The difference between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Responsibility (CR) is the word “social” that makes it clear that CSR is about the relationship between corporations and society. Social also means a desire to support companionship and community and most people would see it including social justice. CSR is an issue because so many businesses put the objectives of a …
This book project dates back to January 1998 when I had just started my doctoral studies at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. The Government Performance Project (GPP), funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, had then just been launched and I worked on the financial management section. Volumes of detailed survey responses from the state governments overwhelmed me, but soon I was beginning …
This chapter discusses the history of PES in developed and developing countries and illustrates its challenges and opportunities by means of concrete cases. The cases include projects designed to provide different environmental services (clean water, carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation, etc.) apply- ing different public PES schemes as well as public private partnerships. The experie…
The information society is a key issue in everyday life and a phenomenon encom- passing social, cultural, economic, and legal facettes. Currently, an information society’s legal framework is gradually crystallizing under the newly introduced term of “Internet governance”. During the last few years, intensive discussions about the contents of Internet governance have addressed manifold as…
Imagine driving along a winding road. On the one side you have sheets of blasted rock that lead up into a mountain range, on the other side you have a steep cliff, with a freefall of several hundred feet, leading into a deep ocean. The faster you drive, the sooner you will reach your destination, but the more risky the drive. For example, you may need to swerve to avoid obstacles or adjust quic…
Risk management failures at major corporations have captured the headlines for many years, primarily in the financial sector, but in other sectors as well, and have not always been the result of shortcomings in financial risk-taking. Environmental catastrophes such as Deep Water Horizon or Fukushima come to mind (or, less recently, Bhopal and Seveso), as well as accounting fraud (e.g. Olympus, …
The world economy is growing and at the same time is facing serious problems with regard to sustainability. This challenge exists despite the progress we have witnessed, for example, in Europe and the USA in the field of improving the water quality of rivers and hence increasing the fish population. Global population growth, along with economic growth, brings sustainability challenges; CO2 prob…
Increasingly, the OECD and its member governments have recognized the synergy between macroeconomic and structural policies in achieving fundamental policy goals. Corporate governance is one key element in improving economic efficiency and growth as well as enhancing investor confidence. Corporate governance involves a set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareh…
In today’s world of globalized trade, travel and communication, an ever larger number of risk-related events have a trans-boundary impact, crossing national and regional frontiers: large-scale electricity blackouts, chemical accidents and risks related to emerging technologies have all affected various parts of the world only recently. Even these risks seem limited, however, when compared t…
In UNESCO’s scientific programme global climate change is a cen- tral theme. More specifically Water is an important theme, not only because of climate variability and change but also because of mounting pressure on water systems and water resources due to the increasing world population and a growing middle class. A central issue for the water sector is: how do you get out of the ‘water b…
Over the past two decades, the main organizations involved in financing international development have become preoccupied with the problem of failure. Whether we look back at Joseph Stiglitz’s 1998 seminal lecture, when he was the World Bank’s Chief Economist, on the need to move beyond the “failures of the Washington consensus,” or consider the new Bank President, Kim Jong Kim’s re…
Building a sound financial system is a prereqUisIte for economic development in both transition economies and developing countries (Fries and Lane, 1994, p. 21; EBRD, 1998, p. 92). To ensure long-term financial stability, the development of bond and equity markets is one important way of reducing the financial fragility of emerging economies (Taylor, 1999). This insight has led various internat…
T he governance concept has become a popular framework in polit- ical science during the last decade, especially in the study of pol- icy fields in which political co-ordination problems arise. Governance implies that societal and economic actors have become influential over policy (Peters & Pierre, 1998). Political decisions are being negotiated between these private and state actors in new mo…
After the ethical scandals from Enron to Worldcom at the start of the new century, greater attention than ever before has been paid to corporate governance both inside and outside corporations. A host of regulations, standards, initiatives, programmes, and much more have emerged; from Sarbanes Oxley to the OECD’s updated Principles of Corporate Governance. Some of this activity was undoubte…
