The Influence of Native Versus Foreign Language on Chinese Subjects’ Aggressive Financial Reporting Judgments

Researchers have suggested that ethical judgments about “right” and “wrong” are the result of deep and thoughtful principles and should therefore be consistent and not influenced by factors, such as language (Costa et al. in PLoS ONE 9(4):e94842, 2014b, p. 1). As long as an ethical scenario is understood, individuals’ resolution should not depend on whether the ethical scenario is presented in their native language or in a foreign language. Given the forces of globalization and international convergence, an increasing number of accountants and accounting students are becoming proficient in more than one language, and they are required to interpret and apply complex ethical pronouncements issued by various global standard setters both in their native language and in English. There have been calls in the literature to examine whether subjects make systematically different ethical judgments in a foreign language than in their native language. We contribute to the literature by drawing on culture, linguistics, and psychology research to provide empirical evidence that Chinese subjects are more aggressive in interpreting the concept of control when providing their consolidation reporting recommendations in English than in Simplified Chinese. We applied a 2 × 2 within-subject and between-subject randomized experimental design using a sample of Chinese final year undergraduate accounting students at a leading Chinese university, where accounting courses are taught in both Simplified Chinese and English. Students in our study are proxy for entry-level accounting practitioners. Our findings have implications for the globalized business world and cross-cultural research by challenging the commonly held assumption that an individual’s ethical judgment is consistent in different languages. We suggest that systematically different ethical judgments in native and foreign languages needs to be recognized.     

Susceptibility to the ‘Dark Side’ of Goal-Setting: Does Moral Justification Influence the Effect of Goals on Unethical Behavior?

Setting goals in the workplace can motivate improved performance but it might also compromise ethical behavior. In this paper, we propose that individual differences in the dispositional tendency to morally justify behavior moderate the effects of specific performance goals on unethical behavior. We conducted an experimental study in which working participants, who were randomly assigned to a specific goal condition or to a condition with a vague goal that lacked a specific target (i.e., ‘do your best’), completed two tasks in which they had the opportunity to act unethically. In an ethical dilemma task, participants in the specific goal condition were more likely to advocate using unethical methods. However, in an anagram task, only those with high moral justification overstated their performance to a greater degree in the specific goal condition. As such, individuals may not be equally susceptible to the ‘dark side’ of goal-setting.     

Negotiators’ Attitudes toward Signing Business Contracts: Evidence from Greece and Israel

This study extends beyond negotiation process and styles, and focuses on negotiators’ tendency to sign formal contracts. Drawing on a risk mitigation perspective, it examines the influence of businesspeople's levels of horizontal and vertical individualism‐collectivism, ethical idealism, and trust propensity on their attitudes toward signing formal negotiated business contracts in Greece and in Israel. A survey questionnaire was translated from English to Greek and to Hebrew, and 649 responses were collected from employees who worked in industries such as banking, insurance, construction, manufacturing, retailing, and tourism in the Greek and Israeli private and public sectors. Our findings suggest that higher levels of horizontal individualism, horizontal collectivism, and ethical idealism increase employees’ tendency to sign formal contracts, whereas lower levels of general trust are associated with a higher propensity to sign formal contracts. Interestingly, employees’ propensity to sign formal contracts was significantly lower in Israel than in Greece. We argue that the propensity to sign formal contracts, and thus to mitigate potential agreement risks, is dependent on the individuals’ cultural and personal attributes. The study provides practitioners with a set of cultural and individual attributes that can serve as predictors of negotiators’ predisposition toward signing business contracts. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

When deeds speak,words are nothing: a study of ethical leadership in Colombia

Using a sample of 124 managers and 248 subordinates, this study examines the mediating effect of subordinates’ job satisfaction in the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate organizational citizenship and counter‐productive work behaviour in the Colombian context. We additionally analyse the effect of ethical leadership on subordinates’ perception of leaders’ performance. Factor analyses of the ethical leadership scale revealed two factors, ethical person (EP) and ethical guidance (EG), which were differentially associated to the outcomes. We offer an explanation from three cultural dimensions (in‐group collectivism, institutional collectivism, and power distance) by which Colombian employees seem to be more willing to follow leaders’ ethical example as a way to strengthen their membership to the leader's group, than leaders ethical disciplining by which norms are imposed. These findings have a number of implications for organizations and managers who aim to improve their employees’ behaviour. Our advice to them is that leaders’ deeds have a greater impact than their ethical words.     

Taxpayers' Perceptions of Practitioners: Finding One Who is Effective and Does the Right Thing?

