Socially responsible activities help create business value, develop strategic resources, and insure against risks, but also cost money and distract management. These prior findings are mainly based on established corporations and may not extend to new ventures in which the liability of newness may suppress some positive effects and amplify some negative impacts of socially responsible activities. New ventures whose strategic decisions have a long-term orientation, however, are able to counteract their liability of newness and thereby generate net positive economic returns. We tested these relationships by surveying the chief executive officers and presidents and studying the signature Web sites of 149 new ventures. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

series:Trends and Issues in Global Tourism

This book offers insights into important trends and future scenarios in the global tourism and travel industry. Besides the general topics (aviation and hospitality industry, destination management, marketing, and distribution management) it analyses current challenges and impacts resulting especially from developments in social media, corporate social responsibility and eco-mobility. ...

Publication year: 2012
Source: Journal of Business Research, Available online 13 February 2012

Edward Ramirez

Guided by stakeholder theory, a pair of exploratory studies identifies factors that influence firms to adopt an environmentally-friendly approach to conducting business, while providing insight into consumers' perceptions of such firms. An analysis of twenty in-depth interviews and a qualitative survey yields a conceptual model, indicating that such firms are motivated by governmental intervention, organizational values, and the potential benefits that can accrue as a result of implementation. Moreover, consumers view sustainably-oriented firms as maintaining procedures, developing products, and portraying themselves accordingly. These findings are relevant to academicians as they describe the underlying rationale for such behaviors and outline a novel conceptualization of the construct, thus invigorating future research. The results are also useful for firms as they shed light on sustainability efforts that are salient to the consumer and provide support for implementation, thereby encouraging the joint maximization of social and economic objectives.

Publication year: 2012
Source: Acta Psychologica, Volume 139, Issue 2, February 2012, Pages 300-308

Bettina Bläsing, Beatriz Calvo-Merino, Emily S. Cross, Corinne Jola, Juliane Honisch, ...

Dance is a rich source of material for researchers interested in the integration of movement and cognition. The multiple aspects of embodied cognition involved in performing and perceiving dance have inspired scientists to use dance as a means for studying motor control, expertise, and action-perception links. The aim of this review is to present basic research on cognitive and neural processes implicated in the execution, expression, and observation of dance, and to bring into relief contemporary issues and open research questions. The review addresses six topics: 1) dancers' exemplarymotor control, in terms of postural control, equilibrium maintenance, and stabilization; 2) how dancers'timing and on-line synchronizationare influenced by attention demands and motor experience; 3) the critical roles played bysequence learning and memory; 4) how dancers make strategic use ofvisual and motor imagery; 5) the insights into the neural coupling between action and perception yielded through exploration of the brain architecture mediating dance observation; and 6) aneuroestheticsperspective that sheds new light on the way audiences perceive and evaluate dance expression. Current and emerging issues are presented regarding future directions that will facilitate the ongoing dialog between science and dance.

Highlights

â–º Dance is a valuable source for studying the integration of movement and cognition. â–º Dance expertise involves motor control, memory, imagery, and synchronization. â–º Neural correlates of watching dance yield insight into action-perception coupling.