BizResearch

What are we paying for? Exploring executive pay & performance

Source: High Pay Commission (UK)

Taken from Foreword

The total earnings for the top-paid director at BAE Systems have increased by more than 8,000 per cent since 1978 when the company was called British Aerospace. That compares to a rise of 556 per cent in median male income over the period. Many factors have driven up pay at the top, but one of the most important when it comes to directors’ pay has been the mantra that rewards must be linked to company performance.

Since the 1980s, corporate governance reforms have all tried to align directors and shareholders’ interests by linking pay to performance. However, as we show in this latest report prepared for the High Pay Commission by Incomes Data Services, there is rarely a link between directors’ incentives and the way a company performs. In the past 10 years, the average annual bonus for FTSE 350 directors went up by 187 per cent and the average year-end share price declined by 71 per cent.

Many companies that have not survived over the period paid above the odds to their directors. This is no more evident than in pay at the bailed-out banks where rewards were much higher than the norm. Pay for performance has added to the staggering complexity of executive packages and yet there is no clear evidence that it works.

Click here to read the full report

Sex & Power 2011

Source: Equality and Human Rights Commission

Extract from Press Release

A new report published by the Commission, shows a continuing trend of women being passed over for top jobs in Britain. More than 5,400 women are missing from Britain’s 26,000 most powerful posts. The report, Sex & Power 2011, measures the number of women in positions of power and influence across 27 occupational categories in the public and private sectors.

Worryingly, the results of this year’s report differ very little from those in the previous report of 2008. Figures from this year’s report reveal that, while women are graduating from university in increasing numbers and achieve better degree results than men, and despite level pegging with men in their twenties, they are not entering management ranks at the same rate, and many remain trapped in the layer below senior management. Among this year’s findings were:

In business women represent:

• 12.5% of directors of FTSE 100 companies (up from 11% in 2008)
• 7.8% of directors in FTSE 250 companies (up from 7.2% in 2008)

In media and culture, women represent:

• 9.5% of national newspaper editors (down from 13.6% in 2008)
• 6.7% of chief executives of media companies in the FTSE 350 and the director general of the BBC (down from 10.5% in 2008)
• 26.1% of directors of major museums and art galleries (up from 17.4% in 2008)

Studies have shown that outdated working patterns where long hours are the norm, inflexible organizations and the unequal division of domestic responsibilities are major barriers to women’s participation in positions of authority.

The British economy is paying the price for this exclusion.  It has been suggested that greater diversity on corporate boards would improve business performance and increase levels of corporate social responsibility

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Consequences of Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Authors: Ioannis Ioannou (London Business School); George Serafeim (Harvard Business School)

HBS Working Paper Number: 11-100

Executive Summary:

The number of firms reporting sustainability information has grown significantly in the past decade, both due to voluntary actions and to mandates from several national governments and stock exchange authorities. In this paper, London Business School's Ioannis Ioannou and Harvard Business School's George Serafeim investigate whether mandatory sustainability reporting has any effect on a company's tendency to engage in socially responsible management practices. Key concepts include:

• The researchers show that mandatory sustainability reporting effectively promotes socially responsible managerial practices. Overall, supervision of managers by boards of directors improves, bribery and corruption decreases, and credibility of managers in society increases.
• In companies where sustainability reporting is a requirement, employee training becomes a higher priority, and corporate boards supervise management more effectively.
• These positive results are more pronounced in countries that have stronger law enforcement, countries where assurance of sustainability data is more frequent, and countries that are generally more developed.

Abstract: We examine the effect of mandatory sustainability reporting on several measures of socially responsible management practices. Using data for 58 countries, we show that after the adoption of mandatory sustainability reporting laws and regulations, the social responsibility of business leaders increases. We also document that both sustainable development and employee training become a higher priority for companies, and that corporate governance improves. Furthermore, we find that companies implement more ethical practices, reduce bribery and corruption, and that managerial credibility increases. These effects are larger for countries with stronger law enforcement and more widespread assurance of sustainability reports. We conclude with thoughts about mandatory sustainability and integrated reporting.

