Business and Social Reputation: Exploring the Concept and Main Dimensions of Corporate Reputation

Different theoretical approaches highlight the growing relevance of corporate reputation as strategic factor. Among these approaches the arguments of the Resource-Based View are special worthwhile (Grant, 1991, California Management Review 33(3), 114–135; Barney, 1999, Sloan Management Review Spring, 137–145). Nevertheless, this topic poses several methodological problems (Barney et al., 2001), as the unavailability to identify and measure this organizational factor, that is “socially complex” and intangible in its nature. In this work, using the findings of our empirical research on Spanish biotechnology firms, we carry out an identification and measurement of corporate reputation, highlighting its two key components: “business reputation” and “social reputation”. Dr. Gregorio Martín de Castro is Assistant Professor at the Business Administration Department in Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). He has several years of research experience at CIC Spanish Knowledge Society Research Centre, he holds an Expert Diploma in Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management from INSEAD (France), and he was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University during 2004–2005. He is author and co-author of several papers concerning Resource-Based View, Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management. Dr. José Emilio Navas López is Professor and Head of the Business Administration Department in Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). He is author and co-author of several books and papers concerning Technology Management, Strategy and Knowledge Management. He has held the first Knowledge Management Chair in Spain at I.U. Euroforum Escorial. Dr. Pedro López Sáez is Assistant Professor at the Business Administration Department in Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) and he was a Research Fellow at Harvard University during 2004–2005. He has several years of research experience at CIC Spanish Knowledge Society Research Centre and he is author and co-author of several papers concerning Resource-Based View, Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management.     

Gender differences in proclivity for unethical behavior

This paper explores possible connections between gender and the willingness to engage in unethical business behavior. Two approaches to gender and ethics are presented: the structural approach and the socialization approach. Data from a sample of 213 business school students reveal that men are more than two times as likely as women to engage in actions regarded as unethical but it is also important to note that relatively few would engage in any of these actions with the exception of buying stock with inside information. Fifty percent of the males were willing to buy stock with insider information. Overall, the results support the gender socialization approach.Michael Betz is Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He has published articles on income inequality, accountability, gender and work, and job satisfaction. Currently he is working on the effect of gender on ethical decision making and accountability as a mechanism of social control.Lenahan O'Connell is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Carson-Newman College. His research focuses on gender differences in work experience. He is currently studying discrimination law enforcement in addition to continuing research with Michael Betz and Jon Shepard on ethics at work.Jon M. Shepard is currently Chairman of the Department of Management and Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include comparative management (particularly Japanese and American), ethics in business, the social responsibility of business, and the accountability of institutions in industrial society.     

Environmental integrity and corporate responsibility

Environmental disasters like Bhopal have a way of calling attention to environmental and corporate ethical issues. This paper discusses these issues in terms of a livable environment as an inalienable right and of corporate responsibility as an philosophical and social psychological disposition that enables corporations to respect that right. The corporate conscience is compared to the individual conscience and analyzed according to the moral development theories of Lawrence Kohlberg. Its moral development is recognized as problematic from the cited performance records of some leading multinational corporations and from the anti-environmental lobbying efforts of the chemical industry itself. Outreach programs in environmental health associated with research projects in corporate ethics are suggested to develop the corporate conscience for preserving environmental integrity through corporate responsibility.Richard Guerrette is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Connecticut at Hartford. He is also a Research Fellow at Yale Divinity School where he is conducting a research study in organization management process and corporate ethics. He is an author of two books on ecumenical ministry and social movement organization in the church and has published extensively in theological journals. He operates EQUIPAX, an organization/management consulting service in Farmington, Connecticut.     

Trust,terrorism, and technology

The development of civilization implies an evolution of complex trust mechanisms which integrate the social system and form bonds which allow individuals to interact, even if they are strangers. Key elements of trust are predictability of consequences and an evaluation of consequences in terms of self-interest or values. Values, ethics, and norms enhance predictability. The terrorist introduces an unpredictable event which has negative consequences, thus destroying trust. However, terrorist-like situations occur in day-to-day activities. Technology itself makes the world more interdependent and less predictable. Furthermore, technological accidents and disasters, which are also unpredictable and negative, may prompt individuals to perceive technology as if it were a terrorist. Louis H. Bluhm is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Mississippi State University. He has written several articles which have been published in Rural Sociology, and with P. M. Shingi he has written a chapter in a book.     

