Assessing sustainability support to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)

The aim of this paper is to evaluate qualitatively the impact of sustainability support to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) where quantitative results are often difficult to appraise. Many of these organisations require sustainable business support to enable them to start or build their business concepts on sound sustainable platforms. Many SMEs are unable to quantitatively evaluate the benefit which they have received from support programmes because they are in the project planning stage or have limited financial data. Without a form of evaluation, support networks often cannot retain funding support. This paper is based on the grounded theory approach to analyse qualitative data received from participants in a sustainability support programme. Research on such programmes to SMEs is scant. This paper proposes the use of qualitative data collection and its evaluation to be considered when making the case for funding such programmes, along with quantitative data when availabl

Does corporate social responsibility pay?

This literature review summarises the main strands of the debate around whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) has any impact on corporate financial performance (CFP). This subject area has been the source of academic and business debate for more than 40 years, especially since the level of CSR engagement of an organisation (whether profit-making or not) has been linked to benefits to its reputation and relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, government and its wider community

Ethical judgement and intent in business school students: the role of the psyche?

The aim of this paper is to highlight how business schools can improve the ethical behaviour of future managers. It assesses the positions of ethical judgement and ethical intent within a sample of UK business students, together with an analysis of underlying explanatory factors to those positions, such as levels of depression, anxiety, stress, motivation and self-compassion. A range of scales were used to evaluate the ethical stance and psychological characteristics of a group of UK business students. The results indicate that feelings of self-compassion, a sense of self-direction and mental health (in particular, depression) affect the ethical judgement and intent of students in a range of business and university scenarios. It is recommended that in addition to more formal ethics education, universities consider the mental health and psyche of their students to improve the efficacy of ethical training.N/

Is UK Financial Reporting Becoming Less Prudent?

This paper seeks to discover whether as a result of the removal of prudence as a concept within the revised 2010 Conceptual Framework, the accounts of companies in the FTSE100 in the UK have displayed any trends to be more or less conservative/prudent. The research design uses the two most popular measures of accounting conservatism (prudence) used in literature, Market-to-Book ratio and the Basu Asymmetric Timeliness model (Basu 1997) and compares the period prior to the change in the 2010 Conceptual Framework with the same measures post the change. The study finds that using both measures of conservatism, the levels of conservatism have fallen since the removal of prudence from the Conceptual Framework. This paper has implications for the users of financial statements and standard setters as the lower levels of prudence or accounting conservatism are associated with higher levels of risk (litigation) and costs (agency costs) which can affect stock valuations.peer-reviewe

CSR, financial performance and risk: Does it add up for mid-caps?

The purpose of this paper is to establish whether there is a link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scores, Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) and risk in US mid-cap firms. Whilst much previous work has been carried out on large-cap firms, the mid-cap sector has been neglected in academic literature and by the investor/analyst world. The CSR scores from a sample of 365 large-cap, 279 mid-cap and 356 small-cap firms from the US S&P stock indices were regressed against a range of market-based, accounting-based and risk-based variables to assess whether there was any correlation between them. Whilst positive findings were made for the large-cap and small-cap firms, there was little evidence of any such relationship for mid-cap firms. These findings fill a gap in the literature on a much neglected but unique market sector, which is of importance to those who work within that sector, in that they may gain a better understanding of the implications of their unique environment, but also for investors and analysts alike who have hitherto largely ignored the mid-cap sector.N/

Mental health of UK university business students: Relationship with shame, motivation and self-compassion

There is growing awareness of mental health problems among UK business students, which appears to be exacerbated by students’ attitudes of shame toward mental health. This study recruited 138 UK business students and examined the relationship between mental health and shame, and mental health and potential protective factors such as self-compassion and motivation. A significant correlation between each of the constructs was observed and self-compassion was identified as an explanatory variable for mental health. Shame moderated the relationship between self-compassion and mental health. Integrating self-compassion training into business study programs may help to improve the mental health of this student group.N/

Family secrets and social silence: women with insecure immigration status and domestic abuse policy in Scotland

