The drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility in the supply chain. A case study.

Purpose: The paper studies the way in which a SME integrates CSR into its corporate strategy, the practices it puts in place and how its CSR strategies reflect on its suppliers and customers relations. Methodology/Research limitations: A qualitative case study methodology is used. The use of a single case study limits the generalizing capacity of these findings. Findings: The entrepreneur’s ethical beliefs and value system play a fundamental role in shaping sustainable corporate strategy. Furthermore, the type of competitive strategy selected based on innovation, quality and responsibility clearly emerges both in terms of well defined management procedures and supply chain relations as a whole aimed at involving partners in the process of sustainable innovation. Originality/value: The paper presents a SME that has devised an original innovative business model. The study pivots on the issues of innovation and eco-sustainability in a context of drivers for CRS and business ethics. These values are considered fundamental at International level; the United Nations has declared 2011 the “International Year of Forestry”

Value Creation and Related Measurement in Univeristies. An Empirical Application

The growing normative, financial, organizational and didactic autonomy, which has interested European universities, has stimulated the monitoring processes on efficiency, efficacy, and operational methods with which public resources are managed. Moreover, the association between financial funds, along with sustained costs and service quality, has strongly increased top management’s attention to costs reduction and, above all, to the final user’s satisfaction. In this new scenario, evaluation comes out to be the natural consequence of the strong universities’ autonomist pressure. Therefore, this paper, after approaching universities’ structural and systemic assets, as well as their relationship with the referring contest, analyses specific (related to the formative offer) and global university’s performances measurement methods and evaluation difficulties. The exposed theoretical analyses are completed with an empirical application about an engineering degree course self-assessment. KEY WORDS: Universities, evaluation, assessment, service qualit