Productivity and the nature of work

It is argued that in approaching the issue of Canada's competitiveness in finished products and services internationally, a singular focus on productivity may be but a symptom of more serious underlying problems. Examples of such problems are provided and the implications and ethical concerns resulting from the probable technical solutions utilized to improve productivity are explored. Terrence H. White is Professor and Dean at the Faculty of Arts, The University of Alberta. He formerly held a Chair at the Department of Sociology, University of Alberta and was Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Windsor. His most important publications are: Power or Pawns: Boards of Directors in Canadian Corporations (CCH, Toronto, 1978) and Production Workers and Perceptions of Intraorganization Mobility, Sociological Inquiry 44 (2), 121–129.     

Ethics and Religion: An Empirical Test of a Multidimensional Model

Although it seems that ethics and religion should be related, past research suggests mixed conclusions on the relationship. We argue that such mixed results are mostly due to methodological and conceptual limitations. We develop hypotheses linking Cornwall et al.’s (1986, Review of Religious Research, 27(3): 266–244) religious components to individuals’ willingness to justify ethically suspect behaviors. Using data on 63,087 individuals from 44 countries, we find support for three hypotheses: the cognitive, one affective, and the behavioral component of religion are negatively related to ethics. Surprisingly, one aspect of the cognitive component (i.e., belief in religion) shows no relationship. Implications for research and practice are discussed. K. Praveen Parboteeah (Ph.D. Washington State University) is an Associate Professor of International Management in the Department of Management, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. Parboteeah’s research interests include international management, ethics, religion and technology and innovation management. He has published articles in numerous academic journals including Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Decision Sciences, Small Group Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of World Business, Management International Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, R&D Management and Journal of Engineering and Technology Management Martin Hoegl (Ph.D. University of Karlsruhe, Germany) is Professor at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, where he holds the Chair of Leadership and Human Resource Management. Before joining WHU, he served on the faculties of Washington State University and Bocconi University (Milan, Italy). His research interests include leadership and collaboration in organizations, management of R&D personnel, knowledge creation in innovation processes, and the management of geographically dispersed collaboration. He has published in leading international journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, the Journal of Management, Decision Sciences, and others. John B. Cullen is Professor of Management at Washington State University. He has also served on the faculties of the University of Nebraska, the University of Rhode Island, Waseda and Keio Universities in Japan (as a Fulbright lecturer), and the Catholic University of Lille in France. Professor Cullen is the past president of the Western Academy of Management. Professor Cullen is the author or co-author of four books and over 60 journal articles. His publications have appeared in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Organizational Studies, Management International Review, Journal of Vocational Behavior, American Journal of Sociology, Organizational Dynamics, and the Journal of World Business. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies and has served on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal and Advances in International Comparative Management Journal.     

Ethical Stewardship – Implications for Leadership and Trust

Great leaders are ethical stewards who generate high levels of commitment from followers. In this paper, we propose that perceptions about the trustworthiness of leader behaviors enable those leaders to be perceived as ethical stewards. We define ethical stewardship as the honoring of duties owed to employees, stakeholders, and society in the pursuit of long-term wealth creation. Our model of relationship between leadership behaviors, perceptions of trustworthiness, and the nature of ethical stewardship reinforces the importance of ethical governance in dealing with employees and in creating organizational systems that are congruent with espoused organizational values. Cam Caldwell is Assistant Professor of Management in the School of Business at Weber State University. His research is primarily in the areas of organizational governance, ethical leadership and trust. He received his Ph.D from Washington State University where he was Thomas S. Foley Graduate Fellow. He has worked as a City manager, Human Resource Director, and Management Consultants for 30 years. Linda A. Hayes is Assistant Professor and Director of Program Assessment in the School of Business Administration of the University of Houston – Victoria. She received a B.S.M.E. from Clarkson University, an M.B.A from the University of Houston, and a Ph.D from University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Hayes has 15 years of industry experience. Her research interests include decision-making, stakeholder behavior, business strategy. Dr. Hayes was a 1996 NASA Faculty Fellow. Recently, she has published in the Journal of Management Development, Journal of International Marketing, Business Horizons and International Journal of Mobile Communications. Ranjan Karri is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He received his Ph.D from Washington State University. His research interests are in the areas of entrepreneurship, ethics and strategy. Patricia Martinez is a cum laude graduate of the University of Houston – Victoria School of Business and works for the Learning Education Achieve Dreams program at that University to help young people in the Victoria, Texas Community set and achieve personal and educational goals.     

