Starker Steuerwettbewerb – starke Reformen? Ein neuer Blick auf Unternehmenssteuerreformen in 15 EU‐Staaten (1998‐2011)

Although many EU‐countries have reduced corporate taxes in the recent years, there is still a substantial variance between the 12 oldest EU‐member states. This contribution revisits this variation and analyses the determinants of corporate tax reforms and their magnitude from a perspective which is new in two respects: First, we combine logistic panel regression and fsQCA analysis allowing for an integration of qualitative assessments of tax reforms in the QCA analysis. This adds to the existing studies on tax reform which almost exclusively rely on regression techniques. Second, we focus on the time period 1998‐2011 where we expect tax competition to be especially intense. The results of our analyses confirm the major impact of tax competition on national corporate tax policies. This relationship dominates the regression analyses as well as the fsQCA. Furthermore, our findings allow nuancing the existing results on the influence of institutional constraints and partisan politics.     

Squaring the Virtuous Circle: Exploring the Potential of the ‘Five Cs’

During his May 2014 visit to Australia Pascal Lamy, former Director General of the World Trade Organization, urged ‘public institutions, civil society, and global businesses’ to forge ‘creative coalitions’ for the purpose of engaging constructively and positively with the complex problems standing in the way of achieving social and economic sustainability. Lamy's visit was but the first of several occasions during 2014 in which intense public discussion erupted about the need for government, business, and civil society to pool their capacities in boundary‐spanning efforts to address complex policy problems. This article investigates whether the public discussion portends a heightened policy focus on the ‘five Cs’: co‐production, co‐design, corporate social responsibility, collective impact, and Lamy's creative coalitions.     

美国公司债券发行制度分析

美国公司债券发行有公募发行和私募发行两种方式.公募发行实行注册制,信息披露制度是公募发行和交易监管的核心.私募发行包括一般私募发行和144A私募发行.本文通过比较研究美国公司债券公募和私募发行制度,总结出美国公司债券市场的成功经验为:灵活自由的债券发行制度,充分的信息披露、完善的债权人保护机制和对发债公司高管违法行为的严刑峻法.     

SADC and the GCC: Shared regional challenges and potential links

This article assesses the prospects for a clearly articulated economic diplomacy approach in South Africa's foreign policy. It argues that while South Africa's foreign policy has been to a considerable extent normatively grounded, it has failed to develop a coherent economic diplomacy that is based on focused and distinctly expressed priorities. This is a crucial gap that limits the country's ability to respond to regional and global changes, in particular those posed by emerging powers. The article identifies a number of gaps in South Africa's foreign policy approach and highlights its oblivion to global developments and geopolitical dynamics in the African continent. It sets out possible policy outlines for developing a clearer and stronger economic diplomacy. The building blocks for such an approach include the identification of strategic foreign policy priorities; greater institutional co-operation among agencies dealing with economic and foreign policy development; synergies between corporate strategies and government's foreign policy objectives; and the need for South Africa to develop a stronger leadership ambition in the African continent, both to contribute to Africa's development and to pursue its own economic interests. This ambition will require awareness of South Africa's own limitations, thus focusing the better part of its foreign policy on a limited set of countries that match strategic priorities.     

A computational text analysis of the South African banking sector's representation of its core values: A corpus-driven approach

Abstract

This article uses corpus linguistics (CL) to computationally quantify and qualitatively explain how meaning is represented vis-à-vis core values in the text of the 2009 annual reports of the South African banking sector. Core values prescribe the behaviour, attitude and character of an organisation and may be indicative of an organisation's ideologies. This article draws on the work of Fox (2006a and b), who advances the new development of merging linguistics and corporate communication, and in so doing adopting a transdisciplinary perspective on language. Written text is an ideal method with which to capture an organisation's ideologies through corporate public discourse (CPD) such as annual reports, because the organisation can control the content and distribution. However, as corporate messages are generally written by the ‘entity’ and not by the individual, writers essentially accept the banks’ practicing power through consent. The results illustrate how the repeated use of content words may skilfully position the reader of the text positively towards the South African banking sector's core values represented in the text. Researching language in organisations not only facilitates strategic competence in comprehending communication processes, but can also be beneficial in terms of more credible CPD.     

