Unravelling the ethical decision-making process: Clues from an empirical study comparingFortune 1 000 executives and MBA students

Using a nationwide survey, this study compared the ethical values and decision processes ofFortune executives and MBA students. Statistically significant differences in ethical values were found by class of respondent, gender, and professed decision approach. MBAs were also found to process ethical decisions differently than business professionals.James R. Harris is Associate Professor of Marketing at Auburn University. He has published in theJournal of Business Ethics, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing, Business and Professional Ethics Journal, and elsewhere. He has taught the Legal and Social Environment course at the graduate level for a number of years.Charlotte D. Sutton is Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs at the College of Business, Auburn University. Her research on such topics as women in management, stress and interpersonal communication has been cited in such places as ABC News, Good Morning America,Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, andBusiness Week.     

Too hot to handle? Trust and human resource practitioners' implementation of anti‐bullying policy

In this article, we examine the dynamics of trust in the triadic relationship between HR, employees and managers when dealing with allegations of workplace bullying. Previous research has shown employees to be dissatisfied with HR practitioners' responses to complaints of workplace bullying, and we explore the novel angle of the HR practitioners' perspective through semistructured interviews. Paralleling extant employee accounts, the findings suggest that HR practitioners rarely judge situations as bullying where a manager is accused. Trust between employee, manager and HR practitioner is essential for the successful resolution of bullying claims, yet this study suggests multiple directions of distrust. By virtue of their role alignment and previous experiences of handling bullying, HR practitioners were found to prioritise their relationships with managers, automatically distrusting employees' bullying claims. Despite also distrusting managers to effectively deliver HRM practices, it appears that bullying complaints are ‘too hot to handle’ for HR practitioners given the risks to their relationships with managers.     

Macro-econometric modelling for the Nigerian economy: A growth–poverty gap analysis

This study develops comprehensive full-sector macro-econometric models for the Nigerian economy with the aim of explaining and providing a long-term solution for the persistent growth–poverty divergence experienced by the country. The models are applied to test the hypothesis of existing structural supply-side constraints versus demand-side constraints impeding the economic growth and development of the country. A review of the historical performance of the Nigerian economy reveals significant socio–economic constraints as the predominant impediments to high and sticky levels of poverty in the economy. Thus, a model which is suitable for policy analyses of the Nigerian economy needs to capture the long-run supply-side characteristics of the economy. A price block is incorporated to specify the price adjustment between the production or supply-side sector and real aggregate demand sector. The institutional characteristics with associated policy behaviour are incorporated through a public and monetary sector, whereas the interaction with the rest of the world is represented by a foreign sector, with specific attention being given to the oil sector. The models are estimated with time-series data from 1970 to 2006 using the Engle–Granger two-step co-integration technique, capturing both the long-run and short-run dynamic properties of the economy. The full-sector models are subjected to a series of policy scenarios to evaluate various options for government to improve the productive capacity of the economy, thereby achieving sustained accelerated growth and a reduction in poverty in the Nigerian economy.     

Können Unternehmen durch Cluster Wettbewerbsvorteile realisieren? Eine ressourcenbasierte Analyse des Uhrenclusters Glashütte

Single firms as parts of clusters are in the focus of this paper. They are analysed with regard to their contribution to the generation of firm- and cluster-specific competitive advantages. The resource-based view is extended to ensure applicability in cluster research. This approach serves as the basis for the analysis of a case study undertaken in 2008 in the watch cluster in Glashütte, Germany.     

When Rule Makers Become Rule Breakers: Employee Level Outcomes of Managerial Pro-Social Rule Breaking

We extend Morrison’s (2006) construct of pro-social rule breaking (PSRB) in two important ways. First, we explicate the processes through which PSRB may have unintended negative consequences. Second, we provide a conceptual model intended to guide future research into PSRB. The model discusses the mechanisms through which managerial PSRB may lead to negative employee outcomes. Specifically, we propose that when managers engage in PSRB, more complex processes (perceptions of organizational justice, attributions of management by employees, and psychological contract violations) mediate the unintended employee level outcomes of managerial PSRB.     

