Different forms of corporate philanthropy,different effects: A multilevel analysis

This study investigates how different types of corporate philanthropy impact employees' life satisfaction. Grounded in signaling theory, we explore and clarify the nuances among three types of corporate philanthropy values: the absolute value of corporate philanthropy, the value of a firm's corporate philanthropy relative to its past level, and the value of corporate philanthropy relative to the firm size. Results of multilevel analyses on a large scale sample with 218 firms and 2,261 employees at two time points reveal that: the absolute value of corporate philanthropy positively influences employees' life satisfaction; the value of a firm's corporate philanthropy relative to its past philanthropy negatively impacts employees’ life satisfaction; and the value of corporate philanthropy relative to the firm size positively affects employees' life satisfaction. The results indicate that the influences of corporate philanthropy on employees' life satisfaction vary depending on the evaluation benchmarks. Firms may benefit by taking their size and past philanthropy into consideration when making corporate philanthropy investment decisions.     

Commentary on “an empirical study of moral reasoning among managers”

Managerial reasoning is characteristic of a care-relationship ethics:

1. If a corporation provides certain community values to corporate members not reducible to their self-interested economic or professional objectives;
2. If such values are generated by a division of labor based on interdependence, reciprocity and concern for another's self-realization;
3. If it's based on promoting an ethical corporate self independent of its economic value.

Such an ethic is appropriate, given employees' tremendous personal contributions, the unique position of private industry to provide distinctive resources without committing extensive social resources, and due to its potential for reducing managerial moral fragmentation and hypocrisy.     

Values congruence and differences between the interplay of personal and organizational value systems

Following the research of Liedtka (1989), this paper examines the impact of her “values congruence” model on managers' work attitudes and perceptions of ethical practices within their firms. A nationwide cross-section of managers (N=1,059) provides the sample for the study. Consonance or clarity about both personal value systems and organizational value systems were found to be more important and, in the absence of one or the other, clarity of personal values were shown to have a more positive impact than organizational value clarity.     

The Influence of an Organisation’s Corporate Values on Employees Personal Buying Behaviour

This article explores the influence that an organisation’s corporate values have on employees’ behaviour and values both within and outside the work environment. In particular, it focuses on the impact of these values on the personal buying behaviour of employees. The empirical research was undertaken within a case study organisation that produces wine in Spain and involved interviews with senior management, an analysis of company documentation, as well as group discussions with employees supported by an employee survey. The article argues that an organisation’s corporate values influence not only its employees’ behaviour within the work environment, but also impacts on their global values system outside of the work environment. In particular, this was evident within the employees’ buying behaviour practices in relation to supplier loyalty and environmental concern. This has implications for business ethics as an organisation’s value system may go beyond the purely business context. Organisations need to be aware of their impact on employees’ behaviour outside of the work environment; this is particularly the case for multinational companies working across many cultures.     

Corporate governance or governance by corporates? Testing governmentality in the context of China's national oil and petrochemical business groups

Like other industrial sectors with significant – ‘pillar’ – importance in China's overall economy and development, oil and petrochemicals are governed by state-owned business groups. In this context, ‘corporate governance’ of these groups is of fundamental interest. This study probes corporate governance of 31 national oil and petrochemical business groups by examining their structure, development and business activities in the period from 2007 to 2011. The post-1998 restructuring of China's qiyejituan business groups, their related party transactions and related party corporate finance all yield insight into how property rights are decisive in how corporate governance based on governmentality – or the interrelation of corporate, state and social relations – is structured. This study sheds light on how China's big business policy and governance of the state-business interface progresses in a socialist market economy. It has clear implications international trade and investment as well as multinational corporations doing business with China.     

Multinational corporate social policy process for ethical responsibility in sub-Saharan Africa

The article identifies the challenges that multinational corporations (MNCs) from the developed world face in sub-Saharan Africa and examines the direct foreign-investment and development interests of the region. In light of these challenges and interests, it also explores answers to the question “What is to be done?” The occurrence of MNCs' operations in culturally pluralistic societies suggest that they use, as the basis for a corporation-formulated regional code of conduct, a value-based corporate social policy process. That process should embody utilitarian and situation ethics in the exercise of MNCs' prima facie operations and of their responsibilities to society. For the African normative environment, the appeal of this approach is substantiated by the notion that both utilitarian and situation ethics are at once consistent with the region's investment codes, development interests, and value systems. But more than that, utilitarian and situation ethics are consistent with corporate social policy process and can assist MNCs to meet effectively their social responsibilities by helping them reverse the economic stagnation of most of the continent. However, because deontological (that is, Kantian) ethics emphasize autonomous actions that satisfy individual goals, they are largely at odds with sub-Saharan African value systems that typically emphasize the ethnic group (heteronomy) rather than the self. MNCs would, therefore, do well to de-emphasize their use in the region.     

