Window Dressing Research Articles

Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs' emphasis on symbolism: Causes and consequences

SummaryIn this article, we attempt to explain why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs have become so widespread and central to organizations today. We propose that organizations have responded to powerful societal forces that emphasize the importance of diversity. Because achieving diversity is often difficult, organizations often emphasize the symbolic aspects of diversity, including mission statements on diversity and the creation of units to promote the organization's DEI reputation. This emphasis on diversity symbolism has led to some unintended and negative consequences. A major consequence is that organizations become vulnerable to the charge that they are engaging in “window dressing.” This charge can lead organizations to respond by setting even more difficult‐to‐achieve goals. We cite illustrative examples in which stakeholders have called on organizations to actually achieve diversity, prompting a new round of diversity‐related goal‐setting sometimes accompanied by legally questionable human resource procedures (e.g., preferential hiring). Another negative consequence of diversity symbolism is that it incentivizes a focus on surface rather than deep dimensions of diversity. This displacement of deep by surface level diversity may cause organization to forgo the advantages potentially afforded by the former relative to the latter. We suggest that the tradeoffs inherent in DEI warrant caution and realism in program implementation.

Diversity, equity and inclusion work: a difference that makes a difference … ?

PurposeI examine if current diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives can actually accomplish what they aim and claim to do. I argue that perforce they cannot, as they remain instruments of capitalist corporations and other similar structures.Design/methodology/approachI draw on a variety of literature, from poetry to theories and to empirical findings.FindingsDEI work so far does not live up to its hyped-up claims. It is time for scholars and practitioners to question the DEI industrial complex and its influence on organizational dynamics. It is not clear that justice can ever be achieved in a capitalist neoliberal economy.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is not an empirical paper.Practical implicationsDEI work needs to be re-conceived so that it addresses power imbalances, rather serving as a tool to keep organizations comfortable in seeming to change.Social implicationsDEI practitioners will need to draw deeply on their courage so that they do not reinforce the existing systems of capitalist oppression through their well-intentioned work.Originality/valueThe paper argues that DEI work can accomplish little without a radical reconceptualization of its nature as a genuine tool for change, rather than simply window dressing.

Understanding Digital Transformation Village Credit Institutions Towards Sustainability Based on Local Genius

This study aims to understand the digitization transformation of village credit institutions towards sustainability based on local genius. Local geniuses are fundamental values for village credit institutions to enrich traditional local citizens. This research was conducted in village credit institutions and has since been transformed into digital. This research employed the combination methodology of Participatory Action Research in developing the application and Nusantara Paradigm as a view and the method using local values in implementing the application. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with stakeholders’ village credit institutions in Bali Province, the heads of village credit institutions, which is a digital transformation. This study realizes that window-dressing is a common practice that can be described using agency theory. Window dressings can be reduced through digital transformations. Sustainability exists as an enrichment of traditional local economics based on local genius with three harmonized relationships with God, humans, and the environment. Local genius not just the values written in regulation or standard operating procedures, but internalization in daily operational village credit institutions. Sustainability existence and growth measure with the comprehensive approach, harmonization with the God in our spiritual values, harmonization with the human through transparent report can be describe with development Humanism Agency Theory on Traditional Social Community Ownership. Harmonization in an environment with practical digital transformation to save our planet. The originality of this research is that it extends agency theory type 4 in accordance with social community ownership of a new type of conflict. The combined method of Participatory Action Research in developing the application and Nusantara Paradigm in implementing a new methodology approach reflecting digital process transformation based on local values.

