Corporate Welfare Research Articles

The Role of Corporate Governance in Corporate Human Development Disclosures

Objective – The urgency of this research is to examine the effect of corporate governance on corporate human development disclosures.Methodology – This study focuses on corporate reporting by twenty-six Regional Development Banks in Indonesia. It encompasses the examination of annual and stand-alone sustainability reports spanning from 2014 to 2021. Additionally, panel data analysis is employed in this research, specifically utilizing the Fixed Effect Model as the chosen analytical approach.Results – This research result shows that independent commissioners and female directors, as part of corporate governance, have a significant and positive effect on corporate human development disclosures.Research Implications – The implication of this research argues that independent commissioners and female directors, as part of corporate governance, have capabilities that can optimize corporate human development disclosures. By optimizing corporate human development through effective reporting practices, Regional Development Banks can better fulfill their role as agents of development. Principals and agencies must support each other in optimizing corporate human development. Novelty/Originality - The level of disclosure is measured based on the corporate human development index with an agency and human capability theory approach. Disclosure of the corporate human development index is voluntary and reflects corporate welfare through items from the human development index.

Accounting, Religious Identity, Control and Discipline in the Quaker Lead Company, c.1800–c. 1860

Business histories of Quaker firms have generally presented them as enlightened employers and providers of industrial welfare. Quaker labour management and industrial welfare practices during the British Industrial Revolution (BIR) have been relatively neglected by accounting and business historians We conduct a ‘macro’ study of the roles of accounting in labour control and discipline and the provision of industrial welfare during the BIR in the religious, social and institutional contexts of the Quaker Lead Company. The research draws upon literature and data which present divergent views of the Company’s employment practices. The research finds that the historical construction of Quakers as enlightened employers and industrial philanthropists must be viewed with much caution. There was little that was uniquely and distinctively ‘Quaker’ in the Company’s approaches to labour control and discipline and its use of accounting in these respects.

COVID, crisis, and unordinary order: A critical analysis of Australia’s JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme as an exceptional measure

Carl Schmitt’s famous articulation of the relation between sovereignty and the exception emphasises not simply the basis for a suspension of the law in a state of emergency, but the role of the sovereign in deciding upon the existence of the ‘normal situation’, the ‘everyday frame of life’ which the law requires to function. Our pandemic times have included extreme biopolitical measures deployed to manage the health crisis, but also unprecedented political responses to regularise or stabilise the economic order. One example is Australia’s historic JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme. As law, it was given life by an executive power predicated on nationhood and enlivened by crisis. As policy, it was intended to help businesses retain workers through targeted, proportionate support. In reality, it also provided significant protections and even windfalls to corporations and their investors, leading to critiques of the scheme as corporate welfare. However, rather than highlighting deficiencies of the JobKeeper programme, these outcomes underscore its ultimate function. This article analyses the relationship between norm, exception, and order in the context of Australia’s flagship economic-policy response to the pandemic. First, by analysing the mutually constitutive relationship between norm and exception, employing the theories of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben. Second, by critically examining the legislative basis for JobKeeper, its political narrative and practical outcomes. Third, by demonstrating that the scheme, though an extraordinary departure from policy, can be understood as fundamentally a different and exceptional method to secure and reproduce our neoliberal corporate order in a state of exception.

No strings attached: Corporate welfare, state intervention, and the issue of conditionality

This paper contributes to Comparative Political Economy (CPE) by developing an analytical concept of corporate welfare. Corporate welfare—the transfer of public funds and benefits to corporate actors with weak or no conditionality—is a prominent form of state-business relations that CPE scholarship regularly overlooks and misinterprets. Such transfers should be understood as a structural privilege of business in a globalized post-Fordist capitalism, and an increasingly common strategy through which states attempt to steward national economic dynamism within a highly constrained range of policy options. However, without a well-developed concept of corporate welfare—premised upon the key criterion of conditionality—studies that identify a “return” of the state in industrial planning misrepresent these transfers to business as a reassertion of state influence and control, rather than a reflection of state weakness and subordination. The paper provides the analytical building blocks to properly conceptualize transfers to business, works out the core challenges for empirical research, and provides empirical illustrations of this burgeoning phenomenon from the fields of unconventional monetary policy, privatization, and urban political economy.

