Learning from Greek Philosophers: The Foundations and Structural Conditions of Ethical Training in Business Schools

There is an extensive body of work that has previously examined the teaching of ethics in business schools whereby it is hoped that the values and behaviours of students might be provoked to show positive and enduring change. Rather than dealing with the content issues of particular business ethics courses per se, this article explores the philosophical foundations and the structural conditions for developing ethical training programs in business schools. It is informed by historical analysis, specifically, an examination of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies that inspires virtue ethics, and together provides four conditions for consideration: respect for law, dialectics, imitation and deliberation. We outline the necessary structural conditions for implementing these requirements as well as suggesting the necessary pedagogical protocol applicable to all courses. It is argued that reference to our two ancient Greek philosophers provide many valuable and insightful lessons for the implementation of ethical training today including choice of theoretical content and the approach towards learning. Further, the enactment of a pedagogical protocol requires a policy of recruiting and managing business school teachers-instructors that takes into account, and consciously encourages, intellectual, relational and spiritual pedagogical qualities.     

Normal backwardation is normal

Traditionally, constant expected return asset pricing models are used to assess the presence of a futures risk premium and the validity of the normal backwardation theory. In the light of recent evidence regarding the presence of time variation in expected futures returns, such an approach may lead to incorrect inferences on the applicability of the Keynesian hypothesis. This article therefore allows for variation through time in expected futures returns and offers some strong evidence in favor of the normal backwardation and contango theories. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 20:803–821, 2000     

Forecasting Irregularly Spaced UHF Financial Data: Realized Volatility vs UHF-GARCH Models

A new literature has been recently devoted to the modeling of ultra-high-frequency (UHF) data. Our first aim is to develop an empirical application of UHF-GARCH models to forecast future volatilities on irregularly spaced data. We also compare the out-sample performance of these generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (GARCH) models with the realized volatility method. We propose a procedure to account for the time deformation problem and show how to use these models for computing daily Value at Risk (VaR).     

Coevolution of economic and ecological systems

This paper analyzes a model of economy–environment coevolution in which economic activities induce the genetic evolution of a biological species. This model is applied to the problem of pesticide resistance management. Just as in Munro (Environ Resour Econ, 9:429–449, 1997), we consider three main types of interactions: (1) a large pest population reduces economic revenues, (2) economic activities select for resistant genes and (3) the spread of resistant genes affects the size of the pest population. The model differs from Munro in that it includes evolutionary modeling of economic strategies. Economic agents are assumed to be boundedly rational, i.e they cannot compute the optimal level of pesticide use that minimizes resistance among pests. Economic evolution represents the change in the distribution of pesticide strategies in the population of economic agents and is modeled by a replicator dynamics equation. The interactions between economic evolution of pesticide strategies, pest population dynamics and genetic evolution of resistance of pests are studied in a system of three differential equations. We explore the dynamics and stability properties of the system using numerical simulations.     

Aggregating Risks with Partial Dependence Information

We consider the problem of aggregating dependent risks in the presence of partial dependence information. More concretely, we assume that the risks involved belong to independent subgroups and the dependence structure within each group is unknown. A sharp convex upper bound exists in this setting, and this constrained upper bound improves the existing, unconstrained, comonotonic upper bound in convex order. Moreover, we prove the uniqueness of this constrained upper bound and provide a characterization in terms of the distribution of its sum. Numerical illustrations are provided to show the improvement of the new upper bound.     

The inside effects of a strong external employer brand: how external perceptions can influence organizational absenteeism rates

In this study, we invoke a social identity and job resources perspective to investigate the impact of an organization’s internal and external employer brand images on employee absenteeism. Specifically, using workforce samples of 56 Belgian companies (n = 12670) and a second independent study sample (n = 4461), we assess the relative importance of the internal employer brand image (i.e. employee perceptions) and the external employer brand image (i.e. non-employee perceptions) in predicting the absenteeism rate in these organizations. Results show that corporate absenteeism decreases as internal (employee) views and external (non-employee) views of the organization decline. Results further show that the external employer brand image may be a more important driver of absenteeism than the internal employer brand image. Such results highlight that an organization’s external image may be a strong antecedent of important internal organizational behavior outcomes.     

The 2006 Asian Games: self-affirmation and soft power

This article is based on a study of the 2006 Asian Games held in Qatar. It was one of the first major international sporting events ever organised by Qatar that has since become a key location for such occasions. The purpose of this study was to explain the function of mega-events. They are associated with the event organisers to bring out the unique identity of a nation and to gain credibility with the international community through the use of an emotional dynamic. Analysis proposes to illustrate how this event affected Qatar internationally as part of soft power as well as the structuring role it played locally. The Asian Games were not to be perceived as an isolated sports event on the contrary, it was an integral part of a global strategy. Qatar needed to gain political recognition and to demonstrate its ability to organise other more prestigious sporting events. Moreover, this mega-event served a local purpose. It was essential in the process of identity affirmation. As a metaphor of society, sport had to symbolise excellence with regard to the values promoted. It was an opportunity to associate the modern aspect of sports with the traditional values of a political system and the Muslim faith. Previously, where sport was typically ingrained in the values that defined western society, Qatari leaders believed that social values could purify sports to become a method of socialisation. If mega-events were a means to increase Qatar’s influence in international relations, they also served as a cultural instrument that would impose a model for society and further increase the country’s influence.