Nonresidential Fathers Parenting Their Children Residing in Shelters: A Phenomenological Study

This phenomenological qualitative study explored the parenting role of nonresidential fathers of children living in shelters. Special attention was paid to the perceived contributions of these fathers to the overall health and general well-being of their children residing in shelters. Often separations of nonresidential fathers from their children in shelters decreased their contributions to their children\u27s health and well-being. Increased knowledge of these parental roles and contributions can enhance programs and policies to support these fathers in improving the health and well-being of their children. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 6 demographically diverse nonresidential fathers living in Philadelphia. The health-belief model, in conjunction with the revised health-belief model, was used as a theoretical framework for this study. The research questions were designed to explore nonresidential fathers\u27 parenting roles, perceptions of their contributions, and the facilitators of and barriers to their parenting while their children resided in shelters. An inductive approach to data analysis informed study findings of nonresidential fathers\u27 active participation and engagement in their children\u27s lives, including involvement in their healthcare and health promotion. Perceived facilitators to their parenting role included internal and external motivators, whereas perceived challenges and barriers to their parenting role were externally based. Finally, study findings showed these fathers to be present and making significant contributions to the improved health and overall well-being of their children while they resided in homeless shelters

Responsabilità sociale come Governance allargata d'impresa : un'interpretazione basata sulla teoria del contratto sociale e della reputazione

Liuc Papers n. 143, Serie Etica, Diritto ed Economia 11, suppl. a febbraio 2004. Questo saggio propone una definizione di responsabilit\ue0 sociale dell'impresa come modello di corporate governance \u201cestesa\u201d e chiarisce l'idea di approccio volontario alla CSR, inteso come osservanza volontaria a standard di gestione strategica volti alla CSR, sulla base di una teoria economica dell''autoregolazione. In primo luogo si argomenta che i doveri fiduciari verso gli stakeholder sono necessari proprio a causa dell'analisi neo-istituzionalista dell'impresa intesa come sistema di governo unificato delle transazioni basato sull'autorit\ue0 e il diritto residuale di controllo. Il concetto chiave \ue8 qui quello di abuso di autorit\ue0 nei confronti di stakeholder legati all'impresa da contatti incompleti . In secondo luogo i doveri fiduciari sono ricavati dal modello del contratto sociale dell'impresa tra i suoi stakeholder. Questo consente di dedurre un criterio di gestione strategica e governo non meno capace di fissare il termine di giudizio per la gestione dell'impresa di quanto lo sia la massimizzazione del profitto e al contempo in grado di rispondere alle legittime pretese dei diversi stakeholder dell'impresa. Ci\uf2 \ue8 permesso da un'applicazione della teoria dei giochi di contrattazione al contatto sciale dell'impresa, che permette di usare la soluzione di Nash-Harsanyi come criterio normativo per la gestione strategica e il governo dell'impresa e consente di rispondere con una soluzione calcolabile alla critica circa la mancanza di un criterio univoco, sollevata da Jensen (2001) contro l'idea di stakeholder value. Terzo, si distingue tra due modelli di autoregolazione (quello discrezionale e quello dell'adesione volontaria a norme esplicite) e si argomenta che mentre l'incompletezza contrattuale e la conoscenza imperfetta escludono il ricorso agli effetti di reputazione nel caso della autoregolazione discrezionale, al contrario uno standard esplicito di gestione strategica volta alla CSR, basato su principi generali espliciti di etica degli affari e su protocolli precauzionali e regole di condotta preventive -tutti pubblicamente condivisi tra stakeholder e impresa sulla base del dialogo sociale - consentono di riattivare il meccanismo reputazione inducendo incentivi endogeni alla loro osservanza. A questo punto si offre una spiegazione della logica che presiede a uno standard di CSR per la gestione strategica (basata sulle logiche fuzzy e dei default) grazie alla quale esso opera come un gap filling cognitivo rispetto agli impegni dell'impresa e alle aspettative degli stakeholder in presenza di informazione incompleta. Inoltre la recente teoria delle preferenze conformiste e non puramente autointeressate aggiunge ulteriore forza motivazionale al risultato base circa l'auto-imposizione di uno standard di CSR. Il saggio si conclude con il progetto di un istituzione multi-stakeholder a prova di collusione , intesa come corpo intermedio della societ\ue0, in grado di rispondere alla domanda di credibilit\ue0 e di verifica esterna, da parte di soggetti indipendenti di terza parte, circa l'osservanza degli standard di CSR

