The document summarizes interviews conducted with Chinese accountants about environmental accounting practices in their organizations. Key findings include:
1) Accountants reported environmental accounting activities like accounting for environmental levies paid to the government, measuring pollution costs, and tracking energy usage. However, most organizations did not publicly report this information.
2) Organizational environmental policies focused on meeting government standards but did not reference traditional Chinese philosophies. Policies emphasized concepts like sustainable development and maximizing social benefit.
3) While some accountants held personal philosophies influenced by traditions like Taoism and Buddhism, these views did not influence organizational policies or environmental accounting practices. External factors like government, markets, and foreign parent companies had greater
The document summarizes a research paper on environmental regulation in the presence of asymmetric information. It discusses:
1) A model with a firm, regulatory agency, and regulator, where the firm has private information about its costs and the agency can be influenced by interest groups.
2) The objective of maximizing social welfare by setting pollution levels and firm output/prices while dealing with asymmetric information.
3) How interest groups like environmentalists or industry lobbyists could influence the agency and distort the optimal regulatory outcome.
4) The welfare functions of consumers, firms, agencies and regulators that are used to analyze regulatory policies under symmetric and asymmetric information scenarios.
- Since 2003, over 1,578 research articles and 4,464 working papers have used Doing Business data to study how business regulations impact economic outcomes like growth, productivity, and employment.
- Different empirical methods are used, ranging from simple cross-country correlations to natural experiments, with natural experiments better able to establish causal relationships between reforms and economic impacts.
- Recent studies using natural experiments find that reforms simplifying business registration lead to more firm creation but may not formalize existing informal firms. Flexible labor markets also enhance the pro-growth effects of trade openness. Overall, research supports reducing burdensome regulations to boost entrepreneurship and economic performance.
The impact of creative organizational climate on the innovation activityAlexander Decker
This study examined the impact of creative organizational climate on innovation activity in two medical device manufacturing firms in Hungary. Questionnaires measuring 10 dimensions of creative climate and perceptions of innovation were administered to employees. Company A had more conservative structure and competitive incentives, while Company B was more organic with collective bonuses. Company B showed triple the new product innovations of Company A in recent years. The study found debates and idea challenges differentiated climate between firms and predicted innovation levels, though some dimensions like idea time were contrary to expectations. Overall, the research partially confirmed connections between climate and innovation perceptions.
Developing reverse logistics programs: a resource based view.tenderboyfriend96
The document discusses developing reverse logistics programs from a resource-based view. It provides background on reverse logistics, describing it as the process of planning and managing the return of products from customers. Reverse logistics is important as return rates are high across many industries. The document presents interviews from executives to develop a framework of how committing resources (such as knowledge, employees, facilities) can build reverse logistics capabilities (like information management, innovation, responsiveness) that improve performance. However, committing resources alone may not be enough, and developing effective processes is also important for maximizing capabilities and performance.
Why join a carbon club? A study of the banks participating in the Brazilian "...FGV Brazil
Originally published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
Why do firms that present low levels of (direct) carbon emissions participate in “carbon clubs”, which have the goal of managing and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? In order to answer this question, we collected data from both primary and secondary sources from firms operating in the Brazilian banking sector, which are members of the Businesses for Climate Platform (Plataforma Empresas pelo Clima, EPC). We first looked for answers in the institutional theory and resource based view of the firm (RBV). By confronting the arguments presented by these streams of scientific enquiry with empirical data, we worked on theory testing. In particular, we analyzed the institutional pressures and resources and capabilities of the focus companies, in order to understand the rationales for proactive sustainability management. We found evidences of the arguments presented by both the institutional theory and the RBV. By studying an industry that is not a frequent subject to research on socio-environmental issues - for not being considered of high impact - in an emerging market economy, the research contributes to both the further development of the institutional theory and the advancement of sustainability management in corporations.
GVces - Center for Sustainability Studies
www.gvces.com.br
The government’s economic policy is defined by five-year economic plans. China is at a critical stage of her development China will have move up the ‘value chain’ as it loses its competitive edge in labour-intensive sectors. China is still a relatively poor country with an estimated GDP per capita on a PPP basis of US$12,879 in 2014, lower than Thailand. Policies to increase the real incomes of China’s middle class will encourage more consumption as a share of GDP and make the economy less reliant on exports and investment as key sources of economic growth.
The Chinese economy has many structural imbalances that will need to be addressed for sustainable growth to be maintained:
Chinese economy remains reliant on credit growth, with overall debt rising to 280% of GDP in mid-2015
China will need to shift away from imitating/copying Western technologies to generating more innovation Increasing competitive challenges are coming from lower-unit cost countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico. Wages in the Chinese manufacturing sector have more than tripled since 2008.
This document discusses corporate social and environmental auditing. It explores whether such auditing is done due to perceived responsibility or regulatory requirements. The document reviews literature on social and environmental auditing definitions. It discusses theories like legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory that underpin social and environmental accounting. It also examines drivers for corporate social and environmental disclosures like ethical purposes, compliance, investor confidence and risk management. The document calls for accounting regulatory bodies to establish standards for social and environmental auditing.
Environmental accounting in china – the influence ofJohn Margerison
This document summarizes a study that examines the influences on how Chinese accountants formulate environmental accounting practices, with a focus on philosophical influences from Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The study uses interviews from accountants in Shenyang and Shanghai to understand how they measure environmental costs and impacts. While some accountants expressed personal philosophies related to environmental protection, most saw government regulation, markets, and scandals as the main influences on their environmental accounting work rather than Chinese philosophy.
The document summarizes a research paper on environmental regulation in the presence of asymmetric information. It discusses:
1) A model with a firm, regulatory agency, and regulator, where the firm has private information about its costs and the agency can be influenced by interest groups.
2) The objective of maximizing social welfare by setting pollution levels and firm output/prices while dealing with asymmetric information.
3) How interest groups like environmentalists or industry lobbyists could influence the agency and distort the optimal regulatory outcome.
