The focus of this thesis was to develop a simplified framework for future sustainability reports. The traditional approach to corporate reporting is limited in its ability to meet expectations of stakeholders for what drives value creation in a business. Sustainability performance reports are aimed at providing stakeholders information regarding a company’s non-financial performance and to provide stakeholders some information regarding the future performance that can be expected. The idea behind sustainability and the triple bottom line is that a company’s ultimate success can and should be measured not just by the financial bottom line, but also by its social, environmental and economic success. Sustainability reporting, also known as triple bottom line reporting incorporates the economic, social and environmental performance of a company, but there is no universally accepted definition of the subject. Sustainability is a contested subject and defined differently by different groups to suit their purposes. This places the phenomenon in a situation where its future is threatened. / D.B.L.

Mit der zunehmenden Berichterstattung der Unternehmen erfolgt ein ebenso rasant ansteigender Trend die eigene Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung durch externe Dritte bestätigen zu lassen. Untersucht wird der Stand der Prüfung der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung mittels Zusammenführung und Diskussion von 29 thematisch relevanten Studien aus dem Zeitraum 1996 bis 2009. Neben den Fragen nach Treibern und Hemmnissen der Entscheidung für eine Prüfung der Berichterstattung werden die Bedeutung und der Nutzen sowie die Charakterisierung der Prüfung (Prüfungstiefe, Prüfungsstandards, Prüfungsvermerk) und die Einflussfaktoren (Branche, Land, Prüfungsanbieter, Unternehmensgröße) auf die Prüfung eruiert. Frage-stellungen und Implikationen aus dem empirischen Forschungsstand finden Eingang in die empirische Untersuchung. Geleitet wird die Analyse von 86 Nachhaltigkeitsberichten des Energiesektors aus der GRI-Online-Berichtsdatenbank von der Fragestellung, ob die externe Prüfung der Berichterstattung einen Einfluss auf die qualitative und quantitative Ausgestaltung des Nachhaltigkeitsberichts ausübt und sie als Qualitätssignal für die Stakeholder relevant ist. Bewertet wird der Stand der Berichterstattung der ökologischen Umweltleistungsin-dikatoren mittels des GRI-basierten Bewertungsschemas des LEHRSTUHLS FÜR BETRIEBLICHE UMWELTÖKONOMIE der TU DRESDEN. Die Unterschiede in der Berichtsqualität und –quantität zwischen verifizierten und nicht verifizierten Nachhaltigkeitsberichten werden anhand der Varianzanalyse als signifikant und praktische bedeutsam geprüft. Verifizierte Nachhaltigkeitsberichte weisen eine bessere Performance auf als nicht verifizierte Berichte.

In this paper I theorize about how a company’s corporate reputation and visibility can be affected by a scandal. Scandals are associated with negative outcomes such as bad reputation but this thesis investigates if there are some positive side-effects of a scandal in terms of increased visibility. The idea of it being better for companies to be infamous than unknown is studied using the empirical example of the payment service company Klarna AB, their scandal in April of 2014 is the focus of the thesis. The results show that the company’s visibility was affected in a positive way following the scandal since the number of articles about Klarna did increase after the scandal compared to before the scandal. Klarna’s visibility was also shown to increase through the higher number of customer reviews after the scandal. The measurements for corporate reputation of Klarna rose significantly after the scandal in comparison to before the scandal indicating that also Klarna’s reputation was positively affected by the scandal. The conclusion is that it is better to be infamous than unknown since there was something to gain from the scandal in terms of visibility and corporate reputation.

