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The six dimensions of CSR as a driver of key results in the shipbuilding industry
Abstract
Recent contributions to corporate social responsibility (CSR) treat the concept of CSR from a global point of view or adapted to a specific company. However, few studies analyze each of the dimensions of CSR and, in the case of the naval sector, there are no articles in this respect. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyze the degree of implementation of the six dimensions CSR in companies in the naval sector on different continents of the world and the relationship between this degree and the results obtained. Regarding the analysis of each dimension, the dimensions of ″human rights,” ″fair operated practices,” and ″environmental management” are more relevant when it comes to improving the results of new orders. Moreover, the efforts made in CSR by companies in the shipbuilding sector are positive for shipyards, being an added value to the organizations, improving their key results.
... Until recently, CSR initiatives undertaken by such enterprises have been voluntary and largely un-regulated. CSR mainly encompasses four key areas [ 2 ]: environmental; ethical; philanthropic; and financial. AQ2 CSR practices are found critical to a firm's well-being. ...
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received growing attention over the past few decades, especially considering its linkage with sustainable development. Therefore, there has been extensive theoretical and empirical research focused on studying the CSR concept, its applications, and its implications. Despite this research trend and its significance, there is a lack of knowledge relating to the extent, type, and focus of CSR research conducted in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Hence, this study intends to map CSR research relevant to Bahrain. A systematic mapping approach was adopted by following the PRISMA-ScR protocol for knowledge synthesis and identifying knowledge gaps. Scopus electronic database was searched for documents published in English with no timeline restrictions. Seven search terms were used 'Bahrain', 'Corporate Citizenship', 'CSR', 'Corporate', 'Social', 'Responsibility', and 'Corporate Social Performance' which were configured in a variety of five combination sets. Selected studies were limited to original research, conducted at or aimed at Bahrain, and embraced the subject of CSR. Out of a total of 104 identified records, only 21 articles were included. Most of the CSR research production was relevant to the financial and banking sector. The scope of topics within which CSR research revolved was diverse. Further, the vast majority of research was based on quantitative methods. Conclusively, Bahrain-targeted CSR research published in Scopus-indexed journals presents a notable area of deficit. Encouraging CSR researchers to consider a publication outlet of quality and trustworthiness like Scopus-indexed could be further prioritized in the country; As this study's search through using the term 'corporate citizenship' yielded nil results, investigating this concept and its applications needs to be placed into further consideration.
... Digitalisation and the technologies within Industry 4.0 are expected to cause disruptive changes to industrial production (OECD 2017). These changes involve organisational structures, business processes, business models and the creation of smart manufacturing environments (Kagermann, Helbig, and Wahlster 2013;Lasi et al. 2014;OECD 2017). When broken down, Industry 4.0 is comprised of a number of technological advancements (Wang et al. 2016). ...
The shipbuilding industry is under significant economic pressure and in need of more efficient solutions to secure economically sustainable operations. It is also challenged by social issues and the need for a greener maritime industry is critical. Accordingly, the shipbuilding industry is pressured across all three dimensions of sustainability. This paper aims to identify the sustainability challenges in shipbuilding supply chains and explore how Industry 4.0 technologies can impact the sustainability of shipbuilding. This is achieved through a case study of a shipbuilding supply chain, which results in the identification of its primary sustainability challenges. Further, this work proposes a set of nine digital solutions to support sustainable operations in shipbuilding as the paper’s primary contribution. This lays the foundation for further empirical research on sustainability and digitalization in shipbuilding, while for practice the paper provides enhanced insight into how Industry 4.0 technologies can be adopted in shipbuilding supply chains.
Purpose
This paper aims to shed light on the relevant benefits that collaborations with external innovation drivers can offer to companies in traditional sectors to embark on a twofold path oriented toward both a sustainable horizon and digital transformation (DT) goals.
Design/methodology/approach
This work describes the outcomes of the METROPOLIS project, financed by the Economic Development Ministry (MISE), to support small and medium enterprises in the DT process. The project involves the collaboration between the University of Naples Federico II and Palescandolo Lavorazioni Siderurgiche (PLS), an enterprise in the shipbuilding sector.