 

The Ratio: Common Sense Controls for Executive Pay and Revitalising UK Business

Source: nef

Extract from executive summary

This report covers the issue of the widening gap between pay at the top and bottom of corporations, the effect that has on society and the economy, and the effect it has on the companies concerned. In particular it covers how the ratio between the bottom and the top might be used in order to bring more pressure to bear, both moral and practical, on the problem.

One of the central concerns of the co-operative movement is to distribute more evenly the benefits of economic activity. Their relative success during the recent banking crisis and ensuing economic recession is testimony to the greater resilience of more fair and equal models of corporate governance. But, whilst the co-operative sector is enjoying a renaissance, a greater creeping inequality continues to spread more widely in the corporate sector, bringing with it a range of economic and social costs, and dysfunction. This report suggests how we might begin to reverse that tide.

The publication of the crucial ratio between lowest and highest paid in every public company would encourage debate about pay and corporate responsibility. It would, we believe, kickstart a more informed debate about what kind of pay gap is acceptable and what is simply divisive and inflationary. It would also have a healthy effect on both fairness and equity in the UK, and on the companies themselves. One of the more surprising revelations, shocking even, is the absence of any evidence to support and justify high pay ratios, compared to the large body of evidence concerning the costs of inequality. We believe that the burden of proof should shift, so that companies operating a ratio above 1:20, or even 1:10 (this is the debate we need to have), would need to show how the economic and social benefits of doing so outweighed the costs.

Click here to read the full report

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Do Green Products Make Us Better People?

Consumer choices reflect not only price and quality preferences but also social and moral values, as witnessed in the remarkable growth of the global market for organic and environmentally friendly products.  What is not sufficiently understood is how green consumption fits into people’s global sense of social responsibility and morality and affects behaviours outside the consumption domain.

On the basis of recent theories in behavioural priming and moral regulation, the authors of this article, Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong argue that mere exposure to green products and the purchase of such products will have markedly different effects on subsequent behaviours. Whereas mere exposure can activate concepts related to social responsibility and ethical conduct and induce corresponding behaviours, purchasing green products may produce the counterintuitive effect of licensing asocial and unethical behaviours by establishing moral credentials. Thus, green products do not necessarily make for better people.

Mazar & Zhong conducted three experiments to test their predictions. Experiment 1 established that people attach higher social and ethical values to green than to conventional consumerism. Experiment 2 demonstrated that mere exposure to green products and purchase of green products have opposing effects on altruistic behaviour. Finally, Experiment 3 extended the licensing effect of purchasing green products to clear ethical violations: cheating and stealing money. Together, these studies suggest that consumption is more tightly connected to the social and moral self than previously thought.

Click here to read this article from Psychological science

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Moving Beyond Compliance: Embracing the Spirit of the Code

Grant Thornton has just released their 8th annual review of the UK’s FTSE 350 corporate governance disclosures. The annual report highlights trend in the disclosure of compliance with the Combined Code (the Code) and assess the quality of explanations of underlying practices among the UK’s largest listed companies. This year, the review covers 299 companies, assessing their compliance with the policies and provisions of the Code. In addition, the review covers aspects of the Business Review, including key performance indicators (KPIs) and, for the first time, principal risk reporting.

Selected highlights:

This year’s review sees another increase in the percentage of companies claiming full compliance with the Code.  Further assessment of the 141 companies claiming full compliance shows that only 41 (29%) of these provided all of the required disclosures to fully support their claim. 

A key focus of the governance debate in banks has been over the incentives and bonuses that have been paid and the influence this can have on operational risk.  The average bonus available to executives was 140% and there were 64 companies offering bonuses in excess of 150% of basic salary (2008: 40 companies). Of companies disclosing potential maximum bonus over 200%, 13 of the 24 companies are from the financials industry.

