In Defence of ‘Demand’ Deposits: Contractual Solutions to the Barnett and Block,and Bagus and Howden Debate

This article contributes to a recent debate between Barnett and Block (J Bus Ethics 88(4): 711–716, 2009), Bagus and Howden (J Bus Ethics 90(3): 399–406, 2009), Barnett and Block (J Bus Ethics 100: 299–238, 2011), Cachanosky (J Bus Ethics 104: 219–221, 2011) and Bagus and Howden (J Bus Ethics 106: 295–300, 2012a) regarding the conceptual distinction between demand deposits and time deposits. It is argued that from an economic perspective there is nothing inherently fraudulent or illegitimate about deposit accounts that are available ‘on demand’, but that this relies on certain contractual provisions. Particular attention is drawn to option clauses and withdrawal clauses, which “solve” the problems raised by Barnett and Block, and Bagus and Howden. Previous authors have also neglected the asset side of banks balance sheets, and this is shown to further justify the legitimacy of fractional reserve banking.     

Bayesian estimation of the random coefficients logit from aggregate count data

The random coefficients logit model is a workhorse in marketing and empirical industrial organizations research. When only aggregate data are available, it is customary to calibrate the model based on market shares as data input, even if the data are available in the form of aggregate counts. However, market shares are functionally related to model primitives in the random coefficients model whereas finite aggregate counts are only probabilistic functions of these model primitives. A recent paper by Park and Gupta (Journal of Marketing Research, 46(4), 531–543 2009) stresses this distinction but is hamstrung by numerical problems when demonstrating its potential practical importance. We develop Bayesian inference for the likelihood function proposed by Park and Gupta (Journal of Marketing Research, 46(4), 531–543 2009), sidestepping the numerical problem encountered by these authors. We show how taking account of the amount of information about shares by modeling counts directly results in improved inference.     

Ethical Outcomes and Business Ethics: Toward Improving Business Ethics Education

Unethical conduct has reached crisis proportions in business (Walker et al., Wall Str J East Edn, 258(37):A1–A10, 2011) and on today’s college campuses (Burke et al., CPA J, 77(5):58–65, 2007). Despite the evidence that suggests that more than half of business students admit to dishonest practices (McCabe et al. 2006), only about 5 % of business school deans surveyed believe that dishonesty is a problem at their schools (Brown et al., Coll Stud J A, 44(2):299–308, 2010). In addition, the AACSB which establishes standards for accredited business schools has resisted the urging of deans and business experts to require business schools to teach an ethics class, and fewer than one-third of businesses schools now teach a business ethics course at the graduate or undergraduate levels (Swanson and Fisher, Advancing Business Ethics Education, 2008). In this paper we briefly introduce the status of business ethics education and report the results of a survey of business students, deans of the top business schools, and business ethics subject matter experts about ten ethical outcomes. We then offer five specific recommendations to encourage business ethics faculty and decision makers to improve the teaching of business ethics.     

A Multi-Agent Model for Overlapping Negotiations

In the last few years, research on multi-agent systems has addressed different aspects of intelligent negotiations using methods developed in different domains including game theory, decision theory, and economic models. The research proposed in Andersson and Sandholm (1999), Sandholm (1993), Sandholm and Lesser (1995) and Aknine et?al. (2004), Aknine (2002) are significant examples. However, only some of this work focuses on problems related to complex negotiations, particularly those concerning new generation applications. This new research raises fundamental difficulties we have encountered, especially in overlapping negotiations and combined negotiations. This article is interested essentially in overlapping negotiations, which include several agent roles in a same negotiation. One or more agents may play each of these roles. This work shows that the high-level negotiation models are necessary in order to control the execution of overlapping negotiation processes, since, in these negotiations we are facing both classical problems of multi-agent negotiations based on two agents’ roles and the problems concerned with the interdependence of these negotiations. Synchronization of these different processes is thus necessary because of the multiplicity of the roles. Thus, this paper presents a formalized negotiation model, which deals with this problem. It gives a theoretical analysis of the suggested model and discusses the results of the experimental evaluation. To perform this evaluation, we use the application of intelligent service agencies on the Internet.     

Experience, socialization and customer retention: Lessons from the dance floor

Experience and socialization are key factors in customer commitment and defection decisions. To study the effect of experience and social relationships on customer retention, we analyze a reality-mined co-presence network of health club members over a period of 4 years. Since central customers in the network have more social ties they will lose if they defect, we use centrality as a proxy for customer relationship switching costs. We find that long-standing customers do have a lower chance of renewing their contracts. However, in line with theoretical predictions (Burnham et al., Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 31(2):109–126, 2003), the consumer’s centrality in the network (reflecting a social cost of defection) reduces customer churn rate. This study’s results indicate that the inclusion of social effects increases the predictive power of the customer churn model (Nitzan and Libai, Journal of Marketing 75(6):24–38, 2011), thus contributing to our understanding of the role social networks play in customer decisions.     

