Business ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance : a review and summary critique

The success of modern business is apparent, but recently there is much concern in the business-and-society literature and in the general press on whether business fulfils its social role responsibly. Business ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance movements have been developed in recent decades as responses to a growing sense of corporate wrongdoing. This paper attempts to explain why the three movements seem yet to have generated little in the form of widely accepted prescriptions for improvement of business behaviour to the satisfaction of the “constituents” of business, i.e. the major stakeholders. Without denying the usefulness of any of the three movements, the paper suggests that there are weaknesses in all three, especially concerning the way they conceive modern business operation. To this end business pluralism, responsive codes of practice and re-examination of the assumptions (conditions) of business operation could be helpful.peer-reviewe

The ambiguity of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) : hit or doom?

In the age of the smart machine and informative domination, work organizations and their managers look forward to acquiring internal advantages for their companies in response to external changes and pressures. In this pursuit for success managers are often attracted by various techniques and software programmes such as reengineering solutions and ERP applications. However, there is no general agreement on the benefits or misfits of both of the aforementioned projects in the business literature. This paper tries to offer a critical analysis of the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) movement and examines its compatibility with ERP solutions. It is argued that both managerial innovations are “top-down” approaches and company’s ability to perform high standards still mainly depends on managerial heads’ authority. However, as it is revealed out of the majority of case studies reviewed, ultimately, every effort for business modernization and success depends on the objectives, interpretation and commitment for change.peer-reviewe

Analyze female entrepreneurship : evidence from Greece

The aim of this paper is to identify the profile of existing female entrepreneurs in Greece, highlight their main characteristics, and interpret their beliefs in relation to their entrepreneurial and personal life. To this end we conducted an on-line national questionnaire survey from November 2012 to January 2013, using a sample of 300 women entrepreneurs. The main findings indicate that the majority of the participants feel strong, successful, proud and well respected due to practicing entrepreneurship. However, despite their great potential in becoming successful entrepreneurs, they also reported fears related to the entrepreneurial reality. Further, most of them expressed guilty feelings for the limited time they devote to their families. Also, almost half of them stated that entrepreneurship has no gender thus implying that the debate on women’s entrepreneurship is outdated. 70% of the sample stated that economic crisis will bring out more women entrepreneurs despite the realized risks associated with new business ventures. Finally, the limitations of this work and policy implications are discussed.peer-reviewe

The Ambiguity of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Hit or Doom?

Abstract I

Strategy in practice: a quantitative approach to target setting

An extended quality-driven efficiency-adjusted data envelopment analysis (QE-DEA) method is developed to measure the performance of service units. Performance is measured based on efficiency and users’ satisfaction. The extended QE-DEA method identifies as benchmarks only units that are qualified both in efficiency and satisfaction and ensures that all of the units will be qualified in both dimensions of performance when their performance becomes maximal. If there are efficient units which fail to provide satisfactory services, an adjustment procedure is applied to their outputs before the assessment of the units’ performance. Optimal output targets that lead every unit to maximal performance are defined by the extended QE-DEA. The presented expression relaxes the main assumption of the original QE-DEA method that is the fixed weights between original and adjusted outputs. The extended expression is applied to fifty public one-stop shops

Revisiting the sustainability-innovation nexus: Lessons learned from the US

The relationship between innovation and corporate sustainability constitutes a long-lasting debate among policymakers and researchers. Despite the significant contributions to this field, extant literature does not provide clear answers. This can be attributed to the fact that prior studies do not incorporate the various aspects of innovation to measure their impact on sustainability performance. This study aims to cover this gap in the emerging literature by using a unique micro-level panel dataset consisting of a large number of firms scattered across the US states over the period 2007-2016. Our findings reveal that the basic mechanism for achieving corporate sustainability is through the innovation channel. We also argue that the quantity and value of innovation enhance the sustainability level, whereas these effects are strengthened in times of recession (global financial crisis). The empirical results survive robustness checks under alternative innovation measures and different econometric techniques dealing with endogeneity and reverse causality. Lastly, policy implications relating to the nature of corporate sustainability performance are also provided

Strategy in practice: a quantitative approach to target setting

An extended quality-driven efficiency-adjusted data envelopment analysis (QE-DEA) method is developed to measure the performance of service units. Performance is measured based on efficiency and users’ satisfaction. The extended QE-DEA method identifies as benchmarks only units that are qualified both in efficiency and satisfaction and ensures that all of the units will be qualified in both dimensions of performance when their performance becomes maximal. If there are efficient units which fail to provide satisfactory services, an adjustment procedure is applied to their outputs before the assessment of the units’ performance. Optimal output targets that lead every unit to maximal performance are defined by the extended QE-DEA. The presented expression relaxes the main assumption of the original QE-DEA method that is the fixed weights between original and adjusted outputs. The extended expression is applied to fifty public one-stop shops

Firms’ Sustainability Performance and Market Longevity

This study examines the impact of sustainability (ESG) on US listed firms’ exit decision. Using a recent dataset of a large number of US firms over the period 2007- 2016, we perform a dynamic empirical analysis of the relation between ESG and firms’ exiting mechanism by measuring environmental, social and governance issues. We provide evidence that corporate sustainability is a tool that can reduce risks and enable companies to boost surviving mechanisms and face less probability of failure. Finally, we perform several statistical tests for robustness purpose

Human capital and performance appraisal in the public sector: An empirical investigation from employees’ and senior managers’ perspective

Human capital is often considered as one of the most fundamental requirements for high organizational performance, whereas key driver for the achievement of higher levels of employees' productivity is considered the employment of a suitable performance appraisal system. Based on this perspective, we assume that every organization needs to establish an effective appraisal system which will be sufficient to facilitate employees’ continuous development. This is especially relevant for public sector organizations that in some countries implement fundamentally flawed performance appraisal systems. On the verge of the transition from the bureaucratic to the new public management model, the organizational units of the public sector seem to have an excellent opportunity to redesign their key processes, including human capital appraisal forms. This paper explores the context and role of a few critical human capital practices, which are mainly related to employees’ self-evaluation and performance appraisal, and are currently implemented in the Greek public sector. To attain our goal, an empirical investigation was conducted via a questionnaire survey to specifically determine whether self-evaluation and appraisal problems exist, in particular in terms of objectivity, consistency, adequacy, and credibility. The questionnaires were addressed both to employees and senior managers. The empirical results obtained, highlight some core problems that the public sector faces, with regard to existing self-evaluation systems and appraisal practices. These, among others, include the following: a lack of objectivity both in employees’ self-evaluation and in their appraisals assessed by the senior managers; inconsistencies between the way the public servants perceive the range and quality of their merits and those included in their job description; mistrust and lack of reliability on employees’ evaluation reports and selection criteria. Finally, some policy reformations are proposed to cope with these problems

The Effect of Patent Grant on the Geographic Reach of Patent Sales

This paper examines whether patents increase the geographic reach of the market for ideas. By employing a dataset of 25,127 US patents traded between US located firms, we find that patents sold during application phase are less likely to be traded outside the seller‟s state than patents that have been issued. To tackle the endogeneity issues we employ coarsened exact matching techniques. We find that patent grant increases the likelihood of a patent to be traded across boundaries of the state. This evidence is stronger for patents originating from the less innovative US states