企业志愿服务的价值及其实现机制

企业志愿服务作为一种新型的志愿服务形式,具有实现个体、企业和社会多赢的价值。为此,应通过大力普及志愿理念、弘扬志愿精神,建立健全教育培训机制、企业志愿服务项目拓展机制、实绩评估机制、志愿服务激励机制和志愿服务的保障机制等,进而推动企业志愿服务健康、良性、可持续发展,以更好地实现企业志愿服务的价值。     

Schumpeter's economic theory and the dynamic accounting view of the firm: neglected pages from the Theory of Economic Development

Abstract

The first English translation of some of Schumpeter's (1926) pages of the Theory of Economic Development is presented. These neglected pages are remarkable because they significantly add to Schumpeter's masterpiece on a number of issues concerned with accounting, law and economics of the firm. They show that Schumpeter considered understanding the firm, together with innovation, as important scientific problems. Schumpeter doubts the explanatory value of proprietary entrepreneurship and provides an early justification of the dynamic entity view of business activity generated by the firm as a becoming concern. He discusses its implications for understanding issues of economic organization and corporate governance, and suggests some theoretical insights concerning business capital and money under conditions of real dynamics and complexity. The doors opened by Schumpeter indicate that money and accounting are fundamentally coupled as complementary institutions in framing and shaping the economic and monetary process of the firm as an enterprise entity.     

From Tuscany to Victoria: Some Determinants of Sustainability Reporting by Local Councils

This paper seeks to respond to recent calls by the academic community for studies investigating sustainability reporting by the public sector, as well as for more engagement-based studies of this issue by examining the views of managers within local councils (LC). The objective of this project is to provide insights as to the possible reasons and explanations for the types of sustainability disclosures among a group of local councils operating in Italy and Australia. In particular, an international comparison is undertaken to ascertain the effect of culture on the adoption of sustainability reporting (SR). Evidence is collected from semi-structured interviews with managers and accountants from ten local councils consisting of five from Italy (Tuscany) and five from Australia (Victoria). The findings suggest that although there are available some general policy documents relating to sustainability reporting, councils are left to their own discretion as to what they consider fit under the definition of sustainability and therefore, determine to a large extent, what to report to stakeholders. Moreover, there was a range of legitimacy type behaviours displayed by a number of councils while others were influenced by notions of public sector accountability and transparency. Adopting Hofstede's cultural framework, the research also highlights the relevance of the Italian and Australian cultural settings in shaping the SR practices used by LCs. The findings suggest that differences regarding cultural dimensions, such as ‘power distance’ and ‘uncertainty avoidance’, influence key aspects of SR.     

法人与公司制度融合风险的法律控制——兼论实现国家公司公益性的法人制度支持

现代民法上的法人制度包含了为公司制度发展量身定做的"完人化"标准。公司制度借与法人制度融合获得了广义财产与基本权利,扭转了公司在传统社会组织身份格局中的不利地位,形成了对其他企业类型的制度竞争优势,但也带来巨大风险:公司异化为新身份格局中的"公司帝国"。法人制度在我国具有主要服务国有企业改革的功能狭隘性,加之官商传统潜移默化,产生了更为复杂的"官商公司帝国",妨碍了国有企业实现公共利益。针对性地而言,应祛除法人制度的极端功利主义成分,重建国有企业承载公共利益的法人制度支持。     

吉林省民营企业融资难的法律思考

民营经济在我国国民经济中占有举足轻重的地位。但当前,制约民营经济发展的主要原因是融资问题。吉林省民营经济融资难不仅有金融体系的缺欠问题,也有民营企业自身的诚信问题,更有法律法规政策等大环境的因素。因此,解决吉林省民营经济融资难的问题是一个系统工程,政府、金融机构、民营企业都应积极创新融资理念,拓宽融资渠道,充分发挥律师在解决吉林省民营企业融资难问题中的作用。