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a model of extended corporate governance: an explanation based on the economic theory of social contract, reputation and reciprocal conformism

Liuc Papers n. 142, Serie Etica, Diritto ed Economia 10, suppl. a febbraio 2004. This paper first sets a definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an extended model of corporate governance and then accounts for a voluntary approach to CSR, meant as voluntary compliance with CSR strategic management standards, in terms of an economic theory of self-regulation based on the concepts of social contract, reputation and reciprocal conformism. The paper argues that extended fiduciary duties toward all the firm's stakeholders are needed because of the same neo-institutional analysis of the firm that justifies it as a unified system of governance of economic transactions based on authority relations and residual rights of control. The key concept here is that of abuse of firm's authority vis-\ue0-vis the stakeholders who hold incomplete contracts with the firm. Extended fiduciary duties are singled out from the model of a Social Contract amongst the firm's stakeholders. This provide for a clear cut and calculable criterion of strategic management no less able to set a bottom-line to the firm management than the profit maximisation principle, while being able of answering legitimate claims of fair treatment from all the firm's stakeholders. Such a task is accomplished by an application of the theory of bargaining games to the Social Contract of the firm, which employs the Nash-Harsanyi bargaining solution as a normative criterion for strategic management and corporate governance, providing an answer to the deficit of uniqueness problem raised by Michael Jensen (2001) against the notion of stakeholders value. Then, the paper distinguishes two models of self regulation (the discretionary one, and the explicit-norms-cum-self-enforcement one) and argues that while incomplete contracts and imperfect knowledge debar form resorting to reputation effects in order to support discretional self-regulation, on the contrary an explicit standard for CSR strategic management, based on general and abstract business ethics principles and precautionary protocols and rules of behaviour - both publicly shared by stakeholders and firms through social dialog - make possible to put again at work the reputation mechanism inducing endogenous incentives of compliance with a voluntary standard. The paper here suggests how (by both fuzzy logic and default reasoning ) a CSR Strategic Management Standard may work as a cognitive gap filling tool with respect to the firm's commitments and the stakeholders' expectations in presence of incomplete information. Moreover recent developments in the theory of conformist non-purely-self-interested preferences add motivational force to the basic result about self-enforcement of a CSR management standard. Hence, conformist preferences solve the problem of optimal mixed strategies that otherwise could enable the firm inducing the stakeholders to \u201ctrust\u201d it without really conforming to a CSR standard. This result is given a formal proof in sec.11. The paper concludes with a collusion-proof design of intermediate social bodies (civil society institutions) that may answer the demand for assurance and external verifiability of CSR standards compliance by independent third-parties

il modello d'impresa all'origine della crisi e l'alternativa dell'impresa socialmente responsabile

In questo articolo suggerisco che il modello di impresa basato sul principio della \u201cmassimizzazione del valore per gli azionisti\u201d (shareholder value) affermatosi nel trentennio di egemonia neoliberista nei paesi di cultura e ordinamento anglosassone, ha avuto un ruolo determinante nello scatenamento delle forze che hanno portato alla crisi finanziaria globale iniziata nel 2007/8, ma non ancora conclusa. Affermo inoltre che lo stesso modello di impresa congiura a rendere cos\uec grave la crisi dei debiti sovrani europei. Quindi propongo, ed argomento con qualche dettaglio, il modello alternativo dell\u2019impresa socialmente responsabile, che trae origine da oltre un decennio di discussione pubblica sulla responsabilit\ue0 sociale di impresa in Europa e a livello internazionale, ma anche dalle perduranti esperienze di capitalismi non basati sul medesimo dogma e rimasti compatibili con l\u2019idea che l\u2019impresa crei e distribuisca equamente valore a molteplici stakeholder