Modeling the Effects of an International Crisis on Brand Equity

ABSTRACT

This research provides an analysis of the impact of an international crisis on brand equity. More specifically, the author tests a comprehensive model that examines the joint impact of animosity as well as the social pressure to avoid brands that originate from a controversial country. He explores the impact of what came to be known as the Mohammed controversy, which involved the Danish press publishing a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed on a Danish brand. Data were collected using a survey from 307 consumers in Kuwait. The findings show that animosity is not related to overall brand equity but is related to brand quality; moreover, subjective norms are negatively associated with overall brand equity. These results highlight the importance of subjective norms in influencing overall brand equity in times of international crises between nations.     

Brand resurrection in an emerging economy

Abstract

Ramesh, the proprietor of Amalya Dairy Pvt Ltd, looks at the recommendations given by the market research firm for rebuilding the brand image after a major brand crisis. After Amalya Dairy suffered a huge loss recently, Ramesh is now being careful about spending the company funds. A 60-year-old and a late adopter of technology, he is not very comfortable with the suggestion of having a public relations manager represent his brand on social media. At the same time, he recalls the recent setback his brand image took due to the lightning speed at which the latest communication channels operate. He looks at the report and the recommendations given by the market research firm one more time, in order to make the final decision regarding the company’s integrated marketing communication plan.     

Robert M. Collins. Transforming America: Politics and Culture during the Reagan Years

Robert Collins has written two superb books treating modernAmerican business history—The Business Response to Keynes(1981), and More: The Politics of Growth in Postwar America(2000). In this, his most recent and elegantly written book,he takes on the rather more slippery, amorphous cultural historyof the period. He even dives undaunted into that most murkyphenomenon, "postmodernism." There, he has some delightful thingsto say about "the therapeutic culture" and the "self-esteem"fad that it produced. In his treatment     

Corporate Social Strategy in Multinational Enterprises: Antecedents and Value Creation

In this article, we examine the relationship of the multinational firm’s market environment, stakeholders, resources, and values to the development of strategic social planning and strategic social positioning. Using a sample of multinational enterprises in Mexico, we examine the relationship of these different ways of conducting social strategy to the creation of value by the firm. The market conditions of munificence and dynamism, and the resource for continuous innovation are found to be related to strategic social positioning. The social responsibility orientation of the firm is related to strategic social planning. Positioning is related to value creation for the multinational firm, but planning is not. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice. Bryan W. Husted is a professor of management at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Mexico) and Alumni Association Chair of Business Ethics at the Instituto de Empresa (Spain). His research focuses on corporate social and environmental management. His work has appeared in such publications as the Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, and the Journal of Business Ethics. David B. Allen is a professor of strategy at the Instituto de Empresa (Spain). He received an MBA from New York University and his M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. His research focuses on non-market strategy. His work has appeared in such publications as the Journal of International Business Studies and the Journal of Business Ethics. He has consulted extensively for European and American multinational firms.     

American political values and agency theory: A perspective

This paper explores the historical American political values which have shaped modern financial theory and agency theory. Financial agency theory's intellectual roots are shown to be located in the liberal tradition which espouses the instrumental nature of property and property rights. The paper also argues that financial theorists should recognize that, historically, economic efficiency was not a value or end in itself but merely a means by which more fundamental social goals might be achieved. Fred R. Kaen is a Professor of Finance at the University of New Hampshire. He has written many articles about financial markets and international financial management. His work has appeared in The American Economic Review, The Journal of Finance and The Journal of Money Credit and Banking. He will be spending next year at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business as a Visiting Professor of Finance. Allen Kaufman is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of New Hampshire. He has written a number of books including Capitalism, Slavery and Republican Values and his work has been published in the California Management Review, the Journal of Political and Military Sociology, and Business Horizons.Larry Zacharias is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Massachusetts. He holds a law degree and has written many articles about corporate law and anti trust.     