4) The welfare functions of consumers, firms, agencies and regulators that are used to analyze regulatory policies under symmetric and asymmetric information scenarios.
- Since 2003, over 1,578 research articles and 4,464 working papers have used Doing Business data to study how business regulations impact economic outcomes like growth, productivity, and employment.
- Different empirical methods are used, ranging from simple cross-country correlations to natural experiments, with natural experiments better able to establish causal relationships between reforms and economic impacts.
- Recent studies using natural experiments find that reforms simplifying business registration lead to more firm creation but may not formalize existing informal firms. Flexible labor markets also enhance the pro-growth effects of trade openness. Overall, research supports reducing burdensome regulations to boost entrepreneurship and economic performance.
The impact of creative organizational climate on the innovation activityAlexander Decker
This study examined the impact of creative organizational climate on innovation activity in two medical device manufacturing firms in Hungary. Questionnaires measuring 10 dimensions of creative climate and perceptions of innovation were administered to employees. Company A had more conservative structure and competitive incentives, while Company B was more organic with collective bonuses. Company B showed triple the new product innovations of Company A in recent years. The study found debates and idea challenges differentiated climate between firms and predicted innovation levels, though some dimensions like idea time were contrary to expectations. Overall, the research partially confirmed connections between climate and innovation perceptions.
Developing reverse logistics programs: a resource based view.tenderboyfriend96
The document discusses developing reverse logistics programs from a resource-based view. It provides background on reverse logistics, describing it as the process of planning and managing the return of products from customers. Reverse logistics is important as return rates are high across many industries. The document presents interviews from executives to develop a framework of how committing resources (such as knowledge, employees, facilities) can build reverse logistics capabilities (like information management, innovation, responsiveness) that improve performance. However, committing resources alone may not be enough, and developing effective processes is also important for maximizing capabilities and performance.
Why join a carbon club? A study of the banks participating in the Brazilian "...FGV Brazil
Originally published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
Why do firms that present low levels of (direct) carbon emissions participate in “carbon clubs”, which have the goal of managing and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? In order to answer this question, we collected data from both primary and secondary sources from firms operating in the Brazilian banking sector, which are members of the Businesses for Climate Platform (Plataforma Empresas pelo Clima, EPC). We first looked for answers in the institutional theory and resource based view of the firm (RBV). By confronting the arguments presented by these streams of scientific enquiry with empirical data, we worked on theory testing. In particular, we analyzed the institutional pressures and resources and capabilities of the focus companies, in order to understand the rationales for proactive sustainability management. We found evidences of the arguments presented by both the institutional theory and the RBV. By studying an industry that is not a frequent subject to research on socio-environmental issues - for not being considered of high impact - in an emerging market economy, the research contributes to both the further development of the institutional theory and the advancement of sustainability management in corporations.
GVces - Center for Sustainability Studies
www.gvces.com.br
The government’s economic policy is defined by five-year economic plans. China is at a critical stage of her development China will have move up the ‘value chain’ as it loses its competitive edge in labour-intensive sectors. China is still a relatively poor country with an estimated GDP per capita on a PPP basis of US$12,879 in 2014, lower than Thailand. Policies to increase the real incomes of China’s middle class will encourage more consumption as a share of GDP and make the economy less reliant on exports and investment as key sources of economic growth.
The Chinese economy has many structural imbalances that will need to be addressed for sustainable growth to be maintained:
Chinese economy remains reliant on credit growth, with overall debt rising to 280% of GDP in mid-2015
China will need to shift away from imitating/copying Western technologies to generating more innovation Increasing competitive challenges are coming from lower-unit cost countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico. Wages in the Chinese manufacturing sector have more than tripled since 2008.
This document discusses corporate social and environmental auditing. It explores whether such auditing is done due to perceived responsibility or regulatory requirements. The document reviews literature on social and environmental auditing definitions. It discusses theories like legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory that underpin social and environmental accounting. It also examines drivers for corporate social and environmental disclosures like ethical purposes, compliance, investor confidence and risk management. The document calls for accounting regulatory bodies to establish standards for social and environmental auditing.
Environmental accounting in china – the influence ofJohn Margerison
This document summarizes a study that examines the influences on how Chinese accountants formulate environmental accounting practices, with a focus on philosophical influences from Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The study uses interviews from accountants in Shenyang and Shanghai to understand how they measure environmental costs and impacts. While some accountants expressed personal philosophies related to environmental protection, most saw government regulation, markets, and scandals as the main influences on their environmental accounting work rather than Chinese philosophy.
Environmental accounting in china the influence ofColin Dey
This document summarizes a study that examines the influences on how Chinese accountants formulate environmental accounting practices, with a focus on philosophical influences from Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The study uses interviews from accountants in Shenyang and Shanghai to understand how they measure environmental costs and impacts. While some accountants expressed personal philosophies related to harmony with nature, most saw government regulations, markets, and scandals as bigger influences than philosophy on their environmental accounting work.
This document summarizes a study that investigates internet environmental reporting (IER) practices of Chinese listed companies from 2002 to 2006. The study finds that IER is increasingly being used in China to disclose corporate social and environmental activities and policies. Both the quantity and scope of disclosures have increased over time. However, there remains significant variation across companies in reporting practices and levels of disclosure. Standards and guidelines for IER are lacking in China, resulting in incomparable data. External auditing of IER also remains limited. The study contributes to understanding IER in China's developing economy and social context.
This document summarizes a study that investigates internet environmental reporting (IER) practices of Chinese listed companies from 2002 to 2006. The study finds that IER is increasingly being used in China to disclose social and environmental activities and policies. Companies are increasingly using phrases like "sustainability" and "corporate social responsibility" in their IER. Website-specific reporting of social and environmental issues, performance, and activities has been adopted as the main approach to IER by Chinese companies. Both the quantity and coverage of disclosures have steadily increased, though reporting practices and levels of disclosure vary considerably across companies due to lack of standards and guidelines for IER in China.