Detecting Market Competition in the Japanese Beer Industry

We investigate various characteristics, including firm-level panel data, of the Japanese beer market over time (over 30 years) to determine the level and nature of competition. Next, we conduct two sets of regressions using market share and firm-level accounting data in a variation of Boone’s (Econ J 118:1245–1261, 2008a; J Inst Theor Econ 164:587–611, 2008b) measure of competition. While traditional indicators (very high market concentration, little or no overt price competition) suggest that Japanese beer firms do not compete, Boone-style regressions yield strong evidence of competitive behavior.     

Ethics and HRM: Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis

Despite the ongoing consideration of the ethical nature of human resource management (HRM), little research has been conducted on how morality and ethics are represented in the discourse, activities and lived experiences of human resource (HR) professionals. In this paper, we connect the thinking and lived experiences of HR professionals to an alternative ethics, rooted in the work of Bauman (Modernity and the Holocaust, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1989; Theory, Culture and Society 7:5?C38, 1990; Postmodern Ethics, Blackwell, Oxford, 1991; Approaches to Social Enquiry, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1993; Life in Fragments, Blackwell, Oxford, 1995) and Levinas (Otherwise than Being, or, Beyond Essence, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1998). We argue that the study of HRM and ethics should be contextualized within the discourses used, the practices and activities of HR professionals. Through the analysis of interview data from 40 predominantly Canadian HR practitioners and managers we experiment with Bauman??s notion of ??moral impulse?? to help us understand how HRM is both a product and perpetuator of moral neutralization in organizations. We suggest that HRM as it is practiced is concerned with distancing, depersonalizing, and dissembling, and acts in support of the ??moral?? requirements of business, not of people. However, we also recognize that HR practitioners and managers are often confronted with and conflicted by actions and decisions that they are required to take, therefore opening possibilities and hope for an alternative ethical HRM.     

Shared Value and the Impartial Spectator Test

Growing inequality and its implications for democratic polity suggest that corporate social responsibility (CSR) has not proved itself in twenty-first century business, largely as it lacks clear criteria of demarcation for businesses to follow. Today the problem is viewed by many commentators as an ethical challenge to business itself. In response to this challenge, we begin by examining Porter and Kramer’s (Harv Bus Rev 89(January–February):64–77, 2011) call for a shift from a social responsibility to a shared value framework and the need to respond to the problem of the ‘separation thesis’ between business and ethics (Wicks, Bus Soc 35(1):89–118, 1996; Harris and Freeman, Bus Ethics Q 18(4):541–548, 2008). We identify the eighteenth century economist and philosopher Adam Smith in his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments as a source for an ethical approach to business. Building on his central concept of ‘sympathy’, we introduce the idea of the Impartial Spectator Test, which we argue builds on traditional stakeholder perspectives and which provides an objective route to ethical criteria of demarcation. We conclude by assessing how this approach adds to the existing debate around social responsibility and shared value.     

Brand love: development and validation of a practical scale

Batra et al. (Journal of Marketing 76, 1–16, 2012) created a new conceptualization of brand love but did not develop a pragmatically useful measure for studies where questionnaire length is a constraint. The current research develops a more parsimonious brand love scale, with three nested versions of 26, 13, and 6 items, respectively. This research also validates the scales, and in so doing conducts several important validity tests not considered by Batra et al. The 26-item scale is able to predict consumer loyalty, word of mouth, and resistance to negative information, with an R ² of .90, after correcting for measurement error.     

Bayesian multi-resolution spatial analysis with applications to marketing

Marketing researchers have become increasingly interested in spatial datasets. A main challenge of analyzing spatial data is that researchers must a priori choose the size and make-up of the areal units, hence the resolution of the analysis. Analyzing the data at a resolution that is too high may mask ??macro?? patterns, while analyzing the data at a resolution that is too low may result in aggregation bias. Thus, ideally marketing researchers would want a ??data-driven?? method to determine the ??optimal?? resolution of analysis, and at the same time automatically explore the same dataset under different resolutions, to obtain a full set of empirical insights to help with managerial decision making. In this paper, we propose a new approach for multi-resolution spatial analysis that is based on Bayesian model selection. We demonstrate our method using two recent marketing datasets from published studies: (i) the Netgrocer spatial sales data in Bell and Song (Quantitative Marketing and Economics 5:361?C400, 2007), and (ii) the Pathtracker^? data in Hui et al. (Marketing Science 28:566?C572, 2009b; Journal of Consumer Research 36:478?C493, 2009c) that track shoppers?? in-store movements. In both cases, our method allows researchers to not only automatically select the resolution of the analysis, but also analyze the data under different resolutions to understand the variation in insights and robustness to the level of aggregation.     

