Environmental, social and governance investment standardization: moving towards sustainable economy

Corrections to the article made on November 24, 2020

The standardization/adaptation debate in cross-cultural advertising is a topic on which little consensus prevails and which remains heavily discussed. Using evolutionary psychology, this paper presents a typology of advertising cues and explains their cross-cultural relevance and transportability. The paper highlights three distinct categories – human universals (evolved similarities), local adaptations (evolved differences), and local socialization (differences not due to evolution). The paper contributes to advertising theory by providing a meta-framework for the study of cross-cultural similarities and differences in the processing of advertising cues. It further assists advertising practice by delivering a framework aiding in cross-cultural advertising copy decisions. By raising the questions that the paper poses to develop the proposed typology categories, advertisers can identify which advertising cues are malleable by advertising and which are based on innate human preferences and are relatively stable. With that knowledge in hand, advertisers can decide when and to what extent to use a standardization approach versus an adaptation approach.

The role of sustainability reporting in investment decision-making is not clear and obvious. Despite the steady increase of such statements in corporate annual reports, the relationship between the sustainability reporting and the financial performance of companies is not always positive. The main problems of sustainability reporting nowadays are insufficient comparability of reporting, accuracy (lack of materiality, reliability and validity of indicators), lack of common approaches for its verification.

Synthesis of standardization and regulation features of sustainability reporting, which is provided in this paper in different dimensions (countries, regulators standards), allows to identify long-term trends of this reporting to ensure its quality during investment decision-making in traditional and responsible financial markets.

Lean management is a way to satisfy the increasing customer demands while maintaining production efficiency. This paper aims to map and analyze the level of use of lean management methods in the manufacturing industry in the Czech Republic. It searched for links and dependencies between company size, production type, and lean management methods in operational processes. The data were obtained from a nationwide survey within the manufacturing industry companies and were presented using descriptive statistics. A structured questionnaire was sent to 469 manufacturing companies with a return rate of 18.8%. Nonparametric statistical analysis (Fisher’s exact test) was used to confirm or reject the hypotheses. The research results confirmed the dependence of lean management methods on company size and production type. Lean management methods are used mainly by large enterprises, while micro- and small enterprises rarely employ them. Considering production typology, lean management is applied in serial production, and Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) prevails. The most used techniques in mass production include the method of order in the workplace (5S) and Kaizen. The findings suggest that the future of industrial output should focus on sustainability and rationalization of production resources, which is offered by the synergy of lean management and Industry 5.0.

Acknowledgment
This paper is co-financed by IGA/FLKR/2023/002 Rationalization and Sustainability of Resources in Production-Logistics Processes the Czech Republic and RVO/FLKŘ/2024/01 Logistic Systems Safety.