This paper examines Australian taxpayers' perceptions of their idealized tax practitioner as well as their perceptions of their current tax preparer. The analysis was based on survey responses from 2,040 randomly selected Australian taxpayers who completed the "Community Hopes, Fears and Actions Survey" (author, 2000). Three dimensions were identified as underlying taxpayer judgements of their idealized practitioner. A minority of the sample indicated that their ideal was a creative, aggressive tax planning type, a person who was well networked and familiar with tax office intelligence and enforcement priorities. A second type of idealized practitioner engaged in the cautious minimisation of tax. Unlike creative accountants, practitioners of this type avoided conflict, while being sophisticated about identifying opportunities to minimise tax. The most popular idealized type was the low risk, no fuss practitioner who was honest and risk averse. The data revealed that taxpayers are likely to find tax practitioners who have the attributes that they value most highly, but that when taxpayers' perceptions of their tax practitioner are combined with their ideals, only two substantive dimensions emerge, tax avoidance and doing the right thing. Our inability to distinguish tax practitioners who are seen to provide cautious and aggressive advice in practice has important implications for the growth of aggressive tax planning markets in the community.     

The Categories,Rules, and Demonstrations of Guanxi in Chinese Society

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Guanxi is one of the most important success factors in China. Because of differences in Eastern and Western relationships, it is essential to investigate the system of guanxi in China. Based on the differential mode of association (chaxugeju), the present study aims to construct a framework for the mechanism of guanxi in Chinese society.

Methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey of middle and senior managers was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. A sample consisting of 212 middle or senior managers who worked in China and had direct interactions with business partners was used. The participants were mainly from firms in the pharmaceutical technology, telecommunication, and retailing industries.

Findings: Guanxi categories, guanxi rules, and guanxi demonstrations were found to be correspondingly related. Business partners who had family guanxi applied the rule of need and presented intimacy interactions, whereas partners who had acquaintance guanxi often followed the rule of favor and demonstrated higher levels of reciprocity. These two corresponding paths positively influenced the strength of guanxi: The partners were more willing to sacrifice self-interest for and provide high priority in resource allocation to each other. Business partners who had stranger guanxi used the rule of equity and built trust relationships, which had negative impacts on the strength of guanxi.

Practical implications: Because guanxi affects the performance of companies in China, maintaining guanxi networks with business partners is an important but challenging task for managers, especially for those from non-eastern cultures. The current study suggests that it is essential for managers to identify different types of guanxi (family, acquaintance, or stranger) by differential intimacy and distance, and to apply different rules when interacting with partners with different guanxi. To be specific, managers should follow the rule of need with business partners who have family guanxi, and their guanxi should be demonstrated as intimacy interaction. When doing business with acquaintances and friends, managers should mainly follow the rule of favor, and their guanxi should be demonstrated as reciprocity interaction. When doing business with strangers, managers should follow the rule of equity and emphasize trust. This correspondence also has an influence on how managers make decisions according to the strength of guanxi with different partners based on the guanxi type. In short, guanxi affects the degree of willingness to sacrifice self-interest for, and to prioritize resource allocations to, business partners.     

Chinese Viewers' Perception of Informative and Emotional Advertising

A systematic analysis of Chinese viewers' perception of television advertising was conducted using a sample of sixty commercials which were viewed by 160 respondents per commercial, who selected from a list of twenty adjectives adopted from the Aaker and Bruzzone (1981) study. Results indicated great differences in viewers' perceptions: informative commercials were most frequently considered to be ‘dull’, ‘uninteresting’ and ‘informative’, while emotional commercials were described as ‘appealing’, ‘interesting’ and ‘original’. Emotional advertising scored higher on ‘liking’ and perceived brand image than informative advertising. Factor analysis was carried out across commercials and individuals.     

Promoting Vegetarianism through Moralization and Knowledge Calibration

This research extends the theories of moralization and knowledge calibration to vegetarianism. In two studies involving interviews with vegetarians, and meat-eaters; we investigated consumer attitudes toward vegetarianism. Our text analysis results revealed that emotionally calibrated consumers are ‘moral vegetarians’ who find meat repulsive, and make ethical food choices. In contrast, cognitively calibrated consumers are ‘health vegetarians’ who scan the nutrition information, avoid meat due to health restrictions, and embrace vegetarianism for healthy life. Finally, we provided insights into how faux meat companies can promote their products and transform consumer behavior toward vegetarianism by advertising ethical and environmentally friendly foods, and healthy and anti-obesity foods to moral and health vegetarians, respectively.     