Part-time work and health in late careers: Evidence from a longitudinal and cross-national study

In this exploratory study, we examine how older workers' part-time employment and health are associated in four countries promoting this type of employment in late careers but with a different welfare regime: the United States, Germany, Sweden, and Italy. Using data from two large representative panel surveys and conducting multichannel sequence analysis, we identified the most typical interlocked employment and health trajectories for each welfare regime and for three different age groups of women and men. We found that there is more heterogeneity in these trajectories in countries with a liberal welfare regime and among older age groups. Overall, women are more strongly represented in the part-time employment trajectories associated with lower health levels. In countries with a social-democratic or corporatist welfare regime, part-time employment in late careers tends to be associated with good health. Our findings suggest that the combination of a statutory right to work part-time in late careers with a more generous welfare regimes, may simultaneously maintain workers’ health and motivate them to remain active in the labor force.

Interactive Cultural Communication Effect in VR Space of Intelligent Mobile Communication Network

Virtual reality technology can provide more display techniques to realize the interactive design of multiexhibition area of red humanities and natural resources. First of all, through the three-dimensional interactive display of cultural relics and scene reproduction of historical events, visitors can enjoy the unrestrained and immersive appreciation, make up for people’s lack of understanding of history, and let tourists personally feel the difficulties and hardships in the development of Chinese revolutionary history. Second, the digital method also provides for the pavilion and the scenic spot design personnel more creative method; dynamic scene reappearance interaction design based on virtual reality technology to promote education, protection of cultural relic collection and utilization, academic research, and the industrial development and multidimensional public welfare publicity results is blended in among them, through the panoramic, immersive, and interactive display technique, such as multilevel multiway spread red brigade culture. Virtual reality constantly imitates the real-life environment, and the application of perception sensing equipment has perception. This new technology requires us to continue to explore and research it. Virtual reality technology is a very cutting-edge subject and research field, which is very challenging. The communication form of culture has also been constantly evolving. Virtual reality technology (VR) has changed the way of traditional culture appreciation through the transmission of visual information, bringing people a new aesthetic enjoyment. Mainstream media is used to mobilize the red cultural heritage protection and scholars at home and abroad, to explore the application of virtual reality in the red culture tourist attraction planning, and to explore virtual reality applications in red open spot virtual roaming: exploration of virtual reality in the application of historical and cultural sites to red tourism management and exploration of virtual reality in the brand historical and cultural sites in the application of the travel marketing, to build an intelligent mobile communication network communication platform and broaden the new path of inheritance and protection. On the basis of studying the communication effect of traditional culture, this paper studies the possible communication effect of symphony orchestra under the new technology format under the framework of communication studies. It also analyzes and explores various factors such as the practical value, difficulty, civilized prestige, adaptability, and resistance to adversity of the culture in cultural communication and compares the methods of cultural communication. By developing a virtual instrument placed in the sphere of virtual reality space, the traditional symphony orchestra can be transformed into an interactive culture communication in virtual reality space. In this communication design, users can define their own instruments to play interactive culture communication, change the position of the instrument on the sphere interactively, and even change the sound effect of the symphony interactively by rotating or adjusting the size of the sphere, so as to achieve the best communication effect of the symphony.

