At present, corporate social responsibility has become an important area of modern corporateresearch theory, and the development of CSR activities all over the world is remarkable.While the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financialperformance is still ambiguous.This study reviewed the development of corporate social responsibility and literatures whichfocused on related researches; used the stakeholder theory as the theoretical basis and contentanalysis as the method basis; chose the accounting indicators of 839 Chinese listed companiesin 2010 as samples; then did regression analysis to measure the relationship between Chinesecompanies’ social responsibilities and their financial performance.According to the research results, except implementing the social responsibilities toshareholders has outstanding positive impact on Chinese listed companies’ financialperformance and implementing social responsibilities to employees has relatively positiveimpact; the implementations of social responsibilities to other stakeholders have no signallyimpact on Chinese listed companies’ financial performance. These results show that the CSRsituation in China is still not optimistic. / Program: Magisterutbildning i företagsekonomi

La dimension environnementale des programmes d’urbanisme s’affiche et se présente comme une garantie de la qualité des projets. La Nature fait partie de ces arguments, encore davantage avec la reconnaissance de l’intérêt des « Trames vertes urbaines ». Cette question de la nature en ville et de la végétalisation urbaine est au cœur des problématiques des aménageurs et influence les pratiques professionnelles. A partir de 5 cas (Zones d’Aménagements Concertées) dans le grand ouest français, ce travail vise la compréhension de la place attribuée à la nature dans le processus d’aménagement urbain. Comment la prise en compte des éléments naturels interagit avec le projet par l’intermédiaire des acteurs ? Pour quelle matérialité et quelle spatialisation? Trois angles d’analyse ont été retenus pour y répondre. D’abord la reconstitution historique des projets, ensuite l’analyse du langage employé pour décrire l’ambition et les objets naturels, enfin l’observation de la matérialité obtenue sur le site. Ainsi, la méthodologie croise techniques d’entretiens in situ avec les acteurs des opérations, lexicométrie et traitements géomatiques des données environnementales à l’échelle d’un quartier. De fait, la thèse montre qu’une même ambition environnementale peut mener à une pluralité d’aménagements. Ainsi, la prise en compte de la nature dépend elle de multiples facteurs qui conditionneront la qualités des opérations et donc celle de la trame verte urbaine. / Environnemental awarness brings urban design to become more sustainable. One argument is that nature is a garantee of urban quality, with recognition of the need to préserve a green frame in the city. This issue is crutial to current debates on urban planning and design practices. Five case studies located in western french cities should enable the reader to better understand the place of nature in design process. How do the care of nature interacts with projects trough stakeholders? And which « matériality » and spatialization are we looking for? The question is analysed from three standpoints. First, the historical approach of the projects introduce the method. Then, we examine the language in the project documentation and with stakeholders’ testimonies. Finally, each neighborhoods is whatched ont he ground. Thanks to lexicometry, discourse analysis and geomatics engineering this Phd demonstrate the variety of possible final projects even if stakeholders were sharing similar ambitions at the beginning of the planning process. Taking care of nature depends on many factors wich directly impact the quality of urban design and nature in our cities.

The aim of this research is to explore the views of pupils, parents and teachers about homework at Maylandsea Community Primary School. Specifically it is designed to investigate their opinions about the value and purpose of homework, about what sort of homework they think may be most suitable for primary aged children, about the different roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in the homework process and about ways in which homework activities might promote children’s involvement and their enjoyment of learning. These collected views were then used to prepare a framework to provide guidance, clarification and exposition in order to assist members of the school community. This research is designed to address the paucity of understanding about homework in a primary school and to discover if and why parents, pupils and teachers think that homework is valuable and worthwhile. This study is located within a qualitative, epistemological paradigm and it employs a social constructivist research methodology. The researcher adopts the stance that homework is a socially constructed, socially described and socially conceptualised activity. This is insider research and the researcher is also the school’s headteacher. There is an acknowledgement that action research models and participatory enquiry approaches have influenced the research design but have not defined it. This research is a single case study located within one semi-rural primary school in Essex. This study finds that parents, pupils and teachers recognise that homework has an important role to play in helping primary age children to learn, in developing positive learning habits and in promoting good personal and social skills. It discovers that there is confusion about parents’ roles in supporting homework. It demonstrates that homework should be made meaningful for families and engaging for pupils and that the foundation for successful homework lies within the quality of the tripartite relationships between teachers, children and parents. This thesis offers a new framework to support teachers and families and it concludes that, whilst existing literature is ambivalent in terms of the value, purpose and effectiveness of homework, stakeholders at this primary school consider it to have positive benefits both for learning and for the personal development of young children. However, these benefits are most evident when the homework tasks are interesting, varied, personalised and relevant to learners’ needs. Families are supportive of homework when they can appreciate that it is meaningful to them and their children.