Findings
The project’s results highlight the complexity of the required interventions and show that DT is necessary but not sufficient condition to improve performance. Therefore, it is crucial to implement an appropriate decision support system based on advanced methodologies that can efficiently handle the system’s complexity, managing objectives oriented on efficiency and sustainability. Hence, the authors developed an original optimization approach to combine the need to ensure good production performances with sustainability-oriented objectives.
Originality/value
This study emphasizes the complex path necessary to radically transform companies’ processes across digital and sustainable paradigms through a real project experience. In particular, it demonstrates that efficiency and sustainability objectives may conflict, and multicriteria approaches may help overcome this. Hence, it may provide insights for stakeholders and researchers involved in DT and green transition processes.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received growing attention over the past few decades, especially considering its linkage with sustainable development. Therefore, there has been extensive theoretical and empirical research focused on studying the CSR concept, its applications, and its implications. Despite this research trend and its significance, there is a lack of knowledge relating to the extent, type, and focus of CSR research conducted in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Hence, this study intends to map CSR research relevant to Bahrain. A systematic mapping approach was adopted by following the PRISMA-ScR protocol for knowledge synthesis and identifying knowledge gaps. Scopus electronic database was searched for documents published in English with no timeline restrictions. Seven search terms were used ‘Bahrain’, ‘Corporate Citizenship’, ‘CSR’, ‘Corporate’, ‘Social’, ‘Responsibility’, and ‘Corporate Social Performance’ which were configured in a variety of five combination sets. Selected studies were limited to original research, conducted at or aimed at Bahrain, and embraced the subject of CSR. Out of a total of 104 identified records, only 21 articles were included. Most of the CSR research production was relevant to the financial and banking sector. The scope of topics within which CSR research revolved was diverse. Further, the vast majority of research was based on quantitative methods. Conclusively, Bahrain-targeted CSR research published in Scopus-indexed journals presents a notable area of deficit. Encouraging CSR researchers to consider a publication outlet of quality and trustworthiness like Scopus-indexed could be further prioritized in the country; As this study’s search through using the term ‘corporate citizenship’ yielded nil results, investigating this concept and its applications needs to be placed into further consideration.
Prior research has suggested that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may affect Environmental Management (EM). Nevertheless, there has been a lack of empirical studies that have examined these relationships, specially, in companies of the energetic field. This research empirically examines whether there is a positive relationship between the implementation of a CSR culture in a company and the obtaining of better Operational Performance, as well as between CSR and EM processes and also between EM and Operational Performance. The analysis of the results obtained through the Partial Least Squares (PLS) methodology concludes that there is a positive relationship between all of them, including this paper a main contribution to Literature as it is the fact that EM plays a mediator role increasing the CSR impact over Operational Performance. The major implication derived from this study is that investments in CSR and EM practices towards all the company stakeholders should positively affect performance. Therefore, both should be equally as important as other functions of a firm.
In the context of increasingly interconnected production networks, the present study investigates the potential influence of Global Value Chains (GVCs) participation on the operational performance of shipbuilding enterprises. Leveraging extant scholarly contributions, this study quantifies the degree of GVCs involvement exhibited by Chinese shipbuilding enterprises over a five-year temporal span. In addition, robustness tests, endogeneity tests and heterogeneity analyses are conducted to take into account various biases and enterprise heterogeneity. The empirical outcomes of this study unveil noteworthy insights. Firstly, GVCs participation contributes to enterprise performance. Secondly, GVCs participation has different impact mechanisms on enterprises with different ownership and locations. These findings provide recommendations for both how economics can further develop their shipbuilding industries and how enterprises can improve their performance. Enterprises ought to actively engage in GVCs, concurrently strategizing to elevate their standing within such chains through concerted efforts in technological advancements.
Yards are industrial sites for production and servicing of ships and offshore maritime installations, such as oil and gas platforms and modules, offshore windmills, and fish farms—all essential products in the maritime industry. Although many yards are performing highly complex and technically advanced production, there is still a need to bring the internal logistics of yards to a corresponding level of advancement. Industry 4.0 technologies may answer this need, and this paper presents a concept for digitalized yard logistics. The concept is developed through a concept development activity inspired by design science research, based on a multiple case study of 8 Norwegian yards, including shipyards and offshore construction yards. By mapping these yards, in particular their current level of digitalization, we propose a concept grounded in practice. The concept is built upon four main features of digitalized yard logistics: i) seamless, digitalized information flow, ii) identification and interconnectivity of objects, iii) digitalized operator support, and iv) automated and autonomous material flow. The paper describes and visualize how currently available digital technologies can be applied in the yard logistics context, to achieve those four main features. The concept may be used as inspiration for moving towards the next generation of yard logistics. The paper also addresses qualitatively the potential effects of digitalized yard logistics on yard logistics performance. In this way, the paper may serve as a starting point for more advanced and specific developments, as well as possible realizations, of digitalized yard logistics systems.
