Dimensions Of Social Performance Research Articles

The impact of media coverage on the ESG performance of heavily polluting enterprises in China

Based on panel data from 2011 to 2021 encompassing 390 listed enterprises in China, we investigate the potential influence of media coverage on the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance of heavy-polluting enterprises. The study discerns that positive media coverage significantly contributes to an enhanced ESG performance among heavy-polluting enterprises, particularly those in eastern and western China and those entrenched within highly competitive industries. Positive media coverage predominantly amplifies these enterprises’ environmental and social performance dimensions, while intriguingly, negative media coverage unexpectedly positively impacts their environmental performance. Green total factor productivity and green innovation emerge as crucial facilitators in bolstering the relationship between positive media coverage and the ESG performance of these enterprises. Our research findings provide valuable insights into understanding enterprise ESG behavior and the role of media coverage.

Responsible shipping for sustainable development: Adoption and performance value

Responsible shipping is attracting increasing attention in shipping industry, but a systematic analysis of its concept is scanty. Different stakeholders ranging from shippers and carriers to government and non-government associations have expressed worries and expectations about responsible consumption and production in shipping industry. This paper aims to advance the knowledge by exploring the adoption and performance value of responsible shipping practices. Using the concept analysis approach, we first construct a two-folder conceptual framework with strategic folder and practical folder considering the dual-role of shipping industry in servicing trade activities of the global economy. Accordingly, we carry out a two-way interpretation of responsible shipping in economic, environmental, social performance dimensions as well as supporting measures in resources and technological aspects at the strategic folder, and five processes (design, operations, management, governance, finance) at the practical folder. To examine the adoption and performance value of responsible shipping, we develop propositions concerning its implementation elements as well as the favorable conditions for adoption and the performance value. The framework provides insights to guide managers in shipping industry to design, plan, and implement responsible practices to meet the escalating public expectations for shipping operations in servicing international trade and global supply chain activities.

Corporate sustainability performance, stock returns, and ESG indicators: fresh insights from EU member states.

It is believed that sustainable practices like environmental, social, and governance mechanisms help in providing a sustainable outlook for both companies and the governments. Such practices have their long-term impact on the stock returns and sustainable performance dynamics. This research aims to investigate the dynamic relationship between ESG indicators, stock returns, and sustainable performance reflected through economic, environmental, and social dimensions during 2010-2018. Panel data has been collected from various listed companies working in EU member states and analyzed through advanced panel estimations. The study findings inferred a significant and positive impact of all three measures of sustainable practices as reflected by targeted firms in the EU region on economic, environmental, and social dimensions of performance. On the other hand, those firms reporting higher ESG disclosure in their annual reports confirm better stock returns. Finally, study findings reveal that ESG dynamics provide a valuable contribution in creating some sustainable edge under the theoretical foundation of different theories. The study findings would greatly support providing a meaningful model for the listed firms to focus on their ESG indicators for higher performance in EES and stock returns. Finally, the current study expects to stimulate more theoretical and empirical work on ESG and EES. Future studies are suggested to consider the relationship between the stated variables regarding pre- and post-pandemic duration.

Reciprocity between financials and Social Performance in Microfinance Institutions: Transparency and Ownership Structure used as Moderating Variables

The objective is to check performance of microfinance loan in context of social performance and its various dimensions i.e health, education, clean water and women empowerment. Likewise study also test moderating effect of loan transparency and ownership structure between micro-finance loan and social performance. The survey-based approach was used with a sample size of 350. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires from the client of a microfinance institution in a different region of Sindh. In response 273 completed questionnaires were received from respondent and response rate was 78%. Among those 273 questionnaires, 19 were unengaged responses so were considered unsuitable for analysis and reaming 254 questionnaire were used for data analysis. The Smart PLS Technique was used for data estimation in this study. Findings of the existing study portrays significant impact of microfinance loan on social performance as well as on its various dimensions i.e Health, Education, Clean Water and women empowerment. The moderating impact of transparency is positively significant in social performance, and the moderating impact of ownership structure in social performance is showing negative significant impact. The result of this study can lead to significant contributions and provide a better understanding and influence of transparency and ownership structure on the social performance of microfinance loans as well as dimensions of social performance. Financial sources of micro finance loan would be beneficial for poor people, micro enterprise and epically for empowerment of women in emerging economy. Micro finance institutions should control in interest rate and create an awareness regarding utilization of loan and timely repayment among their customers.