The ethics of psychoactive ads

Many of today's ads work by arousing the viewer's emotions. Although emotion-arousing ads are widely used and are commonly thought to be effective, their careless use produces a side-effect: the psychoactive ad. A psychoactive ad is any emotion-arousing ad that can cause a meaningful, well-defined group of viewers to feel extremely anxious, to feel hostile toward others, or to feel a loss of self-esteem. We argue that, because some ill-conceived psychoactive ads can cause harm, ethical issues must arise during their production. Current pretesting methods cannot identify the potentially psychoactive ads; therefore, we offer some tentative guidelines for reducing the number of viewers harmed by psychoactive ads.No professional, be he doctor, lawyer, or manager, can promise that he will indeed do good for his client. All he can do is try. But he can promise that he will not knowingly do harm.... Peter F. Drucker, Management ... [C]oncern for consumer welfare includes an obligation to critically evaluate all marketing techniques that have indeterminant psychological effects. Spence and Moinpour, 1972, p. 43 Dr. Michael R. Hyman is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Houston — Clear Lake. He is a member of the American Marketing Association, Institute for Management Science, Academy of Marketing Science, Southern Marketing Association, and World Future Society. His work has appeared in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Business Horizons, and several AMA national proceedings. His current research interests include foundations research and philosophical analyses in marketing. Dr. Richard Tansey is an Instructor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin — Green Bay. He has his Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas, at Austin, Texas. He received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of West Florida. He minored in philosophy of history and psycho-history while earning his Ph.D. He received a Woodrow Wilson graduate fellowship in philosophy in 1971–1972. His work has appeared in Business Horizons.     

The Escalation of Deception in Organizations

Drawing on a number of recent high-profile cases of corporate corruption, we develop a process model that explains the escalation of deception in corrupt firms. If undetected, an initial lie can begin a process whereby the ease, severity and pervasiveness of deception increases overtime so that it eventually becomes an organization level phenomenon. We propose that organizational complexity has an amplifying effect. A␣feedback loop between organization level deception and each of the escalation stages positively reinforces the process. In addition, moderators are proposed that will halt escalation at various stages. By conceptualizing corporate deception as a social process, the paper contributes to a growing body of research that looks beyond 'bad' individuals for the causes of corporate illegality. Peter Fleming is Professor of Work, Organization and Society Queen Mary College, University of London. He has held academic positions at Cambridge University and Melbourne University. His research interests center on the emerging politics of power, control and ethics in contemporary corporations. He has published extensively in academic journals including Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Sociology, Sociological Review, Work, Employment and Society and has just published a book (with Andre Spicer) entitled Contesting the Corporation: Power, Resistance and Struggle in Organizations with Cambridge University Press (2007). Stelios Zyglidopoulos is a University Lecturer in Strategy at the Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge. Prior to that, he taught at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, and the Rochester Institute for Technology, in Rochester, NY. He received his PhD in Strategy and Organization from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Zyglidopoulos has lived and worked in Greece, Canada, The Netherlands, and the United States. He has a number of years of business experience, mostly in sales and marketing, and is a reservist for the Greek Navy. His research interests focus on the management of corporate reputation; the evolution of corporate social performance; imprinting and organizational evolution; and the internationalization process of high-tech clusters.     

Business Ethics Training: Face-to-face and at a Distance

An 11-week hybrid distance learning/personal contact ethics training program, customized for a leading information technology firm, is described in the format of a sequential process. The process is grounded on discourse ethics and the ethics training guidelines premised by the Hastings Institute. Indications from the firm and from the program’s participants are that the training has been beneficial. Warren French is the Cousins Professor of Business Ethics at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. He also serves as a visiting faculty member at the Universite Jean Moulin Lyon III where he teaches business ethics. His research area is conflict resolution through discourse ethics.     

