Despite increasing pressure to deal with climate change, firms have been slow to respond with effective action. This article presents a multi-level framework for a better understanding of why many firms are failing to reduce their absolute greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change. The concepts of short-termism and uncertainty avoidance from research in psychology, sociology, and organization theory can explain the phenomenon of organizational inaction on climate change. Antecedents related to short-termism and uncertainty avoidance reinforce one another at (...) three levels—individual, organizational, and institutional—and result in organizational inaction on climate change. The article also discusses the implications of this multi-level framework for research on corporate sustainability. (shrink)

We highlight how Corporate Social Responsibility can be strategically used against the negative perception from earnings management. Using international data, we analyse the effect of CSR and EM on the cost of capital and corporate reputation. Results confirm that CSR strategy is positively valued by investors and other stakeholders. Contrary to EM, CSR has a positive effect on corporate reputation and lowers the cost of capital. In addition, we also find that the favourable effect of CSR on cost of capital (...) is consistently more intense in firms that show signs of EM indicating that the market does not identify when CSR practices are used as a strategy to mask EM. We also demonstrate how institutional factors influence the above relationship. (shrink)

differential from bottom to top, depth of fluid, and the coefficients of expansion, viscosity and thermal Bénard convection, is one of the more intensely conductivity of the fluid. Even though it is a simple studied dissipative systems, both theoretically and..

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. ;This thesis investigates the application of the theory of Conceptual Structures to an Experience Base model, which is a question-answering system for a knowledge base of pseudo-natural language statements of everyday experience. This thesis progresses to extend the fundamental principles carried from the experience base, to develop a framework for Reasoning by Analogy. Both methodologies are implemented, and uncertainty in the models is handled using the theory of Support Logic. ;Incompleteness of (...) information, uncertainty of data and the need for a definite structure to the way in which rules and data interact, are aspects which must be dealt with if the experience base is to succeed. One more aspect is the knowledge representation which dictates the ease with which processing may be performed upon it. Conceptual graphs are used to store information used by an Experience Base. Control of the reasoning is effected by plausible inference reinforced by the theory of Support Logic for handling uncertainty. The knowledge base is a set of initially completely disparate islands of knowledge, which the system automatically clusters into coherent groups in an associative network. ;The principles evolved from research into experience bases lead to the conception, development and implementation of a computational framework for Analogical Reasoning. The reasoning is performed between domains of knowledge rather than within a single domain as in case-based reasoning, and operates on pseudo-natural language statements as for the experience base. It relies on relation-based structure mapping and includes a sophisticated mechanism for translating between the new problem and the analogue. The strong connection between this work and metaphor interpretation is also investigated, together with ideas on how to negotiate with the apparent multitude of types of analogical reasoning. (shrink)

Mohanty, J. N. Kalidas Bhattacharyya as a metaphysician.--Deutsch, E. On meaning.--Potter, K. Towards a conceptual scheme for Indian epistemologies.--Ganguly, S. N. Rationality versus reasonableness (freedom: a reinterpretation).--Sen, P. K. A sketch of a theory of properties and relations.--Mohanty, J. N. Perceptual consciousness.--Chattopadhyaya, D. P. Theory and practice.--Bhadra, M. K. The idea of self as purpose, an existential analysis.--Matilal, B. K. Saptabhaṅgī.--Banerjee, H. The identification of mental states and the possibility of freedom.--Chatterjee, M. A phenomenological approach to the self.--Banerjee, S. P. (...) Alienation and freedom.--Sinha, D. Cognitive language in Vedanta. (shrink)

In this article I provide a critical perspective on governing the global corporation. While the papers in the 2009 special issue of Business Ethics Quarterly explore the political role of corporations I argue that they lack a sophisticated analysis of power acrossinstitutional and actor networks. The argument that corporate engagement with deliberative democracy can enhance the legitimacy of corporations does not take into account the effects of institutional, material and discursive forms of power that determine legitimacycriteria. As a result corporate (...) versions of citizenship mediate versions of social responsibility and morality, which are reflected in the institutional and political economic norms that are produced by this power/knowledge. In order to overcome the limits of corporate social responsibility there is a need to develop more democratic forms of global governance of corporations. A radical revisioning of democratic governance would also need to overcome the limits posed by sovereignty and would require new forms of multi-actor and multi-level translocal governance arrangements in an attempt to create forms of power that are more compatible with the principles of economic democracy. (shrink)