The Ethical Environment of Tax Professionals: Partner and Non-Partner Perceptions and Experiences

This article examines perceptions of tax partners and non-partner tax practitioners regarding their CPA firms’ ethical environment, as well as experiences with ethical dilemmas. Prior research emphasizes the importance of executive leadership in creating an ethical climate (e.g., Weaver et al., Acad Manage Rev 42(1):41–57, 1999; Trevino et al., Hum Relat 56(1):5–37, 2003; Schminke et al., Organ Dyn 36(2):171–186, 2007). Thus, it is important to consider whether firm partners and other employees have congruent perceptions and experiences. Based on the responses of 144 tax practitioners employed at CPA firms, the results show that tax partners rate the ethical environment of their firms as stronger than non-partner tax practitioners, particularly among those who describe a self-identified ethical dilemma. Tax partners also report having encountered more of the common examples of researcher-provided ethical dilemmas than non-partner tax practitioners, although non-partners perceive that certain ethical dilemmas occur at a higher rate than partners do. Overall, this study provides evidence of a disconnect between tax partners and non-partner tax practitioners with respect to perceptions of organizational ethics. Suggestions for potential remedies are offered.     

Online shopping among Chinese consumers: an exploratory investigation of demographics and value orientation

The current study examined the relationship between Chinese consumers' personal value orientations and their Internet usage and online shopping behaviour. The study was based on responses from a sample of 1620 respondents in five cities in China. Based on Schwartz's value structure, four value orientations were identified and named as ‘openness to change orientation’, ‘self‐enhancement orientation’, ‘conservation orientation’ and ‘self‐transcendence orientation.’ Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between respondents' demographics, socio‐economic characteristics, value orientations and their Internet usage and online shopping behaviour. Also, a structural equation modelling analysis was employed. ‘Openness to change orientation’ and ‘self‐enhancement orientation’ were found to have direct or indirect positive effect on respondents' online shopping behaviour; whereas ‘conservation orientation’ and ‘self‐transcendence orientation’ were not significant in the equation estimation.     

Individual and Organizational Antecedents of Professional Ethics of Public Relations Practitioners in Korea

This study examines the effects of individual ethical values and organizational factors on the professional ethics of PR practitioners in Korea by considering a person–situation interactionist model. Individual ethical values are used as individual factors, and organizational factors consist of an organization’s reward and punishment for ethical/unethical behavior, the behavior of peers, and the ethical integrity of the chief ethics officer. The professional ethics of PR practitioners (the dependent variable) are classified into the following three dimensions: professional ethics for the public, the client, and the PR industry. The results indicate that agency practitioners were more likely to be committed to their profession than to their organization, whereas in-house practitioners were more likely to be committed to their organization than to their profession. That is, in-house practitioners showed weak professional commitment, indicating that they perceived themselves as employees, not as PR professionals. Organizational factors such as reward, punishment, and peers’ ethical behavior had considerable influence on the professional ethics of in-house practitioners, whereas they had little influence on agency practitioners. Organizational factors as well as individual ethical values were more likely to influence the professional ethics of in-house practitioners than that of agency practitioners. Thus, to foster in-house practitioners’ professional ethics and commitment, professional associations in the PR industry should make efforts to provide in-house practitioners with more information on the PR industry and more opportunities for interacting and maintaining communication with their colleagues in the industry.     

Organizational influences on individual ethical behavior in public accounting

A framework is presented for studying ethical conduct in public accounting practice. Four levels of analysis are distinguished: individual, local office, multi-office firm and professional institute. Several propositions are derived from the framework and discussed: (1) The effects of ethical vs. unethical behavior on an accountant's prospects for advancement are asymmetrical in nature; (2) the way individuals perceive or frame the decision problem at hand will make an ethical response more or less likely; (3) the economic incentives present in competitive markets influence the work goals of firms and offices, and lead to ethical dilemmas for individuals; and (4) initiatives at the firm or institute level aimed at compliance with professional ethical standards will by themselves have little effect on individual ethical behavior. Research into ethical behavior of practitioners will capture self-conscious and biased responses unless it is designed so as to permit indirect observation and recording of spontaneous comments. To assure valid research findings, practitioners should be interviewed and their motives assessed indirectly. A longitudinal approach is recommended, beginning with students who are choosing an accounting career. Two types of questions for use in these interviews are described.Paul J. Schlachter is an assistant professor in the School of Accounting, Florida International University. As a certified management accountant (CMA), he studies ethical dilemmas in both corporate and public accounting, in south Florida and in Latin America.     