Platform work and traditional employee protection: The need for alternative legal approaches

Paid work via digital platforms (so-called crowd work and gig work) is gaining in importance in Europe. Platform workers often suffer poor working conditions. Most platform companies treat crowd and gig workers as self-employed or independent contractors and, thus, normally protective labour laws do not apply. In response, initiatives have been taken through case law and legislation to extend the reach of the traditional employmentship to platform work. For example, the German Federal Labour Court ( Bundesarbeitsgericht) reclassified and treated platform workers as employees in high-profile rulings, which are discussed in more detail below. The recently adopted EU Directive on Platform Work enshrines a legal presumption of employment for platform workers. Regulations have also recently been introduced in EU Member States that subsume platform workers under the concept of employee. However, as argued in this article, legal and judicial initiatives aimed at extending the employee status often have limits given the market dynamics and de facto adaptation and circumvention strategies used by platform businesses. Moreover, traditional labour law protection does not always seem to be suitable for tackling the complexities and peculiarities of the various types of platforms. The following theses therefore seem worth discussing: 1. Extending employee status to platform work appears promising if this is already anchored in the socio-economic reality and if a consensus can be reached between the social partners in this regard. An existing example is the Spanish riders’ law, which pursues a sectoral approach and was supported not only by trade union organisations but also by employers’ associations. 2. In addition, the creation of a substantial core of social rights for platform workers, irrespective of employment status, should be strongly focused and legally brought forward. The long-standing scholarly discussion about alternative regulatory approaches to forms of work in the legal grey area between dependent employment and self-employment should be revived and made fruitful for the new phenomenon of digital work platforms. 3. Thirdly, self-regulatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives by platform companies to improve working conditions should be encouraged by legislators and policymakers. As will be shown later in this article, a wide range of CSR efforts by the platforms already exist. In order to counter the risk of window dressing, the platform business operators’ own initiatives should be made effective through appropriate flanking legal measures and public pressure.

Window dressing of regulatory metrics: Evidence from repo markets

This paper investigates both the magnitude and the drivers of bank window dressing behavior in euro-denominated repo markets. Using a confidential transaction-level data set, our analysis illustrates that banks engineer an economically sizeable contraction in their repo transactions around regulatory reporting dates. We establish a causal link between these reductions and banks’ incentives to window dress and document the role of the leverage ratio and the G-SIB framework as the most relevant drivers of window dressing behavior. Our findings suggest that regulatory action is warranted to limit banks’ ability to window dress.

Culture as window dressing? A threefold methodological framework for researching the locality of Netflix series

Considering the implications of Netflix’s role as a content producer for cultural diversity in Europe, this methodological article investigates how to define and measure the locality of Netflix Originals. We employ a threefold methodological study based on industry data analysis, audience reception research, and content analysis. This replicable and scalable methodological design provides a solid analytical framework for future studies examining Netflix Originals from the normative perspective of cultural diversity. Demonstrating the steps of our exploratory study, we also find that Netflix’s locally-produced but globally-oriented content uses culture as window dressing, warranting further research.

Wrong Kind of Transparency? Mutual Funds’ Higher Reporting Frequency, Window Dressing, and Performance

ABSTRACTThis study examines whether mandatory increase in reporting frequency exacerbates agency problems. Utilizing the setting of the 2004 SEC mandate on increased reporting frequency of mutual fund holdings, we show that increased reporting frequency elevates window dressing (buying winners or selling losers shortly before the end of the reporting period). This effect is driven by low‐skill fund managers’ incentives to generate mixed signals. Funds managed by low‐skill managers experience lower returns, more outflows, and a higher collapse rate when their window dressing is elevated after the 2004 rule change. These results suggest that, although higher reporting frequency on agents’ actions can exacerbate signal manipulations, the related manipulation costs improve sorting among agents in the longer term.