Linking owner–managers' personal sustainability behaviors and corporate practices in SMEs: The moderating roles of perceived advantages and environmental hostility

Drawing on managerial discretion and conflicting institutional logics literature, this study investigates the relation between the personal sustainability behaviors (PSB) of owner–managers and the corporate sustainability practices (CS practices) of SMEs. The research proposes a contingency model that assesses the moderating effects of perceived economic advantages and environmental hostility on this relationship. Based on linear hierarchical multiple regression analyses of a cross‐sectoral sample of French SMEs, the results suggest a positive influence of the manager's PSB on the SME's CS practices that appears to be differently moderated depending on the type of practice considered. The influence on environmental practices is fostered through the perception of economic advantages. The influence on workplace practices is only effective when the business environment is deemed benign and the influence on community practices is dampened by the perception of environmental hostility. Highlighting the trade‐off between the manager's personal values and the SME's economic constraints, these findings contribute to a better understanding of the critical antecedents of sustainability in small businesses.     

Value differences as determinants of importers’ perceptions of exporters’ unethical behavior: The impact on relationship quality and performance

The article focuses on the value drivers of the unethical marketing behavior of exporters, as seen from the perspective of their importers, and how this in turn affects the quality of their working relationship and performance. Based on a sample of 189 Cypriot importers, the study revealed that similarities in national, corporate, and personal values between importers and their foreign suppliers are negatively related to unethical marketing practices of the latter as perceived by the former, and vice versa. Perceived export marketing unethicality, in turn, negatively influences the exporter–importer relationship quality (as expressed in terms of cooperation, communication, trust, and commitment), which subsequently has harmful effects on the performance of the relationship. In addition, the existence of a high similarity in both value strength and ethical codes between importers and their export suppliers was found to positively affect the quality of the working relationship. Finally, the association of both corporate and personal values similarity with perceived export marketing unethicality was found to be moderated by network ties, although this was not evident in the case of national values similarity. The findings of the study have important implications for import managers in terms of properly selecting and handling relationships with their foreign suppliers.     

Canada's Ageing Population and Projected Changes in Value Orientations and the Demand for Urban Services

This cross-sectional survey of 12 age groups in the Canadian urban population detected age differences in consumers' value orientations. Thus, Canada's changing age structure will probably be accompanied by a shift in value orientations - the collective result of value orientational changes as a person ages. Because personal values determine the types of services that are important to a consumer, this shift in values will alter the demand for several kinds of urban services and facilities in the next 20 years - in particular, fine restaurants, movie theatres and family theme parks, as well as for many kinds of health-care facilities.     

Building user engagement to mhealth apps from a learning perspective: Relationships among functional,emotional and social drivers of user value

Smartphone applications for health-oriented purposes, or mHealth apps (MHAs), represent a growing opportunity to improve efficiency and sustainability in both national health systems and individual citizens' self-management of their health condition. However, little is known about how to build user engagement with MHAs to avoid user dropout and encourage their long-term loyalty and advocacy of MHAs to other users. This paper analyzes how to build user engagement from a learning perspective, strengthening the effort to learn about personal healthcare. Specifically, we investigate how the determinants of MHAs' functional value (technology effort, technology performance, and brand trust) drive the user's hedonic (enjoyment) and social (networking, social image) value. Data is obtained from a sample of 400 current users of MHAs. Our findings show that technology performance mainly enhances the user's networking experience, while technology effort contributes mostly to enjoyment and brand trust is critical to the user's social image. The user's hedonic and social experience benefit user engagement, which ultimately fosters user loyalty and advocacy, thus bolstering the relevance of developing user-centric MHAs. Robustness analysis does not reveal gender, age, income level, or type of MHA impact, although user education moderates the strength of some of these relationships.     

