To date, research into socially responsible investment (SRI), and in particular the socially responsible investment funds industry, has focused on whether investing in SRI assets has any differential impact on investor returns. Prior findings generally suggest that, on a risk-adjusted basis, there is no difference in performance between SRI and conventional funds. This result has led to questions about whether SRI funds are really any different from conventional funds. This paper examines whether the portfolio allocation across industry sectors and the (...) stock-picking ability of SRI managers are different when compared to conventional fund managers. The study finds that SRI funds exhibit different industry betas consistent with different portfolio positions, but that these differences vary from year to year. It is also found that there is little difference in stock-picking ability between the two groups of fund managers. (shrink)
In this fascinating work, J. Leonard Benson describes the spiritual and esoteric nature of color in relation to the four elements -- fire, earth, air and water.
This analysis examines whistleblowing within the context of organizational culture. Several factors which have provided impetus for organizations to emphasize ethical conduct and to encourage internal, rather than external, whistleblowing are identified. Inadequate protection for whistleblowers and statutory enticement for them to report ethical violations externally are discussed. Sundstrand's successful model for cultural change and encouragement of internal whistleblowing is analyzed to show how their model of demonstrating management's commitment to ethical conduct, establishing ethical expectations of employees, training to ensure (...) that employees understand the concepts and expectations, promoting of employee ownership of the program, making the program visible, protecting the whistleblower and undertaking periodic reviews of the program's success may serve as a model for other organizations. (shrink)
The literature of American legal history is primarily a history of federal and state governments, creating the false impression that these governments have produced and enforced all relevant law. Indeed, there seems to be a widely held belief that law and order could not exist in a society without the organized authoritarian institutions of the state. But while law can be imposed from above by some powerful authority, like a king, a legislature, or a supreme court, law can also develop (...) "from the ground" (Berman, 1983, p. 274), as a result of a recognition of mutual benefits, through exchanged agreements (explicit or implicit contracts) to obey and participate in the enforcement of such law. (shrink)