Corporate social responsibility in sustainable environmental managementCosty Costantinos
This document summarizes a study on corporate social responsibility for sustainable environmental management in Ethiopia. The study examined the roles of multinational corporations, local companies, and social enterprises through surveys of 36 organizations. Key findings include that most companies have environmental policies and programs in place and are reducing their environmental impacts. Social enterprises contribute through innovative solutions to environmental issues and adopting sustainable practices. Both corporations and social enterprises are playing important roles in environmental education, community support, and helping Ethiopia achieve its sustainability goals.
This document summarizes a research article that analyzes how Chinese companies operating in Shanghai incorporate social, environmental, and economic measures into their strategic performance measurement systems. The researchers surveyed 81 Chinese companies. Their findings show that while more companies are promoting sustainability measures as part of their long-term business strategies, the effective integration of these non-financial measures varies across companies. The researchers examine what factors determine the differences in how companies incorporate sustainability measures into their performance systems and business strategies.
3.[23 29]an examination of the relationship between management ownership and ...Alexander Decker
This study examines the relationship between management ownership and corporate social responsibility disclosure among listed firms in Nigeria. Using annual reports from 35 listed firms between 2006-2010, the study finds a significant positive relationship between managerial ownership and corporate social responsibility disclosures. Specifically, higher levels of managerial ownership are associated with greater corporate social responsibility disclosures. The study suggests encouraging more managerial investment in firms to help align management interests with social performance monitoring and improvement.
The document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability reporting in Australia. It notes that the two major accounting bodies in Australia, CPA Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAA), have taken initiatives to promote sustainability reporting. This includes adopting sustainability standards, publishing articles on reducing carbon emissions, and providing training to accountants. The document also summarizes the sustainability practices of Visy Industries, a large paper recycling company in Australia. Visy publishes sustainability reports that discuss its social, environmental and economic impacts. It focuses on community relations, economic sustainability, and using clean energy.
Corporate social reporting discloses social and environmental information relating to an organisation’s interaction with its community, shareholders, physical and social environment to outsiders through corporate annual reports. Triple Bottom Line Reporting (subsequently refer to as TBLR) goes beyond the traditional way of reporting mechanism and encourages businesses to give closer attention to the whole impact of their commercial activities, over and above their financial performance. The Corporate Triple Bottom Line Reporting is based on three pillars - (i) environmental, (ii) social, (iii) economic causes. In this study, Corporate Triple Bottom Line (CTBL) disclosure items are handpicked from the annual reports/corporate social responsibility reports/sustainability reports of the sample units after a thorough examination of the contents of annual reports/corporate social responsibility reports/sustainability reports. The level of Triple Bottom Line reporting in India is in its infancy and still evolving. The three dimensions for TBL Reporting in India are people, planet and profit, which lead to sustainable development. We have considered listed companies of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) comprising BSE 500 index as our population. Considering time and resource constraints, it was decided to restrict the survey only power generating companies (15 units) among those 500 units. Accordingly, annual reports/corporate social responsibility reports/sustainability reports for these 15 numbers of listed power companies were planned to be reviewed. For measuring the extent of corporate triple bottom line reporting in annual reports/corporate social responsibility reports/sustainability reports of the companies, we have constructed a weighted disclosure index based on the previous empirical studies. The study evaluated the combined corporate triple bottom line disclosure score value of the sa
Journal Identification = OPEMAN Article Identification = 715 Date: May 16, 2011 Time: 5:11 pm
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Journal of Operations Management 29 (2011) 577–590
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Operations Management
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / j o m
alancing priorities: Decision-making in sustainable supply chain management
haohui Wu a,∗, Mark Pagell b,1
Oregon State University, College of Business, 200 Bexell Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-2603, United States
Schulich School of Business, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
r t i c l e i n f o
rticle history:
eceived 28 June 2008
eceived in revised form
7 September 2010
ccepted 25 October 2010
vailable online 3 November 2010
a b s t r a c t
The need for environmental protection and increasing demands for natural resources are forcing com-
panies to reconsider their business models and restructure their supply chain operations. Scholars and
proactive companies have begun to create more sustainable supply chains. What has not been fully
addressed is how organizations deal with short-term pressures to remain economically viable while
implementing these newly modeled supply chains. In this study, we use theory-building through case
eywords:
reen supply chain management
ecision-making
ustainability
studies to answer the question: how do organizations balance short-term profitability and long-term
environmental sustainability when making supply chain decisions under conditions of uncertainty? We
present five sets of propositions that explain how exemplars in green supply chain management make
decisions and balance short and long term objectives. We also identify four environmental postures
that help explain the decisions organizations make when dealing with strategic trade-offs among the
economic, environmental and social elements of the triple-bottom-line.
. Introduction
Organizations have begun to examine their supply chains in
esponse to numerous interrelated economic and environmental
hallenges such as fluctuations in commodity prices and climate
hange. Critics confront “business as usual” and demand sustain-
ble practices. Many organizations initially resist change, but some
ompanies have recently begun to transform their supply chains in
fforts to become more sustainable.
How difficult this transformation will be is debatable. There is
body of research which suggests that many organizations can
imultaneously achieve business goals and reduce their environ-
ental impacts (e.g. Russo and Fouts, 1997; Christmann, 2000;
elnyk et al., 2003). However, while waste and pollution reduction
re aligned with the traditional goals of operations management,
ot all environmental practices will bring cost savings and some
ill increase costs, especially in the short term. For instance, proac-
ive investment in green technology .
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)inventionjournals
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Business and Management. IJBMI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Business and Management, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online.
