The current study investigates the mechanisms employed for analyzing and engaging stakeholders through the planning and implementation phases of the mobility management project Sustainable Travel in Umeå Region (Sweden). In alignment with researchers' epistemological and ontological assumptions, an abductive approach and the case study strategy were selected. The qualitative data collected through conducting interviews with the five project team members and through examining project's documentation were analyzed using the pattern matching technique and leading to the findings presented in detail in Chapter 4 and discussed in Chapter 5. The core finding of the study is a model of the use of mechanisms through the planning and implementation phases of a MM project. The planning phase of the project coincides with the stakeholders' analysis process, thus identifying, classifying, characterizing and a very complex process of designing the engagement strategy for citizens, which includes also deciding and starting implementing the strategy for organizations. The correspondent analysis and engagement mechanisms, developed by the project stakeholders‟ scholars for each of these stages, are mostly unwittingly used by the project team. Once the engagement strategy for citizens is decided, the implementation phase is initiated. The implementation phase is characterized by a blend between MM mechanisms and classic stakeholders' engagement mechanisms, which are constantly reassessed through project's lifecycle. In addition, the main challenges emerged in the process of stakeholders' engagement in this project are discussed, concluding that the lack of alignment between some of the regulations coming from the national and supranational level and the project's aim, combined with communication issues and the unwillingness of the targeted organization to interfere in the personal lives of their employees, are the elements that most endanger the success of the stakeholders' engagement process and implicitly of the MM project.

Since 1987, the United Nations has promoted sustainable development as a form of development that takes into account and balances economic, ecological, and social considerations. To achieve sustainability, the United Nations has repeatedly required private businesses—among other actors—to assume a broader set of social responsibilities. This is though highly contested in the corporate world and among economists. To throw light on this debate, the aim of this paper is to assess whether contemporary theories of business ethics are compatible with the Brundtland notion of sustainable development. For that reason, the responsibilities for sustainable development that corporations should assume are deduced from the Brundtland Report; followed by an introduction to the field of business ethics and a detailed discussion of major contemporary theories reflecting instrumental, integrative, political, and ethical approaches to corporate social responsibility. By comparing the different responsibilities the compatibility of sustainability with each discussed theory on business ethics is assessed. This paper finds that the compatibility is low for instrumental theories, moderate for integrative and political theories, and high for ethical theories on business ethics. Nevertheless, ethical theories assume a normative perspective on sustainable development, idealizing how corporations ought to act in a sustainable world. In reality, the world is far from sustainability. This is not least a result of national economic and legal policies maintaining conditions and structures that continue to promote globalization and free markets. It is argued that the combination of fierce competition and corporations’ opportunities to take advantage of weak legal systems in emerging and developing countries leads firms to further subscribe to an instrumental approach to business ethics. It is suggested that international politics develop a global legal framework based on sustainable development that provides competitive conditions at arm’s length. At the same time, recent management research is presented that suggests that corporations can promote sustainability if they contribute solutions to the social and environmental problems of our time. The pursuit of sustainability, therefore, results more from business opportunities than from any ethical convictions.

Since the late 20th century, people extended to over-consume and over-discharge all kinds of resources and made the resources decreased hugely. The resources in the earth are not unlimited. Emissions and pollutions brought human all kinds of crisis. Social-trended management becomes the main stream of business operation in the 21st century, and it is not countable for the corporations that were incapable to follow this change. The awake of limit of the Earth resources had made the corporations start to respect the importance of resource reclamations as well as resource application, which means, in the recycle society, they started to create the new economical added-value of resources by 3R: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Now, more and more corporations are awaken of the damages environment pollution made to humans, and this is not a ignorable power. To research how the corporations combine their management strategies with the concepts of keeping a sustainable environment is the main target of this study. How do the corporations set up their management strategies by keeping the environment sustainable? In this study, we will discuss this topic by 3 dimensions and procedures: 1¡B Influences on business management made by the direct and indirect benefit parties of the corporations. 2¡B The Corporations¡¦ application of Green Management brings the corporations themselves more Green Values. 3¡B Use the past capability to develop a dynamic ability and create a competitive advantage of the corporation. Normal corporations emphasize on the development of single strategy, and ignore how to set up ¡ustrategic agendas¡v and ¡ustrategic target¡v, and plenty of them are lack of thoughts of integration. According to the point of resource-based view, each corporation shall understand its own value, its special property and its un-imitate resources to create its advantage. In the quick-varying environment, the corporations shall own its ability to increase its advantages by using the point of view of resources to develop a dynamic ability and create its continuing competitive advantage. This study takes 7 corporations which execute sustainable environment effectively in Taiwan by preceding a Qualitative Research, interview and collect every kind of documents and news, to analyze each of their Green Strategies.