Over the years, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained popularity as a management philosophy whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their operations and interactions with stakeholders. It aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, or charitable nature by engaging in activities or supporting volunteering or ethically-oriented practices. This practice has mostly been associated with large organisations. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been recognized for their contributions in social and economic development of any country. Hence, this study examines the influence of CSR on human resource performance in the selected manufacturing SMEs in South Africa. This study was quantitative in design and examined production and related experiences of the manufacturing SME organisation that had adopted CSR strategy for human resource improvement. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model, using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), was used to analyse data. The selected company operates in the eThekwini District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal. The study was achieved by collecting pre-and post-quarterly data for employee turnover and labour absenteeism. The results indicate that both employee turnover and labour absenteeism have no relationship with human resource performance post-CSR implementation. However, CSR has a relationship with human resource performance. Any increase in CSR activities results in an increase in human resource performance. Formal CSR programmes can boost employee morale and lead to greater productivity in the workforce.
Supply chain digitalisation plays a critical role for companies operating in engineering-to-order industries, striving to increase their competitiveness and profitability. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in the shipbuilding sector and how they affect the supply chain resilience capabilities drawing on the resource-based view theory and dynamic capabilities. A multiple case study was conducted, and eleven Italian companies belonging to different levels of the shipbuilding supply chain were interviewed. The results show that the main interest reserved for integrating resilience capabilities and innovative technologies is to enhance market position, knowledge and information sharing, and supply chain design and integration. Finally, this contribution can support companies, policymakers, and researchers in identifying and implementing specific digitisation pathways for shipbuilding companies. In addition, this contribution can support the identification of policy measures for the industry with a focus on digitisation and collaboration with universities and research centres, that are crucial aspects for engineering to order industries, including shipbuilding.
The shipbuilding industry has a direct and indirect impact on other sectors of the industry and is known as a productive industry that can affects a range of other industries and businesses. The purpose of this study is to examine the situation of the Iran's shipbuilding industry in terms of its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the threats and opportunities that surround it in order to develop and propose optimal strategies for these industries. The method used in this research is qualitative, based on which in the first step, research data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 40 experts in the field of shipbuilding. Then, documentary sources was used to complete the information. After analyzing the data, 135 codes were extracted and these codes were classified into 56 categories. According to the results of this study, the Iran's shipbuilding industry is in a conservative position (WO) in the SWOT matrix, and accordingly, seven strategies at the macro level are appropriate to the conditions of the Iran's shipbuilding industry, including: (1) Supporting knowledge-based companies to invest in mass production of equipment, (2) Integration programs and supporting productivity enhancement, (3) Establishing an independent marine industry research institute, (4) Establishing of industrial clusters and network of equipment suppliers, (5) Facilitatig of investment and collaboration of technology companies, (6) Communication with regional markets and export orientation and (7) planning to set up green scrap yards.
Ship production occurs at the end of a complex process and needs effective and efficient Project Management (PM). Uncertainty in project management parameters always exists and is inevitable. The Fuzzy Set Theory is capable of capturing uncertainty through the membership functions of the parameters. We proposed a model of Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets (IT2FSs) Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) method to literature and applied this to the production scheduling of an electric yacht to study this proposed method in terms of PM in the shipbuilding industry. The proposed model contains Forward Pass and Backward Pass calculations for IT2FPERT with a new ranking method, and a Slack Time calculation for IT2FPERT, which develops a Criticality Degree (CD) on the possible path for IT2FPERT and determines the Critical Path. Robustness tests of the proposed model were carried out by comparing results to the Critical Path Method (CPM), PERT, and PERT Simulation solutions.
The objective of this research is to analyse the degree of implementation of the six dimensions of Marketing Promotion in shipbuilding sector and the relationship between this degree and performance. The combined analysis of all Marketing Promotion dimensions identifies an improvement in performance of the companies that have made the greatest effort in terms of Promotion, being this influence mainly notable among Asian competitors. The specific study of each dimension detects similar efforts conducted by shipyards in terms of Personal sale, Sales promotion and Sponsorship, while it reveals differences in the use of Advertising, Public Relations and Direct Marketing techniques.
