Italian corporate foundations and the challenge of multiple stakeholder interests

This article investigates corporate foundations, a specific expression of corporate philanthropy that is narrowly considered in the literature. We aim to verify whether the interests of the founder firm are significant antecedents of the model, activities, and issues addressed by the related foundation. Data were collected through a survey of seventy Italian corporate foundations, representing 59.8 percent of the total number of such foundations based in Italy. The analysis identified three clusters of corporate foundations—granter, expert, and edifier. Research demonstrates that through these clusters, the interests pursued by founder firms have a significant influence on integration between firms and corporate foundations and on the foundations' activities.     

Consumers’ responses to CSR activities: The linkage between increased awareness and purchase intention

The body of research showing the positive effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer behavior has been growing steadily. However, previous studies have not characterized corporate behaviors in terms of their perception by consumers as significant CSR and researchers have paid little attention to consumers’ understanding of this notion of CSR. The present study explores the relationship between consumer awareness of CSR activities and their purchase intentions. This study employs a questionnaire survey involving Korean consumers. For the analysis, measurement scales for CSR activities and consumers’ purchase intention scales are respectively developed. From the results it is found that there is a significant positive relationship between these two parameters. This study finds out as CSR activities corporate social contribution and local community contribution affect consumers’ purchase intention while corporate environmental protection and contribution have no effects on consumers’ purchase intention.     

Privileging an activist vs. a corporate view of public relations history in the U.S.

This article elaborates on the argument that the history of U.S. public relations has been distorted by the emphasis on corporate functions of public relations. The dominant corporate-centric view of U.S. public relations history often claim that public relations developed as a response to activists who attempted to interfere with business operations. That myopic, corporate-centric view has perpetuated a negative view of public relations as merely a tool of “big business”. In the past as well as the present, corporations have been learning from and co-opting activists’ innovative public relations techniques. By alternatively grounding U.S. public relations history in the works of activists, we open possibilities for re-imagining the field and legitimizing activists’ works as a positive, central component in public relations theory and research. We end by providing resources educators can utilize to teach a more balanced view of public relations history in the U.S.     

Achievements of and challenges facing the Korean Disabled People’s Movement

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of the development of the disabled people’s movement in South Korea since 1945, reflecting both its achievements and the obstacles it has faced. In particular, political positions and responses to the movement’s agitation against socio-cultural discrimination and inequality are discussed. Further, three key theoretical foundations of the movement are examined in order to describe the diversity inherent therein. This paper concludes that the disabled people’s movement has heavily influenced the values, norms, and systems of Korean society, but it has predominantly focused on integrating disability issues into policy and legislation, not on changing society and culture. Hence, the Korean Disabled People’s Movement is currently facing many challenges that are major threats towards its future development.     

Rural-Urban Differences and Their Amelioration

South Korean society is in transition toward a multicultural society. Integrating multicultural education into current citizenship education is challenging for the society. Historically, many national tragedies have created the unique characteristics of what being Korean means. South Korean social studies curriculum emphasized that Korea is a monolithic society with one language, one history, and one ethnicity. In recent years, however, the number of foreigners living in South Korea dramatically increases because of work, study, and marriage. As they become be members of Korean society, it is necessary that South Koreans acknowledge diverse groups in the society and revise a long-held belief about who we, as Koreans, are. To this end, the Korean social studies curriculum should include more information about as well as respect and promote ethnic, cultural, and social diversity. Social studies teachers should attempt various activities to promote students’ understanding of current social changes in South Korea.     

Netizens’ evaluations of corporate social responsibility: Content analysis of CSR news stories and online readers’ comments

Analyzing stories about corporate social responsibility (CSR) published in two online Korean newspapers and reader's comments about them, this study investigated how the online readers interpreted the CSR activities, looking at the effect of CSR types, situations, and the degree of corporate fame. The study found that readers tend to be cynical toward CSR activities after a crisis and a monetary donation type of CSR. In addition, the more famous the company, the more likely there were cynical comments about its CSR activities.     