Impact of Financialization on Income Inequality in Aspect of Welfare

Recently income inequality has been growing in many countries, and it is one of the biggest economic and social problems. The International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and other organizations stress the importance of this issue. According to Atkinson, Brandolini (2009), changes in income inequality show whether a particular society becomes more egalitarian over time or not, in which socio-economic direction it progresses.Even countries with similar economic structures differ in the level of income inequality and, according to Stiglitz (2015), differences in income inequality are related to policy decisions. The decisions of countries may depend on the prevailing view if markets are efficient or inefficient. In the first case, countries tend to rely more on neoliberal economic doctrine, and in the second, on the welfare state, where the role of government is more active (Stiglitz, 2017). However, it is observed that the growing income inequality is related to the growing role of the financial market, i.e. the phenomenon of financialization, which weakens the role of government. Thus, assessing the impact of financialization on income inequality is an actual topic of scientific debate.The results of studies, assessing the impact of financialization on income inequality, are mixed. Some financialization dimensions, such as financial liberalization, banking / financial crises increase income inequality, but microfinance intensity reduces income inequality. The contradictory results can be explained by the fact that research samples differ, various indicators reflecting the financialization are used, different independent variables are included in the regression equations.Studies have also been conducted in groups of countries that belong to different welfare state regimes (Josifidis, Mitrović, Supić, Glavaški, 2016; Dafermos, Papatheodorou, 2013). These studies emphasize that the level of income inequality is related to the efficiency of the social security system, i.e. income inequality is lower in Social–democratic welfare state regime (inherent universal social services and benefits) and Conservative–corporatist welfare state regime (social security model related to employment status) groups of countries than in the Mediterranean welfare state regime (characterized by the fragmentation of the social security model) and Liberal welfare state regime (inherent the specificity of the social security model, there is no universality) groups of countries. However, there is a lack of research that assesses the impact of financialization on income inequality in different welfare state regime groups of countries. The research problem: what is the impact of financialization on income inequality, is this impact the same in different EU welfare state regime groups? The object of the research - the impact of financialization on income inequality. The aim of the research is to assess the impact of financialization on income inequality in EU country groups.Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, grouping, generalization, regression analysis of panel data.When assessing the impact of financialization on income inequality in different welfare regimes EU country groups during the period 1998-2017, the least-squares regression analysis method of the panel data was used. The conducted research confirms the hypothesis and clearly shows that financialization, measured both by financial development index and domestic credit to the private sector, increases income inequality in all groups of countries. Thus, it shows that the role of the financial market is growing and financialization processes are contributing to the growth of income inequality in all groups of welfare regime countries and may reduce the role of government. These results are in line with Stiglitz, 2012; Razgūnė, 2017; Dünhaupt, 2014; Golebiowski, Szczepankowski, Wisniewska, 2016; Palley, 2008) who analyzed the relationship between financialization and growing income inequality. However, the study of Dabla-Norris et al. (2015), by contrast, find that the ratio of domestic credit to GDP in developed countries reduces income inequality.

ECONOMY IN THE ERA OF SALAH AD-DIN

The aim of this study is to examine the financial resources and expenditures, and the economic (commercial, agricultural, industrial) activities of Ayyubid state. The results of the study showed that the economy of Ayyubid state was stable and prosperous. Saladin had interested in domestic trade, and contributed to the monitoring and control of the markets, and provided the security and safety to traders and their goods and funds. He also interested in the foreign trade and engaged in trade agreements with major European cities. At agricultural level, the agricultural activities and irrigation systems had been supported. In addition, farmers had been protected from feudal injustice. At the industry level, the Saladin era was characterized by industrial welfare, and the industrial and crafts diversity. The financial resources of Ayyubid state were zakat, tribute, commercial taxes and other sources. Saladin abolished the taxes, that are against Islamic law, in the conquered cities. The financial resources of the state had been allocated to build educational institutions (schools, mosques, Dervish convents), hospitals, army, fortifications and fleet.

