State Corporate Research Articles

Reforming Shareholder Claims in Investor-State Dispute Settlement

Abstract Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) stands alone in empowering shareholders to bring claims for shareholder reflective loss (SRL)—meaning claims over harms allegedly inflicted upon the company, but which somehow affect share value. National systems of corporate law and public international law regimes generally bar SRL claims for strong policy reasons bearing on the efficiency and fairness of the corporate form. However, ISDS tribunals allow shareholders broad and regular access to seek relief for reflective loss. The availability of SRL claims in ISDS ultimately harms States and investors alike, imposing surprise ex post costs on States and various corporate stakeholders (particularly creditors), and creating perverse incentives likely to raise the cost of doing business ex ante. The article sets out the harms caused by allowing ISDS claims for reflective loss, as well as the possible justifications for allowing such claims in this specific context. Concluding that any potential benefits of SRL can be realized through less invasive means, we then canvas a number of plausible reform options, with an eye to their trade-offs.

“You Can Kill Us with Dialogue:” Critical Perspectives on Wind Energy Development in a Nordic-Saami Green Colonial Context

This article explores Southern Saami reindeer herders’ experiences and contestations over state consultation and corporate dialogue during a conflict over the Øyfjellet wind energy project in Norway. Informed by a committed research approach and juxtaposition with findings from Indigenous peoples' territorial struggles in Latin-America, the article provides critical perspectives on governance practices in a Nordic-Saami green colonial context. The research draws on ethnography from a consultation meeting between Jillen Njaarke, the impacted reindeer herding community, and state authorities, as well as diverse written material. The study suggests that the state- and corporate-led “dialogues” displaced the root cause of the conflict, revealed epistemic miscommunication, and perpetuated relations of domination which limited emancipatory effects for Jillen Njaarke. The premises and discourses underpinning the “dialogues” further reproduced racist notions which devalue ancestral Saami reindeer herding knowledges, practices, and landscape relations. These findings challenge dialogue as prescription of good governance and conflict resolution in a context where democracy and compliance with Indigenous peoples’ rights are perceived as high.

Development of Atomic-Hydrogen Energy Technologies in the Rosatom State Corporation

Development of Atomic-Hydrogen Energy Technologies in the Rosatom State Corporation

Cartographies of Resistance: Counter-Data Mapping as the New Frontier of Digital Media Activism

In the first datafied pandemic, the production of interactive Covid-19 data maps was intensified by state institutions and corporate media. Maps have been used by states and citizens to understand the advance and retreat of the contagion and monitor vaccine rates. However, the visualisations being used are often based on non-comparable data types across countries, leading to visual misrepresentations. Many pandemic data visualisations have consequently had a negative impact on public debate, contributing to an infodemic of disinformation that has stigmatised marginalised groups and detracted from social justice objectives. Counter to such hegemonic mapping, counter-data maps, produced by marginalised groups, have revealed hidden inequalities, supporting calls for intersectional health justice. This article investigates the ways in which various intersectional global communities have appropriated data, produced counter-data maps, unveiled hidden social realities, and generated more authentic social meanings through emergent counter-data mapping imaginaries. We use a comparative multi-case study, based on a multi case-study of three Covid-19 data mapping projects, namely Data for Black Lives (US), Indigenous Emergency (Brazil), and CityLab maps (global). Our findings indicate that counter-data mapping imaginaries are deeply embedded in community-oriented notions of spatiality and relationality. Moreover, the cartographic process tends to reflect alternative imaginaries through four key dimensions of data mapping practice—objectives, uses, production, and ownership. We argue that counter-data mapping is the new frontier of digital media activism and community communication, as it extends the projects of data justice and community media activism, generating new practices in the activist repertoire of communicative action.