Population Dynamics in East and West Germany—Projections to 2050

Original Papers

Population Dynamics in East and West Germany—Projections to 2050     

An empirical study of innate consumer innovativeness,personal characteristics,and new-product adoption behavior

This article explores the relationships between innate consumer innovativeness, personal characteristics, and new-product adoption behavior. To do this, the authors analyze cross-sectional data from a household panel using a structural equation modeling approach. They also test for potential moderating effects using a two-stage least square estimation procedure. They find that the personal characteristics of age and income are stronger predictors of new-product ownership in the consumer electronics category than innate consumer innovativeness as a generalized personality trait. The authors also find that personal characteristics neither influence innate consumer innovativeness nor moderate the relationship between innate consumer innovativeness and new-product adoption behavior. Subin Im is currently an assistant professor of marketing at San Francisco State University. His primary scholarly interest includes the organizational aspects of innovation, new-product development for marketing strategy, the consumer side of the innovation adoption process, organizational learning in new-product development, moral hazard and adverse selection model, and research methodology using multivariate statistical techniques. His current research projects include creativity in new-product development, market orientation and innovation, consumer innovativeness, entrepreneurship and organizational learning in new-product development, the development of the creativity measure, the validation of the innovativeness measure, and the testing of nonlinear effects in structural equation modeling. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Subin worked in banking and semiconductor industries before he joined academia. Barry L. Bayus is a professor of marketing in the University of North Carolina's (UNC) Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to joining the marketing faculty at UNC, Barry worked in both industry and academia. He has also served as an expert witness in patent infringement cases involving high-tech products. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of new-product design and development, marketing analysis and strategy, and technological change. His recent research is concerned with the creation and evolution of new markets and the historical evolution of products, as well as new-product development issues such as speed to market, product life-cycle management, new-product preannouncements, product proliferation, firm entry, and exit timing in dynamically changing markets. Charlotte H. Mason is an associate professor of marketing in the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, where she leads the MBA Customer and Product Management concentration. Her industry experience includes work for Procter & Gamble, Booz, Allen and Hamilton, as well as consulting projects. Her research focuses on the development and testing of marketing models and applications of multivariate statistics to marketing problems. She is currently investigating issues relating to the analysis and use of large customer databases as well as strategic issues surrounding customer portfolio management. Her research has been published inMarketing Science, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, Marketing Letters, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of Business Research. She is on the review boards of theJournal of Marketing Research and theJournal of the Academy of Marketign Science and is coauthor (with William Perreault) ofThe Marketing Game!, a strategic marketing simulation.     

Short- and long-term participation tax rates and their impact on labor supply

Generous income support programs as provided by European welfare states have often been blamed to hamper employment. This paper investigates the importance of incentives inherent in the tax-benefit system for the individual decision to take up work. Using German microdata over the period 1993–2010, we find that recent reforms in Germany increased work incentives at the extensive margin measured by the participation tax rate (PTR), particularly for low-income individuals. Work incentives are even higher if the time horizon is extended to more than one year, pointing at an overestimation of the disincentives by standard measures. Regression analysis reveals that a decrease in the PTR increases the probability of taking up work significantly.     

Learning outside the factory: a cliometric reappraisal on the impact of technological change on human capital accumulation

Abstract

The paper provides, a cliometric analysis on the impact of steam engine technology on the rise of adult education in nineteenth-century France. We exploit exogenous regional variations in the distribution of steam engines across France to evidence that technological change significantly contributed to the development of lifelong training during the 1850–1881 period. Our research shows that steam technology adoption in France was not deskilling. We argue that this process raised the demand for new skills adapted to the development of French industries.     

Does innate consumer innovativeness relate to new product/service adoption behavior? The intervening role of social learning via vicarious innovativeness

Empirical studies provide an inconsistent picture of the relationship between an innovative personality predisposition (i.e., innate consumer innovativeness [ICI]) and innovative behavior (i.e., new product adoption behavior). Such inconsistencies suggest intervening variables that may mediate the relationship have not been considered. Using data from a panel of consumers (n = 296 in a cross-sectional phase, n = 147 in a matched, two-phase longitudinal analysis), we find that ICI does not directly influence adoption behavior but does so indirectly through two of three components of vicarious innovativeness (modeling and engagement in word of mouth but not exposure to advertising). Furthermore, despite the evidence that consumers’ decision processes differ for service versus product adoption, extant studies largely ignore the role of ICI in new service adoption. Our findings suggest that vicarious innovativeness plays a similar intervening role in service contexts. Finally, divergent operationalizations of adoption behavior (ownership, relative time of adoption) appear to perform equally well.