Greater consideration is being given to how corporate responsibility issues are being presented. 79% of FTSE 100 and 60% of Mid 250 companies are now issuing a separate Corporate Responsibility report. While some companies cross reference this report, many continue to provide a summary of the information in their annual reports. 

30% of the FTSE 100 and 52% of the Mid 250 fail to provide detailed explanations of the actions they have taken to understand the views of and engage with major shareholders. With the active sponsorship of the FRC including the development of a stewardship code, this statistic should now start to improve.

Click here to read the report in full

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Global Corruption Barometer 2009

The Global Corruption Barometer (the Barometer) produced by Transparency International’s (TI) is a public opinion survey that assesses the general public’s perceptions and experiences of corruption and bribery.  It assesses the extent to which key institutions and public services are perceived to be corrupt and measures citizens’ views on government efforts to fight corruption.

This year, for the first time, the Barometer asked citizens about the extent to which they feel the private sector uses bribery to distort the policy-making process in their country; a phenomenon often referred to as state capture. The Barometer found that 54% of survey respondents believe bribery is commonly used by the private sector to shape policies and regulations. This contrasts sharply with what the private sector reports. TI’s 2008 Bribe Payers Index found that only 32% of senior business executives claimed that bribery was often used to influence specific policy outcomes.  Sixty five per cent of Barometer respondents in upper-middle income countries - many of these emerging economies where growth and political transition mean markets and regulation are in a state of flux - reported that state capture by the private sector is a common phenomenon. While 55% of respondents in high-income countries reported that it is common for bribes to influence the policy-making process, 45% of respondents in low-income countries claimed the same.

Other findings include:

Globally, respondents perceived political parties as the single most corrupt domestic institution, followed closely by the civil service.

Aggregate results, however, mask important country differences. In 13 of the countries sampled, the private sector was deemed to be the most corrupt, while in 11 countries respondents identified the judiciary

Corruption matters to consumers. Half of those interviewed expressed a willingness to pay a premium to buy from a company that is ‘corruption-free’.

Overall, the general public consider their governments’ efforts to tackle corruption to be ineffective. Only 31% perceived them as effective, compared to the 56% that viewed government anti-corruption measures to be ineffective.

The full report can be downloaded from the Transparency International’s website

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Review of Corporate Governance in UK Banks & Other Financial Industry Entities

The Walker Review was set up to look at corporate governance in UK banks in the light of recent critical loss and failure throughout the banking system.  The principal focus of this Review is on banks, but many of the issues, and associated conclusions and recommendations, are relevant to other major financial institutions such as life assurance companies.  The review concludes that governance failures contributed heavily to excessive risk taking in the lead up to the financial crisis. Weaknesses in risk management, board quality and practice, control of remuneration, and in the exercise of ownership rights need to be addressed in the UK and internationally to minimise the risk of a recurrence. Better governance will not guarantee that there will be no repetition of the recent highly negative experience for the economy and for society as a whole but will make a rerun of these events materially less likely.

The review process has led to the 39 recommendations. The second phase of the consultative process is to seek comment and reaction, and interested parties are invited to comment not only on the recommendations, but also on any relevant issues which they do not cover. Specific proposals include:

• Board level risk committees chaired by a non-executive
• Risk committees to have power to scrutinise and if necessary block big transactions
• More power for remuneration committees to scrutinise firm-wide pay
• Remuneration committee to oversee pay of high-paid executives not on the board
• Significant deferred element in bonus schemes for all high-paid executives
• Increased public disclosure about pay of high-paid executives
• Chairman of remuneration committee to face re-election if report gets less than 75% approval
• Non-executives to spend up to 50% more time on the job
• Non-executives to face tougher scrutiny under FSA authorisation process
• Chairman of board to face annual re-election
• Financial Reporting Council to sponsor institutional shareholder code
• FSA to monitor conformity and disclosure by fund managers
• Institutional shareholders to agree Memorandum of Understanding on collective action

This is intended as a consultative document, proposing most of the recommendations should be enforced through inclusion in the Combined Code on Corporate Governance, which operates on a 'comply or explain' basis. It would be for the Financial Reporting Council, which is currently reviewing the Combined Code, to decide exactly how this would be done.