The Journal will bring together leading researchers, engineers and scientists in the domain of interest from around the world. Topics of interest for submission include, but are not limited to
This document provides an overview of a PhD dissertation proposal on the relationship between board capital and green innovation in Chinese listed firms. The research aims to investigate how board capital impacts green innovation strategies and examines the mediating role of absorptive capacity. It also studies the moderating effect of external governance factors and the relationship between board capital, green innovation, and environmental performance. The study is significant as it addresses gaps in the literature regarding the role of board capital in green innovation, especially in the Chinese context. It contributes to understanding how corporate governance can promote long-term sustainability through building strong boards and environmental strategies.
Corporate social responsibility and compliance with regulations in nigeriaAlexander Decker
This document discusses corporate social responsibility and compliance with regulations in Nigeria. It begins by introducing the topic and concepts of corporate social responsibility, environmental accounting, and stakeholders. It then discusses Nigeria's regulatory framework for the environment, including various laws and regulations. However, it notes that environmental policies are rarely enforced in Nigeria due to lack of political will and corruption. The document advocates for organizations to implement sustainability reporting to improve their social and environmental performance.
11.corporate social responsibility and compliance with regulations in nigeriaAlexander Decker
This document discusses corporate social responsibility and compliance with regulations in Nigeria. It begins by introducing the topic and concepts of corporate social responsibility, environmental accounting, and stakeholders. It then provides details on Nigeria's regulatory framework for the environment, including various laws and regulations. However, it notes that environmental policies are rarely enforced in Nigeria due to lack of political will and corruption. The document examines the role of stakeholders in protecting the environment and achieving sustainable development.
Environmental auditing and sustainable development in nigeriaAlexander Decker
This document summarizes a research study examining the relationship between environmental auditing and sustainable development in Nigeria. The study finds that while companies claim to be environmentally friendly, few actually engage in environmental auditing. The study also finds a negative relationship between environmental auditing and its effects on sustainable development, meaning more auditing is associated with less positive effects on sustainable development. The study aims to contribute to the limited existing literature on environmental auditing and sustainability in Nigeria.
presentation on a paper of EIA given by Richard K. Morgan. The paper includes the growth of EIA around the world in last 40 years and also includes the effectiveness of EIA.
Environmental reporting practices in annual report of selected listed compani...Alexander Decker
This document summarizes a research study that analyzed environmental disclosure practices in the annual reports of 30 listed companies in Bangladesh. The study found that on average, companies disclosed information for only 15.23% of the 56 expected environmental items. It also found a significant correlation between disclosure volume and company size as measured by total assets. The study concluded that Bangladeshi companies are providing very limited environmental information in their annual reports and more disclosure is needed to increase stakeholder awareness of environmental issues.
Analyzing the current incorporation of social, environmental And economic mea...World-Academic Journal
We theorize about the incorporation of social, environmental and economic dimensions into strategic performance measurement systems. 81Chinese companies were surveyed for the analysis. Along with the increasing of social responsibility pressure, numbers of enterprises are promoting environmental, social and economic performance as strategic sustainability measures. Although the addition of sustainability measures to enterprise’s long term business strategy has long time been a major preoccupation of literature. Some empirical researches have examined if these nonfinancial measures are effectively incorporated into strategic performance measurement systems. In this research, we will examine why the incorporation of sustainability measures into enterprise business strategy vary across enterprises operating in Shanghai.
Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is a societal and ecological agreement between the community and
businesses. TBL “captures the essence of sustainability by measuring the impact of an organization’s
activities on the world ... including both its profitability and shareholder values and its social, human
and environmental capital” (Savitz, 2006). TBL is an accounting framework that incorporates three
dimensions of performance: social, environmental and financial. This differs from traditional
reporting frameworks, as besides financial part it also includes ecological (or environmental) and
social measures where it is difficult to assign appropriate means of measurement. But with the
current breakdown of confidence in financial reporting, large companies are facing increasing
demands and expectations from stakeholders and are being held more accountable for their
performance and actions. TBL approach is a proactive step in providing shareholders with increased
transparency and a broader framework for decision-making. It’s a great way for companies to
disclose meaningful non-financial results. TBL dimensions are also commonly called the three Ps:
People, Planet and Profits.
Triple Bottom Line Reporting (TBLR) reflects a corporation’s greater transparency and
accountability in its public reporting, communication and disclosure with regard to how the corporate
entity performs in its environmental, social and economic dimensions (Lewis, 2011). TBLR
incorporates presenting what the business is doing well, along with areas that need improvement.
Reporting in this way demonstrates a drive towards increased transparency, which can mitigate
concerns by stakeholders on hidden information. Everyone involved in the process of TBL, including
employees and external stakeholders, can increase their knowledge of the company and expand their
relationships with other stakeholders in the company. Participating in a learning environment is
beneficial and necessary for a business to meet the goals of sustainability. The process of building a
Page 3
sustainable environment can lead to other disclosures on how the business world can lend a helping
hand in protecting the natural resources that are quickly evaporating.
Comparative Study of the Quality of Life, Quality of Work Life and Organisati...inventy
People’s lives are increasingly centred on work; they spend at least one-third of their time within the organisations that employ them. Investigating the factors that interfere with employees’ well-being and the organisational environment is becoming an increasing concern in organisations. This article identifies the criteria of the quality of life (QoL), quality of working life (QWL) and organisational climate instruments to point out their similarities. For bibliographic construction and data research, articles were sought in national and international journals, books and dissertations/articles in SciELO, Science Direct, Medline and Pub Med databases. The results show direct relationships amongst QoL, QWL and organisational climate instruments. The relationship between QoL and QWL instruments is based on fair compensation, social interaction, organisational communication, working conditions and functional capacity. QWL and organisational climate instruments are related through social interaction and interfaces. QoL and organisational climate instruments are related based on social interaction, organisational communication, and work conditions.
The document summarizes a 1991 special issue of the Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal on "Green Accounting" and reflects on developments in the field over the past 20 years. The special issue contained papers exploring various approaches to environmental accounting such as valuation methods, social and environmental audit and reporting, and critical perspectives. While the field of environmental accounting has grown since then, the document argues there remains a lack of paradigm shift and dominance of business-as-usual frameworks, calling for more disruptive research to address urgent sustainability issues.
