Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe objective of this research was to investigate the terms and conditions that facilitate the quality of sustainability, environmental and social reports of listed multi‐utility companies in Italy, taking into account the emerging link between the quality of such reports and some variables (turnover, employees, complexity, etc.). Starting from the sample of companies from the multi‐utility sector (chosen because the utilities sector is subject to particular attention and pressure by customers and the community), an evaluation of already‐implemented criteria and the principles of sustainability reporting is provided, going through each report.This paper also highlights the different maturity levels of companies in the application of the principles required by the main reporting models used in the world (Global Reporting Initiative Third Generation: GRI‐G3; AA1000 SES Accountability 1000: AA1000), and investigates the reasons for the different approaches to the models' various principles/criteria. Both the level of the materiality of the reports and the inclusiveness of stakeholders are lower than other principles, even for sustainability reports from companies with a high level of compliance. As a result of this study, strategic motivation has been recognized as the discriminatory element with respect to the quality of reports, especially in companies of considerable size. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

As COVID-19 has spread, the power and reach of tech and networking companies have expanded and their transgressions against the commonweal have multiplied, provoking calls to make them more accountable. How might this be accomplished? I argue that a renewal of public utility regulation will be essential, regardless of whether it is accompanied by government antitrust action. I offer a historical sketch of how 19th- and early 20th-century reformers developed conceptions of networks as public utilities to establish democratic norms and practices in telegraph and telephone service provision. Big business and the state mobilized during World War I and defeated the movement to nationalize U.S. telecommunications via a takeover of networks by the U.S. Postal Service but, meanwhile, a different road to public utility status had opened: regulation by state and federal administrative commissions. After reviewing this conflicted history, I enumerate necessary features of a regenerated public utility framework, from popular education about network issues and policies of nondiscrimination to public control over social networks and search engines and decommodification of profit-driven network industries.