Risky business: COVAX and the financialization of global vaccine equity

BackgroundDuring the first year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic, COVAX has been the world’s most prominent effort to ensure equitable access to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Launched as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (Act-A) in June 2020, COVAX suggested to serve as a vaccine buyers’ and distribution club for countries around the world. It also aimed to support the pharmaceutical industry in speeding up and broadening vaccine development. While COVAX has recently come under critique for failing to bring about global vaccine equity, influential politicians and public health advocates insist that future iterations of it will improve pandemic preparedness. So far COVAX’s role in the ongoing financialization of global health, i.e. in the rise of financial concepts, motives, practices and institutions has not been analyzed.MethodsThis article describes and critically assesses COVAX’s financial logics, i.e. the concepts, arguments and financing flows on which COVAX relies. It is based on a review of over 109 COVAX related reports, ten in-depth interviews with global health experts working either in or with COVAX, as well as participant observation in 18 webinars and online meetings concerned with global pandemic financing, between September 2020 and August 2021.ResultsThe article finds that COVAX expands the scale and scope of financial instruments in global health governance, and that this is done by conflating different understandings of risk. Specifically, COVAX conflates public health risk and corporate financial risk, leading it to privilege concerns of pharmaceutical companies over those of most participating countries – especially low and lower-middle income countries (LICs and LMICs). COVAX thus drives the financialization of global health and ends up constituting a risk itself - that of perpetuating the downsides of financialization (e.g. heightened inequality, secrecy, complexity in governance, an ineffective and slow use of aid), whilst insufficiently realising its potential benefits (pandemic risk reduction, increased public access to emergency funding, indirect price control over essential goods and services).ConclusionFuture iterations of vaccine buyers’ and distribution clubs as well as public vaccine development efforts should work towards reducing all aspects of public health risk rather than privileging its corporate financial aspects. This will include reassessing the interplay of aid and corporate subsidies in global health.

Introducing Social Workers: Their Roles and Training

Abstract During the late Victorian and early Edwardian period references to ‘social work’ in the UK emerged in the context of the movement for social reform. Using a wide variety of contemporary literature, archival sources and Internet searches this article finds that, alongside charitable and philanthropic work, the term ‘social work’ referred to a particularly wide range of social, health, educational, industrial welfare and recreation activity. Few attempts were made to attribute an explicit meaning to the term and it was not used as frequently as is sometimes implied by commentaries about the period. However, voluntary and paid workers were increasingly referred to collectively as ‘social workers’ and became the subject of increasing discussion about their roles and need for training. This article traces the developments in references to social work and social workers in the literature and highlights the early debate that took place in the UK and USA about the relative importance of practical work and study of the social sciences, introducing the tension which characterised social workers’ subsequent difficulties in establishing a professional identity.

Corporate social responsibility, profits, and welfare in a duopolistic market

ABSTRACT We consider a two-stage game in a differentiated duopoly, where firms can pursue both a profit and a socially responsible objective. We assume that the maximum willingness-to-pay of consumers increases with the weights given by firms to their social objective, and that the social objective has a negative impact on the firms’ output. In the first stage of the game, the firms decide on the weight of their social objective and, in the second stage, firms compete à la Cournot. We show that accounting for social concerns in the firms’ objective is generally profitable, and that lower output and higher profits can be attained in equilibrium when the impact of firms’ social awareness on consumers’ willingness to pay is above a given threshold that depends on the products substitutability parameter. However, we find that the impact of firms’ social awareness on consumers’ and total welfare is ambiguous.

A User-Driven Approach to Prosthetic Upper Limb Development in Korea.

Despite recent significant advances in technology and medicine, the number of patients who undergo amputation of body parts for various reasons continues to increase. Assistive devices such as prosthetic arms can enable limited activities in upper limb amputees and improve their quality of life. This study aims to help in the development of user-centered prosthetics by identifying user requirements and key considerations during selection of prosthetics. This study conducted a questionnaire survey after obtaining prior consent for persons with disabilities with upper limb amputation who visited orthosis companies, rehabilitation centers for the disabled, veteran’s hospitals, and labor welfare corporations. A modified questionnaire was conducted to upper limb prosthetic users and results were analysed using descriptive statistics and t-test. Results of the study showed that the main reasons for discontinuing the use of prosthetics were discomfort (discomfort in wear, weight, and difficulty of detachment) and complaints regarding design and function. Regardless of the prosthesis type, the color and design of the prosthesis were key considerations in prosthesis choices. Respondents indicated that they needed various prostheses designed according to the purpose and situation, such as for sports like golf and cycling as well as everyday use. Most of the respondents answered that buttoning shirts, tying knots, and using chopsticks were challenging or impossible to do on their own. Based on the results of this study, the quality of life of upper limb amputees can be improved if a prosthetic arm with various functions that can satisfy both the user’s needs and wants is developed.