The role of brands in recruitment: A mixed-brand strategy approach

DelVecchio et al. (Marketing Letters, 18, 149?C164, 2007) expanded the role of brand equity by revealing the important role it plays in human resource management. We extend their study by incorporating a mixed-brand structure in a potential job applicant's decision to pursue a job. We integrate both corporate level and product level brands to form an overall brand in this decision process. Four models based on inference processing and affect transfer are developed and tested. Our results suggest that corporate-level brand and product-level brand, which constitutes an overall brand name, play a major role in influencing a potential recruit to pursue a job.     

The Relationship between the Integration of Faith and Work with Life and Job Outcomes

Gallup surveys consistently show that nine in 10 Americans express a belief in God (Nash, Business, religion, and spirituality: A new synthesis, 2003), while more than 45 % claim to have some awareness of God on the job (Nash and McLellan, Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenges of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life, 2001). Recently, Lynn et al. (Journal of Business Ethics 85:227–243, 2009) argued that the ability to integrate the specific beliefs and practices of one’s faith with the work one does represent an important although neglected area of research. As such, they developed and demonstrated convergent validity for the faith at work scale, designed to measure the extent to which individuals believe they are able to integrate their Judaeo-Christian beliefs and practices and their work. In a subsequent study, Lynn et al. (Human Relations 64:675–701, 2010) demonstrated that the faith at work scale was related to faith maturity, church attendance, age, and denominational strictness, and negatively associated with organizational size. No research, however, has examined the possible positive benefits of integrating faith and work. I therefore developed and tested hypotheses concerning the relationship between the faith at work scale and seven important life and work outcomes (satisfaction with life, intent to leave one’s job, self-rated job performance, job satisfaction, and three forms of organizational commitment). In all, four of seven hypotheses were confirmed.     

It is all in the mix: The interactive effect of music tempo and mode on in-store sales

Though practitioners have relied on tempo as a criterion to design in-store music, scant attention has been devoted to the mode of musical selections, and no consideration has been given to the potential for the interactive effects of low-level structural elements of music on actual retail sales. The current research reports a field experiment wherein the positive main effect of slow tempo on actual sales reported by Milliman (J Marketing 46 (3):86–91, 1982, J Cons Res 13 (2):286–289, 1986) is qualified by musical mode. A significant interaction between tempo and mode was evidenced, such that music in a major mode did not vary in effectiveness by tempo while music in a minor mode was significantly more effective when accompanied by a slow tempo. That is, the Milliman effect was eliminated for music in a major mode. Implications of our findings and directions for further research are discussed.     

Compatibility Under Differentiated Duopoly with Network Externalities: A Comment

Chen and Chen (J Ind Compet Trade 11:43?55, 2011) analyze the effects of compatibility under system product Cournot competition with network externalities. They show that a firm’s optimal strategy is to set an incompatible system standard, even though perfect compatibility is socially optimal. In this case, a social dilemma arises. However, their result depends on a specific assumption about the network size. We use the framework of Shy (1995) to modify this assumption, and hence show that the social dilemma identified by Chen and Chen (J Ind Compet Trade 11:43?55, 2011) does not arise.     

Ethical Decision Making in a Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Situation: The Role of Moral Absolutes and Social Consensus

Individuals are downloading copyrighted materials at escalating rates (Hill 2007; Siwek 2007). Since most materials shared within these networks are copyrighted works, providing, exchanging, or downloading files is considered to be piracy and a violation of intellectual property rights (Shang et al. 2008). Previous research indicates that personal moral philosophies rooted in moral absolutism together with social context may impact decision making in ethical dilemmas; however, it is yet unclear which motivations and norms contextually impact moral awareness in a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing context (Shang et al. 2008). In sum, factors affecting the decision to share copyrighted material require further clarification and investigation (Shang et al. 2008). The purpose of this study was to use a consumer-based scenario and multiple ethics measures to explore how idealism, formalism, and perceived social consensus impact users’ propensity to recognize that the sharing of copyrighted media through P2P networks was an ethical issue and their subsequent ethical intentions. Results showed that high levels of idealism and formalism were associated with an increased recognition that file sharing was an ethical issue, but neither construct had a direct effect on ethical intention. Strong social consensus among respondents that other people consider file sharing to be unethical was also positively related to the recognition that file sharing was an ethical issue, and ethical recognition was a moderate predictor of intention not to engage in file sharing. Finally, a post hoc mediation analysis indicated that idealism, formalism, and social consensus operated through recognition of an ethical issue to impact ethical intention (indirect-only mediation).     