Is an Independent Self a Requisite for Asian Immigrants' Psychological Well-Being in the U.S.? The Case of Korean Americans

Summary

This study examined the effect of both independent and interdependent self-construals on Asian immigrants' psychological well-being in the U.S., using a community sample of adult Koreans. Given that society rewards certain behaviors and attitudes that are consistent with the valued social norms, an independent view of self that matches the expectation of American society was hypothesized to promote Korean immigrants' psychological well-being. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that Korean immigrants with a highly independent self-construal expressed significantly less depressive symptoms and significantly more life satisfaction than those with a less independent self-construal. Furthermore, as was also expected, an interdependent view of self that is valued in many Asian cultures did not hinder Korean immigrants' psychological well-being, controlling for the correlates of these immigrants' mental health and self-construals. The results underscore the importance of self-conceptions in cross-cultural adaptation, and suggest the need of future research focusing on the potential benefits of both types of self-construal for Asian immigrants in the U.S.     

Social Media Management

Do foundations effectively use social media to engage stakeholders? Do usage and engagement vary by foundation type? This article has been written to stimulate discussion and research about social media use and user engagement by foundations beyond measuring social media presence. We analyzed Facebook usage and stakeholder engagement for three types of foundations: community, corporate, and independent grant‐making foundations. We found that although community foundations are more likely to have a social media presence, corporate and independent foundations are more likely to use Facebook and to effectively engage stakeholders. Findings illuminate the need to understand social media usage and engagement in addition to presence. We discuss potential benefits of social media use and provide practical communication management recommendations for nonprofit practitioners.     

Evaluating philanthropic foundations according to their social values

Philanthropic foundations are seen as enterprises committed to building what they view as a better world. Their visions of a better world are described in terms of social values that represent preferred end states for society or means of achieving such states. This article describes a procedure in which a foundation's espoused social values, made explicit, may serve as a referent to evaluate the foundation's performance. The process by which social values are determined is offered as a means to promote critical and reflective discourse not only within the foundation but with the public, especially those affected by the foundation's work.     

Engaging publics in the mobile era: A study of Chinese charitable foundations’ use of WeChat

WeChat, the most widely used social mobile application nowadays in China, marks the advent of a mobile communication age that has reshaped Chinese people’s lifestyles. Understanding Chinese nonprofits’ communication performance on WeChat is a nascent field of study that calls for public relations scholars’ attention and investigation. By observing the most transparent Chinese charitable foundations, this study conducted a quantitative content analysis to examine their use of WeChat for dialogic communication with publics. Particularly, this study examined the dialogic features employed on the official WeChat accounts of these foundations as well as the public engagement functions fulfilled by their WeChat posts. The findings indicate that the dialogic potential of WeChat has not been fully utilized by the Chinese foundations. The official accounts have been relatively successful in fulfilling the provision of useful information toward interested publics, but most of them still have not created a dialogic loop with their audience. The WeChat posts primarily act as information sources but also perform the salient function of calling upon actions. In addition, certain communication strategies were identified in the posts to attract audience attention and to promote organizational activities, such as the incorporation of multimedia content and popular online events.     

The gendered contours of North Korean Migration: sexualized bodies and the violence of phenotypical normalization in South Korea

This article examines the gendered and sexualized contours of North Korean experiences in South Korea at a time when nearly 70% of the North Korean emigrants are women. South Korean television shows – e.g. reality programs – and marriage matchmaking organizations seek to portray North Korean women in a ‘positive’ way to the South Korean public, although, as this article will illustrate, these representations are of a very particular, sexualized kind. These representations are sometimes negative, and there is stigma attached to North Korean women, in which South Koreans assume, for example, that they are victims of human trafficking or that they have had relations with Chinese men during their migration. Furthermore, poor nutrition and other forms of structural violence in North Korea have molded North Korean bodies; there are often physical disparities between North and South Koreans. In South Korean society where short height is viewed as undesirable and where idealized, surgical notions of beauty dominate, the violence of gendered phenotypical normalization mark North Korean bodies as smaller, foreign, and strange. Based on ethnographic research in South Korea, this article argues that these gendered contours of North Korean migration amount to a different sort of structural violence in South Korea.     

