The Greeks and the Environment,edited by Laura Westra and Thomas Robinson

Teaching Business Ethics -     

Consumer ethnocentricity and preferences for wool products by country of origin and manufacture

Labelling on apparel products usually focuses on the country where manufacturing takes place, rather than where the raw materials were obtained. A choice experiment of consumers in three southern US states was conducted to determine preferences and marginal willingness to pay (mWTP) for wool blend sweaters based on fibre origin and country of manufacture. Fibre origin choices were Australia, US and US State, with the latter to investigate consumer interest in local over simply domestic. Manufacturing had two possibilities, US and China. Survey questions were used to determine an average consumer ethnocentric tendency (CET) score for each consumer, and a median split was used to place each into a High or Low CET group. Nested logit models were analysed for both groups, and mWTP estimates were computed from the coefficients. Both CET groups were willing to pay significant premiums for State‐produced wool over US wool, and for US wool over Australian wool. However, the Low CET group exhibited lower premiums for fibre origins than their High CET counterparts. Ethnocentric consumers, unlike Low CET consumers, were additionally willing to pay significant premiums for wool blend sweaters knitted in the US vs. those knitted in China. Results suggest that labelling fibre by State or by US origin may allow producers to obtain substantial premiums for their apparel products. Promotion of domestic manufacturing though may only be effective for a smaller set of consumers.     

数据创新改变商业未来

<正>技术已经越来越成为商业创新的强大驱动力,世界上许多具有创新力的企业都在借助技术进行数据挖掘,快速创新,甚至形成新的商业模式,以增强自身优势,特别是在那些最需要快速创新的行业里,已经有了一些成功的实践和案例。     

Beyond being aware

To support collaborative interactions, information systems need to support awareness: Collaborators must attain and maintain reciprocal awareness of shared activity in order to coordinate effectively. Supporting awareness has often been conceptualized a matter of ameliorating deficits inherent in remote interaction. In this paper, we consider awareness support in several community informatics contexts from the standpoint of better-leveraging affordances unique to remote community-oriented interactions. We suggest positive design strategies to design awareness support “beyond” what is typical in traditional face-to-face interchange.     

Giving Back: An Examination of the Philanthropic Motivations, Orientations and Activities of Large Black-Owned Businesses

This study of philanthropy among large Black-owned businesses provides insights into a sector of business giving which has not been studied. Results indicate that philanthropy and ethical justifications play a more important role in minority business enterprises than in non-minority firms studied previously.     

How Do Differing Standards Increase Trade Costs? The Case of Pallets

The pallet is a platform used for storing, handling and transporting products. There are hundreds of different pallet sizes around the world. The case of pallets is examined to illustrate the impact of multiplicity of standards on trade costs. We select this case because pallets are used all over the world, pallet standards are not too sophisticated, and data on pallet standards and costs are to some extent available. The paper examines why there are so many different pallet standards, the associated trade costs and the reasons why countries have not harmonised pallet sizes to eliminate such costs. It then presents options for exporters to mitigate the adverse effects of standards multiplicity while complying with destination markets’ standard requirements. The range of options is limited for exporters from less developed countries because of the lack of rental and exchange pallet markets. To mitigate the costs of this multiplicity of standards, the international community's strategy should focus on developing awareness of the cost of multiplicity of standards and actively supporting standardisation.     

Which executive human resource management practices for the top management team are associated with higher firm performance?

There is growing awareness of the importance and role of the top management team (TMT). Little is known about how this group of executives should be treated from a human resource management (HRM) perspective since most research and writing on human resource management practices have focused on lower level personnel. A unique study of top management teams in specific firms affiliated with Fortune 500 companies is described which examined the relationship of 18 Executive Human Resource Management (EHRM) practices to a measure of organizational performance. A number of those were found to be associated with higher firm performance. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A simple procedure for finding a composite of several multidimensional scaling solutions

One of the better known procedures for finding a representative composite of several different MDS solutions is based on Carroll’s generalized canonical correlation model (Carroll 1968). However, the program for implementing the fitting of this model has not received wide distribution. The present paper provides a simple computational method for implementing Carroll’s approach and shows its relationship to ordinary principal components analysis. In addition, we provide an algorithm for computing the parameters of Carroll’xs model in the presence of missing data. Each method is illustrated with data sets drawn from a marketing research study.