Everything Changes, But It All Stays the Same. Labour Market Parties, Corporatism and Norwegian Sick Pay Policies 1978–2014

Since the adoption of a generous and universal sick pay scheme in 1978, the key elements of Norwegian sick pay policies have remained the same. The present study focuses on the gradual developments in welfare corporatism and policymaking during this period, arguing that these changes paved the way for new and surprising strategies and behaviour among the labour market parties. Tracking several retrenchment attempts across decades, the analyses show how policymaking in corporatist committees was gradually replaced by less predictable processes. Successive governments of different colors have tried to bypass the social partners and legislate hierarchically, thus signaling a break with traditional corporatist norms and decision rules. Labour and business groups adapted by negotiating a pact that kept the existing distribution of economic risks in the sick pay scheme off the political agenda, and by backing each other and creating negative attention to government in the media to protect the pact. In sum, although sick pay policies have remained largely unchanged, this is a status quo upheld by processes of welfare policymaking that have changed substantially. The pact between the social partners and the state is currently a new vetopoint for welfare policymaking. But the piecemeal institutional transformation witnessed in this period, together with the need for conflictual media strategies and new alliances to protect the pact, suggest that it could be a fragile veto‐point.

Partnership in Times of COVID-19: Government and Civil Society in Austria

Abstract How did the relation between Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and government develop during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, once governments had taken restrictive measures to lock down economic and public life? Austria is used as an example of a corporatist welfare state whereby collaboration between government and CSOs occurs particularly in the fields of social services, health-care, and youth. Our analysis focuses on the social service sector and differentiates between several social policy fields. We hereby analyze data from qualitative interviews with CEOs from 30 CSOs, four group discussions with another 30 representatives of CSOs, public agencies and authorities, and from a standardized questionnaire (n = 99 CSOs). We also utilize our own experiences as participant observers in meetings between CSOs and government. Results indicate that CSOs suffered financially partly due to a decrease in income, though mostly due to an increase in cost. In social services in particular, they also faced hardships caused by the need to reorganize operations and human resources, and by the increased demands of customers. Federal government took responsibility for supporting CSOs financially, though such support was hampered by unclear competencies in Austria’s multilayered federal system.

Campaign Finance Regulations and Public Policy

AbstractDespite a century of efforts to constrain money in American elections, there is little consensus on whether campaign finance regulations make any appreciable difference. Here we take advantage of a change in the campaign finance regulations of half of the U.S. states mandated by the Supreme Court’sCitizens Uniteddecision. This exogenously imposed change in the regulation of independent expenditures provides an advance over the identification strategies used in most previous studies. Using a generalized synthetic control method, we find that afterCitizens United, states that had previously banned independent corporate expenditures (and thus were “treated” by the decision) adopted more “corporate-friendly” policies on issues with broad effects on corporations’ welfare; we find no evidence of shifts on policies with little or no effect on corporate welfare. We conclude that even relatively narrow changes in campaign finance regulations can have a substantively meaningful influence on government policy making.

Emerging social and business trends associated with the Covid-19 pandemic

Purpose This paper aims to identify, classify and study emerging social and business trends associated with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach By adopting the meta-synthesis method, the study scrutinizes, synthesizes and interprets the findings from a pool of publications. This approach results in identifying 53 key ideas that are classified under nine dominant trends. Findings The study identifies and examines nine major trends caused and intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic, i.e. the rise of authoritarianism, the new era of corporate welfare, deep imbalances in public finances, exacerbated inequalities, higher risks of poverty and famine, the dominance of giant corporations, the increasing influence of big tech, the accelerated innovation and the fluidity of work and organizations. The paper suggests that these trends are the continuation of the past three decades’ transformations, are contributing to the rising concentration of power and wealth and are leading to a new type of globalization marked by high connectivity and low tangibility. Originality/value The originality of this paper resides in adopting a multidisciplinary approach to analyzing various social and business dimensions of a complex phenomenon. While the study should not be viewed as a comprehensive investigation, it offers a groundwork for further research on Covid-19.

