Corporate Social Policies Research Articles

PRACTICE OF CONCLUDING INDUSTRY AGREEMENTS OF SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP: SUSTAINABLE TRENDS AND PROSPECTS FOR CHANGE

The subject of the study is the modern vision of the prospects for the development and improvement of the multilevel system of social part- nership in the Russian Federation. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the special role in the system of the social partnership of sectoral agreements concluded at the federal, regional, and territorial levels, and their close institutional and organizational connection with collective agreements concluded at enterprises of the relevant sectors of the economy. The relevance of the study is due to the increasing importance of social partnership as the most flexible mechanism for regulating social and labor relations in conditions of economic turbulence. The scientific novelty consists in generalizing the practice of concluding sectoral agreements, which gives an idea not only about the state of collective-contractual regulation of social and labor relations in the sectoral context, but also allows identifying local features, as well as individual problems of the functioning of the social partnership system as a whole. The research methods are analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, and a systematic approach. Results: the untapped potential of sectoral agreements is revealed, objective and subjective factors limiting the possibilities of effective development of social partnership are characterized, and their dynamics and the degree of influence on the completeness and content of concluded contracts and agreements are shown. The materials contained in the study can be used by federal and regional executive authorities, all-Russian, regional and branch associations of employers, and all-Russian, regional and branch trade unions in the negotiation process when concluding social partnership agreements and forming state and corporate social policy.

Comparing the Effect of Intangible Assets and Macroeconomic Parameters on the Stock Prices in Firms Listed on the Stock Exchange of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq

Comparing the Effect of Intangible Assets and Macroeconomic Parameters on the Stock Prices in Firms Listed on the Stock Exchange of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq

Natural disasters, risk salience, and corporate ESG disclosure

We examine how natural disasters affect the corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure policies of firms located close to disaster areas. We study firms located in counties neighboring those impacted by natural disasters and find that, on average, these firms increase their ESG disclosure transparency over the period subsequent to the disaster. Given that our sample firms are located outside of the area directly impacted by the disaster, the changes in disclosure transparency after the disaster are consistent with managers increasing their preference for transparency as their risk salience increases. Further, we find that firms with a higher percentage of local institutional ownership are more likely to increase ESG disclosure after experiencing nearby disasters. The findings suggest that managers strategically react to a change in investors' risk perception by increasing ESG disclosure.

Корпоративная социальная политика как управленческий механизм снижения уровня социального загрязнения

The article is devoted to the study of the role of corporate social policy as a managerial mechanism for reducing the level of social pollution on the manufacturing enterprise example. The concept of social pollution from the economic activity of economic entities is considered, the main factors of negative impact on the quality of working life and the employees’ well-being are outlined. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the social policy of the investigated enterprise was carried out using the author's methodology for analyzing the relevant socio-economic indicators. The authors studied data on the structure and volume of costs for social policy measures, the main socio-economic indicators of the enterprise and their ratio, calculated indicators of social policy parameters and identified directions for improving social policy and developing management decisions.

Corporate ESG Profiles and Banking Relationships

Abstract We show that banking relationships promote corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. Specifically, banks are more likely to grant loans to borrowers with ESG profiles similar to their own and positively influence the borrower’s subsequent ESG performance. Their influence is more pronounced when (1) banks have significantly better ESG ratings than borrowers and (2) borrowers are bank dependent. We exploit M&A among lenders as a source of quasi-exogenous variation in the lender’s ESG standard to alleviate endogeneity concerns. Overall, our study presents the first evidence on the interplay between responsible bank lending and borrowers’ ESG behavior.

Influences of Taiwan's corporate social responsibility report management policy on the information transparency of its capital market

The management policy for Taiwan's corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting was changed from elective to partial mandatory. Some companies that have already submitted their reports are also required to undergo assurance provided by accountants. The present study explores the influences of Taiwan's partial mandatory disclosure and partial mandatory assurance management policies for CSR reports on firms' investment to cash flow sensitivity which is used to measure the information transparency of the capital market. The results showed that investment to cash flow sensitivity decreased after mandatory disclosure and mandatory assurance. This implies that the partial mandatory disclosure and the partial mandatory assurance policies for CSR reports have a positive influence on mitigating information asymmetry and agency problems being experienced by firms. It also indicates that Taiwan's partial mandatory disclosure and partial mandatory assurance policies for CSR reports aid in increasing information transparency of its capital market.

