Corporate Social Responsibility

A new sustainability report by Morningstar reached a surprising conclusion: ESG practices in some emerging markets are superior to those of the US.

Rising interest rates show no sign of dampening dividend payouts or stock buybacks. Not yet, at least.

Companies worldwide struggle to measure and report how well they are “doing good” as they do well for their stakeholders.

Changes in technology, regulation and the distribution of wealth are reshaping private banking throughout the Americas.

Tensie Whelan, director of the Center for Sustainable Business at New York University’s Stern School of Business, talks about the growing bottom-line case for sustainable practices. 

Private-sector entities are getting involved in providing aid, education and even jobs to refugees in order to mitigate the crisis. 

The cost of producing solar power has fallen sharply in the past five years—so much that in some cases it can be half the price, or even less, of conventional power. Experts predict solar's cost will continue to plummet. 

US: Heather Bresch, the CEO of Mylan, an American pharmaceuticals company, finds herself at the center of one of the biggest pharma controversies in recent years: price-gouging.

In potentially the biggest foreign corporate takeover ever by a German company, Bayer seeks to buy Monsanto for 62 billion. Werner Bauman gets into agribusiness.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has a change of heart regarding US sanctions against her country. 

Mexico | Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is advocating a massive shift to a three-day workweek, particularly for older employees. 

Highly compensated Israeli bank executives feel harried by a new law placing limits on their salaries.  

Panama
The country has been a stellar performer in Latin America, but now a worldwide scandal about its massive offshore financial industry is putting Panama’s economic growth at risk.

Management | Corporate Culture
Several recent financial and corruption scandals have forced multinationals to develop comprehensive corporate conduct and compliance programs.

Management | Corruption
At the anticorruption summit held in London last month, world leaders pledged to fight tax dodging, boost transparency and redouble efforts to confiscate and repatriate stolen assets to many of the world’s poorest countries.

Corporate leaders can be forgiven for not thinking too far ahead. The length of time that investors hold stock has fallen. Share-holders want fast rewards—and quick fixes when performance flags. Moreover, given the upheavals and macroeconomic uncertainties of the past decade, many CEOs and CFOs have been preoccupied with firefighting.

Corporate Charity | Trends
Billionaire philanthropy may be growing, but it is also giving rise to a new trend that could change the face of charitable giving.

Management | Corporate Governance
With the enactment of the Modern Slavery Act in October, the United Kingdom has made a new addition to the growing body of compliance regulations sprouting up globally.

Management | Corporate Boards
Led by investors such as Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman and Jeff Smith, and targeting companies from DuPont to PepsiCo, campaigns by activist investors have become a common occurrence in the United States in the past few decades.

Thomas Gass, assistant secretary-general for policy coordination and interagency affairs in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations, talked with Global Finance about the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals and how the private sector can help.