La Performance Sociétale de l’Entreprise (PSE) a reçu une attention croissante tant au plan théorique qu’empirique. Pourtant, elle reste souvent réduite à sa dimension « résultats », centrée sur la mesure. Par opposition, sa dimension managériale a été largement ignorée et le management des Parties Prenantes (PP), notion vague et indéterminée, constitue toujours l’unique levier managérial de la PSE proposé par la littérature. Cette thèse cherche à combler ce manque et propose une modélisation de la PSE qui considère explicitement le rôle des PP vis-à-vis de sa dimension managériale. Cette dernière est saisie à travers un ensemble de leviers managériaux situés à trois niveaux – stratégique, tactique et opérationnel. L’applicabilité du modèle aux stations de montagne est discutée à l’aide d’une revue systématique de la littérature pour rendre compte d’éventuelles spécificités propres à cette unité d’analyse. La méthodologie empirique, de nature exploratoire et confirmatoire, repose sur l’étude de 4 cas de stations de montagne situées dans les alpes françaises. Les données primaires issues de 71 entretiens semi-directifs et de questionnaires auprès de PP représentatives des sphères civile, politique et économique des stations ont été complétées par des données secondaires. Malgré le constat d’un certain « tropisme économique » dans les 4 stations étudiées, les résultats indiquent que les PP des stations ont un rôle à jouer aux trois niveaux du management de la performance sociétale et que l’intensité de ce rôle varie en fonction de leur légitimité et pouvoir. Ils montrent également que l’intégration des PP au management de la performance sociétale est une condition nécessaire pour permettre une réelle prise en compte de leurs responsabilités sociétales. Au plan théorique, cette thèse contribue à l’approche de la PSE par les PP par la prise en compte explicite de sa dimension managériale à côté de sa dimension « résultats ». Au plan managérial, elle débouche sur des recommandations utiles pour aider les stations de montagne à se saisir d’une performance élargie à ses composantes économiques, sociales et environnementales en réponse aux enjeux sociétaux auxquels elles font face / Corporate Social Performance (CSP) has received a significant attention from scholars and practitioners. However, the study of the concept is often limited to its “results” dimension, focusing on measurement only. On the other hand, its managerial dimension has mostly been ignored and the concept of “stakeholders management”, a rather vague and ambiguous one, remains as CSP only managerial lever in the literature. This research seeks to fill that gap and develops a new CSP model. Its new managerial dimension comprises a set of managerial levers at strategic, tactic and operational levels and explicitly takes stakeholders’ role into account. As this research focuses on mountain resorts, the model’s relevance for such a unit of analysis has been assessed by confronting it to mountain resorts’ specificities identified through a systematic literature review. From a methodological point of view, 4 mountain resorts located in the French Alps have been studied through two (exploratory and confirmatory) case study methodologies. Primary data consists of transcripts of the 71 semi-directive interviews conducted with stakeholders from the political, civilian and economic spheres in the 4 resorts. Secondary data has also been collected. Despite the “economic tropism” observed in all 4 resorts, results show that stakeholders have a role to play on each three levels of social performance management and that this role may vary according to stakeholders’ power and legitimacy in the resort. They also show that integrating stakeholders in social performance management is a mean, for them, to better take their social responsibilities into account. From a theoretical perspective, the research contributes to the stakeholders’ approach of CSP by explicitly taking its managerial dimension into account and replacing it next to its “results” dimension. From a managerial point of view, we propose recommendations to help mountain resorts to embrace a wider – economic, social and environmental – view of performance

In simultaneously pursuing commercial and social goals, specialist microfinance organisations (MFOs) are leading examples of social enterprises working in development. Yet evidence of the feasibility of such ‘double bottom line’ management is limited. The thesis takes a comparative case study approach to investigating the dynamics of a social enterprise model of microfinance, with particular emphasis on its role in promoting employment related goals. Case study material consists primarily of the experience of two Central Asian MFOs that participated in an action research project ‘Microfinance for Decent Work’ implemented by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Data was obtained through participant observation, staff interviews, client level surveys, and it also includes reflective practice arising from my participation in the ILO project as a consultant to both MFOs between 2008 and 2012. The findings are mixed. One of the MFOs was more strongly internally motivated to achieve social goals, and was more successful in implementing social performance management initiatives. The other was motivated more by the goal to demonstrate social performance to external stakeholders, and was less responsive to the evidence generated. The thesis also illustrates both path dependence in the evolution of social performance management, and the limited capacity of external agencies such as the ILO to influence the institutionalisation of development management within MFOs.