Most companies today have some commitment to corporate social responsibility, but implementing these initiatives can be particularly challenging. While a lot has been written on ethical and strategic factors, there is still a dearth of information on the practical nuts and bolts. And whereas with most other organizational initiatives the sole objective is improved financial performance, sustainability broadens the focus to include social and environmental performance, which is much more di...

Philanthropic NGOs, foundations, and corporations face endlessly competing needs when deciding to invest or donate for maximum social impact. This book fills an enormous gap by providing a system to measure, operationalize, and improve any organization's impact investments.

On September 26, 1924, the ground collapsed beneath a truck in a back alley in Washington, D.C., revealing a mysterious underground labyrinth. In spite of wild speculations, the tunnel was not the work of German spies, but rather an aging, eccentric Smithsonian scientist named Harrison Gray Dyar, Jr. While Dyar's covert tunneling habits may seem far-fetched, they were merely one of many oddities in Dyar's unbelievable life. For the first time, insect biosystematist Marc E. Epstein presents...

The ultimate "how-to-do-it" guide for corporate leaders, strategists, academics, sustainability consultants, and anyone else with an interest in actually making sustainability work for organizations. An updated edition of a landmark book at a time when a growing number of corporate leaders are asking for urgent help in "getting this done".

This research monograph critically examines convergence of financial reporting in Germany by taking into account the influence of political, social and economic factors on accounting. This study makes an original and significant contribution by examining issues and biases in the convergence process that may challenge the assumption of superiority, global comparability and universal applicability of International Financial Reporting Standards. Specifically, this monograph critically evaluat...

Identifying, measuring and improving social impact is a significant challenge for corporate and private foundations, charities, NGOs and corporations. How best to balance possible social and environmental benefits (and costs) against one another? How does one bring clarity to multiple possibilities and opportunities? Based on years of work and new field studies from around the globe, the authors have written a book for managers that is grounded in the best academic and managerial research....

An insiders' account of failed efforts to control corporate misconduct—and a forceful plan to do so.Nothing anyone has done in the past 50 years has stopped, or even slowed, corporate misconduct. Business schools have required courses on ethics, regulators have implemented laws and levied fines, and journalists have exposed the scandals named names, yet misconduct continues. Why? Is it simply the case of a few bad apples? Or maybe it's a bad orchard? Two pioneers in the field of bu...

Every four minutes, over 50 children under the age of five die. In the same four minutes, 2 mothers lose their lives in childbirth. Every year, malaria kills nearly 1.2 million people, despite the fact that it can be prevented with a mosquito net and treated for less than $1.50.Sadly, this list goes on and on. Millions are dying from diseases that we can easily and inexpensively prevent, diagnose, and treat. Why? Because even though we know exactly what people need, we just can'Äôt ...

Often business executives serve (or are asked to serve) as board members of nonprofit organizations. However, without a clear understanding of how nonprofits work, service on a board can be a frustrating experience.Joining a Nonprofit Board offers an important guide to the roles and responsibilities of a nonprofit board member. Marc J. Epstein and F. Warren McFarlan provide a step-by-step guide to how board members can work with a nonprofit organization to achieve the orga...

Over the years, the performance measurement and management control conference has grown in number of participants, quality of presentations and reputation, and has attracted leading researchers in the field from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. The 2011 theme was directed at global issues, and included the significant challenges of managing and measuring performance within and across different organizational and geographical boundaries, using theoretical, empir...

In times of economic turbulence, an organization's ability to learn from its environment and adopt innovations enhances its competitive advantage as well its ability to improve its performance. This book focuses specifically on the contribution learning and innovation in management accounting can contribute to the success of the organization. However, all management accounting innovations may not be successful. The success of an innovation is contingent upon whether the learning and implem...

The Middle Ages provide us with one of the richest repositories of art in the West. Yet the rise in the production of art made for and by Jews—especially in the form of illuminated manuscripts—is often neglected in general surveys or viewed as a mere emulation of Christian art during this period.In People of the Image, Marc Michael Epstein demonstrates how medieval Jews transformed their visual art into a vital site of critical commentary. Through bold speculation and radi...