With the rapid development of Information Technology, ¡§Cloud Computing¡¨ is becoming increasingly popular in the industry as it is accessible to various data processing services just by connecting to third-party cloud service providers via network. A new global technological trend has thus been ushered as a result of powerful processing, elastic usage and low cost of the cloud computing. Although ¡§Cloud Computing¡¨ provides a cloud which is more large-scaled, relevant and beneficial, most practical cloud patrons are aware that what matters is its corresponding security. Any who has ever used the Internet, whether an enterprise or an individual, will inevitably run the risks of information recorded, copied, leaked, deleted inappropriately or accidently or even used for inappropriate purposes by third-parties. The private data and business secrets of the stakeholders of an enterprise, including its customers, partners, employees or suppliers, will also suffer from the information vulnerability. Therefore, as for the cloud computing industry, what matters for the government, enterprise or individual is to provide an information security shelter rather than a network environment in which the personal data is highly exposed. Cavoukin (2010) argues that the issue of information security related to the cloud computing is one of issues in the public domain. The data generated from the digital cloud computing management and the people involved are so large that each citizen is drawn to be concerned with the government policies and laws (Lee, 2010). In this paper, we make a risk management for the cloud computing and discuss the risk management mechanisms for the cloud computing industry with the Freeman¡¦s stakeholder theory.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a subject long debated since the 1930s, but the premises of the topic in regards to the what, how, why, and to whom it should be remain in question. The relation between CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP) has emerged at the forefront of this debate, particularly within the last 30 years, yet no unified theory has been reached. Other scholars interested in CSR have criticized the emphasis on CFP as a means of economic justification for what they believe to be a broader social issue, and have attempted to redirect the focus in CSR research to include other motivations and outcomes associated with organizational stakeholders other than shareholders. Using a descriptive and instrumental stakeholder theory approach, the focus of the current study was to explore CSR practices in both a dependent and independent sense. These theoretical underpinnings reflect stakeholder management decisions based on organizational characteristics, and the strategic management of various organizational stakeholders, respectively. The study population consisted of a diverse array of 353 U.S.- based corporations, 80 percent from the Fortune 500. Data included eleven corporate classification variables that represented organizations’ geographical location, industry, executive leadership dimensions, and financial health. It also included six CFP variables that represented accounting and market-based measures, and seven CSR variables that represented the key organizational stakeholders of the local community and environment, employees, and customers. The corporate classification variables were utilized to assess CSR performances, while CFP was assessed by analyzing differences among levels of the CSR practices. These assessments were performed for organizations for the twelve years within 1991-2002. Several results that assisted in informing descriptive and instrumental stakeholder theory were produced through the examination of previously used and under-explored variables. Specifically, the study results included new insights regarding how several organizational characteristics related to their CSR practices. Study findings provided elaboration regarding how performance differences in seven key CSR categories affected six representative accounting and market-based measures of corporate financial performance. Implications for practice for organizational decision-makers are provided along with detailed information pertaining to how, with inferences as to why, firms engage in CSR. Additionally, associated financial outcomes from different levels of CSR implementation are reported. Key findings from the study were that the CSR practices regarding employees and the environment remained stable over the twelve-year time period. Additionally, organizations’ geographical location, financial health, and corporate leadership dimensions had an impact on CSR practices for various stakeholder groups, with the exception of employees. A high level of investment in CSR for certain stakeholder groups did not produce the best financial outcomes in all cases; however, organizations that emphasized CSR in the categories relative to the community and its employees outperformed others with respect to certain financial performance measures.