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-03-17T18:54:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 0000139E.pdf: 664883 bytes, checksum: 5ccc2dfbf29a43c19847bddfd1cb3187 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-17T18:54:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 0000139E.pdf: 664883 bytes, checksum: 5ccc2dfbf29a43c19847bddfd1cb3187 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-01-01 / Nenhuma / O objetivo deste trabalho é a identificação da relação existente entre a reputação corporativa, o desempenho socioeconômico e a atividade exportadora das vinícolas brasileiras e espanholas. É utilizada análise de dados em painel a partir da coleta de dados secundários das vinícolas brasileiras e espanholas juntamente com entrevistas com especialistas e produtores, identificando que a reputação corporativa influencia positivamente a atividade exportadora atuando como qualificador para inserção no mercado internacional de indústrias emergentes. Não foram identificadas na amostra analisada relações entre a reputação corporativa e o desempenho socioeconômico das empresas. O estudo contribui para a literatura examinando os efeitos da reputação corporativa sobre a atividade exportadora e o desempenho socioeconômico alargando para este recurso a discussão sobre indutores da atividade internacional da firma. Contribui também ao apresentar novos indicadores para mensuração do desempenho social e ao não identificar na reputação um preditivo para a melhoria do desempenho socioeconômico. / The objective of this work is the identification of the relationship between corporate reputation, the socio-economic performance and the export activity of Brazilian and Spanish wineries. It is used panel data analysis from the collection of secondary data from the Brazilian and Spanish wineries along interviews with experts and producers, identifying the corporate reputation positively influences the export activity acting as qualifier for insertion in the international market of emerging industries. Not identified in the sample analyzed relationships between corporate reputation and the socio-economic performance of companies. The study contributes to the literature examining the effects of corporate reputation on the export activities and the socio-economic performance for this feature extending the discussion on drivers of international activity of the firm. It also helps to introduce new indicators for measuring the social performance and to identify a predictive reputation for improving the socio-economic performance.

Les performances financières et sociales sont des caractéristiques institutionnelles importantes qui permettent aux pauvres et aux ‘quasi-pauvres' d'avoir accès aux crédits dans des conditions favorables, et aboutissent en même temps à un fonctionnement durable et aux mécanismes efficaces de gouvernances dans les institutions micro financières (IMFs). Dans ce contexte, cette étude a été menée afin de déterminer les variables financières/sociales/gouvernables qui peuvent influer les indicateurs de performance financière et sociale des IMFs à l'échelle mondiale; et de développer pour la première fois des arbres logiques décisionnels (en grappes) simples et pratiques qui peuvent être considérés comme des outils précieux aidant la mise en œuvre de stratégies efficaces pour les différents types des IMFs (à but lucratif et non lucratif) à l'échelle nationale.La première partie de cette thèse expose les données financières et sociales globales qui ont été extraites au cours des cinq dernières années (2007-2011) à partir de plusieurs bases de données bien connues (ex. Microfinance Information Exchange, Mix Market, Rating fund, etc…) pour les IMFs choisies classées comme ayant 4 ou 5 diamants (soit, 263 IMFs à but non lucratif et 135 IMFs à but lucratif) distribuées à travers les continents. Parmi les 263 IMFs à but non lucratif, l'échantillon de données a été composé de 192 organisations non-gouvernementales (ONGs), 42 institutions non bancaires et 29 coopératives. Un grand nombre de variables prédictives (54) ont été recueillies reflétant les aspects de l'environnement financier de ces IMFs (par exemple l'index des dépenses administratives, l'index de solvabilité, le coût par prêt, le nombre des déposants, etc…), les caractéristiques sociales (ex. profondeur, pourcentage des emprunteurs actifs ‘femmes', marché rural/urbain, niveau de pauvreté, etc…) et les mécanismes de gouvernance (ex. la taille de l'entreprise, la taille du conseil, la régulation, l'audit, l'affiliation à un réseau, l'assurance, etc…). Cette 1ère partie compare également l'efficacité de la plupart des méthodes/modèles statistiques les plus utilisés (incluant la régression linéaire, la régression