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Much current research on victimisation focuses primarily on demographic risk factors associated with those who have experienced crime and how these factors affect the likelihood of a person breaching the so called ‘first hurdle’. That is, the probability of moving from a state of non-victim to one of victim. In contrast, this thesis will argue that in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of victimisation, it is not only desirable but necessary to move beyond the study of the causes of criminal victimisation and examine the consequences for victims as well as the criminal justice system as a whole. Thus, it seeks to explain the experience of victimisation not just as an isolated incident, but as a process consisting of a number of steps or stages of progression through the criminal justice system, each one building on the last. As such, in addition to considering risk factors, this thesis also examines the decision to report a crime to the police, the use of victim services, as well as the perceived satisfaction with services received. In so doing it explores not only the causes and consequences of crime, but the longer term impact of criminal victimisation. The results presented here are based on the secondary analysis of data from the 2008/9 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey complimented by a data set acquired through in-depth interviews with victims of crime from the Edinburgh Local Authority. Interview data is used to provide a greater depth of meaning to the patterns which emerged from the survey data; lending insight into the psychological processes driving victim decision making and behaviour. This thesis thus provides an example of how a combination of techniques including multi-level modelling and interview analysis, provide a clearer understanding of how victims experience crime. Findings suggest that factors associated with each step of the process are related and may represent a more general underlying pattern of victimisation. It is also argued that by employing multi-level analysis, the thesis provides a more accurate explanation of how respondent’s experiences may differ according to the context in which they live. Finally, the analysis highlights the ongoing importance of emotion in victim decision making and the severity of long term impact. The analysis presented offers new insights into how we understand victimisation as an ongoing experience, as well as demonstrating the necessity of the analytic techniques employed. It is however somewhat confined by the coverage of survey questions and the limited generalizability of the data collected in interviews due to the small sample size. These concerns will be discussed, along with recommendations for victim policy and future research.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of (1) training the accurate completion of an assignment form, (2) providing feedback on accurate reporting of homework completion, and (3) consequences for completion or non-completion of homework. All students exhibited highly accurate recording of information on assignment forms and reports of what homework had been completed or not completed. Delivering consequences for completion or non-completion of assignments had a modest effect on homework completion. This package increased the proportion of homework assignments completed on time for all students in at least one, or as many as three, academic subjects. This package can be an efficient tool for teachers to monitor homework completion.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Background: Healthcare providers are critical to collecting information on drug safety and successful adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting. The roles of doctors and pharmacists have been recognized as important to voluntary ADR reporting and their roles are consistently being investigated. However, despite the strategic role of nurses in medicine administration, their role in ADR reporting has not been widely explored, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. Aim: To assess the knowledge, attitudes and practice of ADR reporting amongst nurses in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), a tertiary hospital located in Lagos; the economic centre of Nigeria, as well as the most populous city in the country. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive survey with analytical components was conducted among nurses in a tertiary institution. All nurses working in major specialties - out-patients’ clinics, theatre and clinical wards in the facility, were eligible to participate in the study. Student nurses undergoing training or postings in the facility were excluded from the study. A sample size of 124 nurses was calculated using OpenEpi sample size calculator based on an estimated study population of 400 with a 95% confidence interval and an assumed 5% of nurses reporting an ADR based on National Pharmacovigilance Centre database. A sample of 140 nurses was selected in an attempt to realize sample. Cluster sampling was used to randomly select clinics and wards and all nurses in the selected clusters were included in the study. A structured questionnaire consisting of close-ended questions was used. It comprised sections on nurses’ characteristics, knowledge of pharmacovigilance concepts, attitudes towards ADR reporting, and barriers to and practice of ADR reporting. Data collected were entered into an Excel spreadsheet and imported to the SPSS version 20 software for analysis. Descriptive analyses were conducted on all the variables and cross-tabulation between selected variables was explored to test for statistical significance using chi-squared test.

Due to the fact that corporate environmental reporting (CER) is largely voluntary and unregulated, practice has evolved in the absence of a meaningful conceptual framework. This lack of a normative theory stating what should be the content of CER as well as the methods for measuring reported information being largely volumetric or content based, is advanced as a major limitation in the existing literature. In this study, the wellestablished conceptual frameworks for financial reporting are adapted as the basis for a CER conceptual framework in which four characteristics of CER indicate its quality. Empirical methods for the measurement of such characteristics are also adapted from the financial reporting literature. The main aim of this research is to use the adapted framework to examine the extent of variation in the quality of CER and then to test its applicability to the key motivational theories. The empirical work involves a panel of US and UK firms over a two-year period. This allows cross-sectional comparison to be made between different financial accounting regimes (rules- vs. principles-based) as well as permits examination of the development of CER over time. Further, the empirical work is extended to investigate the interrelationship between the financial and environmental performance of a firm. Evidence in support of the legitimacy and institutional theory explanations for disclosure motivations is comprehensively found through the measures of the qualitative characteristics identified. That is, the use of a novel CER framework based on financial reporting quality here enables a more robust understanding of the reporting behaviours than previous work. Moreover, evidence for CER variation owing to the differences in financial reporting regimes is found and thus, it is reasonable to assert that the culture of financial reporting, to some extent, informs the nature of voluntary non-financial reporting. However, perhaps owing to the short time frame of the investigation, evidence of financial rewards from being environmentally effective or through providing CER is not found. The findings from this research will be of interest to preparers and users of corporate environmental reports as well as to policymakers, particularly in terms of enabling them to assess the quality of reporting and its level of fit with their expectations. Moreover, they also shed light on the link between environmental performance, as manifested in carbon emissions, and what is reported.