure is receiving increased attention from the mainstream accounting research community. In general, this recently published research has failed to engage significantly with prior CSR-themed studies. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, it examines whether more recent CSR reporting differs from that of the 1970s. Second, it investigates whether one of the major findings of prior CSR research - that disclosure appears to be largely a function of exposure to legitimacy factors - continues to hold in more recent reporting. Third, it examines whether, as argued within the more recent CSR-themed studies, disclosure is valued by market participants.ESSEC Business School’s Research Center (CERESSEC)University of Padov

Interventions outside the workplace for reducing sedentary behaviour in adults under 60

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the effects of non-occupational interventions for reducing sedentary behaviour in adults under 60 years of age on sedentary time. Secondary objectives are: to describe other health effects, and adverse events or unintended consequences of the interventions; to determine whether specific components of interventions are associated with changes in sedentary behaviour; to examine if there are any differential effects of interventions based on health inequalities (e.g. age, sex, income, employment)

Bibliometric analysis of global migration health research in peer-reviewed literature (2000-2016).

BACKGROUND: The health of migrants has become an important issue in global health and foreign policy. Assessing the current status of research activity and identifying gaps in global migration health (GMH) is an important step in mapping the evidence-base and on advocating health needs of migrants and mobile populations. The aim of this study was to analyze globally published peer-reviewed literature in GMH. METHODS: A bibliometric analysis methodology was used. The Scopus database was used to retrieve documents in peer-reviewed journals in GMH for the study period from 2000 to 2016. A group of experts in GMH developed the needed keywords and validated the final search strategy. RESULTS: The number of retrieved documents was 21,457. Approximately one third (6878; 32.1%) of the retrieved documents were published in the last three years of the study period. In total, 5451 (25.4%) documents were about refugees and asylum seekers, while 1328 (6.2%) were about migrant workers, 440 (2.1%) were about international students, 679 (3.2%) were about victims of human trafficking/smuggling, 26 (0.1%) were about patients' mobility across international borders, and the remaining documents were about unspecified categories of migrants. The majority of the retrieved documents (10,086; 47.0%) were in psychosocial and mental health domain, while 2945 (13.7%) documents were in infectious diseases, 6819 (31.8%) documents were in health policy and systems, 2759 (12.8%) documents were in maternal and reproductive health, and 1918 (8.9%) were in non-communicable diseases. The contribution of authors and institutions in Asian countries, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, and Eastern European countries was low. Literature in GMH represents the perspectives of high-income migrant destination countries. CONCLUSION: Our heat map of research output shows that despite the ever-growing prominence of human mobility across the globe, and Sustainable Development Goals of leaving no one behind, research output on migrants' health is not consistent with the global migration pattern. A stronger evidence base is needed to enable authorities to make evidence-informed decisions on migration health policy and practice. Research collaboration and networks should be encouraged to prioritize research in GMH