Influence of Logistics Outsourcing Services on Supply Chain Performance in Commercial State Corporation in Nandi County, Kenya

Influence of Logistics Outsourcing Services on Supply Chain Performance in Commercial State Corporation in Nandi County, Kenya

Review Essay: Chasing Down the Shadows: Writings of Abuse and Harassment

Review Essay: Chasing Down the Shadows: Writings of Abuse and Harassment

The Security–Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North

Abstract The political economy of lithium, a “critical mineral” for the renewable energy transition, is marked by two striking developments. First, Global North governments that have historically offshored mining are onshoring lithium to enhance “supply chain security.” Second, these governments have committed to “sustainably sourcing” lithium. In this article, I theorize both developments in terms of a novel security–sustainability nexus: an interlocking set of policies and justifications that promote lithium extraction and emphasize the environmental credentials of Global North mining. The security–sustainability nexus evidences an alignment between state and corporate interests. For public officials, onshoring policies counter China’s “dominance” over battery supply chains. For mining and auto firms, onshoring translates into lucrative incentives, supply security, and reputational benefits. However, despite this state–corporate alignment, the tensions within the security–sustainability nexus illuminate the contradictions of green capitalism. I conclude that the geopolitical and socioenvironmental conflicts over the material foundations of the energy transition are reshaping the inequalities linked to extractive sectors.

Influence of Strategic Communication on Performance of State Corporations in Kenya

State corporations are government-owned companies, boards, or organizations which help the government to deliver some essential functions of the government. Many government programs are delivered through them and a substantial budget is allocated to them. However, in recent times though, reports indicate massive losses and failure of some state corporations in Kenya. Hence, as a contribution to the better performance of state corporations, this study sought to establish the influence of strategic communication on performance of state corporations in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the influence of open communication, clarity of ideas/communication and clear channels of communications on performance of State Corporations in Kenya. The descriptive research design was used. The target population was 187 State Corporations in Kenya. The study used a sample of 66 State Corporations with a total of 264 respondents (4 from each sampled state corporation). The data was collected using questionnaires. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that strategic communication (open communication, clarity of ideas/communication and clear channels of communication) are significant in explaining performance of state corporations in Kenya. It was found that open communication, clarity of ideas/communication and clear channels of communication can explain 52.9% of the variations in the performance of state corporations in Kenya. The study recommended that state corporations in Kenya should embrace strategic communication such as open communication, clarity of ideas/communication and clear communication channels since it influences performance significantly. The state corporations need to ensure equal information sharing, develop communication feedback mechanisms and encourage employees to express their feedback and thoughts. State corporations in Kenya need to embrace the clarity of ideas before communicating and ensure concise communication. The state corporations in Kenya should enhance the accessibility of communication channels, use top-down and bottom-up communication channels and use modern technologies for communication. Keywords: Strategic communication, performance, state corporations, Kenya

Audit Quality of Financial Statements of Commercial Banks in Vietnam

Financial statements are a means of presenting the profitability and current state of corporate finance to interested persons. Commercial banks in Vietnam are required to prepare honest and reliable financial statements as a basis for effective decision making by stakeholders. However, the quality of auditing financial statements of commercial banks in Vietnam has been a topic of concern in recent years. In this article, the author explores the situation of audit quality of financial statements of commercial banks in Vietnam. From there, focus on proposing a number of measures to improve the quality of auditing financial statements of commercial banks in the coming time.

A Postcolonial Reading of a Diverse Craft Economy

This essay brings together J. K. Gibson-Graham’s diverse-economies framework and Kalyan Sanyal’s postcolonial capitalist development to unpack the heterogeneous economic processes of clay idol making practice in the Kumartuli neighborhood of Kolkata, India. This craft is rapidly getting transformed through state sanctions and corporate funding. Consequently, scholars have identified this encounter as this craftwork’s exposure to and absorption within capitalism. This essay unconventionally reads the differences within Kumartuli’s seemingly capitalist modes of production to make legible the absence of alternative discourses, thereby teasing out regimes of enterprises, coexisting class processes, and noncapitalist labor relations within a wage-labor setup. The paper examines the financial sector's sponsorship and the postcolonial state's development-driven governmentality, yet at the same time, identifies how they do not fully enroll the sector within capitalist production logic. Craft workers’ and women owner-artisans’ mundane counterhegemonic politics, which claims socio-economic justice, is seen as disrupting the processes of the accumulation economy.

Efekti poreza na dohodak na stopu nezaposlenosti u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama

This study investigates the correlation between state income tax and unemployment rates across the United States. Using panel data in 50 states pertaining to the period from 2006 to 2022 with different regression models, the results suggest that the state corporate and personal income tax rates are positively correlated with the state unemployment rate. Specifically, a 1% decrease in the personal income tax rate may lead to a 0.712% decrease in the state unemployment rate, and a 1% decrease in the corporate income tax rate may cause a drop of 0.328% in the state unemployment rate. In addition, the results show that a personal income tax hike is associated with an increase of 1.532% in the state unemployment rate, and a corporate income tax hike may increase the state unemployment rate by 0.78%. The results of this study are relevant in the context of increasing government spending in the US and the world. Policymakers and government officials may not want to abuse the tax policy to fund the budget deficits.