logistique, les méthodes bayésiennes, les réseaux artificiels des neurones, l'analyse en composantes principales, etc….) pour estimer les indicateurs de performance financière et sociale au sein des IMFs. Elle inclue aussi une description détaillée du processus de construction des arbres décisionnels en grappes qui peut être utilisé pour cette estimation ainsi que toutes les étapes reliées (comprenant l'évaluation des divisions, l'assignement des catégories aux nœuds, les valeurs manquantes avec des répartiteurs de substitution, les critères d'arrêt, etc….).La deuxième partie explore les relations quantitatives entre les quatre indicateurs de performance financière les plus couramment utilisés [autosuffisance opérationnelle (operational self-sufficiency OSS), marge bénéficiaire (profit margin PM), rendement des actifs (return on assets ROA), et rendement des capitaux propres (return on equity ROE)] et les principales variables prédictives pour les IMFs choisies à but non lucratif (incluses à partir de 53 pays) à travers l'application de la modélisation par arbre de régression. Pour chaque indicateur de performance financière, plusieurs arbres de régression non élagués (684) ont été développés : (i) en utilisant toutes les variables prédictives, (ii) en utilisant toutes les variables prédictives financières seulement, (iii) en utilisant toutes les variables prédictives sociales seulement, (iv) en utilisant toutes les variables prédictives de gouvernance seulement, (v) en appliquant une seule variable prédictive à la fois, (vi) en excluant chaque variable à la fois du groupe potentiel des variables prédictives, et (vi) en forçant la séparation initiale de l'arbre à travers l'utilisation de la variable prédictive préférée afin d'explorer le pouvoir prédictif ... / Financial and social performances are important institutional characteristics that allow ‘the poor and the near-poor' to have access to credit in favorable conditions, and drives sustainable efficiency and effective governance mechanisms in MFIs (microfinance institutions). In this context, this study was conducted to determine the most influencing financial/social/governance variables (with their relative importance in %) that may affect the financial and social MFI performance indicators on worldwide basis; and to develop simple and practical microfinance tree-models (for the first time) that can be considered valuable tools helping with the implementation of efficient strategies among nonprofit and profit MFIs at a national scale.The first part of this thesis exposes the global financial and social data that has been extracted over the five recent years (2007-2011) from several well-known databases (e.g., Microfinance Information Exchange, Mix Market, Rating fund, etc.) for the chosen MFIs ranked four or five diamonds (i.e., 263 nonprofit MFIs and 135 profit ones) distributed widely over the continents. Among the 263 nonprofit MFIs, the data sample was composed of 192 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), 42 non-bank institutions and 29 cooperatives. A large number of predictor variables (54) have been collected capturing aspects of the financial environment of these MFIs (e.g., administrative expense ratio, ratio of solvency, cost per loan, number of depositors, write-off-ratio, etc.), the social characteristics (e.g., depth, percent of women active borrowers, rural/urban market, poverty level, etc.) and the governance mechanisms (e.g., firm size, board size, regulation, audit, network affiliation, insurance, etc.). This first part compares also the efficiencies of the most used statistical methods/models (including linear regression, logistic regression, Bayesian methods, artificial neural networks, cluster analysis, principal component analysis, decision-trees, etc.) for estimating diverse financial and social performance MFIs' indicators. It includes also a detailed description of the tree building process that has been used for such estimation and all related steps (involving evaluating splits, assigning categories to nodes, missing values with surrogate splitters, stopping criteria, etc.).The second part explores quantitative relationships between the four commonly worldwide used financial performance indicators (operational self-sufficiency OSS, profit margin PM, return on assets ROA, and return on equity ROE) and key financial/social/governance predictor variables for the chosen non-profit MFIs (included from 53 countries) through the application of regression-tree modeling. For each financial performance indicator, several un-pruned regression trees (684) were developed: (i) using all predictor variables, (ii) all financial predictor variables only, (iii) all social predictor variables only, (iv) all governance predictor variables only, (v) applying only a single variable at a time, (vi) excluding each variable one at a time from the potential pool of predictor variables, and (vii) forcing the initial split of the tree using the preferred predictor variable for exploring the predictive power of independent predictors. The obtained results demonstrate that the strongest relationships were associated with ROE and ROA, the proportion of variance explained being equal to 99.8% and 99.5% respectively, followed by PM (97%) and OSS (95%). The second part also showed that the financial predictor variables did interfere differently in building the financial performance regression trees and associated relationships where ; administrative expense ratio influenced ROE (100%) ; average loan balance per borrower affected OSS (100%); cost per borrower, number of depositors, operating expense:loan portfolio, and risk coverage had significant impacts on ROA/ROE (98.5-100%).