Il bilancio sociale nel settore pubblico : esame critico degli standard e linee innovative per le Regioni e gli Enti di governo decentrati

Econometica working papers 4. Le riflessioni e le esperienze di rendicontazione non finanziaria avvenute negli anni recenti sotto il titolo di \u201cbilancio sociale\u201d offrono molti elementi di interesse per comprendere pi\uf9 a fondo le ragioni dell\u2019 \u201caccountability\u201d delle istituzioni e organizzazioni che governano ogni tipo di transazione, siano esse appartenenti alla sfera del diritto pubblico (una Regione, una Provincia a statuto speciale, un ente locale, un\u2019azienda municipalizzata, una Asl o un ospedale pubblico) o a quella del diritto privato (l\u2019impresa di capitali, le cooperative, le organizzazioni non profit, le imprese sociali ecc.). D\u2019altra parte tali esperienze e metodologie, anche se avvenute in prevalenza con riferimento al settore delle imprese private, non possono dirsi del tutto nuove rispetto alle esigenze e pratiche di rendicontazione e agli stessi principi di \u201caccountability\u201d della pubblica amministrazione. Di sicuro molti enti di governo a livello nazionale, regionale o locale dispongono gi\ue0 di un certo numero di documenti di rendicontazione delle proprie attivit\ue0 e risultati, che accompagnano e integrano la redazione del bilancio economico-finanziario. Se dunque \ue8 possibile che gli scopi del bilancio sociale trovino gi\ue0 almeno in parte risposta in alcuni di tali documenti, \ue8 al contempo assai probabile che una riflessione sui principi e le metodologie del bilancio sociale consentano di valutare i limiti e le lacune di tali pratiche e al contempo di ricondurle a un quadro pi\uf9 completo ed esauriente, rivisitando al tempo stesso le ragioni di fondo della rendicontazione non economico-finanziaria nel settore pubblico. Scopo di questi studio \ue8 verificare l\u2019ipotesi secondo cui la rendicontazione dell\u2019ente pubblico (prevalentemente al livello di governo regionale, di enti di governo decentrato con elevato grado di autonomia decisionale, regolamentare oltre che gestionale) possa offrire significativi benefici in termini di miglioramento della governance pubblica, e soprattutto identificare quali domande debbano trovare risposta e quali linee guida debbano essere seguite. La parte centrale dello studio \ue8 quindi un\u2019analisi delle linee guida e standard esistenti in Italia per la realizzazione del BS nel settore delle pubbliche amministrazioni e il suggerimento degli elementi di un modello pi\uf9 avanzato. Seguono indicazioni di policy

CSR as Contractarian Model of Multi-Stakeholder Corporate Governance and the Game-Theory of its Implementation

Trento University Economics working paper series. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is here defined as a multi-stakeholder model of corporate governance and fiduciary duties naturally emerging from a critical assessment of the incomplete contracts view of the firm based on concepts like as authority and residual rights of control. As far as the normative point of view is concerned, multi-stakeholder fiduciary duties are deduced from a theory of the firm's stakeholders Social Contract. This provide for a clear cut and calculable objective function, a criterion for governance and strategic management no less able to set a bottom-line to the firm management than the profit maximization principle. The theory of co-operative bargaining games, and the Nash bargaining solution in particular, provides the key concepts. By the way this also answers some criticisms raised by Michael Jensen (2001) against the notion of stakeholders value. As far as implementation of the normative model is concerned, four roles of voluntary but explicit CSR norms or social standard are presented in terms of a non-cooperative game theory of implementation. It is shown that they allow the description of strategies and equilibria, even if multiple, in a game played under unforeseen contingencies. Secondly, a CSR norm permits the ex ante selection of the equilibrium point that meets the requirements of an impartial choice. An explicit agreement on a contractarian norm is moreover a way to introduce psychological conformist equilibria, and quite surprisingly to derive the significant result that mixed strategy equilibria are absent in a psychological repeated Trust Game. Lastly, a cognitive and predictive role is played by an agreed CSR norm as the appropriate starting point for an equilibrium selection mechanism that, from a state of predictive uncertainty about possible equilibria, generates a state of mutually consistent expectations consistent with the prediction that all players will converge on the psychological equilibrium fully conforming with the norm as the effective solution of the game