Consequences of technology and social innovation on traditional business model

The growing presence of new players – beside those belonging to the institutional and third sectors – committed to supporting social and environmental causes through innovative approaches and tools leads to the profile of a for-profit enterprise increasingly committed to the pursuit of social goals. In the paper, the authors focus their attention on the existence of relationships between innovation and a company's social role in order to assess how innovation affects the social conduct of profit-making enterprises and to determine the birth of a new “hybrid” business model. In order to achieve this goal, research was carried out on a sample of 4,000 Italian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises that claim to operate according to a corporate social commitment, in order to investigate the existence of a relationship between innovative behavior and social and business purposes of companies having different Corporate Social Innovation policies. The data were analyzed using the conditional inference tree, a non-parametric class of tree regression model, which overcomes different regression problems involving ordinal and nominal variables. The results achieved make it possible to fill some gaps in the existing literature, to detect a relationship between technological and social commitment in a company and to open a debate on future research developments.

IMPROVING THE ENTERPRISE SOCIAL POLICY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The article examines the social policy of the enterprise, its purpose and means. The tools for implementing social policy as components of its mechanism are identified. Factors influencing the formation of the social policy management system of the enterprise are considered. The definitions and main elements of the mechanism of realization of social policy of enterprises are specified. Recommendations for improving the effectiveness of social policy of the enterprise are offered. The structural-logical model of the system of formation, effective provision and increase of the level of social policy of the enterprise is developed. Within the framework of our research, we will focus more on the problems of improving the internal corporate social policy. When examining the incentives and functions of the provision of voluntary social services by an enterprise, many different points of view can be found. On the one hand, it is believed that the traditions that motivate managers to socially protect workers in their enterprises have been inherited from the planned economy. At that time, against the background of insufficient provision of the entire population of the state with a number of material and social benefits, managers tried to provide employees with the necessary level of social protection at the expense of the enterprise. Social policy at the enterprise should be based on the following principles: consideration of material and non-material needs and interests of employees; availability and publicity of the company’s expenses; economic feasibility in terms of costs and benefits; absence of duplication of social needs, which are sufficiently satisfied by state or other public institutions; taking into account the growing living standards and value systems of society.

Corporate social responsibility as the foundation of the development of tourism enterprises

Nowadays the tourism industry contributes to the development of partnership relations between the state and private sector and helps to strengthen the international partnership. It promotes the development of regions and stimulates the cooperation between the tourism industry and public society. Implementation of social orientation of the tourism industry contributes to the use of partnership approach to clients, economic entities, public authorities and local governments, NGOs, and the staff of touristic companies. This way, corporate social responsibility is formed. The implementation of corporate social responsibility stipulates overcoming the legal standards of business. The companies try to establish relations with society and invest in its development, strengthen its reputation, and harmonize the “living environment”. Yet, socially responsible behavior stipulates the allocation of some part of financial resources to solve the tasks that are not directly related to gaining profits. A strive to prosper urges the companies to search for the balance between the need to invest in the social domain and possible economic results in the long run. Understanding the fact that corporate responsibility can be an important tool for competition, the companies actively include its principles in the corporate strategy. The paper examines the features of social responsibility implementation as the foundation for the development of a tourism company. The nature of social responsibility is analyzed and the components of corporate social policy are characterized. The system functions of entrepreneurial activity of touristic companies that impact the forming of corporate social responsibility are determined. Based on the defined function, the major directions of tourism entrepreneurship development are outlined. The scheme of corporate responsibility in the tourism business is constructed. The measures directed at the implementation of external and internal social responsibility of a tourism company are suggested.

The dark and bright sides of policy uncertainty: do too many cooks spoil the broth?

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the nonlinear relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and economic policy uncertainty (EPU).Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses panel regression techniques to examine a sample consisting of UK-listed non-financial companies during 2000–2018.FindingsThe authors found that EPU increases corporate social responsibility which suggests that firms become more socially proactive during the period of heightened EPU. Such countermeasure enhances CSP and is likely a part of a competitive strategy and an insurance mechanism to protect firms against uncertainty in long-term. Further analysis shows a nonlinear relationship between the two factors, suggesting that in a heightened uncertain business environment, the insurance benefit generated by CSP is neutralised by the corresponding cost and, therefore, the positive relationship between EPU and CSP reverses.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to find a nonlinear relationship between CSP and EPU, indicating that too much uncertainty in macroeconomic policies deteriorates the benefits of CSP to the point that the CSP – EPU relationship becomes negative. The results suggest that policy uncertainty has both the bright side and the dark side where too many cooks eventually spoil the broth.