In recent decades, domestic abuse has been transformed from a private concern and personal tragedy into a key public issue across the globe. In the UK this has culminated in a contemporary policy focus on violence between intimate partners as one of a multitude of forms of violence against women. Consequently, much research has focused on the abuse of women in intimate relationships in attempts to understand the problem and formulate appropriate state responses to it. Feminist principles have guided much of this work, and both devolved and central UK governments accept the feminist analysis of the problem: domestic abuse is the result of perpetuating gender inequalities in the social, public realm. Public services such as health, education and social work, as well as the criminal justice system, seek to respond to the needs of women fleeing their abusive partners, and public money covers the cost of many Women’s Aid refuge places. However, some women’s immigration status precludes access to publicly funded services, and subsequently their options for support and ability to exit abusive relationships is constrained. Despite overt policy statements which recognise the universal nature of domestic abuse and the way in which it will affect very high proportions of women irrespective of their race, colour or creed, state support is therefore conditional. The experiences of women who are prevented from automatically accessing public services because of their immigration status has become of increasing concern in the Scottish context since the dispersal of thousands of asylum seekers during the last decade, as well as the rising number of women entering the country on spousal visas. This study therefore examines experiences of help seeking and escape from abusive relationships from the perspective of this particular group of women. Of central concern is the process of problematisation: the way in which issues are transformed from private matters into public concerns, warranting state intervention and investment, and the way in which this transformative process shapes the policies which proceed from it. Therefore, the study investigates the problematisation of domestic abuse in Scotland; the avenues of support it offers as a result of this process; and how this very problematisation shapes women’s personal experiences of help-seeking and escape from abusive partners. First a comparative discourse analysis of documents from Scotland and New Zealand illustrates how different definitions of ‘the problem’ result in differentiated public responses; then, drawing on data collected during in-depth interviews with participants at policy level, workers in support services, and individual women themselves, women’s journeys through and away from abusive relationships, as well as the social and political contexts which shape them, are discussed. Two key themes emerge from this piece of research: the operation of silences within a policy context; and the way in which this is dominated by hierarchical values, systems and processes. The thesis concludes that there is scope for a practical application of the findings which could enrich policy understanding and output in Scotland, to the benefit of women who are, at present, one of the most marginalized groups in Scottish society

To agree or disagree? An analysis of CSR ratings firms

With the increasing use of CSR ratings firms' data to guide ethical investing and to derive findings in academic studies, there has been a growth in the number of ratings firms. These firms use differing methodologies and data to derive their ratings. Therefore, it is important to understand whether ratings are commensurable, as decisions made on the basis of the ratings data used may differ. This paper assesses the level of agreement between two ratings firms, Bloomberg and CSR Hub across three main CSR subcategories and an overall score. It uses Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient on continuous ratings, and cross-tabulation and Cohen’s kappa on ranked ratings within a sample of 720 US and EU companies. For both continuous and ranked data, there is most agreement on Employees/Social, Community/Social and Overall categories and weaker agreement on Environmental and Governance categories. Firms in the German DAX are most consistently rated, as are large and medium-sized firms. These findings propose a degree of caution for investors and academics using only one rater as the basis for their decisions/inferences. Accounting practitioners should be aware their CSR disclosures result in differing ratings and should consider which raters their key investors use. This paper is original in the comprehensive range of methods used to analyse two ratings firms across all CSR sub-categories, in samples from both the US and EU.N/

Sustainability, the triple bottom line and corporate social responsibility.

The traditional economic business model is focussed on generating profits for shareholders, and as such, it is quite short-term in focus. It takes resources (whether natural, human or financial) and uses them to make products or deliver services with the aim of making profit which is then returned to shareholders. Traditionally, there has been little regard for the sustainability of this model. This is now changing as the world recognises the finite nature of many resources and the social issues which unchecked growth bring. This chapter discusses what is meant by sustainability, and discusses some approaches used at both policy-level and corporate level to address these challenges.N/

The influence of policy, public service and local politics on the shift to a low carbon economy in the East Midlands.

This chapter charts the shift from sustainable development policy drivers, through the emergence of climate policy and its impact on public service managers, to the more recent development of low-carbon policy. We also explore the relationship between local business, the local political ‘regime’, the national and European political ‘landscape’ and implications for local actors in the East Midlands; arguing that while low-carbon policy might be more in tune with political realities than attempts at wholesale reductions of carbon emissions, it has brought into question the viability of existing carbon reduction targets. In doing this, we explore the tensions between the ‘grand challenge’ of climate change, the difficult details of policy implementation and the pragmatic reality of business practice.N/