Theory into practice: meditations on cultures of accountability and interdisciplinarity in marketing research

Abstract

The emergence of a more reflexive and discerning customer has created inter alia a demand for ‘better’ food (i.e. quality and ‘authenticity’) in terms of sourcing, processing, and specialist distribution/retailing. As a consequence, the food production/distribution industry is under pressure to change many of its practices. One manifestation is the emergence of farmers' markets and the associated emphasis on ‘local’ food. This paper aims to identify the extent to which ‘conscious’ consumers are committed to buying local foodstuffs and supporting local food producers, especially from farmers’ markets. Given the exploratory nature of this research, a qualitative approach was undertaken using in-depth interviews with ‘conscious’ consumers. The results reveal that ‘conscious’ consumers recognise their own limitations (i.e. time, convenience, and price) but also demonstrate that integrating ethical considerations into their consumption behaviour is a complex and flexible task. A number of strategic actions for farmers’ markets are proposed to help differentiate their provision, particularly in terms of capitalising on perceptions of authenticity and locality.     

A consumer typology based on e-service quality and e-satisfaction

The increasingly systematic use of the Internet in consumers’ decision-making processes, coupled with the development of e-commerce, has led researchers and practitioners to examine issues concerning service quality and satisfaction in an online context. This paper proposes a post-hoc predictive typology of e-satisfaction based on four dimensions of e-service quality. A sample of 1144 French consumers recruited on websites from three different industries (online travel, cultural goods (books, CDs, DVDs, etc.), and electronics goods) was used to generate the proposed typology. Using a mixture modeling regression, five groups of consumers who differed in terms of e-satisfaction and e-service quality were identified: the ‘involved’, the ‘browsers’, the ‘fun seekers’, the ‘careful’ and the ‘surfers’. All the four e-service quality dimensions investigated were found to influence e-satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

‘Reverse internationalization’ in Chinese firms: a study of how global startup OEMs seek to compete domestically

This research investigates whether the global startup original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in China could employ their knowledge-acquisition capability developed via internationalization to compete domestically (i.e. reverse internationalization), facing the recession in developed markets. Results examine that knowledge-acquisition capability can help these firms compete in ‘reverse internationalization’, while the conduct of own brand strategy partially mediates the positive relationship between their capability and domestic performance. We contribute to the literature by identifying the unique ‘Chinese global startup OEMs’, recognizing knowledge-acquisition capability as a high-order dynamic capability for such firms, and introducing a novel entrepreneurial phenomenon we call ‘reverse internationalization’.     

Bags for Life: The Embedding of Ethical Consumerism

The aim of this paper is to understand why some ethical behaviours fail to embed, and importantly what can be done about it. We address this by looking at an example where ethical behaviour has not become the norm, i.e. the widespread, habitual, use of ‘bags for life’. This is an interesting case because whilst a consistent message of ‘saving the environment’ has been the basis of the promotion of ‘bags for life’ in the United Kingdom for many years, their uptake has only recently become more widespread and still remains at low levels. Through an exploratory study, we unpack some of the contextual barriers which may influence ethical consumerism. We do this by examining the attitudes which influenced people to start using ‘bags for life’, and how people persuade others to use ‘bags for life’. We use a case study analysis to try and understand why ethical behaviour change has stalled and not become sustained. We find that both individuals and institutions play a significant interaction role in encouraging a sustained behavioural change towards ethical consumerism.     

The Impact of Business Education on Moral Judgment Competence: An Empirical Study

Recent highly publicized ethical breaches including those at Enron and WorldCom have focused attention on ethical behavior within the accounting profession. At the heart of the debate is whether ethical attitudes of accountants are to blame. Using a nationally representative sample of accounting practitioners and a multidisciplinary student sample at two Southern United States universities, we compare sample responses to 25 ethically charged vignettes to test whether they differ. Overall, we find no significant difference – even for a specific “accounting tricks” vignette, which resembles the Enron and WorldCom situations. We do find, however, that the practitioners were more accepting of vignettes that involved physical harm (PH) to individuals and those that were legal (but ethically questionable). We postulate that accounting practitioners may apply a legalistic framework to their assessment of the acceptability of each vignette. Focusing on an “accounting tricks” vignette, we also find no significant difference between auditors and institutional practitioners compared to all other types of accountants in the sample. We conclude that ethical attitudes of accounting practitioners do not differ significantly by specialty area. Tisha L. N. Emerson is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Baylor University in Texas. In addition to business ethics, Professor Emerson has published articles in the areas of environmental economics and economic education. She teaches courses in environmental economics, international trade, intermediate microeconomics and microeconomic principles. Stephen J. Conroy is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of San Diego in California. In addition to business ethics, Professor Conroy has published articles in the areas of economic development and demography, economics of education and economics of aging. He teaches courses in managerial economics at both the graduate and undergraduate level, as well as undergraduate courses in urban and regional economic development, intermediate microeconomics and principles of micro- and macroeconomics. Charles W. Stanley is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Baylor University in Texas. In addition to business ethics, Dr. Stanley has published articles in the areas of financial accounting, managerial accounting, auditing, accounting systems, tax, and professional ethics for accountants. He has also authored several on-line continuing education courses for CPAs including one that meets the Texas State Board of Accountancy requirements for continuing education by Texas CPAs. He teaches courses in auditing, ethics, financial accounting and managerial accounting in the MBA program at Baylor.     