Click here to read the report

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Fair Trade

The purpose of this special issue of the Journal of Business Ethics is to discuss the growth of Fair Trade, in particular the increasing involvement of traditional business.

Fair Trade is a form of international exchange that aims to help small producers in developing countries by guaranteeing a fair (above market) price for their products plus the provision of other forms of support.  There have been two major developments in the fair trade movement, which are outlined in the introduction to the special issue by Reed & McMurtry. The first was the introduction of a certification program in 1988. Before this, handicrafts were the most widely traded products, but since certification a wide variety of agricultural commodities such as coffee, tea, and cocoa among others have been made available. Initially these products were imported exclusively by alternative trade organizations and were offered for sale primarily through alternative retail outlets. The second major development in Fair Trade was the involvement of traditional businesses, especially large corporations. It is this latter development which makes the Fair Trade movement an important key topic for business ethics.

Proponents of ‘‘mainstreaming’’ Fair Trade argue that it is the participation by corporations that has helped to increase the size of current Fair Trade markets and to facilitate the introduction of new Fair Trade products. Critics argue that traditional businesses, especially large corporations, are not committed to Fair Trade values and participate primarily for public relations reasons. Further, they claim, their participation has served to undermine the original goals of Fair Trade, serving to undermine support for small producers.  These critics are also concerned that the current leadership of the certifying bodies is overly interested in increasing sales and has become distanced from the Fair Trade movement itself. For their part, small producers in the South often feel that they do not have a sufficient say in the decision-making of a movement that was developed to support them.

The special issue presents eight articles including two papers from the guest editors Darryl Reed on the different ways corporations have become involved in the Fair Trade practice and J J McMurtry discussing the ethics of Fair Trade.

Full-text access to this special issue (Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 86, Sup.1) is available to current staff, students and faculty via Article Finder which can be found on the A-Z list of library database via Portal.

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr:Bigiain 

European fraud survey 2009: Is integrity a casualty of the downturn?

The current state of the market has had an impact on all areas of corporate financial performance. This has, for many companies, become a time when survival rather than growth. It is in this context that this year’s European fraud survey from Ernst & Young was undertaken, and the issues it raises demonstrate that now, more than ever, fraud should be high on the agenda of boards and senior management.

The 2009 survey conducted a total of 2,246 interviews with employees across 22 European countries. Participants were employed in companies with over 1,000 employees, stock exchange-listed or multinationals. The report highlights a number of important themes, including the perceived depth of commitment of management to fraud risk mitigation and what employees expect from the regulators of their companies.

The survey finds an alarmingly high tolerance of unethical business behaviour within organisations, with many employees tolerating unethical behaviour including bribery by their company in order to survive the current economic storm. Indeed senior management are even more likely than rank and file to condone activities such as cash bribes and financial statement fraud.  The research also suggests that employees expect regulators to do more to protect them from wayward management and to ensure their business leaders are compelled to conduct business in an ethical manner.

Other key findings include:

• Survey respondents believe the likelihood of fraud and corruption is set to rise further still. 55% of the respondents expect corporate fraud to increase over the next few years.

• Corporate responses to the downturn can create new opportunities for fraudsters if staff redundancies open gaps in financial controls. 36% of our respondents believe that normal policies and procedures are likely to be overlooked as staff redundancies are made.

• The trend of consolidation during an economic downturn can also disrupt ongoing efforts by corporates to prevent fraud. Almost half of our respondents believe that the differing standards of behaviour that are held by two merging companies poses a major challenge to anti-fraud efforts.