Window dressing: Changes in atmospheric pollution at boundaries in response to regional environmental policy in China

In decentralized environmental governance, local governments are likely to adopt the “beggar-thy-neighbor” strategy to relax regulations at boundaries. This study investigates the impact of China's Joint Atmospheric Prevention and Control Policy (JAPCP) in “2 + 26” cities enforced by the central government on pollution at provincial boundaries. The theoretical model suggests that dual incentives for environmental protection and economic growth may prompt local governments to reduce boundary pollution within the JAPCP-covered area while relocating pollution to uncovered boundaries. Based on Shandong Province data using the difference-in-differences approach, our analysis reveals a 9.6% decline in the air quality at JAPCP-covered boundaries compared to non-boundary areas and a 5.3% increase at JAPCP-uncovered boundaries, which is associated with migration of key regulated industries. Through examining annual work reports, we provide evidence that local governments modify regulatory intensity at various boundaries. These findings indicate that, while regional environmental policies are intended to promote inter-jurisdictional cooperation, the local government responses lead to unintended costs.

Involving lived experience in regional efforts to address gambling-related harms: going beyond 'window dressing' and 'tick box exercises'.

Lived Experience (LE) involvement has been shown to improve interventions across diverse sectors. Yet LE contributions to public health approaches to address gambling-related harms remain underexplored, despite notable detrimental health and social outcomes linked to gambling. This paper analyses the potential of LE involvement in public health strategy to address gambling-related harms. It focuses on the example of a UK city-region gambling harms reduction intervention that presented multiple opportunities for LE input. Three focus groups and 33 semi-structured interviews were conducted to hear from people with and without LE who were involved in the gambling harms reduction intervention, or who had previous experience of LE-informed efforts for addressing gambling-related harms. People without LE provided reflections on the value and contributions of others' LE to their work. Data analysis combined the Framework Method with themes developed inductively (from people's accounts) and deductively (from the literature, including grey literature). Four themes were identified: (1) personal journeys to LE involvement; (2) the value added by LE to interventions for addressing gambling-related harms; (3) emotional impacts on people with LE; and (4) collective LE and diverse lived experiences. Two figures outlining LE involvement specific to gambling harms reduction in the UK, where public health efforts aimed at addressing gambling-related harms coexist with industry-funded programmes, are proposed. Integrating a range of LE perspectives in a public health approach to gambling harms reduction requires local access to involvement for people with LE via diverse routes that are free from stigma and present people with LE with options in how they can engage and be heard in decision-making, and how they operate in relation to industry influence. Involving LE in gambling harms reduction requires enabling people to develop the affective and critical skills necessary to navigate complex emotional journeys and a challenging commercial and policy environment.

Industry price guarantees for publicly funded medicines: learning from Project NextGen for pandemics and beyond.

The affordability of publicly funded medicines has been a longstanding concern. In 2023, the Biden administration took several steps on this front, including incorporation of a price constraint in an agreement between the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop a new COVID-19 monoclonal antibody. The agreement included a 'Most Favored Nation' (MFN) clause in which Regeneron agreed that the US commercial list price of certain products developed using BARDA funding would not exceed their retail price in comparable global markets. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) included similar language in subsequent agreements, with a promise that this would become a new standard. Even beyond the preparedness context, government funders and purchasers might consider incorporating similar clauses in future contracts, especially given that the Regeneron agreement and its progeny have been praised as 'groundbreaking.' Yet a closer look reveals cause for skepticism. Regeneron's MFN clause includes several loopholes related to covered purchasers and reference countries, prices, and conditions. We describe agreement terms that can make the difference between legally meaningful price constraints and mere window dressing. Our critical analysis offers important lessons for future efforts to improve the affordability of medical technology developed with public funds.

Seasonal variation in risk and return trade‐off

AbstractExisting studies show that firms with large macroeconomic risk do not earn higher returns, incompatible with the theoretical predictions of standard economic models. Using a broad set of macro‐related factors, we find the January seasonality of the macroeconomic risk–return relation. Firms with high macro risk deliver higher returns than firms with low risk in January, that is, the positive risk–return trade‐off holds. Conversely, the negative risk–return relation is observed in non‐January months. The seasonal variation in the macro risk–return relation cannot be explained by existing January effects, including the tax‐loss selling, window dressing, and pronounced gambling preference around New Year.

Window Dressing in Impression Management: Does Negative Media Coverage Drive Corporate Green Production?