Moral Issues and Gender Differences in Ethical Judgment using Reidenbach and Robin’s (1990) Multidimensional Ethics Scale: Implications in Teaching of Business Ethics

In this study, we examined moral issues and gender differences in ethical judgment using Reidenbach and Robin’s [Journal of Business Ethics 9 (1990) 639) multidimensional ethics scale (MES). A total of 340 undergraduate students were asked to provide ethical judgment by rating three moral issues in the MES labeled: ‚sales’, ‚auto’, and ‚retail’ using three ethics theories: moral equity, relativism, and contractualism. We found that female students’ ratings of ethical judgment were consistently higher than that of male students across two out of three moral issues examined (i.e., sales and retails) and ethics theories; providing support for Eagly’s [1987, Sex Differences in Social Behavior: A Social-role Interpretation. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Hillsdale, NJ, England)] social role theory. After controlling for moral issues, women’s higher ratings of ethical judgment over men’s became statistically non-significant. Theoretical and practical implications based on the study’s findings are provided. Nhung T. Nguyen, assistant professor of human resource management at Towson University, received her Ph.D. in management from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001. Her research focuses on the use of situational judgement and personality tests in personnel selection, ethics in management education, and the application of meta-analysis and structural equations modeling in organizational research. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Applied H.R.M. Research, and Journal of Applied Social Psychology among others. M. Tom Basuray, Professor of Management at Towson University, received his Ph.D. in Business Administration in 1974 from University of Oklahoma. His research interests are in areas of organizational effectiveness, leadership and development. His articles have appeared in Journal of Organizational Change Management, Education & Psychological Measurement, International Journal of Management, Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, and Journal of Experiential Learning and Simulation. He has consulted with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Public Broadcasting Corporation, and various state and municipal government agencies both in Maryland and North Dakota. William P.Smith, Associate Professor of Management in the College of Business and Economics at Towson University, received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Arizona State University in 1982. His research interests include business ethics, privacy in the workplace and the role of social activism in corporate governance. Donald Kopka, an Assistant Professor at Towson University, received his Ph.D., in International Business from George Washington University in 1995. He teaches Business Strategy, Management Principles, and Entrepreneurship and Small Business, and was Director of the Cornerstone-Professional Experience Program in the College of Business and Economics from 1999–2003. In 2004 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam where he taught entrepreneurship and business strategy, worked on curriculum development, and conducted ongoing research on supporting industries. Information on his Fulbright experience can be found at his website . His research interests include entrepreneurship, business development, and teaching pedagogy. He formerly ran a property management business, was a program manager at the U.S. Small Business Administration, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines. Donald N. McCulloh, Lecturer in Management at Towson University, received his M.S. degree in Financial Management from The George Washington Unversity in 1968. He teaches Management Principles and has also taught Leadership. He served as Vice President for Administration and Finance at Towson University until his retirement in 1997, since then he has been a full-time member of the Management faculty. He has also served in the United States Air Force, and worked in several manufacturing industries and the automotive industry. He was Executive Director of a non-profit community development corporation.     

Roots of Marketing and Consumer Research at the University of Chicago1

The marketing and consumer research fields began to flourish in the late 1940s after World War II. Social Research, Inc. was founded in 1946 by members of the University of Chicago's faculty. Students at the University's interdisciplinary Committee on Human Development and the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology worked at Social Research, Inc., pioneering the application of behavioral methods of research to problems of business and other organizations. This paper traces the transmission of knowledge from the academic setting to the business environment. It notes especially the influence of members of the university faculty and their theories of human behavior on the emerging fields devoted to the study of consumption and culture.     