We examine the association between the provision of non-audit services and earnings quality. Because of concerns regarding the effect of non-audit services on financial reporting credibility, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently issued revised auditor independence rules requiring firms to disclose in their annual proxy statement the amount of fees paid to auditors for audit and n…
This book has been created in an effort to develop a textbook for one of the key courses of a Master of Enterprise Architecture program. It is a first in a series of books needed to further underpin this Master’s program with textbooks combining a sound theoretical base with practical insights, and has been authored in a close collaboration between industry and academia. In authoring this boo…
t is clearly accepted that good corporate governance is fundamental to the successfully continuing operating of any company; hence much attention has been paid to the procedures of such governance. Often however what is actually meant by the corporate governance of a firm is merely assumed without being made explicit; often it is assumed to be concerned with how the company conducts its annual …
each local authority operates through a governance framework. it is an interrelated system that brings together an underlying set of legislative requirements, governance principles and management processes. Traditionally, local government has conformed in whole or in part and in many different ways to the principles of good governance and has had a sound base on which to build. There has been a…
is chapter sets the stage for the book about small-scale fisheries governance and governability, which draws lessons and reflections from 34 case studies about small-scale fisheries in 34 countries around the world, including north and south, east and west. The diversity, complexity, dynamics, and scale of small-scale fisheries and their governance are described. Characteristics of small-scale …
Once upon a time, records meant paper documents. They lived in file cabinets, and they were managed and maintained by secretaries, librarians and archivists who knew the rules, and applied them diligently. When space for more file cabinets ran out, the records were put in boxes, marked with a destruction date, and shipped out to a box store (a paper records outsource provider). When the destruc…
In early November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, the stron- gest cyclone to make landfall in recorded history. It killed thousands of people, displaced more than 4 million, and left 2.5 million in need of food aid. Hitting just before the round of climate negotiations known as the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Con- vention on Climate Change (…
his is a book about governance, risk management, and compliance management of a large modern enterprise and how the IT infrastructure, in particular the Oracle IT Infrastructure, can assist in that governance. The IT infrastructure both presents a risk and also provides the infrastructure to mitigate and manage that risk. The IT infrastructure must be shown to be in compliance with policies,…
Here at Deloitte we believe passionately in the importance of the role played by unlisted companies in helping continued recovery in the UK economy. We believe that the Principles and Guidance being launched by the IoD will make a significant contribution to the governance of such companies. Acknowledging that good governance will look different depending on a company's size and situation, this…
Corporate governance is a topic that has received growing attention in the public in recent years as policy makers and others become more aware of the contribution good corporate governance makes to financial market stability and economic growth. Corporate governance is all about controlling your business and so is relevant, and indeed vital, for all organisations, whatever size or structure. …
he phrase “corporate governance” describes “the framework of rules, relationships, systems and processes within and by which authority is exercised and controlled within corporations. It encompasses the mechanisms by which companies, and those in control, are held to account.”1 Good corporate governance promotes investor confidence, which is crucial to the ability of entities listed o…
Corporate governance has enjoyed a long tradition in the English-speaking world of management sciences since the 1990s. Following its traditional understanding, corporate governance is defined as leadership and control of a firm with the aim of securing the long-term survival and viability of that firm (cf. Shleifer and Vishny 1986, p. 462). But recent business scandals and financial crises c…
Despite being right at the beginning of this volume, these lines are the last ones written. With them, I have finalized a book project which has taken more than three years. This volume picks up a discussion which has become more than just that of cur- rent interest since the financial crisis. We are living in turbulent times and the tension between economic imperatives and social demands has …
During the past two years, Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) has reviewed the corporate governance disclosure of over 700 of its issuers. Almost all describe, in some form, their system of corporate governance. While these issuers clearly try to give investors insight into their corporate governance practices, disclosure can be improved. Good disclosure about your corporate governance practices giv…