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcelo Fodra.pdf: 1228186 bytes, checksum: f7b10212cc5270bc5d0908c4304d7b16 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-10-29 / The availability of energy is a crucial element to the economic development of societies. In Brazil, in particular, predominate the use of electric energy that comes from hydraulic sources, because of the huge natural hydric potential that existing in Brazil. Since the beginning of the 20 th century, the government legislated and controlled the electrical sector as a whole, maintaining all the productive structure by natural monopole, exploring the services and taxing for the use, doing important services to the economic and social development of the country. Yet, when the State lost its investment capability, the predominant attitude nowadays was adopted, promoting the privatization of several productive structures, including the national electric facility. To do so, legal and organization measures, were taken, mainly determination of unverticalization of organization, building a competitive environment not consolidated yet. This assignment tried to compare the social and economic performance levels reached by the public and private Brazilian electrical companies, focusing on the added value, from financial and social demonstration elaborated by coletive groups that operated on the generation and distribution of energy from the hydraulic sources, between 2000 and 2003 / A disponibilidade de energia é elemento crucial ao desenvolvimento econômico das sociedades. No Brasil, em particular, predomina a utilização de energia elétrica proveniente de fontes hidráulicas, em razão do enorme potencial hídrico natural existente no país. Desde o início do século XX, o governo legislava e controlava o setor elétrico como um todo, mantendo toda a estrutura produtiva sob a forma de monopólio natural, explorando os serviços e cobrando tarifas pelo uso, prestando relevantes serviços ao desenvolvimento econômico e social do país. Contudo, à medida que o Estado perdeu sua capacidade de investimento, adotou-se a postura predominante no mundo atual, privatizando-se diversas estruturas produtivas, inclusive o aparato elétrico nacional. Para isso, providências legais e organizacionais foram tomadas, sendo a determinação de desverticalização das organizações uma das principais, criando-se um ambiente competitivo ainda não consolidado. Este trabalho consistiu em comparar os níveis de desempenho econômico e social alcançados pelas empresas públicas e privadas do setor elétrico brasileiro, com especial enfoque no valor adicionado, a partir das demonstrações financeiras e sociais elaboradas pelas entidades que operaram nos segmentos de transmissão, geração e distribuição de energia proveniente de fontes hidráulicas, entre 2000 e 2003. Os resultados mostraram que as empresas privadas apresentaram melhor desempenho financeiro, enquanto as públicas exibiram melhor performance dos seus indicadores sociais

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T13:10:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Julia Carolina de Mattos Cerioni Silva.pdf: 7948757 bytes, checksum: 71cf6a9dbdaffbd1b3a5c381c277730d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-13 / Introduction: The required skills and attitudes for actions on mental health in nursing students are influenced by pre-stigmatized concepts brought by social and family experience. With the advent of the Psychiatric Reform, which among others resulted in the de-institutionalization, people with mental disorders have been treated in open places, i.e., Psychosocial Care Center - PCC, Therapeutic Residences - TR, Mental Health Clinics, etc.; and attend public areas to health care (Basic Health Units, Emergency Rooms and others). The nursing contact with people with mental disorders shall happen in a multifaceted reality, requiring that these professionals are prepared and willing to meet this demand. The Social Representations of students regarding this specific public are extremely important, so that after have been identified, are considered in the vocational nursing able to such assistance. Objectives: Identifying the social representations on the sick patient and the mental illness of the nursing senior students and describe the factors related to representations regarding the knowledge, perception and behavior. Methods: It was a descriptive and exploratory research, with qualitative-quantitative approach, highlighting the Theory of Social Representations as the theoretical reference and the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) as the methodological framework, with the analysis in the thematic. Eleven nursing graduating students from a