Social Marketing and Privately Held Companies: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Activities on Romanian Consumers

The notion of corporate social responsibility has evolved into a fairly complex concept that can influence the very world we live in. Today's society is interested not only in companies' financial results but also in the way they conduct their businesses. Corporations everywhere try to respond to new environmental challenges by actively engaging in the life of the community and by developing relationships based on mutual trust with consumers. This article introduces the corporate social responsibility domain by underlining the importance of this concept to the later development of a company. The article denounces the results of research conducted on Romanian consumers regarding corporate social responsibility campaigns undergone by firms in Romania. Its purpose is to bring insight into Romanian consumers' perceptions of recent social campaigns, reviewing the extent to which these consumers are willing to become involved in society's well-being. The survey conducted here attempts to provide answers to issues that concern the companies' involvement type, their purview, the reasons for participating in society's welfare, as well as the social campaigns' most common action areas. The results gathered show that corporate social responsibility is not only a promotion method, but a method that implies the effective involvement in the life of the community and in its subsequent issues, therefore representing a real means of support for the economic development of the community in question. In conclusion, companies must put their social conscience into use when dealing with their clients and stakeholders, by offering solutions to environmental concerns, resource management, mutual aid, and welfare rising from corporate support.     

Values,motivations, and personal goals: Revisited

This article deals with the concepts of values, motivations, and personal goals. These concepts are first analyzed from a conceptual standpoint. In spite of numerous attempts to define them, clear-cut definitions have yet to be found. An empirical survey confirms this theoretical analysis. It shows that individuals structure these three concepts into four meaningful dimensions oriented toward success in one's private life, professional success, success in one's social life, and humanitarianism. These results are at variance with recent published research. It is suggested that using values in marketing studies may lead to ambiguous results and that a combination of values, motivations, and personal goals may prove to be superior. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Valuation and firm investment and financing policies with personal tax biases

In this paper we examine firm financial policies in the presence of personal tax biases (e.g., favoring capital gains relative to interest and dividends). A form of the value additivity principle (VAP) for the tax bias case is established and applied to the firm's merger, investment, financial structure, and dividend decisions. As with the neutral tax VAP, the revised VAP requires transaction costless capital markets but does not require capital market completeness or competitiveness. Share value maximization is found not to be the proper goal for a firm that seeks to maximize the shareholders' current expected utility; however, it is found that share value maximization is generally a good approximate objective. Firm investment policy with financial structure irrelevance (owing to offsetting personal and corporate taxes) is examined assuming that the revised VAP holds.     

Gender differences in perceived workplace harassment and gender egalitarianism: A comparative cross-national analysis

Using 2015 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data on 38,179 individuals from 36 countries in 9 relatively homogeneous global regions, we analyze the gender differences and the gender gap in perceived workplace harassment (PWH) with particular attention to gender equality's and gender egalitarianism's roles in molding these differences. We find that despite large regional differences, women in most countries are more likely than men to perceive workplace harassment, although this likelihood is higher in countries that score favorably on our gender equality measures. Hence, political empowerment and better economic opportunities alter women's perceptions of workplace harassment, increasing the probability of their experiencing it. Our results also underscore the important roles of values and gender egalitarian practices. Whereas enhanced gender egalitarianism values increase women's perceptions of workplace harassment, concrete practices tend to reduce them. Especially for management, this result highlights the importance of actually implementing gender equality policies at a corporate level, because a discrepancy between corporate values and practices on this issue will only accentuate the perception of harassment.     

Managing Successful Brands: An Empirical Study which Compares the Corporate Cultures of Companies Managing the World's Top 100 Brands with Those Managing Outsider Brands.

Corporate culture can be a significant, strategic factor in the successful management of brands. Through a comparative research survey into the World's Top 100 brand companies and those outside this category (Outsider brand companies), this article explores whether the corporate cultures of the Top 100 brand companies are different from those of Outsider brand companies.

Most of the significant differences were found in the consumer goods sector, traditionally associated with strong brands. Top 100 managers were found to be more at ease with themselves and their companies than managers of Outsider brands. They were also better able to handle conflict through corporate cultures which emphasised open discussion, (even argument). Significantly, the research found that the corporate cultures of Top 100 brand companies were perceived as 'stronger' than those of Outsider brands, and, though not necessarily a success factor in itself, when linked to values, beliefs and behaviours such as those identified in this paper, were associated with successful brands.     