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

Auditing Gig Work Platforms: Fairwork’s Research, Advocacy, and Impact

The rise of the “gig economy” poses fundamental challenges to pre-existing social compacts regarding labour relations around the world, with vital implications for Singapore’s workforce, economic growth, and its tripartism framework. While some see an inevitable trend towards digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platforms dominating workers, others seek to find solutions through state intervention and/or corporate self-management. Both latter approaches, we contend, would be incomplete without hearing the voices of gig workers and considering their experiences in light of relevant platform policies and government regulations. Can gig work platforms be subjected to labour audits? If so, how? This paper introduces the Fairwork project as a case in which labour audits are conducted to assess ride-hailing and food delivery platforms across five continents in 30 countries including Singapore. We aim to discuss the project’s background and its five main principles, its methods of research and advocacy, the promises of auditing gig work platforms, its social and policy impact, and its limitations. We also present findings from focus groups and interviews involving ride-hailing drivers and food delivery riders in Singapore, which were conducted in 2021–2022 using the Fairwork methodology. In so doing, we discuss the lessons learnt from the case of Fairwork and similar projects of labour-auditing gig work platforms, which deserve more attention and exploration in Singapore and elsewhere.

ИЗМЕРЕНИЕ ПРОИЗВОДИТЕЛЬНОСТИ ТРУДА

The subject of the study is the types of labor productivity, as well as the essential differences between individual ways of measuring it, including measuring the result and costs of labor activity, the nature and content of the corresponding labor productivity indicators. The purpose of the article is to argue the unacceptability of some methods of measuring labor productivity proposed in the scientific discussion and to identify scientifically sound approaches and parameters that reflect the return of living labor as one of the factors of production. The relevance of this paper is related to the need for measures to activate the economy mainly on the basis of increasing labor productivity in the face of foreign economic challenges and the aggravation of military threats to Russia. The scientific novelty of the article consists in substantiating the refutation of proposals on the use of purely monetary parameters and material components in measuring labor productivity, as well as in arguing the expediency of using the costs of living labor for this and better accounting of its results. The idea of a certain monetary-conjunctural labor efficiency is introduced. The research methods are analysis, systematization, synthesis, induction and deduction. As a result, the scientific parameters of the priority methodological and practical tools for measuring labor productivity for the purposes of state socio-economic policy and corporate governance were determined. The article also formulates the author’s positions on a number of debatable issues related to the inevitability of reducing the cost of production with an increase in labor productivity at the enterprise, the concepts of “productivity” and “labor productivity”, generally accepted standards for measuring the latter, etc.

ФОРМУВАННЯ, КОНСОЛІДАЦІЯ, АНАЛІЗ ТА АУДИТ ФІНАНСОВОЇ ЗВІТНОСТІ ДЕРЖАВНИХ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ

The article establishes that the state enterprises of Ukraine function as public and commercial enterprises according to the principles of exclusivity of state ownership; separation of functions of the state as the owner and regulator, and the state enterprise as a subject of economic activity; combination of commercial and non-commercial purposes, transparency; social responsibility, anti-corruption ideology. It was determined that state-owned unitary enterprises and joint-stock companies based on state property must prepare annual financial statements and consolidated financial statements that are subject to mandatory verification by an independent auditor. The implementation of the principle of transparency requires the mandatory publication of audited statements for the last three years on websites with a storage period of at least seven years. In addition to financial reporting, state enterprises form nonfinancial reporting to reduce the asymmetry of economic information based on a balanced system of indicators. The results of the analysis showed that state-owned enterprises in Ukraine are widespread in priority and strategic sectors of the national economy, including: defense, transport, oil and gas, mining and processing, mining, alcohol, forestry, etc. It was established that according to the Register of Large Tax Payers of Ukraine, a fifth of state-owned enterprises are unprofitable, which indicates a low level of financial state corporate management. The peculiarities of the audit of financial statements of stateowned enterprises, which is carried out by the state external and internal financial control bodies of Ukraine on the basis of international standards, which are gradually implemented in domestic practice, are characterized. The advantages of state enterprises from undergoing audit procedures have been determined; the factors that restrain the consumption of audit services are systematized, and proposals for their elimination and formation of loyalty of state enterprises to the institute of auditors are also developed. Special emphasis is placed on the organization and methodology of auditing corruption risks of state-owned enterprises and joint-stock companies in order to prevent the commission of corruption offenses.

