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Given growing interest in the phenomenon of responsible investing (RI) in South Africa, this study set out to identify and empirically evaluate the most pertinent drivers, barriers and enablers of RI locally. Telephone interviews were conducted with a sample of pension funds, asset managers and advisory service providers during 2007. All three groups of respondents viewed fiduciary responsibility as one of the most important barriers to RI in South Africa. More legislation/regulation and evidence for increased risk-adjusted returns from local RIs were identified as key drivers of RI in South Africa, whereas the two most important enablers were seen as mainstream RI benchmarks and co-operative initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is firstly to determine whether the International Integrated Reporting (IR) Framework is sufficiently robust to act as the guide for the IR movement. The secondary purpose is to speculate on the constraints that IR will face on its journey towards achieving the aims and vision of the IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council). The paper is written in the form of a critical viewpoint, and will engage with the relevant academic literature and industry-led initiatives to achieve its objectives. The main finding of this paper is that the potential of the International <IR> Framework towards achieving its objectives lies more with the way it is applied than the way it was written. Academic literature does however highlight a number of potential constraints that will have to be overcome if integrated reporting is to achieve its long-term vision of financial stability and sustainability.

As recently as the year 2010, renewable energy contributed less than 1% of all the energy sources in South Africa. Possible reasons include the lack of private sector investment in Renewable Energy technologies. By way of a structured interview methodology, this paper explores the reasons why private investors are reluctant to invest in renewables. The responses point to political, economic, social and technological barriers limiting private investment in renewable energy. Other barriers that were identified include poverty, low levels of education, limited technological readiness and access to the electricity grid. Some of these barriers are specific to the South African context. The paper concludes that a closer relationship between government and the private sector is required to stimulate innovation in the renewable energy sector.

Purpose A recent contribution entitled Global Responsibility and the King Reports was made to the literature that represents a significant advancement in the understanding of how standards of good governance are practised. The corpus revealed key insights about macro-institutional governance regimes, yet, extraordinarily little about meso-organisational and even less so, micro-individual corporate governance practice. This study aims to shed light on the micro-individual level of corporate governance practice which has remained obscured by drawing pragmatic insights from the landmark South African King Code experience that may be applied to other governance jurisdictions for global organisational responsibility. Design/methodology/approach To unearth micro-individual corporate governance code practices, a phenomenological exploration of corporate governance practitioners’ (CGPs) perceptions was conducted. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with senior board members of securities-exchange listed companies were conducted with 10 directors of leading multinational South African corporations listed on Africa’s largest formal financial market; the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Recursive analysis of the qualitative data revealed key attributes that render a corporate governance code “fulfilling” as a consequence of being perceived as subjectively valuable by practitioners who are the ultimate end-users of the King Codes for advancing good corporate governance practice in each of their respective companies. Findings Two categories of fulfilling micro-perceived value attributes (MPVAs) of corporate governance codes emerged, namely, internal and external MPVAs. The three internal MPVAs are, namely, (I1) Meaningful innovation, (I2) Ethical pragmatism and (I3) Cultural transformation. The three external MPVAs are, namely, (E1) Governance legitimacy, (E2) Societal licencing and (E3) Risk mitigation. From these six attributes, two testable corporate governance code development propositions are advanced, namely, (P1) a corporate governance code with a higher constitution of MPVAs will fulfil CGPs more than one with less. (P2) A more fulfilling corporate governance code will enjoy higher adoption, application and/or compliance rates. Originality/value Illumining the subjective experiential perceptions that constitute the fulfilment of a corporate governance code deepens the pragmatic understanding of the “demand-side” or consumption of such codes in practice. Knowing these fulfilling MPVAs may also result in the development of codes that enjoy wider adoption and compliance rates thereby enhancing global corporate responsibility pragmatism through enhanced good governance. This study sheds light on the nexus where normative corporate governance principles and the enactment thereof meet at the coalface of organisational activity with an emphasis on those attributes that render them valuable to practitioners.