Factors Influencing Corporate Social Responsibility Behavior: Test of An Integrated Stakeholder Model Abstract Lots of serious ethics crises and the violations of corporate social responsibility happened in domestic business community in recent years. These serious cases emerged in business not only have affected different parties¡¦ rights, but also caught the close attention from the public. Bunches of dangerous events and issues happened in the perspective of ethics crises also attracted the researcher¡¦s motive. This research, based on the viewpoint of the interested party ¡V the stakeholder, aims at understanding the development of CSR in Taiwan and building the research context. On the other hand, this study reviews the domestic and international literatures related to CSR in order to explore the whole concept of CSR development, the development stages, comprehensive theories in discussion of CSR, and finally to define relative stakeholders and the levels of CSR, while enterprise managers fulfilling their CSR. This research has applied 300 valid questionnaires from the top 1000 manufacturing industries in Taiwan to do the empirical investigation and statistical analysis. Meanwhile, in order to increase the validity, the study has searched 2,103 available news through the access of media¡¦s database (http://udn.com) to understand the CSR behaviors of top 1000 Taiwanese manufacturing industries, and further to do cross analysis with empirical investigation for the purpose of understanding their relationship. Therefore, as the research findings show, while enterprise managers carry out the CSR behavior intention of different interested parties, the factor of their behavior intention shows apparently positive effect on the perspectives of ¡§the community¡¨ and ¡§the shareholder¡¨; conversely, the factor doesn¡¦t show significant effect on ¡§the customer¡¨ and ¡§the employees¡¨. In addition, according to attitude belief of different CSR levels, there is the apparently positive effect between ¡§heteronomy responsibility¡¨ and ¡§autonomy responsibility¡¨. The empirical results also demonstrate the positive correlation between CSR behaviors presented in the past time and those presented in the future. In terms of cross analysis between CSR empirical model and the characteristics of CSR media reports, except ¡§community responsibility¡¨, higher intention and higher behavior presenters have better performances while facing positive and self-discipline news. Finally, the study suggests that it is necessary to enhance the attitude and belief of ¡§community responsibility¡¨, as well as of ¡§shareholder responsibility¡¨ in order to improve the fulfillment of CSR.

In the phases of Taiwan¡¦s economic growth, state-owned enterprises were playing important roles in accelerating economic development, so as to satisfy the needs to downstream industries. State-owned enterprises had successfully played a key role as the ¡§locomotive of Taiwan¡¦s economy¡¨. But after the 1980s, liberalization of economy, free competition and privatization were the thoughts that became the central theme of government¡¦s economic development. Hence, how to improve the operation of state-owned enterprises and remove restricting regulations, so as to improve the operation performance and bring about synergetic results of state-owned enterprises, soon became the main objective of state-owned enterprises business management. Entrepreneurship is the fundamental criteria in management of every business. But, what problems have state-owned enterprises encountered in implementing entrepreneurship in its management? Why, after many years of effort, state-owned business still could not unleash itself of the image that ¡§state-owned business = poor operations performance¡¨. This background motivated the study of the problems in entrepreneurship in state-owned enterprises. It is hoped that the study of this problem will result in finding ways to tackle the problem. State-owned enterprises that are suitable for free market competition are the subject of this study. External limitations and internal worries faced by state-owned enterprises were investigated. Furthermore, the study looked at the problems and barriers encountered by state-owned enterprises in improving its operating efficiency. With reference to modern management theory on corporate environment and behavior between organization and members, interview questions were developed. Middle to senior management personnel whose work was related to entrepreneurship development of state-owned enterprises were interviewed. Written records of the interview were maintained, interviewers were asked to check the description for any inconsistency with their expressions. Then, the content of the interview were cross-analyzed with the extent of influence of various internal and external stakeholders in state-owned enterprises in implementing entrepreneurship. The process attempted to clarify the best response to problems faced by state-owned enterprises in promoting entrepreneurship. It is found from the analysis, ¡§free market competition mechanism¡¨ is the source of energy for state-owned enterprises in implementing entrepreneurship. However, the factors that influence this program not only include ¡§restriction by unnecessary regulations¡¨ and ¡§passive state serviceman mindset¡¨, as discussed often in related studies, the other three important forces are: government decision and execution, practicality of leadership, and redefining the role of unions. Because state-owned enterprises must operate in balanced-power network consisting of leadership level, government, shareholder, consumer, civilian representatives, union, employee, supplier, and, competing suppliers, the aforementioned 5 influencing factors may seem independent in affecting the extent of state-owned enterprise in implementing entrepreneurship, but in reality they are highly interactive. This situation stagnate state-owned enterprises, stalling them to catch up with private businesses. Since entrepreneurship is the basis of business management, state-owned enterprises can only through its own strength and effort, do away the influence of this invisible balanced-power. Only by doing so, can state-owned enterprises break out of its limitations and show real revolutionary change.

