Lisa Barnes

Managing complex business relationships: Small business and stakeholder salience

All business depends on the environment in which it operates and the existence of suppliers, customers and owners. Collectively, these and other groups which interact with the organisation, and whose needs and concerns must be considered, are known as stakeholders. Most research on stakeholder relationships has focused on large, publicly-owned corporations, and little appeared to be known about identity, dynamics, motivation and operations of stakeholder relationships in small business. Stakeholder theory, although mainly focused on large publicly owned corporations, is also highly relevant for small business and is the focus of this study. Two research questions were developed; “Who are the stakeholders in Australian small business?” (RQ1) and “How can relationships between Australian small business and stakeholders be defined?” (RQ2). A multiple-case study approach, where the same process of investigation is repeated in each case, was used to facilitate the understanding of ‘who’ and ‘how’ of stakeholder relationships in context and to allow cross-case comparison, analytical generalisation and formulation of theory. Cases were purposively selected according to potential for yielding insights and understanding into the identity of stakeholders in Australian small business. The interviewees were the key decision maker of a small business with fewer than 20 employees. In six of the eight cases, the interviewee was the owner-manager of the business. All cases were located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Data collection was by way of face-to-face, interviews that followed a semi-structured interview instrument. It was found that stakeholders of small business can be readily identified and typically include owner-managers, customers, employees, suppliers, family, community and government. These stakeholders can also be ranked and measured in terms of their salience (the combination of urgency, legitimacy and power). In small business, where the key decision maker is typically the owner-manager, the interests of the manager thus align that of the owner, putting into play a mutuality principle and encouraging responsiveness to stakeholders as a strategy to enhance financial performance. This sets small business apart from large business and therefore has implications for policy that aims to support the economically and socially important small business sector.

Epistemological Development of Corporate Social Responsibility: The Evolution Continues

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social performance (CSP) in literature from its inception to 2013. Design/methodology/approach - Using a bibliometric technique, the authors examine CSR’s epistemological orientation and determine whether it is primarily composed of authors building on each other’s work (“progressive”), or comprises the development of alternative constructs (“variegational”), or whether both orientations exist side-by-side within a dynamic, multidimensional concept. Findings - The paper reviews bibliometric analysis of the epistemological evolution of the CSR concept within the management literature, from 1972 to 2002, using a dataset to that time of approximately 500 articles. Since then, the evolving CSR/CSP literature has transitioned the main CSR debate from a “whether or not to”, to a “how to” implement CSR debate, and the body of literature has grown to over 8,000 articles. The authors find that the progression of the CSR construct is both variegational and progressive. They identify that the predominant theoretical theme is based on stakeholder theory. Research limitations/implications - The results of this research, identifying that the epistemological evolution of the CSR concept within the recent management literature can be characterised as being both variegational and progressive, adds a valuable contribution to the ongoing and increasing body of knowledge relating to CSR. Originality/value - The results of this study may be of practical importance to scholars in identifying relevant foci for their future research into the CSR construct.

CSR Initiatives for Green Buildings: Perspectives of Hong Kong Financial Institutions

High carbon emissions from buildings are causing Hong Kong’s air quality to diminish.1 Massive amounts of energy are used by buildings,2 and Financial Institutions (FIs) are among the largest occupants of commercial building space in Hong Kong. As a consequence, FIs are well placed to reduce building-related power use and mitigate the environmental damage caused by it. This chapter focuses on the demand side for environmentally friendly building options, where pressure is beginning to form.3 Eight Hong Kong-based FIs are interviewed to find out their perspectives on initiatives for green buildings. The findings show that FIs are very serious about environmental CSR and it has become a normal part of doing business in the banking sector.

Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and its Influence Over Consumer Purchasing Decisions in Financial Institutions

The aim of this research is how corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities can influence the purchasing behaviour of consumers. When it comes to financial institutions, there have been significant amounts of literature written on CSR and there is still a gap in understanding how CSR activities influence consumer’s perception. This gap is particularly evident in the financial services sector, given they are the largest contributors to CSR in Australia. In addressing the research problem, the study focuses on understanding the most influential CSR initiatives, understanding how the influence of CSR initiatives can change depending on situational context, and understanding how demographic attributes can alter perception. A questionnaire was answered by 1,014 respondents, showing to be sufficiently representative of the Australian population. The outcomes of this research were used to develop a comprehensive framework for Australian Financial Institutions (AFI) to use when developing their CSR strategy. It was clear that across all investment types and situational contexts, community support was the most influential form of CSR across the sample. Whilst this was the case, the level of influence differed across demographic groups and changed to varying degrees based on situational context dependent on the respondent. Community support’s influence as a CSR initiative was clearly ahead of others presented to the respondents followed by employee support and environment dependent on the investment method and the situational context.

Corporate Governance and Performance in Hong Kong Founded Family Firms: Evidence From the Hang Seng Composite Industry Index

ABSTRACT:Background of Problem: This research investigates the corporate governance and performance between founding family firms and non-founding family firms in Hong Kong, and the performance inside founding family firms under three different management status. Agency costs will be generated by the divergence between CEO interest and those of the outside shareholders if the owner-manager sells equity claims on the corporation. There are two different mainstreams of views regarding relationships between ownership and performance in family business: negative and positive effect generated from family ownership and control. To what extents the two different views are relevant to Hong Kong family firms are still unclear. Research Method and Data: By focusing on Hong Kong business, this research seeks to study 75 Hong Kong listed companies in HSCII for 5 years, yielding 347 observations, using archival data. The empirical result suggests that the founding family firms in Hong Kong may not outperform nonfamily firms, and the founding family firms with founders as CEOs are one of best performers among founding family firms. This research not only studies the performance behaviours of Hong Kong founding/non-founding family business and inside founding family business, but also sets a foundation for further research. This research gives insights for entrepreneurs to manage their businesses and plan the succession of founding family business in Hong Kong. This research into corporate governance is different to that of countries such as USA, Taiwan, and Mainland China. The founding family firms in Hong Kong may not outperform the nonfamily firms and the founding family firms with the founder as CEO is one of the best management techniques inside founding family firms. This research shows agency costs inside founding family firms affects performance and succession of family firms, as descendants may not be the best successors for firm value maximization, and business continuity. Owners of Hong Kong founding family business should pay more attention on business governance and succussion planning.

Board Governance in the Not-for-Profit Sector: The "GOLDEN" Rule Model for Recruitment and Retention of Voluntary Boards of Directors

The Global Financial Crisis demonstrated the importance of Accountability, Transparency and good Corporate Governance of all types of organizations be they Not-for-Profit (NFP) or for-profit. This research seeks to explore the current type of governance mechanisms used to monitor and control Not-For-Profit (NFP) entities at the Board of Directors (BOD) level. It uses case study analysis to investigate the “GOLDEN” Model Rules for NFP Directors. The questions explore the Board and governance mechanisms for NFPs, particularly focusing on the “value added” by Board members, to make recommendations for reporting of Governance by NFPs. This model demonstrates the obligations of Directors in terms of legislation, common law duties and equitable fiduciary duties in relation to governance, social responsibility, transparency and risk management, in a sector that contributes so much to the global economies in terms of employment and GDP (OECD, 2009 and ABS 2015).

Accounting Employer Expectations and the Psychological Contract

When firms recruit new graduates, the employer has expectations regarding the contribution a new employee will make to the organisation. These expectations, for both employee and employer, may involve matters such as the duties to be performed within the position, the skills and knowledge to be applied, and forms of remuneration. The theory known as the psychological contract, which looks at the unwritten agreements made between employee and employer, provides a basis for investigation into this area. The following paper presents an investigation into the expectations of employers within the accounting industry. Applying similar methods to studies on the employment of graduates – and research within the psychological contract – the researcher gathered data on the pre-employment expectations of employers to find that employers rank (in order) ‘teamwork skills’, ‘oral and written communication skills’, ‘ability to work independently’, ‘ability to think critically’ and ‘analytical skills’ as the 5 most important Knowledge Skills Abilities (KSAs).