The full report can be downloaded from the Ernst & Young website

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Corporate Governance Review 2008

Grant Thornton has published their seventh annual review of the UK’s FTSE corporate governance disclosures. Each year the review assesses companies for compliance with the policies and provisions of the Combined Code (the Code) and looks at the quality of explanations of underlying practices among the UK’s largest listed companies. In addition, the review covers aspects of the Business Review legislation, introduced within the 2006 Companies Act. This seeks to address the EU transparency agenda of providing greater insight to stakeholders on how management assess and manage business performance. The enhanced disclosure requires companies to move beyond the narrative by disclosing key performance indicators and business metrics. 

The 2008 review uncovers mixed messages as to the state of corporate governance among the FTSE 350.

Positive trends include:

• More informed levels of explanation where companies choose not to comply with the Code

• Continued strengthening of the presence of independent non-executives on the boards of the Mid 250

• High level of disclosure in line with the new Business Review requirements. However, a number of challenges remain:

However, a number of challenges remain. Of the 44% of companies who claim full compliance with the Code, the review found that only a quarter make all the disclosures necessary to support their claim. This leaves a hard core of nearly a fifth who choose not to comply. The quality and usefulness of the explanations given for non-compliance also varies greatly, with significant numbers providing only the bare minimum of information. However, on a more positive note, the review concludes that despite the hard core of ‘reluctants’, the FRC’s recent finding to leave regulation and guidance largely well alone is the right one. The challenge remains one of application.

Click here to read the full report

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SMEs and corporate social responsibility

The latest issue of Business ethics: a European review presents papers that explore how social responsibility is slowly emerging as not only a condition but also as a strategy for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The papers selected for this issue attempt to understand how, and with what impact, CSR can contribute to creating a competitive advantage for SMEs. They also suggest ways in which to identify, explore and analyse CSR among SMEs in a manner relevant in a European context. The guest editors of this special issue (Morsing & Perrini) argue that public authorities, policy-makers and researchers need to investigate and give visibility to this area and open up the debate on the particular implications of CSR in SMEs.

The papers selected for this issue cover a range of perspectives starting with Murillo & Lozano who look at how networks can support the development of CSR among SMEs. Heledd Jenkins develops a business opportunity model of CSR in SMEs to analyse how SMEs may take advantage of the challenges of CSR. The paper from Hammann, Habisch &  Pechlaner explores the link between personal managerial values and economic value using qualitative interviews and a survey including data from 261 German SME executives. Lynch-Wood, Williamson & Jenkins sets out to explore what they refer to as 'the external business case' by developing a model to analyse its constituent elements in a voluntary setting and how these elements influence the behaviour of SMEs. Fisher et al argue in their paper that SMEs have stronger relationships with their stakeholders than their MNC counterparts and therefore SMEs have a strong social capital. They develop a model of strategic CSR from an SME perspective (the ABCD framework). The final paper presents a study from Nielsen & Thomsen which explores how SME managers respond to the increased demand for SMEs' corporate communication on CSR issues.

This issue of Business ethics: a European review (Vol.18:1) can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement

Alternatively, current staff, students and faculty can use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access to this journal.

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Environmental, social and governance: moving to mainstream Investing?

The use of environmental, social and governance criteria (ESG) has steadily grown amongst socially responsible investors over the past 20 years, but there are a number of obstacles preventing its full integration into mainstream investments. This new report from Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) examines how mainstream financial institutions are incorporating ESG criteria, the barriers that are preventing broader use of the criteria, and potential solutions to these challenges.

The reports findings suggest that it is a lack of standardization that is preventing full integration of ESG criteria. This is seen in two main ways: firstly, it is evident that judgements are being made about which ESG criteria are likely to yield a positive returns and which are not; Secondly, ESG criteria can include a range of different issues, depending on the regions and sectors with companies differentiating themselves based on their own methodology of integration. There is also widespread opinion amongst many investors that there is insufficient long-term data to substantiate the claims from organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and Sustainability Asset Management (SAM) that there is a positive association between the inclusions of these criteria and enhanced financial performance.