Starting with the 1970s, cities have found themselves in a trouble which is caused by economic changes, technological improvements and local-global power shifts. Under the impact of these changes, cities have started to act as independent units and try to get a higher their position in the hierarchical system of the globalised world. Therefore, competition started between cities other than states and entreprenurial strategies are developed by local governments and actors for sustaing local economic development. One of the most popular place marketing strategies, mega-events such as EXPO, Olympic Games are considered as a valuable instrument to promote a region as a tourist destination, business location, and an attractive place to live and work. This study investigates an understanding of how to use a mega event as a tool in the place marketing strategy and building up entrepreneurial governance by examining the stakeholder organization of Izmir EXPO 2015 candidacy period. The research analyzes the approaches of different stakeholders of Izmir to EXPO opportunity and the impact of bidding on the stakeholder organization of Izmir. The most important conclusion of the study is that collaborative study of stakeholders can help to build up the entrprenurial city even if the city does not host a mega event.

The increased attention to multinational companies¡¦ (MNC) sustainability in both academic and practitioner realms has raised an important question of why more and more firms behave in a socially responsible manner, especially in today¡¦s global economy. Drawing upon RBV and institutional theory incorporating theoretical insights from international business and stakeholder or CSR-related theories, this research was conducted in an attempt to offer a systematic analysis on antecedents and consequences of MNC subsidiaries¡¦ sustainability conducts. Combining the results of preliminary qualitative and empirical quantitative studies, this research identified the internal factors within MNC and external institutional factors outside of MNC that influence subsidiary¡¦ resources and capabilities developments for sustainable developments, and that in turn collectively contribute to MNC¡¦s sustainability in modern complex, dynamic global economy. With the sample of 114 MNCs¡¦ subsidiaries, this research used SEM (structural equation modeling) technique to test an integrated framework addressing how the diverse stakeholder demands and institutional pressures facing MNCs can be managed through internal mechanisms and processes to gain sustainable competitive advantages. Findings of this research offered better explanation for the widely debated relationships between CSR and firm performance from CSR theorists. Furthermore, by integrating RBV and institutional theory, this research theoretically and empirically demonstrated the way MNCs develop firm-specific advantages and country-specific advantages through their proactive CSR management conducted by subsidiaries, and hence provided theoretical and practical insights in international management.

<p>En hållbar utveckling är ett stort begrepp och innefattar det mesta i samhället. Sveriges regering har som uttalat politiskt mål att samhällsplaneringen ska ske mot en hållbar utveckling, men det finns idag ingen allmänt känd metod för kommunerna att använda i planeringen mot ett hållbart samhälle. Syftet med denna fallstudie har varit att genomföra en deltagandebaserad backcasting för att undersöka dess potential som metod i planeringen av en legitim och hållbar stadsutveckling, vilka för- och nackdelar metoden har, samt att undersöka betydelsen av begreppet ”En hållbar stad”. Deltagandebaserad backcasting är en kombination av traditionell backcasting och stakeholder workshops, vilket innebär att en framtidsvision skapas i seminarieform med lokala aktörer, som sedan även diskuterar och tar fram möjliga sätt att uppnå visionen. Fallstudien har genomförts i Borlänge/Falun där backcastingen har använts för att ta reda på styrkor och svagheter i regionen samt för att skapa idéer och om vad som skulle kunna göras för att utveckla regionen mer hållbart.</p><p>Undersökningen konstaterar att en beskrivning av vad som är viktig i en hållbar stad och hur en hållbar stad bör se ut måste klaras ut lokalt, och att det inte går att ge en generell beskrivning av detta eftersom det skiljer sig beroende på människors åsikter och synsätt. Resultatet visar att deltagande i planeringen för en hållbar stadsutveckling är av yttersta vikt, då den lokala situationen hamnar i fokus, engagemanget ökar och en spridning av kunskap sker. Deltagandebaserad backcasting är måluppfyllande och fungerar bra för att skapa visioner och framtidsbilder om en hållbar stad, vilket kan ge planerarna nya idéer att arbeta mot. Den stora nackdelen med metoden är svårigheterna att locka seminariedeltagare med olika bakgrunder och att få de deltagande att släppa sina redan förutfattade meningar. Eftersom alla metodens fördelar är beroende av att det finns ett brett deltagande kan hela processen riskeras om det inte finns ett tillräckligt intresse från omgivningen att delta.</p>