Strategic role of public relations in enterprise strategy,governance and sustainability—A normative framework

The purpose of the study was to suggest a normative framework for the development of an organization's enterprise (societal role/stakeholder) strategy, indicating its relationship with governance, sustainability, and CSR. The normative framework contains two dimensions: Enterprise strategy is developed within the context of enterprise governance as well as social and environmental sustainability and responsibility, to achieve the organization's strategic non-financial goals (the sustainability dimension). Corporate strategy is developed within the context of corporate governance as well as economic sustainability and responsibility, to achieve strategic financial/economic goals (the business dimension). PR/communication management plays a strategic role in enterprise strategy development but a support role in corporate strategy development. The development of enterprise strategy necessitates a Triple Bottom Line approach to strategic management.     

Developing a strategy map for forensic accounting with fraud risk management: An integrated balanced scorecard-based decision model

Corporate fraud risk management strategy has increasingly become a sustainable business development goal. Recent reforms in forensic accounting technology for corporate fraud risk management globally have opened up new avenues for corporate governance and internal control mechanism implementation. This study thus presents an integrated methodology for forensic accounting implementation to improve the identification of the strategy map relationship between the Balanced Scorecard (BSC)-based perspective and criteria, by combining multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) with the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP) techniques. The results have implications for corporate decision-makers to effectively fulfil corporate governance quality assurance and anti-fraud through a forensic accounting strategy map illustration. From the evaluation and planning perspective, the in-depth analysis of strategy map is useful to obtain an interrelationship that takes as its starting point the practice professions of the decision maker to improve existing strategy alternatives and focus on the valuable strategy paths. In the evaluation planning application, a strategy map of forensic accounting presents the knowledge regarding key indicators’ priorities to achieve satisfactory strategy planning and to practice forensic accounting development linked to fraud risk management in Taiwan.     

Relationship between Listening Comprehension Strategy Use and Listening Comprehension Proficiency

This study explores the relationship between students’ listening comprehension strategy use and their listening comprehension proficiency with regard to the group, level, and degree of strategy use. Forty-four university students of an English Language teaching department comprised the study population. Three listening comprehension tests were given to participants with two-week intervals to measure their listening comprehension proficiency. To measure the students’ listening comprehension strategy use, a listening comprehension strategy inventory developed by the researcher was used. Data analysis showed a positive correlation between the level of listening comprehension strategy use and listening comprehension proficiency. When different groups of listening comprehension strategy use of learners were taken into account, there was a statistically significant difference between the students’ listening comprehension achievements in favor of the group with high metacognitive strategy use.     

“两伊问题”困扰中的美国海湾战略选择

伊战后,美国的海湾战略屡屡受挫,在中东面临危机多元化和扩散化的严重挑战。在伊拉克陷阱和伊朗核问题的双重困扰下,小布什政府及其后任可能的战略选择包括坚持原有“主导和预防行动”、采取“崩溃预防型”、恢复“稳定、威慑和遏制”、考虑“合作型秩序”等。但除非美国放弃独家主导海湾的霸权战略并调整其战略目标,否则难以在“支配”海湾地区和摆脱困境之间找到两全出路。     

Corporate political strategy: A framework for understanding nonprofit strategy

Nonprofit organizations operate in environments characterized by institutional demands for legitimacy. The authors argue that, given this environment, corporate political strategy is critical to a nonprofit's ability to achieve its goals, gain access to resources, and achieve a sustainable advantage. The authors develop this thesis by providing a conceptual argument that corporate political strategy is critical given the institutional nature of the environment, the conflicting demands of multiple stakeholders, and the role of the funder; and by providing contextual evidence of the role of corporate political strategy in nonprofit strategy.     

美国在中东的“输出民主”战略

“输出民主”是美国持久性的战略,但却是服从、服务于美国的安全战略的,因而具有突出的工具性以及由之决定的可选择性,美在中东地区实施该战略的历史与现实正体现了上述特点。冷战期间,出于遏制苏联、获取石油、保卫以色列的目的,美国在中东“输出民主”时坚持“中东例外论”;后冷战时期,美国采取了较为积极的“输出民主”行动,但阿尔及利亚民主试验失败的事实,又迫使其重新踏上“中东例外论”的老路;“9·11”事件后,美国在中东采取极端的、冒进式的“输出民主”战略,结果导致中东地区更加动荡。     

Network structure,strategy evolution,and the game of Chicken

Cellular automata – lattice-like grids of interlinked cells – can be used to study system evolution. The cells are occupied by disputants with differing strategic interaction rules. After interacting, each disputant either retains its strategy or adopts that of a neighbor, depending on relative strategy success. In this article, we use networks to answer questions about strategy evolution in the game of Chicken. We identify the nodes of a network with cells of an automaton and consider nodes adjacent if they are neighboring cells in the automaton, allowing us to determine structural influences of strategy evolution.     

