The Decomposition of the Corporate Body: What Kant Cannot Contribute to Business Ethics

Kant is gaining popularity in business ethics because the categorical imperative rules out actions such as deceptive advertising and exploitative working conditions, both of which treat people merely as means to an end. However, those who apply Kant in this way often hold businesses themselves morally accountable, and this conception of collective responsibility contradicts the kind of moral agency that underlies Kant’s ethics. A business has neither inclinations nor the capacity to reason, so it lacks the conditions necessary for constraint by the moral law. Instead, corporate policies ought to be understood as analogous to legal constraints. They may encourage or discourage certain actions, but they cannot determine a person’s maxim – which for Kant is the focus of moral judgment. Because there is no collective intention apart from any intentions of the individual agents who act as members of the corporation, an organization itself has no moral obligations. This poses a dilemma: either apply the categorical imperative to the actions of particular businesspeople and surrender the notion of collective responsibility, or apply a different moral theory to the actions of businesses themselves. Given the diffusion of responsibility in a bureaucracy, the explanatory usefulness of collective responsibility may force business ethicists to abandon Kant’s moral philosophy.     

国有商业银行改革过程中的经营效率评价

效率是衡量银行资源配置和经营成效的重要指标,效率分析可以从定量的角度评价我国国有商业银行在改革过程中的经营水平和改革成效.本文采用非参数分析的数据包络分析方法DEA,使用C2R模型对我国国有商业银行进行了两组DEA分析.分析结果显示,我国国有商业银行改革有一定的成效,但阶段性非常明显,突出表现在1994-1997年和2003-2004年.改革过程中的银行经营效率与政府的政策推动和扶持有相当紧密的关系.     

论国有商业银行的双重功能与不良资产的双重成因

国有商业银行所形成的巨额不良资产，需要从其事实上履行的双重功能入手进行解析：国有商业银行在履行基本功能时，由于行业性风险产生的不良资产具有普遍性和内生性；但其在履行公共性功能时。由于承担的政策性风险和支付的履职成本无法分摊导致的超额不良资产，具有特殊性和外生性。因此。降低国有商业银行的不良资产，既要控制行业性风险，更要建立对其履行特殊功能所支付成本的合理分摊机制，并随着市场机制作用的增强从体制上逐步淡化其特殊功能，从根本上解决由外生性原因造成的超额不良资产。     

美国银行业资本监管演变与新进展

文章旨在梳理美国银行业资本监管体系的演进过程,通过时序研究方法揭示美国银行业资本监管的发展动态与脉络。研究发现,美国银行业资本监管与其经济发展趋势密切相关,经济繁荣期监管当局倾向放松监管,这其中有着十分复杂的利益攸关方的激烈博弈,而在经济衰退期,在金融体系风险的压力下,监管当局会收紧监管标准。从中可以窥见,上世纪20年代前的宽松监管与1929年大萧条,二次世界大战后的经济繁荣与70年代经济滞涨,监管加强,80年代初的放松管制与80年代中后期银行大量倒闭,90年代金融服务现代化法案与2008年的全球金融危机,交替出现的银行业监管放松与收紧的变化有着内在的规律性。研究美国银行业资本监管历史、监管体系和监管措施,有助于我国加强银行体系的风险防范,完善银行业资本监管制度和机制。     

商业银行客户信用评级研究--基于平衡计分卡视角

信贷业务是国内商业银行的主营业务,客户信用评级作为控制商业银行信贷风险的重要一环是商业银行进行授信、贷款审批和贷后管理的基础。客户信用评级体系的开发和完善也成为了当前银行工作的重点。文章基于平衡计分卡的视角,针对当前商业银行客户信用评级管理的现状与不足,从四个方面对评级指标进行选取。同时使用层次分析法对指标体系进行权重分配并设定相应的评分标准和客户信用等级,最后通过案例分析对模型的操作性和有效性进行了验证。文章的评级模型并不同于国外研究论述的数学模型,其在操作上更加简便,信息获取也较为方便,更加适合当前我国商业银行借鉴和使用,因此也在一定程度上对我国商业银行客户信用评级体系的不断完善提供了参考意见。     