The report attempts to answer the following questions:

• How do companies and other players (research firms, shareholders, etc.) incorporate ESG criteria into mainstream investing culture?
• How is the effect of ESG criteria incorporation being measured, and do these efforts have an impact?
• What are the barriers to successfully incorporating these criteria into mainstream investing and what are possible solutions to those barriers?

Click here to read the full report

Mckinsey - Confronting Climate Change

McKinsey Quarterly - 2008 No 2

Confronting Climate Change

For staff, students and facutly of the London Business School go to the database Business Source Complete to read the following:

Addressing consumer concerns about climate change.
Bonini, Sheila M. J.; Hintz, Greg; Mendonca, Lenny T.

How companies think about climate change.
Enkvist, Per-Anders; Vanthournout, Helga

Germany: What one country can do.
Hartmann, Anja; Riese, Jens; Vahlenkamp, Thomas

What countries can do about cutting carbon emissions.
Enkvist, Per-Anders; Nauclér, Tomas; Riese, Jens; Farrell, Diana; Remes, Jaana

Business strategies for climate change.
Enkvist, Per-Anders; Nauclér, Tomas; Oppenheim, Jeremy M.

The climate change imperative.
Nauclér, Tomas; Oppenheim, Jeremy

End

The 10 worst corporations of 2007

The Multinational monitor (Vol. 29:5) has just published their annual list of the 10 worst corporations. The main aim of this list is to demonstrate that ‘big business is out of control and to connect comparable abuses to the failure of government overseers, regulators and enforcers’.  There is certainly no doubt that the general public consensus is one of mistrust. According to a Harris poll carried out last November, the US public holds big business in shockingly low regard. The poll found that less than 15% of the population believed that industries ranging from tobacco and oil companies to online retailers were "generally honest and trustworthy:" (click here to see more on the Harris poll). These results come as no surprise and have been fairly consistent over the past five years. The Harris results confirm other polling data showing growing concerns about concentrated corporate power.

The full list of the 10 worst companies and commentary is available from the magazine’s website

World business ethics – does east meet west?

The April issue of the Journal of business ethics presents selected papers from the first World business ethics forum held in Hong Kong and Macu in November 2006. The special issue starts off with a paper from the keynote speaker of the Forum and the journal’s own editor-in-chief  Alex C Michalos, who describes how the origins of our present ethical framework can be found in classical Greece. Other contributions featured in this issue include: an examination of the role of stakeholders in accountants reporting practices; a paper providing a new insight into the phenomenon of organizational citizenship behaviour, social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) is used to explain why employees perform OCB; three of the papers focus on some of the unique features of corruption in China that are related to Chinese culture and the special socioeconomic environment of a transitional economy; plus McKinney and Moore analyze the attitudes of United States business professionals toward the issue of international bribery, and in particular, whether or not having a written code of ethics has an effect on these attitudes.

The latest issue of the Journal of business ethics (Vol.79:1-2) can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement

Alternatively, current staff, students and faculty can use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access to this journal.

Corporate responsibility and trust

The Jan-Mar issue of Business ethics: a European review includes a selection of articles on the subject of corporate social responsibility and trust. The papers were selected from the Fifth Annual Colloquium of EABIS (European Academy of Business in Society) held in September 2006. The focus of the Colloquium was on the strategic value of CSR, in particular the continuing debate on CSR as simply an add-on initiative, which does not affect the current way of life and thinking of companies, or whether it should be considered an innovative approach to management based on a systemic stakeholder view of the firm.

Amongst the contributions: Pivato, Misani & Tencati examine the impact of corporate social responsibility on consumer trust; Ortiz Martinez & Crowther analyse corporate social disclosure policies and the influence that the lack of transparency can have both on the level of trust which stakeholders place in the management of the firm and on the efficacy of the communication tools adopted; and Perrini & Minoja’s investigation on the roots of the socially responsible behaviour developed by a family-owned company.