Comment on Acs and Varga: Entrepreneurship, agglomeration and technological change

Acs and Varga (Small Bus Econ 24:323–334, 2005) employ GEM cross-national, industrial-level data for nine selected European countries in order to investigate the link between entrepreneurship, agglomeration and technological growth. Testing the knowledge production function in the spirit of Jones (J Polit Econ 103:759–784, 1995), they find that both agglomeration and entrepreneurship exhibit a statistically significantly positive effect on technological change. This comment mainly argues that this investigation only focuses on the growth rates but leaves out the effects induced by agglomeration and entrepreneurship on the level of knowledge. This might lead to biased estimates.     

Brand personality: A meta-analytic review of antecedents and consequences

This article presents a meta-analysis on brand personality (BP) by investigating the antecedents and consequences of the BP dimensions of sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, as suggested by Aaker (Journal of Marketing Research 34:347–356, 1997). The authors synthesize the results from 76 independent samples in 56 studies. The meta-analysis finds several new empirical generalizations about BP. First, the key drivers of BP are communication with hedonic benefit claims, branding activities, a brand’s country-of-origin, and consumer personalities. Second, the study finds that the effects of BP are stronger for mature brands than for brands in the early life cycle stages. Third, sincerity and competence have the strongest influence on brand success variables (e.g., brand attitude, image, commitment, purchase intention), while excitement and ruggedness have the weakest influence on brand attitude and brand commitment.     

The Positive Impact of Individual Core Values

The role of values in organizations has been a highly researched topic (Collins in Good to Great, HarperCollins, New York, 2001; Collins and Porras in Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, HarperCollins, New York, 1997; Frederick and Weber 1990; Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, 4th ed, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2007; Pattison et al. Emerging Value in Health Care: The Challenges for Professionals, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Philadelphia, 2010). However, little research has focused on values in health care settings. In addition, the research that has been done has focused on values from an organizational perspective, not from an individual perspective. Based on these two factors, in addition to the maturation and growth of the hospice industry and the researcher’s prior studies on hospice leadership and organizational practices, a research study was conducted to evaluate the core values of hospice professionals. Another key driver of the research was the expressed difference identified by leaders within the hospice industry that values of individuals new to hospice were different than those who have worked in the industry longer. A web-based survey was utilized to gather core values and demographic data from hospice professionals. Data were collected over a one-year period and involved 531 hospice professionals from 33 states. The demographic information collected was similar to comparative data from previous hospice studies. The top three core values identified in the study were family, faith, and love, and represented 76 % of all responses. No statistically significant identifiable differences, based on demographic variables, were found. Based on the findings, no support was found for the perceived differences noted by leaders working in the hospice industry. However, it identified that hospice professionals regardless of demographic characteristics appear to hold similar values as being important. Based on the findings, core values appear to be an area of commonality versus difference among hospice professionals and could serve as a focal point for building a positive organizational culture. Further research is suggested to evaluate the unique meaning of the key values identified by hospice professionals in the study. In addition, replication of the study in other health care settings would be encouraged.     

Workplace Romance 2.0: Developing a Communication Ethics Model to Address Potential Sexual Harassment from Inappropriate Social Media Contacts Between Coworkers

This article examines ethical implications from workplace romances that may subsequently turn into sexual harassment through the use of social media technologies, such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, text messaging, IMing, and other forms of digital communication between office colleagues. We examine common ethical models such as Jones (Acad Manag Rev 16:366–395, 1991) issue-contingent decision-making model, Rest’s (Moral development: Advances in research and theory, 1986) Stages of Ethical Decision-Making model, and Pierce and Aguinis’s (J Org Behav 26(6):727–732,2005) review of workplace romance versus sexual harassment issues. The article makes a contribution by developing a new communication ethics model that includes response positive and response negative contingencies to guide decision-making about inappropriate social media contacts that spillover into the workplace. In addition, we recommend that human resource personnel take a more active role in communicating appropriate ethical rules of conduct concerning the use of social media technologies inside and outside the office.     

Alternative Investment Market: A Way to Promote Entrepreneurship

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between firm performance after the IPO and its entrepreneurial orientation (EO). In our work we want to test if entrepreneurial oriented firms show a better market performance signalling that investors valuate it positively. To this purpose, we focus on a particular sample of entrepreneurial firms, i.e. companies that went public on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) through IPO during the period from 1995 to 2006. Along the lines of Miller (Manage Sci 29:770–791, 1983), Covin and Slevin (Entrep Theory Pract 16:7–25, 1991) and Lumpkin and Dess (Acad Manage Rev 21:135–172, 1996), firms’ entrepreneurial orientation is measured in terms of risk taking, innovation and proactivity. Following the literature in management on investor valuation we use the percent price premium as dependent variable of our model. Our findings confirm a positive impact of entrepreneurial orientation on investors’ valuation. The results of this work underline the relevance of secondary markets, such as the AIM, as a valuable alternative to traditional financial institutions in providing capital to small and entrepreneurial companies.