This study addresses the calls for research attention on corporate greenwashing and analyzes an environmental strategy in corporate impression management. We assume that negative media coverage triggers impression motivation and causes firms to adopt environmental strategies for impression construction based on the two-component model in impression management. Specifically, firms release credible signals, such as green investment, to cover concealed pollution emissions under the framework of a game with incomplete information. We posit that firms can select a window-dressing strategy under the pressures of negative media coverage by constructing two regression models, respectively. We also assess our underlying assumption of constraints from state ownership and institutional shareholdings by testing additional moderating relationships. Utilizing a sample of Chinese publicly listed firms from 2000 to 2010, our empirical results suggest that negative media coverage increases corporate green investment, but pollutant emissions are reduced correspondingly, and state ownership aggravates corporate window dressing while institutional shareholdings curb it. Our findings reveal the corporate social irresponsibility in environmental protection and sustainable development, and they offer important implications for firm stakeholders.

Transparency of sustainability disclosures among luxury and mass-market fashion brands: Longitudinal approach

Longitudinal analysis of transparency among fashion brands is the first scholarly effort to investigate sustainability disclosures among the sample of 90 major brands over the period of seven years (2017–2023) through the prisms of moral responsibility theory of corporate and supply chain sustainability. Results showed that both luxury and mass-market brands consider corporate transparency as a broad area to practice their perfect duties. Consequently, brands selectively disclose information about their policies, commitments, governance responsibilities, and processes on human rights and environmental issues but disclose significantly less about the ultimate outcomes of their sustainability efforts. Thus, results indicate that supply chain reporting areas represent the area of imperfect duties for the majority of mass-market and luxury brands. Due to the non-existence of strict reporting mandates in the fashion sector, it is up to luxury and mass-market brands' discretion which sustainability indicators they measure and report. Accurate, relevant, and externally audited disclosures are key factors influencing sustainable investment, with positive effects on the industry, market, garment workers, and consumers. Hence, to prevent fashion brands' tendency to indulge in window dressing and greenwashing, this research advocates for policy change and expects local governments to mandate and enforce reporting mandates. Additionally, non-compliance with reporting laws should be both inspected and penalized.

Window dressing in the banking sector of an emerging economy: evidence from aggregate data

PurposeThis study aims to investigate window dressing as practiced by commercial banks in Kuwait, using monthly aggregate balance sheet data covering the period January 1993 to December 2017.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies the structural time series model to decompose an observed time series into unobserved components based on monthly data covering January 1993 to December 2017 on the consolidated balance sheet of commercial banks in Kuwait.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that Kuwaiti commercial banks indulge in upward window dressing to boost size and liquidity. This kind of behaviour is indicated by a statistically significant rise in assets under the control of banks in December, followed by a statistically significant decline in January. The operation is funded by borrowing, leading to a December rise and a January fall in foreign and other liabilities, which are also under the control of commercial banks.Originality/valueThis study uses a novel methodology to detect window dressing based on the seasonal behaviour of balance sheet items. This study suggests a unified framework for the motives, targets, types and consequences of window dressing and how they are related.

Praktik Fraud Dalam Perspektif Novel “Negeri Para Bedebah” Karya Tere Liye.

This research explores the representation of bribery and window dressing practices in the novel "Negeri Para Bedebah" and its relevance to audit and accounting theories. Thomas, the main character, engages in fraudulent activities by bribing and manipulating financial reports to save Bank Semesta. Bribery involves risking one-third of customer savings to influence the central bank to approve the acquisition. The practice of window dressing is also revealed in the attempt to acquire and merge four small banks. The central bank is involved in covering up data to create a positive impression of Bank Semesta's financial health. This research contributes to the understanding of audit and accounting theories and provides new insights into fraud prevention and detection.