What Drives the Social Performance of Microfinance Institutions? The Role of Gender Board Diversity

Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)’ business model is mission orientated to empower women and the poor to reach the social mission of sustainable development goals (SDG). This paper investigates whether women directors and institutional factors influence the five comprehensive and underexplored dimensions of MFIs’ social performance including social goals, governance & HR, products & services, client protection and environment. Using an international sample of 2,293 MFIs operating in 116 countries during the period 2010-2018, we find that women directors, female-friendly environment and stronger sustainable development environment have a positive impact on the social performance, whereas country-level governance mitigates the social performance. We find that more gender-diverse board influences particularly three dimensions of social performance: social goals, product & services and environment. The results are more pronounced for non-profit MFIs and MFIs located in a higher-ranked governance environment. MFIs’ social performance in the Africa region are more likely to benefit from a higher ratio of women on board than Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Our findings provide implications for MFIs, funders and policymakers regarding the measurement and drivers of the social performance of MFIs that is crucial for achieving SDG.

The Sustainable Supply Chain: Concepts, Optimization and Simulation Models, and Trends

Context: The environmental and social dimensions of performance are of great importance, given that they must be incorporated into strategic, tactical, and operational objectives in companies and supply chains to minimize negative impacts on the environment and society. Method: After reviewing the Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect databases for the topics of sustainability and supply chain management, a state of the art of green and sustainable supply chain management is presented, aiming to guide readers towards a synthesis of related concepts and future lines of research. Results: The reader is introduced to concepts and trends around the field of green and sustainable supply chain management to raise interest in new research and practices to guide the implementation of sustainability in organizations and their supply chains. Conclusions: Sustainable supply chain management still faces several academic and practical challenges in terms of implementation, performance measurement, and how models can capture a dynamic and uncertain social and environmental context. There are latent research issues such as management of the circular supply chain, applications in emerging economies, or the application of 4.0 technologies.

Dazed and Confused: Reconsidering the Relationship Between Drug Testing and Firm Performance

As the United States nears its 50th anniversary in the War on Drugs, societal attitudes toward substance use have changed drastically, especially with respect to the substance most commonly tested for in the workplace: marijuana. Despite the changing tide of attitudes toward substance use, about half of medium and large corporations still test employees for drugs as part of employment screening, ongoing employee management, or both. Moreover, despite the prevalence of workplace drug testing, little research has investigated how drug testing relates to firm performance. In this work, we draw from the behavioral theory of the firm and to predict that drug testing is a perceived violation of employee’s rights and privacy, and that these violations affect employee attitudes and, subsequently, employee performance. Moreover, we argue that drug testing represents a disregard on the part of management for the rights and privacy of employees, which in turn informs how employees interact with other stakeholder groups, negatively affecting firm social performance. Findings reveal that organizations utilizing drug testing regimes do indeed experience decreases in financial performance and tend to have more extreme outcomes on social performance dimensions, with both positive and negative dimensions of social performance increasing or decreasing simultaneously.

CEO inside debt and corporate social responsibility

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relation between incentives from CEO inside debt (deferred compensation and pension benefits) and corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approachInstrumental variable (IV-GMM) regressions are used to estimate the relation between CEO inside debt and CSR.FindingsThe results of this paper indicate that CEOs with large inside debt tend to invest more in CSR. Analysis of CSR strengths and concerns supports this finding and shows that CEO inside debt is significantly positively (negatively) associated with CSR strengths (concerns). Further tests indicate that CEO inside debt exerts a positive and significant effect on all five dimensions of social performance (diversity, community, product, employee relations and environment).Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study are based on US corporations. Future research should investigate if these results hold for firms in other countries in order to better our understanding of the relation between CEO inside debt and CSR.Practical implicationsCEOs use CSR as a risk management strategy to reduce corporate risk in order to protect the value of their inside debt.Social implicationsThe results in this paper provide a practical tool to boards of corporations to increase investment in CSR. The results suggest that boards can encourage CEOs to invest in CSR by increasing incentives from inside debt.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature that examines the relation between inside debt and CSR by showing that CEO inside debt exerts a positive impact on CSR.