Важливі аспекти забезпечення політики у сфері інноваційного підприємництва в контексті соціально-економічного розвитку регіонів України

The content of the article actualizes a number of important issues as to provision of policy in the sphere of supporting innovative entrepreneurship. In the course of their study, the authors note that the socio-economic development of countries is influenced by the degree of innovativeness of the economy. This encourages to consider innovative entrepreneurship as an important resource for the development of innovative processes in the country, and the support of innovative entrepreneurship is considered a key factor in solving the main problems of sustainable socio-economic development of the regions of Ukraine. The country has a fairly strong base for scientific and technical developments, a powerful innovation potential, but there are problems with implementation of the latter due to insufficient focus on the formation of an effective innovative policy and the policy of development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the main suppliers of innovations in the national innovation system. The results of the study draw attention to the feasibility of integrating innovative policies with the corporate social responsibility development policies and the SME development policies. An integration will allow achieving greater economic return and social benefits through the implementation of a more efficient relationship between the providers of socio-economic development of region on the organization and provision of opportunities for the development of complex regional, interregional and global value-creating networks. This approach also involves taking into account the factors influencing the innovation dynamics with the constant improvement of the system of formation and implementation of the State and regional priorities in the field of regulation of science, investment, innovation, entrepreneurial and socially responsible activities, in accordance with the implementation of the principles of sustainable development.

ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ МЕТОДА УПРАВЛЕНИЯ РИСКАМИ ДЛЯ ОЦЕНКИ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ СИСТЕМЫ МЕДИЦИНСКОГО ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЯ РАБОТНИКОВ ПРОМЫШЛЕННЫХ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЙ КРУПНОЙ НЕФТЯНОЙ КОМПАНИИ

Protection of personnel health is part and parcel of the corporate social policy adopted by oil producing companies with the divisional structure. The medical care system using outsourcing needs a proficient control of its functioning. Since it incorporates dozens of objects, the control is workable only provided digital technologies are applied. We made choice of the infographic matrix to build up two matrices, i.e. one for health risk management and the other, for resources and processes management. Besides, we developed systems for quantitative risk evaluation, and to score key resources, processes, and medical personnel efficiency on 5-point scales. Weight coefficient was accepted for each factor. The technique has been implemented for health analysis and healthcare evaluation at 49 enterprises. Scrupulous attention was given to the enterprises within the orange zone (51-75 on the scale). Out of 9 to 10 enterprises that traveled in the zone over 3 years of monitoring, 4 were present in both matrices. Analysis of the reports provided guides to develop response measures suitable for specific enterprises. Health risk matrices can find application in a large number of enterprises for online information acquisition, problem identification and solving.

YOUTH ASSOCIATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS AS SUBJECTS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL POLICY

YOUTH ASSOCIATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS AS SUBJECTS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL POLICY

The Level of Well-being of the Working Population as a Concentrated Expression of the Quality of Working Life

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the need and the possibility of improving the quality of working life in Russia as one of the main factors in the growth of the well-being of the working population. The author examined the influence of the conditions of employment of the workforce in the process of its reproduction and proved that the wage index (among all components of the quality of working life) has particular importance. The author also presented the tools of expert assessment of the quality of working life from the point of view of the achieved level of wages. Using these tools the author compiled a generalised characteristic of the current state of the quality of working life in Russia according to four criteria in terms of the achieved level of wages necessary to perform the reproductive function. Comparative analysis of the dynamics of nominal and real wages in the Russian economy for the years 2000–2018 showed a significant, long-term lag between growth of real and nominal wages. Further, the author showed the profile of Russian poverty concerning the main components of the quality of working life and presented the social and economic consequences of not decreasing poverty. Finally, the author constructs a set of socio-economic indicators of the standard of living of the working population due to the low level of satisfaction of the needs of workers and their families in nutrition, education, health, related to the deficit of family budgets. It makes possible to choose the main directions of the formation and implementation of the state and corporate social policy to overcome the negative trends in the level and quality of life of the working population associated with low quality of working life.

A Study of the Effect of Social Responsibility on Cost of Capital and Reputation of a Retailing Company

The emerging ideology of social responsibility in past years results in many enterprises actively investing in corporate social responsibility related policies, expecting to promote people’s positive image through the improvement of living environment and the care of the public. Although the practice of corporate social responsibility would not necessarily bring in significant benefits in short period, it, in long period, could achieve the vision of sustainable development and promote corporate reputation through external benefits to acquire more supporters and further enhance the profits, promote the international competitive advantage, and reduce the market opinions of corporate business risk of the company to acquire lower cost of capital. In this study, the owners and senior executives of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's listed in retail industry were investigated. A total of 300 copies of questionnaire are distributed for this study, and 227 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 76%. According to the results, suggestions are proposed, expecting to induce retailing managers’ new motives and incentives to execute corporate social responsibility related policies and effectively inhibit the increase in cost of capital and the decrease in corporate reputation.