This research studies the relationship between the compliance with the five principles of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the performance of the shipbuilding industry. Recent studies have shown signs of a positive relationship between these concepts, although these studies are limited to certain specific fields, existing a need for detailed research in other sectors, such as shipbuilding. A longitudinal analysis of the shipbuilding sector performance is presented, considering the trends of the last five years in the five continents, considering the most relevant shipyards. Two types of results are evaluated, current contracts and new contracts, which provides respectively a perspective of the current and future strategy of the organizations. This research identifies a clear positive trend between organizations' efforts (in terms of CSR principles) and improvement in their results. This recognizes CSR as a tool that not only improves the company's image in society, but also enhances performance.
The ISO 26000 guidance standard for social responsibility represents an important instrument in managing social responsibility in organizations. However, studies of the adoption of ISO 26000 have been conceptual so far, and little is known about future adoption patterns. In this study, we provide insights into the type of adopting organization, geographical adoption and adoption challenges at the firm level, as well as discussing the importance of ISO 26000 in the context of other voluntary standards for social responsibility. We gathered the data from experts who developed ISO 26000. We have also identified differences, especially related to adoption of ISO 26000 in the developing world and to specific challenges of firm level adoption. By drawing parallels with existing literature on voluntary standards, managers and policy makers will understand the areas of overlap with existing standards as well as challenges specific to ISO 26000.
This paper aims at briefly analyzing the global commercial shipbuilding particularly its growth, trend and future forecast. At first inherent characteristics of the global shipbuilding industries have been discussed. On the basis of the secondary data of shipbuilding market segment, order book, countries share etc, shipbuilding growth has been analyzed. It is revealed that shipbuilding industry has vast experiences in surviving during peaks and slumps of economy but due to its nature of being a highly capital intensive industry, strong government support and political stability is prerequisite to tackle this situation. The key factors that drive the growth of the shipbuilding market have also been discussed.
Global major shipbuilding industry has already shifted to the Asian reason, mainly China, South Korea and Japan; the three shipbuilding giant in the world. China has been implementing shipbuilding as a strategic industry at the beginning of this century to establish itself as a major maritime power. It is now the world largest shipbuilder in terms of gross tonnage and value. This paper tries to find out China's shipbuilding efforts and strategies that have enabled the country to make its shipbuilding industry competitive and efficient. This research is based mainly on data collection from shipbuilding stake holders of China and SWOT analysis of China shipbuilding has been done on this basis. Present world economic status, China economic status, global shipbuilding trend, order and China shipbuilding growth have also been discussed.
In contrast to corporate firms, voluntary sustainability reporting by universities is still in its infancy. Against this background, we have investigated which Canadian universities report their sustainability performance and what specifically is reported. Our study applies content analyses as a methodological approach to determine the relative importance of disclosure topics by using a university-specific catalogue of indicators. This unique study completely covers all sustainability reports published between 2011 and 2015 by Canadian universities and as such provides evidence and analyses of voluntary sustainability reporting by universities, which has been the subject of very little research to date. The findings show that sustainability reporting by Canadian universities diverges considerably and the range of aspects included is relatively narrow. Overall, the results show a clear focus on the environmental dimension and very weak coverage of the social dimension. The environmental orientation of many Canadian universities seems to be a result of their participation in the STARS program.
Addressing a global key sector area - the high technology manufacturing sector - we examine if there is truly a benefit of corporate social disclosure to the bottom line of organizations within this sector and if stakeholders should devote more attention to this strategic topic. Accordingly, we assess the potential effects of corporate social disclosure on financial performance, with a particular focus on employee and community aspects. This effect is examined for a sample of 405 companies operating within the sector. Additionally, we posit that the innovative nature of the sector adds a sub-plot and possibly exaggerates the effect of corporate social disclosure on financial performance. The study offers guidance to stakeholders on how actions in the CSR realm may potentially affect company performance within this sector, as well as providing direction on the impact improved disclosure can have on financial performance.
