Assessing ethical behaviours in the Spanish banking and insurance industries: evidence and challenges

This study aims to improve understanding of the ethical nature of the relations in two labour-intensive industries to facilitate the creation of an ethical culture. For this purpose, the authors first review literature related to the main influences on ethical behaviour, then perform an empirical analysis of those factors using a hierarchical stepwise regression of a database of 525 banking and insurance employees. Contrary to expectations, leadership has a less important effect on ethical behaviour than other organizational factors. The results reveal several implications for improving the management of ethical behaviour in these industries.     

Deep habits and the dynamic effects of monetary policy shocks

We introduce deep habits into a sticky-price sticky-wage economy and examine the resulting models ability to account for the impact of monetary policy shocks. The deep habits mechanism gives rise to countercyclical markup movements even when prices are flexible and interacts with nominal rigidities in interesting ways. Key parameters are estimated using a limited information approach. The deep habits model can account very precisely for the persistent impact of monetary policy shocks on aggregate consumption and for both the price puzzle and inflation persistence. A key insight is that the deep habits mechanism and nominal rigidities are complementary: the deep habits model can account for the dynamic effects of monetary policy shock at low to moderate levels of nominal rigidities. The results are shown to be stable over time and not caused by monetary policy changes.     

Does involvement matter in online shopping satisfaction and trust?

Consumer involvement in online shopping can play a moderating role when explaining Web site effect on satisfaction and trust. This study proposes a set of hypotheses based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion, a conceptual model that explains the formation of individual attitudes that are prompted by central and peripheral cues. The model proposes the use of central signals when the buyer is highly involved and peripheral signals when the buyer is less involved. Nevertheless, the results of this study would suggest that these relationships are not so clearly defined in the case of online buying, which implies that certain assumptions associated with the ELM need to be revised to take the particularities of the online context into account. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Outsourcing of advanced business services in the Spanish economy: Explanation and estimation of the regional effects

The use of advanced business services has become an essential element for competitiveness in modern economies in which traditional competitive advantages based on prices, lower labour costs or the abundance of natural resources are being replaced by new advantages based on higher quality, greater knowledge or the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Within this context certain services (computing, communications, human resources, engineering, consulting or management) are generally outsourced so as to exploit the advantages derived from specialisation and division of labour, as well as those of economies of scope and scale. However, some businesses, sectors or regions appear to have very different patterns of outsourcing advanced producer services. This paper presents an explanation of elements of business outsourcing decisions applied to the Spanish economy, applying discrete response models to the information obtained in a survey elaborated by the authors. The data thus obtained have enabled us to identify differences between the Spanish regions in the tendencies of businesses to use internal or external advanced services.     

Adjustment Problems in Developing Countries and the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement

Abstract

In this study, MERCOSUR's past exports to the EU under the protectionist environment of the period between 1988 and 1996 are examined and an attempt is made to determine MERCOSUR's exports' growth potential in a liberalized EU market. A sectoral study is considered indispensable since tariff and non-tariff trade barriers vary strongly among sectors. The influence of the macroeconomic environment on MERCOSUR's exports is examined in a dynamic panel analysis. A simulation study based on a quite comprehensive evaluation of EU trade barriers is performed for the Argentinean case to evaluate the impact of EU trade liberalization.     

Motivations and differences upon reconciling professional and personal life: an empirical study of businesswomen and businessmen in the Valencian Community