Compliance with Mandatory Environmental Reporting in Financial Statements: The Case of Spain (2001–2003)

Corporate, Social, Ethical and Environmental Reporting (SEER) should ideally discharge the accountability of an organisation to its stakeholders. Voluntary reporting has been characterised by a dearth of neutral and objective information such that the advocates of SEER recommend that it be made compulsory. Their underlying rationale is that legally specified disclosure requirements and enforcement mechanisms will enhance the quality of such reporting. This paper sets out to explore how realistic this scenario actually is, in view of the conflicting interpretations in the literature on this subject. To that end, a survey of the reporting patterns of 78 of the largest Spanish companies between 2001 and 2003 examines the extent of their compliance with the ICAC-2002 standard, which obliged them to make environmental disclosures in their financial statements. The results suggest that progressive and improved regulation could increase the volume and quality of SEER disclosures. They also suggest, however, that persistent non-compliance means that the problems associated with voluntary disclosure still exist. Finally, through an impression management perspective, the study reveals, the diverse strategies, ranging from dismissal to concealment, that are employed by companies to avoid transparency. As regulation improves and enforcement expectations rise, it becomes more difficult to dismiss compulsory reporting norms. As a result, some firms engage in more complex concealment strategies to attain corporate legitimacy, depriving stakeholders of regulatory information. The latter point serves to reconcile apparently contradictory explanations in the literature as to whether legitimacy theory might explain partial compliance with SEER regulation. Irene Criado-Jiménez is a Doctoral Candidate at the Departamento de Economía y Administración de Empresas, Universidad de Burgos. Her research interests include accounting for sustainable development and corporate accountability. Manuel Fernández-Chulián is a Doctoral Candidate at the Departamento de Economía y Administración de Empresas, Universidad de Burgos. His research interests include sustainability reporting and full cost accounting. Francisco Javier Husillos-Carqués is Assistant at the Departamento de Gestión de Empresas, Universidad Pública de Navarra and a Doctoral Candidate at the Universidad de Burgos. His research interests include social and environmental reporting and environmental management. Carlos Larrinage-González is Associate Professor at the Departamento de Economía y Administración de Empresas, Universidad de Burgos. His research interests include social and environmental accounting. He writes for interdisciplinary journals in accounting. He has co-edited special issues in European Accounting Review and Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal and currently is an Associate Editor of the Revista de Contabilidad-Spanish Accounting Review.     

University research and development activities: Intrusion into areas untended? A review of recent developments and ethical issues raised

The traditional and emerging roles of the major research entities in the United States are reviewed. Particularly controversial has been the university's emerging role of applied researcher in addition to its traditional role of basic researcher. Private, for-profit research laboratories have vociferously objected to the funding of university applied research by both the federal government and private industry. The funding of university research by these latter two entities is then reviewed and discussed. In addition to the ethical issue of whether university applied research should be funded, there is apparently another ethical issue regarding how the recipient universities are selected. In essence, if the universities intrusions are merely into untended areas, the first ethical issue seems less serious. Such may be the case if private laboratories are not equipped to perform the research. Of course, the second issue of which university should receive the funding remains. The apparently strengthening ties between universities and private industry are then reviewed. Direct ties between universities and industry still account for a very small part of university research. But impediments to cooperation are melting away as universities market their services to private industry. The authors contend that the government encourages cooperative ventures between universities and industry. They pose questions for all sides and suggest further areas of study should these joint ventures continue as they seem most likely to do. Much of the literature has leaned toward criticism of these joint efforts. Martin Kenney, in the February, 1987 issue of The Journal of Business Ethics, offered one of the more extensive efforts in his criticism of cooperative industrial/university research. Kenney concentrated on the area of biotechnology research. The present article avoids specific areas of research and takes a broad view of these cooperative research efforts. It is less critical than Kenney of the cooperation between industry and universities. David E. Blevins is Associate Professor of Management in the Department of Management and Marketing, University of Mississippi. From 1962–1971 he was employed by Caterpillar Tractor Co. in various management positions including District Representative for four European and Middle East countries. He received a Ph.D. and MBA from the University of Illinois and a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Missouri. He has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Product Innovation Management and Mississippi Business and has published three textbooks. Sid R. Ewer is Assistant Professor of Accountancy at Southwest Missouri State University. His areas of research interest involve public policy and ethics, and he has published in The Journal of System Management. He has spent eight years in state government as an executive for an educational agency, and, prior to state government Mr. Ewer was an executive for industry. He is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant and Certified Internal Auditor.