Most business services based on Ubiquitous Computing are being designed with a sole focus on the technological sector, without considering business elements. In light of this trend, this study was intended to design a user-oriented u-Business service for preventing and promptly responding to industrial disasters at shipbuilding sites using a systematic methodology. Specifically, major danger elements of disasters in need of preferential preventive and responsive measures were derived as business opportunities unfulfilled by the current process, and then a u-Business service was developed to prevent/respond to such dangers. Statistical analysis was performed on the developed services according to evaluation models, and the final u-Business service was selected based on this analysis. Resources and information systems were designed to support the chosen service.
p class="ber-body">ISO 26000 is one of those prevailing guidelines on social responsibility adopted by practitioners. Despite its growing embracement, the dimensions of ISO 26000 have not been empirically operationalized. The lack of validated scales limits its compatibility in real-life practices as well as academic research on the standard. Adopting quantitative and qualitative methodology, the multidimensional scale of ISO 26000 is first operationalized through a questionnaire survey with 286 organizations in Hong Kong. The measurement items are then triangulated with industrial evidence garnered from in-depth interviews with seven organizations comprising two listed companies, two private companies, and three non-governmental organizations with operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Asia and the Middle East. Our measurement scale contributes to future studies of ISO 26000 in the corporate social responsibility literature. The validated scale will also be a handy guide for aligning social responsibility with the practical context and strategic implantation.</p
This article traces the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from its post WWII beginnings in popularity up through the end of the 1990s. The article focuses on definitions or understandings of the concept/construct. It does not focus on actual company practices during this time as they were quite varied. (This article has been ranked #1 most read in the Business and Society journal for years now).
Full text available open access at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090951615000632.
This article examines how the international business (IB) literature has addressed social responsibility issues in the past 50 years, highlighting key developments and implications from a historical perspective. Specific attention is paid to the Journal of World Business (JWB), which has covered the whole period and published relevant articles related to these issues, in comparison to the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), the other long-standing IB journal. The article outlines that they illustrate different conceptualizations of IB and social responsibility. The 50-year review shows three subthemes: the (green) environment; ethics, rights and responsibilities; poverty and (sustainable) development. These are discussed consecutively, including main contributions and promising areas to further the field.
There is an impressive history associated with the evolution of the concept and definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this article, the author traces the evolution of the CSR construct beginning in the 1950s, which marks the modern era of CSR. Definitions expanded during the 1960s and proliferated during the 1970s. In the 1980s, there were fewer new definitions, more empirical research, and alternative themes began to mature. These alternative themes included corporate social performance (CSP), stakeholder theory, and business ethics theory. In the 1990s, CSR continues to serve as a core construct but yields to or is transformed into alternative thematic frameworks.
In the field of global rule-setting for responsible business behaviour, multi-stakeholder standards have emerged in recent years because of their potential for effective consensus-building, knowledge-sharing and interest representation. Proponents also hold that multi-stakeholder standards could address problems related to other forms of global rule-setting for business. Despite alleged advantages, however, analyses of multi-stakeholder initiatives, considering benefits and drawbacks, have been lacking. This article examines multi-stakeholder standards compared to other collaborative standards adopted in the past decade, and focuses subsequently on the peculiarities of multi-stakeholder standards regarding participation, governance and implementation. Multi-stakeholder standards, which involve business and NGOs, and sometimes also governments, are more specific and well-elaborated than other types of standards. But monitoring and implementation are rarely used as means for increasing participation from multiple stakeholders, including most notably those from developing countries. The paper also discusses the implications of the current lack of specificity of the (multi-)stakeholder concept and suggests refinement of multi-stakeholder standards in terms of narrow versus broad inclusiveness.
The social responsibility (SR) agenda is gaining its momentum in an increasing number of organizations and global supply chains. Following this market demand, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has initiated development of ISO 26000 international standard on SR. However, questions of why, under what circumstances and which organizations and supply chains will adopt ISO 26000 are yet to be answered. In this paper, we determine a set of propositions about diffusion of ISO 26000 and hence SR practices amongst business organizations. Propositions are made in relation to SR orientation of organizations/networks, differences in regulatory systems, and the role of governments and national environments. Overall, this paper provides an insight into the arena of SR initiative by ISO and sets the path for the future empirical investigation in this emerging and important area.