Development of the "Scale of Identity Adaptation (SIA)" for People with Schizophrenia

Objective: People with schizophrenia “adapt their identity” to the illness in order to live on their own in the community, which is considered essential. The aim of the present study was to measure and report the reliability of the original Scale of Identity Adaptation (SIA) for people with schizophrenia. Method: Several social welfare corporations (welfare facilities), psychiatric clinics, and associations for patients with schizophrenia or their families in the Kanto area in Japan volunteered to participate. A total of 265 anonymous, self-administered questionnaires were mailed to the 10 facilities, which approved the research and agreed to refer research participants. Results: Of the 265 questionnaires mailed, responses were collected from 87 participants (response rate = 33%). Among these, valid data of 77 participants were used for analysis (response rate = 89%), after deleting questionnaires with missing data. The sample consisted of 42 men (55%), 30 women (39%), and 5 non-responses (6%). The median age was 48 years (range: 20-80 years); the mean age was 48.5 (±2.12) years for men, and 45.7 (±15.56) years for women. Four factors were extracted from the 33 items of the SIA draft through primary factor analysis (Promax rotation). For the 33 items of the draft, exploratory factor analysis was performed for 18 items using item analysis. The Cronbach’s reliability coefficient for the four-factor structure was 0.83~0.90, confirming reliability. Conclusions: The SIA developed in this study comprised four factors and 24 items; the SIA’s reliability was verified as the Cronbach’s α was found to be 0.75 or greater for the entire scale.

Mediating Effect of Corporate Welfare Satisfaction in the Relationship between Retirement Pension System's Income Security and Job Commitment

Mediating Effect of Corporate Welfare Satisfaction in the Relationship between Retirement Pension System's Income Security and Job Commitment

ESOP and Corporate Sustainable Growth

The Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a long-term corporate welfare policy that allows employees to share the profits and growth benefits of the enterprise by owning the ordinary share of the enterprise. It has always been a research hotspot at home and abroad. Sustainable growth refers to the healthy and sustained growth of enterprises. ESOP has been re-implemented in China since 2014. Using dual fixed effects model, this paper empirically analyzes 6940 observations of Chinese listed companies from 2014 to 2018. We study whether ESOP can improve the sustainable growth rate of enterprises by allowing employees to hold equity, linking their personal interests to the interests of enterprises, and thus playing an incentive and supervisory role to effectively reduce enterprise agency costs. In the research process, we find that the data can help us objectively analyze the economic management problems of enterprises. However, when using the data for analysis, the correlation coefficient and significance should be analyzed together.

The institutionalisation of a new social policy in the Portuguese Estado Novo. The struggle for a corporatist welfare (1933-1945)

Este artículo debate sobre los objetivos de la política social y de las instituciones de los regímenes fascistas. Considerando el concepto de fascismo de forma más amplia y no basado exclusivamente en la experiencia fascista italiana, este análisis se centra en el régimen corporativista del Estado Nuevo portugués. Teniendo en cuenta que en el contexto de entreguerras el corporativismo era una forma de construir políticas sociales específicas y autoritarias, este artículo expone las estructuras institucionales portuguesas para el bienestar y analiza sus objetivos instrumentales. Comparando la experiencia portuguesa con otros sistemas corporativistas, ¿hubo un welfare corporativista? ¿Fue esta una nueva política social conectada a la modernización económica y capaz de competir con el Estado de bienestar democrático? Estas preguntas clave se responden mediante el análisis de las contradicciones del sistema social corporativo portugués de Salazar, su falta de universalidad y su desconexión con los derechos sociales.