Csear (leung cheng han tiffany) 20100901.Colin Dey
This document summarizes a PhD student's exploratory study on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the gambling industry. The study aims to understand how CSR is understood in the gambling industry in Macao, which is the only legal gambling destination in China. The student conducted a literature review on CSR and culture as well as gambling and culture. She then outlined her research design which includes a content analysis of annual reports, discourse analysis, and interviews. A pilot study provided initial insights such as gambling companies focusing CSR efforts on community donations, employee benefits, and responsible gambling programs. The student concludes by inviting discussion on the intersections of morality, social responsibility, and gambling.
Environmental accounting in china the influence ofColin Dey
This document summarizes a study that examines the influences on how Chinese accountants formulate environmental accounting practices, with a focus on philosophical influences from Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The study uses interviews from accountants in Shenyang and Shanghai to understand how they measure environmental costs and impacts. While some accountants expressed personal philosophies related to harmony with nature, most saw government regulations, markets, and scandals as bigger influences than philosophy on their environmental accounting work.
This document summarizes a study that investigates internet environmental reporting (IER) practices of Chinese listed companies from 2002 to 2006. The study finds that IER is increasingly being used in China to disclose corporate social and environmental activities and policies. Both the quantity and scope of disclosures have increased over time. However, there remains significant variation across companies in reporting practices and levels of disclosure. Standards and guidelines for IER are lacking in China, resulting in incomparable data. External auditing of IER also remains limited. The study contributes to understanding IER in China's developing economy and social context.
This document summarizes a study that investigates internet environmental reporting (IER) practices of Chinese listed companies from 2002 to 2006. The study finds that IER is increasingly being used in China to disclose social and environmental activities and policies. Companies are increasingly using phrases like "sustainability" and "corporate social responsibility" in their IER. Website-specific reporting of social and environmental issues, performance, and activities has been adopted as the main approach to IER by Chinese companies. Both the quantity and coverage of disclosures have steadily increased, though reporting practices and levels of disclosure vary considerably across companies due to lack of standards and guidelines for IER in China.
Corporate social responsibility in sustainable environmental managementCosty Costantinos
This document summarizes a study on corporate social responsibility for sustainable environmental management in Ethiopia. The study examined the roles of multinational corporations, local companies, and social enterprises through surveys of 36 organizations. Key findings include that most companies have environmental policies and programs in place and are reducing their environmental impacts. Social enterprises contribute through innovative solutions to environmental issues and adopting sustainable practices. Both corporations and social enterprises are playing important roles in environmental education, community support, and helping Ethiopia achieve its sustainability goals.
This document summarizes a research article that analyzes how Chinese companies operating in Shanghai incorporate social, environmental, and economic measures into their strategic performance measurement systems. The researchers surveyed 81 Chinese companies. Their findings show that while more companies are promoting sustainability measures as part of their long-term business strategies, the effective integration of these non-financial measures varies across companies. The researchers examine what factors determine the differences in how companies incorporate sustainability measures into their performance systems and business strategies.
3.[23 29]an examination of the relationship between management ownership and ...Alexander Decker
This study examines the relationship between management ownership and corporate social responsibility disclosure among listed firms in Nigeria. Using annual reports from 35 listed firms between 2006-2010, the study finds a significant positive relationship between managerial ownership and corporate social responsibility disclosures. Specifically, higher levels of managerial ownership are associated with greater corporate social responsibility disclosures. The study suggests encouraging more managerial investment in firms to help align management interests with social performance monitoring and improvement.
The document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability reporting in Australia. It notes that the two major accounting bodies in Australia, CPA Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAA), have taken initiatives to promote sustainability reporting. This includes adopting sustainability standards, publishing articles on reducing carbon emissions, and providing training to accountants. The document also summarizes the sustainability practices of Visy Industries, a large paper recycling company in Australia. Visy publishes sustainability reports that discuss its social, environmental and economic impacts. It focuses on community relations, economic sustainability, and using clean energy.
Corporate social reporting discloses social and environmental information relating to an organisation’s interaction with its community, shareholders, physical and social environment to outsiders through corporate annual reports. Triple Bottom Line Reporting (subsequently refer to as TBLR) goes beyond the traditional way of reporting mechanism and encourages businesses to give closer attention to the whole impact of their commercial activities, over and above their financial performance. The Corporate Triple Bottom Line Reporting is based on three pillars - (i) environmental, (ii) social, (iii) economic causes. In this study, Corporate Triple Bottom Line (CTBL) disclosure items are handpicked from the annual reports/corporate social responsibility reports/sustainability reports of the sample units after a thorough examination of the contents of annual reports/corporate social responsibility reports/sustainability reports. The level of Triple Bottom Line reporting in India is in its infancy and still evolving. The three dimensions for TBL Reporting in India are people, planet and profit, which lead to sustainable development. We have considered listed companies of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) comprising BSE 500 index as our population. Considering time and resource constraints, it was decided to restrict the survey only power generating companies (15 units) among those 500 units. Accordingly, annual reports/corporate social responsibility reports/sustainability reports for these 15 numbers of listed power companies were planned to be reviewed. For measuring the extent of corporate triple bottom line reporting in annual reports/corporate social responsibility reports/sustainability reports of the companies, we have constructed a weighted disclosure index based on the previous empirical studies. The study evaluated the combined corporate triple bottom line disclosure score value of the sa
Journal Identification = OPEMAN Article Identification = 715 Date: May 16, 2011 Time: 5:11 pm
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Journal of Operations Management 29 (2011) 577–590
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Operations Management
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / j o m
alancing priorities: Decision-making in sustainable supply chain management
haohui Wu a,∗, Mark Pagell b,1
Oregon State University, College of Business, 200 Bexell Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-2603, United States
Schulich School of Business, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
r t i c l e i n f o
rticle history:
eceived 28 June 2008
eceived in revised form
7 September 2010
ccepted 25 October 2010
vailable online 3 November 2010
a b s t r a c t
The need for environmental protection and increasing demands for natural resources are forcing com-
panies to reconsider their business models and restructure their supply chain operations. Scholars and
proactive companies have begun to create more sustainable supply chains. What has not been fully
addressed is how organizations deal with short-term pressures to remain economically viable while
implementing these newly modeled supply chains. In this study, we use theory-building through case
eywords:
reen supply chain management
ecision-making
ustainability
studies to answer the question: how do organizations balance short-term profitability and long-term
environmental sustainability when making supply chain decisions under conditions of uncertainty? We
present five sets of propositions that explain how exemplars in green supply chain management make
decisions and balance short and long term objectives. We also identify four environmental postures
that help explain the decisions organizations make when dealing with strategic trade-offs among the
economic, environmental and social elements of the triple-bottom-line.