Negotiating Ethnic Identity in the College Korean Language Classes

This article examines the ways in which second-generation Korean-American students form and transform their senses of ethnicity through their participation in Korean language classes at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. These classes were largely populated by second-generation Korean-Americans. Called the "New Second Generation," these Korean-American students, who have "successfully" proceeded through the American educational system, show that adaptation to the host society does not necessarily lead to assimilated American identity, and that learning Korean (a "heritage" language) does not necessarily lead to homogeneous ethnic identity formation. Although "heritage" (or "ethnic") language has often been taken up as a symbol for group maintenance, my study shows that actual interaction with the language is complexly and heterogeneously experienced among the group members, especially in relation to the ethnic identity formation process. Korean classes (as a transnational social field) contain complicated and contradictory characteristics, resulting from their complex mixture of class participants, their institutional location, and their national and transnational situation. Korean-American language learners negotiate their sense of ethnic identity by interacting with social meanings initiated from words, passages, illustrations, and texts. Furthermore, Korean-American student's language performance and cultural tastes, which are perceived and evaluated by themselves and others, differently locate these students on a continuum of "Koreanness" and "Americanness," reflecting different relationships to Korea and different senses of being Korean.     

Images of “Hong Bo (public relations)” and PR in Korean newspapers

This study analyzed the meaning of Hong Bo and PR as the terms appeared in three main Korean newspapers, on the basis of Spicer’s seven themes. A total of 1548 mentions of the term Hong Bo and PR were analyzed as follows: First, Korean newspapers, like newspapers in the United States, tend to view Hong Bo and PR as publicity or merely PR. Thus, overall Korean newspaper reporters have a negative attitude toward the meanings of Hong Bo and PR and the reporters’ viewpoint was supported by this study. Second, the uses of PR and Hong Bo were categorized as challenge, distraction, disaster, hype and merely PR. While Hong Bo was categorized more of terms as challenge, distraction and disaster than PR was, PR was categorized more of terms as hype and merely PR than Hong Bo was. This also indicates that while the meanings of Hong Bo were more negative or positive than those of PR, the meanings of PR have been used as more neutral than those of Hong Bo. The study suggests that Korean public relations practitioners and relatives have to try to lead the public to a positive attitude toward the term Hong Bo, which has been used more frequently than the term PR.     

Economic Incentive,Embeddedness, and Social Support: A Study of Korean‐Owned Nail Salon Workers’ Rotating Credit Associations1

Much of the past research on rotating credit associations (RCAs) in the U.S. Korean community has been conducted in the context of Korean entrepreneurs’ success in small businesses. By contrast, little has been known about the significance of RCAs in the lives of Korean immigrant workers. Based on a sample of Korean female workers at Korean‐owned nail salons in the New York–New Jersey area, the first aim of this study is to address whether Korean immigrant workers, like Korean immigrant merchants, take into account RCAs as a way to save money or raise capital. Second, this study also speculates about the importance of embeddedness (Granovetter) and social capital (Portes and Sensenbrenner) views for both economic behavior and a likelihood of malfeasance by RCA participants. Lastly, this study regards RCA membership as a mechanism of social support for its participating members. Overall, the analyses provide evidence that RCA membership at nail salons leads to both economic benefit and social support for some of its participants, and that embedded networks and an accompanying sense of trust have some connection to the suppression of its members’ latent malfeasance.     

“It will help me in life,that my life will be better”: Future Challenges for Children of Migrant Families

Not much attention has been paid to the children of migrant families in the receiving Israeli society. Our research focuses on how migrant children cope with future orientation and challenges how those children perceive their future course of life. This study speaks with the voices of the children, as represented in their personal stories and interviews, and reveals their interpretation of their futures, their integration in the receiving society, and the significance they accord to the events, activities and experiences they have undergone. Our findings reveal that in the area of future life course the children expressed a positive approach to school, to matriculation, to work and fulfilling future ambitions. In contrast in the area of existential life course children expressed a negative view and most of them reported that it is difficult for immigrant families live in Israel, and therefore they would prefer to migrate to another country.     

Promoting innovation based on social sciences and technologies: the prospect of a social innovation park

Obviously Sir Francis Bacon's phrase “Knowledge is Power” refers not only to natural science and technology, aiming at understanding natural phenomena and obtaining material wealth, but also to social sciences and technologies, concerning social ideals and seeking harmonious and sustainable development in society. Innovation and entrepreneurship based on natural sciences and technologies have facilitated science and technology parks in the past; however, innovation and entrepreneurship based on social sciences and technologies are now laying the foundations for the concept of a “social innovation park”. The distinctive characteristics of social innovation parks and how social academic entrepreneurship is fostered by them through strategy and policy-making at local, national and global levels are explored in this study.     