Gender differences in the use of high-variance strategies in tournament competition

We report on a series of experiments in which participants first completed a simple game of chance and then competed in a tournament based on a multiple cue probability learning task. The results show that men made riskier choices in the simple game of chance, but women adopted the high-variance strategy more frequently in the tournament. However, after controlling for differences in forecasting skill, we find no significant differences in the rates at which men and women adopted a high-variance strategy. Although altering the difficulty of the forecasting task produces differences in the rate at which participants selected the high-variance strategy, it did not produce a significant difference in the rate at which men and women selected the strategy. Thus, this paper suggests that although women are more risk-averse than men, women are no less likely to adopt a high-variance strategy in a tournament competition.     

Image Repair Tactics and Information Subsidies During Fraud Crises

This study proposes a synergistic model of corporate communication strategy (corporate ability strategy, corporate social responsibility strategy, and hybrid strategy) on consumer responses and tests the model using 2 Fortune 500 companies (Kellogg and Motorola). The study found that when a company is well-known to consumers as Motorola and Kellogg used in this study, a CSR strategy is more effective in influencing both consumer corporate ability (CAb) and CSR associations and in turn, company/product evaluations. Additionally, consumers tend to automatically assume a company is good at making reliable products when they associate the company with strong CSR, indicating transferring effects of CSR associations onto CAb associations, and onto company/product evaluations. The study results also suggest that the direct influences of CSR associations differ based on industry type. A company that produces high risk involved products such as Motorola, might not experience as strong CSR associations' effects on consumer responses as a company in other industry type like Kellogg.     

Governing Civil Society: The Political Logic of NGO–State Relations Under Dictatorship

This paper attempts to take the first steps toward developing a theory of non-governmental organizations (NGO)–state relations under dictatorship. Drawing on evidence from East Asia, the author argues that dictatorships typically employ one of two strategies in attempting to govern NGOs. First, some dictatorships follow a corporatist strategy, in which business associations, development, and social welfare organizations are co-opted into the state and controlled through a variety of strategies. Second, other dictatorships pursue an exclusionary strategy in which NGOs are marginalized and replaced with state institutions. Variation in the strategy chosen may be explained by differing levels of elite competition and the type of development strategy. Single-party states tend to regulate elite conflicts better and thus often choose corporatist strategies. In personalist regimes dictators tend to fear the organizational and mobilizational potential of NGOs and thus tend to pursue exclusionary strategies. This choice, however, is conditioned by the development strategy employed, as socialist development strategies reduce the incentives to allow NGOs.     

Deconstructing the defense for quantification in social science: A content analysis of journal articles on the parametric strategy

This paper examines 16 methodological papers concerned with the adequacy of the parametric strategy. The parametric strategy is a core procedure in quantitative social science. It transforms ordinal variables into interval variables thereby permitting use of sophisticated statistics including regression analysis. Parametric strategy papers address general problems in the use of quantitative methods. A content analysis reveals that parametric strategy papers use strategies of “next stepping,” the creation of literary lacunae and tensions, and recontextualization to create the appearance of resolving the problems inherent in the parametric strategy. Since the problems are not actually resolved, this content analysis provides further evidence for the argument that ‘the variable’ must be abandoned as the primary object of social science.     

Relationships as organizational resources: Examining public relations impact through its connection with organizational strategies

This study empirically examined the oft-ignored link between public relations and strategy by incorporating the resource-based view (RBV) from management literature. Thirty-three interviews with public relations managers and strategy managers in China were conducted to explore relationships as organizational resources and their contribution to strategy implementation. Within the major theoretical framework, this study found that relationships possessed these key features for resources that could lead to competitive advantages: valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and hard to be substituted. Relationships contributed to strategy implementation in general and were used also to achieve a fit with different strategies.     

Different or Equal Treatment? Donor Priority Strategy and Fundraising Performance Assessed by a Propensity Score Matching Study

Many nonprofit organizations apply a priority strategy to their donors instead of treating donors equally. The underlying assumption of this strategy is that different and preferential treatment of donors according to their donation amount positively affects fundraising performance. We conducted a propensity score matching study to analyze the fundraising strategies of seventy‐three cultural organizations in Germany. The empirical findings are discussed and complemented by qualitative data from twenty interviews with fundraising managers and private donors. The results show that, in terms of fundraising performance, nonprofit organizations that apply a donor priority strategy outperform organizations that treat donors equally. A donor priority strategy ultimately leads to a 125 euro higher total revenue per donor and an 87 euro higher profit per donor due to cost savings via better use of fundraising resources.     