Predictors and financial outcomes of corporate entrepreneurship: An exploratory study

Today, there is considerable scholarly and managerial interest in corporate entrepreneurship; that is, those activities that enhance a company's ability to innovate, take risk, and seize opportunities in its markets. Corporate entrepreneurship centers on creating new business by penetrating new markets, pursuing new business, or both.Despite the growing recognition and use of corporate entrepreneurship, little empirical research has been done on its antecedents and potential association with company financial performance. To fill this gap in the literature, this study proposes a model that identifies potential environmental, strategic, and organizational factors that may spur or stifle corporate entrepreneurship. The model also highlights the potential associations between corporate entrepreneurship and corporate financial performance.Building on the existing literature, the study advances five hypotheses that operationalize the model. The hypotheses are tested using data from 119 of the Fortune 500 industrial firms, covering the period 1986 to 1989. This exploratory study's results indicate that: (1) environmental dynamism, hostility, and heterogeneity (multiplicity and complexity of environmental components) intensify corporate entrepreneurship; (2) growth-oriented strategies are associated with increased corporate entrepreneurship, whereas a strategy of stability is not conducive to corporate entrepreneurship; (3) the scanning, formal communication, and integration components of formal organizational structure are positively related to corporate entrepreneurship—increased differentiation and extensive controls stifle corporate entrepreneurship; (4) clearly defined organizational values, whether relating to competitors or employees, are positively associated with corporate entrepreneurship; and (5) corporate entrepreneurship activities are associated with company financial performance and reduced systematic risk.     

The Value of Imputation Tax Credits on Australian Hybrid Securities

Hybrid securities are becoming an increasingly important component of the capital structure of Australian firms. While displaying characteristics of both debt and equity, one principal equity attribute of hybrids is their ability to pay franked dividends. This enables resident domestic investors to claim corporate tax payments as a credit against personal tax obligations under Australia's dividend imputation tax system. This paper estimates a value for the ‘franking credits’ that attach to hybrid securities by examining stock price changes around ex‐dividend dates. We add to the literature that examines the ex‐day price changes of ordinary shares (OS) in that the hybrid securities we examine have high dividend yields and are relatively insensitive to market movements. Therefore the signal‐to‐noise ratio is much higher than for OS. Our analysis reveals that cum‐dividend day prices on hybrid securities do not include any value for franking credits. This result is consistent with the notion that the price‐setting investor in the Australian market is a foreign investor who places no value on franking credits.     

Linking corporate logo,corporate image,and reputation: An examination of consumer perceptions in the financial setting

This study aims to fill a gap in marketing studies concerning the effect of a logo on consumer evaluations. The research addresses two questions: (1) what are the factors that influence the favorability of the corporate logo; and (2) what are the main influences of this favorability on corporate image and corporate reputation? The favorability of a corporate logo is reflected by the extent to which consumers positively regard that logo. The findings from the consumers' perspectives in the context of a financial setting, suggest that the main factors that bear influence on a favorable corporate logo (antecedents) are: corporate name, design, and typeface. The findings reveal the importance of the company's corporate logo in enhancing the corporate image, attitude toward advertisements, recognizability, familiarity, and corporate reputation. Key implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.     

The role of disclosure in organized word‐of‐mouth marketing programs

Prevailing views of organized word‐of‐mouth (WOM) marketing programs suggest that disclosing corporate affiliation reduces perceived credibility and hampers campaign effectiveness. To test this view we surveyed WOM marketing agents and their conversational partners (CP) after a WOM marketing episode. Results indicate that when disclosure occurred – defined as when the CP was aware they were talking with a person participating in an organized WOM marketing program – agents were rated as more credible, CPs had fewer negative feelings about the agent's corporate affiliation, and CPs told more people about the brand being discussed. These counter‐intuitive results can be explained in part by the existing personal relationship between the agent and CP and invite us to consider how personal relationships may moderate the impact and potential business advantages of disclosure in organized WOM marketing programs.     

Banking,bureaucracy and the career: the curious case of Mr Notman

The cornerstone of banks' internal control was the inspection system that fanned out from the centre to examine all local transactions and records. A critical aspect of the inspection system was reporting on staff performance. Inspection was the lynchpin of the banks' surveillance systems that reached into all aspects of their employees' professional and personal lives before 1939. The nature of this control was revealed by a court case involving a Scottish bank clerk refused permission to marry by his employer. The rationale for this marriage bar lay in the nature of the banking career which was pursued in strictly ‘closed’ internal labour markets. Promotion was governed by professional competence and the organisation's assessment of the individual's personal development.