Professor Reva Berman Brown (1939–2007) – A Tribute

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to determine if an ethics presentation at an Italian university can change students' perceptions of ethics; and (2) to compare the results of this study with previously published results from US students. The ethics presentation, previously developed by Smith, Smith and Mulig (2005) Journal of Business Ethics, 61(2), pp. 153–164, for accounting and business classes, made available on the Internet, was adapted and used in classes in Italy. As in the USA, Italy has faced significant financial scandals and corporate failures in recent years. Both Italian and US penal laws have been changed to prevent future financial frauds, but there are limits to what laws can accomplish. The ethics presentation described in this Teaching Note was an effort to encourage students to consider the importance of ethics. The impact of the presentation on Italian students' perspectives is described. In addition, a comparison is made of the impact of the presentation in Italy and in the USA, which shows that students in both countries regard ethics as a very important topic.     

Entrepreneurial ecosystems and the lifecycle of university business incubators: An integrative case study

University business incubators (UBIs) are an important part of the ecosystem that supports entrepreneurial activities and economic development. Extant research has focused on examining UBI activities at a single point in time, but there is a paucity of theoretical and empirical work aimed at understanding the forces that explain why and how UBIs change over time. This is an important gap because establishing a university business incubator does not assure its development and growth. We address this issue by drawing upon the Fisher et al. Academy of Management Review, 41(3), 383-409 (2016) Identity-Legitimacy-Life Cycle model to explain how the pursuit of resources and organizational legitimacy shapes the development of UBIs along key strategic and operational dimensions, which has implications for performance evaluation over time. We illustrate with a case study about the creation and evolution of the DMZ, a leading UBI at Ryerson University in Canada. This case provides new insights about the dynamics of UBIs and their relationships with the entrepreneurial ecosystems in which they are embedded. Implications for future research, management practice, and public policy are discussed.

     

Optimal Monetary Policy Rules and Inflation Targets: Are Australia,Canada, and New Zealand Different from the U.S.?

Outwardly, the central banks of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. follow somewhat different approaches to controlling inflation. The U.S. does not explicitly target inflation while the other countries do. Canada and New Zealand have target bands for inflation while Australia has a point target. Results in this paper nevertheless find broad similarities in the monetary policies of these countries. Each can be described as having pursued optimal inflation targeting (explicit or implicit), with heavy interest rate smoothing, but perhaps placing little weight on output variability. We argue that interest rate smoothing is used to introduce gradualism into the response of monetary policy to inflation. We show that given heavy interest rate smoothing, a concern for output variability is redundant.     

European Air Transport — Uncabin the Consumer

The deregulation of air routes between London and Dublin has brought travellers the benefits of competition; and, hardly surprisingly, as prices have fallen the numbers making the journey have increased. Sean Barrett, Lecturer in Economics, and Mark Purdy of Trinity College, Dublin, compare the effects of liberalisation with those of the restricted entry to the European air transport market. How long, they ask, will the European consumer be denied similar benefits?     

Dimensions of Performance Effectiveness In High-Involvement Work Organisations

Sharon Parker, Sean Mullarkely and Paul Jackson, who are researchers in the MRC/ESRC Social and Applied Pyschology Unit at the University of Sheffield, draw on detailed case study evidence to consider the substantial changes to the shop floor roles entailed in high involvement work organisations. They argue that specification of the performance requirements of such roles will facilitate employees taking on appropriate behaviours, reduce role confusion, and enable consistency in human resource practices. They discuss the use of repertory grids to explore the models of effective performance held by production managers and derive nine critical dimensions of shop floor employee performance from the analysis. These contain specific behavioural examples and are grouped around four higher-order dimensions: ‘process ownership’, ‘social skills’, ‘personal style’, and loss prevention’. These dimensions form the basis of a broader specification of the skills, knowledge and general orientations required by shopfloor employees in high involvement roles.     

The determinants of West German exports of manufactures: An integrated demand and supply approach

Zusammenfassung Die Determinanten der westdeutschen Exporte von verarbeiteten Produkten. Eine Integration von Angebots- und Nachfragefaktoren. - Die Autoren entwickeln ein Modell, das das Gewinnmaximierungsverhalten der in offenen Volkswirtschaften operierenden Unternehmen ausdrücklich mikro?konomisch erkl?rt und setzen es ein, um zu zeigen, da? die westdeutschen Exporte und Exportpreise gut durch die inl?ndischen und ausl?ndischen Preise, die internationale Nachfrage, den inl?ndischen Kapitalstock und die Kosten erkl?rt werden k?nnen. Die dynamischen Versionen des Modells best?tigen, da? die westdeutschen Exporte von verarbeiteten Produkten, Gütern des Maschinenbaus und Automobilen schneller auf Ver?nderungen der internationalen Nachfrage und der Rentabilit?t im Exportgesch?ft reagieren als auf Ver?nderungen in der preislichen Wettbewerbsf?higkeit.

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Résumé Les déterminants de l’exportation des produits manufacturés allemands. Une intégration des facteurs de l'offre et de la demande. - Les auteurs construisent un modèle, dans lequel la maximation des profits par des firmes aux économies ouvertes est expliquée par des facteurs microéconomiques. Puis ils utilisent le modèle pour démontrer que les exportations et les prix d'exportation du RFA peuvent être bien expliquées par les prix étrangers et domestiques, la demande internationale, le stock de capital domestique et les co?ts. Les versions dynamiques du modèle confirment que les exportations des produits manufacturés, des produits de la construction mécanique et des automobiles réagissent plus vite aux changement dans la demande internationale et dans la rentabilité d'exportation qu’aux changements dans la compétiveté de prix.

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Resumen Las déterminantes de la exportaciones manufactureras de Alemania Occidental. Un enfoque integrado de oferta y demanda. - Utilizando un modelo derivado que considera explícitamente los fundamentos microeconómicos de las decisiones de maximizatión de ganancias de una empresa que opera en una economía abierta, se explican los movimientos de las exportaciones y de los precios de exportatión alemanes con los movimientos en los precios nacionales, precios extranjeros, la demanda mundial, el stock de capital national y los costos. Las versiones dinámicas del modelo confirman que las exportacíones manufactureras alemanas, en particular de productos de ingeniería mecánica y automotores, responden más rápidamente a cambios en la demanda mundial y la rentabilidad de las exportaciones que a cambios en la competitividad derivada del precio.

     

Market Interaction and Pro-Social Behavior: An Experimental Study

When actions generate negative externalities for third parties, incentives exist to pass these “morally costly” decisions to others. In laboratory experiments, we investigate how market interaction affects allocations when the right to divide a sum of money between oneself and a passive recipient is commoditized. Allocation to recipients is reduced by more than half when determined by subjects who purchase or keep the right to make the division as compared to a control where subjects are directly assigned the right. Sellers report accurate beliefs about recipient allocations and do not report feeling less responsible the more often they sell the allocation right. The market allocates the right to make divisions more frequently to buyers who allocate more to recipients, but sellers who allocate less to recipients tend to sell less often. Selection cannot solely explain the results, suggesting market interaction itself may directly impact behavior.