. Introduction
Organizations have begun to examine their supply chains in
esponse to numerous interrelated economic and environmental
hallenges such as fluctuations in commodity prices and climate
hange. Critics confront “business as usual” and demand sustain-
ble practices. Many organizations initially resist change, but some
ompanies have recently begun to transform their supply chains in
fforts to become more sustainable.
How difficult this transformation will be is debatable. There is
body of research which suggests that many organizations can
imultaneously achieve business goals and reduce their environ-
ental impacts (e.g. Russo and Fouts, 1997; Christmann, 2000;
elnyk et al., 2003). However, while waste and pollution reduction
re aligned with the traditional goals of operations management,
ot all environmental practices will bring cost savings and some
ill increase costs, especially in the short term. For instance, proac-
ive investment in green technology .
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Environmental accounting in china
1. Environmental accounting in China – the influence of accountants’ philosophical values
John Margerison, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK jmargerison@dmu.ac.uk
Abstract
This paper seeks to analyse a set of eight exploratory interviews with Chinese accountants in Shenyang
and Shanghai in April 2010. These interviews sought to establish the environmental policy and
environmental accounting in place in their organisations. They also sought to examine the accountants’
personal philosophical values, to see if there is any possibility that these values could influence
organisational environmental policy and environmental accounting initiatives.
Although it was found that the accountants in general had enlightened personal philosophical values on
environmental matters – some based specifically on traditional Chinese philosophy – these accountants’
values were not influential at an organisational level in terms of the environmental policy or
environmental accounting. Instead the following influences were identified: government, sector
scandals, markets, Western parent companies’ values. Encouragingly, only one of the eight interviewees
mentioned the business case as a driver for environmental accounting.
Acknowledgement
The research interviews in China on which this paper is based could not have been carried out without
the help of Wang Yingying of Liaoning University in Shenyang and Dr Mingchuan Ren of Fudan
University in Shanghai. Sincere thanks to both of these academics for their ongoing help and assistance.
Paper
Introduction
This paper seeks to make an original contribution to the knowledge about environmental accounting in
a Chinese context. It seeks to explain for the first time the ways in which Chinese accountants formulate
environmental accounting responses/practices/mechanisms and the influences over their work (in
particular philosophical influences). It is hoped that it will stimulate debate about the need for
environmental accounting responses to be developed and foster better understanding that such
responses are culturally distinct in different countries (using China as an example) (Lewis and Unerman
1999).
Environmental accounting is defined for this paper using the Society of Management Accountants of
Canada definition (Epstein 1996):
“....the identification, measurement and allocation of environmental costs, the integration of these
environmental costs into business decisions, and the subsequent communication of the information to a
company’s stakeholders....Measurements might be quantified in physical units or monetized
equivalents.”
2. Research on influences on the development of environmental accounting has mainly taken a Western
perspective and focused on environmental impacts or broader social accounting in countries such as
USA, UK, Germany, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand (see (Adams 2002) as an example). The key
influences identified link to legitimacy and institutional theory and include regulatory pressures (Deegan
2002; Holland and Foo 2003; Cho and Patten 2007).
Recent Chinese research on disclosure by Chinese companies of environmental accounting information
(Zhang 2010) presents a pessimistic view: that there is a lack of concern by government and the general
public about such disclosure. The suggestion is made that investors tend to invest in any business which
will bring high profit and to ignore environmental effects. Zhang recommends that: the idea of Green
investment should be advocated; naming and shaming of heavy polluters; a national database of
environmental reports of companies; and, pressure on companies to publish environmental accounting
information voluntarily. What Zhang’s work does not attempt to do is assess the extent of unpublished
environmental accounting information. This paper also attempts to address this in its questioning of
Chinese accountants about the environmental accounting in their organisation rather than the reporting
thereof specifically.
(Rowe and Guthrie 2009) examined the influence of institutional cultural norms on Chinese corporate
environmental reporting and outlined the influence of Confucianism in this sphere. However, their
research was carried out in 2002-2005 during a period of minimal reporting. This paper aims to extend
and develop their findings in a period of increased environmental accounting and reporting activity (as
evidenced from recent studies e.g. (Guo, Zhong et al. 2008).
Existing research and scholarship suggest that the central strands of Chinese philosophy (Taoism,
Buddhism and Confucianism) have strong links to ecology in their ideas (Berthrong 2003; Miller 2003;
Sponsel and Natadecha-Sponsel 2003). Many researchers and commentators suggest that these
philosophies are very influential in Chinese life today (see (Bell 2008). However, this researcher has
found that discussion of these influences tends not to be based on empirical research, with many
unsupported statements being made e.g. (Wang and Juslin 2009). This paper, and the research that it is
based on, aims to examine these philosophical influences in the practice of environmental accounting in
China.
Methodology
The research on which this paper is based (and offers some preliminary insights) works from a social
constructionist perspective (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe et al. 2008) in that environmental accounting is
seen as socially constructed and given meaning by people (Birkin 1996). It is both deductive and
inductive in approach, moving from theories such as legitimacy and institutional theory to see what
influence they have on environmental accounting practice in China; but also reflecting, via interviews,
whether it is possible to develop a new theoretical basis to explain the responses received. Overall an
interpretive (as opposed to positive) epistemological stance has been taken.