Berle and Means revisited: The governance and power of large U.S. corporations

In The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932), Berle and Means warned of the concentration of economic power brought on by the rise of the large corporation and the emergence of a powerful class of professional managers, insulated from the pressure not only of stockholders, but of the larger public as well. In the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, Berle and Means warned that the ascendance of management control and unchecked corporate power had potentially serious consequences for the democratic character of the United States. Social scientists who drew on Berle and Means in subsequent decades presented a far more benign interpretation of the rise of managerialism, however. For them, the separation of ownership from control actually led to an increased level of democratization in the society as a whole. Beginning in the late 1960s, sociologists and other social scientists rekindled the debate over ownership and control, culminating in a series of rigorous empirical studies on the nature of corporate power in American society. In recent years, however, sociologists have largely abandoned the topic, ceding it to finance economists, legal scholars, and corporate strategy researchers. In this article, I provide a brief history of the sociological and finance/legal/strategy debates over corporate ownership and control. I discuss some of the similarities between the two streams of thought, and I discuss the reasons that the issue was of such significance sociologically. I then argue that by neglecting this topic in recent years, sociologists have failed to contribute to an understanding of some of the key issues in contemporary business behavior. I provide brief reviews of four loosely developed current perspectives and then present an argument of my own about the changing nature of the U.S. corporate elite over the past three decades. I conclude with a call for sociologists to refocus their attention on an issue that, however fruitfully handled by scholars in other fields, cries out for sociological analysis.     

The Ideological Convergence of Civil Society Organizations and Newspapers in Turkey

This study investigates the extent to which newspapers are polarized in representing civil society organizations in Turkey. In examining the news in 15 printed newspapers and 2 online newspapers in 2017, we found that (1) 1499 associations and 499 foundations were mentioned but not equally distributed across the newspapers, (2) Turkish newspapers’ coverage of associations/foundations was affected by the type of association/foundation (religious/conservative vs. secular) and newspaper (pro-government vs. anti-government), (3) when news about an association/foundation appeared in pro-government newspapers, it did not appear in anti-government newspapers, and vice versa, and (4) secular associations/foundations were covered more often by anti-government newspapers than by pro-government newspapers. We therefore argue that in countries such as Turkey, where civil society organizations have historically been closely allied with state or political ideologies, newspapers’ political stances affect the media coverage of civil society organizations.

     

Active participation in preventionist professional practices: a specific ergonomics training course

Currently, the different forms of corporate management methods (quality circles, lean manufacturing, etc.) are usually based on employee mobilisation. Very often, the goal of this type of approach is at best, to ensure that employees embrace corporate projects, or otherwise to impose changes on them without taking into account the real work and difficulties that they face daily. However, do these employee solicitation methods converge with participatory approaches as envisaged by ergonomists and more generally, preventionists? Based on the observation that the activity of institutional preventionists evolves with regulatory constraints and work related to the monitoring of indicators, the implementation and steering of the participatory approach within companies may be a major lever for prevention. After describing the foundations of a participatory approach, this paper will present a training experiment aimed at implementing and promoting employee participation in prevention efforts. The content of this training is then analysed with regard to the balance between methodology and the use of trainees' narratives. The results of the training session are presented from the point of view of the development prospects for pedagogical tools and the organisation of the training.     

Manufacturing Kinship in a Nation Divided: An Ethnographic Study of North Korean Refugees in South Korea

The South Korean government continues to practice variants of what Stephan Castles (1995) calls ‘differential exclusion’, in which citizenship in the nation state for North Koreans does not confer membership in civil society. For new arrivals from North Korea, many of whom have developed a distinct distrust of anything governmental, interaction with representatives of the South Korean state bares a chilling resemblance to that which they left behind in the North.

This article argues that for newly-arrived North Koreans the failure at state level does not mean they are entirely cast adrift, as religious and secular institutions within civil society are shouldering more of the burden of adaptation for the newcomers. This article endeavours to further our understanding of the significance of these groups as spaces where, for persons in exile, the meaning of home is recreated through acts of intimate exchange and relationships are formed that have the potential to become a form of pseudo-kinship.