Moral Identity as Leverage Point in Teaching Business Ethics

This paper examines whether appealing to learners’ moral identity makes a significant contribution to improving their ethical decision making beyond traditional, rule-based teaching. In response to criticisms leveled at rule-based ethics teaching by alternative approaches, we identify moral identity theory and experiments in moral psychology as useful sources to draw on for the creation of a new, identity-based ethics teaching approach. We develop and apply a set of regular self-reflection focused writing tasks added to the traditional teaching program over a one-semester period, and assess the outcomes of an overall sample of 149 postgraduate business school students, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: exposure to both identity-based tasks and rule-based teaching, exposure to rule-based teaching only, and the control condition (i.e., no exposure to ethics teaching). Our findings show that, while the three groups reported the same level of ethical decision making at the beginning of the semester, at the end of the semester the students who were exposed to both identity-based and rule-based teaching reported higher level of ethical decision making compared to those who were only exposed to rule-based education. In addition, the students who received rule-based teaching reported higher ethical decision making compared to those in the control condition. These results suggest that a teaching approach which appeals to the learner’s moral identity can act as an effective leverage point when complementing rule-based teaching. This simple approach should be widely adopted as common practice in graduate business schools.     

Are religious consumers more ethical and less Machiavellian? A segmentation study of Millennials

Millennial consumers are increasingly becoming important actors in business that account for sufficient purchasing power. However, Millennials are infamously narcissistic and their views of ethics are more relaxed than previous generations (i.e., Baby Boomers, Generation X). Millennials remain poorly understood in general, especially in the context of developing countries. Hence, the purpose of this study was to profile this generation by segmenting Millennials in Indonesia and investigating differences between these segments on their ethical beliefs and Machiavellianism, an important personality characteristic. This study used a convenience sample from a university in Indonesia (N = 540). The TwoStep cluster analysis produced three segments, namely, “The Religious Millennials”, “The Lukewarm Religious Millennials” and “The Least Religious Millennials”. Consumers who are highly religious are less likely to engage in various unethical behaviours. Interestingly, no significant differences were found between The Lukewarm Millennials and The Least Religious Millennials on their ethical beliefs. This research makes several research contributions. First, this study extended the Hunt–Vitell theory of ethics, where an individual (i.e., Millennials) confronts a problem perceived as having ethical content. Second, the study examined consumer ethics in the context of developing countries where religion plays a significant role in people’s daily life. Third, through understanding different segments, the results assist educators, social marketers and public policy makers in creating an effective campaign to reduce unethical behaviour among Millennials.     

Talent Management and HRM in Multinational companies in Beijing: Definitions,differences and drivers

Talent Management (TM) has attracted increasing attention from academics and practitioners in recent years, but there are many gaps and omissions left for further theoretical and empirical development. One line of debate has been whether TM is merely a re-packaging of what already exists, not being distinct from traditional HRM practices or disciplines. The paper has three main components: (i) a review of how ‘Talent’ and TM has been conceptualised in the literature and the outline of a framework we have derived therefrom which identifies four main perspectives on TM: exclusive-people; exclusive-position; inclusive-people; social capital; (ii) the presentation and analysis of our research findings relating to TM perspectives and practices in seven multinational corporations (MNCs) in Beijing; (iii) a concluding discussion which compares and contrasts our findings with the extant literature and our framework. Six of the companies had adopted ‘exclusive’ perspectives, seeing TM as ‘integrated, selective’ HRM. For some, this involved an ‘exclusive-people’ focus on certain groups of ‘high-performing’ or ‘high-potential’ people, whilst for others it meant an ‘exclusive-position’ focus on certain ‘key’ positions in the organization. Just one organization had adopted an ‘inclusive-people’ approach. Two of the companies emphasized ‘organizationally focussed competence development’, concentrating upon smooth talent flows and development, and moving towards a ‘social capital’ perspective which took cognizance of networks, contexts and relationships as well as human capital. The implications of our findings for research and practice are outlined.