3. A case study methodology has been employed with accountants from eight different organisations (see
Appendix 1 for a summary of the organisations) in two industrial cities - Shenyang and Shanghai – being
interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule (see Appendix 2 for the schedule used). The
interviews were carried out where possible in English, but in all cases an interpreter was used (a Chinese
accounting academic who was sympathetic to the aims of the research). As the interviews were usually
carried out away from the workplace in cafes and restaurants it was not possible to record them and the
researcher had to content himself with notes taken during the interview and written up in detail after
the event. In all cases the interview transcript was checked by the interpreter for accuracy. In several
cases the interviewees (who had been briefed on the purpose of the interview beforehand) brought
with them corporate literature and other information that was useful in the research and this has been
incorporated into these findings.
Analysis of interviews
1. Environmental accounting in the interviewees’ organisations
A common feature of environmental accounting in most of the organisations was the accounting
to the government – in China represented by the Provincial or State Environmental Protection
Agency (SEPA) – so that a report could be made annually on environmental impacts and the
relevant levy paid to the government. In the case of the animal feedstuff manufacturer the
annual levy or taxation was in the region of 100,000RMB (approximately £10,000) for a small
business unit involved with pigs. The government official in Shenyang talked of RMB 1 billion in
levies paid to the SEPA at provincial level (Liaoning Province) in 2009.
No other common themes emerged from the interviews but a number of interesting
environmental accounting activities were described: information on costs involved with waste
water treatment; measurement of pollution related costs of new factories in business planning;
identification of costs of equipment recycling; estimates of remediation costs associated with
incineration plants with associated liabilities; accounting and reporting on bottle recycling
projects; measurement of energy reduction initiatives and the reporting thereon; detailed data
generated on energy usage and pollutants. As can be seen, in most cases the accountant
interviewed could identify environmental accounting activities in addition to the reporting
around the SEPA levy. Only in one case (the dairy company) did public reporting of the
environmental accounting information take place (and that only in newspaper reports with
minimal quantitative information disclosed). So the contention from these interviews is that
Chinese organisations are “doing” environmental accounting but to a large extent they are not
going public on this.
2. Organisations’ environmental policies and underlying philosophy
Most of the organisations had laudable policies to reduce pollution and emissions; also to
minimise energy use. One company’s clear policy was formulated into four words: “respect,
responsibility, reduce and recycle”. A recurrent theme was that the policy reflected what
government required and did no more. Government was seen as the arbiter of environmental
standards and the companies followed these standards. In terms of an underlying philosophy,
no mention was made of traditional Chinese philosophy, with statements such as: “outside,
4. inside, whole society, sustainable development of China”; “seeking to maximise social benefit
from our activities”; suggesting a strong tendency towards communist philosophy in the official
pronouncements of the organisations. One interviewee said that his organisation was motivated
by the market and followed the practices of competitors and responded to the demands of
customers (this equates closer to institutional theory and mimetic isomorphic activities).
3. Accountants’ personal philosophical ideas about environmental matters
If the organisations’ philosophies could only be equated with communist philosophy, it was
interesting to see whether there were parallels in the philosophies of the accountants
interviewed, and the extent to which their personal philosophies appeared to be influential in
the organisations’ policies and environmental accounting activities.
Personal philosophies were rationalised down to: “a strong desire to keep the earth beautiful”;
“if you want to do things – do good deeds”; “the environment is important to everybody and
needs protecting”; “human beings should live harmoniously with Nature”; “Nature will punish
mankind if yin and yang are not kept in harmony”; “we must preserve the environment for our
children”; “Nature must be respected”, “I would stress the harmony between humans and
Nature from ancient times”.
In these personal philosophies there are strong parallels with the ecological thinking in the three
central strands of Chinese philosophy: Buddhism – aspiring to oneness with the natural
environment (Sponsel and Natadecha-Sponsel 2003); Daoism – ideas of the harmony between
heaven, earth and humans (Miller 2003); Confucianism – human flourishing can only take place
within the larger matrix of Nature (Berthrong 2003). However, only three of the interviewees
could be drawn into identifying one of these philosophies (one Buddhism and two Taoism).
Another of the interviewees mentioned the influence of Feng Shui that he had learned from his
father, particularly in terms of humans’ position on the Earth. Almost all the interviewees
acknowledged ancient roots to their philosophies. Certainly it can be concluded that all the
accountants exhibited enlightened personal philosophical values on environmental matters and
that these were almost all rooted in ancient Chinese philosophy.
4. Linking personal philosophies of Chinese accountants with their organisations’ environmental
accounting and environmental policy
In this part of the research the findings are affected by the fact that the interviewees were
selected only to be Chinese accountants working for Chinese based organisations (mainly
companies). No prerequisite for selection was that they were involved in their organisation’s
environmental accounting and environmental policy. In fact only three of the interviewees
identified themselves as champions of environmental accounting in their organisations. Of these
there seemed to be a separation of personal philosophy from that of the organisation and no
acknowledged link between personal philosophy and environmental accounting activities. In the
cases of the five interviewees who did not identify themselves as champions of environmental
accounting (or in fact having any involvement in environmental accounting) presumably their
personal philosophy on environmental matters cannot have had any influence on the
organisations’ environmental accounting.
5. 5. Other influences on environmental accounting
Government: Already discussed in terms of environmental reporting is the accounting for and
reporting of environmental impacts to SEPA at provincial level. This was mentioned by all the
interviewees to some extent. In particular one interviewee said that the policy on environmental
matters was shaped by the requirements of SEPA. As this research progresses it is intended to
interview officials from SEPA and to analyse its own reporting and hopefully that of the
companies that report to it. The extent to which the relationship of organisations with SEPA
parallels that with companies and government departments in the UK will also be examined, to
try and establish whether the relationships in China have a particular flavour that may provide
models for other countries to follow. Another interesting feature of government is the apparent
benevolent nature of government in China – this is strongly influenced by and derives from
Confucian thinking (Dao 1996) and is worthy of further examination.