Using a scientometric approach, this study frames the evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) research over a period of 46 years. It carries out a statistical‐historical analysis mapping the main topics, references, sources, and countries of publication emergent in the CSR research. We apply this combination of bibliometric analyses on a sample of 2,583 CSR studies derived from Scopus (1973–2018). These analyses illustrate the interdisciplinary character of CSR. Second, this study recognises numerous topics in the history of CSR research and demonstrates how these topics emerge, vanish, or become steady over time. Third, the patterns of evolution in terms of topics are reflected in scientific journal specialisation and country coauthorship collaborations. Finally, this research provides the latest evaluation on the state of the art in this field, highlighting the newest and hottest topics. By plotting out the evolution of CSR research, practical implications are identified.
This study extends the literature on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and firm performance by incorporating the role of strategic emphasis, defined as the resources that firms allocate to value appropriation (with the emphasis on advertising expenditure) versus value creation (with the emphasis on research and development investment), and how industry competition creates a three‐way interaction with CSR and strategic emphasis to affect firm performance. Using data from 3,401 publicly traded firm‐year observations in China for the years 2009–2015, the study demonstrates that CSR enhances firm performance when the firm's strategy emphasizes value appropriation over value creation. The interaction effect of CSR and strategic emphasis is also shown to vary with the level of competition in the industry. The results not only contribute to the literature on the relationship between CSR and firm performance, but can also inform firms' resource allocation decisions, enabling them to gain instrumental value from CSR initiatives.
In response to growing public scrutiny of ethical business practices, corporations have become actively engaged in reporting their social and environmental performances publicly. Drawing on the institutional theory to explain the growing diffusion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting on a global, yet distinctively specific level of adoption, this study examines the level of transparency signaling in CSR reports in three countries: the United States, South Korea, and China. In addition, within each country, the study compares the level of transparency signaling between environmentally sensitive and nonsensitive industries. Using a computer‐aided content analysis program, DICTION 7.0, the study analyzed 181 CSR reports from 2014 to 2017. Results show that the three dimensions of transparency signaling—participation, substantial information, and accountability—in CSR reports varied across different countries. Firms in the United States and South Korea showed higher scores in the participation and accountability dimensions than China, whereas firms in China showed relatively high scores in the substantial information dimension. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Companies belonging to broadly globalized sectors are looking for keys and guidelines that will allow them to stand out from their competitors in order to win the contracts tendered on a global scale. The study conducted in this research has found the importance of following the principles of the standards of Environmental Management (EM; ISO 14001), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR; ISO 26000), Quality Management (QM; ISO 9001), and Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OSHAS 18001) in the shipbuilding industry and its relationship with firms' performance. This research proposes a new measurement index that evaluates the degree of certification of the industry over time regarding EM, CSR, QM, and Occupational Health, demonstrating a link between the evolution of companies' results (in terms of orderbooks, completions, and new orders) and the implantation of official certifications and their maturity (time elapsed since certification).
Using a sample of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)‐awarded firms in Taiwan during 2007–2016, this paper examines the impacts of various dimensions of CSR activities on firm financial performance, and investigates how the controlling shareholders' excess control right affects the relationship between CSR and firm financial performance. The empirical results show that the various dimensions of CSR activities affect firm financial performance differently. Moreover, the excess control right negatively affects the relationship between CSR activities and firm financial performance. CSR activities which are related to customers and employees have a significant positive impact on accounting‐based and market‐based performance for high and low excess control right firms. CSR activities which are related with environmental policy harm the accounting‐based financial performance of firms with a high degree of excess control right. Finally, the positive impact of community‐related CSR activities on the accounting‐based financial performance of firms is limited to firms with a low degree of excess control right.
Commercial shipbuilding in the 21st century is dominated by large suppliers, constructing series' of ships in highly efficient shipyards. The industry would be unrecognizable to shipbuilders from a century ago and this raises the question as to when the modern form developed. Much development has been incremental but there have also been seminal triggers, both technical and economic, that have led to major shifts in the nature of the industry. This paper traces these shifts from the building of SS Great Britain to the current day. The modern industry saw its beginnings in the United States in World War II (wwii), follows a build strategy that was developed in Japan (under U.S. guidance) and a pattern of shipyard design that originated in Europe in the early 1960s. The most significant influences have included developments in iron and steel manufacturing processes, the expansion of the British Empire in the second half of the 19th century, the Liberty Ship program in WWII, Japan's "great reverse" post-WWII, and the "Bretton Woods" conference that initiated the process of globalization in the second half of the 20th century. The greatest steps forward have arisen out of economic imperatives and been assisted by influence from other industry sectors. The most important influences were those from government contractors in the introduction of welding into shipbuilding in WWII and in the influence of the aircraft manufacturing industry in Japanese shipbuilding post-WWII. The greatest barriers to innovation have arisen from conservatism.