A Critical Analysis of the Ups and Downs of the British 1832 'Great' Reform Act

This work scrutinises the British struggle for the 1832 ‘Great’ Reform Act by exploring its ups and downs. It, in fact, aims at showing that that Reform Act does not deserve the qualifier ‘Great’ put in inverted commas. Through the historical perspective, the findings have revealed that the 1832 Reform Act took much time to be recognised and passed by Parliament, because political leaders at that time were tyrants and hated all sorts of change. In the long run of time, the bill was then adopted and became law under the masses’ pressure and upheaval. However, after its passage, the political system was slightly changed and the idea of democracy in Britain was, indeed, still a mere masquerade. There were no salaries of MPs, no secret ballot, no regular parliaments, no vote for women, no abolition of property qualification and no constituencies of the same size. It is evident that this appellation is but window dressing. So, this historical misconception should be reviewed and corrected.

Partial portfolio disclosure, investors’ attention, and window dressing

I show that the disclosure of mutual funds’ holdings significantly affects investors’ investment decisions. As most mutual fund websites, advertisements, and fund-trading platforms only disclose a fund’s 10 largest holdings (top-10), this study finds that investors disproportionately focus on these stocks. However, this bias does not lead to additional profit because relative to their peers, funds with good top-10 performance tend to generate poor long-term returns. I design a clean and innovative discontinuity test between the performance of the 10th and 11th portfolio holdings to examine such window dressing behavior. I find that relative to their peers, funds that are small, new, and highly active are more likely to window dress and incur greater costs if they suffer from severe capital outflows. My findings suggest that partial disclosure misleads investors and allows effective window dressing.

Window Dressing and the Designation of Global Systemically Important Banks

Window Dressing and the Designation of Global Systemically Important Banks

Administering Diaspora: Complexity and Innovation in the Emigrant Policies of Latin America and the Caribbean – A Learning Opportunity for the Global North?

Diaspora engagement policies are an area of migration policy which tends to be neglected in countries of the Global North. Specifically, the configuration of public administration agencies behind diaspora policies has been treated superficially in comparative analyses. Epistemic communities have created a narrative that diaspora policies are mostly a form of window dressing. Using original data, this article compares the configurations of agencies that design and implement diaspora policies across 22 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, a particularly innovative region in this policy area. It argues that the Global North misses a learning opportunity in overlooking their complexity.

How to measure progress towards a wellbeing economy: distinguishing genuine advances from 'window dressing'.

The world is experiencing multiple intersecting urgent and existential crises, which have profound and inequitable implications for population health. Arguably, the design of the current, dominant economic system and its antecedents is the root cause of these crises, as it externalises impacts on nature, climate and population health, exacerbates inequalities, and rewards extraction, rent-seeking and social hierarchy. A 'wellbeing economy', which aims to achieve social justice within planetary boundaries, has been proposed as an alternative approach to economic design. Many governments, businesses and organisations have expressed interest or commitment to this, but not at the required scale or with the required urgency. Indeed, there is the risk now that the radicalism of a wellbeing economy approach is undermined in its delivery thus far as it has either only been adopted in rhetoric or nascent form; or implemented only as isolated components rather than as part of a comprehensive shift. We, therefore, propose a series of criteria by which judgement can be made on whether progress towards a wellbeing economy is occurring: 1) Is the economy explicitly viewed by relevant actors as serving social, health, cultural, equity and nature outcomes, rather than the reverse?; 2) Is there a comprehensive and plausible pathway to design the economy in a way that achieves these outcomes?; 3) Is there a clear commitment to transitioning away from socially and ecologically damaging economic activities and doing so in a just way?; 4) Are there clear mechanisms that extend democracy over all sectors of the economy, including economic strategy and policy design, and in ownership of economic assets?; 5) Are negative externalities between policy areas or populations assessed and avoided, and positive externalities identified and promoted?; and 6) Are all the measures of economic success focused on social, health, cultural, equity and nature outcomes? We then apply these criteria using a series of examples to show contrasts between genuine wellbeing approaches and wellbeing economy 'window dressing'.