The conservation of built heritage is increasingly recognised as promoting cultural sustainability and encouraging the inclusion of culture in the sustainable development of the built environment. Reflecting this recognition is the advocacy of a dynamic integrated conservation approach that considers built heritage within its historic, physical, social, and cultural contexts. Yet, the cultural context of built heritage remains one of the most challenging and neglected aspects in conservation practice. In the specific case of Sudan's historic port town of Suakin, a number of recurrent obstacles to the site's conservation, in addition to a number of potential enablers to address these challenges, have been recognised throughout previous research. However, previous investigations have lacked an essential local socio-cultural perspective. Furthermore, a lack of strategy or framework for Suakin's conservation has so far prevented the coordination of its stakeholders, and the consequential implementation of potential enablers to address its conservation challenges. This thesis is the conclusion of a four-year EngD research that has developed a protocol for the conservation of the built heritage of Suakin. It begins with an introduction to the context, justification and scope of the research, and the research aim and objectives. A review of previous literature is then presented concerning a number of issues related to the research subject and the methodology employed to meet the research aim and objectives. The research methods conducted, including literature review, a mixed-method case study, questionnaire surveys, and a series of participatory action research focus groups, are then explained and the results achieved are discussed. The research findings result in the development of a protocol for Suakin's conservation consisting of five themes emanating from the research stages. These are: ownership; finances and planning; stakeholder inclusion and collaboration; conservation knowledge and awareness; response to the local context. Each theme is comprised of a challenge, or number of challenges, and corresponding solution(s). Furthermore, the research findings define a protocol implementation strategy, consisting of Suakin's stakeholders' suggested implementation and responsibility of the protocol solutions. The collaborative stakeholder process established by the research, and the resulting protocol and its implementation strategy, are a new development in the approach towards Suakin's conservation. The potential long-term impact of the research on Suakin's conservation has so far been indicated by the adoption of the resulting protocol implementation strategy as a formal approach to Suakin's conservation by NCAM. The thesis concludes with a critical review of the research throughout the research stages and key recommendations for the research sponsor, for Suakin's stakeholders, for the built heritage conservation industry and for further research. The findings of this research were published in four peer-reviewed papers.

In the United States, citizens concerned with climate change and income inequity scrutinize the activities of corporations. Sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have a critical role in business management, because stakeholders demand transparency in a company's operations. This correlation study, grounded in stakeholder theory, examined the relationship between environmental initiatives, CSR, and net profit for U.S. corporations. Participants included 96 companies with listing on either National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, or the New York Stock Exchange, or both, with and without evidence of CSR and environmental disclosures. The multiple regression analysis significantly predicted higher net profit for companies disclosing CSR information, with the statistical evidence demonstrating the importance of environmental and social responsibility, F(2,93) = 31.650, p = .00, R2 = .405. The environmental variable was not significant at p = .651, while the CSR variable proved significant at p = .04, indicating a need for organizations to participate in CSR activities. Recommendations for further research entail exploring the return on assets, net profit ratio, and return on equity. Implications of study findings for social change include support for companies to participate in global reporting organizations and CSR activities.

Regional natural resource management is increasingly being implemented through collaborative arrangements. Theoretically, collaborative arrangements draw together multiple stakeholders to achieve a holistic approach to management. However, there is no comprehensive underpinning theory to guide implementation. In response, the resource and environmental management literature has been dominated by the search for procedural theory. Encouraged by the history and experience the planning field has with decision-making in multi-stakeholder settings, planning theory - specifically communicative planning theory - has been encouraged as procedural theory for regional natural resource management. However, there has been limited empirical evaluation of this concept - particularly in natural resource management contexts. The aim of this research was to identify whether communicative planning theory represented an appropriate procedural theory to guide the implementation of regional natural resource management. This research addressed this aim through a comparison of the concepts and ideas comprising communicative planning theory with the forces shaping natural resource decisions and actions in practice within a collaborative approach to natural resource management. Qualitative research techniques were used to examine, in depth, a single case study of the implementation of the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality in the Condamine Catchment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-six stakeholders including mayors, farmers, members of non-government organisations, and representatives of State and Commonwealth agencies. The results of this research provide valuable understanding of how decisions are made and what role natural resource management objectives play within collaborative decisionmaking processes. This thesis builds theory relating to when, where, and if natural resource management objectives may be achieved through collaborative arrangements. Natural resource decisions and actions within the Condamine Catchment were shaped by three key forces. Firstly, the institutional arrangements that framed the collaborative approach influenced how organisational stakeholders would interact while undertaking natural resource management. Secondly, the structure of the decision-making processes influenced how decisions were produced. Finally, the characteristics (personalities, interests, agendas, and experience) of individual participants influenced the shape natural of resource decisions. Collectively, these forces discouraged the development of an integrated approach to natural resource management. Under the influence of these three forces natural resource management objectives played a secondary role to political manoeuvring within decisionmaking processes in the Condamine Catchment. Stakeholder agendas, motivations and interests became the primary concern as stakeholders implementing the National Action Plan became focused on controlling decisionmaking processes, instead of focusing on implementing natural resource management itself. Stakeholder relations were characterised by conflict as stakeholders competed for control of the decision-making processes. Communicative planning theory does not adequately identify or contend with the complex contextual forces shaping natural resource decisions within the Condamine Catchment. Nor does this concept offer clear direction on how to overcome the identified barriers to the development of an integrated approach to management. These research findings suggest that communicative planning theory does not represent an appropriate procedural theory to guide the implementation of regional natural resource management. Collaborative models of implementation are currently gaining dominance as the preferred delivery vehicle of regional natural resource management. This research implies that instead of searching for a meta-theory to guide implementation, the resource and environmental management field may be better served by developing a theoretical framework that makes practitioners aware of, and provides the tools to address, the context sensitive barriers that exist towards implementing natural resource management within multistakeholder settings. This research contributes towards the development of this understanding, and the tools necessary to unlock collaborative planning practice in individual settings.