Lean Six Sigma and social performance: A review and synthesis of current evidence

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is one of the most widely used business improvement initiatives in both manufacturing and service organizations. For a modern organization to sustainably exist in society, the impact of business initiatives such as LSS should affect social dimensions. This study analyzes the impact of LSS on different dimensions of social performance. A systematic literature review was conducted using the method suggested by Tranfield, Denyer, and Smart (2003) to collect, analyze, and integrate previous literature to study the impact of LSS on social performance. The authors conducted a descriptive and thematic analysis of the literature. Their study determined that LSS has an impact on decent work, the health and well-being of society, public services and infrastructure, quality education for society, and climate action. In addition, the authors studied the various challenges related to the impact of LSS on social performance. This is the first systematic literature review that has focused on the impact of LSS on different dimensions of social performance.

A New Perspective on Performance in Indian Microfinance Institutions

With the massive growth in microfinance sector, the importance of performance measurement in microfinance institutions (MFIs) has prominent during the last decade. With an objective of commitment to dual mission, the Indian MFIs witnessed a series of rise and fall and subjected to mission drift. Thus redefining the performance is the prime objective of this study. Data gathered from 252 MFIs irrespective of their legal status. Factors for performance were identified through literature and were validated empirically. This research considered both the financial and social dimensions of performance unlike the earlier studies. Financial performance is described by profit margin, return on assets and portfolio at risk whereas social performance consists four factors namely Information disclosure (INFDIS), Mission adequacy (MISADEQ) and Community participation (COMPART). This study can be a useful bench-marking tool for practitioners to monitor and improve the MFI performance. The study has unique value to microfinance literature, both from theoretical and managerial perspectives.

Assessing sustainability in the supply chain: A triple bottom line approach

The application of sustainability principles into supply chains is an evolving research area currently suffering from a scarcity of established theories, models, and frameworks. There are at least two key reasons why it is difficult to build sustainability into the supply chain. First, there are numerous context dependent factors that either enable or hinder progress towards sustainability in a supply chain. There is a need to better understand how these factors affect the sustainability performance of supply chains. Second, implementing sustainability requires a triple bottom line approach, where improvements are pursued in the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of performance. These two challenges mean that implementing sustainability in a supply chain is a complex process that involves a large number of interacting factors. This paper contributes to efforts to overcome these challenges by proposing a mathematical model for assessing sustainability in the supply chain. The model is based on the notion that a probabilistic representation of sustainability can realistically account for its challenges. The development of the proposed model was guided by the need for ease of use, simplicity, and the ability to quickly provide feedback on the sustainability status of supply chains over time.

Managing Conflicting Objectives: The Role of Cognition in Reconciling Corporate Financial and Social Performance Expectations

During the last two decades, shareholders and non-shareholding stakeholders have simultaneously put pressures on top management to pursue both the financial and the social dimensions of performance. In response, top managers typically engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions—a set of decisions taken within a rather contested context and that ultimately depend on how top executives encode the world around them. We adopt a cognitive perspective and use mental spaces theory to develop and test propositions linking elements of top management cognition to firms’ capacity to achieve social performance. Using a data set of firms’ financial and social performance from 2002 to 2011 and data from linguistically encoded letters to their shareholders, we find that (a) conjunctive reasoning in combination with a concurrent stakeholder and shareholder focus, (b) disjunctive reasoning in combination with a stakeholder focus, and (c) conditional reasoning by top management are associated with enhanced social performance. We then discuss implications for future research.

City of Dreams: Social Engagement and Aesthetic Creation in the Cultural Olympiad

Freedom Studios’s Cultural Olympiad performance The Mill – City of Dreams, created in a disused textile mill in Bradford, engaged deeply with its local constituency. However, the artists at the head of the project were reluctant to consider their project ‘socially engaged’. This semantic discomfort reveals a tension at the heart of the project: just what social role did the artists expect this performance to play in the life of the city? Or was this ‘just’ art? These questions cut to the heart of the Cultural Olympiad, which asks art to be both ‘great’ and to make ‘a sustained difference to the community’. The Olympiad might be one manifestation of the increasing interest in conceiving of the aesthetic and social dimensions of performance together, as theorised by Shannon Jackson and James Thompson, for example. The Mill – City of Dreams, a successful and well-received performance, nonetheless shows above all the practical difficulty of this precarious reconciliation.