1. Introduction
In an article in the New York Times of October 28,1921, Henry Ford coined his famous phrase: "History is bunk." He was paraphrasing an earlier article in the Crawfordsville Review of June 6, 1916, where he had said: "History is more or less bunk" and the three additional words make all the difference in understanding this famous quotation. What Henry Ford did not mean was that we cannot learn the lessons of history. What he did mean was that we cannot reliably predict the future by extrapolating the past and this leads to a very optimistic view of the power of innovation in industry. What innovations might be around the corner that will change everything? Henry Ford is also often quoted in support of this view as saying, relating to the period before his innovations that made the motor car an affordable mode of transport for the masses in the United States: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." In reality, Henry Ford is nowhere recorded as actually having said this, but it is a popular misquotation because it illustrates the principle perfectly (Vlaskovits 2011).
The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is one of the most important corporate social responsibility initiatives; its aim is to align companies’ strategies and operations with principles that involve human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption. After approximately 15 years of research on the UNGC, we provide a systematic literature review on this topic. We start with a keyword search of 96 papers on the UNGC. We then code these papers based on a deductive–inductive approach and classify them by year of publication, publication outlet, research focus, methodology, and underpinning theory. We frame and summarize the debate on the five main topics of UNGC literature, namely motivations driving the companies toward UNGC adoption, weaknesses, impacts, contextual factors affecting adoption, and contextual factors affecting performance. For each of the five streams of research, we identify several factors or variables that enrich the knowledge of it. Building on these findings, we identify various research gaps and develop a set of hypotheses for future empirical validation that are grounded on prominent theoretical frameworks, such as the stakeholder theory (in combination with the Human Resource Management literature) and the signal theory.
This study examines the impact of stakeholder engagement in the form of controlling shareholders on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of firms using data from 25 countries. The results show that there is a positive relation between state-controlled ownership and the CSR performance of firms, whereas the other types of controlling ownership have no impact on CSR performance. Further results show that evidence is more pronounced in countries with more stakeholder engagement. Additional analysis indicates that the change of state controlled firms leads to a change in CSR performance, but not vice versa. Taken together, this paper highlights the importance of governmental ownership in shaping firms' corporate social responsibility performance in an international context. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Currently, one of the main challenges for most of the shipbuilding companies is to manage the activities performed by a network of suppliers worldwide. Empirical evidence shows that the lack of integration and coordination between partners of the same supply chain affects the quality and the delivery date. Supply chain management (SCM) has been proposed to manage the flow of material, information, and service through the supply chain. However, the literature has dedicated significant emphasis to the high-volume sector, while other sectors have been largely ignored. Different approaches for SCM should be considered according to the characteristics of each industry. Therefore, this paper was proposed to provide an understanding of the role of SCM in the shipbuilding industry. A review of the literature identifies the main concepts, principles, and methods of SCM, and a case study provides a discussion of the barriers to implementing them. The results showed that SCM in shipbuilding depends essentially on improving the relationship with suppliers and adopting appropriate information and communication technology (ICT).
Research on employee recruitment has shown that an organization’s corporate social performance (CSP) affects its attractiveness as an employer, but the underlying mechanisms and processes through which this occurs are poorly understood. We propose that job seekers receive signals from CSP that inform three signal-based mechanisms that ultimately affect organizational attractiveness: job seekers’ anticipated pride from being affiliated with the organization, their perceived value fit with the organization, and their expectations about how the organization treats its employees. We hypothesized that these signal-based mechanisms mediate the relationships between CSP and organizational attractiveness, focusing on two aspects of CSP: an organization’s community involvement and pro-environmental practices. In an experiment (n = 180), we manipulated CSP via a company’s web pages. In a field study (n �= 171), we measured CSP content in the recruitment materials used by organizations at a job fair and job seekers’ perceptions of the organizations’ CSP. Results provided support for the signal-based mechanisms, and we discuss the implications for theory, future research, and practice.