Реализация единства измерений характеристик РАО при передаче на захоронение

The paper discusses the comprehensive measures implemented to ensure the uniformity of measurements as regards the RW characteristics demonstrating their compliance with waste acceptance criteria for disposal. Under this framework, the following regulations have been developed by JSC VNIINM: the Unified Industry Guidelines for the Measurements of Radiation Waste Characteristics, standard measurement and test procedures, as well as the standard of the State Corporation Rosatom for monitoring physical and chemical property indicators and characteristics of the RW form.

ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЕ ВЫГОРАНИЕ: КРИТЕРИИ ОЦЕНКИ И СПОСОБЫ СВОЕВРЕМЕННОГО ПРЕДОТВРАЩЕНИЯ

The subject of the study is socio-economic and psychological relations in the process of labor activity and the human life support system, which affect the professional burnout of workers. The object of the study is the syndrome of professional burnout (preconditions, stages, forms of manifestation) of employees. The purpose of the study is to improve the results of work by identifying and then leveling professional burnout. The high importance of measures to level the syndrome of professional burnout required knowledge of the prerequisites for the occurrence of this problem, factors of influence, and methods of timely prevention, which emphasizes the relevance of the research topic. The scientific novelty lies in the grouping of currently used approaches to the concept of "professional burnout". It is shown that the accelerated introduction of the achievements of scientific and technological progress (including the Internet) in all spheres of public life, including labor, causes an increase in the level of anxiety about one’s place. in the environment and personal achievements, which results in the fear of missing out (FOMO), which negatively affects and leads to a breakdown in the emotional state and gradual burnout. The research methods are analysis, systematization, synthesis, induction, deduction, and modeling. To achieve this goal, the following results were obtained: consideration of the theoretical foundations of the problem of "professional burnout"; analysis of factors influencing the occurrence of the "professional burnout" syndrome; systematization of stages and signs of professional burnout; assessment of professional burnout level among company employees (on the example of employees of a state corporation); formulation of recommendations for preventing and reducing the consequences of professional burnout. On the basis of the theoretical substantiation of the concept of "professional burnout", the main conclusion and practical recommendations are made, the factors influencing the occurrence of this syndrome and the stages of manifestation are considered, examples of their occurrence are given, and the practical experience of companies is analyzed and measures to prevent this phenomenon are suggested.

Who Benefits from State Corporate Tax Cuts? A Local Labor Market Approach with Heterogeneous Firms: Further Results

Who Benefits from State Corporate Tax Cuts? A Local Labor Market Approach with Heterogeneous Firms: Further Results

Gold, Marina, and Alessandro Zagato (eds.): After the Pink Tide. Corporate State Formation and New Egalitarianisms in Latin America.

Gold, Marina, and Alessandro Zagato (eds.): After the Pink Tide. Corporate State Formation and New Egalitarianisms in Latin America.

Radical Nationalist and Philo-Fascist Movements in Argentina in the 1930s

As in many Western countries, in Argentina in the interwar period, an influential right-wing radical movement arose, close in its ideological and political characteristics to European fascism. Initially, it was an intellectual movement that was able to form a political movement that took an important place in Argentine politics, the extreme expression of which was the military-civilian coup of J. F. Uriburu in 1930. In the ideological baggage of the philo-fascists there were theses about the totalitarian state, about the struggle against liberalism and democracy, about the corporate state structure, anti-imperialism and anti-Semitism. The peculiarity of Argentina was such a phenomenon as clero-fascism, a trend that arose from the union of nationalism and Catholic integrism under the banner of right-wing authoritarianism, philo-fascism and clericalism. An attempt to launch right-wing, corporatist reforms during the Uriburu dictatorship failed primarily because of the reluctance of the Argentine ruling elite to change the development model. As a result, philo-fascist groups and movements were pushed out of the political scene, marginalized, but at the same time they retained intellectual and social influence in the country, which was reflected in the following years with the advent of Peronism in the political life of Argentina.