Corporate Governance, Integrated Reporting and Environmental Disclosure: Evidence from the South African Context

This research aims to investigate how the adoption of King III can affect the corporate governance model of a sample of South African listed companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Particularly, we analyzed the influence of sustainability-related issues of the board of directors (BDs) on firm environmental disclosure, after the mandatory preparation of integrated reporting (IR). In addition, we also examined indepth whether some corporate social policies are able to condition the foregoing disclosure. The empirical study covers the period from 2010 (the first-time adoption of IR in South Africa) to 2015 (the earliest year of the release process regarding King Code of Governance Principles for South Africa 2009 (i.e., King III)). Data were collected by the Bloomberg database. With reference to the BDs features, great attention was paid to both business ethics policy and CEO duality. Instead, with regard to corporate social issues, we looked into the adoption of the policies pertaining to health and safety and the respect for human rights. Following the mandatory preparation of IR, our findings show a positive relationship between business ethics policy and firm environmental disclosure. Contrarily, CEO duality does not exert any effect over the earlier type of corporate reporting. Furthermore, empirical evidence substantiates the association between health safety and human rights policies that are very crucial in an emerging economy, such as South Africa, and firm environmental disclosure. The rationale of such results arguably resides in compliance with King III. Therefore, this study can provide interesting insights, given that its mandatory adoption might reveal an important turning point in the development of corporate governance codes, as well as being a “driver” for potential enhancements of firm environmental disclosure, inter alia, in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.6.

Carryforward Effects of CSR Champions

SYNOPSIS This study investigates whether executives of socially responsible firms carry forward corporate social policies when they move to different firms. In order to identify the carryforward effects of top executives on corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies, we construct a data set by tracking the movements of executives across firms. We designate top executives as CSR Champions if their firms demonstrate superior-quality CSR practices. We find that the entrance of a CSR Champion into a new firm improves its CSR performance, and we label these incremental effects CSR-Carryforward Effects. Our findings are stronger in firms with poor past CSR performance. Overall, this study extends the executive and CSR-related literature by documenting that executives of socially responsible firms have positive CSR-related effects on their new firms. JEL Classifications: M12; M14.

Natural Disasters, Risk Salience, and Corporate ESG Disclosure

We examine how natural disasters affect the corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure policies of firms located close to disaster areas. We study firms located in counties neighboring those affected by natural disasters and find that, on average, these firms increase their ESG disclosure transparency over the period subsequent to the disaster. Given that our sample firms are located outside of the area directly affected by the disaster, the changes in disclosure transparency after the disaster are consistent with managers increasing their preference for transparency as their risk salience increases. Further, we find that, though the disaster may be environmental by nature, nearby firms increase their social and governance disclosures in addition to their environmental disclosures. To investigate whether or not the increased transparency is a rational response to the disaster, we explore the costs of capital for the firms in our sample to study what impacts, if any, the increased transparency engenders for the firm. We find that increases in ESG disclosure are associated with reductions in the cost of debt after the disaster consistent with the notion that markets find the increased transparency to be value relevant.

A link between top managers’ perception and corporate social responsibility

Though it is called corporate social responsibility (CSR), it is the people in the organization particularly, top managers who develop and get implemented corporate social policies. Organization behavior is the reflection of their top managers. However, exploration of the role of top managers in spreading CSR in the organization is scant in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of top managers’ CSR perceptions on firm-level CSR in Ethiopia. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 294 executive managers of four sectors, namely textile, food, bank, and floriculture industries. Multiple hierarchical regression and process macro 3.3 were employed to analyze the data with the aid of SPSS. The analysis reveals that top managers’ CSR perception is a significant predictor of firm-level CSR behaviors. The result also shows that corporate ethical culture fully mediates the relationship between top managers’ CSR perception and organization CSR. Moreover, transformational leadership has a moderating effect between the direct top managers’ CSR perception and firm-level CSR relationship.

Market Discipline, Social Preferences, and Corporate Policies

Can market discipline affect corporate environmental and social (E&S) policies? Using international data on negative news coverage of corporate E&S risks, we show that E&S-conscious investors divest firms with heightened E&S risk. As a consequence of investors’ reactions, firms with more E&S-motivated investors experience larger temporary declines in valuations and subsequently improve their E&S policies. The improvements in corporate policies are concentrated among firms with more informative stock prices and do not appear to be due to investor engagements, indicating that firms learn about their shareholders’ preferences from stock prices. We also show that following negative realizations of E&S risk, sales in E&S-conscious countries decrease but are not consistently associated with price declines and improvements in corporate E&S policies.