This paper aims to examine the impact of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR), with a focus on ethical and environment questions related to the constructs of customer satisfaction (CS), relationship maintenance (RM) and customer loyalty (CL), on determining the attitudinal and behavioural loyalty and maintenance of customers in the shipping industry. For this purpose, this study enhances its empirical validity by collecting data from 214 respondents in South Korea and testing the hypothesis using structure equation modelling. It was found that (1) CSR is an effective relationship marketing tool that requires further research to investigate its benefits; (2) systemic investigation in CSR activities in the shipping industry finds publishing CSR reports the most preferred tool among major shipping companies; and (3) there is a strong empirical evidence which supports that values have a significant impact on the customers' perception of CSR performance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
a b s t r a c t The public increasingly holds companies accountable for environmental misbehavior in their supply chains. To offset that risk corporations start initiatives to green their supply chains. Yet suppliers often fail to properly participate in these initiatives. This paper presents a conceptual framework to explain supplier participation in green initiatives, by investigating customer requirements, supplier readiness, relational norms and customer investment as possible drivers. The framework and hypotheses were tested using survey data of 54 German automotive suppliers. Partial least squares methodology was deployed for hypothesis testing. The study found supplier readiness and customer requirements to be significant drivers in supplier participation. Relational norms and customer investment did not per se yield significant importance for explaining supplier participation, but when taking into account firm size, the data suggests that cooperative relation norms and customer investment work as an additional driver in green supply chain management for larger suppliers. This research is one of the few studies that explore drivers for supply chain participation at the supplier's level.
The Dutch shipbuilding industry has a longstanding tradition in project-based production. Recently, industry actors have acknowledged a serious misfit between interorganizational project practices, defined as behaviors related to collaboration, and interorganizational project demands, defined as environmental conditions. This misfit leads to a weaker competitive position due to higher communication and production costs, and longer production times. However, the causes of this misfit remain unclear. Among project researchers there is a growing awareness that history has a major influence on contemporary practices in interorganizational projects, suggesting that some of the causes of the present-day misfit may be rooted in the past. This paper studies historical developments of interorganizational project practices in Dutch shipbuilding projects, in order to understand to what extent contemporary misfit in project practices is rooted in the past and results from path dependencies and lock-ins. We answer the following research question: How did interorganizational project practices and demands in the Dutch shipbuilding industry develop between 1950 and 2010 and to what extent do these developments help us understand the current misfit between project practices and demands? Our results show that a web of self-reinforcing mechanisms at least partially explains the current misfit in the Dutch shipbuilding industry. This paper answers to the conceptual call by Sydow et al. (2009) and supplements path dependence literature by showing that self-reinforcing mechanisms causing path dependence can be separated analytically, but are intertwined empirically.
Competition in the business world nowadays is largely between supply chains, rather than individual players only. The same situation exists in container shipping. The study looks into container shipping from an integrated perspective and investigates the nature and level of supply chain integration in container shipping. Based on empirical examinations of the world's top 30 container shipping lines, a scenario analysis is conducted. The paper aims to present the scenario analysis for examining supply chain integration in container shipping. It also aims to formulate strategic recommendations for liners to create and sustain competitive advantage. The scenario analysis is designed to allow more complete consideration of alternative possible outcomes and their implications on the research topic. It involves an evaluation of past and present events and provides a plausible discussion of what might occur in the future. It depicts four scenarios of supply chain integration in container shipping, namely, low integration, partner-focused integration, activity-focused integration and high integration. On the whole, research findings suggest that market situations favour those scenarios representing higher level of supply chain integration. Importantly, with reference to the scenario analysis, shipping lines should position themselves in an appropriate scenario and formulate strategic plans accordingly.
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There now exists a large and growing literature on what has come to be known as “corporate social responsibility” (CSR). The
largest strand of this literature is devoted to studies that attempt to determine whether CSR is associated with superior
financial performance for those firms that engage in it. This article first provides a definition of CSR that makes it possible
to talk about it in a concrete way; it then identifies the ways in which CSR might lead to superior financial performance;
next it reviews the empirical evidence bearing on this hypothesis; finally, the paper concludes by asking whether this much-hyped
phenomenon is really that new after all and suggests that normative judgments about CSR are more complicated than one might
think.
- Bruce G.
Tendencias Actuales se enfocan en códigos, Normas e Indicadores de Gestiòn
- Puterman P.