Standard e linee guida Q-RES per il miglioramento delle prestazioni etico-sociali dell'organizzazione

LIUC PAPERS. 145, Etica, diritto ed economia, 12, supplemento a marzo 2004. The Q-RES management model described in the Q-RES Guidelines takes into account the issue of its verifiability by external bodies and it proposes the definition of a Q-RES Standard on which the external verification and the certification of Corporate Social Responsibility of an organisation may be based. In order to develop Q-RES into a certifiable standard on management, we first referred to the most recent body of standard on management systems (ISO 9000. 2000 ed.) and took into consideration the ISO 9004 standard that includes, besides the typical contents of guidelines, the prescriptive test of the norm that can be certified (ISO 9001) thus adding the relationship with the stakeholders to the work. By adapting the ISO 900 standard with reference to the Q-RES model we tried to produce a "certifiable" standard that might be easily understood by experts. This was possible because it was structured like other standards ( that are very similar) and it can be integrated with other well-known management systems. The "Q-RES Standard: Norm and Guidelines for the improvement of ethical and social performances of the organisations" was developed as a standard consisting of two parts: Part A: "The Q-RES model and tools for the management of ethical and social responsibility of organisations" Part B: "The management system for ethical and social responsibility" Part A introduces and explains the Q-RES model and tools for the management of ethical and social responsibility of organisations; its relationship with other management systems and with ISO 9000; its purpose and field of application and the standards of reference and a glossary of terms and definitions. Part B of the Q-RES standard describes the management system of an organisation with respect to the ethical and social responsibility in which all the Q-RES tools can be found: the Corporate Ethical Vision and Code of Ethics are discussed under Responsibilities of Management; Ethical Training is discussed under Resource Management; Organisational systems and internal control are discussed under Product realisation; Social and Ethical Accountability is discusse

Broadband light sources based on InAs/InGaAs metamorphic quantum dots

We propose a design for a semiconductor structure emitting broadband light in the infrared, based on InAsquantum dots(QDs) embedded into a metamorphic step-graded InxGa1−xAs buffer. We developed a model to calculate the metamorphic QD energy levels based on the realistic QD parameters and on the strain-dependent material properties; we validated the results of simulations by comparison with the experimental values. On this basis, we designed a p-i-n heterostructure with a graded index profile toward the realization of an electrically pumped guided wave device. This has been done by adding layers where QDs are embedded in InxAlyGa1−x−yAs layers, to obtain a symmetric structure from a band profile point of view. To assess the room temperature electro-luminescenceemission spectrum under realistic electrical injection conditions, we performed device-level simulations based on a coupled drift-diffusion and QD rate equation model. On the basis of the device simulation results, we conclude that the present proposal is a viable option to realize broadband light-emitting devices

Modelling of broadband light sources based on InAs / INxGA1-xAS metamorphic quantum dots

We propose a design for a semiconductor structure emitting broadband light in the infrared, based on InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded into a metamorphic 4-step-graded InxGa1- xAs buffer with x = 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40. We developed a model to calculate metamorphic QD energy levels based on realistic QD parameters and on strain-dependent material properties: results of simulations were validated against experimental values. By simulating the broadband metamorphic structure, we demonstrated that its light emission can cover the whole 1.0 - 1.7 μm range with a bandwidth of 550 nm at 10K. The emission spectrum was then assessed under realistic electrical injection conditions, at room temperature, through device-level simulations based on a coupled drift-diffusion and QD dynamics model. As metamorphic QD devices have been already fabricated with satisfying performances we believe that this proposal is a viable option to realize broader band light-emitting devices such as superluminescent diodes