This issue of Business ethics: a European review (Vol.17:1) can be found in the journal collection located in the library basement. Alternatively, current staff, students and faculty can use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access.

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Going green: sustainable growth strategies

PricewaterhouseCoopers has just released its fifth volume of Technology executive connections, a series of survey reports designed to highlight and explore current business and strategic issues in the technology industries. This latest survey examines how global environmentalism is forcing technology companies to produce greener products using greener processes. The survey identifies two main drivers of sustainability movement in the industry, both economic rather than altruistic: firstly, the potential to increase revenue through the increasing demand for greener products and services; secondly, the desire to decrease expenditures by reducing energy consumption. The report also indicates that increasing sustainability will require collaboration along the whole supply chain.

To read the report in full click here

Attaining sustainable growth through corporate social responsibility

 This report produced by IBM evaluates how well companies understand and manage corporate social responsibility (CSR) and outlines how they can strategically align their core business strategies with CSR objectives. To gauge how deeply CSR has influenced company strategies and operations, IBM surveyed senior executives and directors of strategy at 250 companies worldwide across the banking, chemicals and petroleum, consumer goods, electronics, energy and utilities, retail and automotive industries. The survey uncovered three dynamics for companies to understand and act upon in dealing with the threats and opportunities of CSR:

• Impact - from cost to growth
• Information - from visibility to transparency
• Relationships - from containment to engagement

The report can be freely downloaded from the IBM website.

FTSE4Good - the performance of corporate responsibility

The FTSE4Good Index Series has been designed to measure the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards, and to facilitate investment in those companies. Transparent management and criteria alongside the FTSE brand make FTSE4Good the index of choice for the creation of Socially Responsible Investment products.

The series encompasses four tradable and five benchmark indices, representing Global, European, US, Japan (benchmark only) and UK markets. The FTSE4Good benchmark indices include all companies in the broad market index, or starting universe that meet the FTSE4Good criteria. Tradable indices cover the largest 50 or 100 companies in the benchmark index, as measured by their market capitalisation. More information

You can download the time series off campus using the Factiva Database: Portal >Library >A-Z list of databases>Factiva

Go to the Companies and markets tab > quotes option. Pick Market Indexes from the drop down and using the symbol look-up enter FTSE 4good - NB leave a space between FTSE and 4good.

Alternatively current students can use the Datastream service in the Library.

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Journal of business ethics - Ethical issues in the biotechnology industry

The biotechnology industry has received growing public attention over the past decade, promising a revolution in health-care, agriculture and other industrial processes. Debates around ethics in the field of biotechnology tend to focus on moral aspects and public policies, ignoring the role and responsibilities that companies have in  developing and marketing various biotechnologies. Yet the companies that make up this industry face a range of unique and complex ethical choices. This special issue seeks to redress this imbalance by focusing on the business context and corporate decision making of companies functioning in this field. Edited by Chris MacDonald, Associate Professor (Tenured) in the Philosophy Department at Saint Mary's University (Halifax, Canada), this special issue includes eight articles covering the whole biotech spectrum, from agriculture to human-health biotech.

This issue of the Journal of business ethics (Vol. 77:1, Jan 2008) can be found in the journal collection located in the library basement. Alternatively, use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text online access.

 

Picture from Creative Commons: Flcikr:adamjtaylor

The ethical evangelists

The October issue of Management today contains a special feature on recent developments in corporate social responsibility (CSR). For example ‘The ethical evangelists’ discusses how growing public awareness for ‘sustainable ways of living and consuming’ are forcing companies to 'do the right thing'. As the recent Mattel case demonstrates, companies that rely on global supply chains are being held to account for the whole chain and not just the bits that they directly manage. The special issue also includes an interview with Julia Cleverdon, Chief Executive of Business in the Community, a lobbying body dedicated to promoting corporate responsibility. Both these articles are freely available from the magazine's website

The latest issue of Management today can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement. Alternatively, use Article Finder to (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access.