Private Education Institution in São Paulo State participated on the study. A verbally answered interview, with three guiding questions, was used to collect data about knowledge, perception and attitude towards the sick patient and the mental illness. Results: Most of the participants are female, with mean age of 25 years, not working in the health area. The Social Representations associated with the knowledge presented the relationship with biomedical characterization in 75% (manifestation, classification, etiology, etc.), influenced by Flexnerian matrix of health education; to the axis perception, 30.23% related the need for intervention (Treatment, Care, etc.) linked to the historical process of "acting" in nursing; and 20.93% said they had changed their perception after the main working stage, associated with practices local characteristics called Psychosocial Care Center (PCC II). About the behavior, 63.33% expressed a consistent attitude with the precepts of the Psychiatric Reform (Integrating the Society, Watch Team, Humanized Approach, etc.), influenced by the content covered in class, and again in the working stage site. Conclusion: - It was concluded that for the knowledge, perception and behavior matching against the diseases and the mentally ill, it needs proper content to new ways of mental health care, consistent location with the new practice recommended by the Ministry of Health and a teaching model that adds completeness to the necessary and inherent to the profession content, enabling the experience of relationships and reflective attitude / Introdução: As atitudes e habilidades requeridas para as ações em saúde mental em alunos de enfermagem são influenciadas por pré-concepções estigmatizadas trazidas pela vivência social e familiar. Com o advento da Reforma Psiquiátrica, que dentre outros, resultou na desinstitucionalização, os portadores de distúrbios mentais passam a ser tratados em locais abertos (Centro de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS), Residências Terapêuticas (RT), Ambulatórios de Saúde Mental, etc.) e a frequentarem espaços comuns ao atendimento em saúde (Unidades Básicas de Saúde, Prontos-Atendimentos, Prontos-Socorros e outros). O contato do profissional de enfermagem com os portadores de distúrbios mentais passa a acontecer numa realidade multifacetada, necessitando de que esses profissionais estejam dispostos e preparados para atender essa demanda. As Representações Sociais dos alunos em relação ao público em questão revela-se de suma importância para que, após identificadas, sejam consideradas na formação de profissionais aptos para essa assistência. Objetivos: Identificar as representações sociais acerca do doente e da doença mental pelos alunos formandos do curso de enfermagem e descrever os fatores relacionados às representações no que concerne o conhecimento, a percepção e o comportamento. Métodos: Tratou-se de pesquisa do tipo descritiva e exploratória, com abordagem qualiquantitativa, tendo como referencial teórico a Teoria das Representações Sociais e referencial metodológico o Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC) com análise na modalidade temática. Participaram 11 estudantes concluintes do Curso de Enfermagem de uma Instituição Privada de Ensino no Interior de SP. Para a coleta de dados, responderam oralmente uma entrevista com três questões norteadoras sobre o conhecimento, a percepção e a atitude frente ao doente e à doença mental. Resultados: Constatou se que os perfis da maioria dos participantes são do sexo feminino, com média de idade entre 25 anos e que não trabalham na área da saúde; as Representações Sociais associadas ao conhecimento apresentaram em 75% a relação com a caracterização biomédica (manifestação, classificação, etiologia, etc), influenciados pela matriz Flexneriana do ensino em saúde; para o eixo percepção 30,23% relacionaram a necessidade de intervenção (Tratamento, Cuidado, etc) atrelado ao processo histórico do fazer em enfermagem e 20,93% apontaram terem mudado de percepção após a realização do estágio, associado às características do local de prática denominado como Centro de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS II). Referente ao comportamento, 63,33% expressaram uma atitude condizente com os preceitos da Reforma Psiquiátrica (Integrar na Sociedade, Assistir em equipe, abordagem humanizada etc), influenciadas pelo conteúdo abordado em sala de aula e novamente pelo local do estágio. Conclusão: Conclui se que para a congruência de conhecimento, percepção e comportamento frente às doenças e aos doentes mentais precisa se de: conteúdo adequado aos novos moldes do cuidar em saúde mental, local condizente com a nova prática recomendada pelo Ministério da Saúde e um modelo de ensino que agregue a integralidade aos conteúdos necessários e inerente à profissão, possibilitando a vivência das relações e da atitude reflexiva