Another strand of government influence is the Ministry of Finance (MOF). One interviewee said
that at present there are no MOF accounting standards on the accounting for and reporting on
environmental impacts. The implication was that if the MOF standardised this area then
companies would be forced to follow the standards. This research will seek out accounting
standards in this area from around the world to see if there is a model for China to follow.
Sector scandals: The dairy company interviewee referred particularly to the recent scandals in
China (mainly around the poisoning of babies drinking factory produced dried baby milk). He
was at pains to assure me that his company was not involved in these scandals and that the
company went to enormous lengths to ensure that its products were clean and healthy without
pollutants. This company was the only organisation of the eight to be involved in reporting on its
environmental activities – via national newspaper and staff communications – and the
interviewee was very interested to know how the company could be more proactive in this area.
In this case legitimacy theory (Deegan 2002) seems to come into play as a way of explaining the
proactive behaviour of this company in a sensitive industry which has recently been beset by
scandals. The company seeks to legitimise its activities through environmental reporting based
on environmental accounting data.
Markets: Several of the interviewees stressed that companies in general were profit seeking and
that it was the role of the State to ensure compliance with environmental regulations rather
than voluntary compliance by companies. This suggests that the market is a not a strong driver
towards environmental accounting and its reporting. However one interviewee stressed the
business case for, for example, energy use reduction and control over pollutants. Customers
produced standards for the company that it had to follow if it wanted to remain an approved
supplier. This interviewee described this as the company being a market follower.
Western parent companies’ values: Two of the organisations involved in this study were
Chinese foreign owned enterprises. One of these interviewees stressed that: “the mother
company has a strong philosophy on environmental matters so that a no pollution policy is
6. written into our Articles of Association”. The other interviewee stated that the US company
culture is a driver for her thinking and the behaviour of the Chinese enterprise on environmental
matters. This suggests that organisations with strong ownership links to Western parents may
be more environmentally aware and have policies that reflect Western values. This researcher
has also in an earlier research study interviewed the Chinese subsidiary of a major shipping and
transportation company with its parent in Denmark. This interview pointed up a number of
features of the company’s social and environmental operations that seemed to be influenced
strongly by the values of the Danish parent. It is intended to further pursue this as this research
progresses.
Conclusions
This paper attempts to draw together several strands. The first strand is traditional Chinese philosophy
which is often said to be highly influential in the lives of modern Chinese people. The second strand is
the ecological thinking within the modern interpretations of the ancient philosophies. The third strand is
the modern phenomenon of environmental accounting. It is hypothesised that if traditional Chinese
philosophy is so influential and if it has strong ecological ideas in its thinking then it will influence the
practice of environmental accounting by modern Chinese accountants.
In attempting to test this loose hypothesis eight Chinese accountants were interviewed from eight
different Chinese based organisations (mainly companies). These interviews were exploratory in nature
and represent only the beginning of a bigger project extending over several years from now. The
interviews were based on a semi-structured schedule of questions and allowed for digressions by the
interviewees. The interviews were conducted with the help of Chinese academics who acted as
interpreters in all cases – even where the interviewee could manage most of the questions in English.
The interviews were carried out in Shenyang (4) and Shanghai (4) – both modern industrial and
commercial cities and therefore in no way representative of China as a whole but only of the cities of
the Eastern seaboard.
Although it was found that the accountants in general had enlightened personal philosophical values on
environmental matters – some based specifically on traditional Chinese philosophy – these accountants’
values were not influential at an organisational level in terms of the environmental policy or
environmental accounting. Instead the following influences were identified: government, sector
scandals, markets, Western parent companies’ values. Encouragingly, only one of the eight interviewees
mentioned the business case as a driver for environmental accounting.
The research carried out to date has shown that it is possible for a Western academic to carry out
interviews in China and paves the way for more fruitful and in-depth interviews to be carried out, along
with surveys of the extent of environmental accounting and its reporting in China. The interviews have
pointed up the fact that it is extremely difficult to detect links between traditional Chinese philosophy
and the practice of environmental accounting in China – but should this difficulty preclude further
investigation of what is a most interesting and unique feature of Chinese culture.
7. APPENDIX 1
Summary of organisations from which data gathered for this paper:
Location Ownership Industry Employees in China
1. Shenyang Chinese company – part
of German multinational
Engineering 200
2. Shenyang Chinese owned Automobile parts 65
3. Shenyang Chinese owned Animal feedstuffs 5,000
4. Shenyang Provincial government
department
Finance 9 (30,000 in the
provincial government)
5. Shanghai Chinese owned Building 500
6. Shanghai American owned
enterprise
Engineering 100
7. Shanghai Chinese owned Dairy products 20,000
8. Shanghai Chinese owned Electronics 4,000
APPENDIX 2
Interview Schedule
Questionnaire for Chinese accountants in Shanghai and Shenyang
Group 1 questions (the interviewee – background information)
Position held
How long in that position
Previous position
Qualifications
Date started work
Group 2 questions (the company)
Industry in which company operates
Size of company (number of employees)
Environmental policy of the company
Philosophy underlying environmental policy
What environmental accounting does the company do
Management accounting (budgeting and costing)
Project appraisal
Financial accounting and reporting
Ecological accounting and reporting
Group 3 questions
Are you involved in any of the environmental accounting?
Are you a champion of environmental accounting or are you merely doing what you are told to do?
Does your personal philosophy of life influence you in your environmental accounting work?
8. Include in question on personal philosophy – Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Feng Shui,
Socialism/Communism, Western influences.
What is your view on the position of humankind in relation to Nature? Are humans at the centre of the
universe?
Should Chinese companies do more in the environmental accounting area?
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