Isabel-María García-Sánchez

Factors influencing the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions in companies world‐wide

– The purpose of this study is to analyse different factors behind the disclosure of corporate information on issues related to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change world‐wide., – The empirical analysis carried out was performed in two stages: analysis of the data obtained through content analysis and analysis of the factors that influence the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change using a dependency model, a multiple linear regression. Several variables were introduced to represent the size of the companies, leverage, return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Market‐to‐Book ratio. Also, other dummy variables have been incorporated: Kyoto Protocol, activity sector in which the company operates and inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index., – The results obtained show a direct relationship between corporate size, its market capitalization and the disclosure of information in addition to proposed Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators on greenhouse gas emissions. Conversely, an inverse relationship between ROE and disclosure is detected., – The findings emphasize that the main quoted companies operating in industries related to greenhouse gas emissions typically reveal information on almost all the GRI core indicators as well as the additional items specifically proposed for this issue. Moreover, the results suggest a trend for companies to utilize information on greenhouse gas emissions as a mechanism that enables them to legitimise themselves with those groups that can be of benefit to them., – The paper has analysed the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and other information of importance to climate change in companies from different countries, some of which have ratified, approved, adhered to or accepted the Kyoto Protocol, and some of which have still not accepted it.

Corporate social responsibility and innovation: a resource‐based theory

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the bidirectional relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and innovation according to the resource‐based theory.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a sample formed by companies with investments in R&D for the 2003‐2007 period worldwide, a bidirectional model is defined, one model in which the innovation realized by companies is a function of CSR practices, activity sector, firm size and risk, and another model in which CSR practices are a function of innovation, activity sector, firm size and risk.Findings – The results of both models show that the bidirectional relationship between the two strategic decisions is negative. However, the effect of the sustainable practices undertaken by those companies listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index on innovative efforts is statistically less significant. It was also found that this type of investment takes three years to show its value added in CSR practices and that the relatio...

Are determining factors of municipal E-government common to a worldwide municipal view? An intra-country comparison

Available online 3 August 2010

Are social and environmental practices a marketing tool

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyse whether CSR practices performed by European companies (both those CSR practices related to marketing‐based strategies and those that are not) create value. That value creation will be gauged through two variables: reputation and shareholder value creation.Design/methodology/approach – To carry out this research, the 120 biggest European companies whose CSR practices have been analysed by Deloitte and Kinchhoff in The Good Company Ranking were taken. European firms have adopted an active stance on CSR and their organisational aspects and responsibilities related to sustainability are better‐founded compared with other companies. Financial data and reputation were obtained from the Forbes and Fortune websites, respectively.Findings – The findings obtained show that all CSR practices, especially those linked to enhancing a companys image, have a positive effect on shareholder value creation, given that investors are able to detect the level of corporate comm...

The influence of gender diversity on corporate performance

This work focuses on the effect of gender diversity on corporate performance. The current work, an extension of previous studies, focuses on the presence and effect of female stockholders, directors and top managers by analysing their impact on various accounting ratios, market value and technical efficiency. With a view to testing these hypotheses, we selected Spanish corporations that were listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange over the period 2004–2006 as an objective population. Corporate governance information on these companies is available from the CNMV database. Our findings show that companies with higher levels of gender diversity do not obviously outperform other companies with lower levels, in terms of several market and accounting measures. Therefore, gender diversity may not influence corporate performance.

Does media pressure moderate CSR disclosures by external directors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of media pressure on external directors in relation to disclosure of information on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a multilevel approach, integrating the institutional, organisational and individual levels of analysis in a whole model that explains corporate transparency. The paper uses a sample composed of 98 non-financial listed Spanish companies for the period 2004-2010, Findings – The results show heterogeneity between external board members. Proprietary directors, representing shareholders, tend to promote adoption of the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines in order to increase value for shareholders. On the contrary, independent directors are risk adverse in relation to the effect that CSR information disclosure could have on their professional reputations. Research limitations/implications – The sample could be improved, including companies from different countries and m...

The performance of Spanish solid waste collection.

In this paper we examine street cleaning and waste collection services in Spanish municipalities with a population exceeding 50 000. The purpose is to identify factors that influence the efficiency of these services. Three input variables (staff, vehicles and containers) and four outputs variables (tonnage, collection points, collection point density and kilometres of surface area washing) are analyzed using an analytical model based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology. These variables, along with non-controllable input variable (Tourist Index), were chosen because they were shown, based on a Tobit regression analysis, to have a statistically significant impact on municipality behaviour. The results obtained show that scale inefficiency was lower than pure technical efficiency, the latter is linked to service management. It was observed that the street-cleaning activity was performed more inefficiently than that of waste collection. Furthermore, it was detected that municipalities can reduce the resources used in rendering this service by 8%. Finally, an estimation using the Mann—Whitney test allows us to conclude that there is no difference between the inefficiencies observed in municipalities managed directly by town councils and those which have been transferred to private companies.

The Relationship between Political Factors and the Development of E-Participatory Government

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The effectiveness of corporate governance: board structure and business technical efficiency in Spain

This study seeks to determine the effectiveness of corporate governance by analyzing the impact of board structure on firm technical efficiency. Resampling methods and bootstrapping techniques applied in Data Envelopment Analysis are used to evaluate firm performance. Truncated regressions are estimated to determine the effect of five board characteristics—board size, board independence, board reputation, board diversity and board activity—on efficiency. The result of this empirical study shows that business technical efficiency increases with a heterogeneous board with a limited number of directorships per director and with a limited activity specified in a reduced number of annual board meetings with a higher number of specialized committees.

A New Predictor of Local Financial Distress

The development of predictive models for financial distress is a recurring topic in both private and public contexts, although currently its repercussions are greater in the public sphere, where efforts are being made to define new warning systems for fiscal crises. The present study thus aims first to show the similarities and differences between the absolute and relative models based on a 10-point scale, in order to subsequently combine the positive aspects of both proposals to find a system that can determine local fiscal distress in a more robust way. The results obtained show that the optimum predictive system is a slight variant of the model proposed by Kloha et al. (2005). This variant consists of the inclusion of two indicators of financial independence proposed by Zafra-Gómez et al. (2009a) for which an alert threshold has been empirically determined.