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The politics of television exports

Globalization developments are presenting television programme-makers with the possibility of expanding programme sales on the international market. This article focuses on the various initiatives of the UK government to support an export-led strategy, and evaluates the consequences of such a strategy on domestic programming. Highlighting the current trend towards the sale of programme formats, the article further considers whether the increased circulation of television programmes around the world points to a model of interconnectedness and heterogeneity or whether it reinforces unequal patterns of media flows. Drawing on interviews with government advisers and regulators, the article concludes that the promotion of an export-led strategy is economically and culturally flawed and is linked to the UK government's strategy to liberalize trade in services rather than a commitment to increase cultural diversity.     

Instructional Materials

Discussion has long been identified by many in the field of social studies education as one of the most important elements of social studies instruction. However, many classroom teachers face several challenges in implementing the strategy. As a way to combat these challenges and encourage the use of discussion in American's classrooms, the Coalition of Essential Schools (2007) developed a strategy called the “Chalk Talk,” or silent discussion. Nonetheless, the Chalk Talk strategy has unique limitations as well. This article offers social studies teachers an alternative approach to incorporating silent discussion in the classroom by using the Google Docs program. Although the program remedied some of the limitations of the Chalk Talk strategy, new ones developed with its use.     

Crisis response and crisis timing strategies,two sides of the same coin

This study investigates the moderating impact of the timing of crisis disclosure on the effect of crisis response strategies on organizational post-crisis reputation. It proposes that self-disclosing a crisis allows organizations to avoid explicitly taking or rejecting responsibility by means of a crisis response strategy. A 2 (crisis timing strategy: ex-ante vs. ex-post) × 2 (crisis response strategy: response strategy vs. objective information only) between-subjects factorial design was conducted among 137 participants. The results show that organizations that do not steal thunder better use a reputation restoring crisis response strategy than just providing stakeholders objective information about what happened. In addition, the results demonstrate that if an organization steals thunder, it is not necessary to offer reputation restoring crisis response strategies such as an apology. These findings stress the importance of timing to disclose crisis information in addition to the content of crisis communication strategies.     

Current Folklore in the Criticisms of Parsonian Action Theory*

This paper examines the often repeated assertion that Parsons abandoned the notion of “voluntarism” in favor of “macrofunctionalism” or ”behavioristic naturalism” and that the Parsonian scheme therefore reveals marked discontinuity. When Parsons’strategy for theory building is appreciated, this prevalent assumption proves to be incorrect. In fact, the Parsonian action scheme evidences a considerable degree of continuity from 1937 to the present. While a prevalent piece of sociological folklore is refuted by a careful examination of the Parsonian theory building strategy, a number of significant problems in following this strategy are felt to remain.     

美伊战争对我国安全的影响

美伊战争是美国对中东国家进行民主改造和“先发制人战略”的试验场，也是美国实现其全球霸权的重要举措。它不仅改变了中东地区的战略格局，也改变了世界的政治格局、能源格局，对我国的政治、经济、军事和地缘安全产生了深刻而长远的影响。     

Constructing a strategy map for banking institutions with key performance indicators of the balanced scorecard

This study presents a structural evaluation methodology to link key performance indicators (KPIs) into a strategy map of the balanced scorecard (BSC) for banking institutions. Corresponding with the four BSC perspectives (finance, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth), the most important evaluation indicators of banking performance are synthesized from the relevant literature and screened by a committee of experts. The Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method, a multiple criteria analysis tool, is then employed to determine the causal relationships between the KPIs, to identify the critical central and influential factors, and to establish a visualized strategy map with logical links to improve banking performance. An empirical application is provided as an example. According to the expert evaluations, the three most essential KPIs for banking performance are customer satisfaction, sales performance, and customer retention rate. The DEMATEL results demonstrate a clear road map to assist management in prioritizing the performance indicators and in focusing attention on the strategy-related activities of the crucial indicators. According to the constructed strategy map, management could better invest limited resources in the areas that need improvement most. Although these strategy maps of the BSC are not universal, the research results show that the presented approach is an objective and feasible way to construct strategy maps more justifiably. The proposed framework can be applicable to institutions in other industries as well.     

Genre colonization as a strategy: A framework for research and practice

Discourse colonization has become a central public relations strategy in major national and international communication campaigns. The practical, theoretical and ethical implications of this strategy have, however, yet to be worked through in the public relations literature.In this article we outline a method for analyzing one form of discourse colonization, which we term ‘genre colonization’. We then apply this new method to a specific case in order to illustrate both the method in practice and the mechanisms used to effect genre colonization within discourse. In the process, a framework for undertaking genre colonization emerges. Some aspects of the ethics of employing this strategy are raised but further research is required to support a full discussion.