Business leaders lack consistent information to make and support strategic budgetary decisions while supporting corporate social responsibility initiatives. Grounded in stakeholder and contract theory, this correlation study examined the relationship between Fortune reputation scores and return on asset, return on equity, and earnings per share, while controlling for total assets. Archival data were collected from 25 corporate websites of U.S. banks included in Fortune Most Admired Companies listing from 2011 to 2013. For 2011 there was a moderate positive partial correlation between Fortune reputation index (FRI) and return on equity (ROE) while controlling for total assets, r = .47, p < .05, with higher levels of FRI associated with higher levels of ROE. For 2012 there was a moderate positive partial correlation between FRI and ROE while controlling for total assets, r = .48, p < .05, with higher levels of FRI associated with higher levels of ROE. Correspondingly, there was a moderate positive partial correlation between FRI and EPS, r = .56, p < 0.5 with higher levels of FRI associated with higher levels of ROE in 2012. For 2013, there was also a moderate positive, but not statistically significant, partial correlation between FRI and EPS, r = .41, p > .05, with higher levels of FRI associated with higher levels of EPS. The implications for positive social change include greater support for socially responsible business strategies to promote sustainability and more business leaders promoting the provision of social benefits for stakeholders.

Cette thèse se compose de trois essais empiriques qui étudient le rôle de l’attention des investisseurs comme étant un déterminant de la relation entre la performance sociale de l’entreprise (PSE) et sa performance financière (PFE). Notre objectif étant de repenser la littérature controversée sur les répercussions financières des activités de l’entreprise en matière de RSE, nous émettons un nouveau postulat – l’attention des investisseurs joue un rôle important dans la relation PSE-PFE. En effet, en complément à l’attrait de l’attention des investisseurs sur les marchés financiers tel que suggéré par un bon nombre d’articles académiques, une littérature émergente mais conséquente a récemment souligné le rôle de la visibilité de l’entreprise ainsi que celui de l’attention des différentes parties prenantes comme étant des facteurs pertinents de la relation entre la PSE et la PFE. Par conséquent, nous avons jugé utile de revisiter les retours sur investissements de la PSE, tout en intégrant l’effet de l’attention des investisseurs.Un important courant de la littérature empirique sur la PSE témoigne d’une forte cohésion entre l’entreprise socialement responsable et ses différentes parties prenantes telles que les consommateurs, les employés, les fournisseurs, les investisseurs les analystes financiers ainsi que les militants et activistes, cette cohésion étant encore plus forte, pour les entreprises bénéficiant d’une attention plus accrue de la part des différentes parties prenantes. Dans ce travail de recherche, nous poursuivons dans une telle logique et plus particulièrement, nous mettons en œuvre une analyse plus fine de ce constat, à savoir, nous évaluons le rôle de l’attention des investisseurs, en tant que ressource cognitive rare et limitée, dans la relation PSE-PFE. Cette thèse comporte quatre chapitres. Un chapitre préliminaire passe en revue la littérature existante sur la valeur marché de la PSE. En particulier, nous identifions trois courants de recherche principaux portant sur cette question et discutons du rôle des mécanismes internes et externes qui affectent la réaction des marchés financiers à la performance sociale. Plus important encore, nous accordons une attention particulière à la littérature sur le rôle de la visibilité de l’entreprise pour traduire la PSE en PFE. Ce dernier constat ouvre le débat sur la pertinence probable de l’attention de l’investisseur comme un déterminant clé de la relation PSE-PFE. Ainsi, dans une deuxième partie, nous portons un intérêt particulier à la littérature antérieure sur l’attention, le traitement de l’information et la prise de décision sur les marchés financiers. Puis, après avoir correctement défini l’attention et présenté son rôle sur les marchés financiers, nous essayons dans la dernière section de ce chapitre, d’établir le lien entre la littérature sur l’attention des investisseurs et celle sur l’impact financier de la PSE afin de déceler les perspectives de recherche futures. En dernier lieu, nous concluons et donnons le ton à la question de recherche complexe et stimulante que nous essayons d’élucider tout au long des trois essais de cette thèse à savoir, comment l’attention des investisseurs transforme la PSE en PFE. [...] / This thesis consists of three empirical essays investigating the role of investor attention as a determinant of the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial performance. Our aim is to rethink the controversial literature on the financial implications of CSR activities by exploring a new premise – investor attention may shape the financial returns on corporate social impact. Since a growing stream of literature has highlighted the role of firm visibility as well as stakeholder attention to connect CSP to financial performance in addition to the complementary literature of investor attention and stock prices, we expect that controlling for firm-specific investor attention would provide novel insights to the literature on the potential financial