Measuring And Communicating The Value Created By An Organization

This paper offers a different perspective in measuring the value created by an organization. It does so in the context of an undergraduate course in managerial accounting.  In order to breakdown the functional silo approach to problem solving that has become the model of traditional business education, applications of shadow accounting, the balanced scorecard (BSC), Triple Bottom-Line (TBL), and other measures are introduced to challenge students to broaden their ideas of the function of the firm and the value that firm creates

The Triple Bottom Line: The Reporting Of Doing Well & Doing Good

Organizations struggle to tell their stories, to communicate the good - and sometimes the bad - they do in the marketplace, in the community, to and for the environment, and in society. Quite clearly, the challenge of telling the companys story is not being met by current corporate reporting practices. In particular, criticism has been directed at the failure of annual reports or other regulatory filings to tell anything about a company's environmental and social performance. Triple bottom-line (TBL) reporting, a term coined by John Elkington in his 1997 book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, aims to remedy this shortcoming by explicitly considering not only the economic performance of a firm but also the companys environmental and social performance as well. This article gives an overview of the TBL concept and how it is changing the way in which corporations tell their story

Sustainable Mobility: A Look At The Automotive Industry

The purpose of this study is simple. It aims to find the most sustainable car company. As a first step, it explores some common and conflicting definitions and rankings of what it means to be the most sustainable automaker. This study then turns to the sustainability reports issued by the automakers themselves to see if these reports shed light on which company performs best in terms of its economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Particular attention is given to how these reports have evolved over successive iterations. By looking at some of the more objective and quantifiable performance indicators, particularly those which reflect environmental performance, a better understanding of what it means to be a sustainable car company may be achieved

Where\u27s the R in debit?

The common abbreviation for the accounting term debit is a puzzling one: Dr. Today, particularly with our depersonalized treatment of the accounting or bookkeeping debit, there is no obvious clue as to why there is an r in debit at all. An investigation of the history and evolution of the debit in bookkeeping reveals the reason for the abbreviation: a reason almost totally lost without historical perspective. Whereas the accounting debit is now viewed as a technical term, devoid of any value considerations, referring simply to the left side of a journal entry or ledger account, this was not always the case. Originally, debits did have a bad side. They were used to record the debts of the merchant or businessman. Debits were debtors. And the abbreviation for debtor is Dr

The Global Reporting Initiative: What Value is Added?

This paper explores the extent to which the Global Reporting Initiative G3 Reporting Framework adds value to the external reporting of a company’s financial, environmental and social performance. This inquiry takes the form of analyzing the content of the published sustainability reports of well-known companies to compare and contrast the information communicated in these reports.

In Search Of An Integrative Theme For The Undergraduate Business Curriculum

The Business Core is typically a set of courses in the curriculum of many business schools which provides the student with a breadth of knowledge across all business disciplines.  The purpose of this paper is to introduce a curricular model based upon the balanced scorecard (BSC) developed by Kaplan & Norton (1996). With its multi-dimensional approach that encompasses all business disciplines, the BSC framework provides a natural vehicle for integration. Moreover, with the flexibility in the choice of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the potential for adding other perspectives, the BSC is infinitely adaptable and expandable

Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Social Performance & Sustainable Stakeholder Accounting

Disclosures of a corporation’s socially responsible (CSR) activities and measurement of its per-formance in those activities are uneven, inconsistent, and incomparable. Given the absence of re-porting standards, this is not surprising. This paper explores ways to "account for" CSR and presents an example of “sustainable stakeholder accounting” that can be used to integrate corpo-rate social performance (CSP) into the financial statements which provide information for so many economic decisions. It suggests how the development of indices of social responsibility may facilitate analysis of a company's performance by quantifying and objectifying what is clearly a value-laden area. However, this will only be possible if current accounting standards are modified. Indeed, one of the primary objectives of this paper is to advocate changes in current accounting reporting practices so that a various aspects of CSR/CSP are made more transparent and can be more objectively assessed by the stakeholders who are impacted. To accomplish this, the form and substance of these disclosures must have “bottom line” meaning – and these disclosures should be mandated by accounting and securities regulations, not left to the discretion of individual companies

The Second Round Of G3 Reports: Is Triple Bottom Line Reporting Becoming More Comparable?

This paper explores the extent to which adoption of the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 reporting framework makes the external reporting of a company’s financial, environmental and social performance more comparable. This inquiry takes the form of analyzing the content of the published sustainability reports of well-known companies to compare and contrast the information communicated in these reports.  Particular attention will be paid differences in the published content of the second round of G3 reports between companies in the pharmaceutical industry

Lists & More Lists: Making Sense Of Corporate Reputations

What would you like to know about a company?  What value has the company created in the past, is creating currently, and will create in the future?  The creation of financial value is not only important; it is necessary - but is it enough? This study explores the relationships between and among lists of top performers - Boston College’s Corporate Social Responsibility Index, Fortune’s World's Most Admired Companies, Harris Interactive’s Reputation Quotient for the Most Visible Companies, and Newsweek’s Green Rankings of America's 500 largest corporations. Its objective is to see whether in spite of differing methodologies and criteria for rankings, there is a commonality of inclusion in lists. In effect, this paper attempts use statistical analysis in order to determine if there is an agreement as to which companies are top corporate citizens in the United States

Agreement of Health Status Classification and Body Composition Differences in Asian Indian Students upon Residence in the United States

Obesity is one of the major health problems in the United States (U.S.). As Asian Indian students immigrate to the U.S., the effect of acculturation to the U.S. lifestyle is an area of concern. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1) examine the health-risk status of Asian Indians with respect to agreement in classifications of percent body fat (PF) and body mass index (BMI), and 2) examine the effects of U.S. residence duration on body composition of Asian Indian college students. METHODS: Forty-two Asian Indian males and females were divided into two groups according to length of residence. First year residents resided in the U.S. for ≤ 4 months, second year residents had resided in the U.S. for ≥ 1 year. Height and weight were recorded for BMI. PF was measured by whole body air displacement plethysmography. Percent agreement was determined between the health risk classifications of both BMI and PF. The effect of gender and U.S. residence duration were determined on both BMI and PF using Factorial ANOVA. RESULTS: The percent agreement between BMI and PF on classification of health status was 69.05%. Two exclusive 2 (gender) x 2 (residence duration) between subjects factorial ANOVAs were calculated comparing the BMI and PF by group and gender. For BMI, the main effect for gender was not significant (F(1,38)=0.023, p\u3e0.025). A significant effect for U.S. residence duration was found (F(1,38)=20.193, p\u3c0.025). Students of the second year demonstrated a higher mean BMI (m=26.52, sd=0.78) than the first year (m=21.57, sd=0.78). The interaction was not significant (F(1,38)=0.647, p\u3e0.025). Thus, the difference in BMI due to U.S. residence duration is not influenced by differences in gender. For PF, a significant main effect for the gender was found (F(1,38)=31.354, p\u3c0.025). A significant main effect for U.S. residence duration was found (F(1,38)=13.044, p\u3c0.025). Second year students demonstrated a higher mean PF (m=33.98, sd=1.61) as compared to the first year (m=25.78, sd=1.61). The interaction was not significant (F(1,38)=0.97, p\u3e0.05). The effect of gender was not influenced by residence duration. CONCLUSION: Agreement information indicates the discrepancy between the two methods of determining health status in Asian Indians. Additionally, this study demonstrates that as a result of one year in the U.S., second year students had higher body composition values than first year students