According to the last report “Women FTSE 2009” developed by Cranfield School of Management and the IE Business School and sponsored by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, Sainsbury, Enlivens, HSBC and Pearson, the number of European companies with women in positions of executive direction has been reduced from 16 to 15 and the number of women in the board meetings from 39 to 37 has fallen. Moreover, there has been a decrease in the number of total of businesses with women in their counsels, since 1 of each 4 businesses has an exclusively male counsel. The study, reveals a pessimistic panorama for women from the analysis of the number of guidelines that work in the companies that belong to FTSE 100, the British index that includes the 100 main values of the London stock market. The study also reflects a descent in the number of women that occupy key positions in the businesses of the FTSE 100. In the year 2008 there were only 5 women CEOs and 3 regional executive directors. In the 2009 only there were 4 CEOs. The purpose of this article is to see if the origin of this situation is a direct consequence of businesswomen confronting more difficulties than the businessmen upon putting in common its professional and personal life or if by contrast this corresponds to an stereotyped perception of gender inequality. With this end we conducted a study using a sample of businesswomen and men with experience analyzing its motivations to create business, difficulties that they find, and the solutions to improve the conciliation of its professional and personal lives. The results show that there are no significant gender differences in the motivations, regardless of who the head of the family is (bearing main responsibility for the house and children). On the other hand, we show that businesswomen diverge from businessmen in the perception of motivations and challenges they have. Indeed, businessmen agree with businesswomen in the motivations and difficulties that these have, and consider that they give to them more importance than women themselves.     

Perceived justice of service recovery strategies: Impact on customer satisfaction and quality relationship

This article aims to build on previous research analyzing the effects of perceived justice on customers' satisfaction with service recovery and the attitudinal consequences of the recovery strategies firms adopt after service failures occur. The results obtained from a conceptual model developed for the mobile‐phone sector support the idea that justice perceptions positively influence satisfaction with service recovery. Other findings are that satisfaction with service recovery positively affects trust and commitment, and that these two variables, in turn, positively affect overall customer satisfaction. Finally, the results also suggest that positive past experiences mitigate the effects of inadequate service recovery strategies on the quality of the relationship with the customers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Contextualizing Voice and Stakeholders: Researching Employment Relations,Immigration and Trade Unions

This article aims to outline some of the ways in which issues of migration and employment relations have been studied in the European context, cross referencing recent interventions in the USA. The argument is a discussion of some of the different dimensions of migration and the way debates within Industrial Relations have been shaped. More specifically, the article will look at the way trade unions have made the ethical turn towards questions of migration and equality. The article will observe the way these issues have been academically framed and the manner in which the ‘problem’ of migration is conceptualized. It will attempt to provide a framework for discussing the way we have been analysing these issues and the ethical dimensions of these discussions. The relevance of the article is that institutionally responding to migration is not solely a question of adjusting employment relations or Industrial Relations institutions to various ‘new’ constituencies. The article will show that the topic raises issues as to how we actually understand what the study of employment and especially Industrial Relations are. The article also argues that there is a growing need for researchers to be aware of ethical issues when studying in the area of migration, and to be sensitive to competing voices and methodologies in this area. In particular we need approaches that are multidimensional and that emphasize the history and context of change in social constituencies, the new mechanisms of representation within communities, the role of the political in terms of discourses and resources, and the broad play and spaces of regulation and social policy.     

Environmental strategy and exports in medium,small and micro-enterprises

Growing corporate internationalization and the emergence of environmental concerns are two of the main trends in the business world. This paper analyzes whether strategies for environmental protection can help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as they internationalize their activities through exports. Personal interviews were conducted with 123 general managers of exporting SMEs from the Spanish food industry. The results show a relationship between advanced environmental strategies and export intensity for the sampled firms. However, the size of firm plays a role in this relationship, as the relationship between advanced environmental strategies and exports is stronger with an increase in the size of the SMEs. Authors discuss implications of these results for practitioners and future research.     

Gender and regional inequality in human development: the case of Spain1

In this paper, we present estimates of the Human Development Index and the Gender-Related Development Index in the Autonomous Communities of Spain. Our case study of Spain, a developed country with clear gender and regional differences, demonstrates the importance of adjusting human development indices in accordance with gender discrimination and regional inequalities. We also show the significance of the income component in assessing the development level of women in countries like Spain, where lack of employment or low remuneration are the chief characteristics of women's inequality. Our analysis makes clear that the Gender-Related Human Development Index has limited applicability in developed countries; it also illustrates the need for alternative variables or models to assess inequality in those countries.