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This article offers a methodological tool that assesses a company's commitment to sustainability by analysing its business model (which is defined here as a description of processes through which organizations implement their competitive strategies and create value). Insofar as they are considered a key driver for long-term profitability, sustainability strategies should involve a company's value creation processes — that is, a company's business model. This paper specifically examines the extent to which mining companies engage in sustainability by performing content analyses of their business model disclosures. Our empirical analysis focuses on the UK mining industry because this sector often struggles with a host of societal, organizational, and environmental issues, and because UK mining companies are obliged to describe their business model in their strategic reports. In order to determine whether (and how) companies implement sustainability strategies in their business model, we perform a content analysis of the business model disclosures of 16 FTSE All-share index UK mining companies, for a total of 1048 text units. Our results suggest that mining companies have opted for a selective and soft approach to sustainability. Although Air, Energy, Water, Local community engagement, Environmental protection, and Labour conditions are often addressed in the business models of UK mining companies, there is very little evidence to suggest that concrete initiatives were actually implemented in other areas. In fact, some topics are completely ignored (Raw materials), almost completely ignored (Waste, Corruption and Lobbying, Local employment), or discussed in a predominantly descriptive manner (Human rights, Opportunity and equality, Recruitment and bargaining, Training). The practical implications of this study are twofold. First, we offer a new means of investigating how companies engage in sustainability by performing content analyses of their business model disclosures. Secondly, we offer a detailed discussion of how sustainability affects value creation processes in the UK mining industry.

The present study provides new information about the reproductive biology of Boswellia sacra (Burseraceae), focusing on the nectary and its attractiveness for pollinators. The nectary disc changes its color from yellow to orange and red during the flower development. The colors are related to the main period of the stigmatic receptivity, to the dehiscence of anthers with pollen presentation and the nectar secretion. Pollinators preferentially visit the flowers in the “yellow” phase and neglect the “red phase”. This suggests a sophisticated dialogue between the plant and its pollinators. The color change from yellow to red occurs in a very short time (less than 24 h) and it is due to the accumulation of anthocyanins. Despite this dialogue between plant and pollinators, the number of fruits is often scanty.

A new class of diphosphites is described, based on a tetraphenol backbone. Ligands TP1–TP5 were synthesized and fully characterized and their application in the hydroformylation of octenes was investigated. Ligand TP3, bearing a 1-naphthoxy substituent on the phosphorus, shows the highest regioselectivity toward the linear aldehyde.

Companies are paying more attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social and environmental sustainability issues. However, skeptics question whether CSR is primarily motivated by the need to integrate sustainability issues in a company’s strategic objectives or rather to manage reputation and legitimacy concerns. A company that implemented a real commitment to sustainability in its way of operating should provide users with adequate information, concerning sustainability, in its BM disclosure. Our aim is to define a method capable of assessing whether and how a companies’ commitment to sustainability is reflected in its BM disclosure within the annual report. We present qualitative level scale to classify sustainability disclosure, from the lower level, which is labelled as “Rhetoric” and includes companies whose disclosure is not connected to company business model, to the highest level,“Monitoring”, where sustainability issues are fully integrated in a company’s competitive strategy and are included in its planning and control system. The “Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors’ Report) Regulations 2013” forced UK companies to include a description of their business model in their annual strategic report. Thus, after presenting our methodology, in order to assess sustainability disclosure in a case study we investigated a sample of listed UK companies operating in extractive industries.

This study extends impression management literature by testing whether internal control mechanisms and other external control mechanisms are effective in controlling potentially misleading disclosure in management reporting.Because agency conflicts depend on environmental settings, impression management mechanisms can differ among countries. This study enlarges previous evidence by focusing on non-Anglo-Saxon countries. Italy is worth studying due to the similarities that Italian institutional environment shows with many other countries, at least in Continental Europe. Moreover, management reporting disclosure in Italy is essentially voluntary and potentially highly discretional.I develop a composite measure of disclosure bias, based on four different techniques of impression management, to assess the level of misleading disclosure included in the area of management reporting devoted to the analysis of firm performance. The findings, based on a sample of Italian listed companies, confirm the presence of self-serving disclosure in management reporting. Additionally, I find that the proportion of independent directors and the degree of foreign activity are significantly and negatively correlated with disclosure bias scores. Relevant operative implications involving the quality of management reporting disclosure in non-Anglo-Saxon countries are discussed.

Signalling theory posits that the most profitable companies provide the market with more and better information. The research, however, reveals disaccording results. Because the general disclosure level depends on many factors, our paper centres on a focal point of the signal that companies send to the financial market: the profitability indicators. As several studies have shown the strong relevance of this type of data, the hypothesis is that the most profitable companies should disclose more profitability indicators. A sample of UK and Italian firms has been selected to verify if signalling policies are adopted in two very different cultural, economic, and legal contexts. After controlling for size, risk, industry, and country, our results support our hypothesis. We conclude that the market is capable of controlling the production and use of information, concentrating it on the focal points of the agency relationship. Moreover, our results seem to dismiss the relevance of the European Directive 51/2003, which generally requires the company to communicate performance indicators. In fact, the most profitable companies communicate such data independent of any legal requirement. Less profitable companies, on the other hand, might be induced to massage their disclosure, presenting useless or doctored ratios.

In a group of 46 consecutive outpatients attending the diabetic clinic of our Metabolic Department, 30 insulin-dependent and 16 non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients in stable metabolic control, and in 38 age-matched controls, we measured vibration perception threshold with biothesiometer and autonomic function, by means of the five classical cardiovascular tests: R-R interval variations during deep breathing, Valsalva ratio, lying-to-standing, postural hypotension, and sustained handgrip. None of the patients complained of symptoms related to diabetic autonomic neuropathy (DAN) or sensory polyneuropathy. Vibration perception threshold positively correlated with Valsalva ratio (p0.05) and deep breathing (p0.01), and all of them correlated with age (p0.001), but not with duration of diabetes and metabolic control. Patients scored significantly lower than controls in vibration perception threshold and all of the autonomic function tests. According to the outcomes of cardiovascular tests ["Autonomic Score" (AS)] patients were divided into two different groups: presence (DAN+ = ASor = 3) or absence (DAN- = AS3) of autonomic neuropathy. The DAN- group (n = 28, 60.9%) showed no significant differences from the DAN+ group (n = 18, 39.1%) in age, duration of diabetes, glycated hemoglobin, or body mass index. DAN+ patients had vibration perception threshold measured at the first toe tip and at external malleolus significantly higher than DAN- patients (p0.01 and p0.001, respectively) and controls (p0.005), as well as all the other cardiovascular tests except sustained handgrip. No difference in any of these items was observed between DAN- patients and controls.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)