国有商业银行上市对银行业效率水平的影响——基于Malmquist生产率指数的实证分析

文章基于我国15家各类性质银行在1996-2010年经营效率数据基础上,利用数据包络分析法(DEA),对我国银行1996-2010年经营效率进行总体评价与分析,报告了我国银行业务经营效率水平。通过应用Malmquist生产率指数对银行业务经营效率变动得进行了调查和测量,结果反映了银行上市后银行业效率提高幅度明显,尤其是国有银行进步最快,但我国商业银行普遍存在规模报酬递减的状况,需要进一步提高规模报酬。从动态上看,我国银行业1996-2003年全要素生产率总体上出现小幅的下降,但2004年以后,随着国有银行逐步上市,我国银行业全要素生产率得到了稳步的提升。笔者认为我国银行需不断拓展表外业务、提高日常管理水平、吸收更多高学历人才和增加新兴技术的自主创新。     

四大商业银行差异化战略实施机制

差异化战略是四大商业银行的一项基本竞争战略,但远未达到预期的目标。本研究在四大商业银行差异化战略实施的背景、必要性和平台分析的前提下,概括了四大商业银行差异化的路径,归纳了四大商业银行差异化战略的基本策略,包括数据库建设、市场细分、产品差异化、服务差异化、分销渠道差异化、银行形象差异化、客户关系管理和差异化定价,研究认为四大商业银行差异化战略仅处于起步阶段,需要充分借鉴西方发达国家商业银行差异化战略实施的经验和技能,强调四大商业银行差异化战略实施的深化策略是优先在关键差异化策略上实现突破,进而在基础差异化策略上全面展开,最终提高银行的差异化绩效。同时,本研究指出了四大商业银行差异化战略的理论引导方向,即动态分析差异化的影响因素、引入西方银行的差异化技术和完善绩效考核理论体系。     

Quasi‐Nationalisation in the UK Banking Crisis: A Problematic Policy Option

The systemic banking crisis in 2008 led to the quasi‐nationalisation of two UK listed banks: The Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group (National Audit Office, 2010). Using property rights and agency theory as the theoretical frameworks, this paper analyses whether the quasi‐nationalisation of these banks has been successful. It is argued that as a rescue mechanism, quasi‐nationalisation was a positive development. However, questions arise over its effect as an instrument of banking reform. The State's arm's length approach to management represents a lost opportunity to change the culture of profitability over people that contributed to the banking crisis.     

Predicting organizational identification at the CEO level

To develop further insight into antecedents of the CEO's psychological orientation toward the firm, we investigate what might lead CEOs to identify with their firms. Although research suggests that CEO organizational identification can be quite consequential for the firm, little research attention has been paid to its determinants. To predict how the special context of the CEO position might lead to identification, we consider a set of motives that members have for identifying with their organizations and consider how unique features of the CEO position might be relevant to those motives. Our theory and supportive findings help explain how the context of the CEO position, including variables often conceptualized as control mechanisms in agency theory research, can have important effects on subsequent CEO organizational identification. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of corporate social responsibility on investment recommendations: Analysts' perceptions and shifting institutional logics

We explore the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings on sell‐side analysts' assessments of firms' future financial performance. We suggest that when analysts perceive CSR as an agency cost they produce pessimistic recommendations for firms with high CSR ratings. Moreover, we theorize that, over time, the emergence of a stakeholder focus shifts the analysts' perceptions of CSR. Using a large sample of publicly traded U.S. firms over 15 years, we confirm that, in the early 1990s, analysts issue more pessimistic recommendations for firms with high CSR ratings. However, analysts progressively assess these firms more optimistically over time. Furthermore, we find that analysts of highest status are the first to shift the relation between CSR ratings and investment recommendation optimism. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.