<p>The aim of this study is to research environmental factors and their impact among manufacturing companies in Umeå. In order to capture the essence of environmental impacts , two research questions were asked; which environmental factors are considered, and in what context are they evaluated among manufacturing companies in Umeå, and how are stakeholders an implication on corporate environmental efforts for manufacturing companies in Umeå?</p><p>First and foremost relevant theories were discovered, using several databases. Second, they were incorporated into a conceptual framework, where their relationship and characteristics were displayed. The theories were then transformed into themes, which became the foundation of the interview guide.</p><p>The study was conducted by interviewing six manufacturing companies with more than 10 employees in Umeå. The interviews were semi-structured, and a mixture of telephone interviews and in-person interviews. An analysis of the empirical material was undertaken, by analyzing the data using the theories found during the information search.</p><p>Almost all participating companies consider environmental factors in one way or another, according to the findings of this study. Further, the customers were concluded to be the most important stakeholder in leading to environmental reform among the companies. However, other stakeholders were also recognized by the respondents, and had an impact in for the stakeholders’ specific circumstances.</p>

<p> </p><p>During the last 15 years, due to several social conflicts generated by mining operations in Peru, mining has reshaped its performance from a questionable activity to an accountable one. Corporate Social Responsibility (hereafter CSR) has represented the approach to do this reshaping. In that sense, idea of mining CSR represents how corporations<em> ought to interact</em> responsibly with society. Then, society expects that mining corporations <em>ought to act</em> correctly, guided by the CSR frame that represents the assumption of the correct way to behave. However, mining CSR framework must be accepted for the corporation as well as for society, which might be affected by the corporate actions guided by the framework, mainly the local community. The way mining CSR will be accepted is through dialogue between corporations and stakeholders. Thereby, CSR would imply that corporations should consider what society expects as a responsible performance to be part of the way they <em>ought to act</em> through dialogue and mutual understanding.</p>

<p>ID projects are characterized by a complex network of stakeholders that often lead to the tangledrelationships among various parties. Different stakeholders therefore can exert the influence overan ID project in different ways resulting in both constructive and counter-productive impacts tothe projects. The implementation stage, in many ways, is considered the most significantlyimportant phase in the project life cycle where all the project activities are materialized. Thus,understanding the intricacy of the stakeholders’ impacts to the project implementation is criticalto facilitate the project results.</p><p>A multiple-case study of the two ID projects executed in Vietnam is undertaken with the aim toinvestigate the impacts of the key stakeholders on ID projects beyond the early phases of IDproject life cycle, focusing in particular on the implementation phase. In order to have the wholepicture of the key stakeholders’ impacts to the project implementation, this research alsoexplores the contributing factors of the identified impacts as well as examines how powerful thekey stakeholders are in controlling the decisions making and/or facilitating the projecti mplementation represented through their different degrees of influence.</p><p>Results of the findings suggest both similarities and differences in which the reported impacts ofthe key stakeholders tend to be more counter-productive than constructive to the projectimplementation. The similarities of the findings indicate that the two distinctive projects facecommon issues in the implementation phase whilst the differences can be explained by thespecific circumstances that surround the projects. The representation of the counter-productiveaspects in the findings signify the risks associated with the key stakeholders which is worth while considering in terms of the risk mitigation in the implementation phase of an ID project.</p>

<p>This paper will from a managerial perspective investigate the function of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a strategic tool for companies operating in Indonesia.Another aspect this paper will discuss is different views on CSR and what positive aswell as negative aspects CSR brings. The country was first in the world to state a lawregarding CSR performance in 2007, which makes CSR mandatory for all companiesusing natural resources in some way. This issue complicates CSR matters in Indonesiasince the law is vague regarding what is considered as a natural resource. Furthermore,this paper will display how companies using CSR relate themselves totheir stakeholders and in what way they operate in order to fulfil and satisfy differentstakeholders’ needs and demands. It will also discuss which stakeholder is consideredto be the most important and influential regarding a company’s CSR activities.Findings in this thesis show that CSR among companies is used as a strategy in orderto gain legitimacy from the society to be able to do business and operate in theseareas. Further, using CSR will create competitive advantages towards non-users anda company will increase its reputation as well as image.</p>