effects of CSP.A consistent strand of literature has provided interesting evidence of a strong relationship between the firm CSP and its stakeholders such as consumers, employees, suppliers, investors, analysts, activists and communities, and regulators, with the benefits being stronger, the greater the attention to and salience of social activities among stakeholders. We complement and extend this literature by implementing a more granular analysis and particularly we focus on the relevance of investors’ attention, a scarce and limited cognitive resource.This research is divided in four chapters. The first chapter is a survey of prior theoretical and empirical literature on the controversial debate of the relation between CSR and financial outcomes. We have particularly reviewed potential mechanisms that allow CSP to translate into CFP. Most importantly, we rely on studies claiming that firm visibility is a crucial factor to connect social impact to financial performance. Another argument of great appeal is the stakeholder attention theory as proposed by Madsen and Rodgers (2015) from which our research question draws its full legitimacy. Then, we have connected the literatures on attention, information, decision making and CSR to remake the CSP-CFP puzzle and highlight potential research hypotheses. A more readable view is provided by Figure 1 (later in this document) which integrates and synthesizes key predictors, outcomes, mediators, and moderators of the CSP-CFP relation by focusing on studies related to CSR and firm visibility thereby introducing the role of investor attention. Figure 1 is not an exhaustive conceptualization of all the intervening variables in this relationship but rather meant as a multilevel lens and guiding framework to which other variables can be added in the future. However, despite all the advancements in assessing the returns on CSR investments, this debate remains unsettled and has yielded conflicting results. Thus, we conducted three empirical essays on the relation between CSP and financial performance and particularly provide new and unique evidence on the role of investor attention to shape this controversial empirical issue. Therefore, in the first essay, we conduct a multi-country event study and investigate the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) news headlines on the shareholder wealth. We find that investors do not value positive ESG news headlines but negatively react to negative ESG news headlines. This result is consistent with the idea that social responsibility and irresponsibility are not the two sides of the same coin. Furthermore, evidence reveals that shareholders only react to negative corporate governance related headlines. This suggests that investors may be especially prone to attend to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that directly impact their own interests as previously suggested by T. M. Jones et al. (2007). Most importantly, investor attention was found to shape the punishment and reward of CSP, after controlling for the additional role of firm’s internal moderators such as firm size and advertising expenditure. [...]

This study examines the effectiveness of a community of learning, through a book club, on student performance for students underachieving in literacy. This first chapter introduces the study, the researcher and how they are situated within the research, and the context and rationale of the study. The second and third chapters detail current research in literacy, learning, and communities of learning. They detail the methodological approach and rationale. The fourth and fifth chapters explain what took place during the study, what it means, and why this is important for teachers and teacher practice. Despite its limitations, this study finds that communities of learning, established through a book club, positively affect both academic and social performance. Book clubs create interconnectedness between its members that increases student engagement, which increases the amount of authentic dialogue. From this, book club members collaboratively co-construct knowledge resulting in general improvement, both academically and socially.

This study examines the effectiveness of a community of learning, through a book club, on student performance for students underachieving in literacy. This first chapter introduces the study, the researcher and how they are situated within the research, and the context and rationale of the study. The second and third chapters detail current research in literacy, learning, and communities of learning. They detail the methodological approach and rationale. The fourth and fifth chapters explain what took place during the study, what it means, and why this is important for teachers and teacher practice. Despite its limitations, this study finds that communities of learning, established through a book club, positively affect both academic and social performance. Book clubs create interconnectedness between its members that increases student engagement, which increases the amount of authentic dialogue. From this, book club members collaboratively co-construct knowledge resulting in general improvement, both academically and socially.